[2] The text was first published by Arno Poebel in 1914, with a second translation subsequently prepared by Maurus Witzel [pl] in 1938, though both of them relied only on the first discovered exemplar and are now considered outdated.
[8] A section of the poem was also translated by Wolfgang Heimpel for the corresponding article in Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie.
[10] According to Bendt Alster's interpretation, it most likely begins with a description of preparations for a festival of Inanna, in which Gudam participates, though his exact role in it is unknown.
[11] He subsequently enters a storehouse and starts rampaging in search of beer and liquor, but due to the loss of the first lines of the narrative, it is not certain under what circumstances these actions began.
[13] He declares that he will destroy the Eanna in Uruk and a temple in Zabalam[15] and starts killing the people around him with his weapon (šar2-ur2), until a hero intervenes.
[16] Gudam starts crying and pleads with Inanna to be spared, offering to bring her cattle and sheep from the mountains in exchange.
[17] The final section of the story is poorly preserved, though apparently Inanna accepts his offer, and sends him to live in a ditch in a field near Zabalam.
[23] Researches also interpret the role of Lugalgabagal differently, with Alhena Gadotti assuming he was in service of Inanna, as he directly states that he is acting on behalf of a woman when he speaks to Gudam.
[16] Gianni Marchesi has proposed that he can be identified as Dumuzi the Fisherman (not to be confused with the god Dumuzi), a legendary king of Uruk hailing from Kuara mentioned in the Sumerian King List but otherwise absent from literary texts, with the phrase tur-re being the result of ancient textual corruption of damaged TUR(/dumu/)-zi, as the beginnings of the signs re and zi look similar and could be confused if damaged.
[26] This name is otherwise only attested in association with Ningirsu and closely connected Ninurta, and other deities linked to them, such as Zababa, with the Tale of Gudam being a potential exception from this rule.
[27] Laura Feldt argues that it can be considered a conscious reference, with the Tale of Gudam possibly being a satirical reflection of myths focused on Ninurta, such as Lugal-e, Angim or Epic of Anzû.
[28] The fact that Gudam is left alive presumably reflects his repentance, in contrast with the antagonist of another myth focused on Inanna, Shukaletuda.
[29] Bendt Alster assumed that the reference to Gudam's mother buying a donkey and a sack for him is an indication that his ultimate fate is meant to be humiliating, as it constitutes a reversal of the well attested motif of a mother praising a victorious protagonist, and that his status will be reduced from that of a “proud hero” to a traveling peddler.
[19] Some authors go as far as describing them as two variants of the same narrative,[9] though according to Alhena Gadotti despite a plausible intertextual connection between the two texts it is implausible that the Tale of Gudam was simply an alternative or older version of the Gilgamesh myth, and some of its elements parallel other works of Mesopotamian literature instead.
[9] This being, referred to as e-ne (possibly a personal name), is compared to an ox, and destroyed the city on behalf of the gods in the distant past, before its destruction by war and deluge which is the main topic of the lament.