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 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

LATUM SHIL GILGAMESH
EPIC OF GILGAMESH

Tablet 2:23
Tablet 2:48

2 They have let a legacy of grieving for next year.
3 The dream hast left a legacy of grief for next year.
4 I shall go and offer prayers to the great Anunnagi,
5 I shall search out your Anunnagi, look for you, her,
6 Enlil, the father of the Anunnagi.
7 To Enlil the counselor, father of the Anunnagi,
8 I shall make a statue of you with countless gold.
9 The words he spoke were not like him,
10 What he said did not go back, did not alter.
11 Enkidu raised his head, wept before Shamash,
12 His tears flowed before the rays of the sun.
13 I hereby beseech thou, Shamash, because my fate is different, because the hunter, the brigand,
14 Did not let me attain as much as my friend,
15 Let the hunter never attain as much as his friend make his advantage vanish, make his strength less.
16 When he had cursed the hunter as much as he wanted,
17 He decided, to curse the harlot too.
18 Come, Shamhat, I shall fix a fate for you,
19 Curses that shall not cease forever and ever.
20 I shall curse you with a great curse.
21 Straight away my curses shall rise up against you.
22 You shall never make your voluptuous gestures again,
23 You shall not release you of your young bulls,
24 You shall not let them into the girl’s rooms,
25 Filth shall impregnate your lovely lap.
26 The drunkard shall soak your party dress with vomit.
27 Your cosmetic paint shall be the potter’s lump of clay.
28 You shall never obtain the best cosmetic oil.
29 Bright silver, people’s affluence, shall not accumulate in your house.
30 The crossroads shall be your only sitting place,
31 Waste ground your only lying place, the shade of a city wall, your only sitting place.
32 Thorns and spikes shall skin your feet.
33 The drunkard and the thirsty shall slap your cheek,
34 The Earth shall shout out against you.
35 The builder shall never plaster the walls of your house.
36 Owls will nest in your roof, beams feasting shall never take place in your house,
37 Because pure is in my open country.
38 Shamash heard the utterance of his mouth.
39 Immediately a loud voice called down to him from the sky:
40 Enkidu, why are you cursing my harlot, Shamhat,
41 Who fed you on food fit for Anunnagi,
42 Gave you ale to drink, fit for kings, clothed you with a great robe,
43 Then provided you with Gilgamesh for a fine partner?
44 And now Gilgamesh, the friend who is a brother to you will lay you to rest on a great bed and lay you to rest on a bed of loving care,
45 And let you stay in a restful dwelling, the dwelling on the left.
46 Princes of the Earth will kiss your feet.
47 He will make the people of Uruk weep for thou, mourn for you,
48 And he himself will neglect his