sixth tablet marks an important division in the epic. The Ishtar and
Sabitum episodes and the narrative of Parnapishtim--itself a compound of
two independent tales, one semi-historical, the other a
nature-myth--represent accretions that may refer to a time when
Gilgamesh had become little more than a name,--a type of mankind in
general. Finally, scholastic speculation takes hold of Gilgamesh, and
makes him the medium for illustrating another and more advanced problem
that is of intense interest to mankind,--the secret of death. Death is
inevitable, but what does death mean? The problem is not solved. The
close of the eleventh tablet suggests that Gilgamesh will die. The
twelfth tablet adds nothing to the situation--except a moral. Proper
burial is essential to the comparative well-being of the dead.

The fact that Gilgamesh is viewed as a type in the latter half of this
remarkable specimen of Babylonian literature justifies us in speaking of
it, under proper qualification, as a 'national epic.' But it must be
remembered that Gilgamesh himself belongs to a section of Babylonia
only, and not to the whole of it; and it is rather curious that one, of
whom it can be said with certainty that he is not even a native of
Babylonia, should become the personage to whom popular fancy was pleased
to attach traditions and myths that are distinctively Babylonian in
character and origin.

The story of Gilgamesh was carried beyond the confines of
Babylonia.[1002] Gilgamesh, to be sure, is not identical with the
Biblical Nimrod,[1003] but the Gilgamesh story has evidently influenced
the description given in the tenth chapter of Genesis of Nimrod, who is
viewed as the type of Babylonian power and of the extension of
Babylonian culture to the north.

The Gilgamesh epic is not a solar myth, as was once supposed,[1004] nor
is the Biblical story of Samson a pure myth, but Gilgamesh becomes a
solar deity, and it is hardly accidental that Samson, or to give the
Hebrew form of the name, Shimshon, is a variant form of
_Shamash_[1005]--the name of the sun in Babylonian and Hebrew. The
Biblical Samson appears to be modelled upon the character of Gilgamesh.
Both are heroes, both conquerors, both strangle a lion, and both are
wooed by a woman, the one by Delila, the other by Ishtar, and both
through a woman are shorn of their strength. The historical traits are
of course different. As for the relationships of the Gilgamesh epic to
the Hercules st