Then, upon the intervention of Ninsun, a weeping Gilgamesh makes a speech that is, given the present state of the text, largely incomprehensible. But Enkidu stood, listened to him speaking, Pondered, and then sat down, began to cry. His eyes grew dim with tears. The mystery of this long-departed people is made even more mysterious by the lacunae in this text. Gilgamesh and Enkidu, now fast friends, more closely bound than husband and wife, having vowed to defend each other even to death, set out to slay the monster Humbaba, an almost unimaginably terrifying creature whose face looks like coiled intestines and .
Man is strong, prepared to fight, responsible.
You shall be my husband, and I can be your wife. But Gilgamesh knows that the goddess has had many mates, all of whom she eventually disposed of. So moved were they by his fate that they would sit and weep for him during the rains of winter. It may well be that Dumuzi's story is a faint memory of a time when Sumer's kings, imagined as consorts of a goddess, were periodically sacrificed to ensure fertility, as were kings in other ancient societies. But together Gilgamesh and Enkidu overcome the unconquerable Bull and butcher it.