Sumerian Mythology Sleep Stories: Epic of Gilgamesh (2 hours+ ASMR)

hello everyone and welcome to this new journey into ancient mythology i have lots of things to tell you about but to immediately get into the mood let's begin with the first chapter the first tablet of our comments right for tonight the epic of gilgamesh [Music] this is a story of adventure heroism miracles wonders and self-discovery it happened so far back into the past that the world was still young gods intervened in mortals lives much more often than they do now and at the time the largest and most glorious city in the entire world was iraq near the river euphrates the streets the shops and the markets of iraq teemed with life its temples shined and their splendor was unrivalled its palaces housed luxurian gardens and the most exquisite apartments iraq was rich powerful refined civilized but its people were not happy in the most some tiers of palaces resided their king and he was the origin of the atonement gilgamesh that was his name was no mere mortal he had gods among his ancestors he was the legitimate king of iraq but instead of using his power to protect and make his subjects happy he terrorized them gilgamesh was brutal and merciless the young women of iraq had to be kept at his disposal and he used and abused of his lord's right to sleep with them on their wedding night the young men were enrolled in forced labor and had to sacrifice their youth and their strength on the gigantic monuments that the king wanted to see build in his honor children learned to fear their brutal and merciless master from a young age and only death liberated the people of iraq from the tyranny of gilgamesh despite their wealth and the beauty of their city the people of iraq secretly prayed to god to put an end to the king's oppression the gods responded to the people's pleas they had grown dissatisfied with how gilgamesh abused his power and they knew that simple mortals would not be able to stop him so they created an equal to gilgamesh a primitive man made from soil by the god enki and this new being the creation of enki was named enkidu gilgamesh was educated he wore clothes and jewels so he was civilized despite his brutality whereas enkidu was wild he was covered in hair and lived with animals in a forest surviving alone on the food he could gather and hunt but he was as strong as gidu mesh and the threads of destiny had been arranged by the gods in a manner that would make the two meet and fight in the future but during several moons after his creation then kiddu only lurked in the wilderness and ignored his human nature until a trapper noticed his existence his traps were uprooted systematically by an ekidu and this ruined his livelihood the trapper was worried and so he went to shamash the sun god that ruled over justice morality and truth from the heavens as he crossed them every day on his son chariot shamash acknowledged that it wasn't fair for the trapper to have his life ruined and he also knew about enkidu and his reason to be so a plan was made to take enkidu out of the wilderness and begin to tame him it was arranged for a temple prostitute called shamath to seduce enkidu shamath slept with men against payment as part of her worshipping and she was a servant of the gods when sham had found in kidu the white man was immediately ravished by her beauty and followed her after several days and nights spent with her making love and seeing the ways of civilization and kiddu began to change through senses and pleasure his human nature had begun to embrace the blessings of culture and civilization revealing the man behind the beast sham had fed him she made him wear clothes but he still had a lot to learn and after a while shamat took enkidu to a shepherd's camp where he would socialize and continue to learn how to be civilized meanwhile in iraq gilgamesh ignored what the gods had prepared but he felt that something would soon happen he had dreams about the arrival of a beloved new companion the threats of destiny continued to be woven into the lives of all men and soon the two would meet but even the girls are not all-powerful and what they couldn't know is that their encounter would be the starting point of a story that would live on in memories for thousands of years the story is just beginning and if you cannot wait to know what happens next there are time stamps to help you navigate to the parts you are interested in but as always we are also going to take a look at history and explore the culture or in that case the cultures that produced the epic of gilgamesh and the relations of the myth to archaeology iraq is not a fictional city its ruins still exist and it was populated until the first centuries of our era it was also thousands of years ago at the time of sumer probably the largest urban area in the world and we're going to talk about the emergence of this sumerian civilization as well as other mesopotamian civilizations that inherited from sumer and themselves passed on their heritage to the persians the greeks the romans the jews the uraps tonight we have taken place in a camp near the site of urak and we are surrounded by stones that were carved thousands of years ago and have seen dozens of generations live among them they have heard many languages and they have waited in silence for more than a thousand years since the city was abandoned after a hot day the temperature is now ideally warm with a soft breeze that brings us a light scent of honey of spices and flowers we could almost smell the subtle sacred incense that was burnt in these temples near us for centuries above our heads the sky is turning to a dark blue where the first stars slowly show up this is perfect for story time around our campfire as you know mesopotamia was one of the cradles of civilization because it was one of the first regions in the world where cultures with cities state a writing system appeared but contrary to others like egypt that was very inward looking mesopotamia was in contact with a lot of neighbours from india and persia to anatolia the mediterranean sea the arabic peninsula egypt also had contacts with the outside world but due to its geography it worked a lot like an island it was surrounded by deserts instead of seas but it was still hard to reach and except for a relatively short time during the new kingdom ancient egypt was not expansionist this limited exchange both ways for ancient egypt mesopotamia was a much more open and disputed region many states and cities rose and fell in this area some expanded well beyond mesopotamia like the assyrians and babylon we'll discuss this there were foreign invaders so mesopotamia exported and imported a lot of inventions of concepts techniques culture in general and as we will see later in this talk the epic of gilgamesh is a good example of that because you will probably recognize a lot of ideas of myths or tropes that reappeared later in other cultures and religions that they had been present and put into writing first in mesopotamia before we resume the story just take a short moment to relax and adopt a comfortable position you know that if this is more convenient for you you can always listen to my stories on spotify apple music and other streaming services that can be a good alternative if you don't want ambient sounds during and after the story and if you wish to support this channel download audios and videos listen to stories as podcasts get information about upcoming stories and what i'm working on you are welcome to join my patreon page i feel like i never thank my patrons enough for what they do they keep me going they fund the channel and they help keep it free of outbreaks for everyone so a big thank you to them and now let's take a second tablet there are 12 in total and let's go on with the story we posed when enkidu had spent time with sramat the prostitute and began his transformation into a civilized man and she had brought him along to a shepherd's camp to continue his education at the camp he discovered bread he also socialized and was given a role that of the night watchman enkidu was becoming more educated every day and the wild creature that he once was was now fading away but he still had no idea about the wider world having known only his forest then shamath and the pleasure of senses and now the shepherd and his few companions he had never seen a city or even a village and there were no women at the camp which was a pity because he had not forgotten his days with shamath but it happened one day that a stranger passed by the camp and as always he was welcomed and asked to tenuous from the outside world the stranger talked about iraq and gilgamesh his reign of terror was well known across the land but this was entirely new to enkidu and when the traveler told him about how gilgamesh spent the night with brides on their wedding night enkidu was incensed to his simple and naive mind it appeared unacceptable that gilgamesh would force himself on every young woman and even more infuriating was the fact that enkidu couldn't do it it was time for him to live as he was realizing that so many things happened in the world and that he could discover these things this had become an obsession he needed to travel to iraq and confront this gilgamesh and so he left the shepherd's camp behind and traveled to iraq which was so incredibly large and imposing with its high walls that he once again realized that the world was much more diverse and worthy of wonder than he had ever thought there was a wedding this day and everybody knew what it meant once again gilgamesh would visit the wedding chamber and have his way but this time enkidu was determined to intervene he also went to the wedding and when gilgamesh attempted to visit the chamber he blocked his way gilgamesh was not used to resistance and was infuriated by this half-wild creature that had the audacity to confront him a king and a son of a goddess he attacked in kiddu and the two fought for a long time gilgamesh had never faced an opponent that strong and even though he was taller and more trained in the art of fighting than enkidu he had a very hard time dominating the fight eventually he did and enkidu had to acknowledge that gilgamesh was stronger than him but the fierce fight had changed them both had gained respect for the other strength gilgamesh also remembered his dreams announcing that a new companion would soon appear could it be ankido for the first time he may have found a friend that he could respect and cherish and this is how gilgamesh and nkidu became friends and each of them changed for the better with his friendship both were less alone their world was more colorful gilgamesh learned respect for another being while enkidu continued to refine his civilized self and so it was decided that enkidu could stay in iraq and the two friends were now making plans for adventures they could share gilgamesh dreamt of glory and came up with an audacious idea they could travel together to the cedar forest a magnificent and ancient forest that belonged to the gods and once there they would slay together its guardian a monster a giant of immemorial age called humbaba enkidu was more cautious even though he had been created recently he knew that this could be very dangerous and maybe upset the gods the council of elders in iraq also warned against this expedition but gilgamesh didn't care about caution and he convinced ankido to join him on this quest the choice was made they would go together kill the monster and cut trees to bring this precious wood back to iraq before departing they received advice from the elders and gilgamesh visited his mother ninsen ninsen lived in iraq she had fallen in love long ago with the former king gilgamesh's father and she had stayed in the city to raise her son she was the daughter of anu the supreme god of the sky who had feathered all other gods and her mother was urash goddess of earth ninsen was a loving and caring mother and she worried about what could happen to gilgamesh in a fight against the monstrous humbaba so she seeked the support and protection of the sun god shamash for her son the same shamash who had sent in kidu on his journey of education and civilization shamash accepted to look after gilgamesh and insane even adopted enkidu giving him a family and making him the brother of gilgamesh the two were now ready to travel to the cedar forest we will soon resume our story and again if you wish to you can use the timestamps to go straight to tablet number four but before let's take a historical look at mesopotamia and the sources of this story gilgamesh is originally a sumerian hero but the version of this epic i am telling you is largely based on an assyrian source a collection of tablets there are 12 that were discovered in a relatively good state and are one of the most important sources of the epic of gilgamesh but not the only one so let's go back in time to understand what happened sumer is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of mesopotamia and one of the first civilizations in the world in the sense that it acquired cities a relatively complex political organization and a writing system its culture emerged between the 6th and 5th millennium bc that is to say about 7 000 years ago and it covered an area along the valleys of the tigress and euphrates two large rivers hence the name mesopotamia which comes from greek and means in between rivers in this southern part of mesopotamia the land was fertile the climate was warm but it was not desertical thanks to the rivers and sumerian farmers could grow a lot of different grains and other crops with enough productivity to feed non-farmers and enable urban settlements to appear in the 4th millennium bc the first traces of writing appeared and it seems cities became larger especially iraq which was one of the first to reach a really large size more than 5 000 years ago it is believed that iraq had a population of 40 000 inhabitants and including villages this could go up to 80 to 90 thousand that was a huge number at the time it probably made iraq the largest the most populated urban settlement in the world there was nothing comparable at the time even in egypt or in china sumer was not a kingdom not a state it was a cultural area a civilizational area and cities were independent from one another each was centered on a temple dedicated to the particular patron guard or goddess of the city and the city was ruled over by a priest or a king they made this distinction but in both cases the rulers concentrated religious and political powers in their hands the two were not necessarily separated there were several periods in the evolution of sumer a wreck dominated or was one of the dominant cities in one of the most ancient periods in the 4th millennium bc before even the pyramids of egypt were built southern mesopotamia is not a very large region but sumer expanded its cities sent traders and colonists saudi influence of summer expanded to all neighboring cultures and it can be considered the ancestor civilization of other civilizations that followed in mesopotamia gives us an example of this his origin is sumerian but the character was part of ulterior mythologies along with the gods and the different names because the languages changed by the end of the 4th millennium bc iraq declined relatively to other cities it didn't disappear and it was not the end of summer far from that but it seems that in the third millennium the cities were increasingly ruled by kings forming dynasties rather than priests among these kings there was a king of herak called gilgamesh he was probably a real historical figure and he would have lived sometime in the early 3rd millennium bc this was a time when writing spread and adopted a syllabic system in summer a time of prosperity as far as we know and gilgamesh became the kind of patriarchal figure a symbolic ancestor to sumerian kings his name became mythical as the third millennium advanced it seems more conflicts happened within summer and with their neighbors the cities were warned for protection and large states larger kingdoms with multiple cities and frontiers appeared also along the third millennium a new power rose north of the traditional sumerian area a state centered on the city of akkad i told you earlier that sumer had strongly influenced the rest of mesopotamia the exact location of hackad is unknown it could have been somewhere around the modern city of baghdad as akad was rising along the centuries the acadians and the sumerians developed a kind of cultural symbiosis they had different languages but bilingualism became common across centre and south mesopotamia at least for a small elite of rulers and traders they shared similar beliefs and political organizations and he sled in the second half of the third millennium to a takeover of sumer by akkad the acadians conquered all of mesopotamia and founded an empire its founder was king sargon of akkad it was an empire in the sense that it was a state ruling over different peoples with different cultures and languages and it extended beyond mesopotamia so the acadian empire is sometimes referred to as the first empire in history this is debatable because it depends on how empire is defined and there could be other claimants among smaller but earlier sumerian kingdoms but in any case this marked the political unification of mesopotamia the acadian empire reached its peak between the 24th and 22nd centuries bc and it eliminated sumerian city-states it made the sumerian language decline but it also carried on the cultural legacy of sumer and spread it the sumerian language continued to be used for centuries when the acadian empire fell there was a short resurgence of sumerian cities as independent powers that their influence and their wealth never really recovered one of the reasons could have been the rising salinity of soils that compromised the agricultural productivity in southern mesopotamia in any case the region was declining in the early 2nd millennium bc and increasingly the mesopotamian population moved north to a more favorable lands sumerian language kept declining to the point of becoming only written and it was replaced in all of mesopotamia by languages derived from acadian which was a semitic language contrary to sumerian after that after centuries of fragmentation the peoples of mesopotamia eventually formed two major acadian speaking nations assyria in the north and babylonia in the south i refer to them in various stories but i will probably make a new story in the future about the various empires of mesopotamia now importantly for religion mythology and the epic of gilgamesh these various mesopotamian cultures or civilizations were closely apparently and sumer was their matrix an important predecessor to all of them and so the story i am telling you tonight is not based on direct sumerian sources it is based on the clay tablets covered in cuneiform text the writing system of ancient mesopotamia that were discovered with a collection of thousands of other tablets from assyria in the north of mesopotamia and this version is called the standard babylonian version babylonian even though they were found in assyria because standard babylonian is about the style of writing not the state that produced the tablets there is another less complete version written in old babylonian that could be put together from fragments of diverse origins and then there are plenty of partial references to the myths of gilgamesh in poems and other texts that were found in sumerian acadian assyrian and babylonian archaeological sites the story circulated for centuries and centuries different versions coexisted and this is why the anecdotes included into the narrative or the meaning they seem to have can be quite different from one version to another the standard babylonian version which is the most comprehensive was compiled at the end of the second millennium bc it is 3 000 to 3500 years old when this version was put together the epic of gilgamesh was already a very ancient piece of literature and storytelling it had been around for more than a thousand years let's let's move on with the story and see what happened to our heroes gilgamesh had convinced enkidu to accompany him to the cedar forest where they would face the terrifying humbaba nobody really knew what umbaba looked like because very few had dared to enter the cedar forest and no one had ever returned alive to tell the journey to the forest would take them several days so they would camp in the mountains gilgamesh had obtained protection from the sun god shamash thanks to his mother's intervention so he asked god to send him dreams that would help him prepare for the fight on the first night he dreamt about fooling mountains on a second night of thunderstorms on the third night of wild bulls and finally overstand the bird that braced fire these images were frightening and they seemed to correspond to various appearances attributed to humber but gilgamesh and enkidu refused to let fear get to them and they declared these dreams were good omens still fear mounted as they got closer and closer to the cedar forest one day they reached their destination and they saw the vast expanse of green trees that had stood for eons and that no mortal dared to visit suddenly they heard crawling coming from inside the forest without a doubt it was humber and now it was too late to turn away the two friends encourage each other not to be afraid and they entered the cedar forest whom baba knew whatever happened in this forest and soon showed himself to the intruders the monster was like no other creature in the world the head and powers of a lion his body was covered in thorny scales his feet had the clouds of a vulture and on his lion head were the horns of a white bull whereas his tail ended in a snake's head humber did not tolerate any intruders in his forest and so he immediately insulted and threatened them demanding that they leave immediately he accused in kiddu of betrayal for being a creature of the gods that was turning against another creature of the gods and he promised to kill gilgamesh and feed his flesh to the birds gilgamesh felt his confidence faciliate in front of the horrifying monster but then kiddu encouraged his friend and the battle began humbaba turned into a whirlpool of clothes horns and teeth and gilgamesh did not manage to hit the creature mirroring the wrath of the monster mountains around the forest began to quake and the sky turned black kirigamesh implored the sun god shamash to keep his word and help him in response shamash sent winds from the sky to bind humbaba and this with an attack from gilgamesh could finally push the monster back after an exhausting fight umbaba was captured acknowledging his defeat the monster pleaded for his life and offered gilgamesh to make him king of the cedar forest and cut trees for him gilgamesh pitted the defeated creature and was inclined to spare his life but enkidu saw things differently he reminded his friend that humbaba should be killed to establish his reputation forever gilgamesh agreed and he killed the monster with a blow to the neck the cedar forest was no longer protected by its guardian and the two friends took the opportunity to cut down as many cedars as they could for their precious wood including a gigantic tree that gilgamesh planned to fashion into a gate for the temple of enlil the god of winds air and storms then the two heroes built a raft with their wood and returned home along the euphrates impatient to let the world know what they had accomplished gilgamesh and enkidu returned to iraq and were received as heroes their fame reached not only all cities of sumer but the realm of the gods too where deities were impressed with gilgamesh courage and accomplishment among them goddess ishtar had set her eyes on him all girls were worshipped in iraq but her cult was of much importance in the city where her biggest and wealthiest temple in the world stood ishtar was a patron goddess of herak and she could not ignore the city's king it had not escaped to her that kilgamesh was young good-looking and vigorous and she was the goddess of love of beauty and also of sexual pleasures which she now had decided to seek with him and so she appeared to the king and tried to seduce him but gilgamesh knew that ishtar was not all love and sweetness she had mistreated several of her previous lovers among them the past king of herak under her heavenly beauty and the charm that emanated from her body she also had a cold heart and liked to dominate and so he had the audacity to reject her advances which put the goddess in a state of rage her perfect face turned to a mask of wrath and she promised to take revenge for this outrage she went to her father the supreme god and ancestor of all gods anu and she asked him to send the bull of heaven onto a rock to avenge her the pool of heaven was a monstrous beast way bigger and more powerful than a normal bull it was as strong as humber but humbaba had been vanquished by kilgumeshaninkidu only with the help of the sun god shamash this time ishtar would make sure that no one could intervene and gilgamesh would receive the punishment she thought he deserved anu was not inclined to unleash the bull of heaven for a whim of his daughter but when he rejected her complaint she threatened to use her power to raise the dead and let them devour the living and who finally agreed to lend her the bull and she led it to iraq where the beast immediately caused devastation the bull ran and hit the ground which caused the earth to quake huge bits opened up and swallowed hundreds of men the level of the euphrates river was lowered causing the land to begin to dry and soon turn into a desert if nothing was made erect was facing complete destruction because of the raft of ishtar gilgamesh and enkidu could not count on any divine assistance this time but they bravely attacked the bull and after another fierce fight they slayed it when the last breath of life left the body of the beast enkidu took its heart and offered it to the sun god shamash who had helped him so much even before their fight into cedar forest when he was himself a wild creature ishtar appeared to them all rage and fury as she contemplated her failure to take revenge far from trying to appease her enkidu taunted her and the goddess disappeared the city of iraq had been saved and celebrated this victory but that night enkidu had a zombie dream that deeply troubled him this dream was an omen and showed him what was happening in the realm of gods all gods had watched what had happened in herak since histor had unleashed the bull of heaven and they didn't like to see inferior beings like gilgamesh and enkidu triumph against one of their own they had tolerated the saying of whom baba but after the killing of the bull they could no longer let mortal creatures disrespect them without reacting and so enkidu was marked for death his life would be taken as the prize for the offense that had been committed within the gathering of gods enkidu had only one defender shamash the sun god shamash protested but he couldn't do anything against the collective will of anu enlil ishtar and many others and so it was decided enkidu would perish enkidu was painfully aware of this sentence as the dream had revealed everything to him and he woke up desperate he now contemplated the loss of a life he had come to appreciate the discovery of his humanity of pleasure of culture his friendship with gilgamesh all this would be taken away from him and the pain made him resent those who had taken him away from his life as a white being in the forest the trapper shamath the prostitute the shepherd the gods he cursed them all shamash to god appeared to him and reminded him how shamath had fed and clothed him how he had discovered friendship and he told him how he would not be forgotten gilgamesh would honor him at his funeral and kedu understood that his past has a wild being when ignorance was placed because he couldn't suffer from feelings and loss this was gone for good he regretted his curses that the pain was still there the girls had been cruel enkidu would not die her hero in battle he would just lose his strength and die after 12 days agony as his body began to lose vital force he had another dream in which he had a glimpse of what awaited him after death in the dream he was taken captive to the underworld by an angel of death the underworld was a realm of dust and darkness where people were clothed in bird feathers and ate clay rather than real food supervised by terrifying beings gilgamesh stayed with his friend for his 12 days of agony both cried all the tears they could cry and at the end of the twelfth day when the last breath of life finally escaped ankito's body the friend of gatekeemesh was no more gilgamesh clanged to his body and denied he had died for several more days the time of joy friendship and adventures it was now all over at least for now and gilgamesh was only starting to grieve our story is far from over these were just the first seven tablets we're going to continue in a minute and don't worry gilgamesh will eventually bounce back because this is the cycle of life hope fear joy grief sadness it is at the same time marvelous and painful exciting and terrifying but maybe you noticed a few similarities between this story and other well-known narratives enkidu is marked for death after slaying sacred cattle the bull this sounds a lot like the episode of the cattle of helios in the odyssey by homer and so does the sense of power and tragedy from the idiot and the wanderings and marvels of the odyssey both works by homer are stories of adventure but they also invite to meditate on some fundamental issues of existence the epic of gilgamesh is much older than the iliad and the odyssey and it may have influenced them it is hard to be too assertive though because these are also archetypal aspects they may have been reinvented or they may share the same oral origin that existed long before both were put into writing but it is not just homer the story of how enkidu was created by a god and was a wild but innocent creature that lived among animals then was introduced to a woman shamath a woman who tempted him fed him made him discover count all pleasures covered his nakedness and how he had to leave his former realm unable to return this sounds a lot like the garden of eden in the bible and indeed scholars have recognized the parallels for a long time it is well possible that this influenced the hebrew bible there are many other elements of correlation in themes plot elements and characters we are now going to see an episode about a flood narrative that is strongly reminiscent of noah's flood but let's resume our story there are still many events and turns before this is over gilgamesh was devastated by the loss of enkidu and he delivered a lament in which he called upon nature and men to mourn for his friend forests mountains rivers wild animals all of herak everything had to participate in the morning gigamesh teared at his hair and clothes in grief recording what was now gone and could not return the banquet was organized treasures were offered to the gods of the underworld so that they would give enkidu a favorable reception a statue of his friend was commissioned as promised by shamash gilgamesh could not forget enkidu after these ceremonies gilgamesh left iraq because he could no longer stand the company of men his grief was too intense he started roaming the wild he had left behind clothes and traces of civilization only wearing animal skins and as the days the weeks the month passed in the wilderness his grief bit by bit became something else for the first time in his life he became fearful of his own death what could be done to retain this precious life it was a known fact that all humans had to die only the gods were immortal but it was also known that one exception had been made [Music] two humans two mortals had been granted eternal life by the gods they were utnapishtim meaning the faraway and his wife it happened once so far in the past that even the gods didn't remember it well that the decision was taken to wipe out all life in the world with a great flood only a few chosen man and animals were spared to restart life once the flood would be over the god henke tasked with nabishdim to build a great ship called the preserver of life in preparation for the flood nabishtin had followed the god's orders he had built the ship and together with his wife and a few other men he had survived they had been granted eternal life as a reward and it was believed that they now lived on an island beyond the end of earth gilgamesh decided to seek with nabishtim and learn the secret of eternal life from him this idea this new quest began to restore his will to live and the grave began to become less painful he still cherished the memory of enkidu but a new adventure was awaiting where could nabishteen's island be no one knew exactly but first kirigamesh had to travel to the end of the world and the end of the world was marked by the twin peaks of mount mashup a great mountain covered in cedar trees this was a long and perilous journey that gilgamesh would not let this stand in his way as he walked to mount machu he had to fight the pride of lions and face all the dangers but finally one day the twin peaks appeared on the horizon and gilgamesh reached the entrance of a tunnel that passed under the mountain this tunnel was the road of the sun each night when the sun disappeared and didn't illuminate the world it traveled across this passage before reappearing on the following day no man had ever entered the tunnel and its entrance was guarded by two scorpion monsters male and female the male tried to dissuade gilgamesh of entering but the female expressed sympathy for him and allowed his passage gilgamesh would ran to the road of the sun he had to hurry because the sun would enter the tunnel that night and he couldn't let it catch up with him after an exhausting race against time gigamesh reached the end of the road he had left the end of the world behind and entered a real paradise the garden of the gods a beautiful garden where trees were covered in jewels and everything rejoiced the eye everything but kilgamesh because he was disavowed and only wore animal skins after all this month in the wilderness the first person he met was sidori a goddess who ruled over fermentation she was a bruise and she assumed he was a thief or a murderer because of his scruffy look kid gomesh told her about the purpose of his journey and siddhuri tried to dissuade him from this quest because she was a goddess and she knew there was very little hope of success seeing his resolve she finally sent him to the ferryman who could help him cross the sea to utnapishtim thailand and gilgamesh went to find the fairy man who he needed because this was not a normal sea these were the waters of death and they were deadly to the touch kirimesh could cross and finally arrived at udnapishtims island the legend was true utnapishtim and his wife were still alive and they enjoyed their immortality far from humanity but when gilgamesh recounted his story and asked him for help the immortal man reprimanded him he declared that fighting the common fate of humans was futile and could only diminish life's choice gigamesh observed that with nabishdim was no different from any other men he didn't have powers like gods and he asked him how he obtained this immortality utm recounted his story and how the great god enlil had decided to send a deadly flood upon all mortal beings it was not part of enlil's plan to have any survivor and napishtim had been saved only because the god enki had told him to build a boat he gave him precise dimensions and told him how to seal it with pitch and asphalt his entire family went aboard together with his craftsmen and the animals they could gather then a violent storm arose so terrifying that the gods themselves retreated to the heavens leaving the earth where they had lived until then goddess ishtar lamented the destruction of humanity and the other gods wept at this unprecedented loss of lives the storm lasted six days and nights after which all the human beings were turned to clay returning to the soil they had been created from all except the few survivors on the boat after the flood was over his boat reached the emerged top of a mountain and the waters began to go down out of fear and gratitude with napishtime offered a sacrifice to the gods the gods were attracted to this unexpected offering and gathered around the mountain ishtar was happy that a few men had survived and could now repopulate the earth she could be jealous and angry and vindictive as gilgamesh knew from the episode when she had sent the bull of heaven to destroy her wreck but she was also a protector of mankind and genuinely cared for human beings when enlil the god responsible for the flood joined them near the mountaintop he was angry angry that there were survivors and he was ready to finish his work of destruction but the other guards confronted him and forced him to reconsider his way of applying disproportionate punishment and nearly came back to his senses and blessed nabishdim and his wife also rewarding them with eternal life for preserving life on earth and this is how utnapishtim received immortality there was no secret no recipe it was an unique gift that only enlil could have granted gilgamesh was unhappy with this explanation why should there be any limitation to his will of power him a king and now the most extraordinary hero the world had ever seen to demonstrate his point with nabish tim challenged gilgamesh to stay awake for six days and seven nights gigamesh tried but couldn't stay awake for so long and he fell asleep when he woke up the immortal told him that disproved how his quest was doomed to fail how could he conquer death when he couldn't even conquer sleep gilgamesh had to agree and bitter and disappointed he had to accept the reality of his nature he was a man not a god and his will of power could not do all as he was preparing to leave the island and returned to iraq the wife of utnavishtim intervened in his favor and she convinced her husband to offer him a parting gift they revealed him that even though immortality was inaccessible there was a plant that grew at the bottom of the sea that could make him young again this plant was unique there was no other like it in the universe and even though it was not immortality it could rejuvenate him once and make him gain years of life gilgamesh decided to go seek the plant and he binded stones to his feet so he could walk on the bottom of the sea he found and took the plant but as he was unsure about its effects he resolved to try a small part of it on an old man once he would have returned to iraq but at this moment fast like lightning a serpent stole the plant and escaped with it as gilgamesh watched the serpent depart he saw the animal shed its skin it had been rejuvenated but the plant was now lost gilgamesh wept at the futility of his efforts as he had lost this one last chance of gaining more lifetime he would remain mortal and as such reign over urak until another king replaced him having to learn the limitations of his nature the quest for immortality had failed but had it really thousands of years later his explodes are still remembered and told many girls of mesopotamia have been forgotten and have fallen into an eternal sleep whereas the name of gilgamesh is still alive in memories we have reached the end of our story i told you that there were 12 tablets in this standard babylonian version and we have gone through 11 of them the last one is also about gilgamesh but its content is inconsistent with the previous ones you remember that there were multiple versions of the legend and this 12th tablet is a translation of an earlier sumerian poem in which enkidu is still alive and gilgamesh becomes a king of the underworld this is why it belongs to another version of the story and can be left aside as far as storytelling is concerned based on the standard babylonian version so this is all for tonight i'll be back soon with a new story and in the meantime i'll let you enjoy the sweet sound of our camp and the restari sky sleep well sweet dreams oh wow so do so so do so do so so so so so so so so so so so so so do so so so so so so so so so so so so you

Channel: The French Whisperer ASMR

Views: 456,759

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Id: Yl1vgycZGQs

Length: 144min 46sec (8686 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 15 2021