Babylonian Gilgamesh’s Herbs and Oracle of the Dead

Guest article by Edmond Furter

Author of Mindprint (2014, Lulu.com); Stoneprint (2016, Four Equators Media); and editor of Stoneprint Journal (Lulu.com). Visit www.edmondfurter.wordpress.com / www.stoneprintjournal.blog / www.mindprintart.wordpress.com

The oldest known story in the world, the Gilgamesh epic of Sumeria, is of a king weary of war and the spoils of domestic exploitation, on a quest to seek an ancestor who survived the Flood, and his inner Self. Sumerian cuneiform tablets reveal the source of the Biblical Flood account, not surprising since the Old Testament books were first collated by Hebrews in exile in Babylon.

Euphrates tablets also reveal recurrent motifs identified in legends by the Aarne -Thompson -Uther (ATU) catalogue (after Uther 2011), and identified in art and myth by archetypal numbers and labels (see ‘Ayahuasca artists also express universal meaning’ on DMT Times, or see the full list of known recurrent features on www.stoneprintjournal.wordpress.com). Gilgamesh breaks the taboo against looking back (ATU C961.1; type 2 Builder or Ruiner, twisted posture), and visits a swamp in northern hills or Aratta, Land of the Dead, to talk to the Ultra Wise, Utnapishtim.

Sumerian, Babylonian and Biblical versions are sustained more by archetype than imitation. King Gilgamesh, nicknamed Heart (type 13 Heart) of the People (type 5 Priest, assembly), was also a popular anthropologist, digging up tablets to read of pre-flood civilisation.

Gilgamesh lives beyond his city’s means when his uncle dies (godfather’s death, ATU 332, KHM 44; type 12 Heart, death). His reminder of death, or memento mori (ATU 2021 -2024; type 13c Basket Head or oracle) sparks an early midlife crisis. Consoled by a new friend, bull-man Enkidu (type 1v8 Builder or Ruiner, bovid opposite 8 Healer, strong, trance), he takes a grand tour or quest; tames animals (ATU 1115 -1144; type 15 Maker, re-creation, churn); finds a herb of immortality in a pool (AT 2044; 5c v13c). A snake steals the herb (ATU 554, KHM 17; 9c Basket Lid, snake).

The questers are consoled by beer (type 14 Mixer, transform, brew). Through a reed wall oracle (AT 480; 2c v9c Basket of Mysteries or cista mystica, weave; opposite 9c Basket Lid, revelation), Gilgamesh hears of judgement (types 5a Priest, judgement, opposite 12, invert), catastrophe (AT 20 C, A1000 -A1099; type 1 Builder or Ruin, lightning), and survival or resurrection (types 5b Priest, ritual, resurrection, opposite 13 Heart, ancestor). Similar features play identical structuralist roles in trance and ayahuasca visions (see ‘Ayahuasca oracle of the dead challenges social and personal cohesion’ in another post on this site).

Akkadian cylinder seal rollout of Enkidu as bull-man (left type 15) and Gilgamesh as ram-man (left and right type 3), visits ancestor Utnapishtim or Noah (right type 6, holding a type 5c herb or drug) at his reed boat (imprint copy after Bibliotecapleyades. Archetype labels and axial grids by E Furter).

Even among these miniature artworks, some are complex enough to express double imprints, ‘geared’ to one another by sharing some characters. Nearly all the eyes express types on axes, as usual. Among the polar markers (limb-joints in certain sectors) are left lion B’s lower forepaw (limb-joint) as midsummer and scorpion sting (limb-joint) as midwinter; right Gilgamesh’s foot (limb-joint) as midsummer, and his elbow (limb-joint) as midwinter. These markers place left and right midsummer markers between types 12-14 or Leo-Cancer, thus spring and the time-frame in Age Taurus-Aries, about BC1400. Polar markers are always approximate, and usually indicate the era before the work.

Many iconic tableaus on Sumerian, Babylonian, Indus and Harappan cylinder seals illustrate Gilgamesh episodes (see Enkido as animal tamer also in the Indus valley cylinder seal below); and identify the seal’s owner; and subconsciously express the universal five layers of archetypal features. A theory that the seals also use mythical characters to identify and quantify trade cargo, particularly metals, and thus function as accounting and audit labels, is discussed in Stoneprint Journal 5 (Lulu.com).

The entire structure of standard optional typology features, sequence, eyes on axial grids, and polar markers, is subconscious, and appears in all complex artworks, building sites and sets (gods, alphabets, divination icons, calendars and myths) of all cultures and eras.

Gilgamesh, Ishtar and ophiotaurus bull forelegs on an Indus seal

An Indus-Sumerian cylinder seal showing Nanipada, the Indian Ishtar, archaeologically dated BC 2000s, also shows a mixture of design and styling that probably arose from trade contact. But the archetypal features in the design and in the relevant myth are eternal and universal, sustained more by subconscious inspiration than by diffusion or adoption. Ophiotaurus, or snake-bull, is well known in Greek myth, but here it appears twice in Indus culture in Pakistan. Snake-bull, horned snake or bull foreleg is well known in Egyptian art and myth, and resembles water monsters in north American rock art (see notes on dolphin-bulls in Greek myth, in Furter 2019, Blueprint paper, on www.stoneprintjournal.blog in the Delphi temple precinct built site analysis example).

General themes in this Indus-Sumerian seal include types 5a Priest, typical of hyper-active, water, or inversion; and 8 Healer, of pillars (here walls and trees), healer, strength, or ritual; and polar precession (see note under type 6 below). The five structuralist layers of expression are subconscious to artists, architects, builders and members of all cultures. In this example, characters are labelled by archetypal numbers and constellations, analogous to the cycle of hour decans using a starting point that moves every ten days throughout the year. Constellation names come from myth, but the features of both are sustained by archetypal inspiration and subconscious behaviour, sometimes assisted but also often scrambled by changing conventions. Archetypes, and the core content of culture, are not sustained by any convention, code or conspiracy.

Archetype often rectifies conventions, iconic programmes or codes that scramble its rules. Thus the archetypal structuralist model of culture as an extension of nature, challenges the common assumption that culture and its media, such as art, comes from arbitrary invention, religion, myth, or stars. Recurrent features of visionary experience, prompted by inspiration, ritual, meditation, exertion, drugs such as ergot, LSD, mushrooms, mescaline, psilocybin, ayahuasca or DMT, demonstrate that there is only one archetype, nature, human nature and culture, differing only in styling, and camouflaged by common assumptions about culture.

Indus-Sumerian cylinder seal rollout of Nanipada or Ishtar as type 5a, here labelled 5:20Aq (Louvre. After Decodinghinduism. Archetype numbers with cosmology labels, and axial grid by E Furter).

Type; Indus character (archetypal features):

1 Builder; Rhinoceros (bovid) as bull of heaven, called to destroy (ruin) Uruk. And raptor (bird).

2 Builder; Bull A (bovid) of underworld, called to eat (ruin) cities, at a trough (pit).

2c Basket; Trough or pit (secret, container). The four transitional c-types are usually not on the axial grid, but between specific axes.

3 Queen; Fish A (decan Cetus, whale) of the Flood, rising (spring).

4 King; Fish B (fish, as in decan Pisces), of the Flood, rising (sun), with another (twins), at city wall (wall. See Tarot trump 19, Sun over a walled garden. Type 19 is a magnitude of type 4, in base-16 with two types 5. Archetype rigorously follows several quirks that seem alien to conscious logic).

4p Gal.S.Pole; Ishtar’s elbow (limb-joint).

5a Priest; Nandipada or Ishtar with curly peacock wings (vari-coloured), horns and tree branches, as goddess of fertility, love, war and sky (hyper-active). She jumps on the wall (4p) of Uruk, holding two snake tails (tailcoat head) of two ophiotauri (6 and 10-11). In myth she is struck by a type 12 Ursa bull leg that 8 Enkidu rips off (here from 9, more usually form 1 or 2 opposite) and throws into the sky. The design pictures these icons by the logic of some of their variant features, not by conscious narrative logic.

5c Tail; Tail of 6, Ophiotaurus, Snake-bull (horned).

6 Exile; Ophiotaurus, Snake-Bull (horned), foreleg (sacrifice, small), here as a lizard (reptile) with long tail (amphibian), over a tree (tree) that mythic Enkidu throws at Ishtar on the wall (as type 14, decan Ursa Minor). The link between a bull foreleg and Ursa Minor is well known in Egypt (Neugebauer and Parker 1969. Bauval 2006). Here the two ophiotauri express types 6 and 10-11; both hover over cosmic trees (10 rests on a staff as well), and over fish.

7 Child; Tiger of Nanipada, tamed by Enkidu.

7g Gal.Centre: Twig of land after the annual flood (water, juncture).

8 Healer; Gilgamesh or Enkidu, wild man and animal tamer (strong) as Ea-Enki (healer), sacrifices bull of Ishtar and tiger of Nanipada to the Sun (autumn in Age Taurus). Gilgamesh and Enkido both tame animals in Mid-eastern art.

9 Healer; Bull of heaven (strong), tamed upright (bent ‘forward’).

10 Teacher; Dragon (snake of 9c, decan Serpens. See horse offering of Sagara) on a post (staff, or pillar of 9. See Ashoka’s mundra).

11 Womb; Dragon’s midriff (womb, water).

11p Gal.Pole: Enki’s elbow (limb-joint).

12 Heart; Bull of heaven’s chest (heart), killed (death), foreleg torn off (decan Ursa, polar).

13c Basket Head; Tree (of 14).

14 Mixer; Fish B, rising (early summer sun in Age Taurus. Decan Hydra head, catfish in Egypt).

15 Maker; Bull B (doubled) at crib (pool). And another bull behind it, OFF THE GRID.

15g Gal.Gate; Bull C’s hoofs (path).

The axial centre is unmarked as usual. The summer marker or celestial pole (here labelled pc) is uncertain. The winter marker is on Enki’s rear hand and the tiger’s elbow (limb-joints), between axes 5-6 or Aquarius-Capricornus, placing summer in Leo-Cancer, thus spring and the cultural time-frame in Age Taurus-Aries. The horizontal plane indicates summer in Leo, thus Age Taurus. The link between a torn-off and backward thrown bull foreleg and Ursa Minor is well known and studied in Egypt (Neugebauer and Parker 1969. Bauval 2006). The most remarkable element in this Indus seal is types 6 and 10-11 as two ophiotauri, snake-bulls or bull forelegs, here as lizards that Enkidu tore off.

The design pictures icons by the logic of some of their variant features, and by some seasonal and calendric logic, not by consciously consistent narrative logic, although some cartoon-style sequencing is used in cylinder seal design. The scene includes cosmic, afterlife and oracular elements, as in the Gilgamesh epic, particularly in the upper register as the Land of the Dead where Enkidu goes to perform some questing tasks on behalf of Gilgamesh. Many of these features are also recognised in trance, psilocybin, mescaline, ayahuasca, DMT and other visionary art and hyperspace experience.

See more Babylonian, Indus and Greek cylinder seals, jewels and miniature artworks, in Stoneprint Journal 5; Culture code in seals and ring stamps, on Lulu.com.

EDMOND FURTER, AUTHOR OF MINDPRINT (2014, LULU.COM); STONEPRINT (2016, FOUR EQUATORS MEDIA); AND EDITOR OF STONEPRINT JOURNAL (LULU.COM). VISIT WWW.EDMONDFURTER.WORDPRESS.COM AND WWW.STONEPRINTJOURNAL.BLOG