Sunday, September 9, 2012

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.  

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