In ancient Mesopotamian mythology, theBull of Heaven is a mythical beast fought by the King of UrukGilgamesh. The story of the Bull of Heaven is known from two different versions: one recorded in an earlierSumerian poem and a later episode in the Standard Babylonian (a literary dialect ofAkkadian)Epic of Gilgamesh. In the Sumerian poem, the Bull is sent to attack Gilgamesh by the goddessInanna for reasons that are unclear.
The more complete Akkadian account comes from Tablet VI of theEpic of Gilgamesh, in which Gilgamesh refuses the sexual advances of the goddess Ishtar, theEast Semitic equivalent of Inanna, leading the enraged Ishtar to demand the Bull of Heaven from her fatherAnu, so that she may send it to attack Gilgamesh inUruk. Anu gives her the Bull and she sends it to attack Gilgamesh and his companion, the heroEnkidu, who slay the Bull together.
After defeating the Bull, Enkidu hurls the Bull's right thigh at Ishtar, taunting her. The slaying of the Bull results in the gods condemning Enkidu to death, an event which catalyzes Gilgamesh's fear for his own death, which drives the remaining portion of the epic. The Bull was identified with the constellationTaurus and the myth of its slaying may have held astronomical significance to the ancient Mesopotamians. Aspects of the story have been compared to later tales from the ancient Near East, including legends fromUgarit, the tale ofJoseph in theBook of Genesis, and parts of the ancient Greek epics, theIliad and theOdyssey.
In theSumerian poemGilgamesh and the Bull of Heaven, Gilgamesh and Enkidu slay the Bull of Heaven, who has been sent to attack them by the goddessInanna, the Sumerian equivalent of Ishtar.[4][5][6] The plot of this poem differs substantially from the corresponding scene in the later AkkadianEpic of Gilgamesh.[7] In the Sumerian poem, Inanna does not seem to ask Gilgamesh to become her consort as she does in the later Akkadian epic.[5] Furthermore, while she is coercing her fatherAn to give her the Bull of Heaven, rather than threatening to raise the dead to eat the living as she does in the later epic, she merely threatens to let out a "cry" that will reach the earth.[7]
In Tablet VI of the standardAkkadianEpic of Gilgamesh, after Gilgamesh repudiates her sexual advances, Ishtar goes toHeaven, where she complains to her motherAntu and her fatherAnu.[8] She demands that Anu give her the Bull of Heaven[9][10] and threatens that, if he refuses, she will smash the gates of the Underworld and raise the dead to eat the living.[11] Anu at first objects to Ishtar's demand, insisting that the Bull of Heaven is so destructive that its release would result in seven years of famine.[11][10] Ishtar declares that she has stored up enough grain for all people and all animals for the next seven years.[11][10] Eventually, Anu reluctantly agrees to give it to Ishtar, whereupon she unleashes it on the world, causing mass destruction.[9][11]
The Bull's first breath blows a hole in the ground so large that one hundred men fall into it, while its second breath creates a hole larger still, which traps two hundred more.[11] Gilgamesh andEnkidu work together to slay the Bull;[9][11][10] Enkidu goes behind the Bull and pulls its tail[11] while Gilgamesh thrusts his sword into the Bull's neck, killing it.[11] Gilgamesh and Enkidu offer the Bull's heart to the sun-godShamash.[12][13] While Gilgamesh and Enkidu are resting, Ishtar stands up on the walls ofUruk and curses Gilgamesh.[12][14][15] Enkidu tears off the Bull's right thigh and throws it at Ishtar's face.[12][14][15][10]
Ishtar calls together "the crimped courtesans, prostitutes and harlots"[12] and orders them to mourn for the Bull of Heaven.[12][14] Meanwhile, Gilgamesh holds a celebration over the Bull of Heaven's defeat.[16][14] Tablet VII begins with Enkidu recounting a dream in which he saw Anu,Ea, andShamash declare that either Gilgamesh or Enkidu must die as punishment for having slain the Bull of Heaven.[2] They choose Enkidu, who soon grows sick,[2] and dies after having a dream of the Underworld.[2] Tablet VIII describes Gilgamesh's inconsolable grief over his friend's death[2][17] and the details of Enkidu's funeral.[2] Enkidu's death becomes the catalyst for Gilgamesh's fear of his own death, which is the focus of the remaining portion of the epic.[18]
Numerous depictions of the slaying of the Bull of Heaven occur in extant works of ancient Mesopotamian art.[10] Representations are especially common oncylinder seals of theAkkadian Empire (c. 2334 – 2154 BC).[10] These show that the Bull was clearly envisioned as a bull of abnormally large size and ferocity. It is unclear exactly what the Bull of Heaven represents, however. AssyriologistsJeremy Black and Anthony Green observe that the Bull of Heaven is identified with the constellationTaurus[9] and argue that the reason why Enkidu hurls the bull's thigh at Ishtar in theEpic of Gilgamesh after defeating it may be an effort to explain why the constellation seems to be missing its hind quarters.[9]
Gordon and Rendsburg note that the notion of flinging a bull's leg at someone "as a terrible insult" is attested across a wide geographic area of the ancient Near East[10] and that it recurs in theOdyssey, an ancient Greek epic poem.[10] Some scholars consider the Bull of Heaven to be the same figure asGugalanna, the husband of Ereshkigal mentioned by Inanna inInanna's Descent into the Underworld.[19]
Cyrus H. Gordon and Gary A. Rendsburg note that the Near Eastern motif of seven years of famine following the death of a hero is attested in theUgaritic myth of the death ofAqhat[10] and that the theme of someone predicting seven years of famine in advance and storing up supplies is also found in the Hebrew story ofJoseph from theBook of Genesis,[10] and inverses 47-48 ofSurahYusuf in theQuran.[20]
According to the German classical scholarWalter Burkert, the scene in which Ishtar comes before Anu to demand the Bull of Heaven after being rejected by Gilgamesh is directly paralleled by a scene from Book V of theIliad.[8] In theEpic of Gilgamesh, Ishtar complains to her motherAntu, but is mildly rebuked by Anu.[8] In the scene from theIliad,Aphrodite, the later Greek development of Ishtar, is wounded by the Greek heroDiomedes while trying to save her sonAeneas.[21] She flees toMount Olympus, where she cries to her motherDione, is mocked by her sisterAthena, and is mildly rebuked by her fatherZeus.[21] Not only is the narrative parallel significant,[21] but so is the fact that Dione's name is a feminization of Zeus's own, just asAntu is a feminine form ofAnu.[21] Dione does not appear throughout the rest of theIliad, in which Zeus's consort is instead the goddessHera.[21] Burkert therefore concludes thatDione is acalque of Antu.[21]
British classical scholar Graham Anderson notes that, in theOdyssey, Odysseus's men kill the sacredcattle of Helios and are condemned to death by the gods for this reason, much like Enkidu in theEpic of Gilgamesh.[22]M. L. West states that the similarities run deeper than the mere fact that, in both cases, the creatures slain are bovines exempt from natural death.[23] In both cases, the person or persons condemned to die are companions of the hero, whose death or deaths force the hero to continue his journey alone.[23] He also notes that, in both cases, the epic describes a discussion among the gods over whether or not the guilty party must die[23] and thatHelios's threat to Zeus if he does not avenge the slaughter of his cattle in theOdyssey is very similar to Ishtar's threat to Anu when she is demanding the Bull in theEpic of Gilgamesh.[23]
Bruce Louden compares Enkidu's taunting of Ishtar immediately after slaying the Bull of Heaven to Odysseus's taunt of the giantPolyphemus in Book IX of theOdyssey.[24] In both cases, the hero's ownhubris after an apparent victory leads a deity to curse him.[24]