The
new tablet furnishes a further illustration for the surprisingly early
tendency among the Babylonian _literati_ to connect with popular tales
teachings of a religious or ethical character. Just as the episode
between Gilgamesh and the maiden Sabitum is made the occasion for
introducing reflections on the inevitable fate of man to encounter
death, so the meeting of Enkidu with the woman becomes the medium
of impressing the lesson of human progress through the substitution
of bread and wine for milk and water, through the institution of
the family, and through work and the laying up of resources. This
is the significance of the address to Enkidu in column 4 of the
Pennsylvania tablet, even though certain expressions in it are
somewhat obscure. The connection of the entire episode of Enkidu and
the woman with Gilgamesh is very artificial; and it becomes much more
intelligible if we disassociate it from its present entanglement in
the Epic. In Gilgamesh's dream, portending the meeting with Enkidu,
nothing is said of the woman who is the companion of the latter. The
passage in which Enkidu is created by Aruru to oppose Gilgamesh [102]
betrays evidence of having been worked over in order to bring Enkidu
into association with the longing of the people of Erech to get rid
of a tyrannical character.
Pages:
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62