THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH

THE FOREST JOURNEY

ENLIL of the mountain, the father of the gods, had decreed the destiny of Gilgamesh. So Gilgamesh dreamed and 

Enkidu said, 'The meaning of the dream is this. The father of the gods has given you kingship, such is your destiny, 

everlasting life is not your destiny. Because of this do not be sad at heart, do not be grieved or oppressed. He has given 

you power to bind and to loose, to be the darkness and the light of mankind. He has given you unexampled supremacy 

over the people, victory in battle from which no fugitive returns, in forays and assaults from which there is no going back. 

But do not abuse this power, deal justly with your servants in the palace, deal justly before Shamash.' 

The eyes of Enkidu were full of tears and his 

heart was sick. He sighed bitterly and Gilgamesh met 

his eye and said,' My friend, why do you sigh so 

bitterly? But Enkidu opened his mouth and said, 'I am 

weak, my arms have lost their strength, the cry of 

sorrow sticks in my throat, I am oppressed by idleness.' 

It was then that the lord Gilgamesh turned his thoughts 

to the Country of the Living; on the Land of Cedars the 

lord Gilgamesh reflected. He said to his servant 

Enkidu, 'I have not established my name stamped on 

bricks as my destiny decreed; therefore I will go to the 

country where the cedar is felled. I will set up my 

name in the place where the names of famous men are 

written, and where- no man's name is written yet I will 

wise a monument to the gods. Because o£ the evil that 

is in the land, we will go to the forest and destroy the 

evil; for in the forest lives Humbaba whose name is 

"Hugeness", , a ferocious giant. But Enkidu sighed 

bitterly and said, ‘When I went with the wild beasts 

ranging through the wilderness I discovered the forest; 

its length is ten thousand leagues in every direction. 

Enlil has appointed Humbaba to guard it and armed 

him iii sevenfold terrors, terrible to all flesh is 

Humbaba. When he roars it is like the torrent of the 

storm, his breath is like fire, and his jaws are death 

itself. He guards the cedars so well that when the wild 

heifer stirs in the forest, though she is sixty leagues 

distant, he hears her. What man would willingly walk