Thread by @protosemite, If you've ever wondered how the Epic of Gilgamesh was translated from [...]

If you've ever wondered how the Epic of Gilgamesh was translated from its original cuneiform, I have decided to write a thread showing you exactly how.

Together, we can translate from a tablet written just under 4,000 years ago.

Thread

the "Epic of Gilgamesh," is an epic poem likely dating back more than 4,000 years ago, to what Andrew George, one of the most prolific translators of the epic, calls the Sumerian "renaissance" (the 3rd Dynasty of Ur), and was written first in Sumerian and then Akkadian.

All surviving versions of the epic have suffered irreparable damage and force translators to piece together what they can. The version we will be translating together is from an Old Babylonian (~3,800 y ago) tablet found in the ancient city of Nippur by excavators from UPenn.

Before we begin, a couple things to note: cuneiform is a writing system composesd of "signs" representing both syllables and words, and each sign can often have many different, often confusing, possible readings.

I have traced these signs and assigned them colors, B=blue, etc

I have taken the liberty of marking off precisely where on this tablet we will be reading, and then given you George's hand drawn copy of the same tablet (the drawn copy allows us to be more precise and efficient with our translations!)

Let's not waste any time!

P - the first sign here is almost always read as the syllable "ḫa," however the second sign is almost completely destroyed, and so is the rest of the word.

We will move on for now, and see if we can reconstruct this word later;

B - we are left with only one sign, "ša," with the rest of the word also rendered illegible from damage.

G - the first sign is read as "i," the second as either pu/bu, the third as ša again, and then am, and ma

giving us: i-p/bu-ša-am-ma

That means this entire line can be split apart as:

ḫa-[.......] [.....]-ša i-p/bu-ša-am-ma

Now, once you have these signs, one has to use their knowledge of Akkadian grammar and vocabulary to normalize what these words might look like and mean.

Akkadian, being a Semitic language, has the majority of its vocabulary based around what are called "roots" or groups of 3 consonants that we can use to identify the meanings of words.

I recognize the word i-pu-ša-am-ma as the verb epēšum "to do" in a 3rd person past form from the root is '-P-Š.

So, i-pu-š[...] becomes īpuš

the suffix "am" represents a sense of "here", and the ending -ma meaning "and"

so īpušam-ma = "He/she did (here), and"

Using context from other lines, we might reconstruct the lost signs as ḫa-ri-im-tum pi-i-ša or:

ḫarīmtum "prostitute"

pīša "her mouth"

ḫarīmtum pīša īpušam-ma

"the prostitute opened her mouth, and..."

Next line

P - the first sign can be commonly read as 3 different syllables, "iš/iṣ/iz", ... great. Since the next sign reads only "ṣa" or "za" we can guess that our options are iṣ-ṣa or iz-za

Next lineP - the first sign can be commonly read as 3 different syllables, "iš/iṣ/iz", ... great. Since the next sign reads only "ṣa" or "za" we can guess that our options are iṣ-ṣa or iz-za

The rest of the word is damaged and cannot be read, however informed by the fact that the "prostitute" of the first line is opening her mouth, I am reminded of a verb zakārum "to declare; tell"

B - two signs, a-na, very common preposition meaning "to, for"

G - the name Enkidu

reconstructed, again, we might have:

iz-za-kar-am a-na Enkidu

or izzakaram ana Enkidu

"she declared to Enkidu" meaning that so far we have:

ḫarīmtum pīša īpušam-ma
izzakaram ana Enkidu

"The prostitute opened her mouth, and
she declared to Enkidu"

Onto the next line!

P - the first two signs can be read as "a" and "na," but the next sign can be read as many different sounds: re/ri/dal/tal/ṭal. More troubles :/

Thankfully, just before the damage, we can see the head of a "ka" sign as the last sign of the word.

There's a verb, with the root n-ṭ-l meaning "see; gaze upon" that could work here as anaṭṭalka or "[I am] gazing upon you"

B - It's somewhat cut off, but it's Enkidu's name again!

G - ki-ma, or kīma meaning "like"

Y - a sign meaning one word, "ilim," or god

O - this sequence I have taken the liberty to puzzle out completely as ta-ba-aš-ši or "you are"

Knowing this information, can you guess what the translation might be?

anaṭṭalka Enkidu kīma ilim tabašši

"Gazing upon you, Enkidu, you are like a god!"

Next to last line!

P - am-mi-nim or, a common word, ammīnim "why"

B - there is slight damage, but the first sign can be made out as ed/et/eṭ/id/it/iṭ, and the second sign as "ti"

G - na-ma-aš-te-e

There is a word, "itti" meaning with, that solves our problem of the Blue signs, so:

ammīnim itti namaštê

"why, with beasts..." Let's read the last line to figure out what's going on.

P - the first 3 signs can easily be read as ta-at-ta. Then we run into big trouble.

A giant crack has cut away one sign entirely. We are left with ta-at-ta-?-

and then at-ak

This is where we have to be creative!

I am seeing a lot of "t" cosonants, meaning that the conjugation of this verb must add more t consonants than usual. One possible solution is that this verb is conjugated in the "Gtn" stem, which adds a "-tan" inside a verb root, meaning the missing sign could be a "na"!!

More problems, though. If we reconstruct ta-at-ta-na-at-ak there is no verb root that makes sense here. It's possible that the "at" sign is a mistake on the part of the scribe, and should be "al" instead, giving us ta-at-ta-na-al-ak or

tattanallak "you are wandering around"

B - we can read this safely as ṣe-ra-am or ṣēram, "wild; backcountry"

The last line becomes, then:

tattanallak ṣēram "you are wandering around the wild"

Now let's put it all together:

ḫarīmtum pīša īpušam-ma
izzakaram ana Enkidu
anaṭṭalka Enkidu kīma ilim tabašši
ammīnim itti namaštê
tattanallak ṣēram

the prostitute opened her mouth, and
declared to Enkidu:
'Gazing upon you, Enkidu, you are like a god,
Why, with beasts,
Are you wandering around the wild

Here, the 'prostitute' is Šamhat, the women who tames Enkidu from his beastly behavior, and questions him about his wild lifestyle.

And there, you worked through and saw how to translate 5 lines of the Epic of Gilgameš! Ancient lyrics spoken again :)

Happy to send citations for anyone curious, but the tablet copy is from George (2003) "The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic"

also all Akkadian grammar / normalizations here are my own so if there are mistakes please feel free to correct me :)

If you want more cuneiform threads, I did another on Hammurabi’s code! https://twitter.com/protosemite/status/1284235477818707968?s=21 https://twitter.com/protosemite/status/1284235477818707968

https://twitter.com/protosemite/status/1284235477818707968?s=21

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