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Court ceremonial and marriage in the Sumerian epic ‘Gilgamesh and Huwawa’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Bendt Alster
Bendt Alster
Affiliation:
Carsten Niebuhr Institute, Copenhagen
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Extract

Four versions of an episode in the Sumerian composition ‘Gilgamesh and Huwawa’ are discussed here. The encounter of Gilgamesh and Huwawa is interpreted in terms of Gilgamesh playing the role of a visitor received in audience at a foreign court. His gifts aim at inviting Huwawa to reciprocate, and thereby give up his protection. Gilgamesh especially exploits Huwawa's social isolation and lack of noble ancestry by offering him his two sisters, one in marriage and one as a concubine. he version in which the two sisters are the only offer makes most coherent sense. In another version the inner logic was distorted when the list was expanded to at least six offers.

TIM IX 47 (IM 62827) was first published by J. van Dijk, in Šumer, 15,1959, PI. 2, and edited in the same volume, pp. 8–10.1 had a chance to collate the text in the spring of 1990 when I visited the Iraq Museum, Baghdad.1 Since this led to some improved readings, which may clarify a difficult episode in the Sumerian composition ‘Gilgamesh and Huwawa’, a complete edition of the tablet is presented here.2 With a few exceptions my readings are in agreement with van Dijk's copy.

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , February 1992 , pp. 1 - 8
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1992

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References

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