Thy wife whom thou lovest thou kissest not,
Thy wife whom thou hatest thou smitest not;
Thy child whom thou lovest thou kissest not,
Thy child whom thou hatest thou smitest not.
The sorrowing earth hath taken thee.”
Gilgameš then seems to invoke the goddess “Mother of Nin-a-zu,” seemingly asking her to restore his friend to him, but to all appearance without result. He then turned to the other deities—Bêl, Sin, and Ea, and the last-named seems to have interceded for Êa-banî with Nerigal, the god of the under-world, who, at last, opened the earth, “and the spirit of Êa-banî like mist arose (?).” His friend being thus restored to him, though probably only for a time, and not in bodily form, Gilgameš asks [pg 111] him to describe the appearance of the world from which he had just come. “If I tell thee the appearance of the land I have seen,” he answers, “... sit down, weep.” Gilgameš, however, still persists—“... let me sit down, let me weep,” he answers. Seeing that he would not be denied, Êa-banî complies with his request. It was a place where dwelt people who had sinned in their heart, where (the young) were old, and the worm devoured, a place filled with dust. This was the place of those who had not found favour with their god, who had met with a shameful death (as had apparently Êa-banî himself). The blessed, on the other hand—
“Whom thou sawest [die] the death (?) [of] . .[I see]—
In the resting-place of .... reposing, pure water he drinketh.
Whom in the battle thou sawest killed, I see—
His father and his mother support his head