IH 0851 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Utnapishtim, Enkidu

• School: Temple University
• Department: Intellectual Heritage
• Course: IH 0851
• Professor: Ariane Fischer

Document Summary

Dg 2 gilgamesh: for twelve double-hours its interior [extends,] the darkness is dense, and [light is] there none. For the rising of the sun , for the setting of the sun (73) In the above passage the monsters describe the path that gilgamesh wishes to go through to seek utnapishtim on the other side of the mountain. To get there, he has to use a tunnel that runs through the mountain which would take him twelve double hours to walk through the way, and the way is completely dark. No mortal could survive such darkness, and the monsters cannot permit him to try. The text repeatedly mentions how gilgamesh is alone at this point in the story. With nothing else visible around him, he is truly all by himself on this journey. He is totally lost, without obvious direction because it is too dark.