Before even the Epic of Gilgamesh, a story written in the Akkadian language, is the Sumerian myth known today as “Bilgames and Huwawa”.
Gilgamesh is called by his name in Sumerian, Bilgames, and in the story, he proposes a journey to the fabled mountains where cedars grow
Gilgamesh is called by his name in Sumerian, Bilgames, and in the story, he proposes a journey to the fabled mountains where cedars grow
In the Sumerian story of Bilgames/Gilgamesh and Huwawa, the hero—anxious about mortality—wants to journey to the Cedar Mountain to establish his fame.
“People are lost, that fills me with dismay...corpses in the water make the river almost overflow...This will happen to me too”
“People are lost, that fills me with dismay...corpses in the water make the river almost overflow...This will happen to me too”
He and Enkidu follow the constellations to the mountains where cedars grow in search of the perfect tree to fell.
But Huwawa, the guardian of the cedar forest, awakens and unleashes his terrors on the two, who fall unconscious
But Huwawa, the guardian of the cedar forest, awakens and unleashes his terrors on the two, who fall unconscious
When Bilgames awakens, he insists on going after Huwawa whose look is the look of death and who warns the hero, “You may still be a young man, but you will never again return to the city of your mother who bore you”
Bilgames ultimately defeats him, and Enkidu cuts his throat
Bilgames ultimately defeats him, and Enkidu cuts his throat
To say Enlil was displeased with Huwawa’s death is an understatement.
“Why did you act in this way? Was it commanded that his name should be wiped from the earth? ...He should have eaten the bread that you eat, and should have drunk the water that you drink!”
“Why did you act in this way? Was it commanded that his name should be wiped from the earth? ...He should have eaten the bread that you eat, and should have drunk the water that you drink!”
At the end of the Sumerian poem Bilgames and Huwawa, Enlil distributes the seven auras of the dead Huwawa, guardian of the forest where cedars grow, throughout the land.
He gives them to the fields, rivers, reed-beds, lions, palace, forests, and to the goddess Nungal.
He gives them to the fields, rivers, reed-beds, lions, palace, forests, and to the goddess Nungal.
The Sumerian composition, Bilgames and Huwawa, survives on Old Babylonian school tablets, copied by scribal students.
But such stories were probably part of the literature of the Third Dynasty of Ur several hundred years earlier. Read the story here: etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr181…
But such stories were probably part of the literature of the Third Dynasty of Ur several hundred years earlier. Read the story here: etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section1/tr181…
