25

Appendix 25

It is not yet securely established what the word sippu means. (See W. Baumgartner, “Untersuchungen zu den akkadischen Bauausdrücken,” ZA 36 [1925], pp. 27, 63; A. Schott, “Zu meiner Übersetzung des Gilgamesh-Epos,” ZA 42 [1934], pp. 105f.) For the style of this battle, characterized by Cyrus Gordon as “Beltwrestling” JNES 7, p. 264), see A. Oppenheim, Or. 17, pp. 29f. “They seized each other (by their girdles), like experts they wrestled.! They destroyed the doorpost/ The wall shook”. See also E. A. Speiser, “Akkadian Myths and Epics,” ANET, p. 78. This “doorpost” is no quantité négligeable because some similar “object” comes our way again at the “entrance” of the Cedar Forest, and does the most devilish things to poor Enkidu. (Compare J. Friedrich, “Die hethitischen Bruchstücke des Gilgamesh-Epos,” ZA 39 [1920-30], pp. 48f., dealing with the Hittite fragments; he established at least that it was not the bolt.) In fact, were we to have started from GE, instead of paying it a casual visit, the several “doors” with their “posts,” or “pillars,” with their “fillings” and “thresholds” would have had as much of a paralyzing effect upon us as the eye of Medusa. Meanwhile, detrimental translations are quite enough to turn the reader to stone.