mostly-history:Maskof the demon Humbaba (Sippar, 1800 – 1600 BC).Thedemon Humbaba was a monster whom

mostly-history:Maskof the demon Humbaba (Sippar, 1800 – 1600 BC).Thedemon Humbaba was a monster whom Gilgamesh and his friend Enkiduslaughtered in the Epic of Gilgamesh.  This mask would have been usedfor the interpretation of omens, as the convolutions of its featuresrepresent a sheep’s intestines, which would be examined fordivination.  On the back of the mask are five lines of cuneiforminscription. In 1849 BC, the archaeologist Austen Henry Layard found the Akkadian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh as Nineveh.  This expedition was part of a mid-1800s initiative of Western governments and institutions to find physical evidence to back up the Bible.  Instead, they found that the stories in the Bible acturally drew upon much older Sumerian myths.The Epic of Gilgamesh is actually a compilation of stories, probably passed down orally, that were finally written down about 700 – 1000 years after Gilgamesh had reign as king.  The Babylonian (Akkadian-language) version found by Layard was written by Sîn-lēqi-unninni (wrote c. 1300 – 1000 BC), who was thought to be the world’s first author known by name until the discovery of Enheduanna’s hymns.  Sîn-lēqi-unninni drew upon Sumerian sources to create his story.  He probably had quite a few to work from, as Gilgamesh had been a popular hero for centuries by that time.In the Epic, the gods believe that Gilgamesh is too proud and arrogant, and they decide to teach him a lesson.  They send the wild man Enkidu to humble him.  But Gilgamesh defeats Enkidu in a fierce battle, and Enkidu accepts his defeat.  They become friends and go on grand adventures together.In one of these adventures, they kill Humbaba, the demon of the Cedar Forest.  Unfortunately, this attracts the attention of the goddess Ishtar, and she tries to seduce Gilgamesh.  He rejects her, listing all her former lovers who ended their lives poorly, and Ishtar is furious.She sends her brother-in-law, the Bull of Heaven, down to earth to kill Gilgamesh.  Enkidu saves his friend by killing the bull – but this offends the gods, and so he is condemned to death.Gilgamesh now falls into a deep grief.  He is forced to recognize his own mortality, and he questions the meaning of life and the worth of human accomplishment when you’re just going to die in the end:“How can I rest, how can I be at peace?  Despair is in my heart.  What my brother is now, that shall I be when I am dead.  Because I am afraid of death I will go as best I can to find Utnapishtim whom they call the Faraway, for he has entered the assembly of the gods.”So Gilgamesh sets out to find the meaning of life, and some way of defeating death.  He travels over mountains and vast oceans, and finally manages to find Utnapishtim, who offers him two chances at immortality.  The first is to remain awake for six days and six nights, which Gilgamesh fails at.  The second is to protect a magic plant, but a snake eats the plant while Gilgamesh is asleep.Having failed to win immortality, Gilgamesh is rowed back home by the ferryman Urshanabi.  Upon his return, he writes down his story.  And though he failed to gain immortality in life, Gilgamesh’s deeds live on in the written word, and so to does he. -- source link

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