A Little Lesson From Gilgamesh

[Ron Beron]

I was struck the other day while reading the following passage in Gilgamesh of its similarity with a passage from Ecclesiastes.

Gilgamesh is nearing the end of a long journey on a personal path of immortality when he runs into Siduri, a tavern keeper who gives him the following advice...

"Gilgamesh, whence do you direct yourself?

You shall not find the life you seek,

For at the creation of mankind

The gods allotted Death to men.

They retained life in their own hands.

Gilgamesh, let your belly be full,

Make you merry by day and by night.

Make everyday a day of feasting and of rejoicing

Dance and play, by day, by night,

Let your clothes be sparkling and fresh

Wash your hairBathe your body

Attend to the babe who holds you by the hand

Take your wife and let her rejoice in you.For this is the lot of mankind to enjoy

But immortal life is not for men."

I was surprised to realize that this paralleled almost exactly the "Preachers" advice in Ecclesiastes which reads:

"9:7 Go, eat your food with joy,

and drink your wine with a happy heart,

because God has already approved your works.

9:8 Let your clothes always be white,

and do not spare precious ointment on your head.

9:9 Enjoy life with your beloved wife during all the days of your fleeting life

that God has given you on earth during all your fleeting days;

for that is your reward in life and in your burdensome work on earth.

9:10 Whatever you find to do with your hands,

do it with all your might,

because there is neither work nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave,

the place where you will eventually go."

While initially I felt I had stumbled across something unique upon further study it seems that this has been examined often and originally by a scholar named Hubert Grimme who saw the parallels between the two texts. So the questions:

1. Did the author of Eccliastes have a familarity with Gilgamesh?

2. Moreover, did the author have at some time sojurned in Mesopotamia perhaps as a part of the Jewish diaspora?

While the evidence for the former is more likely true there is little to suggest beyond the text that the Ecclesiastes author was in Mesopotamia. Moreover given the substantial comparison made by Ecc to that of Gilgamesh it would be hard to argue that there wasn't an assimilation of the two texts.

Beyond the above thematic parallels there are a couple other that show a conflation of ideas.

• 1. Parallels with God and wind. In the Gilgamesh version it reads,
  
  

"Who is there, my friend, can climb to the sky?

Only the gods dwell forever with the Sun-god."

In Ecc. it reads in 5:2 on Gods station in the heavens, "Do not be rash with your mouth or hasty in your heart to bring up a matter before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth! Therefore, let your words be few." Among many comparisons.

• 2. Gilgamesh reminds us

"As for man, his days are numbered,
whatever he may do, it is but wind"
Ecc. makes the same statement in 5:16
"This is another misfortune: Just as he came, so will he go.
What did he gain from toiling for the wind?"
And
1:6 The wind goes to the south and circles around to the north;round and round the wind goes and on its rounds it returns. (see alsoEcclesiastes 1:6, 14, 17, 2:11, 17, 26)
While this has little to do with the original corpus it does ironically, parallel a Buddhist imagery when discussing the transcendence of man. In the Heiki Monogatari it reads

"The knell of the bells at the Gion temple
Echoes the impermanence of all things.
The colour of the flowers on its double-trunked tree
Reveals the truth that to flourish is to fall.
He who is proud is not so for long,
Like a passing dream on a night in spring.
He who is brave is finally destroyed,
To be no more than dust before the wind."

• 3. The triple knot

The Sumerian version of Gilgamesh gives us a traditional saying:

[The Nehor]

Lesson I learned from Gilgamesh: Don't mess with bulls, especially the bull of heaven.

[Ron Beron]

Lesson I learned from Gilgamesh: Don't mess with bulls, especially the bull of heaven.

If you do bring Enkidu...What is that in his mouth?

[mfbukowski]

Great thread Ron!

Is that photo doctored or is it for real?

That "thing" in his mouth appears to be the point of the bull's horn exiting. Ouch.

[The Nehor]

Here is the video of the event (not for faint of heart): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/22/julio-aparicio-gored-in-t_n_585941.html

Apologize for derail.

[Ron Beron]

Here is the video of the event (not for faint of heart): http://www.huffingto...t_n_585941.html

Apologize for derail.

Wow! It is. A bit graphic, don't you think? Why not edit that out. Ewww.

[bluebell]

As i understand it, the Sumerians of ancient Mesopotamia were eventually 'taken over' (for lack of a better word) and ruled for a time by Semites, and we also know that Abraham was from the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur, so it's logical that this Mesopotamian story could have been very well known among the Hebrews as an ancient oral myth or tradition for many years before it was written down and included in scripture.

[Ron Beron]

As i understand it, the Sumerians of ancient Mesopotamia were eventually 'taken over' (for lack of a better word) and ruled for a time by Semites, and we also know that Abraham was from the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur, so it's logical that this Mesopotamian story could have been very well known among the Hebrews as an ancient oral myth or tradition for many years before it was written down and included in scripture.

I don't believe there was a takeover, if anything it was from the east via Assyria and Babylon two countries which had renditions of the Gilgamesh epic. As you state I believe that its knowledge and use as a thematic concept was assimilated into many cultures including the Egyptian.

[bluebell]

I don't believe there was a takeover, if anything it was from the east via Assyria and Babylon two countries which had renditions of the Gilgamesh epic.

There's certainly room for interpretation and disagreement (which is of course a staple among historians), but from what i've read and studied groups of nomadic semites were the next peoples in line after the sumerians to rule that area, and whether or not they already had renditions of a gilgamesh epic or not is irrelevant to the idea that the epic and Ecc. come from a similar source.

[volgadon]

I don't believe there was a takeover, if anything it was from the east via Assyria and Babylon two countries which had renditions of the Gilgamesh epic. As you state I believe that its knowledge and use as a thematic concept was assimilated into many cultures including the Egyptian.

There were diplomatic, mercantile and cultural ties to Mesopotamia over the years, so who knows when it influenced Ecc.

Nice thread. BTW the bartender's words strike me as a classic example of disinterested advice =)

[Jigglysaint]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtdQl6WuFeI

Official theme song of Gilgamesh.

[USU78]

Lesson I learned from Gilgamesh: Don't mess with bulls, especially the bull of heaven.

Shaka, when the walls fell.

[Ron Beron]

There's certainly room for interpretation and disagreement (which is of course a staple among historians), but from what i've read and studied groups of nomadic semites were the next peoples in line after the sumerians to rule that area, and whether or not they already had renditions of a gilgamesh epic or not is irrelevant to the idea that the epic and Ecc. come from a similar source.

Absolutely and without a doubt there was some assimilation. The Gilgamesh epic probably started with the Sumerians since the current examples of it were borrowed from a earlier work. There is some belief that Ecc was written after the Diaspora which would have allowed the "Preacher" some fuel for the fodder.

[mfbukowski]

Shaka, when the walls fell.

[ttribe]

Shaka, when the walls fell.

Zinda, his face black, his eyes red

[Mortal Man]

Epic of Gilgamesh: "Humbaba's roar is a Flood, his mouth is Fire, and his breath is Death!"

The Hobbit: "My armor is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!"

[Mortal Man]

Epic of Gilgamesh Tablet VI:

"If you demand the Bull of Heaven from me,

there will be seven years of empty husks for the land of Uruk.

Have you collected grain for the people!

Have you made grasses grow for the animals?"

Ishtar addressed Anu, her father, saying:

"I have heaped grain in the granaries for the people,

I made grasses grow for the animals,

in order that they might eat in the seven years of empty husks.

I have collected grain for the people,

I have made grasses grow for the animals."

Genesis 41:

29 Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt:

30 And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the ^afamine shall consume the land;

31 And the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following; for it shall be very grievous.

32 And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.

33 Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt.

34 Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years.

35 And let them gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities.

36 And that food shall be for ^astore to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land perish not through the famine.

[Ron Beron]

Epic of Gilgamesh Tablet VI:

"If you demand the Bull of Heaven from me,

there will be seven years of empty husks for the land of Uruk.

Have you collected grain for the people!

Have you made grasses grow for the animals?"

Ishtar addressed Anu, her father, saying:

"I have heaped grain in the granaries for the people,

I made grasses grow for the animals,

in order that they might eat in the seven years of empty husks.

I have collected grain for the people,

I have made grasses grow for the animals."

Genesis 41:

29 Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt:

30 And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the ^afamine shall consume the land;

31 And the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following; for it shall be very grievous.

32 And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.

33 Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt.

34 Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years.

35 And let them gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities.

36 And that food shall be for ^astore to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land perish not through the famine.

The boy got around, didn't he?

[Mortal Man]

The boy got around, didn't he?

And I won't even mention the flood or the birds.