Page:An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic - Morris - 1920.djvu/87

 be noted that Enkidu is described as covered “all over his body with hair” (Assyrian version, Tablet I, 2, 36) like an animal. To convert him into a civilized man, the hair is removed.

Line 107. mutu does not mean “husband” here, as Langdon supposes, but must be taken as in l. 238 in the more general sense of “man,” for which there is good evidence.

Line 109. la-bi (plural form) are “lions”—not “panthers” as Langdon has it. The verb ú-gi-ir-ri is from gâru, “to attack.” Langdon by separating ú from gi-ir-ri gets a totally wrong and indeed absurd meaning. See the corrections in the Appendix. He takes the sign ú for the copula (!!) which of course is impossible.

Line 110. Read uš-sa-ak-pu, III, 1, of sakâpu, which is frequently used for “lying down” and is in fact a synonym of ṣalâlu. See Muss-Arnolt, Assyrian Dictionary, page 758a. The original has very clearly Síb (= rê’u, “shepherd”) with the plural sign. The “shepherds of the night,” who could now rest since Enkidu had killed the lions, are of course the shepherds who were accustomed to watch the flocks during the night.

Line 111. ut-tap-pi-iš is II, 2, napâšu, “to make a hole,” hence “to plunge” in connection with a weapon. Šib-ba-ri is, of course, not “mountain goats,” as Langdon renders, but a by-form to šibbiru, “stick,” and designates some special weapon. Since on seal cylinders depicting Enkidu killing lions and other animals the hero is armed with a dagger, this is presumably the weapon šibbaru.

Line 113. Langdon’s translation is again out of the question and purely fanciful. The traces favor the restoration na-ki-[di-e], “shepherds,” and since the line appears to be a parallel to line 110, I venture to suggest at the beginning [it-ti]-lu from na’âlu, “lie down”—a synonym, therefore, to sakâpu in line 110. The shepherds can sleep quietly after Enkidu has become the “guardian” of the flocks. In the Assyrian version (tablet II, 3a, 4) Enkidu is called a na-kid, “shepherd,” and in the preceding line we likewise have lùNa-Kid with the plural sign, i.e., “shepherds.” This would point to nakidu being a Sumerian loan-word, unless it is vice versa, a word that has gone over into the Sumerian from Akkadian. Is perhaps the fragment in question (K 8574) in the Assyrian version (Haupt’s ed. No. 25) the parallel to our passage? If in line 4 of this fragment we could read šú for sa, i.e., na-kid-šú-nu, “their shepherd," we would have a