Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 6.-7. 1965-1966 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1966)

Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Makkay János: Some ancient sources to the Shamanism. VI–VII, 1965–66. p. 27–42. t. XV.

And escapes to the desert places. The tree, he plucked at its base, he tore at its crown; The sons of his city who had accompanied him cut down its crown. 100. Unto the pure Inanna for the throne he gives it, For the bed he gives it. He, its base into his pukku he makes, Its crown into his mikku he makes. The text published by S. N. Kramer, beginning with line 81, is essentially the same as lines obv. 1—23 of the tablet U. 9364. The further lines of this Ur tablet represent the continuation of the story

11

: Lines 24 and 25 reveal that the pukku and the mikku are indispensable to Gilgamesh for certain reasons. In the following Gilgamesh 32. „(In) his place where the pukku was set he draws a circle The pukku he raised before him and went into his house In the morning his place where the circle was drawn he viewed. .35. The adults (?) do not (But) at the crying of a little girl His pukku and mikku fell down into the ,Great Dwelling' He put forth his hand (but) could not reach them He put forts his foot (but could not reach them -40. (In) the palace of the underworld-gods he sat down Gilgamesh shed tears, made a ,yellow face''' From line 42 we are following the text in S. N. Kramer's translation again. Lines 42—49 contain Gilgamesh's grief because he has lost his magic implements: 42. ,,0 my pukku, о my mikku, My pukku whose lustiness was irresistible, My mikku whose pulsations could not be drowned out. 45. In those days when verily my pukku was with me in the house of the carpenter, When verily the wife of the carpenter was with me like the mother who gave birth to me, П. C. J. GADD: Revue d'Ass. 30 (1933) pp. 126 seqq. 12. J. B. PRITCHARD: Ancient Near Eastern Texts relating to the Old Testament. 2. ed. (Princeton 1S55). quoted in the following as ANET, pp. 97 seqq., E, A. SPEISER. 13. Si. N. KRAMER: Gilgamesh ... p. 42; id.: Proceedings of the Amer. Phil. So с 90 (1946) p. 125; id.: From the Tablets of Sumer. (Indian Hills 1956) p. 220; on the contrary E. Soil berger believes the correct translation of the word ha-lu-ub to be „populus Euphraticus When verily the daughter of the carpenter was with me like my younger sister, My pukku, who will bring it up from the nether world, My mikku, who will bring it up from the 'face' of the nether world?'' Enkidu undertakes this task: 50. „O my master, why dost thou cry, why is thy heart sick? Thy pukku, lo, I will now bring it up from the nether world, Thy mikku, I will bring it up from the 'face' of the nether world." Gilgamesh, hearing the magnanimous offer of Enkidu, informs him on the dangers of his journey in the Nether World and warns him to abstain from certain thinks. Enkidu does not abide by these instructions, therefore he remains in the Nether W.orld. Beginning with line rev. 45 of U. 9364, also the later version embraced the final part of the story in the heroic poem,

12 as we have mentioned, practically unchanged. The plot may be summarized in brief as follows: the tree growing on the bank of the Euphrates is probably the willow.

13 This tree, „the first tree of the world", has been uprooted and snatched away by the southern wind. S. N. Kramer connects the fact itself with that part of the text which relates that in the days of this event the god Enki sailed to the Nether World and stayed there.

14 The uprooted tree is rolled on by the water of the Euphrates. Now a female being brings it to Uruk and plants it in Inanna's sacred precincts, in the holy grove. At any rate, this may have happened at the command of the chief gods, Anu and Enlil (as we learn from part I, lines 31—33). The person, however, transporting the tree to Uruk, remains uncertain. Is it Inanna personally ,or someone else? The text is contradictory in this respect. At first S. N. Kramer concluded that the tree is brought to Uruk by the woman mentioned as Gilgamesh's sister, so she cannot be Inanna.

15 On the other hand, in line 75 Inanna speaks of herself in the first person as having taken the tree in her hand and having brought it to Uruk. AccordOliV.": Z. ASS. SO C19I52I) p. 217, note 3; Cf. W. F. I/EEMANS: Foreign Trade in the Old Babylonian Period. Studia et Documenta ad iura orientis antiqui pertinentia. Vol. VI (Leiden 1960) pp. 13B—

12©. 14. S. N. KRAMER: Gilgamesh ... p. 41. — According to Vergil, the roots of the holy oak at Dodona are reaching down deeper than those of any other plant, as far as Tartaros: Georg. П. 391. 15. S. IBID: pp. 45, 58—59. 29