How to add books to "Resources" section?

[SlavaOn]

I would like to upload 18 versions of "The epic of Gilgamesh", that I collected, to "resources" section, but I do not see the way to do it. Different translations, critical editions, some have cuneiform text. All in .PDF and .EPUB formats. The zipped single archive is about 95Mb or I can upload them individually.

This is one of the earliest (if not the oldest) written texts,at least 3000 years old, that survived because it was inscribed on multiple clay tablets. Since the tablets discovery in 19th century, several translations (from old Babylonian and Akkadian versions) were done.

If we take this text as an evidence of the described antediluvian events, this post helps to place it into a perspective: Appraising evidence OR how to get closer to the truth According to the classifications described, that could be at best a "secondary" source and we can never get anything like "primary" source take on that. On the other hand, relaying on the translations done in 19th and 20th centuries, we are loosing important details that became known in later years. Meaning that the 19th century translators would interpret the meaning of Akkadian and Babylonian words based on what they been taught in their 19th century schools. None of the modern terminology would have been available to them.

I was interested to make a comparison of a certain text/scene from this epic, between various known translations. And I had a chance to ask a person, that can translate from Sumerian, to interpret that part as well. Somehow, I noticed a logical fallacy in every translation, that described a pivotal event. I will describe it, when the books are uploaded and you can follow my logic yourselves. The translator also brought that scene/event in a totally different light, so to speak, when he applied a modern knowledge to the Sumerian word(s) used.

This subject matter links to my posts from December 2017 in that session: Session 9 December 2017

 

[SlavaOn]

This is a list of books, that I wanted to upload to "Resources" section.


I give you several extracts of the same passage from different books
- from book #1
At twenty leagues they stopped to break bread.
At thirty leagues they halted for the night.
Gilgamesh found a pool of cool water
And went in it to bathe. While he was there,
[300] A snake caught scent of the aromatic plant,
Approached silently, and bore the plant off.
As it slithered away, the snake sloughed off its skin.
Gilgamesh sat on the ground and wept,

- from book #3
At twenty leagues they broke their fast. 283
At thirty leagues they prepared for the night’s rest.
Gilgamesh saw a pool of cool water.
He went down into it and bathed in the water.
A snake smelled the fragrance of the plant.
It came up through the water and carried the plant away.

- from book #4
They traveled their twenty leagues and then they broke their fast; after thirty leagues they stopped for the night.
Gilgamesh saw a well of cool water and he went down and bathed; but deep in the pool there was lying a serpent,
and the serpent sensed the sweetness of the flower. It rose out of the water and snatched it away,
and immediately it sloughed its skin and returned to the well.

- from book #5
To the other shore, and when they parted
Gilgamesh was alone again, but not
With loneliness or the memory of death.
He stopped to drink and rest beside a pool
And soon undressed and let himself slip in
The water quietly until he was refreshed,
Leaving the plant unguarded on the ground.

A serpent had smelled its sweet fragrance and saw
Its chance to come from the water, and devoured
The plant, shedding its skin as slough.

- from book #6
At four hundred miles they stopped to eat, at a thousand miles they pitched their camp. Gilgamesh saw a pond of cool water. He left the plant on the ground and bathed. A snake smelled its fragrance, stealthily it crawled up and carried the plant away. As it disappeared, it cast off its skin.

- from book #7
After twenty leagues they broke bread. After thirty leagues they rested for the night. And Gilgamesh perceived there a pond of cool water. He descended unto the pond and bathed in the water. But a serpent smelled the fragrance of the plant. The serpent slithered forward silently and snatched the plant. As it snaked away, the serpent sloughed off its skin.

- from book #8

They stopped to eat after a hundred miles,

they pitched camp after two hundred miles more.

Gilgamesh found a pool with cool water,

he went down to swim in the pool.

A snake smelled the scent of the plant,

it slid up in silence, it snatched it away

and shed its skin as it slithered back.

- from book #9
At twenty leagues they stopped only to eat;
at thirty leagues they stopped to rest for the night.
Gilgamesh found a spring, a pool of pure water.
He entered the water, to refresh himself.
In the reeds nearby a serpent of the place
became aware of the fragrance of the plant,
breathed its perfume, desired it, and approached,
and stole away with it among the reeds.
As it disappeared the serpent shed its skin.
When Gilgamesh found out what the serpent had done

he sat down weeping by the pool of water.
And I could have continued... Did we establish that every translations indicates that a snake smelled a fragrance of the plant?
Now, I must quote a part describing, where this plant came from. It is in Tablet XI:

Then Utnapishtim called out to him:
"Gilgamesh! You labored much to come here.
How can I reward you for traveling back?
May I share a special secret, one
that the gods alone do know?
There is a plant that hides somewhere
among the rocks
that thirsts and thrusts itself deep
in the earth, with thistles that sting.
That plant contains eternal life for you."
Immediately, Gilgamesh set out in search.
Weighed down carefully, he dove beneath
the cold, cold waters and saw the plant.
Although it stung him when he grabbed its leaf,
he held it fast as he then slipped off his weights
and soared back to the surface.

In every translation, that I read, Gilgamesh dives into the waters of the deep and retrieves an underwater plant. Sometimes, the plant is described as thorny. Nevertheless, not a single translator gave a thought on how the underwater plant can be smelled, if they do not smell period. There is no insects to attract underwater. There is no way to "sense a fragrance" of anything underwater :) When brought to the surface, fresh underwater plants do not smell. They do smell when they rot, but it is a different story.
Here is a conundrum: a red herring was embedded into the narrative of Gilgamesh quest. All translators diligently translated it and no one questioned that... Something so patently untrue could mean something totally different... I can speculate:
- Gilgamesh didn't loose the plant
- The plant doesn't grow underwater
- That was not an ordinary snake.

Actually, it is probably the last guess, that is true. I said in the original post that I knew a translator from Sumerian language, who translated that part for me. He said that the word(s)/sign(s) for the snake do not actually refer to an animal. He said that it is more close to describing a walking reptilian being. Almost like a semi-god.

That's all she wrote.