Epic of Gilgamesh: Tablet III — The Expedition against Humbaba · 1 of 5 · tr. R. Campbell Thompson
Tablet III, Section 1a
THE THIRD TABLET.
THE EXPEDITION TO THE FOREST OF CEDARS AGAINST HUMBABA.
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"He lifted up [his foot, to the door .
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21.
(?) They raged furiously .
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Enkidu hath not [his equal] .
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unkempt is the hair .
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(Aye) he was born in the desert, and [no] one [his presence can equal]." .
Enkidu (there) as he stood gave ear [to his utterance (?)], grieving 26.
Sitting [in sorrow]: his eyes fill’d [with tears], and his arms lost their power, [Slack’d was his bodily vigour].
Each clasp]d [the hand of] the other.
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[Holding] like [brothers] their grip .
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[(and) to Gilgamish] Enkidu answer’d: 40.
"Friend, ’tis my darling hath circled (her arms) round my neck (to farewell me) , (Wherefore) my arms lose their power, my bodily vigour is slacken 'd." .
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Gilgamish open’d his mouth, and to Enkidu spake he (in this wise): "[I, O my friend, am determined to go to the Forest of Cedars], 5.
[(Aye) and] Humbaba the Fierce [will] o’ercome and destroy [what is evil] 10.
[(Then) will I cut down] the Cedar .
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." Enkidu open’d his mouth, and to Gilgamish spake he (in this wise), 15.
"Know, then, my friend, what time I was roaming with kine in the mountains I for a distance of two hours' march from the skirts of the Forest Into its depths would go down.
Humbaba—his roar was a whirlwind, 20.
Flame (in) his jaws, and his very breath Death!
O, why hast desired This to accomplish?
To meet(?) with Humbaba were conflict unequall’d." 25.
Gilgamish open’d his mouth and to Enkidu spake he (in this wise): "[Tis that I need] the rich yield of its mountains [I go to the Forest]" .
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Enkidu open’d his mouth [and] to Gilgamish spake he (in this wise): 40.
"(But) when we go to the Forest [of Cedars] .
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its guard is a [Fighter], Strong, never [sleeping], O Gilgamish .
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So that he safeguard the Forest of Cedars a terror to mortals Him hath Enlil appointed—Humbaba, his roar is a whirlwind, Flame (in) his jaws, and his very breath Death!
(Aye), if he in the Forest.
Hear (but) a tread(?) on the road—'Who is this come down to his Forest?' So that he safeguard the Forest of Cedars, a terror to mortals, Him hath Enlil appointed, and fell hap will seize him who cometh Down to his Forest." 3.
Gilgamish open’d his mouth and to Enkidu spake he (in this wise): 5.
"Who, O my friend, is unconquer’d by [death]?
A divinity, certes, Liveth for aye in the daylight, but mortals—their days are (all) number’d, All that they do is (but) wind—But to thee, now death thou art dreading, 10.
Themes
◆Animismcosmology
The doctrine and worldview that natural phenomena, places, and objects possess inherent spirit, soul, or personality — and that the cosmos is populated by countless local, plural, embodied divine agents: kami in mountain and tree, sidhe in cairn and well, landwights in field and stone, nymphs in spring and grove, haltija in forest and lake, lares and penates in household and threshold, Iamblichean daemons in element and place. Distinct from monotheism (single transcendent God), pantheism (one underlying substance), and emanation_hierarchy (cascading single source); animism's signature is the plurality, locality, and embodied-in-landscape character of the divine.
Humbaba is depicted as the inherent spirit and guardian of the Forest of Cedars, embodying the localized divine agency within nature.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The text states that Enlil appointed Humbaba to safeguard the forest, indicating a divine ordering of cosmic and human events.
The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.
Enkidu expresses grief over his separation from his desert origins and the woman who civilized him, reflecting a felt loss of his original state.