Epic of Gilgamesh: Tablet X — How Gilgamish Reached Uta-Napishtim · 2 of 4 · tr. R. Campbell Thompson
Tablet X, Section 1b
(then) did I fear .
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Death did I dread, that I range o’er the desert]: the hap of my comrade [Lay on me heavy(?)—O ’tis a long road that I range o’er] the desert!
Enkidu, (yea), [of my comrade the hap lay heavy (?) upon me]— 10.
[’Tis a long road] that I range o’er the desert—O, how to be silent], (Aye, or) how to give voice?
[(For) the comrade I ha’ (so) lovéd] Like to the dust [hath become]; O Enkidu, (he was) my comrade, He whom I loved hath become alike the dust]—[I,] shall I not, also, Lay me down [like him], throughout all eternity [never returning]?" ________________________________ : "He who enduréd all hardships with me, whom I lovéd dearly, Enkidu,—he who enduréd all hardships with me (is now perish’d), Gone to the common lot of mankind!
(And) I have bewail’d him 5.
Day and night long: (and) unto the tomb I have not consign’d him.
(O but) my friend cometh not (?) to my call—six days, (yea), a se’nnight 10.
He like a worm hath lain on his face—(and) I for this reason Find no life, (but must needs) roam the desert like to a hunter, (Wherefore), O Wine-maker, now that (at last) I look on thy visage, Death which I dread I will see not!" .
The Wine-maker Gilgamish answer’d: "Gilgamish, why runnest thou, (inasmuch as) the life which thou seekest, Thou canst not find?
(For) the gods, in their (first) creation of mortals, 5.
Death allotted to man, (but) life they retain’d in their keeping.
Gilgamish, full be thy belly, Each day and night be thou merry, (and) daily keep holiday revel, 10.
Each day and night do thou dance and rejoice; (and) fresh be thy raiment, (Aye), let thy head be clean washen, (and) bathe thyself in the water, Cherish the little one holding thy hand; be thy spouse in thy bosom Happy—(for) this is the dower [of man] .
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[Gilgamish] (thus) continued his speech to the Wine-maker, (saying), "[Pr’ythee, then], Wine-maker, which is the way unto Uta-Napishtim?
[What (is)] its token, I pr’ythee, vouchsafe me, vouchsafe me its token.
If it be possible (even) the Ocean (itself) will I traverse, (But) if it should be impossible, (then) will I range o’er the desert." ________________________________ .
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(Thus) did the Wine-maker answer to him, unto Gilgamish (saying), "There hath been never a crossing, O Gilgamish: never aforetime Anyone, coming thus far, hath been able to traverse the Ocean: Warrior Shamash doth cross it , ’tis true, but who besides Shamash Maketh the traverse?
(Yea), rough is the ferry, (and) rougher its passage, 25.
(Aye), too, ’tis deep are the Waters of Death, which bar its approaches .
Themes
◆Anthropomorphismtheology
Attributing human characteristics, emotions, or form to the divine; embodied divine imagery.
Divine beings are described with human-like agency in creation, allotment, and traversing the ocean like Shamash.
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.
Human fate is determined by divine decree, specifically the allotment of death by the gods.
The living practitioner's deliberate trance-journey into spirit, underworld, or upper realms — Lemminkainen's descent into Tuoni and Wainamoinen's entry into Wipunen's body in the Kalevala, the Siberian shaman's drum-mediated travel, Inuit angakkuq's submarine journey to Sedna, classical katabasis as ritual technique. The practitioner returns with knowledge, songs, lost-words, or a recovered soul. Distinct from psychopomp_journey (which guides the *dead* soul through afterlife realms) and from spiritual_ascent (which is the soul's *upward* return to source); shamanic_journey is the *living* practitioner crossing into ordinarily-inaccessible domains as a worked technique.
Gilgamesh undertakes a physical quest across the Waters of Death to reach the immortal Uta-Napishtim, fitting the archetype of a living practitioner crossing into inaccessible domains.