Lugalbanda in the mountain cave:

translation
SEGMENT A: lines 1-499
1-19
When in ancient days heaven was separated from earth, when in ancient
days that which was fitting ......, when after the ancient harvests ...... barley
was eaten (?), when boundaries were laid out and borders were fixed, when
boundary-stones were placed and inscribed with names, when dykes and
canals were purified, when ...... wells were dug straight down; when the bed of
the Euphrates, the plenteous river of Unug, was opened up, when ......,
when ......, when holy An removed ......, when the offices of en and king were
famously exercised at Unug, when the sceptre and staff of Kulaba were held
high in battle -- in battle, Inana's game; when the black-headed were blessed
with long life, in their settled ways and in their ......, when they presented the
mountain goats with pounding hooves and the mountain stags beautiful with
their antlers to Enmerkar son of Utu --
20-34
 -- now at that time the king set his mace towards the city, Enmerkar the
son of Utu prepared an ...... expedition against Aratta, the mountain of the
holy divine powers. He was going to set off to destroy the rebel land; the lord
began a mobilization of his city. The herald made the horn signal sound in all
the lands. Now levied Unug took the field with the wise king, indeed
levied Kulaba followed Enmerkar. Unug's levy was a flood, Kulaba's levy was
a clouded sky. As they covered the ground like heavy fogs, the dense dust
whirled up by them reached up to heaven. As if to rooks on the best seed,
rising up, he called to the people. Each one gave his fellow the sign.
35-46
Their king went at their head, to go at the ...... of the army. Enmerkar went
at their head, to go at the ...... of the army.
2 lines unclear
...... gu-nida emmer-grain to grow abundantly. When the righteous one who
takes counsel with Enlil (i.e. Enmerkar) took away the whole of Kulaba, like
sheep they bent over at the slope of the mountains, ...... at the edge of the hills
they ran forward like wild bulls. He sought ...... at the side -- they recognised
the way. He sought .......
47-58
Five days passed. On they sixth day they bathed. ...... on the seventh day
they entered the mountains. When they had crossed over on the paths -- an
enormous flood billowing upstream into a lagoon ...... Their ruler
(i.e. Enmerkar), riding on a storm, Utu's son, the good bright metal, stepped
down from heaven to the great earth. His head shines with brilliance, the
barbed arrows flash past him like lightning; the ...... of the bronze pointed axe
of his emblem shines for him, it protrudes from the pointed axe for him
prominently, like a dog eating a corpse.
59-70
At that time there were seven, there were seven -- the young ones, born
in Kulaba, were seven. The goddess Urac had borne these seven, the Wild
Cow had nourished them with milk. They were heroes, living in Sumer, they
were princely in their prime. They had been brought up eating at the
god An's table. These seven were the overseers for those that are subordinate
to overseers, were the captains for those that are subordinate to captains, were
the generals for those that are subordinate to generals. They were overseers of
300 men, 300 men each; they were captains of 600 men, 600 men each; they
were generals of 7 car (25,200) of soldiers, 25,200 soldiers each. They stood
at the service of the lord as his élite troops.
71-86
Lugalbanda, the eighth of them, ...... was washed in water. In awed silence
he went forward, ...... he marched with the troops. When they had covered half
the way, covered half the way, a sickness befell him there, 'head sickness'
befell him. He jerked like a snake dragged by its head with a reed; his mouth
bit the dust, like a gazelle caught in a snare. No longer could his hands return
the hand grip, no longer could he lift his feet high. Neither king nor
contingents could help him. In the great mountains, crowded together like a
dustcloud over the ground, they said: "Let them bring him to Unug". But they
did not know how they could bring him. "Let them bring him to Kulaba." But
they did not know how they could bring him. As his teeth chattered (?) in the
cold places of the mountains, they brought him to a warm place there.
87-122
...... a storehouse, they made him an arbour like a bird's nest. ...... dates,
figs and various sorts of cheese; they put sweetmeats suitable for the sick to
eat, in baskets of dates, and they made him a home. They set out for him the
various fats of the cowpen, the sheepfold's fresh cheese, oil with cold eggs,
cold hard-boiled eggs, as if laying a table for the holy place, the valued place
(i.e. as if for a funerary offering). Directly in front of the table they arranged
for him beer for drinking, mixed with date syrup and rolls ...... with butter.
Provisions poured into leather buckets, provisions all put into leather bags --
his brothers and friends, like a boat unloading from the harvest-place, placed
stores by his head in the mountain cave. They ...... water in their leather
waterskins. Dark beer, alcoholic drink, light emmer beer, wine for drinking
which is pleasant to the taste, they distributed by his head in the mountain
cave as on a stand for waterskins. They prepared for him incense resin, ......
resin, aromatic resin, ligidba resin and first-class resin on pot-stands in the
deep hole; they suspended them by his head in the mountain cave. They
pushed into place at his head his axe whose metal was tin, imported from
the Zubi mountains. They wrapped up by his chest his dagger of iron imported
from the Gig (Black) mountains. His eyes -- irrigation ditches, because they
are flooding with water -- holy Lugalbanda kept open, directed towards this.
The outer door of his lips -- overflowing like holy Utu -- he did not open to
his brothers. When they lifted his neck, there was no breath there any longer.
His brothers, his friends took counsel with one another:
123-127
"If our brother rises like Utu from bed, then the god who has smitten him
will step aside and, when he eats this food, when he drinks (?) this, will make
his feet stable. May he bring him over the high places of the mountains to
brick-built Kulaba.
128-132
"But if Utu calls our brother to the holy place, the valued place (i.e. the
hereafter), the health of his limbs will leave (?) him. Then it will be up to us,
when we come back from Aratta, to bring our brother's body to brick-
built Kulaba."
133-140
Like the dispersed holy cows of Nanna, as with a breeding bull when, in
his old age, they have left him behind in the cattle pen, his brothers and
friends abandoned holy Lugalbanda in the mountain cave; and with repeated
tears and moaning, with tears, with lamentation, with grief and
weeping, Lugalbanda's older brothers set off into the mountains.
141-147
Then two days passed during which Lugalbanda was ill; to these two
days, half a day was added. As Utu turned his glance towards his home, as the
animals lifted their heads toward their lairs, at the day's end in the evening
cool, his body was as if anointed with oil. But he was not yet free of his
sickness.
148-150
When he lifted his eyes to heaven to Utu, he wept to him as if to his own
father. In the mountain cave he raised to him his fair hands:
151-170
"Utu, I greet you! Let me be ill no longer! Hero, Ningal's son, I greet
you! Let me be ill no longer! Utu, you have let me come up into the
mountains in the company of my brothers. In the mountain cave, the most
dreadful spot on earth, let me be ill no longer! Here where there is no mother,
there is no father, there is no acquaintance, no one whom I value, my mother
is not here to say "Alas, my child!" My brother is not here to say "Alas, my
brother!" My mother's neighbour who enters our house is not here to weep
over me. If the male and female protective deities were standing by, the deity
of neighbourliness would say, "A man should not perish". A lost dog is bad; a
lost man is terrible. On the unknown way at the edge of the mountains, Utu, is
a lost man, a man in an even more terrible situation. Don't make me flow
away like water in a violent death! Don't make me eat saltpetre as if it were
barley! Don't make me fall like a throwstick somewhere in the desert
unknown to me! Afflicted with a name which excites my brothers' scorn, let
me be ill no longer! Afflicted with the derision of my comrades, let me be ill
no longer! Let me not come to an end in the mountains like a weakling!"
171-172
Utu accepted his tears. He sent down his divine encouragement to him in
the mountain cave.
173-182
She who makes ...... for the poor, whose game (i.e. battle) is sweet, the
prostitute who goes out to the inn, who makes the bedchamber delightful, who
is food to the poor man -- Inana (i.e. the evening star), the daughter of Suen,
arose before him like a bull in the Land. Her brilliance, like that of holy Cara,
her stellar brightness illuminated for him the mountain cave. When he lifted
his eyes upwards to Inana, he wept as if before his own father. In the
mountain cave he raised to her his fair hands:
183-196
"Inana, if only this were my home, if only this were my city! If only this
were Kulaba, the city in which my mother bore me ......! Even if it were to me
as the waste land to a snake! If it were to me as a crack in the ground to a
scorpion! My mighty people ......! My great ladies ......! ...... to E-ana!"
2 lines unclear
"The little stones of it, the shining stones in their glory, sajkal stones
above, ...... below, from its crying out in the mountain land Zabu, from its
voice ...... open -- may my limbs not perish in the mountains of the
cypresses!"
197-200
Inana accepted his tears. With power of life she let him go to sleep just
like the sleeping Utu. Inana enveloped him with heart's joy as if with a
woollen garment. Then, just as if ......, she went to brick-built Kulaba.
201-214
The bull that eats up the black soup, the astral holy bull-calf (i.e. the
moon), came to watch over him. He shines (?) in the heavens like the morning
star, he spreads bright light in the night. Suen, who is greeted as the new
moon, father Nanna, gives the direction for the rising Utu. The glorious lord
whom the crown befits, Suen, the beloved son of Enlil, the god (1 ms. has
instead: the lord) reached the zenith splendidly. His brilliance like
holy Cara (1 ms. has instead: Utu) (1 ms. has instead: like lapis lazuli), his
starry radiance illuminated for him the mountain cave.
When Lugalbanda raised his eyes to heaven to Suen, he wept to him as if to
his own father. In the mountain cave he raised to him his fair hands:
215-225
"King whom one cannot reach in the distant sky! Suen, whom one cannot
reach in the distant sky! King who loves justice, who hates evil! Suen, who
loves justice, who hates evil! Justice brings joy justly to your heart. A poplar,
a great staff, forms a sceptre for you, you who loosen the bonds of justice,
who do not loosen the bonds of evil. If you encounter evil before you, it is
dragged away behind ....... When your heart becomes angry, you spit your
venom at evil like a snake which drools poison."
226-7
Suen accepted his tears and gave him life. He conferred on his feet the
power to stand.
228-239
A second time (i.e. at the following sunrise), as the bright bull rising up
from the horizon, the bull resting among the cypresses, a shield standing on
the ground, watched by the assembly, a shield coming out from the treasury,
watched by the young men -- the youth Utu extended his holy, shining rays
down from heaven (1 ms. from Ur adds: ...... holy, his brilliance illuminated
for him the mountain cave), he bestowed them on holy Lugalbanda in the
mountain cave. His good protective god hovered ahead of him, his good
protective goddess walked behind him. The god which had smitten
him stepped aside (1 ms. has instead: went out from him) (1 ms. has
instead: went up and away from him). When he raised his eyes heavenward
to Utu, he wept to him as to his own father. In the mountain cave he raised to
him his fair hands:
240-263
"Utu, shepherd of the land, father of the black-headed, when you go to
sleep, the people go to sleep with you; youth Utu, when you rise, the people
rise with you. Utu, without you no net is stretched out for a bird, no slave is
taken away captive. To him who walks alone, you are his brotherly
companion; Utu, you are the third of them who travel in pairs. You are the
blinkers for him who wears the neck-ring. Like a holy zulumhi garment, your
sunshine clothes the poor man and the scoundrel as well as him who has no
clothes; as a garment of white wool it covers the bodies even of debt slaves.
>Like rich old men, the old women praise your sunsine sweetly, until their
oldest days (alludes to a proverb) Your sunshine is as mighty as oil. Great
wild bulls run forward,
1 line unclear
"Hero, son of Ningal, ...... to you.
2 lines unclear
"Brother ...... his brother. He causes his plough to stand in the ....... Praise to
you is so very sweet, it reaches up to heaven. Hero, son of Ningal, they laud
you as you deserve."
264-275
Holy Lugalbanda came out from the mountain cave. Then the righteous
one who takes counsel with Enlil (i.e. Utu?) caused life-saving plants to be
born. The rolling rivers, mothers of the hills, brought life-saving water. He bit
on the life-saving plants, he sipped from the life-saving water. After biting on
the life-saving plants, after sipping from the life-saving water, here he on his
own set a trap (?) in the ground, and from that spot he sped away like a horse
of the mountains. Like a lone wild ass of Cakkan he darted over the
mountains. Like a large powerful donkey he raced; a slim donkey, eager to
run, he bounded along.
276-299
That night, in the evening, he set off, hurrying through the mountains, a
waste land in the moonlight. He was alone and, even to his sharp eyes, there
was not a single person to be seen. With the provisions stocked in leather
pails, provisions put in leather bags, his brothers and his friends had been able
to bake bread on the ground, with some cold water. Holy Lugalbanda had
carried the things from the mountain cave. He set them beside the embers. He
filled a bucket ...... with water. In front of him he split what he had placed. He
took hold of the ...... stones. Repeatedly he struck them together. He laid the
glowing (?) coals on the open ground. The fine flintstone caused a spark. Its
fire shone out for him over the waste land like the sun. Not knowing how to
bake bread or a cake, not knowing an oven, with just seven coals he
baked giziecta dough. While the bread was baking by itself, he pulled
up culhi reeds of the mountains, roots and all, and stripped their branches. He
packed up all the cakes as a day's ration. Not knowing how to bake bread or a
cake, not knowing an oven, with just seven coals he had baked giziecta dough.
He garnished it with sweet date syrup.
300-313
A brown wild bull, a fine-looking wild bull, a wild bull tossing its horns,
a wild bull in hunger (?), resting, seeking with its voice the brown wild bulls
of the hills, the pure place -- in this way it was chewing aromatic cimgig as if
it were barley, it was grinding up the wood of the cypress as if it were esparto
grass, it was sniffing with its nose at the foliage of the cenu shrub as if it were
grass. It was drinking the water of the rolling rivers, it was belching
from ilinnuc, the pure plant of the mountains. While the brown wild bulls, the
wild bulls of the mountains, were browsing about among the
plants, Lugalbanda captured this one in his ambush (?). He uprooted a juniper
tree of the mountains and stripped its branches. With a knife
holy Lugalbanda trimmed its roots, which were like the long rushes of the
field. He tethered the brown wild bull, the wild bull of the mountains, to it
with a halter.
314-325
A brown goat and a nanny-goat -- flea-bitten goats, lousy goats, goats
covered in sores -- in this way they were chewing aromatic cimgig as if it
were barley, they were grinding up the wood of the cypress as if it were
esparto grass, they were sniffing with their noses at the foliage of
the cenu shrub as if it were grass. They were drinking the water of the rolling
rivers, they were belching from ilinnuc, the pure plant of the mountains.
While the brown goats and the nanny-goats were browsing about among the
plants, Lugalbanda captured these two in his ambush (?). He uprooted a
juniper tree of the mountains and stripped its branches. With a knife
holy Lugalbanda cut off its roots, which were like the long rushes of the field.
With chains he fettered the brown goat and the nanny goat, both the goats. (1
ms. adds: ......, he piled up .......)
326-350
He was alone and, even to his sharp eyes, there was not a single person to
be seen. Sleep overcame the king (i.e. Lugalbanda) -- sleep, the country of
oppression; it is like a towering flood, like a hand demolishing a brick wall, a
hand raised high, a foot raised high; covering like syrup that which is in front
of it, overflowing like syrup onto that which is in front of it; it knows no
overseer, knows no captain, yet it is overpowering for the hero. And by means
of Ninkasi's wooden cask (i.e. with the help of beer), sleep finally
overcame Lugalbanda. He laid down ilinnuc, pure herb of the mountains, as a
couch, he spread out a zulumhi garment, he unfolded there a white linen sheet.
There being no ...... room for bathing, he made do with that place. The king
lay down not to sleep, he lay down to dream -- not turning back at the door of
the dream, not turning back at the door-pivot. To the liar it talks in lies, to the
truthful it speaks truth. It can make one man happy, it can make another man
sing, but it is the closed tablet-basket of the gods. It is the beautiful
bedchamber of Ninlil, it is the counsellor of Inana. The multiplier of mankind,
the voice of one not alive -- Zangara, the god of dreams, himself like a bull,
bellowed at Lugalbanda. Like the calf of a cow he lowed:
351-360
"Who will slaughter (?) a brown wild bull for me? Who will make its fat
melt for me? He shall take my axe whose metal is tin, he shall wield my
dagger which is of iron. Like an athlete I shall let him bring away the brown
wild bull, the wild bull of the mountains, I shall let him like a wrestler make it
submit. Its strength will leave it. When he offers it before the rising sun, let
him heap up like barleycorns the heads of the brown goat and the nanny goat,
both the goats; when he has poured out their blood in the pit -- let their smell
waft out in the desert so that the alert snakes of the mountains will sniff it."
361-370
Lugalbanda awoke -- it was a dream. He shivered -- it was sleep. He
rubbed his eyes, he was overawed. He took his axe whose metal was tin, he
wielded his dagger which was of iron. Like an athlete he brought away the
brown wild bull, the wild bull of the mountains, like a wrestler he made it
submit. Its strength left it. He offered it before the rising sun. He heaped up
like barleycorns the heads of the brown goat and the nanny goat, both of the
goats. He poured out their blood in the pit so that their smell wafted out in the
desert. The alert snakes of the mountains sniffed it.
371-393
As the sun was rising ......, Lugalbanda, invoking the name of Enlil,
made An, Enlil, Enki and Ninhursaja sit down to a banquet at the pit, at the
place in the mountains which he had prepared. The banquet was set, the
libations were poured -- dark beer, alcoholic drink, light emmer beer, wine for
drinking which is pleasant to the taste. Over the plain he poured cool water as
a libation. He put the knife to the flesh of the brown goats, and he roasted the
dark livers there. He let their smoke rise there, like incense put on the fire. As
if Dumuzid had brought in the good savours of the cattle pen,
so An, Enlil, Enki and Ninhursaja consumed the best part of the food prepared
by Lugalbanda. Like the shining place of pure strength, the holy altar of Suen,
....... On top of the altar of Utu and the altar of Suen ......, he decorated the two
altars with the lapis lazuli ...... of Inana. Suen ....... He bathed the a-an-kar.
When he had bathed the ......, he set out all the cakes properly.
394-432
Description of the demonsThey make ...... Enki, father of the gods; they
are ......, they ......; like a string of figs dripping with lusciousness, they hang
their arms. They are gazelles of Suen running in flight, they are the fine
smooth cloths of Ninlil, they are the helpers of Ickur; they pile up flax, they
pile up barley; they are wild animals on the rampage, they descend like a
storm on a rebel land hated by Suen, indeed they descend like a storm. They
lie up during all the long day, and during the short night they enter ...... houses
(?); during the long day, during the short night they lie in beds ......, they
give ....... At dead of night they sing out ......, in the breeze ...... swallows
of Utu; they enter into house after house, they peer into street after street, they
are talkers, they are repliers to talkers, seeking words with a mother, replying
to a great lady; they nestle at the bedside, they smite ......, when the black ......
are stolen, they leave ...... the doors and tables of humans, they change ......,
they tie the door-pivots together. The hero who ......, Utu who ......, the heroic
youth Utu of the good word
2 lines unclear
the incantation ...... of the youth Utu, which the Anuna, the great gods, do not
know, from that time ......,
3 lines unclear
433-461
The wise elders of the city ......
1 line unclear
the incantation ...... of the youth Utu, which the Anuna, the great gods, do not
know,
5 lines unclear
they are able to enter the presence of Utu, of Enlil, god of the ......, the bearded
son of Ningal ......; they give to Suen ......, they confirm with their power the
fate of the foreign lands. At dead of night they know the black wild boar, at
midday to Utu ...... he can ...... his incantation,
3 lines unclear
They enter before An, Enlil, ......, Inana, the gods; they know ......, they
watch ......, they ...... at the window; the door ......, the pot-stand ......;
4 lines unclear
they stand ......,
1 line unclear
462-484
they pursue ...... Inana ......, who are favoured by Inana's heart, who stand
in the battle, they are the fourteen torches of battle ......, at midnight they ......,
at dead of night they pursue like wildfire, in a band they flash together like
lightning, in the urgent storm of battle, which roars loudly like a great flood
rising up; they who are favoured in Inana's heart, who stand in the battle, they
are the seven torches of battle ......; they stand joyfully as she wears the crown
under a clear sky, with their foreheads and eyes they are a clear evening. Their
ears ...... a boat, with their mouths they are wild boars resting in a reed thicket;
they stand in the thick of battle, with their life-force they ......,
1 line unclear
who are favoured in Inana's heart, who stand in the battle, by Nintud of
heaven they are numerous, by the life of heaven they hold ......; the holy
shining battle-mace reaches to the edge of heaven and earth, ...... reaches.
1 line unclear
485-499
As Utu comes forth from his chamber, the holy battle-mace of An ......,
the just god who lies alongside a man; they are wicked gods with evil hearts,
they are ...... gods. It is they, like Nanna, like Utu, like Inana of the fifty divine
powers, ...... in heaven and earth ......; they are the interpreters of spoken evil,
the spies of righteousness,
2 lines unclear
...... a clear sky and numerous stars,
1 line unclear
...... fresh cedars in the mountains of the cypress, ...... a battle-net from the
horizon to the zenith,
unknown number of lines missing

SEGMENT B
(It is possible that this fragment does not belong to the same composition.)
1-7
7 lines unclear
unknown number of lines missing to end