Epic of Gilgamesh: Tablet XII — Gilgamish Enquires of the Dead · 3 of 3 · tr. R. Campbell Thompson
Tablet XII, Section 1c
"Tell, O my friend, O tell, O my friend, (O) tell (me, I pr’y thee), What thou hast seen of the laws of the Underworld?" "(Nay, then,) O comrade; 90.
I will not tell thee, (yea,) I will not tell thee—(for), were I to tell thee, What I have seen of the laws of the Underworld,—sit thee down weeping!" "(Then) let me sit me down weeping." .
"(So be it): [the friend(?)] thou didst fondle (Thereby) rejoicing thee—[into his body(?), as though ’twere a] mantle 95.
Old, hath the worm made its entry: (in sooth, then) [the bride(?)] thou didst fondle, (Thereby) rejoicing thee—fill’d with the dust [is her body] .
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he hath spoken and [into the"' ground (?) is he sunken, .
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he hath spoken and [into the ground (?) is he sunken." "[He who fell in .
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[Didst thou see him?]." "(Aye), I saw .
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118.
"As a pillar beautiful [Props?] an inner por[tico (?)] .
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145.
"He who falleth from a pole Didst thou see him?
"(Aye), I saw]: Straightway for .
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By removal of a plug .
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"Didst thou see him?" "[(Aye) I saw]: He's at rest upon a couch, Limpid water doth he drink." "(Then, the hero) slain in fight, Didst thou see him?" "(Aye) I saw: 150.
Father, mother raise his head, O’er him wife [in bitter woe]." "He whose corpse in desert lieth, Hast thou seen him?" "(Aye), I saw; Not in earth doth rest his spirit." "He whose ghost hath none to tend, Didst thou see him?" "(Aye), I saw, Lees of cup, and broken bread Thrown into the street he eateth." THE END OF THE EPIC OF GILGAMISH.
SHARP AND SONS, BATH
§ Ask Guru about this passage →Themes
Ancestor Venerationpraxis
Ritual maintenance of relationship with the dead as ongoing presences whose favour is cultivated and whose offence is propitiated. Shinto uji-gami and obon, Norse disir and the alfablot, Celtic samhain and the feast for the deceased, Roman lares and parentalia, Chinese ancestor rites, Vedic śrāddha. Practice-coded rather than belief-coded: distinct from soul_migration (cosmological doctrine of soul-transmigration) and theosis_deification (deification trajectory); ancestor_veneration centres the living's ongoing ritual obligation to the dead.
The passage explicitly links the well-being of the dead to whether they have living relatives to tend them and provide offerings, highlighting the ritual obligation of the living.
All passages →Funerary Navigationpraxis
Texts and rituals guiding the soul through death.
The dialogue serves to map the conditions and geography of the underworld for the living, functioning as a guide to post-mortem states.
All passages →Separation From Sourcesoteriology
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.
The dead are described as exiled from the living world, with spirits not resting in the earth and ghosts eating refuse in the street.
All passages →Related passages · 12 parallels
egyptian|The Egyptian Heaven and Hell|Chapter 2 (part 1)
“p.
vi PREFACE THE present work is the outcome of two lectures on the Books of the Tuat, i.e., the Egyptian Underworld, or "Other World," which I had the honour to deliver at the Royal Institution in the spring of 1904, and it has been prep…”
Shared concept: Funerary Navigation — Texts and rituals guiding the soul through death. (derived)
egyptian|The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani)|Chapter 43 (part 23)
“41-43.] Selection and arrangement of chapters.
The sections or chapters of the Theban version are a series of separate and distinct compositions, which, like the sections of the pyramid texts, had no fixed order either on coffins or in pap…”
Shared concept: Funerary Navigation — Texts and rituals guiding the soul through death. (derived)
egyptian|The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani)|Chapter 6 (part 5)
“nuk sah em ba-f I am a sah with his soul. In the late edition of the Book of the Dead published by Lepsius the deceased is said to " look upon his body and to rest upon his sahu ," and souls are said "to enter into their sahu "; and a passa…”
Shared concept: Funerary Navigation — Texts and rituals guiding the soul through death. (derived)
western_esoteric|Tertium Organum (P.D. Ouspensky)|Chapter XIX (part 7)
“In the reduction of your soul to its simplest self, its divine essence, you realize this union—this identity.
But this sublime condition is not of permanent duration.
It is only now and then that we can enjoy this elevation above the limi…”
Shared concept: Separation From Source — 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. (derived)
sufism|The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi)|PROLOGUE-a
“HEARKEN to the reed-flute, how it complains, Lamenting its banishment from its home: "Ever since they tore me from my osier bed, My plaintive notes have moved men and women to tears.
I burst my breast, striving to give vent to sighs, And t…”
Shared concept: Separation From Source — 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. (derived)
native_american|The Soul of the Indian|Chapter VI-b
“At every meal time, a dish of food was placed under it, and some person of the same sex and age as the one who was gone must afterward be invited in to partake of the food.
At the end of a year from the time of death, the relatives made a…”
Shared concept: Ancestor Veneration — Ritual maintenance of relationship with the dead as ongoing presences whose favour is cultivated and whose offence is propitiated. (derived)
western_esoteric|Transcendental Magic II: The Ritual (Éliphas Lévi)|13. Necromancy-f
“Thus, a fatal law drives demons downward when they wish and believe themselves to be ascending.
So also those who term themselves chiefs are the most impotent and despised of all.
As to the horde of perverse spirits, they tremble before a…”
Shared concept: Ancestor Veneration — Ritual maintenance of relationship with the dead as ongoing presences whose favour is cultivated and whose offence is propitiated. (derived)
hinduism|The Bhagavad Gita|Chapter I, Section 1c
“In consequence of the predominance of impiety, O K ri sh n a!
the women of the family become corrupt ; and the women becoming corrupt, O descendant of V ri sh n i!
intermingling of castes results; that intermingling necessarily leads the…”
Shared concept: Ancestor Veneration — Ritual maintenance of relationship with the dead as ongoing presences whose favour is cultivated and whose offence is propitiated. (derived)
neoplatonism|Iamblichus: On the Mysteries|Chapter VIII-r
“But there are a certain few who by employing a certain supernatural power of intellect, are removed from nature , &c.
The class to which these few belong is beautifully unfolded, as follows, by Plotinus, in the beginning of his Treatise on…”
Shared concept: Separation From Source — 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. (derived)
celtic|The Mabinogion|Tale MANAWYDDAN THE SON OF LLYR-a
“HERE IS THE THIRD PORTION OF THE MABINOGI When the seven men of whom we spoke above had buried the head of Bendigeid Vran, in the White Mount in London, with its face towards France; Manawyddan gazed upon the town of London, and upon his co…”
Shared concept: Ancestor Veneration — Ritual maintenance of relationship with the dead as ongoing presences whose favour is cultivated and whose offence is propitiated. (derived)
native_american|Myths of the Cherokee|Myth 95
“HEMP-CARRIER On the southern slope of the ridge, along the trail from Robbinsville to Valley river, in Cherokee county, North Carolina, are the remains of a number of stone cairns. The piles are leveled now, but thirty years ago the stones…”
Shared concept: Ancestor Veneration — Ritual maintenance of relationship with the dead as ongoing presences whose favour is cultivated and whose offence is propitiated. (derived)
hermeticism|Corpus Hermeticum 10: The Sermon on the Mount|Section 1d
“Spirit pervading [body] by means of veins and arteries and blood, bestows upon the living creature motion, and as it were doth bear it in a way.
For this cause some do think the soul is blood, in that they do mistake its nature, not knowin…”
Shared concept: Separation From Source — 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. (derived)