Killing of the bull of heaven

Assyrian cylinder impression, MS 1989, Schøyen Collection, Norway, depicting Enkidu and Gilgamesh killing the Heavenly Bull...

The interesting bit is here: Epic of Gilgamesh, Table VI, 140-149.

Enkidu stalked and hunted down the Bull of Heaven.

He grasped it by the thick of its tail

and held onto it with both his hands,

while Gilgamesh, like an expert butcher,

boldly and surely approached the Bull of Heaven.

Between the nape, the horns, and... he thrust his sword.

After they had killed the Bull of Heaven,

they ripped out its heart and presented it to Shamash.

They withdrew bowing down humbly to Shamash.

 

This is actually very interesting. 

Bull is the ancient symbol of summer (May, Jun, Jul), the period which starts in Taurus...

I talked about this in my post "Symbols of the seasons"...

By the way, summer is symbolised by a bull, because both calving (begins in Apr/May) and mating (begins in Jul/Aug) of Wild Eurasian cattle takes place during the summer, May to August...I talked about this in my post "Ram and bull"...

Taurus (Apr/May), the period when wild Eurasian cattle start their calving season, was extremely important time of the year for the people of Ancient Mesopotamia. This is when the water levels of Tigris and Euphrates peaked...

Tigris

Euphrates

So to the people of the Ancient Mesopotamia, it sure looked like it was the sun, Shamash, who released Enki, the sweet water, at the beginning of summer, in Taurus...

I talked about this in my post "Shamash young and old"...

Which is why Shamash is depicted as a golden bull with long flowing "lapis lazuli" (water) beard...

And why, in "Enki and the world order" we read: "...Father Enki...he stood up full of lust like a rampant bull, lifted his penis, ejaculated and filled the Tigris with flowing water. He was like a wild cow mooing for its young in the wild grass..."

The moment of Enki's ejaculation, the moment of his climax, the moment of the peak water levels in the rivers he fills with his heavenly semen, is also the moment when "wild cows moo for their young in the wild grass"...In Taurus...

Taurus was also the beginning of the grain harvest in Mesopotamia...

Which is why Shamash/Utu is also depicted as a bull with a tail made of wheat...

Both the flood and the grain harvest end with the summer, in Jul/Aug. So killing of the bull symbolically represent end of summer symbolised by a bull...As well as the end of the harvest and the end of the period of water abundance. And the beginning of drought...

This killing of the bull is usually done by a lion...

This is a symbolic depiction of the end of summer, which begins in Taurus (Apr/May) and ends in Leo (Jul/Aug)

And, Leo is a solar year calendar marker which marks the beginning of the main mating season of the Eurasian lions. 

Leo is the hottest and driest part of the year in Mesopotamia. The time of maximum heat, maximum drought. 

The throne of Shamash, the sun god. When he is the most powerful...Here is Shamash standing "between the lions" (in Leo), in an empty irrigation canal, at the moment of maximum heat and drought, when he is most powerful...

But here the killing is done by Gilgamesh and Enkidu. On behalf of the Shamash in Leo...

So our two "heroes" kill the bull of heaven (season), rip its heart (water, grain???) and present it to Shamash...Summer, the season of the bull ends. Autumn, the season of the lion begins...

Oh and guess who is there too, "standing on a lion" (in Leo): Ishtar, who started the whole thing

Sirius starts rising with the sun (is a "morning star") in Leo...