Creation and the Origin of Man, Epic of Gilgamesh

One could argue that the tale of the deluge and flooding of the world found in the Epic of Gilgamesh is the foundation of all other flood myths. Other than the possible exception of the poetry by Sargon's daughter Enhedwana, the Sumerian Gilgamesh legend, dated to around 2500 BC, is very likely the oldest written text or story available to contemporary civilization. Many battles have raged about which of the hundreds of known flood stories past and present, and their derivatives, a legend native to nearly every region of the globe and every civilization, is the oldest. All considered, the answer comes down to two or three main contenders, that found in Gilgamesh, that from the Egyptian texts, or that found in the Bible. The Egyptian version relies on damaged and incomplete papyri, and the extent of it is as follows. The god Atum said he will destroy all he made and return the earth to the primal waters. So, because of the sparse detail regarding the Coptic or Egyptian version, the earliest complete flood story must be either that found in Gilgamesh, or that found in Genesis. Let's spend a few minutes working out this problem. Which came first? Let's take a few minutes and go over the dating of these ancient civilizations. Scholars, for the most part, follow a chronology for the earliest peoples, similar to those that we've recently discussed on this channel regarding the oldest languages. They consider Sumeria and Egypt to be the most ancient, closely followed by other peoples mostly from the Mesopotamian and Near East regions, such as the Akkadians of Sargon, the Hurrians or early Turks, the Jordanians, and the Hittites or Syrians. The next usually cited, from oldest to more recent, are the Canaanites, the Sanskrit-speaking peoples such as the original Indians and other peoples of the Indus Valley, the Minoan-Greek, the Chinese, and in particular the Xia Dynasty, the Central Africans related to Egypt like the peoples of Sudan and Ethiopia such as the Nubians in the Kingdom of Kush, the Assyrians, and the Etruscans. After that comes Southeastern European civilizations, Rome, and then the Mesoamerican Empires such as the Toltecs, the Mayans, the Aztecs, and the Incans. Much later we get to peoples like the Scythians, the Persians, and so on. Usually considered as loose societies rather than civilizations, the American Indians, the Inuits and Aleuts, and the Australian Aborigines are also of great antiquity. Clearly, many more civilizations and human societies have existed, and we don't intend for this list to be inclusive. Literally hundreds of more civilizations and empires have occupied a space on our planet. The academic ordering that I cite might or might not be correct. In fact, I would bet it's very far off, if not laughingly wrong. But when we consider the problems with dating things of ancient age, and something that we've discussed throughout this search for the origin of man, we know we must take any kind of order like this with a grain of salt. In fact, it's my belief that many, if not all, of the earliest and greatest civilizations all arose at once. Nephilim and Root Race Notes Many archaic texts, mystic and esoteric writings, alleged secret documents, channeled material, and other ancient lore attest to a band of gods, angels, or otherwise superhuman extraterrestrials coming down to establish cities and customs on the earth, to teach human skills, or perhaps be responsible for repopulating it. Understand, coming down is in quotes, because this is what is most often said, and most take as meaning from the heavens, as in from up there. In actuality, this might have been, or verily may continue to be, not a coming down at all, and more of a materializing, as into our 3D material world, compatible to our dimension. Regardless of that for now, the Sons of God spoken of in the Bible and the apocryphal Book of Enoch, along with the Greek Titans we already mentioned, can serve as examples of this sort of celestial influence, and, if we consider these meddlers as having operated, or as operating without direct orders from the creator, interference. The number of primordial city builders and teachers, the founders of Earth's root races, is usually given as between 6 and 12. This is interesting because if we were to say, for example, list all of the oldest known pyramids and massive ancient structures, that is, the centerpieces of the oldest cities, we would get a number somewhere in this range. So to us, all of these old pyramid civilizations just look similar in many ways, and it appears that while all the builders were of different stylistic bent, they all had the same knowledge, worked probably from the same model, and most likely had the same teacher or teachers. So, despite what academia says, our bet is that all the great pyramids in Egypt, China, South and Central America, and perhaps even the greatest structures and temples such as the Phoenician Baalbek, the Mehenjo-Daro in the Indus Valley, the Pramodan Temple in Indonesia, and Angkor Wat in Cambodia, were all actually built around the same time. Look, scholars like to think linear when it comes to things like this. Just keep in mind, the dating that we have been given for these civilizations and their greatest cities and structures might be very different than what we have been told. The Bible and Gilgamesh, Jerome, later Saint Jerome, when compiling what was to become his Vulgate Bible, and because they were not yet unearthed, did not have these ancient Sumerian texts available to him. Evidence shows, however, that the Old Testament's flood story is in many ways a corruption of the old original Mesopotamian text. This Old Testament, especially as evidenced by the Book of Exodus, we note, shows clearly the influx of ideas and lineage meant to exalt the theory of one God who favors a particular group of people. It's quite possible that many of the people mentioned in the earliest books of the Bible were not originally Jewish or Hebrew at all. In fact, it is much more likely that these personages of ancient origin, even by their standards, many of whom have still existing cities and regions bearing their names, were adopted later on as being part of their own lineage. And we've seen something similar in our recent past, when many of the European immigrants who came en masse into America to start new lives took as their surnames the names of their hometowns. The books of the Bible are believed to have been written over several centuries, beginning in the 10th century BC, by which time the Hebrews are settled in Canaan or Palestine. But in many parts, the scribes are writing down a much older oral tradition. It is thought that some of the events described may go back as far as the 18th century BC. Let us then propose one theory, by means of which we may try to get a clearer, so to speak, a less tainted picture of the real origin of man, and by which we might offer a better explanation as to where the West's holiest books has its origins. It appears most likely that civilization as we know it began somewhere in the region of Mesopotamia. That much seems clear. It was here, in the land between the rivers, that men began their discourses, or at least began putting them down into writing. And so likely, here is where they laid down their first recollection of oral historical traditions, which were, prior to that time, passed along from father to son by word of mouth. One of the legends first scribed was the Epic of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh was an historical king of Uruk in Babylonia, on the river Euphrates in modern Iraq. He lived around 2700 BC. Although historians, in your textbook, tend to emphasize Hammurabi and his code of law, the civilizations of the Tigris-Euphrates area, among the first civilizations, focus rather on Gilgamesh and the legends accruing around him to explain, as it were, themselves. Many stories and myths were written about Gilgamesh, some of which were written down about 2000 BC in the Sumerian language on clay tablets which still survive. The Sumerian language, as far as we know, bears no relation to any other human language we know about. These Sumerian Gilgamesh stories were integrated into a larger poem, versions of which survive not only the Akkadian, that is, the Semitic language related to Hebrew spoken by the Babylonians, but also on tablets written in Hurrian and Hittite, an Indo-European language, a family of languages which includes Greek and English spoken in Asia Minor. All of the languages were written in the script known as Cuneiform, which means wedge-shaped. The fullest surviving version, from which the summary here is taken, is derived from 12 stone tablets in the Akkadian language, found in the ruins of the library of Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria, 669-633 BC, at Nineveh. The library was destroyed by the Persians in 612 BC, and all the tablets were damaged. The tablets actually name an author, which is extremely rare in the ancient world for this particular version of the story. Shin Aki Unini, you're being introduced here to the oldest known human author that we can name by name. The very first tablet of Gilgamesh acknowledges a flood. The one who saw all, I will declare to the world. The one who knew all, I will tell about. He saw the great mystery. He knew the hidden. He recovered the knowledge of all the times before the flood. He journeyed beyond the distance. He journeyed beyond exhaustion. And then carved his story on stone. Gilgamesh was supposedly two-thirds god and one-third human. And his quest, one could say his consuming desire, was to live forever like the gods. Something not possible for him because of his human portion. The epic about him tells of his life and his quest to achieve this immortality. He was no real upstanding citizen, this Gilgamesh. Although his virtues may be, and were at least in his time, perhaps the only real important virtues, the old virtues praised by Nietzsche that became condemned as vices by the weak, these are qualities like honor, and valor, and dignity, and pride, and strength, and virility. So whether or not the king of Uruk was a good individual as we know him from this epic is an entirely different question, not the least because of the answer would depend on what your idea is of making a being virtuous. Regarding the priority of the flood accounts, as to what came first, the Sumerian chicken or the Hebrew egg, Nozami Ozanani summarizes the dilemma correctly, but somehow arrives at a different conclusion than we will. Comparing the flood stories in the Gilgamesh epic and Genesis, one is impressed with the numerous similarities between the two accounts. The common elements between the two have been perplexing for some scholars. Alexander Heidel shows the three main possibilities about the relationship between the two accounts. First, the Babylonians borrowed from the Hebrew account. Second, the Hebrew account is dependent on the Babylonian. Third, both are descended from a common original. Because the epic written in Akkadian predates the Old Testament written in Hebrew, the most widely and accepted explanation today is the second, namely that the biblical account is based on Babylonian material. This theory poses an awkward problem for Christians. While the fact that there are flood legends like the Genesis flood account in most cultures around the world is used to testify to the reliability of the Bible, the Gilgamesh epic is used to deny the authority of the Bible because of its predating. According to the extant clay tablets, scholars reckon the time of the first compilation of the epic in Akkadian, around the second millennium BC. Since there is a Sumerian version behind the Akkadian, the epic is, upon any view of the date of the Book of Genesis, considerably older than the biblical narrative. Therefore, it is important to explain the relationship between these two accounts. Thus, this thesis is the result of this writer's commitment to the authority of the Bible and interest in flood traditions. Ozanai's account is taking possibility 1 as the correct one, although this appears to be a personal bias based on his religious preferences and little else of scientific or historical accuracy. It is taken more or less on faith. Once again, let's restate the possibilities for the chronology of the flood myth. 1. The Sumerian account comes from the Hebrew. 2. The Hebrew comes from the Sumerian. 3. Both the Sumerian and the Hebrew come from an earlier account. The correct answer, in our opinion, is number 3. Proposition 1 is highly unlikely, in fact, the least likely of the three. To show this, we must discuss a bit of the meaning of Hebrew. Hebrews are known as the ancestors of the Jews, but it should be noted that neither, at that time in ancient history, had anything to do with the area of Palestine or the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. There is nothing in the literature or historical and archaeological evidence to show that a Hebrew was someone indigenous to anywhere near what is present-day Israel. Before their arrival in Europe, some accounts of their activity, like that of the Theosophists, make of these Hebrew people a nomadic tribe originating in Babylon, the Kibiru or Habiru tribe, to be precise, a renegade sect of some lost Babylonian religion. For additional reference, see Reni, Anson, Who Were the Early Israelites? 2008-2011, in Biblical Archaeology Review 34, and also see most encyclopedia articles about the Hebrews. By extension, we find these highly literate nomads combining elements of their native beliefs, the religion of their homeland, with new beliefs of their own tribe, in doing so, founding Judaism. In fact, inscriptions and paintings along the Nile dated to around the 12th century BC tell of these exact same nomads settling in Egypt at that time, and being welcomed by the Egyptians, we might add. Now, this would all be cut and dry evidence for our Judaism being but another ancient cult, were it not for the debate over the word Shasu, which used by the Egyptians to refer to these Kibiru. Now, one can see where a tribe originally from Mesopotamia had, over the course of a few hundred years, migrated to the Levant, and from there continued further into the comparatively easy life to be found in an abundant and flourishing Egypt. Shasu of Yahweh, though, is a telling description, one that cannot be waved off lightly, and one which serves to identify the Shasu with the Kibiru. From Wikipedia, Yahweh is the primary Hebrew name of God in the Bible. Jews normally do not pronounce this name considering it too holy to verbalize. Instead, whenever they encounter this unpronounceable string of consonants, Y-H-W-H, they speak the name Adonai. Orthodox Jews strenuously avoid mentioning or even writing the divine name, preferring such circumlections as The Holy One, The Name, or the defective writing G-D. In Christian Bibles, Yahweh is usually translated as The Lord, a rough equivalent to the Hebrew Adonai. The Hebrew Bible indicates this reading by inserting the vowel pointing from the word Adonai on the consonants Y-H-W-H, rather than the actual vowels. Based on a literal reading of this pointing, many modern Protestant Christians read God's name as Jehovah. Elohim is the generic term for God in the Hebrew Bible, translated God. Muslims refer to God as Allah, which originates from the same etymological root as Elohim. Yahweh, Jehovah, Y-W-H, all of these are indicative of the specific God believed in by these Shasu, one could say their patron god. Armed with this monotheistic faith, and let us keep in mind belief that a single God is not alone a guarantee of righteousness, or even necessarily indicative of an actual deity, these now homeless, rather nomadic type people trod from city to city, seeking not merely food and work, but also ears to hear, as they also served an additional function of missionaries, and made it a priority to convey the greatness of their God and claim supremacy for His glory to whomever would listen. Given this scenario, the imposition of their strange customs, and their constant sales pitches to many who not only did not believe, but who also did not even want to hear about it, we can imagine how unsurprising it was that such a people would be shunned, resented, and eventually persecuted. Early Hebrew writing, for further evidence of Hebrew borrowing, is probably itself a derivative, coming out of the Phoenician. Given that the Phoenician script itself emerged from primitive Canaanite in about the 15th century BC, this seems to indicate that the Sumerian script, from perhaps the 30th century BC, predates both by many generations. Scientifically, there's no comparison. And to put to bed this Israelite-is-older theory once and for all, the discovery of artifacts circa 2600 BC, associated with Enmebaragesi of Kish, who is mentioned in the legends as the father of one of Gilgamesh's adversaries, has lent credibility to the historical existence of Gilgamesh. And so, while Ozenai's first possibility is definitely not true, as we can see, no way the Hebrew-Dolivian account can be older than the Sumerian, and neither can it be proven that the Hebrew account came from the Sumerian, as it could just as well have come from Egyptian, or Akkadian, or some of the other many accounts of the same flood. So we must conclude, it is Ozenai's third possibility that is most likely, namely that both come from earlier oral traditions. The worldwide deluge is quite possibly much older than both the Sumerian and the Genesis accounts. History of Gilgamesh The Epic of Gilgamesh brings us to a time when gods walked on earth among man, a scenario not uncommon in ancient myths. The exploits contained within this saga, among them those about warring gods, busy prostitutes, crazed seers, and peculiar friendships, can be seen as establishing a precedent for the sons of God found in Genesis. Those who came from the heavens and found the women of the earth to be fair, and who mated with them and had children by them. One such child might be this Gilgamesh, whose rebellion marks the beginning of the developing mind of man reacting against the rules imposed on him, both by society and the apparent hypocrisies and seemingly self-serving laws of the powers that be. King Gilgamesh lived and reigned about 2700 BC. According to the Sumerian king list, he was the fourth king of Uruk in Sumer. There are in fact several variations of his story that spans centuries, and much archaeological evidence supports his actual existence, many of the attesting documents found in the library of Vassarbonopol. What follows is a presentation of the full context of Tablet XI, which any discerning listener will see as a precursor to the story of Noah found in the Bible. The specific Atrahasis flood story, though, may be based on an even earlier tale incorporated into the Gilgamesh epic, and in any case posits an account of a deluge that could have its origins millennia before the Hebrew account. The Epic of Gilgamesh Tablet XI The Story of the Flood Gilgamesh spoke to Utanapishtim, the far away. I have been looking at you, but your appearance is not strange. You are like me. You yourself are not different. You are like me. My mind was resolved to fight with you. My arm lies useless over you. Tell me, how is it that you stand in the assembly of the gods and have found life? Utanapishtim spoke to Gilgamesh, saying, I will reveal to you, Gilgamesh, a thing that is hidden, a secret of the gods I will tell you. Shurapach, a city that you surely know, situated on the banks of the Euphrates, that city was very old and there were gods inside it. The hearts of the great gods moved them to inflict the flood. Their father, Anu, uttered the oath of secrecy. Valiant Enlil was their advisor. Ninurta was their chamberlain. Ennugi was their minister of canals. Ea, the clever prince, was under oath with them, so he repeated their talk to the reed house. Reed house, reed house, wall, wall. O man of Shurapach, son of Ubaratutu, tear down the house and build a boat. Abandon wealth and seek living beings. Spurn possessions and keep alive living beings. Make all living beings go up into the boat. The boat which you are to build, its dimensions must measure equal to the other. Its length must correspond to its width. Roof it over like the Apsu. I understood and spoke to my lord Ea. My lord, thus is the command which you have uttered, which I will heed and do. But what shall I answer the city, the populace, and the elders? Ea spoke, commanding me, his servant. You well then, and this is what you will say to them. It appears that Enlil is rejecting me, so I cannot reside in your city nor set foot on Enlil's earth. I will go down to the Apsu to live with my lord Ea, and upon you he will rain down abundance, a profusion of foul, myriad fishes. He will bring to you a harvest of wealth. In the morning he will let loaves of bread shower down, and in the evening a rain of wheat. Just as the dawn began to glow, the land assembled around me. The carpenter carried his hatchet. The reed-worker carried his flattening stone. The men, the child carried the pitch. The weak brought whatever else was needed. On the fifth day I laid out her exterior. It was a field in area. Its walls were each ten times twelve cubits in height. The sides of its top were equal length, ten times its cubits each. I laid out its structure and drew a picture of it. I provided it with six decks, thus dividing it into seven levels. The inside of it I divided into nine compartments. I drove plugs to keep out water in its middle part. I sawed to the punting-poles and laid in what was necessary. Three times three thousand six hundred units of raw bitumen I poured into the bitumen kiln, three times three thousand six hundred units of pitch into it. There were three times three thousand six hundred porters of casks who carried vegetable oil, apart from the three thousand six hundred units of oil which they consumed, and two times three thousand six hundred units of oil which the boatmen stored away. I butchered the oxen for the meat, and day upon day I slaughtered the sheep. I gave the workmen ale, beer, oil, and wine, as if it were river water, so they could make a party like the New Year's festival, and I set my hand to the oiling. The boat was finished by sunset. The launching was very difficult. They had to keep carrying a runaway of poles from back to front until two-thirds of it had gone into the water. Whatever I had loaded on it, whatever silver I had loaded on it, whatever gold I had loaded on it, all of the living beings that I had loaded on it, I had all my kith and kin go up into the boat. All the beasts and animals of the field and the craftsmen I had go up. Shamash had set a stated time. In the morning I will let loaves of bread shower down, and in the evening a rain of wheat. Go inside the boat, seal the entry. That stated time had come. In the morning he let loaves of bread shower down, and in the evening a rain of wheat. I watched as the appearance of the weather. The weather was frightful to behold. I went into the boat and sealed the entry. For the cocking of the boat, to Pazuramuri, the boatman, I gave the palace together with its contents. Just as dawn began to glow, there arose from the horizon a black cloud. Adad rumbled inside of it. Before him went Shalat and Hanish, heralds going over the mountain and land. Aragal pulled out the mooring poles. Forth went Nintura and made the dykes overflow. The Anunnaki lifted up their torches, setting the land ablaze with their flair. Stunned shock over Adad's deeds overtook the heavens and turned to blackness all that had been made light. The land shattered like a pot. All day long the south wind blew, blowing fast, submerging the mountain in water, overwhelming the people like an attack. No one could see his fellow. They could not recognize each other in the torrent. The gods were frightened by the flood and retreated, ascending to the heaven of Anu. The gods were cowering like dogs, crouching by the outer wall. Ishtar shrieked like a woman in childbirth. The sweet-voiced mistress of the gods wailed, The olden days have at last turned to clay, because I said evil things in the assembly of the gods. How could I say evil things in the assembly of the gods? Ordering a catastrophe to destroy my people. No sooner have I given birth to my dear people than they fill the sea like so many fish. The gods, those of the Anunnaki, were weeping with her. The gods humbly sat weeping, sobbing with grief, their lips burning, parched with thirst. Six days and seven nights came the wind and flood, the storm flattening the land. When the seventh day arrived, the storm was pounding. The flood was a war, struggling with itself like a woman writhing in labor. The sea calmed, fell still. The whirlwind and flood stopped up. I looked around all day long. Quiet had set in, and all the human beings had turned to clay. The terrain was flat as a roof. I opened a vent, and fresh air, daylight, fell upon the side of my nose. I fell to my knees and sat weeping, tears streaming down the side of my nose. I looked around for coastlines in the expanse of the sea, and at twelve leagues there emerged a region of land. On Mount Nimish the boat lodged firm. Mount Nimish held the boat, allowing no sway. One day and a second Mount Nimish held the boat, allowing no sway. A third day. A fourth. Mount Nimish held the boat, allowing no sway. A fifth day. A sixth. Mount Nimish held the boat, allowing no sway. When the seventh day arrived, I sent forth a dove and released it. The dove went off, but came back to me. No perch was visible, so it circled back to me. I sent forth a swallow and released it. The swallow went off, but came back to me. No perch was visible, so it circled back to me. I sent forth a raven and released it. The raven went off and saw the water slither back. It eats, it scratches, it bobs, but does not circle back to me. Then I sent out everything in all directions and sacrificed a sheep. I offered incense in front of the mountain, Ziggurat. Seven and seven cult vessels I put in place, and into the fire underneath, or into their bowls, I poured reeds, cedar, and myrtle. The gods smelled the savor. The gods smelled the sweet savor and collected like flies over a sheep's sacrifice. Just then, Bellatilly arrived. She lifted up the large flies, beads, which Anu had made for his enjoyment. You gods, as surely as I shall not forget this lapis lazuli around my neck, may I be mindful of these days and never forget them. The gods may come to the incense offering, but Enlil may not come to the incense offering, because without considering, he brought about the flood and consigned my people to annihilation. Just then Enlil arrived. He saw the boat and became furious. He was filled with rage at the Igigi gods. Where did a living being escape? No man was to survive the annihilation. Nintura spoke to valiant Enlil, saying, Who else but Ea could devise such a thing? It is Ea who knows every machination. Ea spoke to valiant Enlil, saying, It is yours, O valiant one, who is the sage of the gods. How? How could you bring about a flood without consideration? Charge the violation to the violator. Charge the offense to the offender. But be compassionate, lest mankind be cut off. Be patient, lest they be killed. Instead of you bringing on the flood, would that a lion had appeared to diminish the people. Instead of you bringing on a flood, would that a wolf had appeared to diminish the people. Instead of your bringing on the flood, would that a famine had occurred to slay the land. Instead of your bringing on the flood, would that a pestilent era had arrived to ravage the land. It was not I who revealed the secret of the great gods. I only made a dream appear to Atrahasis. And thus he heard the secret of the gods. Now then, the deliberation should be about him. Enlil went up inside the boat, and, grasping my hand, made me go up. He had my wife go up and kneel by my side. He touched our forehead, and standing between us, he blessed us. Previously, Utana-Pishtim was a human being. But now, let Utana-Pishtim and his wife become like us, the gods. Let Utana-Pishtim reside far away at the mouth of the rivers. They took us far away and settled us at the mouth of the rivers. Now then, who will convene the gods on your behalf that you may find the life that you are seeking? Wait, you must not lie down for six days and seven nights. As soon as he sat down, with his head between his legs, sleep like a fog blew upon him. Utana-Pishtim said to his wife, Look there, the man, the youth who wanted eternal life, sleep like a fog blew over him. His wife said to Utana-Pishtim the far away, Touch him, let the man awaken. Let him return to safety by the way he came. Let him return to his land by the gate through which he left. Utana-Pishtim said to his wife, Mankind is deceptive and will deceive you. Come, bake loaves for him and keep setting them by his head and draw on the wall each day that he lay down. She baked his loaves and placed them by his head and marked the wall the day that he lay down. The first loaf was desiccated. The second, stale. The third, moist. The fourth, turned white. The sixth is still fresh. The seventh. Suddenly, he touched him and the man awoke. Gilgamesh said to Utana-Pishtim the far away, Oh, woe! What shall I do, Utana-Pishtim? Where shall I go? The snatcher has taken hold of my flesh. In my bedroom, death dwells. And wherever I set foot, there too is death. Home, empty-handed, Utana-Pishtim said to Ushanabi, The ferryman, may the harbor reject you. May the ferry landing reject you. May you who used to walk its shores be denied its shores. The man in front of whom you walk, matted hair chains his body. Animal skins have ruined his beautiful skin. Take him away, Ushanabi. Bring him to the washing place. Let him wash his matted hair in water like Elu. Let him cast away his animal skin and have the sea carry it off. Let his body be moistened with fine oil. Let the wrap around his head be made new. Let him wear royal robes worthy of him. Until he goes off to his city, until he sets off on his way, let his royal robe not become spotted. Let it be perfectly new. Ushanabi took him away and brought him to the washing place. He washed his matted hair with water like Elu. He cast off his animal skin and the sea carried it off. He moistened his body with fine oil and made a new wrap for his head. He put on a royal robe worthy of him. Until he went away to his city, until he set off on his way, his royal robe remained unspotted. It was perfectly clean. Gilgamesh and Ushanabi boarded the boat. They cast off the Magalu boat and it sailed away. The wife of Utanapishtim the far away said to him, Gilgamesh came here exhausted and worn out. What can you give him so that he can return to his land with honor? Then Gilgamesh raised a punting pole and drew the boat to shore. Utanapishtim spoke to Gilgamesh saying, Gilgamesh, you came here exhausted and worn out. What can I give you so that you can return to your land? I will disclose to you a thing that is hidden, Gilgamesh. I will tell you. There is a plant, like a box thorn, whose thorns will prick your hand like a rose. If your hands reach that plant, you will become a young man again. Hearing this, Gilgamesh opened a conduit to the Apsu and attached heavy stones to his feet. They dragged him down to the Apsu. They pulled him. He took the plant, though it pricked his hand, and cut the heavy stones from his feet, letting the waves throw him onto its shores. Gilgamesh spoke to Urshannabi the ferryman saying, Urshannabi, this plant is a plant against decay by which a man can attain his survival. I will bring it to Uruk Haven and have an old man eat the plant to test it. The plant's name is The Old Man Becomes a Young Man. Then I will eat it and return to the condition of my youth. At twenty leagues they broke for some food. At thirty leagues they stopped for the night. Seeing a spring and how cool its waters were, Gilgamesh went down and was bathing in the water. A snake smelled the fragrance of the plant, silently came up and carried off the plant. While going back, it sloughed off its casing. At that point Gilgamesh sat down weeping, his tears streaming over the side of his nose. Counsel me, O ferryman Urshannabi. For whom have my arms labored, Urshannabi? For whom has my heart's blood roiled? I have not secured any good deed for myself, but done a good deed for the Lion of the Ground. Now the high waters are coursing twenty leagues distant. As I was opening the conduit, I turned my equipment over into it. What can I find to serve as a marker for me? I will turn back from the journey by sea and leave the boat by the shore. At twenty leagues they broke for some food. At thirty leagues they stopped for the night. They arrived in Uruk Haven. Gilgamesh said to Urshannabi the ferryman, Go up, Urshannabi, onto the wall of Uruk and walk around. Examine its foundation. Inspect its brickwork thoroughly. Is not even the core of the brick structure of kiln-fired brick? And did not the seven sages themselves lay out its plan? One league city. One league palm gardens. One league lowlands. The open area of the Ishtar Temple. Three leagues. And the open area of Uruk it encloses. An angry god. A big flood. Humanity saved. And then a repentant god who vows to never again attempt to destroy humanity in such a way. Clearly, this is the same flood spoken about in the Bible. Let's make a mention that the combination of the gods Enki and Enlil make the Sumerian version of this legend a bit more believable. In the version found in the Epic of Gilgamesh, we have a disagreement among the two main gods. One wanting to destroy man. The other wanting to save him. In the Biblical version, God is not only represented as uncontrollably emotional and really ruthless like Enlil, he also doesn't have, apparently, the foresight to understand the impact of his actions on his creation or on the world at large, nor the emotional intelligence to consider for a moment that later he might actually regret his actions.