I saw also Samuqan, god of cattle, and therewas Ereshkigal the Queen of the Underworld; and Befit-Sheri squatted in front of her, shewho is recorder of the gods and keeps the book of death. She held a tablet from which sheread. She raised her head; she saw me and spoke:" Who has brought this one here?" Then Iawoke like a man drained of blood who wanders alone in a waste of rashes; like one whomthe bailiff has seized and his heart pounds with terror
The politics of translation matter: Gilgamesh’s cultural heroism often centers on his confrontation with mortality yet that confrontation is dealt with directly by women, not warriors. Editors and translators from patriarchal eras could have shrunk the symbolic weight of these female figures to maintain the male hero’s dominance, which can illustrate how the person who holds the pen has the ability to manipulate and influence of gender beliefs of this epic and those who read it thoughts of women during the time.