[3] Tammuz is probably a real personage, although _Dumu-zi_, his
original name, is
certainly
later than the title _Ab-u_, probably the
oldest epithet of this deity, see _Tammuz and Ishtar_, p.
Epic of Gilgamesh
Three columns. Lower edge slightly
broken. Knobs at left upper and left lower corners to facilitate the
holding of the tablet. H. 7 inches: W. 6 1/2; T. 1 1/2. Second tablet
of the Epic of Gilgamish.
NOTES
[1] Ni. 13981, published by Dr. Poebel in PBS. V, No. 2.
[2] The local Bel of Erech and a bye-form of Enlil, the earth god. Here
he is the consort of the mother goddess Ninsun.
[3] Tammuz is probably a real personage, although _Dumu-zi_, his
original name, is
certainly
later than the title _Ab-u_, probably the
oldest epithet of this deity, see _Tammuz and Ishtar_, p.
8. _Dumu-zi_
I take to have been originally the name of a prehistoric ruler of
Erech, identified with the primitive deity Abu.
[4] See _ibid._, page 40.
[5] Also Meissner's early Babylonian duplicate of Book X has invariably
the same writing, see Dhorme, _Choix de Textes Religieux_, 298-303.
[6] Sign whose gunufied form is read _aga_.
[7] The standard text of the Assyrian version is by Professor Paul
Haupt, _Das Babylonische Nimrodepos_, Leipzig, 1884.
[8] The name of the mother of Gilgamish has been erroneously read
_ri-mat ilat_Nin-lil, or _Rimat-Belit_, see Dhorme 202, 37; 204,
30, etc. But Dr. Poebel, who also copied this text, has shown that
_Nin-lil_ is an erroneous reading for _Nin-sun_. For _Ninsun_ as
mother of Gilgamish see SBP. 153 n. 19 and R.A., IX 113 III 2.
