sh decides to embark on a long journey to seek out Utnapishtim and ask him how he survived the great flood. Gilgamesh believes that this journey will be worth it if immortality lies at the end. When Gilgamesh finds himself in the presence of the ancient Utnapishtim and learns the story of the flood, however, it is clear to him that Utnapishtim has no “secret” that will award immortality after all; it was a one-time gift of the gods, and not something available to mankind at large. Gilgamesh said to Utnapishtim, “I look at you. Your features are no different than mine. I’m like you” (Gardner 226).Gilgamesh has been so keyed up over Enkidu’s death and the hardship of his journey that he is overcome with exhaustion. He sleeps at Utnapishtim’s home for six days and seven nights, and wakes up complaining that he had barely fallen asleep when Utnapishtim woke him up. Gilgamesh immediately asks “What can I do, Utnapishtim (Gardner 245). Unfortunately, despite Utnapishtim’s efforts to help, human beings are only allowed so much time, and when it’s up, it’s up. Where can I go...Death lives in the house where my bed is and wherever I set my feet, there Death is” (Gardner 245). The Hebrews shared this lack of belief in a paradise after death. This may come as a shock to many people of our day, for whom the promise (or threat) of eternal afterlife is their main reason for behaving themselves. There is no evidence in Genesis that the Jews of those ancient times believed that death brought them either punishment, or reward. Isaac Asimov notes that like many ancient peoples, early Jews seemed to believe that the dead “crossed over” into a land of shades. He writes that this underworld, which the Bible calls Sheol, “was thought of at first as a dim place where there was no particular torture, but where there was an absence of joy. Nor was there any dist...
