Tablets IX, X, and XI are the last tablets of the epic. Yes, you guessed it. This summary is probably going to be long, but good right?
Tablet XIII left us with Gilgamesh having an ornate funeral for his best friend, Enkidu. If you remember, he was absolutely devastated by the death of Enkidu. Tablet IX is titled "The Wanderings of Gilgamesh." As you recall, Shamash told Enkidu that Gilgamesh will wander around the earth in grief. The gods are usually correct in predicting the future, and Gilgamesh does begin to wander, but not aimlessly. Gilgamesh says, "I am afraid of death, so I wander the wild,/ to find Uta-napishti, son of Ubar-Turu" (IX 5-6). Gilgamesh is going to find Uta-napishti because he is the one person who was allowed to live during a great flood that had wiped out the rest of humanity. He hopes that Uta-napishti can tell him how to escape death as well. The problem of finding Uta-napishti is that he lives where no mortal has ever gone, where the sun rises.
After days of traveling, Gilgamesh comes across a mountain with two monsters guarding it: a scorpion-man and his wife. The scorpion-man asks who Gilgamesh is and why he is traveling along a path that no one else dare ventured. Gilgamesh tells the scorpion-man about his quest, and the scorpion-man tells Gilgamesh that Uta-napishti lives across the other side of the mountain. There's a tunnel that goes to the other side, but that no mortal has ever gone through the tunnel. Gilgamesh decided to trek through the tunnel and makes it through the other side to the garden where Uta-napishti is.
This brings us to Tablet X, which is titled "At the Edge of the World." The tablet starts with a wise tavern keeper seeing Gilgamesh walking towards her. She closes the bar down and barricades the door because Gilgamesh looks like a vagrant. Gilgamesh is none too happy that she barred the gate and tells her that he will smash the door in if she does not grant him entrance. She asks Gilgamesh of his journey and he tells her that he and Enkidu slew Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven. She asks why he looks so worn down and downtrodden. He says, "my friend Enkidu, whom I loved so dear,/ who with me went through every danger,/ the doom of mortals overtook him" (X 57-59). He explains that what happened to Enkidu was too much to handle and he asks if the same fate will meet him. Gilgamesh asks how to find Uta-napishti and she points him to the way of Ur-shanabi, the boatman of Uta-napishti.
Ur-shanabi comments that Gilgamesh looks worn and he can see the sorrow in him. Gilgamesh, again, explains his grief. After completing a few, laborious tasks for Ur-shanabi, Gilgamesh is taken to Uta-napishti. Uta-napishti asks Gilgamesh why he has came and he repeats the story he has told before. Uta-napishti tells Giglamesh that everything dies; only gods are immortal. He tells Gilgamesh that death is our destiny, even if we do not know when it will happen.
Tablet XI, "Immortality Denied," begins with Gilgamesh asking Uta-napishti why he was granted eternal life. Uta-napishti tells his story. He was a king of a rich city on the river Euphrates. The gods had a meeting and Enlil decided to have a flood wipeout mankind (much like Noah, isn't it?). Ea, the god of wisdom, defied the gods and told Uta-napishti about the flood. He is told to build a boat (kind of like an ark) and supply it with food and water to survive the flood. Ea tells Uta-napishti to lie to the citizens of his city when they ask why they must help him build a boat. The flood came and Uta-napishti and his wife were saved. He eventually landed on a mountain top after seven days and then he released a dove (familiar). The dove returned because it couldn't find land so he then released a swallow that returned as well. He finally released a raven which never came back. He made a sacrifice when he came on land and the gods were so thankful that he and his wife saved humanity that they granted them eternal life.
Uta-napishti is angry with Gilgamesh that he thinks he can be granted immortality. He tests Gilgamesh and tells him he must go seven days without sleeping. Gilgamesh agrees to this challenge and Uta-napishti has his wife bake a loaf of bread for each day he ends up sleeping and mark on the wall so that Gilgamesh will know that he fell asleep. Gilgamesh soon falls into a deep slumber after accepting the challenge.
Gilgamesh has obviously failed the test and Uta-napishti orders Ur-shanabi to take Gilgamesh home and never return. Gilgamesh is ordered to clean himself up and show the beauty he has been hiding. As they are about to depart, Uta-napishti's wife tells him, "Gilgamesh came here by toil and by travail,/ what have you given him for his homeward journey?" (XI 274-5). Uta-napishti gives Gilgamesh a plant that will make him young again when he becomes old. Gilgamesh tells Ur-shanabi that he will give the elders of Uruk the plant and take it too so he can become young again.
One night as the two make camp, Gilgamesh goes for a swim in the pool. A snake smells then plant and eats it. The snake sheds skin and becomes young. Gilgamesh is distraught, once again. The tablet ends with Gilgamesh showing Ur-shanabi the walls of Uruk.
Sad, isn't it? But there's a moral and theme. I'll be posting again soon about teaching these tablets!
Cassy
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