| 1 | The young man, the hunter, went back into the mountain regions where he had digged pits before and spread his nets. |
| 2 | He brought the woman of the Temple with him. |
| 3 | He made her to sit nigh the place where the wild beasts came to drink; he bade her draw to her the wild man if he should come to drink with the beasts. |
| 4 | Then the hunter went away. |
| 5 | The Temple woman sat by the pool, plaiting the tresses of her hair. |
| 6 | One by one the beasts came to drink, but finding there the scent of a human creature they went away. |
| 7 | At last Enkidu, the wild man, came down to the pool. |
| 8 | He did not have the power of scent that the beasts had. |
| 9 | He went into the drinking-place and he filled his palms with water, and he raised them up to his mouth, and he drank. |
| 10 | The Temple woman saw him there in his great stature, with the hair on his head long and flowing as if it were a woman's, and the hair on his skin making him look as if he were dressed in leaves. |
| 11 | She called out; she spoke, and Enkidu heard her voice. |
| 12 | He saw her; she held her arms out to him; she took off her veil. |
| 13 | Then Enkidu was astonished. |
| 14 | He went towards her, and she took his hand, and she led him away. |
| 15 | He came under the spell of the Temple woman's beauty; he would not leave her, but stayed where she stayed at the edge of the forest. |
| 16 | On the sixth day he rose up and went away from where she stayed. |
| 17 | His heart had become hungry to look upon the wild beasts whose friend he had been. |
| 18 | He went towards where the companies of gazelles were. The gazelles fled from him. |
| 19 | He went to where the wild cattle grazed, and the wild cattle fled as soon as he came near to them. |
| 20 | He went to where the panthers were, and the panthers bounded away when he came near to them. |
| 21 | Then Enkidu was sore in his heart. He cried out, "Why do my friends, the beasts, forsake me?" |
| 22 | He did not know that the beasts had wind of another human creature in the wind that was from him. |
| 23 | Wherever he went the beasts fled from him. |
| 24 | Then Enkidu was made ashamed; his knees gave way under him; he swooned away from shame. |
| 25 | When he rose up again he went back to where the Temple woman stayed, and the beasts still fled before him. |
| 26 | The Temple woman waited for him; she smiled upon him; she held out her arms to him, and spoke flattering words to him. |
| 27 | He stayed with her and she spoke to him of Erech, and of the Temple, and of Gilgamish the Mighty. |
| 28 | At last she led him with her to Erech, Gilgamish's city. |
| 29 | It was then that Gilgamish had his struggle with the fire-breathing bull that Ishtar, in her anger, had sent against him and his people. |
| 30 | Multitudes of the inhabitants of the city had been destroyed by the bull. |
| 31 | Gilgamish--even he--was not able to prevail against the Bull of Heaven. He lodged an arrow in the neck of the bull. |
| 32 | Still it came on against him, and Gilgamish had to flee from before it. |
| 33 | And the bull came upon the way along which Enkidu was coming with the woman of the Temple. |
| 34 | He laid his hands against the front of the bull, and held it. |
| 35 | Then Gilgamish came and delivered mighty blows between its horns and its neck, and when the bull would have trampled upon him, Enkidu, with his mighty strength, pulled it backwards. |
| 36 | Gilgamish with Enkidu attacked the bull again. |
| 37 | Long they fought against the fury of the fire-breathing bull, but at length the two of them slew Ishtar's mighty creature. |
| 38 | The Goddess appeared upon the battlements and cursed them for having destroyed the Bull of Heaven. |
| 39 | And Enkidu, fearless before Gods and before men, tore the flesh from the side of the bull and threw it at the feet of Ishtar. |
| 40 | The Goddess and all the women of the Temple made lamentations over the portion of the bull that had been flung up to them. |
| 41 | But Gilgamish called together the people of the city. |
| 42 | He showed them the creature that had been slain. |
| 43 | They looked, and they marvelled at the size of the horns, for they were horns that could hold six measures of oil. |
| 44 | Gilgamish took the horns of the Bull of Heaven to the Temple of the God Lugalbanda, and he hung them before the seat of the God. |
| 45 | He made friends with Enkidu. And he and Enkidu went down to the river Euphrates, and there they washed, and they came back and they stood in the market-place. |
| 46 | All men marvelled at the stature and power of these two, Gilgamish and Enkidu. Gilgamish took Enkidu to his palace; he gave him the raiment of a king to put on; he gave him a chair, and he had him sit on his left side; he gave him food fit for the Gods to eat, and wine fit for a king to drink. |
| 47 | These two mighty men became friends, and they loved each other exceedingly. |
| 48 | Together Gilgamish and Enkidu hunted; together they made war; the lion and the panther of the desert fell to their bows and spears. |
| 49 | And at last the people of Erech had rest from their labours, for no longer did Gilgamish make them weary raising great buildings, and they had peace, for no longer did he bring them to make war upon the people of far lands. |
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Chapter - 5