The Story of the Flood- the Epic of Gilgamesh Essay Example for Free

The Story of the Flood- the Epic of Gilgamesh EssayYou know the city Shurrupak, it stands on the banks of Euphrates? That city grew old and the gods that were in it were old. There was Anu,-lord of the firmament, their father, and warrior Enlil their counsellor, Ninurta the helper, and Ennugi watcher over canals and with them also was Ea. In those old age the world teemed, the the great unwashed multiplied, the world bellowed like a wild bull, and the great god was aroused by the verbalise. Enlil heard the clamour and he said to the gods in council, The uproar of mankind is intolerable and sleep is no longer potential by rea tidings of the babel. So the gods agreed to exterminate mankind. Enlil did this, but Ea because of his oath warned me in a dream.He whispered their words to my house of reeds, Reed-house, reedhouse Wall, O wall, hearken reed-house, wall reflect O man of Shurrupak, son of Ubara-Tutu tear down your house and variety a boat, abandon possessions and look for life, despise worldly goods and carry out your soul alive. Tear down your house, I say, and build a boat. These are the measurements of the barque as you shall build her let hex beam equal her length, let her deck be roofed like the omit that covers the abyss then take up into the boat the seed of all living creatures.. . . . . In the starting line light of dawn all my household gathitherd round me, the children brought pitch and the men whatever was necessary.On the fifth day I laid the keel and the ribs, then I made fast the planking. The ground-space was iodine acre, each side of the deck measured one hundred and twenty cubits, making a square. I built six decks below, seven in all, I divided them into nine sections with bulkheads between. I drove in wedges where needed, I saw to the punt poles, and laid in supplies. The carriers brought oil in baskets, I poured pitch into the furnace and mineral pitch and oil more oil was consumed in caulking, and more again the master of th e boat took into his stores. I slaughtered bullocks for the populate and every day I killed sheep. I gave the shipwrights wine-coloured to drink as though it were river water, raw wine and red wine and oil and white wine.There was feasting then as -there is at the snip of the New Years festival I myself anointed my head. On the 7th day the boat was complete. . . . . . For six days and six nights the winds blew, torrent and tempest and flood overwhelmed the world, tempest and flood raged together like warring hosts. When the seventh day dawned the storm from the south subsided, the sea grew calm, the, flood was stilled I looked at the face of the world and there was silence, all mankind was turned to clay.The surface of the sea stretched as flat as a roof-top I opened a hatch and the light fell on my face. Then I bowed low, I sat down and I wept, the tears streamed down my face, for on every side was the waste of water. I looked for land in vain, but fourteen leagues distant ther e appeared a mountain, and there the boat grounded on the mountain of Nisir the boat held fast, she held fast and did not budge . . . . When the seventh day dawned I loosed a descend and let her go. She flew away, but finding no resting-place she returned. Then I loosed a swallow, and she flew away but finding no restingplace she returned. I loosed a raven, she saw that the waters had retreated, she ate, she flew around, she cawed, and she did not come back. . . . .