The Epic of Gilgamish / A Fragment of the Gilgamish Legend in Old-Babylonian Cuneiform

Opening of the book

The Epic of Gilgamish
by Stephen Langdon
University of Pennsylvania
The University Museum
Publications of the Babylonian Section
Vol. X No. 3
Introduction
In the year 1914 the University Museum secured by purchase
a large six column tablet nearly complete, carrying
originally, according to the scribal note, 240 lines of
text. The contents supply the South Babylonian version of
the second book of the epic ša nagba imuru, “He who has
seen all things,” commonly referred to as the Epic of
Gilgamish. The tablet is said to have been found at
Senkere, ancient Larsa near Warka, modern Arabic name for
and vulgar descendant of the ancient name Uruk, the
Biblical Erech mentioned in Genesis X. 10. This fact makes
the new text the more interesting since the legend of
Gilgamish is said to have originated at Erech and the hero
in fact figures as one of the prehistoric Sumerian rulers
of that ancient city. The dynastic list preserved on a
Nippur tablet1 mentions him as the fifth king of a
legendary line of rulers at Erech, who succeeded the
dynasty of Kish, a city in North Babylonia near the more
famous but more recent city Babylon. The list at Erech
contains the names of two well known Sumerian deities,
Lugalbanda2 and Tammuz. The reign of the former is given
at 1,200 years and that of Tammuz at 100 years. Gilgamish
ruled 126 years. We have to do here with a confusion of

Keep listening free