The history of the creation of the "Epic of Gilgamesh". The legend of Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the underworld in the light of the cosmogonic ideas of the Sumerians The legend of Gilgamesh was created by the ancients

A brave, fearless demigod named Gilgamesh became famous thanks to his own exploits, love for women and ability to be friends with men. The rebel and ruler of the Sumerians lived to be 126 years old. True, nothing is known about the death of the brave warrior. Perhaps the fame of his deeds does not embellish the reality, and the brave Gilgamesh found a way to achieve the immortality that he so persistently sought.

History of creation

The biography of Gilgamesh has reached the modern world thanks to cuneiform writing called “The Epic of Gilgamesh” (another name is “Of the One Who Has Seen All”). The literary work contains scattered legends telling about the exploits of an ambiguous character. Some of the records included in the collection date back to the 3rd millennium BC. Heroes ancient creation Gilgamesh himself and his best friend, Enkidu, became.

The name of the hero is also found in the Tummal inscriptions - a chronicle of the reconstruction of the city of Tummal, which took place in the 2nd millennium BC. The inscriptions claim that Gilgamesh rebuilt the temple of the goddess Ninlil, which was damaged by the flood.

The mythology dedicated to the Sumerian ruler was reflected in the “Book of Giants,” which was included in the Qumran manuscripts. The manuscripts briefly touch on the king of Uruk, without focusing on the man’s exploits.

Written evidence and analysis of the work of Sumerian masters suggest that the character of the ancient epic has a prototype. Scientists are sure that the image ancient hero copied from the real-life ruler of the city of Uruk, who ruled his fiefdom in the 17-16th century BC.

Myths and legends

The wayward Gilgamesh is the son of the great goddess Ninsun and the high priest of Lugalbanda. The biography of the Sumerian hero has been known since the global flood, which washed away from the face of the Earth most of humanity. People who were saved thanks to Ziusudra began to build new cities.

Due to the growth in the number of settlements, the influence of Aggi, the last of the rulers of Sumer, began to decline. Therefore, when the matured Gilgamesh overthrew the governor of Aggi in the city of Uruk, the ruler of Sumer sent an army to destroy the daring rebel.

Gilgamesh has already become famous among common people, as an honest ruler of the city of Kullaba, located next to Uruk. After the overthrow local authorities, Gilgamesh proclaimed himself king of Uruk and united both cities with a thick wall.

Agga attacked the enemy in rage, but the brave hero did not retreat. The man gathered an army of young residents and began to defend the freedom of cities from the oppression of a greedy ruler. Despite a large army, Agga was defeated. Gilgamesh received the title of ruler of the Sumerians and moved the capital of the state to Uruk.

However, Gilgamesh was distinguished not only by his strength and determination. Because of the violent temper and inappropriate pride of the leader of the Sumerians, the gods sent Enkidu to Earth to pacify and defeat the man. But instead of fulfilling the mission entrusted to him, Enkidu joined Gilgamesh and became the best friend of the ruler of Uruk.

Together with Enkidu, the man went to the country of Huwawa, the giant who sowed death. Gilgamesh wanted to get the cedars that the huge monster was growing and glorify given name among descendants.

The road to Huwawa took a long time, but the Sumerian ruler reached magical forest, cut down the cedars and destroyed the giant. The extracted raw materials were used to build new palaces in the capital.

Despite his proud disposition and disregard for laws, Gilgamesh respected the gods. Therefore, when the goddess of love Inanna turned to a man for help, he dropped everything and rushed to the temple glorifying the goddess.

A beautiful willow tree grew in this temple, which pleased Inanna. But among the roots of the tree there was a snake. The demon hollowed out a shelter for herself in the willow trunk, and a bloodthirsty eagle built a nest in the crown.

The hero cut off the snake's head with one blow. Seeing the cruel reprisal, the eagle flew away, and Lilith disappeared into the air. Grateful Inanna gave Gilgamesh a piece of wood from which the carpenters made a magic drum. As soon as the ruler of Uruk struck musical instrument, how all the young men rushed to carry out assignments, and the girls without hesitation surrendered to the power of Gilgamesh.

The contented man spent a lot of time in lovemaking, until the gods, who were tired of listening to the complaints of grooms left without brides, took away the magic instrument from Gilgamesh.

Seeing how his friend suffered from the loss of his favorite toy, Enkidu went to the underworld, where the gods transferred the magic drum. But the man did not take into account that only a person who does not break the rules can get out of the underworld. Alas, Enkidu found the drum, but could not leave the kingdom of the dead to return it.

Another legend tells the death of Gilgamesh's friend in a different way. The goddess, impressed by Gilgamesh's appearance and courage, invited the hero to marry her. But Gilgamesh refused the beauty, because he knew that Ishtar was not constancy.

The offended goddess complained to the god Anu, who sent a monster to Uruk. A huge celestial bull descended to Earth to destroy his beloved city. Then Enkidu rushed at the enemy, and Gilgamesh soon arrived to help. Together the men defeated the dangerous beast.

But for the massacre of the heavenly bull, the gods decided to punish Gilgamesh. After much debate, it was decided to leave the ruler of Uruk alive and take the life of Enkidu. Prayers and requests could not delay the man’s death. After 13 days, Gilgamesh's best friend died. Having mourned his comrade, the king of Uruk erected a beautiful monument in honor of Enkidu.

Saddened by the loss, the man realized that one day he too would die. Such a turn did not suit the wayward Gilgamesh, so the hero set off on a dangerous journey to meet Utnapishtim. In search of immortality, the hero overcame many obstacles. Having found a wise old man, the hero found out that eternal life is given by advice-grass that grows at the bottom of the sea.

The news did not cool Gilgamesh's ardor. Having tied stones to his feet, the man took out the magic herb. But while the hero was putting his own clothes in order, a snake dragged away the council-grass. Frustrated, Gilgamesh traveled back to Uruk to live a life of adventure and inevitably die.

The meaning of the name "Gilgamesh" is the ancestor of the hero. Researchers claim that the word sounded like “Bilga-mas” in the Sumerian manner. And the version that has become widespread is a late variation from Akkadia.
The character became part of the multi-part anime “Gates of Babylon”.
Like the Bible, the stories of Gilgamesh raise the issue of the Great Flood, which destroyed many people. There is a theory that the biblical catastrophe was borrowed from the Sumerians.

Quotes

“Here in Uruk I am the king. I walk the streets alone, for there is no one who dares to come too close to me.”

“Enkidu, my friend, whom I loved so much, with whom we shared all our labors, he suffered the fate of a man!”

“I will chop cedar, and the mountains will grow over it, and I will create an eternal name for myself!”

“After wandering around the world, is there enough peace in the land?”

“Let your eyes be filled with sunlight: darkness is empty, as light is needed!”

« Epic of Gilgamesh", or poem " About the one who has seen it all"(Akkad. ša nagba imuru) - one of the oldest surviving literary works in the world, the most major work, written in cuneiform, one of greatest works 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 found in 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.

In 1839, a young Englishman, Austin Henry Layard, set off on an overland journey to Ceylon. However, in Mesopotamia he lingered on the excavations of Assyrian burial mounds. This “delay” lasted for for many years; at this time the ancient cities of Nineveh (1849) and Nimrod were excavated. Thanks to these excavations, Layard brought to the British Museum most of the collection of Assyrian sculptures, as well as thousands of broken tablets from the palace at Nineveh.

During further excavations in the city, a cuneiform library of King Ashurbanipal was found. Cuneiform tablets from this library were given to the British Museum by Layard's assistant, Ormuzd Rassam, who in 1852 excavated the second part of the library, which contained tablets from the Assyrian collection of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

More than 25 thousand tablets were transported safely to the British Museum in London. The decryption was started by an English intelligence officer in Baghdad, Henry Rawlinson. On the way to Baghdad, Rawlinson, then an army officer and employee of the East India Company, discovered what became the main key to deciphering the cuneiform script - the Behistun Inscription, inscribed on a rock near Kermanshah, in Persia. This inscription was composed in Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian. The work begun by Rawlins in Baghdad was continued by him in London, where he returned in 1855.

Later, the talented self-taught, assistant of the Egyptian-Assyrian department of the museum, George Smith, studied the found tablets. On December 3, 1872, he gave a presentation to the Society for Biblical Archaeology. In the report, he stated that he had discovered a flood myth similar to that described in the Bible.

This was the famous 11th tablet from the Assyrian epic collection. Soon after this speech, Smith published The Chaldean Account of the Flood, and with it brief description epic Interest in the epic immediately awakened. However, the flood tablet was incomplete and other tablets were needed. The Daily Telegraph contributed 1,000 guineas to equip a new expedition to Nineveh, which Smith organized on behalf of the British Museum. Soon after arriving at Nineveh, Smith found the missing lines from the flood account, which was then, as now, the most complete part of the entire epic. More tablets were found that same year and the following, and Smith was able to compile an extensive account of the epic before, in 1876, he fell ill and died near Aleppo at the age of 36.

Continuing to decipher the tablets, Smith discovered that the message about the flood was part of some great poem called the Tales of Gilgamesh by the Babylonians. According to the scribes, the Tales consisted of 12 songs, each of which was about 300 lines. He soon realized that part of the story was missing because several tablets were missing. As a result of the expedition he organized in 1873, he managed to find 384 tablets, among which was the missing part of the Epic.

In publishing The Flood, Smith argued that it was probably a copy of a much earlier version written in Uruk (biblical Erech, modern Varka). Important for the history of the “Epic of Gilgamesh” was an American archaeological expedition from the University of Pennsylvania, which at the end of the 19th century, under the leadership of John Peters, began excavations at the Niffar mound (ancient Nippur), in southern Iraq. By this time archeology had accumulated a lot of experience in excavation, but this expedition showed foolish frivolity: the first season of work in Nippur in 1888-89 began when Peters and his group galloped madly through the reeds to the excavation site, and ended when the same The expedition left the mound, and at the site of the destroyed camp, hostile Arabs performed a war dance. However, the work continued the following year, and about 40 thousand tablets were found and distributed between museums in Philadelphia and Istanbul. Among these tablets were several containing the oldest versions of the Gilgamesh cycle in the Sumerian language.

Most ancient texts are of a commercial and administrative nature and are of little interest to the general public. The results of excavations in Nippur, Nineveh and other centers of the early civilization of Mesopotamia are all the more important, because they revealed to us the most interesting literary monuments.

The Epic of Gilgamesh must have been quite famous in the second millennium B.C. one version of the poem, in Akkadian, was found in the archives of the capital of the Hittite Empire, Boğazköy (in Anatolia). It was also translated into Hittite. In southern Turkey, fragments were found in Sultantepe. A small but important fragment from Megiddo, in Palestine, indicates the existence of a Canaanite version of the epic, as well as the possibility that the biblical authors were familiar with the Epic of Gilgamesh.

At the beginning and middle of the 20th century, a number of other tablets were found containing fragments of the Epic in different languages.

In 2015, the famous epic was expanded by another 20 new lines. This happened after employees of the Iraqi History Museum bought several dozen clay tablets from a smuggler, unaware of their true content. As it turned out later, on one of the tablets a hitherto unknown fragment of the epic was recorded.

The Epic of Gilgamesh was created over the course of one and a half thousand years. Cuneiform tablets have survived to this day, in which songs about Gilgamesh, which are part of the “Epic”, are recorded in four languages of the Ancient East - Sumerian, Akkadian, Hurrian and Hittite. The oldest texts are written in Sumerian. However, the most important version is considered to be in Akkadian, which is a huge artistic achievement.

The surviving Sumerian tales of Gilgamesh are not united into any group of works. In total, nine of them have survived, and all of them belong to the category of epic monuments. Three tales are known only from retellings, the remaining six have been preserved and have been published.

The early tales belong to the so-called Nippur Canon, which was part of the Akkado-Sumerian epic. Initially, their protographs were probably part of a cycle telling about the rulers of the city of Uruk from the First Dynasty of Uruk. In addition to the epic about Gilgamesh , who was the fifth ruler of Uruk, legends about Enmerkare , second ruler of Uruk, and Lugalbande , fourth ruler and father Gilgamesh .

Akkadian-Sumerian legends associated with Gilgamesh are preserved in lists dating back to the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. (circa 18th century BC). However, based on numerous clerical errors and inaccuracies, as well as on the basis of the nature of the language, which looked archaic for this time, researchers believe that the poem was created much earlier. Taking into account the fact that the poem, apparently, was created before the establishment of the unity of the divine pantheon by the kings of Ur, and also based on data on the spread of the Akkadian language in the south of Mesopotamia, the creation of the poem is attributed to the 23rd-21st centuries BC. e.

The following legends are currently known:

Gilgamesh and Aga- tells about the conflict between Akka, king of Kish, and Gilgamesh. Unlike other works about Gilgamesh, the king is not endowed with magical-fairy-tale features. This poem was not included in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh and the Mountain of the Living(Gilgamesh and the Land of the Living, Gilgamesh and the Mountain of the Immortal) - tells the story of Gilgamesh’s campaign to the giant Huwava, who protected the sacred cedars.

Gilgamesh and the Sky Bull- describes the love of the goddess Innin (Ishtar) for Gilgamesh, which he rejected, and the battle of Gilgamesh and his slave Enkidu with the heavenly bull sent by the angry goddess. The end of the poem has not survived.

Gilgamesh and the willow(Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Underworld) - tells how Gilgamesh, at the request of the goddess Innin, expelled the lion-headed eagle and Lilith from the willow tree, after which he made a chair and a bed for the goddess from wood, and for himself - a drum and a stick (according to the latest interpretation - a wooden ball and bat for playing). Later, the drum fell into the underworld, and the slave Enkidu sent after him could not return, as he had violated several prohibitions. Only after Gilgamesh's request did the gods allow him to communicate with the spirit of Enkidu.

Death of Gilgamesh- describes how Gilgamesh seeks immortality, but learns that it is unattainable. The poem survives only in fragments.

Flood- contains a story about the creation of man, the emergence of royal power, the flood, and also about how King Ziusudra escaped from the flood by building a ship and became immortal. The end of the sign was destroyed.

No one remembered Gilgamesh as a historical figure when these tales were written. Written in the genre epic poem, they are primitive in content and archaic in form, which is very different from the Akkadian poem about Gilgamesh, which was created not much later

According to Epic researchers, the first songs about Gilgamesh were created at the end of the first half of the 3rd millennium BC. e. The first tablets that have reached our time were created 800 years later. Around this time the creation of Akkadian version poem, which probably finally took shape in the last third of the 3rd millennium BC. e. In the second millennium BC. e. in Palestine and Asia Minor, another version of the Akkadian poem was created - “ peripheral " The translation of the “Epic” into the Hurrian and Hittite languages also dates back to this time. From the end of the second millennium to the 7th-6th centuries BC. e. was created final version"Epic" - " Nineveh ", which was found in the library of Ashurbanipal.

The "Epic" was based on both mythological motifs based on religious beliefs Sumerians and historical legends. Gilgamesh was historical figure- Lugalem of the Sumerian city of Uruk around 2800-2700 BC. e. His name, which in Sumerian is conventionally rendered "Bil-ga-mes", is mentioned in a Sumerian tablet with a list of Sumerian rulers, dated to the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. However, quite early on, Gilgamesh began to be deified. From the 18th century BC. e. his name in the form "Bilgemes" or "Bilgames" is mentioned among the Sumerian deities. Numerous legends arose around him, in which he was presented as a divine hero, the son of the goddess Ninsun and the hero Lugalbanda (according to another version, the spirit “lilu”). Later, the name Gilgamesh became very popular in Babylonia, the Hittite kingdom and Assyria; he was associated with the image of a hero fighting animals, his companion being a half-bull, half-man hero. Later it was believed that Gilgamesh was a deity who protected people from demons, a judge the afterlife. His images were placed at the entrance to the house, since it was believed that in this way the home was protected from evil spirits. At the same time, Gilgamesh did not play any special role in the official cult.

The Sumerians were the first educated inhabitants of Mesopotamia; it was their language that was the language of the most ancient tablets from Nippur, associated with the story of Gilgamesh. The Sumerians already knew the irrigation system before they were conquered by Semitic tribes in the third millennium. The Sumerians themselves were perhaps conquerors who came from the north and east during the fourth millennium. Their language was still in use, although the Sumerians themselves no longer played a major role at the beginning of the second millennium, when the Epic of Gilgamesh was written in this language.

Because of their wealth, the cities were the desired prey of the wild Semitic tribes of Arabia and warlike peoples Elam and the Persian highlands. Soon after the fall of the royal dynasty of Uruk, when the Semites established themselves in Agada in the north, their king, Sargon, destroyed the walls of Uruk. There used to be a saying: “Uruk has strong walls,” and Gilgamesh was their builder.

In the era of the early Sumerian kings, each city already had a temple dedicated to one main god. These were magnificent buildings, decorated with reliefs and mosaics, with a courtyard and inner sanctuary and sometimes, as at Uruk, a ziggurat. The ziggurat was a miniature holy mountain; he served as an intermediary between heaven and earth, where the gods could talk with people. Thus, when Gilgamesh calls upon his mother, the goddess Ninsun, she goes to the roof of the temple to pray and make a sacrifice to the great Sun God. The temples were served by priests, in whose hands, at one time, was almost all the wealth of the state and among whom were many archivists and teachers, scientists and mathematicians. In the early centuries they had unlimited power until “the kingship descended from heaven,” i.e. no royal dynasties were formed. The influence of the temples, however, remained significant.

The main characters of the "Epic" are the demigod Gilgamesh - a mighty warrior, the king of Uruk, as well as Enkidu - a wild man whom the goddess Aruru created from clay. The goddess created Enkidu in response to requests from the inhabitants of Uruk, who were dissatisfied with their ruler, Gilgamesh, whom they accuse of his rampage knowing no bounds. Enkidu must confront and possibly defeat Gilgamesh.

Enkidu is not familiar with civilized life, lives in the steppe among wild animals and has no idea what he was created for. At the same time, Gilgamesh has visions from which he understands that he is destined to find a friend.

One day, news came to Uruk that some powerful man had appeared in the steppe, who did not allow hunting, protecting animals. Gilgamesh decides to send a harlot to him, believing that this will force the beasts to leave Enkidu. He achieved his goal - Enkidu was seduced, after which the harlot takes him with her to the city, where he joins civilization and tastes bread and wine for the first time.

In the city, Enkidu meets with Gilgamesh. A duel takes place between them, but none of them manages to win. After this, they become friends and together they begin to perform feats. They fought with the ferocious Humbaba, who guards the mountain cedars, then their rival becomes a monstrous bull sent by the goddess Ishtar, furious at Gilgamesh for his refusal to share his love with her. The murder of Humbaba provokes the wrath of the gods, which falls on Enkidu, as a result of which he dies.

The death of Enkidu shocked Gilgamesh, out of grief he runs into the desert, yearns for his friend, his despair is enormous. Gilgamesh realizes for the first time that he is mortal and realizes that death is the fate of all people.

As a result of his wanderings, Gilgamesh finds himself on the island of the blessed, where Ut-napishtim lives - the man who alone became immortal. Gilgamesh wants to understand how Ut-napishtim managed to do this, who tells the story of the global flood, after which he was the only survivor. After this, Ut-napishtim tells Gilgamesh that for his sake the council of the gods will not gather again. He further suggests that Gilgamesh find a way to overcome sleep, but this turns out to be impossible.

Ut-napishtim's wife, who felt sorry for the hero, persuaded her husband to give him a parting gift. Gilgamesh gains knowledge of the flower of eternal youth, which is very difficult to find. Gilgamesh managed to find, but not taste the flower: when he decided to swim, the snake eats the flower, sheds its skin and becomes young.

After the incident, the hero returned to Uruk, where he invited his helmsman Urshanabi to walk with him along the walls of the city, which were built by Gilgamesh himself. Gilgamesh shows the walls and expresses the hope that his descendants will remember his deeds.

Canto XII, which is of later origin and was mechanically added to the Epic, is a literal translation into Akkadian of the second part of the Sumerian poem "Gilgamesh and the Willow." It tells the story of how Enkidu decides to descend into the underworld to return the drum, but at the same time violates magical prohibitions and cannot return back. Gilgamesh makes a request to the gods, and as a result he was allowed to communicate with the spirit of Enkidu, who told how bleak the fate of the dead. This part, despite the fact that it is not linked to the previous plot, made it possible to emphasize the idea that no one can avoid death.

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.

The epic also reflects many views of the philosophy of that time on the world around us (elements of cosmogony, the story of the “Great Flood” in a later edition), ethics, place and fate of man (the search for immortality). In many ways, the Epic of Gilgamesh is compared to the works of Homer - the Iliad, which is a thousand years older than it, and the Odyssey.

"Old Babylonian" version . 3 have reached our time various options The Epic of Gilgamesh in Akkadian. The oldest of them is the so-called “Old Babylonian” version. It is preserved in 6 fragments on tablets dating from the 18th-17th centuries BC. e.

Pennsylvania table. Corresponds to songs I and II from the later version of the Epic. Published by Stephen Langdon.

Yale table . Corresponds to songs II and III from the later version of the Epic. It probably goes back to the same list as the Pennsylvania Table. Published by Morris Jastrow and Albert Clay.

First fragment from Tell Harmal . Corresponds to Canto IV from the later version of the Epic. Published by Van Dyck.

Second fragment from Tell Harmal .

Bauer table . Corresponds to song V from the later version of the Epic.

Meissner table . Corresponds to Song X (and possibly VIII) from the later version of the Epic.

These tablets do not refer to the same place in the Epic, which is why there is no complete certainty that they all go back to the same list of the Epic. However, they have similarities in style and language. The handwriting on all the tablets is fluent and difficult to read, and the language is difficult to understand. In addition, most of the tablets are poorly preserved - only 4/5 of the text remains from the “Pennsylvania Tablet”. In addition, only the Pennsylvania Table, the Yale Table, and the Meissner Table contain the text that appears in the later version. The rest of the text was not preserved in the later version.

"Peripheral" version . This version of the poem has reached our time in a small fragment that was found during excavations in the Boghazkoy settlement, which was at one time the capital of the Hittite kingdom. This fragment contains several songs corresponding to cantos VI and VII of the later version of the Epic, but they are presented briefly. Another fragment was also found at the site of the ancient city of Megiddo in Palestine, which corresponds to Canto VII of the later version of the Epic. Both fragments date back to the 15th-14th centuries BC. e.

The “peripheral” version also includes the Hittite and Hurrian translations of the Epic. From them several fragments corresponding to songs I, V and X of the later version of the “Epic” have survived to our time. These fragments are dated to the 14th century BC. e.

"Nineveh" version . This version got its name from the place where it was found. Sometimes it is also called “Assyrian”. For this version, researchers identify 4 groups of lists:

Fragments found during excavations of the city of Ashur. They contain the well-preserved text of canto VI. These fragments are dated to the 13th-12th centuries BC. e.
More than a hundred fragments found during excavations of the library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh. They contain fragments of all songs, and the texts of songs I, VI, XI and XII are completely preserved and have only minor damage. 8 fragments are currently unpublished. All fragments are dated to the 7th century BC. e.
A student's copy found during excavations at the site of Sultan Tepe (Northern Mesopotamia). Contains fragments of songs VII and VIII. Dated to the 7th century BC. e.
Fragments found during excavations of the city of Uruk. Tentatively dated to the 6th century BC. e.

Compared to the “Old Babylonian” version, the “Nineveh” version contains an introduction, from the first verse of which the new title of the poem appeared - “About Who Has Seen Everything.” In addition, the poem probably also had a conclusion.

Initially, the “Nineveh” version ended with canto XI, the end of which was the conclusion of the poem. However, later the XII song, which has a later origin, was mechanically added to it. It is a literal translation into Akkadian of the Sumerian poem "Gilgamesh and the Willow Tree".

Version differences

« Old Babylonian " And " Nineveh "The versions are generally similar to each other. Their text is largely the same. The main differences are the replacement of a number of words (mostly outdated words are replaced with more modern synonyms), as well as the expansion or contraction of the lyrics. Expansion occurred either through the multiplication of epic formulas (some of which were borrowed from other works), or through repetition. Also, in a number of cases, some pieces of text were rearranged.

« Peripheral " version is significantly different from the other two - it is shorter. In essence, it represents not just a translation of " Old Babylonian » version, but its complete reworking. It contains abbreviations - it probably does not contain episodes that had a significance specific to Babylon (for example, episodes that occurred before Enkidu's appearance in Uruk, conversations with elders, etc.). In addition, moments that were unacceptable from a religious point of view (in particular, the shaming of the goddess Ishtar) were removed from it. As a result, the "peripheral" version is actually a new Gilgamesh poem.

Composition and development of the poem

The most complete version of the “Epic” is written on 12 six-column tablets in small cuneiform and includes about 3 thousand verses. In modern translations of the text of the poem, it is customary to divide it into 12 parts, each of which is designated by a Roman numeral (from I to XII). Each part, called a table or song, corresponds to a separate tablet in " Nineveh » versions.

Such division was initially carried out mechanically - when there was no space left on one tablet, a new one began. However, in " Nineveh » version the division into tables is more harmonious, each table contains a separate song

Table	Song
	The Rampage of Gilgamesh and the Creation of Enkidu
	The arrival of Enkidu in Uruk and the friendship of heroes
	Preparations for the campaign against Humbaba
	Campaign against Humbaba
	Battle with Humbaba
	Ishtar and Gilgamesh. Fight with the sky bull
	Illness and death of Enkidu
	Mourning and funeral of Enkidu
	Gilgamesh's journey to the shores of the World Ocean
	Gilgamesh's Crossing of the Ocean
	Gilgamesh on the island of Utnapishtim. Return
	Summoning the spirit of Enkidu from the underworld

The poem contains 4 songs, which, according to some researchers, were originally independent:

« Enquidiad", which tells the story of the savage hero Enkidu, and how he was introduced to culture;

campaign against Humbaba(Huwavy);

episode with Ishtar, the prototype of which was the Sumerian goddess Innin, as well as a fight with a bull;

journey of gilgamesh in an attempt to gain immortality.

At present, prototypes of songs about the campaign against Humbaba and about the fight with the bull, written in the Sumerian language, are known. However, when creating “Epic”, these songs could not be mechanically connected, since the connection between them from the point of view of idea and composition is well thought out and has a deep philosophical meaning. However, a number of songs about Gilgamesh, which the author of the Epic probably considered unsuitable for his purposes, were not included. This is not how the song of Gilgamesh and Hagga was used.

In addition to songs from the heroic epic, mythological epic was also used when creating the poem. In particular, the text from the poem “Ishtar’s Walk into the Underworld” was used.

The Epic was first translated into Russian by the poet Nikolai Gumilyov in 1918. As a basis, he took the recently published French translation of the Epic, made by the French orientalist E. Dorme. At the same time, Gumilyov was advised by a specialist in Sumerian and Assyrian texts, Vladimir Shileiko, who wrote the introduction to the translation published in 1919. Like Dorm's translation, Gumilyov's translation is prone to errors. In addition, Gumilyov supplemented the translation with excerpts of his own composition.

The following translation into Russian was made by Shileiko himself.

Shileiko completed his translation of the Epic in 1920. Shileiko also paid attention to the poetic form of the Epic. To convey it in Russian, he chose dolnik as a meter, which was introduced into Russian poetry by A. Blok. The translation was supposed to be published as part of the volume “The Assyrian-Babylonian Epic” in the publishing house “Eastern Literature”, but in 1925 the publishing house was closed, and the volume was never published, and after the death of the author, her manuscript was lost. The Shileiko family has preserved a second copy of the manuscript. Excerpts from it were published in 1987 in V. V. Ivanov’s collection “Sunrises of Eternity” and in 1994 in A. V. Shileiko’s collection “Through Time.” Only in 2007 V.V. Emelyanov published “The Assyro-Babylonian Epic”

The next translation of the “Epos” into Russian was undertaken in 1961 by orientalist I. M. Dyakonov. Unlike Gumilyov, Dyakonov translated from the Akkadian language. At the same time, he was familiar with the manuscript of Shileiko’s translation and also used it for transmission poetic form as a meter dolnik. The translation was provided with extensive reference material and was distinguished by philological accuracy. In addition, Dyakonov distinguished between all versions of the text, and also pointed out the difficulties of reconstructing lost and damaged fragments. This translation was reprinted in 1973 and 2006.

Another translation of the “Epic” into Russian was made by S.I. Lipkin. If Shileiko and Dyakonov set as their goal the creation of philologically accurate translations with an extensive reference apparatus, then Lipkin tried to make the text of the “Epic” more modern. He used Dyakonov's translation as the basis for the translation. However, Lipkin changed the rhythm. Based on study sound structure“Epos” he replaced the dolnik with a three-syllable meter. In addition, there are no gaps or conditional reconstructions in the translation.

In 2012, a reconstructed version of the Russian translation of the Epic was released, translated by Dyakonov, supplemented by the 2003 edition by Andrew George, undertaken by a group of employees of the Department of History and Philology of the Ancient Near East of the Institute oriental cultures and antiquity of the Russian State University for the Humanities.

Epic of Gilgamesh

"ABOUT EVERYTHING YOU'VE SEEN"

IN THE WORDS OF SIN-LEKE-UNNINNI,>

CASTER

TABLE 1

About having seen everything to the ends of the world,

About the one who knew the seas, crossed all the mountains,

About conquering enemies together with a friend,

About the one who has comprehended wisdom, about the one who has penetrated everything:

He saw the secret, knew the secret,

He brought us news of the days before the flood,

I went on a long journey, but I was tired and humbled,

The story of the labors was carved in stone,

Uruk1 surrounded with a wall,

The bright barn of Eana2 is sacred. -

Look at the wall, whose crowns, like a thread,

Look at the shaft that knows no likeness,

Touch the thresholds that have been lying since ancient times,

And enter Eana, the dwelling of Ishtar3, -

Even the future king will not build such a thing, -

Rise and walk the walls of Uruk,

Look at the base, feel the bricks:

Are its bricks burnt?

And weren’t the walls laid by seven sages?

Greater is he than all men,

He is two thirds god, one third he is human,

His body image is incomparable in appearance,

He raises the wall of Uruk.

A violent husband, whose head, like that of a tour, is raised,

Whose weapon in battle has no equal, -

All his comrades rise to the occasion!4

The men of Uruk are afraid in their bedrooms:

"Gilgamesh will not leave his son to his father!

Day and night it rages in the flesh.

Often the gods heard their complaint,

They called out to the great Arur5:

"Aruru, you created Gilgamesh,

Now create his likeness!

When he equals Gilgamesh in courage,

Let them compete, let Uruk rest."

Aruru, having heard these speeches,

She created the likeness of Anu6 in her heart

Aruru washed her hands,

She plucked off the clay and threw it on the ground,

She sculpted Enkidu, created a hero.

Spawn of midnight, warrior of Ninurta7,

His whole body is covered with fur,

Like a woman, she wears her hair,

The strands of hair are thick like bread;

I knew neither people nor the world,

He is dressed in clothes like Sumukan8.

He eats grass with the gazelles,

Together with the animals he crowds to the watering hole,

Together with the creatures, the heart rejoices with water

Man - hunter-hunter

He meets him in front of a watering hole.

The first day, and the second, and the third

He meets him in front of a watering hole.

The hunter saw him and his face changed,

He returned home with his cattle,

He became frightened, fell silent, became numb,

There is sorrow in his chest, his face is darkened,

Longing entered his womb,

His face became like one walking a long way.

The hunter went to Gilgamesh,

He set out on his journey, turned his feet to Uruk,

In front of Gilgamesh's face he said a word:

"There is a certain man who came from the mountains,

Throughout the country his hand is mighty,

His hands are strong, like stone from heaven!

He wanders forever in all the mountains,

Constantly crowds with animals to the watering hole,

Constantly directs steps towards a watering hole.

I'm afraid of him, I don't dare approach him!

I'll dig holes and he'll fill them in,

I'll set traps - he'll snatch them,

Beasts and creatures of the steppe are taken from my hands, -

He won’t let me work in the steppe!”

Gilgamesh tells him, the hunter:

"Go, my hunter, bring the harlot Shamkhat with you

When he feeds the animals at the watering hole,

Let her tear off her clothes and reveal her beauty, -

When he sees her, he will approach her -

The beasts that grew up with him in the desert will leave him."

Six days have passed, seven days have passed -

Enkidu tirelessly knew the harlot,

When I've had enough of affection,

He turned his face to the beast.

Seeing Enkidu, the gazelles ran away,

The steppe animals avoided his body.

Enkidu jumped up, his muscles weakened,

His legs stopped and his animals left.

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

But he became smarter, with a deeper understanding, -

He returned and sat at the feet of the harlot,

He looks the harlot in the face,

And what the harlot says, ears listen to him.

The harlot tells him, Enkidu:

“You are beautiful, Enkidu, you are like a god,”

Why are you wandering in the steppe with the beast?

Let me lead you into fenced Uruk,

To the bright house, the dwelling of Anu,

Where Gilgamesh is perfect in strength

And, like a tour, it shows its power to people!”

She said that these words are pleasant to him,

His wise heart is looking for a friend.

1. Uruk is a city in the south of Mesopotamia, on the banks of the Euphrates (now Varka). Gilgamesh is a historical figure, the king of Uruk who ruled the city around 2600 BC. e.

2. Eana - temple of the sky god Anu and his daughter Ishtar, the main temple of Uruk. In Sumer, temples were usually surrounded outbuildings, where the harvest from the temple estates was kept; these buildings were themselves considered sacred.

3. Ishtar is the goddess of love, fertility, as well as hunting, war, and patroness of culture.

4. "All his comrades rise to the occasion!" It's about about calling all able-bodied citizens of Uruk to build walls. The young men of the city do not have the energy and time to communicate with relatives and lovers.

5. Aruru - the most ancient, pre-Sumerian mother goddess, creator of people.

6. “Anu created the likeness in her heart...” Likeness is literally “title”, “word”, “name”.

The name was considered part of the material essence of man and deity.

7. Ninurta - warrior god, son of Ellil, god of air and winds, king of the gods.

8. Sumukan is the patron god of animals. His "clothing" appears to be nakedness (maybe skins).

-----------------

TABLE 2

Heard her word, perceived her speech,

The women's advice sank into his heart.

I tore the fabric and dressed him alone,

I dressed myself with the second cloth,

Taking my hand, she led me like a child,

To the shepherd's camp, to the cattle pens.

There the shepherds gathered around them,

They whisper, looking at him:

"That man resembles Gilgamesh in appearance,

Shorter in stature, but stronger in bone.

It is true, Enkidu, born of the steppe,

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Introduction

1. The emergence of writing in ancient Mesopotamia

2 Literature in ancient Mesopotamia

3. The history of the creation of the “Epic of Gilgamesh”

4. The Epic of Gilgamesh

Conclusion

Literature

Introduction

At the turn of the 4th-3rd millennium BC. In the Sumerian cities of the Southern Mesopotamia, the first clay tablets appeared with samples of archaic writing, which arose on the basis of a system of three-dimensional clay symbols-chips, which were used for accounting in the temple households of Sumer.

The advent of writing played a huge role in the formation and consolidation of a new culture ancient society, with the advent of which new forms of storage and transmission of information became possible. The advent of writing contributed to the development of literature.

Ancient Mesopotamian literature is a single, despite bilingualism, literature of the peoples who inhabited the area between the Euphrates and Tigris in the 3rd-1st millennium BC - the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians and Assyrians.

New trends, images and themes appeared in literature and art. Many poems, legends, myths, and songs were written. The most important monument of Sumerian literature was the cycle of tales about Gilgamesh, the legendary king of the city of Uruk, who ruled in the 18th century. BC In these tales, the hero Gilgamesh is presented as the son of a mere mortal and the goddess Ninsun, and his wanderings around the world in search of the secret of immortality are described in detail. The legends of Gilgamesh and the legends of the Flood had a very strong influence on world literature both the culture and the culture of neighboring peoples who accepted and adapted the legends to their national life.

1. Appearancewriting in ancient Mesopotamia

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. After the Sumerians, a huge number of clay cuneiform tablets remained.

Sumerian writing contains logograms (or ideograms), which are read as whole words, signs for vowels, and also consonants together with vowels (but not consonants alone). To make it easier for the reader to navigate when reading complex texts, which often resembled puzzles, scribes used special determiners to designate wooden tools or objects, names of professions, numerous plants, etc. .

The Akkadian language is attested in southern Mesopotamia from the first half of the 3rd millennium BC, when speakers of this language borrowed cuneiform from the Sumerians and began to use it widely in their daily lives. From this same time, intensive processes of interpenetration of the Sumerian and Akkadian languages began, as a result of which they learned many words from each other. But the predominant source of such borrowings was the Sumerian language. .

One of the greatest achievements of Babylonian and Assyrian culture was the creation of libraries. In Ur, Nippur and other cities, starting from the 2nd millennium BC, for many centuries scribes collected literary and scientific texts, and thus extensive private libraries arose.

Among all the libraries in the Ancient East, the most famous was the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (669-c. 635 BC), carefully and with great skill collected in his palace in Nineveh. For her, throughout Mesopotamia, scribes made copies of books from official and private collections or collected the books themselves. The library of Ashurbanipal contained royal annals, chronicles of the most important historical events, collections of laws, literary works and scientific texts. In total, more than 30,000 tablets and fragments have been preserved, which reflect the achievements of Mesopotamian civilization. At the same time, the library of Ashurbanipal was the first systematically collected library in the world, where clay books were placed in a certain order. Many books were presented in several copies so that two or more readers could use the necessary texts at the same time. .

Our knowledge is only an interpretation of “cuneiform” sources, most of them translated and rewritten by priests more than later cultures, for example, the Epic of Gilgamesh or the Enuma Elish poems dating back to the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC.

2. Lliterature in ancient Mesopotamia

In terms of the number of surviving works, cuneiform literature far surpasses all other literature of Antiquity, except Greek and Roman. True, the volume of cuneiform literary works is for the most part small: it was difficult to write lengthy texts on heavy and bulky clay tiles. Therefore, even the largest cuneiform literary monuments contain no more than two to three thousand lines. Sumerian literature has come down to us mainly in the records of the 19th-18th centuries. BC The Mesopotamian tradition is characterized by the presence of so-called literary catalogs. The oldest catalog discovered dates back to the 1st millennium BC. Catalogs are lists in which the titles of works are recorded according to the first lines of text. Literary texts have been found in many private homes. Sumerian catalogs note 87 literary works. For some of them, the authors are indicated, but often semi-mythical personalities, sometimes deities, appear in their capacity.

By genre these are: poetic recordings of myths; epic tales; prayers; hymns to kings and gods; psalms; wedding love songs; lamentations - funeral ones, about national disasters; from didactic works - teachings, edifications; fables; proverbs and sayings. A special genre consisted of works about the destruction of Sumerian cities due to raids by neighboring tribes. “Lament for the death of the inhabitants of Ur” was very popular (in end of XXI V. BC), which describes terrible details about the suffering of women, old people and children who suffered from hunger, burned in houses on fire and drowned in the river. The most famous monument Sumerian literature is a cycle of epic tales about legendary hero Gilgamesh. .

The oldest monuments in the Akkadian language date back to the middle of 3 thousand BC. e. The displacement of the Sumerian language by Akkadian did not mean destruction Sumerian culture, a merger took place cultural traditions. This is also noticeable in mythology. All Akkadian deities are either of Sumerian origin or were identified with Sumerians. .

Literary catalogs are also characteristic of Babylonian literature. The catalogs sometimes indicate the authorship of the texts, but in some cases this is far from plausible - “recorded from the mouth of a horse.” An example of an author's work is the epic "About Etana", the author of which is considered to be Lu-Nanna. .

In the first half of the 11th century. BC The poem "Babylonian Theodicy" appears. Unlike most ancient Eastern literary works, which are anonymous, we know the author of this poem. He was a certain Esagil-kini-ubbib, who served as a priest-exorcist at the royal court. It sets out in a vivid form the religious and philosophical ideas that worried the Babylonians. “Theodicy” is built in the form of a dialogue between an innocent sufferer and his friend. Throughout the entire work, the sufferer denounces unrighteousness and evil, sets out his claims to the gods and complains about the injustice of social orders. Friend seeks to refute these arguments. The author of the work does not express his attitude to the essence of the dispute and does not impose his opinion on the reader or listener. 10th century BC dates back interesting work entitled “Slave, Obey Me,” permeated with a pessimistic attitude towards life and its vicissitudes. It contains a dialogue between a master and his slave. Bored from idleness, the gentleman lists a variety of desires that he would like to fulfill. The slave first supports the master's intentions and expresses his arguments in favor of their implementation. Then, when the master refuses to implement them, the slave always argues that all human actions are useless and meaningless. The slave inspires the master that one should not do good to people, because after death, villains, righteous people, nobles, and slaves are equal and no one will distinguish them from each other by their skulls. At the end of the work, the slave convinces his master, fed up with life, that the only good lies in death. Then the master expresses a desire to kill his slave. But he is saved by pointing out the inevitability of the imminent death of the master himself. .

The “Poem on the Creation of the World”, created on 7 tablets, is of great artistic value. The purpose of the poem: to justify the exaltation of something almost unknown before the 19th-18th centuries. BC the city of Babylon and its local deity Marduk. The time of creation of the poem is no earlier than the 18th century. BC .

3. History of the Epic of Gilgamesh

One of the most famous works Sumerian literature is considered to be the "Epic of Gilgamesh". Twelve cuneiform tablets from Assurbanipal's library encapsulate the national epic of the hero, later translated into Akkadian.

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.

According to Epic researchers, the first songs about Gilgamesh were created at the end of the first half of the third millennium BC. e. The first tablets that have reached our time were created 800 years later. The creation of the Akkadian version of the poem, which probably finally took shape in the last third of the third millennium BC, dates back to around this time. e. In the second millennium BC. e. in Palestine and Asia Minor, another version of the Akkadian poem was created - the “peripheral” one. The translation of the Epic into the Hurrian and Hittite languages also dates back to this time...

From the end of the second millennium to the 7th-6th centuries BC. the final version of the Epic was created - “Nineveh”, which was found in the library of Ashurbanipal.

The oldest texts are written in Sumerian. However, the most important is the Akkadian version, which is a huge artistic achievement. .

The Epic was based on both mythological motifs based on the religious beliefs of the Sumerians and historical legends. Gilgamesh was a historical figure - a lugal of the Sumerian city of Uruk around 2800-2700 BC. e. His name, which in Sumerian is conventionally rendered as “Bilgames,” is mentioned in a Sumerian tablet with a list of Sumerian rulers of the early 2nd millennium BC. e. But quite early on, Gilgamesh began to be deified. From the 18th century BC. e. his name in the form "Bilgemes" or "Bilgames" is mentioned among the Sumerian deities. Numerous legends arose around him, in which he was presented as a divine hero, the son of the goddess Ninsun and the hero Lugalbanda. .

Later, the name Gilgamesh became very popular in Babylon, the Hittite kingdom and Assyria; he was associated with the image of a hero fighting animals, his companion being a half-bull, half-man hero. Later it was believed that Gilgamesh was a deity who protected people from demons and was the judge of the underworld. His images were placed at the entrance to the house, because it was believed that in this way he was protected from evil spirits.

Several Sumerian tales and songs have survived to this day in which Gilgamesh is mentioned: the poem about Gilgamesh and Akka, the king of Kish, “Gilgamesh and the Mountain of the Living,” “Gilgamesh and the Heavenly Bull,” “Gilgamesh and the Willow.” The exact time of their creation is unknown. At the time of their creation, Gilgamesh was no longer remembered as a historical figure. At the same time, these works, belonging to the genre of epic poem, are primitive in content and archaic in form, which is very different from the Akkadian poem about Gilgamesh.

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. 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.

3. The Epic of Gilgamesh

writing Akkadian language epic

The epic tells the story of the demigod Gilgamesh, a mighty warrior and king of Uruk. No one could compare with him in strength, and he brought countless troubles to people, “raging in the flesh.” They prayed to the gods to appease the king of Uruk. And so the goddess Aruru, heeding them, “plucked off the clay, threw it on the ground, blinded Enkidu, created a hero,” who could curb the fury of Gilgamesh. His body was covered with wool, he lived among animals, “he knew neither people nor the world.” By protecting the animals from the hunters, he caused them to hate him, but they could not do anything with him. .

In despair, the hunters went to Uruk and fell at the feet of King Gilgamesh, begging to deliver them from their hated enemy. Gilgamesh resorted to cunning, advising the hunters to take the harlot Shamhat to Enkidu - let her seduce him. That's what they did. And “the harlot gave him pleasure, the work of women.” When he had had enough of Enkidu’s affection, he discovered that his body had weakened and “his understanding had become deeper.” The animals left him, and then Shamhat reproached him, saying why he was walking with the beast: “I will take you to Uruk, where the mighty Gilgamesh lives.” Enkidu agreed and declared that he would fight Gilgamesh. Shamhat began to exhort him to show prudence, for in prophetic dreams the king of fenced Uruk was destined to have a friend appear, and he, Enkidu, would be that friend.

On the way to Uruk, Shamhat teaches Enkidu to wear clothes, eat bread, and, having arrived in Uruk, Enkidu blocks the entrance to the marriage chamber, where only Gilgamesh had the right to enter. The people of Uruk recognize him as their hero. The heroes grappled in battle, but were equal in strength, and Gilgamesh took him to his mother Ninsun, where they fraternize, but Enkidu cries because he has nowhere to apply his strength. .

Gilgamesh invites him to go on a campaign against Humbaba, the guardian of the cedar forests in Lebanon. Enkidu tries to dissuade Gilgamesh, telling him how dangerous Humbaba’s forest and Humbaba himself, whom the gods endowed with strength and courage, are dangerous, but Gilgamesh convinces Enkidu that human life is already short, and it is better to die as a hero, who will be remembered for centuries, than in obscurity. The elders of Uruk also try to dissuade him, but then they bless him and ask Enkidu to take care of the king. Before the campaign, they visit Queen Ninsun, who is also worried about her son and makes a sacrifice to the god Shamash.

On the way to the cedar forest, Gilgamesh has dreams that Enkidu interprets as predictions of victory over Humbaba, but in the end they turn to the god Shamash for guidance, and he tells them to immediately attack Humbaba while he is wearing only one of the seven terrible robes. The heroes are afraid to enter the forest, but Gilgamesh encourages Enkidu, and they enter the domain of Humbaba and begin to cut down cedars, the appearance of Humbaba frightens them, but the support of Shamash causes the friends to attack the guardian of the forest and kill him and his seven robes-rays.

The goddess Ishtar invites Gilgamesh to become her husband, but he refuses, saying that she had many husbands, and now they are all either killed or bewitched. The embittered Ishtar asks Ana to create a bull capable of killing the hero, but Gilgamesh and Enkidu defeat the bull with coordinated actions. Enkidu has a dream that the gods Anu and Enlil want to kill him, although Shamash intercedes on his behalf. Gilgamesh wants to turn to Enlil in prayer, but Enkidu dissuades him, and he turns to Shamash, cursing the hunter and harlot Shamhat, but Shamash points out to Enkidu what Shamhat gave him, and he cancels his curse, replacing it with a blessing. .

Enkidu falls ill and soon dies. Gilgamesh is sad and orders a statue of his brother to be made. Gilgamesh goes into the desert, on a journey, realizing his mortality after the death of his friend, he is afraid of death. Traveling, he reaches the edge of the world, where he meets a scorpion man and tells him about his sadness and that he wants to find Utnapishtim, the only person who received immortality (according to some sources - the ancestor of Gilgamesh), and ask him about life and death. The scorpion man says that the path to the country of Dilmun, where the gods settled Utnapishtim, which lies through a long cave, is terrible and not walked by people - only the gods walk this way. Gilgamesh is not afraid, and the scorpion man blesses him.

Gilgamesh did not master the difficult path the first time - he became afraid and returned; on the second attempt, he passed the cave and found himself in a beautiful garden of precious stone trees. There he meets the mistress of the gods, Siduri, who, frightened, closes herself in the house from him, and at first does not believe that he is Gilgamesh, since he is dirty and thin, he has to tell his story.

She tries to convince him that immortality is not due to a person, there is no need to waste time searching - it is better to enjoy life, but Gilgamesh asks her how to find Utnapishtim, and she says that, except for Shamash, no one can cross, and only Urshanabi, the shipbuilder Utnapishtim, who has idols in the forest, can help.

Urshanabi helps Gilgamesh reach Utnapishtim. Gilgamesh tells him about his grief and asks how Utnapishtim managed to become equal to the gods.

Utnapishtim tells the story of a flood in which only he survived, and the gods took him to themselves, but for Gilgamesh the gods cannot be gathered for council. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh that there is a flower at the bottom of the ocean that gives eternal youth, he gets it and decides to first test it on the elders of Uruk. But on the way back, the snake steals the flower and Gilgamesh returns empty-handed.

Some interpretations also include a continuation in which Gilgamesh meets his brother Enkidu, who has emerged from the afterlife, and tells about the hard life in the world of the dead (the ancient Sumerians had a rather gloomy idea of the afterlife, unlike, for example, the Egyptians). After which Gilgamesh resigns himself to the fate of a mortal.

Conclusion

The ancient inhabitants of Mesopotamia created a high culture, which had an exceptionally strong influence on the further development of all mankind, becoming the property of many countries and peoples. On the territory of Mesopotamia, many features of material and spiritual culture arose and took shape, which for a long time determined the entire subsequent course of world history.

The prestige of Mesopotamian culture in writing was so great that in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. BC, despite the decline in the political power of Babylonia and Assyria, the Akkadian language and cuneiform writing became a means of international communication throughout the Middle East. The text of the agreement between Pharaoh Ramesses II and the Hittite king Hattusili III was drawn up in Akkadian. The pharaohs even write to their vassals in Palestine not in Egyptian, but in Akkadian.

Scribes at the courts of the rulers of Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine and Egypt diligently studied the Akkadian language, cuneiform and literature.

Sumerian and Akkadian ritual, "scientific" and literary texts copied and translated into other languages throughout the entire range of cuneiform writing.

The Sumerians created the first poems in history - about the “Golden Age”, and wrote the first elegies. They are the authors of the world's oldest medical books - collections of recipes

The civilization of Ancient Mesopotamia had a huge influence on the ancient one, and through it - on medieval culture Europe, the Middle East, and ultimately to world culture New and Contemporary times.

Literature

1. Dyakonov I.M. History of the ancient east. - M.: Nauka, 1983.

2. Kramer S.N. The story begins in Sumer. M., 1991.

3. Oppenheim A. Ancient Mesopotamia. M., 1990.

4. Turaev B.A. History of the Ancient East. - Mn.: Harvest, 2004. - 752 p.

5. Afanasyeva V., Lukonin V., Pomerantseva N. Art ancient East(Small history of art). M., 1976.

6. Afanasyeva V.K. Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Epic images in art. - M.: Nauka, 1979. - 219 p. - (Culture of the peoples of the East).

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