offspring of Ninib. Moreover, the being created is not a “counterpart” of Gilgamesh, but an animal-man, as the description that follows shows. We must separate lines 30–33 in which the creation of the “Anu man” is described from lines 34–41 in which the creation of Enkidu is narrated. Indeed, these lines strike one as the proper beginning of the original Enkidu story, which would naturally start out with his birth and end with his death. The description is clearly an account of the creation of the first man, in which capacity Enkidu is brought forward.
"Aruru washed her hands, broke off clay,
threw it on the field[1]
... created Enkidu, the hero, a lofty
offspring of the host of Ninib.”[2]
The description of Enkidu follows, with his body covered with hair like an animal, and eating and drinking with the animals. There follows an episode[3] which has no connection whatsoever with the Gilgamesh Epic, but which is clearly intended to illustrate how Enkidu came to abandon the life with the animals. A hunter sees Enkidu and is amazed at the strange sight—an animal and yet a man. Enkidu, as though resenting his condition, becomes enraged at the sight of the hunter, and the latter goes to his father and tells him of the strange creature whom he is unable to catch. In reply, the father advises his son to take a woman with him when next he goes out on his pursuit, and to have the woman remove her dress in the presence of Enkidu, who will then approach her, and after intercourse with her will abandon the animals among whom he lives. By this device he will catch the strange creature. Lines 14–18 of column 3 in the first tablet in which the father of the hunter refers to Gilgamesh must be regarded as a later insertion, a part of the reconstruction of the tale to connect the episode with Gilgamesh. The advice of the father to his son, the hunter, begins, line 19,
"Go my hunter, take with thee a woman.”
- ↑ It will be recalled that Enkidu is always spoken of as “born in the field.”
- ↑ Note the repetition ibtani “created” in line 33 of the “man of Anu” and in line 35 of the offspring of Ninib. The creation of the former is by the “heart,” i.e., by the will of Aruru, the creation of the latter is an act of moulding out of clay.
- ↑ Tablet I, Column 3.
