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The Epic of Gilgamesh. Why did it make such an impact? When it was discovered, what Gilgamesh would do is he would sleep with the brides on their wedding night. Enkidu. He is invincibly strong, covered in hair, and lives in the wilderness with his herd of animal relatives. They say in some of the translations that Gilgamesh loved him like a woman. Gilgamesh goes and meets with an alewife, a barkeeper. Gilgamesh tells her the purpose of his journey. I'm looking for immortality. Gilgamesh rejects the advances of the goddess Ishtar. Ishtar asks her father Anu to send Gulana the Bull of Heaven to avenge her. Putin and Pisham tells Gilgamesh that at the bottom of the sea lives a box thorn like plant that will make him young again. It's conjectured that Gilgamesh exhausts the men through tests of strength, forced labor, or building projects. Gilgamesh is 2/3 God, 1 third man, and he's being a dick. What's up, everybody, and welcome back to Religion Camp. This is the show where I'm gonna explore all the most interesting stories from religion, mythology and all things divine from around the world of all ages. That's right, all the secret teachings. And today we're talking about the Epic of Gilgamesh. I don't know if you've ever heard of it. It might be the oldest piece of literature of all time. And today we're gonna be doing a couple spoilers, so if you haven't read it yet, too late. You had 4,000 years, so catch up. Okay? The Epic of Gilgamesh is an absolutely amazing story. It is the prototypical hero's journey. It'll basically show you where the idea of the hero's journey comes from. And it is a real remarkable piece of literature, or should I say literature? Perhaps it is a true historical account of an ancient king. Probably not, but let's see. Okay, why is it so important? Why did it make such an impact when it was discovered? And what is actually possessed on these tablets known as the Epic of Gilgamesh? Let's go all the way back to 1850. All right? A couple guys were just kicking around in the desert in Iraq, in Nineveh. These guys, Hormuzd Rassam and W.K. loftus in the 1850s. They're just kind of, you know, poking around in the sand, looking at stuff, and what do they find? None other than 15,000 fragments of Assyrian cuneiform tablets. Now, cuneiform is an interesting little way of Writing, basically you take these clay tablets and you press into it like some little indents and based off the indents you basically are able to spell out letters. From these letters you're able to spell out an awesome story. And what was on these tablets? It was the Epic of Gilgamesh. And this is a 4000 year old piece of literature that basically rocked the world. This was like the Game of Thrones of their time. Everyone was going buck wild for this thing. People were trying to read it non stop. They found many different versions from all different places, all in the same region. And it, it had a real chokehold on the people. And that's why you have so many different kind of like names and name translations. And they're kind of written in subtly different languages. Some of them are incomplete, like the Old Babylonian versions. There's only certain fragments where they couldn't actually complete the whole story. So the version we're gonna be going through today is the standard Babylonian version. This is like, I don't know, the Bible, they got different versions of it. So you got to make sure you got the right translation. This one doesn't have all the ye's and stuff. This is just the standard Babylonian version. And this is a, basically an interpretation or translation from a good man named Andrew George. Shall we begin? The story begins by introducing Gilgamesh, the king of uruk. Gilgamesh is 2/3 God, 1 third man. It's a pretty solid little ratio. There's. And he's being a dick. He's oppressing the people of his kingdom and they cry out to the gods for help. This was, this was Gilgamesh's little thing right here. Okay, Again, this guy is a king of a rook and the young woman of a rook. What Gilgamesh would do is he would sleep with the brides on their wedding night. That was like his little kink was his thing, right? That was like you would go around and find people getting married and if you saw Gilgamesh, bad news. That's what it was, dude. Gilgamesh was a real scumbag. And so all the men of a rook. And it says in this part of the sort of translation, the tablet is damaged at this point, so we don't know what the young men were saying. I'm assuming they're saying like, yo, stop smashing my girl. That's probably more or less what the, what the vibe was. Hey, can you stop dogging out my sweet baby? We don't have the exact translation, but that's Mark's translation. It's conjectured that Gilgamesh exhausts the men through tests of strength, forced labor or building projects. These are all very different things. I don't like that they just put them all in there. Like, yeah, these, you know, he would exhaust them through games, tests of strength, slavery. Like, that's all right. That's not at all. Yeah, he would make them do like a Sudoku or they would be a slave for a long time. All right, that's extremely different things. But regardless, he would basically get the man out of the picture. Okay. And then he would have his way with their sweet brides. Repulsive. So the gods responded to the people's pleas by creating an equal to Gilgamesh who would be able to stop his oppression. This is how we get Enkidu. Enkidu is a legend. He's an absolute wild man. He's invincibly strong, covered in hair, and lives in the wilderness with his herd of animal relatives. So this is the first part where the sort of epic of Gilgamesh starts to have comparisons to the Abrahamic religions, as people would say, as we know, if you're a Muzzy, if you're a Jew, if you're a Christiani we believe that Adam was made from clay. That's how God formed him. Initially, Enkidu, in this very early story, ostensibly older than the original penning of the Old Testament, was also made from clay. So people would point to that and be like, oh, that's an interesting similarity. Who knows, maybe. Maybe they just are all drawing from the same source material. You know what I mean? Who's to say? Here's a little sculpture of Enkidu. This guy looks absolutely insane, Diesel in all these pictures. Why is old mythological art so gay? Like, all these guys are just jacked. I mean, the crazy V lines. I mean, this makes me uncomfortable. Now, Enkidu is a wild man. He was out there. He got made by the gods to go take down Gilgamesh. That is his one job. The gods literally say to him, hey, we're going to make you out of clay. Put you with some animals in the wilderness. Go just F up Gilgamesh. He goes, all right, bet. No problem. He is spotted by a trapper. Not like a drug dealer, but like, like, like, like an actual guy that traps animals. And his livelihood is being ruined because Enkidu's destroying all his traps. The trapper tells the sun God, Shamash, about the man, and it is arranged that Enkidu will be seduced by Shamhat. This is known as, like, a Prostitute. All right? She's a hooker. That's basically the best way to put it. And. And her job is to tame him. That's how it's written in the text, to tame him, which is kind of wild. Like, this is how crazy this guy is. He's just got berries growing out of his beard and they're like, all right, can you just reel this guy in? Can you fix him? This is your little project. All right, Shamat, you gotta. You gotta make this guy not be such a degenerate. This is like when a cute girl starts dating. Like, just a. Just a frat guy. Like, look, he is just beer boxes on his walls. Like, can you just make him a civilized human being? So after six days and seven nights of lovemaking, Enkidu is weakened. That's what it says. This is on. This was buried with kings of the time. This was in their. In their actual, like, burial chambers. They were like, this story is awesome. Six days and seven nights of banging it out. Enkidu is weakened. His herd flees in horror. And Enkidu is shocked by his loneliness. But Shamat tries to comfort him. She says, do not grieve. You now have knowledge like the gods. Then she takes him to the shepherd's camp, teaches him to be civilized, cuts his hair. This is basically like Princess bride. Oh, no. Princess Diaries. Yeah, Princess Diaries. This is where they take, like, the girl with the fuzzy hair and they make her not ugly anymore, which is like such. It's the best. They're just like, take a girl with glasses. Like, you're so ugly. Take your glasses off like you're a princess. So that's basically what they do with. With Ankadoo. He's just wearing glasses and they take them off. They're like, wow, I guess you're just like a jacked handsome guy. They cut his hair. He learns to eat human food and drink beer. This guy's so chill. I mean, what a week for him, right? Hanging with all his animals in the woods. Gets just like. I guess he's getting assaulted for seven nights. I don't know. It seems like he, like. No, he gets weakened. I don't know if he even likes it. He's just getting absolutely. Just road to smithereens. Just getting absolutely grinded up by a sham hat and doesn't seem like he's stoked on it. Loses all his friends and then learns about beer. I mean, this is just a. This is a freshman dude. I don't know, a guy. A college freshman. A guy freshman. All right. Don't make it weird. So imagine this. All of a sudden, we're seeing Enkidu's whole side. He's having this insane day. He's getting dogged out, bent over, tied up, drinking beer. Gilgamesh, meanwhile, is having dreams about a brand new friend, a new buddy that he's gonna kick it with from all time. Seems kind of weird. We know Enkidu is trying to kill Gilgamesh. That's the whole story. Fast forward tablet two. The shepherd's camp. To those who have been accustomed, Enkidu is appointed night watchman, learning from a passing stranger about Gilgamesh's treatment of the brides. He's incensed in Trav to Uruk to intervene at a wedding. This is where these two guys finally face off. Gilgamesh attempts to visit the wedding chamber. We don't like that. Enkidu blocks his way and they fight. This guy is a real. A proper white knight. He's like, yo, you're not gonna dog out this guy's wife, all right? You gotta stop it. And Gilgamesh is like, I'll do whatever I want, dude. I'm two thirds of a God. And Enkidu's like, nah, nah, nah. After a fierce battle, Enkidu loses, like he's sent by the gods. You go, just F up Gilgamesh. And he can't do. Literally, he's like, stop. And then Gilgamesh is like, no. And they. And this is the part that's crazy to me. 1941, Hitler took command of the German army. 1997, Titanic premiered in the theaters. 1777, George Washington led troops into the winter quarters of Valley Forge. There's all these explanations for everything that's going on in our newsletter. That's right. That's where I learned all this. You go on a first date and you're talking to a girl, you're like, hey, did you know 1941, Hitler took over Germany today? Whoa. And she's probably like, that's you. You're an awesome guy. You could be the most interesting person on every date, get laid easier and make more friends. If you subscribe to the newsletter. And not only that, I'm sure you've seen I've been wearing merch. I've been wearing sick brand new merch on episodes of Flagrant. I'm sitting right next to 50 cent in this picture right here, wearing brand new merch. Everything that's going on in the camp world, in my world and in our world is going on in the newsletter, s'more Camp. Click on the link in the description below. I'll see you there. Let's get back to the show. Gilgamesh just beats him up, crushes him. Not even that hard. It doesn't really say exactly how, but you gotta imagine Gilgamesh is like pretty horny. He's walking into the room, probably rock hard, and then has to fight a guy just bricked up. And then the craziest part, they become friends. I don't know if you've ever gotten your ass beat, right? Like the last. Like a guy with a rock hard boner's fucking you up. And all of a sudden he's like, yo, we're good. And you're like, yeah, we're good. That's crazy. Like, I don't. This is, I think this is obviously fiction at this point. And they become friends and then Gilgamesh out of nowhere goes, hey, remember when I just beat you up my out. You want to go to the forest and kill a demon? And Anki dude's like, yeah, let's do it. What's, what's, what's good with this demon? He's like, it's Humbaba. He's living out in the woods in the cedar forest. And if we can, if we can kill this guy, we're gonna get unknown, unknown praise. We'll be, we'll be world, world renowned guys that kill demons. I guess that's like their whole vibe. So fast forward, these two guys, all right, are now besties after fighting. This is basically Brokeback Mesopotamia. The two basically go out in the woods and Gilgamesh visits his mother, Ninsun, and seeks the support and protection of the sun God Shamash for their adventure. Ninsun adopts Enkidu as her son and Gilgamesh leaves instructions for the governance of Uruk in his absence. Now, again, you got to wonder, Gilgamesh, he's an actual bad guy. This is not a good human being, right? And meanwhile, his mom is just watching all this happen. Like, that's my boy. Just banging all the new brides. Like, this is like insane. Like, where is she? Like, what a. It's because he doesn't have a dad, probably. I don't know. I don't want to speculate. If you don't have a dad, it's not your fault, all right? I'm not gonna judge you. But it's like, where's his, where's this whole family unit? This whole thing just seems unstable, right? Like the mom is just letting this happen. She has no words, like, by the way, can you not do that? I don't know. This just makes me uncomfortable. You don't like to see that? Bad parenting, where they enable their kid. Anyway, this is a side part. Gilgamesh and Enkidu journey into the cedar forest every few days. They're camping on the mountains. They're performing a dream ritual. Gilgamesh has five terrifying dreams about thunderstorms, wild bulls, falling mountains, and a thunderbird that breathes fire. Apparently, he knows that there are major similarities between all of these dreams and the earlier descriptions of Humbaba, this demon that they're trying to kill. He tells Angadu's like, bro, I had these insane dreams. And Angado's like, dude, these dreams are actually good. But just like an absolute ride or die kind of home. He's like, dude, that terrible stuff you're thinking, it's actually sick as hell. So they say, like, the dreams are fine. And then they deny that the frightening images represent the forest guardian, Humbaba. As they approach the cedar mountain, they hear Humbaba bellowing and have to encourage each other not to be afraid. All of a sudden, he's a little scared. This guy that just takes everyone's girl. All of a sudden he's a little, fuck Gilgamesh, bro. I'm over with this guy. It's annoying, right? The Epic of Gilgamesh, whatever. The heroes enter the cedar forest, Humbaba, the guardian, the cedar force. He insults them and threatens them. It's funny that they put both things because they did not have to put the insult part right. Like, if you're getting attacked by a team and you're not gonna be like, dude, he was scratching me. And also call me a bitch. Like, you'd just be like, no, I was getting attacked by a demon. But they include that just that way, you know, that things got personal with the demon. I don't want you to be reading this and be like, oh, Gilgamesh really went off the rails. No, no, no. They pulled up on Humbaba for no reason. Remember this? They showed up to his house, and then Humbaba's starting to throw insults. And then they're like, whoa, trying to diss us right now. You calling us pussy right now? This whole thing's crazy. Anyway, he accuses Enkidu of betrayal and vows to disembowel Gilgamesh and feed his flesh to the birds. Gilgamesh is afraid. But with some encouraging words from Enkidu, the battle commences. The mountains quake, the sky turns black. The God Shamash sends 13 winds to bind Humbaba, and he's captured. See, Gilgamesh couldn't even take Humbaba by himself. Oh, that's an insane name. Humbaba, an awesome name. That's gonna be a middle name for one of my little daughters, probably. Humbaba pleads for his life and Gilgamesh pities him. He offers to make Gilgamesh the king of the forest. He'll cut down trees for him, he'll be his slave. Enkidu is like, no, no, no, no, Gilgamesh, let's kill Humbaba. Let's kill him. And we're going to establish our reputation forever. Humbaba curses them both and Gilgamesh, dispatch. I like how it says dispatches him. He kills him. He rocks him in the head, below the neck and basically just kills him right away as well as his seven sons. Seems completely unnecessary, like, this whole thing. Also, for the record, I'm pretty sure in, like, some of the original translations, Humbaba is not really doing anything. Like, sometimes they don't really even describe him as, like, a demon, sometimes describe him as like a demigod, that he's just like a powerful guy in the cedar forest, like, kind of is a guardian of the forest. So Gilgamesh and his homie pull up looking for trouble, out of nowhere shows up, kills him, kills his seven sons, and we're like, dude, Gilgamesh is a hero. I know we're getting to the part where things actually make more sense, but it's just crazy so far. This guy is just a thug. He's just a bad dude. The two heroes then cut down many cedars in the forest, including a gigantic tree that Enkidu plants to fashion into a gate for the temple of Enlil. They build a raft, return home to the Euphrates with a giant tree and potentially, depending on how you interpret the text, the head of Humbaba. So far, this whole thing is insane, right? Like, these two guys, they're like homies, major bromance. They fight like they're. They're beating up guys that they don't like that seem kind of, like, unnecessary, you know? But we move on to Tablet six. Gilgamesh rejects the advances of the goddess Ishtar. Kind of out of nowhere, okay? We go right into, right into Tablet six, and Gilgamesh, he's the homie, he just beat up this guy. He's just, like, chilling. Like, just in the cut, all of a sudden, the goddess Ishtar is like, yo, give me that. Let Me hop on. And she's kind of a piece. You look at these old sketches, you're like, all right. Sometimes she's known as Inanna, depending on the translation, but in the Assyrian. Assyrian translations, known as Ishtar. You start looking at Ishtar, you're like, dude, potentially could get it. I don't know if this is a. Like, I don't know if anyone still believes this, if this is your religion. Like, if you're like, no, I'm a Gilgameshian. I just want to apologize ahead of time. I feel like I'm being disrespectful. So far, I don't think anyone believes it, so I think we're fine. But if you're in the comments, if there's any Sumerians listening, just, you know, my bad. Ishtar gets pissed off. Ishtar's like, yo, why can't. Why can't I hop on at one time on a Thursday? And Gilgamesh is like, yo, you mistreated other people, like Dumuzi, who's like, just a shepherd that got, like, disrespected by Ishtar. And Gilgamesh is like, I'm not playing with that. Go away. Ishtar becomes angry and denies Gilgamesh entry into Ianna. Interfering with his business, Ishtar asks her father, Anu, to send Gulana the Bull of Heaven. This is an important note. The Bull of Heaven to avenge her. When Anu rejects her complaints, Ishtar threatens to raise the dead who, quote, will outnumber the living and devour them. Seems like this is a lot for just getting turned down one time, right? Like, I don't know. I get. Yeah, women are emotional. I get it. This is like the first incel. You know what I mean? Like, this girl gets this turned down. She's like, oh, you're gonna turn me down? What if I raise all the dead and devour everyone that's alive? It's like, all right, this is. You're crossing the line here. Apparently, the dead will scream so loud that it'll be heard by the heavens and the earth. Her dad hears this, and he's like, all right, just stop. Anu states that he gives her. If he gives her the Bull of Heaven, Uruk will face seven years of famine. So this is like insane checks and balances. She's like, I'm going to raise the dead. He's like, look, I want to give you the bull, but all of a sudden, all the people, this kingdom are going to starve for seven years. What do we do? So Ishtar provides him with provisions for seven years in exchange for the bull. Ishtar is like, all right, fine. Leads the Bull of Heaven to Uruk and causes widespread devastation. This bull is just going wild. All right, let's get. Let's try to get a picture of this bull right here. Yeah, it's a bull. I don't know. I was expecting something a little scary. I guess it's like, giant or something. This Bull of Heaven comes down. He's pissed off, and he's insatiably thirsty. That's right. The bull comes down and causes widespread devastation, lowers the level of the Euphrates river, dries up the marshes, and opens up huge pits that swallow 300 men without divine assistance. Enkidu and Gilgamesh kill him and offer up his heart to Shamash. Ishtar at this point, as you can imagine, is fucking pissed. She's like, you turn me down, I get my dad to send the Bull of Heaven. You kill the Bull of Heaven, Which I was like, ishtar, what did you want to happen? Oh, just destroy the whole town. Like, you get turned down, you get rejected. That's on you. Shave or something. I don't know. Like, it's. And then you get mad when, like, your revenge plot doesn't work. Fuck out of here. The city of Uruk celebrates, but Enkidu has an ominous dream about his future failure. Kind of ominous, right? In Enkidu's dream, the gods decide that one of the heroes must die because they killed Humbaba for no reason. In my opinion, I'm a. I'm a Humbaba, like, loyalist. Like, yeah, that. That was. Say his name. Humbaba. That's what I believe. And the Bull of Heaven. Both those. The Bull of Heaven. That one. He's like a hired gun. I don't really care as much about the Bull of Heaven. But regardless, because they both die, Enkidu has this dream that one of the heroes must be killed. Despite the protesting of Shamash, Enkidu is marked for death. That's right. The gods get together. They're like, enkidu, you gotta die. Enkidu curses the great door he has fashioned for Enlil's temple. He also curses the trapper and Shamhat for removing him from the wild. Shamash reminds Enkidu of how Shamhat fed and clothed him and introduced him to Gilgamesh. Shamash tells him that Gilgamesh will bestow great honors upon him at his funeral and will wander into the wild, consumed with Grief. Enkidu, like, basically just spiraling. He's just like, yo, this you that guy, you're cool. Like, he's just like, pissed off off, and he's just going off on everybody. And then he's like, all right, all right, my bad. I was. I got a little. I got a little overboard there. Enkidu regrets his curses, and then he blesses Shamhat instead. And then he has a second dream where he's taken captive to the netherworld, a house of dust and darkness whose inhabitants eat clay and are clothed in bird feathers. Supervised by terrifying beings for 12 days, Ankadu's condition worsens. Finally, after a lament that he could not meet a heroic death in battle, Enkadu dies. Now, it's kind of interesting because on the one hand, you're like, oh, why would they punish Ankadu, right? Like, he's not really the aggressor in this whole sitario, you know? It seems like Gilgamesh is the one that's kind of ruining everything. He's banging out the brides. He's not banging Ishtar, right? It's like, dude, you're banging everyone's wife. And then the one woman that's like, hey, I'll have sex with you, he's like, whoa, I'm not just a slut. He's like, I'm not just giving it out to anybody. Like, if I'm Ishtar, I actually would complete. This is. Makes. She's kind of an incel. But on the other hand, I see her point because she's like, you're literally giving out to everyone. You're putting out to everyone else and not me. I. Yeah, I'd be pissed. I don't know. I see Ishtar's point. On the other hand, you're not entitled to anyone. You know, you're not entitled sexual favors, even if someone is promiscuous. So Ishtar's got to eat that. But on the same time, if I'm Ishtar's friend, I'm like, yeah, fuck that guy. Gilgamesh. Whack ass name, anyway. But people are like, okay, why would Enkidu die? Because it seems like he's not causing all this stir. He's not causing all the problems. So why is he the one that gets taken out? It's interesting. I didn't really think about it this way until it was pointed out to me. Enkidu's death is not necessarily a punishment to Enkidu, right? It's more of a Punishment to Gilgamesh because that is his closest friend. They say in some of the translations that Gilgamesh loved him like a woman. Look it up. And that's what it says. This is gay, dude, straight up. These two guys were dogging each other out tale as old as time. Just two bros meeting the final end of brodom, a bromance, and just being like, yo, I just love you, dude. Just getting drunk with your homie at the bar, y'all. I love you. You're my brother. I would kill a demigod in the woods for you. You know what I mean? Like, that type of vibe, they just get on it immediately and they become absolute homies. So by killing his homie, you're really punishing Gilgamesh. And on top of that, I don't think the gods can kill Gilgamesh because he's like two thirds of a God. And I think Enkidu is like not. I think he's a different. He's a different sort of, you know, calculation of God to human ratio. I don't know the exact details. I could look it up, but I don't really care. Anyway, just a good point that this is really a punishment to Gilgamesh. In a famous line from the Epic, Gilgamesh clings to Enkidu's body. He holds onto him and denies that he has died until a maggot drops from the nose of a corpse. I'll be honest, the death of Enkidu is actually beautiful. Again, this is actually where it gets interesting because you're reading like a 4,000 year old piece of literature and the emotions and sort of Gilgamesh's realization of death and his own mortality and what it really means to mourn someone that you love is actually beautiful. You could cry reading this entire passage. I'll share you. Just a couple lines I thought were amazing. The very end of this sort of moment where he's like holding his dead friend and doesn't want to believe that he's dead, he says this. All the people of Eridu weep for you. Enkidu. Those who brought grain for eating, mourn for you now. Who rubbed oil on your back, mourn for you now. Who poured beer for your drinking, mourn for you now. Pouring out for the homies. Respect. The harlot who anointed you with fragrant ointment, Lament for you now. The woman of the palace who brought you a wife, the chosen ring of advice, Lament for you now. And the young men, your brothers, as though they were women. Go, long hair in mourning. What is the sleep which holds you now? You were lost in the dark and cannot hear me. I mean, it's actually beautiful. Like, it's written in, like, an amazing. Like, it's apparently, like, rhymed. It had, like, a certain specific type of, like, a B, B, A rhyme scheme in the original Akkadian. It's just beautiful. You actually read and you're like, oh. And this is a turning point in the story. This is the moment that Gilgamesh fully realizes that he's a human being, that he can die, that he's not purely a God, that he's not destined to, you know, roam in the heavens forever, that his time will come. And this has a major effect on Gilgamesh. And as he's delivering his laments for Enkidu, he calls upon everyone in the universe and all the plants and trees to mourn his friend. He recalls their adventures together. He tears his hair and his clothes in grief. He gets a statue built for him. He gives gifts to his treasury to ensure Enkidu has a favorable reception of the realm of the dead. A great banquet is held where treasures are offered to the gods in the netherworld. Like, this has taken a toll. And if you've ever lost someone in your life, even if it's a friend, family member, that feeling of loss, the pain that you feel, is maybe the most human feeling you could ever feel. As it's written in, literally the oldest piece of literature ever found. So what happens to our hero, Gilgamesh? He's had this moment where he's changed forever. Tablet 9 opens with Gilgamesh roaming, wearing wild skins, grieving for Enkidu. Now afraid of his own death, Gilgamesh decides to speak with Utnapishtim and learn the secrets of. Of eternal life. Why does he go to Utnapishtim? Well, Utnapishtim and his wife are the only couple of humans artificially created by the gods who were allowed to survive the great floods. So this is again where people draw some parallels with the Bible and the Abrahamic religions. Gilgamesh crosses a mountain pass at night and encounters a pride of lions. Before sleeping, he prays for protection to the moon God. Then, waking from an encouraging dream, he kills the lions and uses their skins for clothing. After a long and perilous journey, Gilgamesh arrives at the twin peaks of Mount Mashu in the western end of the earth. He comes across a tunnel of the sun God Shamash, which no man has ever entered, guarded by two scorpion monsters who appear to be a married couple. That's a detail that I don't. I don't know even really what that. How do you know these scorpions are married? Why can't they just be two regular, different gendered scorpions? I need to figure out why. They're like, no, no, they're obviously, they're married squ. Like, they're just arguing the whole time. He was like, where do you want to eat? She was like, I don't know. They're just standing at the gates. The husband tries to dissuade Gilgamesh from passing, but the wife intervenes, expresses empathy for Gilgamesh and allows his passage. Entering the tunnel's gates, he follows the path of Shamash in total darkness and manages to reach the eastern exit within 12 double hours. So 24 hours, just before he would have been caught up by the sun God burning him alive. Astonished, he enters the marvelous garden of the gods, a paradise in which trees full of delicious jewels grow. Gilgamesh goes and meets an alewife, a barkeeper, the wife of a brewer. Her name's Siduri, and she's in her pub just hanging out, doing her thing. And at first she assumes that he would be a murderer or a thief because of his disheveled appearance. But Gilgamesh tells her the purpose of his journey. I'm looking for immortality. She attempts to dissuade him, just to say, hey, be happy, but sends him to Ur Sanabi, the ferryman who will help him cross the sea to see Utin Pishtim to gain immortality. Gilgamesh, out of a rage, destroys the stone charms that Ur Shanabi keeps with. Gilgamesh tells his story, but when he asks for help, Urshanavi informs him that he's just destroyed the objects to help them cross the waters of death. Gilgamesh, you absolute idiot. You destroyed the thing that's going to get you across. He's sabotaging his own self because he can't control his emotions over and over again. Gilgamesh, you absolute moron. So maybe the best quote from the entire Epic of Gilgamesh comes from Siduri as she's standing there and she tries to explain to Gilgamesh that he should stop on his quest to find Utnapisham and, you know, gain immortality and live forever and be sort of, you know, known as a God across the lands. This is what she says now, Gilgamesh, let your belly be full, Be happy. Day and night of each day Make a party, dance in circles Day and night, Let your clothes Be sparkling clean. Let your head be clean. Wash yourself with water. Attend to the little ones who hold your hand. Let a wife delight in your embrace. This is the true task of mankind. There you have it, 4,000 year old wisdom basically to say, hey, tend your garden, dance, drink a little, take care of your kids. They say the true delight of your embrace with your wife is, you know, little romance cracking open your wife's every now and again. That's basically what it's saying. And it's interesting. Even just saying wife is like, yo, like, take care of your wife, tend to your wife. Not to say, you know, Gilgamesh, find a girl and have sex with like, it's, it's, it's about the divine bond between two people that have devoted their lives to each other. It's kind of interesting, right? Like, as human beings change, time goes by. Like all of this advice would still hold up, right? Like you'd be some dude trying to, you know, raise a billion dollars for, you know, some tech startup and you go to like some old wise dude and you're like, what, what do I do? And they'd be like, hey, just be happy day and night, you know, party, dance in circles at nighttime, clean yourself, wash yourself. Like, take care of your body, take care of your kids, hold on to the, you know, little ones who hold your hand and just be good to your wife, enjoy time with her. This is really what it, what it's all about. It's like super profound. You read this and you're like, this is amazing. Like, yeah, that's exactly what we all should be doing. And even then they had this concept of like, yeah, this is what, you know, life is all about. So Gilgamesh hears this and he goes, all right, I'm still gonna go see Utnapishnam and gain immortality. Because he doesn't want to die. He's terrified. He just saw his friend Enkidu die. He's like, I don't, I don't want that. All right, I'm gonna live forever. Don't even worry about it. Ur Shanavi basically says, all right, cut down 120 trees, fashion them into punting poles. When they reach the island where Napishnam lives, Gilgamesh recounts the story asking him for help. Ushnapitnam reprimands him, declaring that fighting the common fate of human is futile and diminishes life's joy. Again, just a beautiful kind of look at the ancient view of mortality. Like, hey, you're not going to live forever trying to fight this is an absolute fool's errand. Just accept it. Especially now, you see a lot of people in, like, the transhumanist movement that are all about, like, hey, let's just live forever. And even 4,000 years ago, they're like, hey, this is. You get one shot, you get one go around. And who knows how long it is. 40 years, 50 years, maybe 100? If you're feeling nice, just enjoy it. Take care of your kids. Live. Gilgamesh observes that Utapishtim seems no different from himself and asks him how he obtained his immortality. This is what Utnapishtim shares with him, and tell me what you notice. Utnapishtim explains that the gods decided to send a flood to save Utnapishtim. The God Enki told him to build a boat. He gave him precise dimensions, and it was sealed with pitch and budumen. His entire family went aboard, together with the craftsmen and all the animals of the field. A violent storm then arose which caused the terrified gods to retreat to the heavens. Ishtar lamented the wholesale destruction of humanity, and the other gods wept beside her. Ishtar, wood horny broad trying to get absolutely piped. Oh, no. Look at all these hot guys dying. I don't. I don't trust Ishtar. The storm lasted six days and nights, after which all the human beings turned to clay. Utnapishtim weeps when he sees the destruction. His boat lodges in Mount Nimush and he releases a dove, a swallow, and a raven. When the raven fails to return, he opens the ark and frees its inhabitants. Utnapishtim offers a sacrifice to the gods who smell the sweet savor and gather around. Ishtar vows that just as she will never forget the brilliant necklace that hangs around her neck, she will always remember this time. When Enlil arrives, angry that there are survivors, she condemns him for instigating the flood. Enki also castigates him for sending a disproportionate punishment. Enlil blesses Utnapishtim and his wife and rewards them with eternal life. The main point of this section is just to illustrate that Enlil wanted to grant Utnapishtim with eternal life. That was sort of his gift. As if to demonstrate this point, Upishtim challenges Gilgamesh to stay awake for six days and seven nights. Gilgamesh falls asleep, and Utnapishtim instructs his wife to bake a loaf of bread on each of the days that he is asleep, so that he cannot deny his failure to keep awake. Gilgamesh, who is seeking to overcome death, cannot even conquer sleep. Those seem like different things, but whatever. After instructing Urshanabi the ferryman, to wash Gilgamesh and clothe him in royal robes, they depart for Uruk. As they are leaving, Utnapishtim's wife asks her husband to offer a parting gift. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh that at the bottom of the sea lives a box thorn like plant that will make him young again. Imagine this right at the very end. Gilgamesh, despite learning everything and understanding what immortality really brings, how to get it, what it means to the people that have it, that he doesn't actually really need it, he finds out that there's a plant that will make him young again. Gilgamesh, by binding stones to his feet so he can walk on the bottom, manages to obtain the plant. Gilgamesh proposes to investigate if the plant has the hypothesized rejuvenation ability by testing it on an old man once he returns to Uruk. When Gilgamesh stops to bathe, the plant is stolen by a serpent who sheds its skin as it departs. Gilgamesh weeps at the futility of his effort. Because he has now lost all chance of immortality. He returns to Uruk, where the sight of its massive walls prompts him to praise this enduring work to Urshanavi. Those are the original 11 tablets of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Now There is a 12th tablet that many people believe is a translation of an earlier Sumerian poem and is kind of like an addendum to it. But they also believe that it's like a prequel. So here's basically what's on the 12th tablet that is commonly sort of known in the library of the Epic of Gilgamesh, but is not necessarily known as a linear continuation of the story. The last tablet say that Enkidu is actually still alive despite having died earlier, right? That's like the whole point of the story. Because of this, its lack of integration with the other tablets and the fact that it's almost a copy of an earlier version, it's been known as this inorganic appendage, right? Gilgamesh complains to Enkidu that various of his possessions, the tablet is unclear exactly what, and different in translations include a drum and a ball have fallen into the underworld. Enkidu offers to bring them back. Delighted, Gilgamesh tells Enkidu what he must do and what he must not do in the underworld if he is to return. Enkidu does everything which he is told not to do. The underworld keeps him. Gilgamesh prays to the gods to give him back, and Lil and Suen do not reply. But Enki and Shamash decide to help. Shamash makes a crack in the earth and Enkidu's ghost jumps out of it. The tablet ends with Gilgamesh questioning Enkidu about what he has seen in the underworld. I don't know. I kind of like the little side story. It seems like a. Between a tablet 3 and 4 kind of vibe. You can throw that in there, just be like, hey, here are some of the wacky adventures of these two gay guys. I don't know all that. To say this 11th tablet, the one that shows the flood, is very, very interesting because, again, this has a lot of similarities to the Abrahamic story of Noah and his ark. The animals two by two, the dove that's released and shown as sort of this symbol of peace, that the earth will never flood in this way ever again. But there are some differences, right? Raining for 40 days, 40 nights, this was only seven days. You know, the nature of the gods and how they sort of, you know, deal with this. Obviously, in the Abrahamic faiths, the, you know, Hashem or Yahweh is very, very different than, you know, the various gods, Enlil and Shamash, that appear in this story. So there are certain details that are very similar. Some people might even say that they're drawing on the same source material, that maybe there is perhaps some original account that details this great flood, that maybe both of these are drawing from. This version in the Epic of Gilgamesh is distorting and twisting and paganizing it, whereas the Bible and the book of Genesis is keeping the true and authentic version in accordance with the word of God. This perhaps might be, Christians would say, other people might say, oh, this was obviously a much earlier version. And, you know, the Abrahamic religions copied this, that they were familiar with this, that the Jews of the time would have been very familiar with the Epic of Gilgamesh. I believe that there were versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh that were found even in the Dead Sea Scrolls that were put there by the Essian sort of ascetic Jewish travelers that didn't go, you know, try to interact with the Romans at all. That by pulling it out of the library of Jerusalem before the invasion, they put it in these, you know, sort of caves. And that's, you know, the Dead Sea Scrolls as we know them today. Who's to say? I don't know. I don't know if they were copied. Again, there's pretty interesting things that seem to be similarities, but there's also a lot of differences. And you're like, you know, every culture on Earth basically has a flood myth. Well, whether you're in, you know, Iraq, you're in Nineveh, you're in Central America, Native Americans in the United States, Cherokee. They all have different flooding myths. Some of them flood the known world, some of them flood the entire world. It rains for disparate periods of time, obviously. How are you going to survive a flood? You build a boat. These people obviously have experience with seafaring. So it follows to reason that you would build a thing that floats and you need animals as well, so you would include the animals on the boat. So it follows to reason that if you experience a flood or you're going to write about some type of great cataclysm that wipes out the entirety of humanity, a flood would be a logical, you know, place to go. And then, of course, all of the ways to survive a flood would then follow to reason. The dove example is interesting. And then again, people also point out the serpent. They say, like, oh, you know, obviously in the Bible, you have the Garden of Eden and the serpent comes and tempts Eve. And then here the serpent comes and is not necessarily being evil, right? Like, the serpent is just doing what serpent do. Like, it's in the nature of the serpent to sort of steal and be, you know, mischievous, but it's not necessarily known to be satanic. Like, I think if this was going to draw a direct parallel with the Garden of Eden in here, you would expect the serpent to, you know, go get the plant for him and then give him the plant. And he's young forever and he's miserable and he actually hates it and he wishes that he could die, but he can't. And he's sort of, you know, trapped in this vessel, this hell of immortality. I think that would be more akin to the serpent that we see in the Book of Genesis. But again, who knows? I'm not a scholar here. This is sort of my conjecture on the Epic of Gilgamesh. Now, it is a beautiful story. It has made an absolute. Yeah, it's made a huge impact on the way people have looked at mythology and literature ever since. It had a major impact on Homer and a lot of the, you know, sort of the Greek stories and the Greek tragedies and the epics that Homer would write. He was very familiar with this text. Even in the Iliad, there's You know, stories of adventure and flooding and all sorts of things you would find in the Epic of Gilgamesh. So another really, really interesting thing that we get from the Epic of Gilgamesh is the idea of the Anunnaki. Now people kind of know the Anunnaki as sort of these like gods that exist in heaven that wash down. That's kind of been sort of tied into the Book of Enoch in a lot of ways. But the Anunnaki as we see are, you know, exactly how the story is described. It is this, you know, group of gods that live in heaven that sort of have like this hierarchy and they, you know, as a group sort of dictate the governance of what happens to human beings on earth. So you know, here's sort of like the hierarchy as we've sort of described it. You have Anu, who is the chief deity of the Anunnaki, you know, the father of many gods. And Lil, this is the, you know, person that tried to destroy, you know, earth with the flood, but also grants Utnapishtim the immortality for, you know, as a reward. Then you have Enki. This is the God of the underground ocean, magic, wisdom and creation. This is a benevolent God who helps humanity and warns Utnapishtim that there's going to be a flood coming and to build a boat. And you have Ishtar. This is a complex deity, love, war, fertility, political power. This is the one that was trying to bang out Gilgamesh and he said no and then had a whole battle with the bull of the heavens. Shamash is the God of the sun and justice associated with truth, law, order. Shamash is like the homie always trying to help everyone out and there's other ones. But again, all of these gods create what is known as the Anunnaki. And yeah, it just creates an interesting precedent in history. How the Anunnaki comes from the Epic of Gilgamesh and then how it's sort of his transformed. You sort of see like these quarrelsome gods that sort of exhibit human characteristics where they're angry, sometimes they disagree, they go back and forth and they don't ascertain sort of the Abrahamic idea of omnipotence, you know, or, you know, omnipresence. They don't possess necessarily like the all consuming power of the biblical God. Just interesting. And there you have it folks. That is the Book of Gilgamesh. That is where it was discovered, that is where it was found and who found it and why it mattered so much to the People and why it matters so much now. Right? This has been lost to time for thousands of years, discovered within the last 150, and has made a major impact to how biblical scholars look at their own faith, how they understand where the stories of their faith may or may not come from, and how it's possible that a lot of different stories are drawing on similar themes. You know, maybe it's intrinsic to who human beings are. Maybe it's, you know, fun to an event that happened in history that everyone's drawing on. Who's to say? Who will ever know? All that I do know is that sort of the things that make human beings, humans and the things that we care about don't really seem to change that much. That is the most profound part. I mean, the world today and the world 4,000 years ago could not be more different. There's almost nothing that we do now that we would do then, right? It just seems like, oh, it's. I can't even fathom. Some people believe that, you know, Gilgamesh was a real king that lived roughly around the time of the creation of the pyramids, like, just to give you an idea of scope and time, so. So long ago, right? And then you start to think like, oh, wow, Gilgamesh, this whole time is so worried about immortality, you know, trying to have some great legacy, trying to be famous, trying to be rich. He just wants to matter and exist in the world. And ultimately the thing that he wants is going to kill him. It is going to be his, you know, a quest that he goes on forever and, you know, never really achieves this idea of just being immortalized. But what he needs is his family and a wife and to be a good ruler and to help the people of his kingdom. And that is actually what matters, is tending to his garden and fulfilling his purpose as a human being on Earth. But we're still talking about the Epic of Gilgamesh all these years later. So maybe he did get ultimately what he wanted, to be immortalized into the fabric of history. Congrats, Gilgamesh. Anyway, this has been another episode of camp. Thank you guys so much for listening. I appreciate everyone tuning into religion camp. This has been very, very fun for me. We got merch also that's gonna be dropping very soon. You guys can check that out. If it's already out, get it in the description and we will see you guys next week. Peace be with.