Column I

(Enkidu's dream)

"Why, O my friend, do the great angels now take counsel together?"

(The remainder of the Column is lost; from another version)

". . . Then came the day . . ." Enkidu answered Gilgamesh: "Gilgamesh, hear the dream which I saw in the night: God had decreed in the council of the heavens: 'These who have killed the mighty bull and smitten Humbaba . . . Enkidu shall die, but Gilgamesh shall not die.'"

But Enkidu laid himself down to rest before Gilgamesh: "My brother, of great worth is my dream."

(Enkidu, stricken presumably by fever, attributes his misfortune to the woman who had brought him from the desert, and loads her with curses)

". . . destroy his power, weaken his strength . . ."

Enkidu said: ". . . O woman, I will decree thy fate for thee; thy woes shall never end for all eternity. Come, I will curse thee with a bitter curse . . . may never be satisfaction of thy desire . . ."

"Of want . . . since it is I that . . . and the fever has laid me on my back."

(The Answer of the Messenger)

Heard him a voice from heaven, and from out of the heavens

straightway it called him: "O Enkidu, why dost thou curse the woman?

She it was who made thee eat bread, proper for a man; she

gave thee drink, proper for a king; a generous mantle

put on thee, and for comrade gave to thee Gilgamesh splendid.

Now on a couch of great size will he, thy friend and thy brother,

Gilgamesh, grant thee to lie; on a handsome couch will he grant thee

rest, and to sit on a throne of great ease, a throne at his left hand,

so that the princes of the earth may kiss thy feet in their homage;

he too will make all the people of Erech lament in thy honour,

making them mourn thee, and damsels and heroes constrain to thy service,

while he himself for thy sake will cause his body to carry

stains, and will put on the skin of a lion, and range o'er the desert."

Enkidu, giving ear to the words of the voice from heaven,

his wrath was appeased.

Column IV

(Enkidu, relenting, regrets his curse, and blesses the woman)

". . . may God restore thee to thy place!

So too may monarchs and princes and chiefs honour thee . . .

may God make thee enter . . .

mayest thou be left as the mother of seven . . ."

(Enkidu, sorrowful at his approaching end, sleeps alone and dreams)

Enkidu, woe in his belly, sleeping alone,

came in the night to discover his heaviness unto his comrade:

"Friend, a dream I have seen in my night-time: the firmament roaring,

echoed the earth, and I by myself was standing . . .

I perceived a man, all dark was his face, . . . and his nails like claws of a lion.

Me did he overcome . . . pressed me down,

upon me . . . my body . . ."

". . . like birds my hands; and he seized me,

me did he lead to the dwelling of darkness, the home of the grave,

unto the dwelling from which he who enters comes forth never,

by the road on the passage whereof there can be no returning,

unto the dwelling whose tenants are ever bereft of the daylight,

where for their food is the dust, and the mud is their sustenance; bird-like

wear they a garment of feathers; and sitting there in the darkness,

never the light will they see. On the gate . . . when I entered,

on the house . . . was humbled the crown,

for those who wore crowns, who of old ruled over the country,

. . . they set the bakemeats; cool was the water they served from the skins. When I entered

into this house of the dust, were high priest and acolyte sitting,

seer and magician, the priest who the sea anointed,

and there sat the Recorder of the grave, in whose presence

the records are read, and she lifted her head and beheld me . . ."