Poem Four: Epic of Gilgamesh

A continuation of my rendition of the Epic of Gilgamesh.....a story which was told around the camp-fires from 4,000 years ago.

If you remember the basis of the story.....Gilgamesh is a young king, who is two-thirds Godly-like material, and one-third mortal man.  No one has ever sat down to explain you can be two-thirds, and I think this is told this way....to infer that the whole story is fake to start with.

Gilgamesh has set off on some epic adventure with his buddy Enkidu.   The young men are mostly into 'saving the world' and ass-whooping on folks who need it.

The story in poem four basically starts out with the boys noting that they've traveled twenty leagues or 111 kilometer, or 69 miles.  They've reached some point for the day (I assume) where they are pretty tired out and just plain hungry.  So they stopped and ate some travel food that they had in their possession.  No one says if this were grapes, or peanut butter, but I'd assume it was a hearty dinner.  The boys continue on after this....for another ten additional leagues.

Walking-wise, it's well over 80 miles in one day, and I'd tend to question this.  If they were riding horseback?  It'd a harsh situation to think that you rode Flicker or Lil Smokey eighty miles in one single day.  So I think the boys made up this part of the story, and they probably never got more than 20 miles.

At some point on this great adventure, they finally walked into Lebanon.  No one ever explained why, but apparently they dug a well that faced off to the west.  I have my doubts about the well, but somehow, it fits into the story.

Gilgamesh then hiked up some mountain peak, and made peace with the Lord....laying out some flour.  He spoke to the Lord:  "Mountain, bring me a dream, a favorable message from Shamash."

At the bottom of this mountain....his associate....Enkidu....was busy building up a straw mattress of sorts (they didn't have proper camping gear) for the night.  Just then, a heck of a wind came up.  We aren't saying it was a tornado or hurricane, but it was enough that you'd notice it.  Enkidu then told Gilgamesh to just rest up and sleep.

The story goes that Gilgamesh just didn't sleep well.  In the midst of this evening....he woke up....real restless.  He's all hyped up and just can't sleep.  He's also chatting away, which I suspect bothers the heck out of Enkidu, but he doesn't say much.

Gilgamesh then chats on about some dream, with mountains all around, then the mountains falling down upon them.  There's rain, and some flies in this dram.

Enkidu, who is a Daniel Boone-type figure....born in the woods....tells his associate that all is fine with this dream.  Enkidu actually thinks this is a pretty good dream.  My guess is that he just wanted Gilgamesh to go back to sleep.

But Enkidu talks here a bit, and says that this mountain is Humbaba (the terrible) and it's all relative in some nature.  In the morning, says Enkidu....some message will come and make everything good again.

The boys end up repeating this whole episode again....same hike....same well dug....same climb up a hill, and a slightly different dream for Gilgamesh....this time with some vision that relates to a bull.  In this case, Enkidu says that it's still Shamash (the terrible).  But this is again a demonstration of them taking on this Shamash guy easily.

So another day passes, and they repeat the same thing again.  This is the thing about camp-fire stories....you can get them into a pretty long and drawn out episode. 

On the third dream....there's some bolt of lightning, and some fire.  Enkidu is supposed to have responded about this dream, but this tablet having the text?  Well....it's messed up, so you are missing forty lines of advice.

Enkidu might have gone on about his one long lost girlfriend, or the bull he sold off as a kid, or maybe talked up his adventures with some pirates.  You just don't know.

So there is a 4th day of walking, and things all repeat themselves yet again.  Same dream stuff, and the same advice by Enkidu to worry much about these stupid dreams.

Enkidu finally gives some real advice....let's just go and pay no attention to the threat of death.  Maybe things turn out well. 

At that point, they pick up their stuff and start off through the evergreen woods, and Enkidu assures his buddy....he's there to protect and save him.

There, poem four ends.  The problem you tend to see is that Gilgamesh is a bit fearful of the mission they've undertaken....to do a ass-beating on this Shamash guy.  As each day goes by....it's more and more a problem.