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Updated: September 25, 2025
One is inclined to assume the latter, for the inhabitants of Uruk are represented as complaining that Gilgamesh has taken away the sons and daughters of the place. From a passage in a subsequent tablet it appears that Uruk is not the native place of the hero, but Marada.
Unfortunately, the tablet at this point is defective, and the following three tablets are represented by small fragments only, from which it is exceedingly difficult to determine more than the general course of the narrative. Ukhat and Eabani proceed to Uruk.
One of these is the zikkurat to Nin-girsu at Lagash, which Gudea describes as 'the house of seven divisions of the world'; the other, the tower at Uruk, which bore the name 'house of seven zones. The reference in both cases is, as Jensen has shown, to the seven concentric zones into which the earth was divided by the Babylonians.
Whose power is stronger than thine, Who rests not, ... neither by day or night. O Eabani, change thy ... Shamash loves Gilgamesh, Anu, Bel, and Ea have given him wisdom. Before thou comest from the mountain Gilgamesh in Uruk will see thy dream. Dreams play an important part in the epic.
At this point the tablet is defective, and when it again becomes intelligible we find Ishum describing an attack of Dibbarra upon another of the great centers of the Euphrates Valley the city of Uruk. Uruk is called the 'dwelling of Anu and Ishtar, the city of the Kizrêti, Ukhâti, and Kharimâti the sacred harlots. Ishtar was enraged and filled with anger because of Uruk.
The first tablet of the Gilgamesh epic contains such a reminiscence. The city is hard pressed by an enemy. The misfortune appears to be sent as a punishment for some offence. Everything is in a state of confusion. Asses and cows destroy their young. Men weep and women sigh. The gods and spirits of "walled Uruk" have become hostile forces. For three years the enemy lays siege to the place.
Again, the rulers of Uruk are known simply as kings of that place, while those of Isin incorporate in their titles, kingship over Ur as well as Sumer and Akkad. For this early period, extending from about 4000 B.C. to 2300, the chronology is as yet uncertain. Beyond the titles of the rulers over Babylonian states, there are but few safe indications for determining the succession of dynasties.
The conclusion is therefore justified that Uruk was one of the centers perhaps the center of the obscene rites to which Herodotus has several references. Several other incidental allusions in cuneiform literature to the sacred prostitution carried on at Babylonian temples confirm Herodotus' statement in general, although the rite never assumed the large proportions that he reports.
The representation of Gilgamesh on very ancient seal cylinders warrants us in passing beyond the third millennium, but more than this can hardly be said. Gilgamesh is a hero of irresistible power. So much at least is clear from the badly mutilated lines that Gilgamesh has played sad havoc with the inhabitants of Uruk.
Sin-gashid of the dynasty of Uruk makes mention of this deity at the beginning of one of his inscriptions. To him and to his consort, Nin-gul, a temple as 'the seat of their joy' at that place is devoted.
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