Tablet XI Reading Response

Connecting to another text

This tablet of Gilgamesh relates in many ways to the stories of the Bible.  At the beginning of the tablet, Utnapishtim starts telling Gilgamesh his story of how he got admitted into the company of Gods.  Ea is telling Utnapishtim to build a boat and carry an instance of each living thing, because the city of Shurupak would be soon suffering a flood.  This relates to the story of Noah's Ark in the bible when God tells Noah to build an ark to save himself from the flood.  God tells Noah to take an instance of each living thing too.  Utnapishtim lasted 7 days building the boat, which is the same amount of days that God lasted creating the world.  When Utnapshtim set free the raven to see if it found a nearby place to settle, the raven never returned because unlike the other birds, it found land nearby.  In the story of Noah's Ark, Noah set free a raven to check for nearby dry land.  At the end of the tablet, when Gilgamesh finds the magic plant of youth, he settles down in a place with water to refresh himself.  While Utnapishtim was in the water, a serpent stole the magic plant.  This serpent represents evil, such as Satan the serpent in the Bible when he tricks Eve into eating the apple.  As you can see, this Tablet has a strong symbolism with some biblical stories such as Noah's Ark, Adam and Eve, and the Creation of the Universe.  

What I Think Will Happen After Death

This picture shows the Angel Gabriel, whom will take us to heaven when we die.

Epic of Gilgamesh reading blog entries

Personal Experience I-III: At the end of tablet III Gilgamesh and Enkidu are setting off for the Cedar Forest to kill Huwawa , the demon hateful to the sun god.  They were leaving Uruk as the brave heroes that dared to fight Hurawa, because everyone was blessing and warning them as they left the city.  I've personally lived a similar scenario when my cousin was chosen to serve in the Colombian military.  The soldiers in the military resemble Gilgamesh and Enkidu, because the soldiers are the national heroes that fight against the bad in the country (the bad criminals in the country resemble Hawawa the demon).  When my cousin was leaving the city, all of his friends and family blessed him infinitely and warned him about some things to watch out for.  When Gilgamesh's mother blessed and wished luck to both of them, I remembered what it felt like to say goodbye and not be sure if you'll see that person again.  Its the feeling of partial loss yet hope that everything wil be ok that I felt when my cousin left as well as Gilgamesh's mother when setting her son off to the Cedar Forest.

Connection to another story IV-V: I can relate what happens on this tablet to a movie named Operation Valkyrie.  When Gilgamesh and Enkidu are planning on how they will get to Huwawa and kill him, I realized that this event is very similar to the plot of Operation Valkyrie.  In this movie, a group of soldiers decide to work on killing a common enemy, Hitler.  They plan this very intricately with TEAMWORK.  Each of the soldiers helped greatly in their part to make this plan. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, in these tablets, TEAMWORK is very highlighted when they both say the phrase: "Two people, companions , they can prevail together against the terror." Throughout the journey they both help each other like teammates in order to achieve the death of Huwawa.  

Questions Tablet VI-VII:  Why didn't the Gods make Gilgamesh sick too? Why only Enkidu? Is the death of Enkidu in some way going to be a punishment for Gilgamesh? Is the dream a sign of what might happen to Enkidu? Does Enkidu die with hate towards Gilgamesh, because in the end he says, Gilgamesh is afraid and does not help me.  Could Gilgamesh have done something to help Enkidu? If I were the author, I would give a very brief explanation of why those were the last words of Enkidu and if he meant it literally.  I would do this, because as a reader it is difficult to understand if Enkidu is literally telling Gilgamesh that he's not helping him or if Enkidu had another dream/vision where Gilgamesh didn't help him.