into the realm of myth and legend. Nevertheless these rulers, although appearing in the pretentious nomenclature as gods, appear to have been real historic personages.[1] The name Gilgamish was originally written dGi-bil-aga-miš, and means “The fire god (Gibil) is a commander,” abbreviated to dGi-bil-ga-miš, and dGi(š)-bil-ga-miš, a form which by full labialization of b to u was finally contracted to dGi-il-ga-miš.[2] Throughout the new text the name is written with the abbreviation dGi(š),[3] whereas the standard Assyrian text has consistently the writing dGIŠ-ȚU[4]-BAR. The latter method of writing the name is apparently cryptographic for dGiš-bar-aga-(miš); the fire god Gibil has also the title GiS-bar.
A fragment of the South Babylonian version of the tenth book was published in 1902, a text from the period of Hammurapi, which showed that the Babylonian epic differed very much from the Assyrian in diction, but not in content. The new tablet, which belongs to the same period, also differs radically from the diction of the Ninevite text in the few lines where they duplicate each other. The first line of the new tablet corresponds to Tablet I, Col. V 25 of the Assyrian text,[5] where Gilgamish begins to relate his dreams to his mother Ninsun.[6]
- ↑ Tammuz is probably a real personage, although Dumu-zi, his original name, is certainly later than the title Ab-ú, probably the oldest epithet of this deity, see Tammuz and Ishtar, p. 8. Dumu-zi I take to have been originally the name of a prehistoric ruler of Erech, identified with the primitive deity Abu.
- ↑ See ibid., page 40
- ↑ Also Meissner's early Babylonian duplicate of Book X has invariably the same writing, see Dhorme, Choix de Textes Religieux, 298–303.
- ↑ Sign whose gunufied form is read aga.
- ↑ The standard text of the Assyrian version is by Professor Paul Haupt, Das Babylonische Nimrodepos, Leipzig, 1884.
- ↑ The name of the mother of Gilgamish has been erroneously read ri-mat ilatNin-lil, or Rimat-Bélit, see Dhorme 202, 37; 204, 30, etc. But Dr. Poebel, who also copied this text, has shown that Nin-lil is an erroneous reading for Nin-sun. For Ninsun as mother of Gilgamish see SBP. 153 n. 19 and R.A., IX 113 III 2. Ri-mat ilatNin-sun should be rendered “The wild cow Ninsun.”
