An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic | Page 7

approach,' If I fall, I will establish my
name." (lines 143-148)
There follows an interesting description of the forging of the weapons
for the two heroes in preparation for the encounter. [33] The elders of
Erech when they see these preparations are stricken with fear. They
learn of Huwawa's threat to annihilate Gilgamesh if he dares to enter
the cedar forest, and once more try to dissuade Gilgamesh from the
undertaking.
"Thou art young, O Gish, and thy heart carries thee away, Thou dost
not know what thou proposest to do." (lines 190-191)

They try to frighten Gilgamesh by repeating the description of the
terrible Huwawa. Gilgamesh is still undaunted and prays to his patron
deity Shamash, who apparently accords him a favorable "oracle" (têrtu).
The two heroes arm themselves for the fray, and the elders of Erech,
now reconciled to the perilous undertaking, counsel Gilgamesh to take
provision along for the undertaking. They urge Gilgamesh to allow
Enkidu to take the lead, for
"He is acquainted with the way, he has trodden the road [to] the
entrance of the forest." (lines 252-253)
The elders dismiss Gilgamesh with fervent wishes that Enkidu may
track out the "closed path" for Gilgamesh, and commit him to the care
of Lugalbanda--here perhaps an epithet of Shamash. They advise
Gilgamesh to perform certain rites, to wash his feet in the stream of
Huwawa and to pour out a libation of water to Shamash. Enkidu
follows in a speech likewise intended to encourage the hero; and with
the actual beginning of the expedition against Huwawa the tablet ends.
The encounter itself, with the triumph of the two heroes, must have
been described in the fourth tablet.

V.
Now before taking up the significance of the additions to our
knowledge of the Epic gained through these two tablets, it will be well
to discuss the forms in which the names of the two heroes and of the
ruler of the cedar forest occur in our tablets.
As in the Meissner fragment, the chief hero is invariably designated as
dGish in both the Pennsylvania and Yale tablets; and we may therefore
conclude that this was the common form in the Hammurabi period, as
against the writing dGish-gì(n)-mash [34] in the Assyrian version.
Similarly, as in the Meissner fragment, the second hero's name is
always written En-ki-du [35] (abbreviated from dúg) as against
En-ki-dú in the Assyrian version. Finally, we encounter in the Yale
tablet for the first time the writing Hu-wa-wa as the name of the

guardian of the cedar forest, as against Hum-ba-ba in the Assyrian
version, though in the latter case, as we may now conclude from the
Yale tablet, the name should rather be read Hu-ba-ba. [36] The
variation in the writing of the latter name is interesting as pointing to
the aspirate pronunciation of the labial in both instances. The name
would thus present a complete parallel to the Hebrew name Howawa
(or Hobab) who appears as the brother-in-law of Moses in the P
document, Numbers 10, 29. [37] Since the name also occurs, written
precisely as in the Yale tablet, among the "Amoritic" names in the
important lists published by Dr. Chiera, [38] there can be no doubt that
Huwawa or Hubaba is a West Semitic name. This important fact adds
to the probability that the "cedar forest" in which Huwawa dwells is
none other than the Lebanon district, famed since early antiquity for its
cedars. This explanation of the name Huwawa disposes of suppositions
hitherto brought forward for an Elamitic origin. Gressmann [39] still
favors such an origin, though realizing that the description of the cedar
forest points to the Amanus or Lebanon range. In further confirmation
of the West Semitic origin of the name, we have in Lucian, De Dea
Syria, § 19, the name Kombabos [40] (the guardian of Stratonika),
which forms a perfect parallel to Hu(m)baba. Of the important bearings
of this western character of the name Huwawa on the interpretation and
origin of the Gilgamesh Epic, suggesting that the episode of the
encounter between the tyrant and the two heroes rests upon a tradition
of an expedition against the West or Amurru land, we shall have more
to say further on.
The variation in the writing of the name Enkidu is likewise interesting.
It is evident that the form in the old Babylonian version with the sign
du (i.e., dúg) is the original, for it furnishes us with a suitable
etymology "Enki is good." The writing with dúg, pronounced du, also
shows that the sign dú as the third element in the form which the name
has in the Assyrian version is to be read dú, and that former readings
like Ea-bani must be definitely abandoned. [41] The form with dú is
clearly a phonetic writing of the