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There can be no doubt that there is a historical background to the Gilgamesh epic, and there is equally no reason to question the existence of an ancient king or hero who bore the name Gilgamesh. The deification of the hero superinduced the introduction of mythical elements.
The Old Testament supplies us with an admirable illustration of the method of obtaining oracles through the dead. Saul, when he desires to know what the outcome of a battle is to be, seeks out a sorceress, and through her calls up the dead Samuel and puts the question to him. Similarly, in the Gilgamesh epic, the hero, with the aid of Nergal, obtains a sight of Eabani and plies him with questions.
But the text is too mutilated to warrant further conjectures. After escaping from the danger occasioned by the lions, Gilgamesh comes to the mountain Mashu, which is described as a place of terrors, the entrance to which is guarded by 'scorpion-men.
See the summary on pp. 198, 199, of Delitzsch, Ursprung der Keilschriftzeichen. See p. 436. Kosmologie, pp. 57-95. See especially the summary, pp. 82-84. See p. 89. See p. 48. On this ideograph, see Jensen, Kosmologie pp. 43, 44. Kosmologie, p. 134. See the following chapter on "The Gilgamesh Epic," and chapter xxv, "The Views of the Babylonians and Assyrians of the Life after Death."
In the light of the early relationships between Babylonia and Arabia, this reference to Mashu may embody a tradition of some expedition to Southern Arabia. Beyond Mashu lay a great sea, perhaps the Arabian Sea, which Gilgamesh is obliged to cross ere he reaches his goal.
Gilgamesh, we must bear in mind, has nothing to do with either the local tale or the myth, except to give to both an interpretation that was originally foreign to the composite narrative.
Of actual deeds performed by Gilgamesh, and which belong to Gilgamesh's career as a hero, warrior, and ruler, we have only four, the conquest of Erech, his victory over Khumbaba, the killing of the divine bull, and the strangling of the lion.
The poets were to make it the subject of their songs, and kings and nobles were not exempt from the obligation to listen to the tale. The Myth of the Storm-God Zu. Birds and bulls were to the Babylonians the symbols of storms and clouds. In the Gilgamesh epic, it will be recalled, Anu sends a divine bull to engage in a contest with Gilgamesh.
You have a few on Tanith, haven't you? Well, anything one Gilgamesher knows, they all find out, and ours are co-operative with Naval intelligence." That would be why Andray Dunnan was having no dealings with Gilgameshers. It would also be what Zaspar Makann meant when he ranted about the Gilgamesh Interstellar Conspiracy. "I can see where an arrangement like that would be mutually advantageous.
They constitute the regular means of communication between man and the gods, so regular that at times the compilers of the epic do not find it necessary to specify the fact, but take it for granted. To Gilgamesh, Eabani's coming is revealed and he asks his mother Aruru to interpret the dream. The third and fourth tablets take us back to the history of Uruk.
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