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Anonymous

"An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic"

" The parallel passage in the Assyrian version (Tablet
I, 5, 27) has the ideograph for star, with the plural sign as a
variant. Literally, therefore, "The starry heaven (or "the stars in
heaven") was there," etc. Langdon's note 2 on page 211 rests on an
erroneous reading.
Line 7. _kisru s? Anim_, "mass of Anu," appears to be the designation
of a meteor, which might well be described as a "mass" coming from Anu,
i.e., from the god of heaven who becomes the personification of the
heavens in general. In the Assyrian version (I, 5, 28) we have _kima
ki-is-r?_, i.e., "something like a mass of heaven." Note also I, 3,
16, where in a description of Gilgamesh, his strength is said to be
"strong like a mass (i.e., a meteor) of heaven."
Line 9. For _nussasu ?l ilt?_ we have a parallel in the Hebrew phrase
NLE'ETIY NS' (Isaiah 1, 14).
Line 10. _Uruk m?tum_, as the designation for the district of Erech,
occurs in the Assyrian version, e.g., I, 5, 31, and IV, 2, 38; also
to be supplied, I, 6, 23.
For _pahir_ the parallel in the Assyrian version has _iz-za-az_
(I, 5, 31), but VI, 197, we find _pah-ru_ and _pah-ra_.
Line 17. _mi-in-di_ does not mean "truly" as Langdon translates,
but "some one.


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