Endnote 4 – Gilgamesh

This historical sketch is unobjectionable in its most general outline. I should note, however, that not all scholars will agree with my contentions (1) that the earliest form of the epic did not contain the Utnapishtim episode but that the meeting with Siduri was the climax of Gilgamesh’s wanderings, (2) that the encounter with Ishtar in Tablet VI was a post-Old Babylonian insertion and (3) that the addition of Tablet XII was meaningful.