Of Gilgamesh Full Version | Epic

Ishtar gathered her temple prostitutes. "Wail for the Bull of Heaven!" she cried.

Gilgamesh drove his sword through Humbaba's neck. The mountains wept resin. The cedar trees swayed in grief. They cut down the tallest tree for Uruk's gate, and they sailed home on the Euphrates with Humbaba's head as a trophy. Ishtar, goddess of love and war, saw Gilgamesh gleaming with cedar resin and glory. She climbed the walls of Uruk, adorned in jewels, and called to him: "Come, Gilgamesh, be my lover. Give me your fruit. I will give you a chariot of lapis lazuli and a house of sweet-smelling reeds."

"But Gilgamesh," Utnapishtim said, "who will gather the gods for you? Let me test you. Stay awake for six days and seven nights."

The gods wept. Ishtar screamed, "How could you destroy my people?" Enlil was furious—but Ea shamed him. "You made the flood without reason. Punish the guilty, not the innocent." Enlil relented and granted Utnapishtim eternal life. epic of gilgamesh full version

Gilgamesh smiled. He was not angry—he was curious. "Go to the temple of Ishtar. Take the temple harlot, Shamhat. When the wild man goes to the waterhole, let her show him what it means to be human."

He refused to die. "You will not find the life you seek," the elders said. Gilgamesh did not listen. He put on the skin of a lion, let his hair grow wild, and fled into the east. He had one question: How can I escape death?

Enkidu interpreted each dream as a promise: You will overcome. Ishtar gathered her temple prostitutes

Gilgamesh sat down. Sleep rolled over him like fog.

Gilgamesh laughed in her face. "What lover have you kept? Tammuz—you turned him into a bird, wounded year after year. The lion—you dug seven pits for him. The stallion—you made him a slave to the whip. The shepherd—you turned him into a wolf. The gardener—you struck him into a mole. You will do the same to me."

Prologue: The Walls of Uruk Look upon Uruk-the-Sheepfold, the city of high-walled ramparts. Climb the layered brick stairs and touch the foundation terrace, whose kiln-fired clay gleams like copper. Examine the cedar threshold, whose massive beams were hewn from distant mountains. No later king, not even the mightiest, could match such work. The mountains wept resin

The city groaned. Elders prayed to the great gods of heaven. And the goddess Aruru, mistress of creation, heard them.

They entered the Cedar Forest. The ground trembled. The seven auras flickered like heat lightning. Humbaba appeared—a giant with a face of coiled intestines, claws of vulture, and a voice that shattered rock.

They tore out the bull's right thigh and threw it in Ishtar's face.