Epic of Gilgamesh: Tablet IV — The Arrival at the Gate of the Forest · 2 of 2 · tr. R. Campbell Thompson

Tablet IV, Section 1b

[Be brave(?)] and resist!

O my comrade, together We will go down—let the combat [in no wise diminish(?)] thy courage!

40.

O forget death, and be fearful(?) of nothing(?) .

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(for he who is) [valiant(?)], Cautious (and) careful, by leading [the way] hath his own body guarded, (He ’tis) will safeguard a comrade." A name by their [valour(?)] .

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They will establish.

(And now) they together arrive at the barrier(?), [Still’d into silence(?)] their speech, and they themselves (suddenly) stopping.

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.

The setting involves a sacred forest guarded by a divine spirit, implying inherent power in the landscape.

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