All nations have their heroes. In ancient Mesopotamia, such a famous hero was King Gilgamesh - warlike and wise, seeking immortality. The found tablets with writings telling about him are perhaps the very first monument of literary skill.

Who is Gilgamesh?

The legend of Gilgamesh is also invaluable about the beliefs of the Sumerians. In ancient Mesopotamia, the king of Uruk (a strong and developed populated city-kingdom at that time) was Gilgamesh, who was cruel in his youth. He was strong, stubborn, and had no respect for the gods. His strength was so superior to that of an earthly man that he could overcome a bull or a lion with just his hands, as did the biblical hero Samson. He could go to the other side of the world to perpetuate his name; and cross the Sea of ​​Death to give people hope for immortal life on earth.

Most likely, after his death, the people exalted their king so highly in their legends that they called him two-thirds a god, and only one-third a man. He achieved such veneration thanks to an insatiable thirst to find the gods and claim eternal life for himself. It is this plot that describes the Babylonian legend of Gilgamesh.

This tale of a hero who experienced many misfortunes on his travels is analyzed by philosophers and theologians, in the hope of finding answers to eternal questions about life and death that the Sumerians may have known.

Gilgemesh's friend - Enkidu

Another main one is the strong Enkidu, who came from the gods to kill Gilgamesh. The king of Uruk treated the people so cruelly that people prayed to the supreme goddess to create an enemy for their king, so that the young warrior would have something to do with his youthful enthusiasm and warlike strength.

And the Sumerian goddess created, at the request of the suffering, a half-beast and half-man. And he received the name Enkidu - the son of Enki. He came to fight and defeat Gilgamesh. But when he failed to defeat his opponent in a duel, Enkidu and Gilgamesh came to terms with the fact that their mighty forces were the same. Subsequently, Gilgemesh became Enkidu's best friend. And Gilgamesh even brought him to his mother, the goddess Ninsun, so that she would bless the half-beast as a brother for her son.

Together with Enkidu, the hero went to the land of cedars. Apparently, modern Lebanon was called the land of cedars. There they killed the guardian of the cedar forest - Humbaba, for which Enki's son suffered.

According to legend, he died of illness after 12 difficult days instead of Gilgamesh himself. The king bitterly mourned his close friend. But Gilgamesh himself was destined to continue his journey on earth. A summary of the Epic of Gilgamesh gives an idea of ​​how much friendship with this creature changed the irreverent Gilgamesh. And after the death of this hero, the king was again radically transformed.

Tablets with legends

Scientists from all countries are interested in the question of where the Epic of Gilgamesh was created. The epic was written on clay tablets. There is an assumption that the legend was written somewhere in the 22nd century. BC. 12 tablets with cuneiform texts were discovered at the end of the 19th century. The very first of them (the one that tells about the flood) was found during excavations of the library of the ancient Assyrian king Shurbanipalla. At that time, the city of Nineveh was located on this site. And now this is the territory of what is now Iraq.

And then researcher George Smith went in search of other tables in the territory of Ancient Sumer. There are a total of 12 songs in the epic, each of which contains 3000 poetic lines of text. Now all these clay tablets are kept in the English World History Museum.

Later, after the death of D. Smith, other tablets were found and deciphered. The Sumerian “Epic of Gilgamesh” was found in Syriac, Akkadian and 2 other ancient languages.

Who recorded the epic: versions

Assyriologists do not know who wrote the poem. The tale of a hero capable of enduring the most terrible hardships for the sake of a higher goal is Sumer's most valuable book. Some legends say that Gilgamesh himself, after his arrival from unknown lands, began to write on clay with a chisel about his adventures, so that his ancestors would not forget about them. But this is an unlikely version. The poem could be written by a person with the thinking of an artist and an artistic style, one who believed in the power of words, not weapons.

Someone among the people, who had obvious literary talent, combined all the disparate legends into a single story and wrote it in the form of a poem. This poem about Gilgamesh, which has survived to this day, is considered the first literary work.

The Epic of Gilgamesh begins with a description of how the young and eccentric king conquered Uruk and refused to obey the king of the city of Kish Agga. Together with young warriors, he defends his kingdom and orders the construction of a stone wall around the city. This is the first mention of Gilgamesh. Further, the myth tells about Gilgamesh and the huluppu tree (a willow planted on the banks of the Euphrates River by the gods), in the trunk of which the demoness Lilith hid. And a huge snake burrowed into the root of a tree planted by the gods. Gilgamesh is shown here as a brave defender who did not allow the mighty tree, beloved by the Assyrian goddess of love Inanna, to be defeated.

When the fertility goddess Ishtar (Isis among the Greeks) appreciated the courage of the young king, she ordered him to become her husband. But Gilgamesh refused, for which the gods sent a formidable and huge bull to earth, eager to destroy the hero. Gilgamesh, together with his faithful and resilient friend, defeats the bull, as well as the giant Humbaba.

And the king’s mother, when he planned the campaign, was extremely alarmed and asked not to go into battle against Humbaba. But still, Gilgamesh did not listen to anyone, but decided everything himself. Together with a friend, they defeat the giant guarding the cedar forest. They cut down all the trees, uprooting huge roots. The friends did not use these trees for construction or anything else. Cedars have only some kind of sacred meaning in the epic.

Then the gods kill Enkidu for killing the giant and cutting down the sacred forest. He died from an unknown illness. Despite all the pleas, the gods did not have mercy on the half-beast. This is what the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh tells.

Gilgamesh puts on rags and sets off on an unknown journey in order to find and beg eternal life from higher powers. He crossed the waters of death and was not afraid to come to its other shore, where Utnapishtim lived. He told Gilgamesh about a flower that grows at the bottom of the Sea of ​​Death. Only the one who picks a wondrous flower can prolong his life, but still not forever. Gilgamesh ties heavy stones to his strong legs and throws himself into the sea.

He managed to find the flower. However, on the way home, he plunges into a cool pond and leaves the flower on the shore unattended. And at this time the snake steals the flower, becoming younger before the hero’s eyes. And Gilgamesh returned home, defeated by his defeat. After all, he never allowed himself to lose. This is a summary of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

The biblical flood in the legend of Ancient Sumer

The first ruler undoubtedly existed. The myth of Gilgamesh is not entirely fiction. However, after thousands of years, the image of a real person and fiction have merged in such a way that it is not possible to separate these images today.

The Epic of Gilgamesh contains a detailed account of the Flood. Walking along the path that is open only to one Sun, Gilgamesh comes to the kingdom of Utnapishtim, the only immortal among people, for answers to his questions. The great-ancestor Utnapishtim, who knew all the secrets, told him about the terrible flood in ancient times and the construction of the ship of salvation. The prototype of the great-ancestor Utnapishtim is the Old Testament Noah. How the Sumerians knew this story about the biblical flood is unclear. But according to biblical legends, Noah really lived for more than 600 years, and could be considered immortal for representatives of other nations.

Found in lands that were previously Assyrian, “The Legend of Gilgamesh, Who Has Seen Everything” is a find of unprecedented significance, as it gives food for thought. This legend is compared in meaning to the “Book of the Dead” of the Egyptian people and even to the Bible.

The main idea of ​​the poem

The idea of ​​the poem is not new. Transformation of the hero's character is inherent in many old legends. For such research, the found Epic of Gilgamesh is especially valuable. Analysis of the beliefs of the Sumerians, their ideas about life and gods, their concept of what life after death is like - all this continues to be explored to this day.

What is the main idea that can be seen in the legend? As a result of his wanderings, Gilgamesh does not receive what he was looking for. At the end of the tale, as the myth of Gilgamesh describes, the flower of immortality ends up in the hands of a cunning snake. But spiritual life is emerging in the hero of the epic. From now on, he believes that immortality is possible.

The summary of the Epic of Gilgamesh is not subject to strict logical presentation. Therefore, there is no way to consistently trace how the hero developed, what his interests were. But the legend says that Gilgamesh strove for glory like no other. Therefore, he goes to a dangerous battle with the giant Humbaba, from whom the hero is saved only by a request to the god Shamash from his mother-goddess. God Shamash raises the wind, obscuring the giant’s gaze, and thereby helps the heroes in their victory. But Gilgamesh needs glory again. He moves on. Goes into the waters of death.

Yet at the end of the poem, the king finds peace of mind when he sees the almost finished walls around the kingdom of Uruk. His heart rejoiced. The hero of the epic discovers the wisdom of existence, which speaks of the infinity of the soul, working for the sake of others. Gilgamesh is relieved that he was able to do something for future generations.

He listened to the advice of the gods that was given to him in the garden: man is mortal by nature, and one must appreciate his short life, be able to rejoice in what is given.

Analysis of some philosophical problems raised in the epic

The heir to the throne and the hero in such an ancient source as the poem of Gilgamesh goes through various trials and is transformed. If at the beginning the king appears in the form of an unbridled, wayward and cruel young man, then after the death of Enkidu he is already capable of deep heartfelt grief for his friend.

For the first time realizing the fear of the death of the body, the hero of the poem turns to the gods to learn the secrets of life and death. From now on, Gilgamesh cannot simply rule his people, he wants to learn about the mystery of death. His soul comes to complete despair: how could the irrepressible strength and energy in Enkidu’s body die? This fire of the soul leads the hero further and further from his native land, giving him strength to overcome unprecedented difficulties. This is how the Epic of Gilgamesh is interpreted. Philosophical problems of existence and non-existence also shine through in these verses. Especially in the passage that talks about the lost flower, which supposedly bestows cherished immortality. This flower is clearly a philosophical symbol.

A deeper interpretation of this epic is a transformation of the spirit. Gilgamesh turns from a man of earth into a man of heaven. The image of Enkidu can be interpreted as the bestial instincts of the king himself. And fighting him means fighting with yourself. Ultimately, the king of Uruk defeats his lower nature and acquires the knowledge and character qualities of a being two-thirds divine.

Comparison of the Epic of Gilgamesh with the Book of the Dead of the Egyptians

A striking allusion can be found in the story of Gilgamesh's passage through the waters of the dead with the help of Charon. Charon in Egyptian mythology is a deep, skinny old man who transports the deceased from the mortal world to another world and receives payment for this.

Also, the legend of Gilgamesh mentions what the world of the dead is like according to the beliefs of the Assyrians. This is a depressing abode where water does not flow and not a single plant grows. And a person receives payment for all his deeds only during his lifetime. Moreover, his life is obviously short and meaningless: “Only the gods with the Sun will remain forever, and man—his years are numbered...”

The Egyptian “Book of the Dead” is papyrus, where various spells are written down. The second section of the book is devoted to how souls enter the underworld. But if Osiris decided that the soul had done more good, it was released and allowed to be happy.

Gilgamesh, after communicating with the gods, is sent back to his world. He undergoes ablution, puts on clean clothes, and although he loses the flower of life, he appears in his native Uruk as a renewed, sanctified blessing.

Epic translated by Dyakonov

Russian orientalist I.M. Dyakonov began translating the epic in 1961. In his work, the translator relied on a ready-made translation by V.K. Shileika. He turned out to be the most accurate Epic of Gilgamesh. He worked through a lot of ancient materials, and by this time it was already known to the scientific world that the prototype of the hero did exist.

This is a valuable literary and historical document - the Epic of Gilgamesh. Dyakonov's translation was republished in 1973 and again in 2006. Its translation is the skill of a philological genius, multiplied by the value of an ancient legend, a historical monument. Therefore, all those who have already read and appreciated the Babylonian legend, the legend of Gilgamesh, left wonderful reviews of the book.

Strong, brave, decisive, Gilgamesh was distinguished by his enormous height and loved military fun. The inhabitants of Uruk turned to the gods and asked to pacify the militant Gilgamesh. Then the gods created the wild man Enkidu, thinking that he could quench the giant. Enkidu entered into a duel with Gilgamesh, but the heroes quickly found out they were of equal strength. They became friends and accomplished many glorious deeds together.

One day they went to the land of cedar. In this distant country, on the top of a mountain lived the evil giant Huwawa. He caused a lot of harm to people. The heroes defeated the giant and cut off his head. But the gods were angry with them for such insolence and, on the advice of Inanna, sent an amazing bull to Uruk. Inanna had long been very angry with Gilgamesh for remaining indifferent to her, despite all her signs of respect. But Gilgamesh, together with Enkidu, killed the bull, which angered the gods even more. To take revenge on the hero, the gods killed his friend.

Enkidu - This was the most terrible disaster for Gilgamesh. After the death of his friend, Gilgamesh went to find out the secret of immortality from the immortal man Ut-Napishtim. He told the guest about how he survived the Flood. He told him that it was precisely for his persistence in overcoming difficulties that the gods gave him eternal life. The immortal man knew that the gods would not hold a council for Gilgamesh. But, wanting to help the unfortunate hero, he revealed to him the secret of the flower of eternal youth. Gilgamesh managed to find the mysterious flower. And at that moment, when he tried to pick it, a snake grabbed the flower and immediately became a young snake. Gilgamesh, upset, returned to Uruk. But the sight of a prosperous and well-fortified city pleased him. The people of Uruk were glad to see him return.

The legend of Gilgamesh tells of the futility of man's attempts to achieve immortality. A person can become immortal only in the memory of people if they tell about her good deeds and exploits to their children and grandchildren.

The epic (from the gr. “Word, narrative, story”) about Gilgamesh was written down on clay tablets for 2500 BC. Five epic songs about Gilgamesh have been preserved, telling about his heroic adventures.

Federal Agency for Education

Novosibirsk State University of Economics and Management - "NINKh"

Academic discipline: Cultural studies

Department: Philosophy

Test:

Option 5

"The Epic of Gilgamesh"

Group number: n MOP91

Name of specialty:

"Organisation management"

Student:___________________

Record book number (student card):

Institute registration date:

"____" __________ 200__

Date of registration by the department:

"____" __________ 200__

Checked: _____________________

Makarova N.I.

year 2009

Introduction

History of the Epic of Gilgamesh

Hero of the epic

"The Epic of Gilgamesh"

Conclusion

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this work is to introduce the “Epic of Gilgamesh” - the greatest poetic work of ancient Eastern literature and, through the poem, to study ancient Eastern culture.

The Sumerians are an ancient people who once inhabited the territory of the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the south of the modern state of Iraq (Southern Mesopotamia or Southern Mesopotamia). In the south, the border of their habitat reached the shores of the Persian Gulf, in the north - to the latitude of modern Baghdad.

The origin of the Sumerians is a matter of debate. The Zagros Mountains to the east of Mesopotamia are put forward as one of the supposed “ancestral homelands”. The possibility of a local origin of the Sumerian civilization cannot be ruled out, as a result of the development of the Ubaid culture that preceded it. The Sumerian epic mentions their homeland, which they considered the ancestral home of all humanity - the island of Dilmun. Attempts to find their original homeland have so far ended in failure.

The Sumerian language, with its bizarre grammar, is not related to any of the languages ​​that have survived to this day.

It must be said that southern Mesopotamia is not the best place in the world. Complete absence of forests and minerals. Swampiness, frequent floods, accompanied by changes in the course of the Euphrates due to low banks and, as a consequence, a complete lack of roads. The only thing there was in abundance there was reed, clay and water. However, combined with fertile soil fertilized by floods, this was enough for around 4000 BC. e.the first cities of ancient Sumer flourished there.

These were separate city-states that were constantly at war with each other. Each city had its own ruler and its own deity. But they were united by language, culture, and perhaps ethnicity. The largest of these cities were Eridu, Nippur, Kish, Lagash, Uruk (now Warqa), Ur and Umma.

In the second half of the 4th millennium BC. e. Sumerians appeared in southern Mesopotamia - a people who in later written documents call themselves “black-headed” (Sumerian “sang-ngiga”, Akkadian “tsalmat-kakkadi”). They were a people ethnically, linguistically and culturally alien to the Semitic tribes who settled Northern Mesopotamia at approximately the same time or somewhat later.

At the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. e. in Mesopotamia there were about one and a half dozen city-states. The surrounding small villages were subordinate to the center, headed by a ruler who was sometimes both a military leader and a high priest. These small states are now commonly referred to by the Greek term “nomes.”

By the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. e. On the territory of Sumer, a number of opposing new states of the dual super-ethnic group of Sumerians and Akkadians emerged. The struggle between the nomes was aimed primarily at establishing supreme power, but not a single center could maintain its hegemony for long.

According to the ancient Sumerian epic, around 2600 BC. e. Sumer unites under the rule of Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk, who later transferred power to the dynasty of Ur. Then the throne is seized by Lugalannemundu, the ruler of Adab, who subjugated Sumer from the Mediterranean Sea to southwestern Iran. At the end of the 24th century. BC e. the new conqueror, the king of Umma Lugalzagesi, expands these possessions to the Persian Gulf.

In the 24th century BC. e. Most of Sumer was conquered by the Akkadian king Sharrumken (Sargon the Great). By the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. Sumer was absorbed by the growing Babylonian Empire. Even earlier, by the end of the 3rd millennium BC. e., the Sumerian language lost its colloquial status, although it persisted for another two millennia as a language of literature and culture.

For a millennium, the Sumerians were the main protagonists in the ancient Near East. Sumerian astronomy and mathematics were the most accurate in the entire Middle East. We still divide the year into four seasons, twelve months and twelve signs of the zodiac, measure angles, minutes and seconds in sixties - just as the Sumerians first began to do.

When going to see a doctor, we all... receive prescriptions for drugs or advice from a psychotherapist, without thinking at all that both herbal medicine and psychotherapy first developed and reached a high level precisely among the Sumerians.

Receiving a subpoena and counting on the justice of the judges, we also know nothing about the founders of legal proceedings - the Sumerians, whose first legislative acts contributed to the development of legal relations in all parts of the Ancient World.

Finally, thinking about the vicissitudes of fate, complaining that we were deprived at birth, we repeat the same words that the philosophizing Sumerian scribes first put into clay - but we hardly even know about it.

But perhaps the most significant contribution of the Sumerians to the history of world culture is the invention of writing. Writing has become a powerful accelerator of progress in all areas of human activity: with its help, property accounting and production control were established, economic planning became possible, a stable education system appeared, the volume of cultural memory increased, as a result of which a new type of tradition emerged, based on following the canon written text.

The Sumerians wrote with their fingers (sticks) on damp clay; they called this activity cuneiform. The interfluve area is poor in material resources, there is little stone, wood and no high mountains. The plains of Mesopotamia are occasionally interrupted by low hills with flat tops. What there is a lot of there is clay. A well-trained Sumerian can knead twenty baskets of fresh, juicy clay in a day, from which another well-trained Sumerian molds up to forty clay tables. The arctic fox, having sharpened its stick, cheerfully scratches across the clay at random, drawing all sorts of lines that to any sane person would seem like traces of jackdaws or crows.

After the Sumerians, a huge number of clay cuneiform tablets remained. It may have been the world's first bureaucracy. The earliest inscriptions date back to 2900 BC. and contain business records. Researchers complain that the Sumerians left behind a huge number of "economic" records and "lists of gods" but never bothered to write down the "philosophical basis" of their belief system. Therefore, our knowledge is only an interpretation of “cuneiform” sources, most of them translated and rewritten by priests of later cultures, for example, the “Epic of Gilgamesh” that I am considering or the poem “Enuma Elish” dating back to the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. So, perhaps we are reading a kind of digest, similar to an adaptive version of the Bible for modern children. Especially considering that most of the texts are compiled from several separate sources (due to poor preservation).

THE HISTORY OF THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH

One of the most famous works of Sumerian literature is considered to be the "Epic of Gilgamesh" - a collection of Sumerian legends, later translated into Akkadian. Tablets with the epic were found in the library of King Ashurbanipal. The epic tells the story of the legendary king of Uruk Gilgamesh, his savage friend Enkidu and the search for the secret of immortality. One of the chapters of the epic, the story of Utnapishtim, who saved humanity from the Flood, is very reminiscent of the biblical story of Noah's Ark, which suggests that the epic was familiar even to the authors of the Old Testament. It is even more natural to assume that both stories tell about the same event, recorded in the historical memory of peoples independently of each other.

The Epic of Gilgamesh, the famous king of Uruk in Mesopotamia, was written in a time that was completely forgotten until archaeologists began excavating the ruined cities of the Middle East in the 19th century. Until this time, the history of the long period separating Abraham from Noah was contained in only two chapters of Genesis. Of these chapters, only two less well-known names have survived: the hunter Nimrod and the Tower of Babel; in this same cycle of poems, collected around the figure of Gilgamesh, we return directly to the middle of that previously unknown era.

The most recent and complete collection of works on Gilgamesh was found in the library of Ashurbanipal, the last great king of the Assyrian Empire (7th century BC).

The discovery of the epic is due, firstly, to the curiosity of two Englishmen, and then to the work of many scientists who collected, copied and translated the clay tablets on which the poem was written. This work continues in our time, and many gaps are filled from year to year.

You can get acquainted with the epic translated by N.S. Gumileva, I.M. Dyakonova, S.I. Lipkina. Translation by I.M. Dyakonov, amazes with its power, it was transferred, according to V.V. Ivanov, with all possible philological accuracy.

“The Epic of Gilgamish”, or the poem “Of the One Who Has Seen Everything” (Akkadian ?a nagba imuru) is one of the oldest surviving literary works in the world, the largest work written in cuneiform, one of the greatest works of literature of the Ancient East. The “Epic” was created in the Akkadian language based on Sumerian legends over a period of one and a half thousand years, starting from the 18th-17th centuries BC. e. Its most complete version was discovered in the mid-19th century during excavations of the cuneiform library of King Ashurbanipal in Nineveh. It was written on 12 six-column tablets in small cuneiform, included about 3 thousand verses and was dated to the 7th century BC. e. Also in the 20th century, fragments of other versions of the epic were found, including in the Hurrian and Hittite languages.

The main characters of the epic are Gilgamesh and Enkidu, about whom separate songs have also survived in the Sumerian language, some of them were created at the end of the first half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. The heroes had the same enemy - Humbaba (Huwava), guarding the sacred cedars. Their exploits are watched over by the gods, who bear Sumerian names in Sumerian songs, and Akkadian names in the Epic of Gilgamesh. However, the Sumerian songs lack the connecting core found by the Akkadian poet. The strength of character of the Akkadian Gilgamesh, the greatness of his soul, lies not in external manifestations, but in his relationship with the man Enkidu. “The Epic of Gilgamesh” is a hymn to friendship, which not only helps to overcome external obstacles, but transforms and ennobles.

Gilgamesh is a real historical person who lived at the end of the 27th - beginning of the 26th centuries. BC e. Gilgamesh was the ruler of the city of Uruk in Sumer. He began to be considered a deity only after his death. It was said that he was two-thirds god, only one-third man, and reigned for almost 126 years.

At first his name sounded different. The Sumerian version of his name, according to historians, comes from the form “Bilge - mes”, which means “ancestor - hero”.
Strong, brave, decisive, Gilgamesh was distinguished by his enormous height and loved military fun. The inhabitants of Uruk turned to the gods and asked to pacify the militant Gilgamesh. Then the gods created the wild man Enkidu, thinking that he could quench the giant. Enkidu entered into a duel with Gilgamesh, but the heroes quickly found out they were of equal strength. They became friends and accomplished many glorious deeds together.

One day they went to the land of cedar. In this distant country, on the top of a mountain lived the evil giant Huwawa. He caused a lot of harm to people. The heroes defeated the giant and cut off his head. But the gods were angry with them for such insolence and, on the advice of Inanna, sent an amazing bull to Uruk. Inanna had long been very angry with Gilgamesh for remaining indifferent to her, despite all her signs of respect. But Gilgamesh, together with Enkidu, killed the bull, which angered the gods even more. To take revenge on the hero, the gods killed his friend.

Enkidu - This was the most terrible disaster for Gilgamesh. After the death of his friend, Gilgamesh went to find out the secret of immortality from the immortal man Ut-Napishtim. He told the guest about how he survived the Flood. He told him that it was precisely for his persistence in overcoming difficulties that the gods gave him eternal life. The immortal man knew that the gods would not hold a council for Gilgamesh. But, wanting to help the unfortunate hero, he revealed to him the secret of the flower of eternal youth. Gilgamesh managed to find the mysterious flower. And at that moment, when he tried to pick it, a snake grabbed the flower and immediately became a young snake. Gilgamesh, upset, returned to Uruk. But the sight of a prosperous and well-fortified city pleased him. The people of Uruk were glad to see him return.

The legend of Gilgamesh tells of the futility of man's attempts to achieve immortality. A person can become immortal only in the memory of people if they tell about her good deeds and exploits to their children and grandchildren.
source: http://dlib.rsl.ru/viewer/01004969646#?page=1, http://dnevnik-legend.ru, Gumilyov?. S. Gilgamesh. - Pg.: Ed. Grzhebina, 1919

5. THE TALE OF GILGAMESH

The clay tablets on which the earliest recordings of folk tales about Gilgamesh were made date back to the mid-3rd millennium BC. e.

There is reason to believe that Gilgamesh was a real historical figure. His name is preserved in the list of the most ancient kings of Sumer. The real Gilgamesh ruled in the city of Uruk at the end of the 27th - beginning of the 26th century BC. e. Legends call Gilgamesh the son of the Uruk king Lugalbanda and the goddess Ninsun. This statement is not as fantastic as it may seem, since in ancient Sumer there was a custom for a king to enter into a “sacred marriage” with a priestess, who was considered the living embodiment of the goddess she served.

The name "Gilgamesh" supposedly means "ancestor-hero". There are several versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The most complete and interesting is the so-called “Nineveh version”, written in Assyrian cuneiform in Akkadian for the Nineveh library of King Ashurbanipal. This recording was made in the 7th century BC. uh... but, according to the copyist, it is an exact copy of an older original. According to tradition, the author of this original is considered to be the Uruk spellcaster Sinlikeunninni, who lived at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. e.

The Nineveh version of the poem about Gilgamesh is called "Of the One Who Has Seen All." This is one of the most remarkable works of ancient Eastern literature. Scattered legends and tales are brought here to a harmonious plot unity, the characters of the heroes are given in psychological development, and the entire narrative is imbued with philosophical reflections on life, death and the meaning of human existence.

At the beginning of the poem, Gilgamesh is a young and frivolous ruler. Not knowing what to do with his strength, he cruelly oppresses his subjects, and he himself indulges in revelry.

The inhabitants of Uruk, driven to despair, prayed to the gods to create a worthy opponent for Gilgamesh.

The goddess Aruru molded from clay a powerful half-man, half-beast named Enkidu. Enkidu was endowed with bestial speed and agility, he had long hair, and his body was covered with fur.

For the time being, Enkidu knew nothing about the human world, he lived in the forest, eating grass, and wild animals considered him theirs.

One day, Gilgamesh had a dream that a heavy stone fell from the sky, to which all the inhabitants of Uruk bowed, and Gilgamesh himself fell in love with it, like a living creature, and brought it to his mother.

Gilgamesh's mother, the wise goddess Ninsun, interpreted the dream this way: Gilgamesh will find a powerful friend whom he will love like a brother.

Soon a hunter came to Gilgamesh with a complaint that a wild man had appeared in the forest, who was scaring the hunters and stealing their prey, filling up the trapping pits and freeing the animals from the snares.

Gilgamesh advised the hunter to lure the wild man out of the forest with the help of a woman.

The hunter hired a beautiful harlot named Shamkhat in the city and went with her to the forest.

The harlot seduced Enkidu and took him to Uruk. There he tasted human food - bread and wine - and thereby joined the world of people, losing his bestial essence.

Enkidu resigned himself - he can’t run like before!

But he became smarter, with deeper understanding.

(Translation by I. Dyakonov)

After some time, Enkidu met Gilgamesh. A fight took place between them, but neither could defeat the other. They recognized that their strengths were equal - and fraternized. Gilgamesh took Enkidu to his mother Ninsun, who blessed them both as her sons.

Despite such a favorable turn of fate, Enkidu “was sad, sat down and cried.” And when Gilgamesh asked him about the reason for such sadness, he answered:

“The screams, my friend, tear my throat:

I sit idle, my strength disappears.”

Then Gilgamesh proposed that the two of them go to the Lebanese mountains, covered with cedar forests, and destroy the monster Humbaba that lives there.

Enkidu was scared. In his former forest life, he approached Humbaba’s dwelling and knew that “the hurricane is his voice, his mouth is flame, death is his breath.” In addition, the god Enlil endowed Humbaba with the ability, at will, to deprive anyone of courage.

Enkidu began to dissuade his friend from a hopeless undertaking. The sages of Uruk joined him. They said to Gilgamesh: “Why did you want to do this? The battle in Humbaba’s dwelling is unequal!” And Gilgamesh’s mother, the wise Ninsun, exclaimed, turning to the sun god:

“Why did you give me Gilgamesh as my son?

And put a restless heart into his chest?

But Gilgamesh had already made his decision. He said to Enkidu:

“I will go before you, and you shout to me:

“Go, don’t be afraid!” If I fall, I will leave my name;

Gilgamesh took on the fierce Humbaba!”

Then Enkidu swore that he would fight alongside Gilgamesh, and the brothers set off on their journey. In three days they traveled six weeks and reached the forest where Humbaba lived.

The monster appeared before them surrounded by “seven lights,” and these magical lights instilled irresistible fear in the heroes. But then the sun god Shamash himself came to the aid of Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Courage returned to the heroes, they defeated Humbaba, defeated the seven lights, cut down the magic cedars, which contained the remnants of evil power, and uprooted the stumps.

After hard work, Gilgamesh bathed in a stream, “he was separated from the dirty, he put on the clean,” and the goddess Ishtar noticed his beauty. She descended from the sky and offered herself to Gilgamesh as his wife. But he refused due to the bad reputation of the goddess.

“What glory is given to you?

Let me list who you fornicated with!”

Some historians see in the conflict between Gilgamesh and Ishtar a reflection of the real-life conflict between royal and priestly power.

The offended goddess asked her father, the god Anu, to create a gigantic bull that would destroy the daring Gilgamesh. The bull appeared. But Gilgamesh, with the help of Enkidu, defeated this monster, and the heroes returned to Uruk with glory.

At night, Enkidu saw the Council of the Gods in a dream. The gods were angry because Gilgamesh and Enkidu killed Humbaba, who was under the protection of Enlil, and the bull created by Anu, and argued about whether both heroes should be punished or only one of them. In the end the gods decided.

"Let Enkidu die, But Gilgamesh must not die."

Enkidu told his dream to Gilgamesh - and both of them were saddened. Gilgamesh tried to appease the gods with sacrifices, promised to decorate their idols with gold, but the gods replied: “Do not waste, O king, gold on idols, God will not change the words that are said...” By the will of the gods, Enkidu fell ill and died. Gilgamesh mourned his friend bitterly:

“I cry for Enkidu, my friend,

Like a mourner, I weep bitterly.

My beloved friend has become earth!

Enkidu, my beloved friend, has become earth!”

Gilgamesh summoned the best craftsmen from all over the country and ordered them to make a statue of Enkidu: the body was made of gold, the face was made of alabaster, and the hair was made of lapis lazuli.

Having buried Enkidu with honors, Gilgamesh dressed himself in rags and fled into the desert. He was tormented not only by sadness for his dead friend, but also by the thought of his own mortality, which he only now realized: “And will I not die like Enkidu? Longing has entered my womb, I am afraid of Death and am running into the desert...” Gilgamesh decided to find the wise Utnapishtim, the only immortal among people, and learn from him the secret of immortality.

Gilgamesh walked for many days and finally reached high mountains, the tops of which supported the sky, and the bases went into the underworld. Here the world of people ended and an unknown path began, along which the sun rose into the sky at dawn and went into darkness at sunset.

This path was guarded by scorpion people. They tried to detain Gilgamesh:

"Never, Gilgamesh, has there been a road,

No one has ever walked the mountain route...

The darkness is thick, no light is visible.”

But Gilgamesh replied:

“In heat and cold, in darkness and darkness,

In sighs and tears - I will go forward!

He rushed into the darkness and, having passed through it, came out to the light of another world. He saw a wonderful garden, where the leaves on the trees were made of lapis lazuli, and the fruits were made of carnelian. Behind the garden stretched an endless sea - the Sea of ​​Death, and on its shore, on a steep cliff, lived the mistress of the gods, Siduri.

Having learned that Gilgamesh wants to find immortality, Siduri did not approve of his intentions:

"Gilgamesh! Where are you heading?

You will not find the life you are looking for.

The gods, when they created man,

“Day and night may you be merry,

Celebrate the holiday every day...

Look how the child holds your hand,

Make your friend happy with your hugs -

This is the only thing that a person can do.”

But Gilgamesh refused to return to the human world and continued on his way. Swimming across the dark waters, he appeared before the immortal Utnapishtim, who lived on the other side of the Sea of ​​Death.

Utnapishtim, like Siduri, tells Gilgamesh that the gods determined life and death for man and commanded him to “live for the living.” The wise old man reproaches Gilgamesh for neglecting the duty of a ruler and abandoning his people: “Turn your face, Gilgamesh, towards your people. Why does their ruler wear rags?” Then follows an inserted episode: Utnapishtim tells that during the Great Flood it was he who built the ark, saved his family and a couple of all the animals and birds, preventing life on earth from dying out. For this, the gods awarded him immortality.

The tale of the Great Flood is not connected with the epic of Gilgamesh and was included in the narrative only to emphasize the idea that only for an exceptional feat, unprecedented in the past and impossible in the future, a person could gain immortality, that this is the only case.

Gilgamesh falls into despair:

“What should I do, Unapishtim, where will I go?...

Death dwells in my chambers,

And wherever I look, death is everywhere!”

Wanting to console Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim told him that at the bottom of the Sea of ​​Death there grows a flower that restores youth. The one who gets it, although he will not gain immortality, will still lengthen his life.

Gilgamesh tied two heavy stones to his feet, dived to the bottom of the sea and picked a wonderful flower. With the precious booty, Gilgamesh safely reached the world of men.

He stopped by the lake to wash himself with earthly water, but then a snake crawled out of a hole and stole a wonderful flower. The snake shed its old skin and gained new youth, and Gilgamesh returned to his hometown with nothing.

But when he saw the mighty walls of Uruk, once erected by his order, his soul was filled with pride.

The end of the poem is difficult to interpret, but most researchers are inclined to see here the optimistic idea that the true immortality of a person lies in his deeds accomplished during his life.

THE TALE OF THE CITY OF KITEZH For many years now, scientists have been trying to unravel the mystery of the small Russian lake Svetloyar. According to legend, on its banks there once stood a city - Big Kitezh. Fate decreed that it acquired a special symbolic meaning, becoming a mystical secret