TABLET I


    i

    The Story

    of him who knew the most of all men know;
    who made the journey; heartbroken; reconciled;

    who knew the way things were before the Flood,
    the secret things, the mystery; who went

    to the end of the earth, and over; who returned,
    and wrote the story on a tablet of stone.

    He built Uruk. He built the keeping place
    of Anu and Ishtar. The outer wall

    shines in the sun like brightest copper; the inner
    wall is beyond the imagining of kings.

    Study the brickwork, study the fortification;
    climb the great ancient staircase to the terrace;

    study how it is made; from the terrace see
    the planted and fallow fields, the ponds and orchards.

    This is Uruk, the city of Gilgamesh
    the Wild Ox, son of Lugalbanda, son

    of the Lady Wildcow Ninsun, Gilgamesh
    the vanguard and the rear guard of the army,

    Shadow of Darkness over the enemy field,
    the Web, the Flood that rises to wash away

    the walls of alien cities, Gilgamesh
    the strongest one of all, the perfect, the terror.

    It is he who opened passes through the mountains;
    and he who dug deep wells on the mountainsides;

    who measured the world; and sought out Utnapishtim
    beyond the world; it is he who restored the shrines;

    two-thirds a god, one-third a man, the king.
    Go to the temple of Anu and Ishtar:

    open the copper chest with the iron locks;
    the tablet of lapis lazuli tells the story.


    ii

    There was no withstanding the aura or power of the Wild
    Ox Gilgamesh. Neither the father's son

    nor the wife of the noble; neither the mother's daughter
    nor the warrior's bride was safe. The old men said:

    "Is this the shepherd of the people? Is this
    the wise shepherd, protector of the people?"

    The gods of heaven listened to their complaint.
    "Aruru is the maker of this king.

    Neither the father's son nor the wife of the noble
    is safe in Uruk; neither the mother's daughter

    nor the warrior's bride is safe. The old men say:
    'Is this the shepherd of the people? Is this

    the wise shepherd, protector of the people?
    There is no withstanding the desire of the Wild Ox.'"

    They called the goddess Aruru, saying to her:
    "You made this man. Now create another.

    Create his double and let the two contend.
    Let stormy heart contend with stormy heart

    that peace may come to Uruk once again."
    Aruru listened and heard and then created

    out of earth clay and divine spittle the double,
    the stormy-hearted other, Enkidu,

    the hairy-bodied wild man of the grasslands,
    powerful as Ninurta the god of war,

    the hair of his head like the grain fields of the goddess,
    naked as Sumuqan the god of cattle.

    He feeds upon the grasslands with gazelles;
    visits the watering places with the creatures

    whose hearts delight, as his delights, in water.


    iii

    One day a hunter came to a watering place
    and saw Enkidu; he stood expressionless,

    astonished; then with his silent dogs he went
    home to his father's house, fear in his belly.

    His face was as one estranged from what he knows.
    He opened his mouth and said to his father: "Father,

    I saw a hairy-bodied man today
    at the watering place, powerful as Ninurta

    the god of war; he feeds upon the grasslands
    with gazelles; he visits the watering places

    with the beasts; he has unset my traps and filled
    my hunting pits; the creatures of the grasslands

    get away free. The wild man sets them free.
    Because of him I am no longer a hunter."

    His father said: "Go to Uruk and there
    present yourself to Gilgamesh the king,

    who is the strongest of all, the perfect, the terror,
    the wise shepherd, protector of the people.

    Tell him about the power of the wild man.
    Ask him to send a harlot back with you,

    a temple prostitute, to conquer him
    with her greater power. When he visits the watering place,

    let her show him her breasts, her beauty, for his wonder.
    He will lie with her in pleasure, and then the creatures,

    the gazelles with whom he feeds upon the grasslands,
    and the others with whom he visits the watering places,

    will flee from him who ranged the hills with them."
    So the hunter went to Gilgamesh in Uruk

    and told him about the power of the wild man,
    and how he had unset the traps and filled

    the pits, so that the creatures got away free.
    The lord of Uruk said to the hunter then:

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