EPIC OF GILGAMESH
Tablet 11
At this point, Gilgamesh realizes that he is talking to Utnapishtim, the Far-Away; he hadn't
expected an immortal human to be ordinary and aged. He asks Utnapishtim how he received immortality, and Utnapishtim tells him the great secret hidden from humans: In the time before the Flood, there was a city, Shuruppak, on the banks of the Euphrates. There, the counsel of the gods held a secret meeting; they all resolved to destroy the world in a great flood. All the gods were under oath not to reveal this se-cret to any living thing, but Ea (one of the gods that created humanity) came to Utnapishtim's house and told the secret to the walls of Utnapishtim's house, thus not technically violating his oath to the rest of the gods. He advised the walls of Utnapishtim's house to build a great boat, its length as great as its breadth, to cover the boat, and to bring all living things into the boat. Utnapishtim gets straight to work and finishes the great boat by the new year. Utnapishtim then loads the boat with gold, silver, and all the living things of the earth, and launches the boat. Ea orders him into the boat and commands him to close the door behind him. The black clouds arrive, with the thunder god Adad rumbling within them; the earth splits like an earthenware pot, and all the light turns to darkness. The Flood is so great that even the gods are frightened: The gods shook like beaten dogs, hiding in the far corners of heaven, Ishtar screamed and wailed:
"The days of old have turned to stone:
We have decided evil things in our Assembly!
Why did we decide those evil things in our Assembly?
Why did we decide to destroy our people?
We have only just now created our beloved humans;
We now destroy them in the sea!"
All the gods wept and wailed along with her,
All the gods sat trembling, and wept.
The Flood lasts for seven days and seven nights, and finally light returns to the earth. Utnapishtim
opens a window and the entire earth has been turned into a flat ocean; all humans have been turned
to stone. Utnapishtim then falls to his knees and weeps.
Utnapishtim's boat comes to rest on the top of Mount Nimush; the boat lodges firmly on the mountain peak just below the surface of the ocean and remains there for seven days. On the seventh day:
I [Utnapishtim] released a dove from the boat,
It flew off, but circled around and returned,
For it could find no perch.
I then released a swallow from the boat,
It flew off, but circled around and returned,
For it could find no perch.
I then released a raven from the boat,
It flew off, and the waters had receded:
It eats, it scratches the ground, but it does not circle around and return. I then sent out all the living things in every direction and sacrificed a sheep on that very spot. The gods smell the odor of the sacrifice and begin to gather around Utnapishtim. Enlil, who had originally proposed to destroy all humans, then arrives, furious that one of the humans had survived, since they had agreed to wipe out all humans. He accuses Ea of treachery, but Ea convinces Enlil to be merciful. Enlil then seizes Utnapishtim and his wife and blesses them:
At one time Utnapishtim was mortal.
At this time let him be a god and immortal;
Let him live in the far away at the source of all the rivers. At the end of his story, Utnapishtim offers Gilgamesh a chance at immortality. If Gilgamesh can
stay awake for six days and seven nights, he, too, will become im-mortal. Gilgamesh accepts these
conditions and sits down on the shore; the instant he sits down he falls asleep. Utnapishtim tells his
wife that all men are liars, that Gilgamesh will deny having fallen asleep, so he asks his wife to bake
a loaf of bread every day and lay the loaf at Gilgamesh's feet. Gilgamesh sleeps without ever waking up for six days and seven nights, at which point Utnapishtim wakes him up. Startled, Gilgamesh
says, "I only just dozed off for half a second here." Utnapishtim points out the loaves of bread,
showing their states of decay from the most recent, fresh bread, to the oldest, moldy, stale bread
that had been laid at his feet on the very first day. Gilgamesh is distraught:
O woe! What do I do now, where do I go now?
Death has devoured my body,
Death dwells in my body,
Wherever I go, wherever I look, there stands Death!
Utnapishtim's wife convinces the old man to have mercy on him; he offers Gilgamesh in place of
immortality a secret plant that will make Gilgamesh young again. The plant is at the bottom of the
ocean surrounding the Far-Away; Gilgamesh ties stones to his feet, sinks to the bottom, and plucks
the magic plant. But he doesn't use it because he doesn't trust it; rather he decides to take it back to Uruk and test it out on an old man first, to make sure it works. Urshanabi takes him across the Waters of Death. Several leagues inland, Gilgamesh and
Urshanabi stop to eat and sleep; while they're sleeping, a snake slith-ers up and eats the magic
plant (which is why snakes shed their skin) and crawls away. Gilgamesh awakens to find the plant
gone; he falls to his knees and weeps:
For whom have I labored? For whom have I journeyed?
For whom have I suffered?
I have gained absolutely nothing for myself,
I have only profited the snake, the ground lion!
The tale ends with Gilgamesh, at the end of his journey standing before the gates of Uruk, inviting
Urshanabi to look around and view the greatness of this city, its high walls, its masonwork, and here
at the base of its gates, as the foundation of the city walls, a stone of lapis lazuli on which is carved Gilgamesh's account of his exploits.
ENDNOTES
1 Temple "harlots" were a fairly common feature of several religions in the Mediterranean area;
these women lived within or around the temples and served as sexual partners (sometimes) in
various fertility rituals. Not all temple "harlots" served this function.
