"
Death is a mystery and must always remain such. The historical
Gilgamesh has clearly no connection with the figure introduced into
this twelfth tablet. Indeed, as already suggested, the Gilgamesh Epic
must have ended with the return to Erech, as related at the close of
the eleventh tablet. The twelfth tablet was added by some school-men of
Babylonia (or perhaps of Assyria), purely for the purpose of conveying
a summary of the teachings in regard to the fate of the dead. Whether
these six episodes covering the sixth to the twelfth tablets, (1) the
nature myth, (2) the killing of the divine bull, (3) the punishment
of Gilgamesh and the death of Enkidu, (4) Gilgamesh's wanderings,
(5) the Deluge, (6) the search for immortality, were all included
at the time that the old Babylonian version was compiled cannot, of
course, be determined until we have that version in a more complete
form. Since the two tablets thus far recovered show that as early as
2000 B.C. the Enkidu tale had already been amalgamated with the current
stories about Gilgamesh, and the endeavor made to transfer the traits
of the former to the latter, it is eminently likely that the story of
Ishtar's unhappy love adventure with Gilgamesh was included, as well
as Gilgamesh's punishment and the death of Enkidu.
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