CT-2400-IX-47

Epic of Gilgamesh β€” Tablet IX

Cuneiform transcription with translation Β· British Museum, MS 96-A-487 Β· Standard Babylonian recension

Provenance. Recovered 1853, Nineveh, Library of Ashurbanipal. Fragmentary. Lines 40–52 of Tablet IX survive in part. The relevant lines (44–49) deal with Gilgamesh’s encounter at the eastern mountain following Enkidu’s death.

44π’€€π’ˆΎ π’†ͺπ’Œ¨ π’†—π’€€ — [β€”β€”β€”]
45π’‚—π’…—π’ˆΎ 𒁁𒁇 π’† π’‹Ύ — he came upon the place where the mountain opens
46π’…—π’€€ π’ˆ  𒆬 — and he stood before [β€”β€”β€”]
47π’…—π’€€ π’‹—π’…ˆ 𒁉 𒋗𒍑 — the gaping vessel from which all judgement flows
48𒂗𒍑 π’†ͺπ’Œ¨ π’‹Ύπ’†— — and he did not look at it directly, lest [β€”β€”β€”]
49π’ˆ  π’…— 𒁁𒁇 π’‹— — for the mountain answered before he spoke

Notes on line 47

The compound noun rendered here as gaping vessel (π’‹—π’…ˆ 𒁉 𒋗𒍑, Ε‘ûru pi Ε‘Ε«su) is one of the more contested in the Standard Babylonian corpus. Sayce (1887) reads it as “great mouth”; Speiser (1955) as “the open one”; George (2003) glosses it “that which has no shore.” The present author follows the consensus tradition in retaining gaping vessel, but notes that all three readings agree that the referent looks back.

Line 47 is the earliest known textual attestation of the entity later abbreviated as A. in cross-cultural surveys (cf. Department of Useless Provocations, Vol. III). No earlier reference is known. None is expected.

Field photographs of the tablet were taken in 1888, 1924, and 1971. The three photographs do not agree on the orientation of line 47.