Gilgamesh’s Second Dream: “He is as mighty as the meteorite of Anu!”
The Gilgamesh cylinder seal, Assyria, ca.7th c. BC.
A second time Gilgamesh said to his mother:
Mother, I have had another dream:
At the gate of my marital chamber there lay an axe,
and people had collected about it.
The Land of Uruk was standing around it,
the whole land had assembled about it,
the populace was thronging around it.
I laid it down at your feet,
I loved it and embraced it as a wife,
and you made it compete with me.
The mother of Gilgamesh, the wise, all-knowing, said to her son;
Rimat-Ninsun, the wise, all-knowing, said to Gilgamesh:
The axe that you saw (is) a man.
(that) you love him and embrace as a wife,
but (that) I have compete with you.
There will come to you a mighty man,
a comrade who saves his friend–
he is the mightiest in the land, he is strongest,
he is as mighty as the meteorite of Anu!”
Gilgamesh spoke to his mother saying:
“”By the command of Enlil, the Great Counselor, so may it to pass!
“May I have a friend and adviser, a friend and adviser may I have!
“You have interpreted for me the dreams about him!”
After the harlot recounted the dreams of Gilgamesh to Enkidu
the two of them made love.
(Image: Gilgamesh with Enkidu fighting the ‘bull of heaven’ sent by goddess Ishtar to destroy the city of Uruk when Gilgamesh rejected her advances.)