DOC 1 — The Epic of Gilgamesh: Enkidu's Dream

As Enkidu slept alone in his sickness, in bitterness of spirit he poured out his heart to his friend [Gilgamesh]. 'Listen, my friend, this is the dream I dreamed last night. The heavens roared, and earth rumbled back an answer; between them stood I before an awful being, the somber-faced man-bird; he had directed on me his purpose. His was vampire face, his foot was a lion's foot, his hand was an eagle's talon. He fell on me and his claws were in my hair, he held me fast and I smothered; then he transformed me so that my arms became wings covered with feathers. He turned his stare towards me, and he led me away to the palace of Irkalla, the Queen of Darkness, to the house from which none who enters ever returns, down the road from which there is no coming back. There is the house whose people sit in darkness dust is their food and clay their meat. They are clothed like birds with wings for covering, they see no light, they sit in darkness. I entered the house of dust and I saw the kings of the earth, their crowns put away forever; rulers and princes. all those who once wore kingly crowns and ruled the world in the days of old. They who had stood in the place of the gods like Anu and Enlil. stood now like servants to fetch baked meats in the house of dust, to carry cooked meat and cold water from the water-skin. In the house of dust which I entered were high priests and acolytes, priests of the incantation and of ecstasy; there were servers of the temple, and there was Etana, that king of Kish whom the eagle carried to heaven in the days of old. I saw also Samuqan, god of cattle, and there was Eresshkigal the Queen of the Underworld; and Belit-Sheri squatted in front of her, she who recorder of the gods and keeps the book of death. She held a tablet form which she read. She raised her head, she saw me and spoke: 'Who has brought this one here?' Then I awoke like a man drained of blood who wanders alone in a waste of rushes; like one whom the bailiff had seized and his heart pounds with terror. This day on which Enkidu dreamed came to an end and he lay stricken with sickness. Ten days he lay and his suffering increased, eleven twelve days he lay on his bed of pain. When Gilgamesh touched his heart it did not beat. So Gilgamesh laid a veil, as one veils the bride, over his friend. He began to rage like a lion, like a lioness robbed of her whelps. This way and that he paced round the bed, he tore out his hair and strewed it around. He dragged off his splendid robes and flung them down as though they were abominations. Seven days and seven nights he wept for Enkidu, until the worm fastened on him. Only then he gave him up to the earth, for the Anunnaki, the judges, had seized him.
 

From: WORLD CIVILIZATION 101 READER: IMAGES AND TEXTS OF THE PAST, compiled and edited by George Ouwendijk and Bill Rednour [http://www.humanities.ccny.cuny.edu/history/readercont.htm]
Source: The Epic of Gilgamesh trans., Nancy Sandars (New York: Penguin Books, 1960): 86-93.