61 The Epic of Gilgamesh,
N. K. Sandars, trans. (N.Y., 1972) p. 33, hereafter Gilgamesh;
For a more recent, literal translation see Dalley, Myths,
pp. 50-153.
62 Gilgamesh, p. 71. For Armenian parallels to Humbaba see note 49 above. On the translation of erenu as "pine" rather than "cedar" see Dalley, Myths,
p. 126 n. 20.
63 Gilgamesh, p.
77.
64 Gilgamesh, pp.
77-79.
65 Gilgamesh, pp.
83-84. The cut timber was sent down river to Mesopotamia by raft,
Dalley, Myths, pp. 76-77, 84-85.
66 Gilgamesh, p.
83.
67 Gilgamesh, pp.
79-80.
68 Gilgamesh, p.
87. Ishtar tries to bribe Gilgamesh with a chariot of lapis lazuli
and gold, driven by dragons, Dalley, Myths, p. 77. For
other references to horse and chariot in this myth see ibid.
pp. 78, 79, p. 129 n. 52. For references to metals and metallurgists,
ibid. pp. 82, 93, 144.
69 Gilgamesh, p.
98.
70 Gilgamesh, p.
100.
71 Gilgamesh, p.
108.
72 Gilgamesh, p.
113.
73 Vahan Inglizian, Hayastan
surb grk'i mej[Armenia in the Bible] (Vienna, 1947;
Armenian trans. of his German doctoral dissertation) pp. 106-121;
Dalley, Myths, pp. 1-8, 39-49.
74 Inglizian, pp. 122-24.
The magical tunnel is identified with a rock tunnel two miles
long which extends from Bylkalein to the main source of the Tigris
river. C. F. Lehmann-Haupt, Armenien Einst und Jetzt I (Berlin, 1910), Chapter 14, "Der Tigris
Tunnel".
75 Inglizian, pp. 132-33.
76 Inglizian, p. 117.
77 T. Howard-Carter, "The
Tangible Evidence for the Earliest Dilmun", Journal
of Cuneiform Studies vol. 33/3-4 (1981) pp. 210-223. Kramer,
Sumerians p. 281, who placed Dilmun in India observed that
Dilmun's description as "the place where the sun rises"
hardly fits Bahrain, which is south of Sumer. The passages of
the Gilgamesh cited above also have certain connections to the
Odyssey. Somewhere en route to Utnapishtim, Gilgamesh
meets a Circe-like woman called Siduri ("barmaid") who
urges Gilgamesh to turn back and to reconcile himself with his
lot of mortality by drinking wine and enjoying life. Unable to
dissuade him, this woman, like Circe, gives the hero instructions
on traveling to the other world.
79 Enmerkar, lines
25-87, pp. 113-16; lines 124-27, p. 118; lines 196-205, pp. 121-22;
lines 281-93, p.126. The metals included gold, silver, copper,
tin (lines 18, 196-99); timber included boxwood (lines 131, 203),
cedar/cypress (line 401), pine (line 403) and poplar "the
wood for chariots" (line 404), Cohen, pp. 131-32.
80 Enmerkar, lines
323-499, pp. 118-36; lines 500-505, pp. 136-37: "The emissary,
his mouth (being) heavy, was not able to repeat (it). The lord
of Kulaba patted clay and wrote the message like (on a present-
day) tablet. Formerly, the writing of messages on clay was not
established. Now, with [the sun god] Utu's bringing forth the
day, verily, this was so". This myth also refers to the confusion
of tongues, lines 150-55, p. 119.
81 S. N. Kramer, Sumerians,
pp. 272-73.
82 Ibid. pp. 273-74.
83 Cohen, pp. 23-24. The
timber cut by Gilgamesh and Enkidu was also transported south
by boat, see note 65 above.
84 Kramer, Sumerians,
pp. 275-76 places Mount Hurum "in the neighborhood of Lake
Van".
86 I. M. Diakonoff, "Evidence
on the Ethnic Division of the Hurrians", in Studies on
the Civilization and Culture of Nuzi and the Hurrians, M.
A. Morrison, ed. (Winona Lake, Indiana, 1981), p. 82.
87 One myth, known as
the "Song of the Kingship in Heaven", describes three
aeons of succession before the triumph of Tessub, the weather
god. First Alalu was king in heaven, served by Anu. Anu overthrew
Alalu and was served by Kumarbi. Then Kumarbi overthrows Anu and
castrates him: "(Kumarbi) bit his (Anu's) loins, and his
'manhood' united with Kumarbi's insides like bronze (results from
the union of copper and tin). When Kumarbi had swallowed the 'manhood'
of Anu, he rejoiced and laughed out loud. Anu turned around and
spoke to Kumarbi: 'Are you rejoicing within yourself because you
have swallowed my manhood? Stop rejoicing within yourself! I have
placed inside you a burden. First, I have impregnated you with
the noble Storm God (=Tessub). Second, I have impregnated you
with the irresistible Tigris River. Third, I have impregnated
you with the the noble Tasmisu", H. A. Hoffner, Jr., Hittite
Myths (Atlanta, 1990), pp. 40-41. G. Wilhelm, The Hurrians
(Wiltshire, England, 1989) pp. 59-60 writes: "There is no
doubt about the parallels between the Hurrian myth of succession
and the Theogony of Hesiod, the Greek poet living in Boeotia
in about 700 B.C.. Just as in the Hurrian myth Anu, the god of
heaven, is castrated by his son Kumarbi, to be deposed in his
turn by the weather god Teshup, so Kronos becomes ruler of the
gods after the castration of his father, Uranus, god of heaven,
only to be usurped by Zeus, the thunder god".
88 Hoffner, pp. 48-52,
the "Song of Hedammu".
89 Ibid., pp. 53-54.
90 Ibid., p. 55.
On the location of Mount Hazzi, Wilhelm writes: "...because
of the reference to Mount Hazzi, we must imagine Ullikummi growing
out of the Gulf of Iskenderun", p. 61 and "In Ugarit,
Mount Sapan (ancient name: mons Casius, now Jabal al-Aqra, on
the mouth of the Orontes) was thought to be the abode of Ba'al.
In the Hittite-Hurrian world it was deified under the name of
Hazzi and became one of Tessub's satellites, along with the still
unidentified Mount Namni", p. 50. But see Diakonoff "Evidence",
p. 81 n. 17: "Ha-zi, Ha-az-ai is the Hurrian name of Mount
Sapanu which means 'North'; presumably that is also the meaning
of the Hurrian word". If Diakonoff's presumption is correct,
then the mountain of Hazzi may have been located north of Lake
Van, perhaps Suphan whose legends and even name may have migrated
to the southwest. It is noteworthy that early Greek mythographers
placed the destruction of Typhoeus (whom some equate with Ullikummi,
W. Burkert, "Oriental and Greek Mythology", pp. 16,
20) in the "land of the Arimi".
91 Hoffner, pp. 56-57.
92 Ibid., p. 59;
For parallels to the Greek myths of Typhoes, see W. Burkert, "Oriental
and Greek Mythology", pp. 19-24; for Caucasian parallels,
see the same author's "Von Ullikummi zum Kaukasus: Die Felsgeburt
des Unholds", Wurzburger Jahrbucher N. F., 5(1979)
pp. 253-61.
93 Hoffner, p. 62.