By Maximilian Lormier Utanapishtim, the hope of Gilgamesh.
The king of Uruk is a legend in Mesopotamian literature. He actually existed or not, we're still at the stage of speculation today regarding its existence, but its epic has crossed borders and ages to achieve, since its rediscovery in the nineteenth century AD a new form of eternity it had lost during the last two millennia. The king, half god, half human, faced with the dilemma of the most important of his life. Powerful, strong and respected, Gilgamesh became aware of his own mortality and thus the ephemeral nature of life, when the goddess Ishtar, to whom he had refused, murdered his friend Enkidu. He abandoned his city and then went in search of the only human who knew the secret of eternal life, Utanapishtim - literally "I found my life" - who lived on the edge of the world. After many misadventures, Gilgamesh finally came before the wise old Utanapishtim in which he begged him to reveal the secret of eternal life only reserved for the gods. Although qu'Utanapishtim advised him to surrender, he told how the gods made him immortal.
King City Shuruppak he was warned by Ea, Enki's Akkadian name, thanks to a hidden message in a reed, an impending flood that would destroy all mankind. In this message Ea Utanapishtim ordered to surrender his house and build a boat - a cube-shaped - and enclose it with his wife and one specimen of each species alive. The boat was completed in seven days and as we had ordered, he shut himself up, taking with him his wealth, his family, animals and finally all the craftsmen of all trades. The storm then went up and rain began to fall. The cataclysm lasted six days and seven nights and was so violent that it terrified the gods themselves. The old Utanapishtim then told that all men were reverted clay - their source material - and silence prevailed. The boat landed on Mt Nimush (probably in the Zagros mountain range) and sent forth a dove Utanapishtim returned, then a swallow which eventually return it too, and finally a raven, he does not return. He opened the doors of the boat and scattered the animals. He offered an offering to the gods turned around like hungry flies. The gods then decided never to destroy humanity and offered to former Shuruppak King, and his wife, eternal life. In exchange, he would leave the world inhabited by men.
Gilgamesh will not get the secret of eternal life and finally returned to Uruk. However his journey was not provided uninformative. His travels brought him wisdom, and the text says that it is a good shepherd he returned to Uruk he would make a huge and beautiful city.
