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Anonymous

"An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic"


Line 218. _li-i-im_ is evidently to be taken as plural here as
in line 224, just as _su-ki-im_ (lines 27 and 175), _ri-bi-tim_
(lines 4, 28, etc.), _tarbasim_ (line 74), _assamim_ (line 98) are
plural forms. Our text furnishes, as does also the Yale tablet, an
interesting illustration of the vacillation in the Hammurabi period
in the twofold use of _im_: (a) as an indication of the plural (as in
Hebrew), and (b) as a mere emphatic ending (lines 63, 73, and 232),
which becomes predominant in the post-Hammurabi age.
Line 227. Gilgamesh is often represented on seal cylinders as kneeling,
e.g., Ward Seal Cylinders Nos. 159, 160, 165. Cf. also Assyrian version
V, 3, 6, where Gilgamesh is described as kneeling, though here in
prayer. See further the commentary to the Yale tablet, line 215.
Line 229. We must of course read _uz-za-s?_, "his anger," and not
_us-sa-s?_, "his javelin," as Langdon does, which gives no sense.
Line 231. Langdon's note is erroneous. He again misses the point. The
stem of the verb here as in line 230 (_i-ni-ih_) is the common _n?hu_,
used so constantly in connection with _pas?hu_, to designate the
cessation of anger.
Line 234. _ist?n_ applied to Gish designates him of course as "unique,"
not as "an ordinary man," as Langdon supposes.


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