Tablet XII

In this chapter, Gilgamesh drops his drumstick in the Nether World, and asks for someone to bring it back (a more simple solution would have been to buy another one, but whatever he wants). Enkidu hears his cry and says he'll do it, and Gilgamesh warns him that when he goes he should wear old clothes or people will know he's a stranger, he should not perfume himself or people will swarm around him, he should not carry a staff or a bow or the spirits would be startled, he should not wear shoes or else his footsteps will echo, and he should not kiss the wife and son dearest to him, nor should he strike the wife or son he hates (nice!), or he will be seized and held by the cry of the dead.

Enkidu doesn't listen, and all the things listed above happen to him, much to Gilgamesh's grief (which I don't understand since Enkidu was dead already), and he asks help from all the gods. Only one listens to him, however, and that one manages to open up the bottom of the Netherworld so that Enkidu comes up as a vapor.

The two brothers try to hug each other, but that doesn't work out so well and so they sit here and talk about the Netherworld. Enkidu doesn't want to tell Gilgamesh about it, but through hard work and a lot of persuasion the king convinces him to do so.

Enkidu says that vermin eat his body (a lovely mental image), the more sons a person has the better that person is treated, the people whose mortal body is unburied wander around eternally, and those who leave the earth with no one to mourn for them eat the kind of a garbage a dog wouldn't eat (obviously whoever wrote this tale hadn't met my dog).

La Fin