The Plant That Could Not Be Kept · Gilgamesh · Elias Thorn Site: Elias Thorn / Shelter Source: https://elias-thorn.com/en/rooms/records/garden-gilgamesh-lost-plant/ Language: en Reuse: Retain the source URL and existing author credits. The site is the distribution source, not necessarily the original author or rights holder. Scope: Public HTML text at build time. Interactive content, media and private records are not included. The Plant That Could Not Be Kept · Gilgamesh Tablet XI · Uta-Napishtim’s gift, the test of sleep and the lost plant · four selected passages 1. Gift and test · Thompson, XI, pp. 53–54, “(Then) to the Ark” to “se’nnight!” (Then) to the Ark came up Enlil; my hand did he grasp, and uplifted Me, even me, and my wife, too, he raised, and, bent-kneed beside me, Made her to kneel; our foreheads he touch’d as he stood there between us, Blessing us; 'Uta-Napishtim hath hitherto only been mortal, Now, indeed, Uta-Napishtim and (also) his wife shall be equal Like to us gods; in the distance afar at the mouth of the rivers Uta-Napishtim shall dwell'. (So) they took me and (there) in the distance Caused me to dwell at the mouth of the rivers. But thee, as for thee, pray, Who will assemble the gods for thy (need), that the life which thou seekest Thou mayst discover? Come, fall not asleep for six days, aye, a se’nnight!" 2. Sleep · p. 54, “(Then), while he sat” to “return to his land” (Then), while he sat on his haunches a sleep like a breeze breathed upon him. Spake to her, Uta-Napishtim, yea, unto his wife: "O, behold him, E’en the strong fellow who asketh for life, (how) hath breathéd upon him Sleep like a breeze!" (Then) his wife unto Uta-Napishtim the Distant Answer 'd: "O, touch him, and let the man wake, that the road he hath traversed He may betake himself homeward in peace, that he by the portal Whence he fared forth may return to his land." 3. The plant · p. 56, “Gilgamish spake to him” to “youthful condition” Gilgamish spake to him, (yea), to the boatman Ur-Shanabi (this wise): "(Nay, but) this plant is a plant of great wonder(?), Ur-Shanabi," said he, "Whereby a man may attain his desire—I'll take it to Erech, (Erech), the high-wall’d, and give it to eat [unto . . . .]. 'Greybeard-who-turneth-to-man-in-his-prime' is its name and I'll eat it I myself, that again I may come to my youthful condition." 4. The snake · p. 56, “Gilgamish spied out” to “Over his cheeks flow’d his tears”, with marked cuts Gilgamish spied out a pool of cool water, (and) therein descending Bathed in the water. (But here was) a serpent who snuff’d the plant's fragrance, Darted he up [from the water (?)], and snatch’d the plant […] Then Gilgamish sate him, (and) burst into weeping. Over his cheeks flow’d his tears […] Akkadian · damaged witness K.2252 294 {d}GIŠ-gim₂-maš a-na ša₂-šu-ma MU-r[a ana x x x ma-la-h]u 295 {m}ur-šanabi₂ šam-mu an-nu-u₂ ša[m-mu x x x] 296 ša₂ LU₂ ina lib₃-bi-šu₂ i-kaš-ša₂#-d[u x x] 297 lu#-bil#-šu# ana lib₃-bi UNUG{ki} su-pu-r[i ( : )] 298 [x x x x x x x x x x x] 299 šum#-ma?# ši-i-bu iṣ-ṣa#-[hir x] 300 a-na-ku lu-kul-ma lu-tur a-[na x x x x x x] Reading notes Uta-Napishtim describes a particular decision by the gods that changed his and his wife’s fate. He immediately asks who will gather the gods for Gilgamesh. Knowing how someone else was saved does not give the hero a way to repeat it. The search for life then meets a bodily limit: Gilgamesh falls asleep. In the selected continuation, Uta-Napishtim’s wife asks that he be woken and allowed to return home. We can read this as a reminder of the hero’s limits; the text does not say mortality punishes insufficient effort. The plant offers a different hope. Gilgamesh himself speaks of recovering his youth; this is not the same as Uta-Napishtim’s exceptional fate. He obtains the plant but cannot keep it. Its loss is not explained as breaking a prohibition: the snake takes it while he bathes. The modern reading mentions the snake shedding its skin. This renewal can be connected with the theme of youth, but it does not establish that the snake becomes immortal. Selected passages from R. Campbell Thompson, The Epic of Gilgamish (London: Luzac, 1928), pp. 53–56. Russian translates the English, not Akkadian directly. Each passage is separate, with its boundaries specified; intervening scenes are omitted. Brackets and (?) within quotations belong to the historical translation; […] marks our cuts. English spelling is retained; footnotes and line numbers are omitted. Thompson’s line numbering differs from modern editions. In the snake episode, Thompson’s outdated reading “uttering malison / As he drew back” is omitted rather than silently replaced. In Maureen Gallery Kovacs’s translation (Tablet XI, SJSU university copy, PDF p. 6), the snake carries off the plant and sheds its skin. The Akkadian witness retained below covers only the speech about the plant, K.2252, SB XI 294–300, not all four excerpts. x marks unreadable text, brackets loss or restoration, and # damaged signs. The transliteration is republished by Theosis and attributed there to eBL; the cuneiform signs have not been checked directly. Thompson’s historical translation is public domain; the republished transliteration is CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Open source ↗ (https://sacred-texts.com/book/the-epic-of-gilgamish/the-eleventh-tablet-the-flood) R. Campbell Thompson · XI, pp. 53–56 · 1928 (https://sacred-texts.com/book/the-epic-of-gilgamish/the-eleventh-tablet-the-flood) Maureen Gallery Kovacs · XI · comparison of the snake episode (https://www2.sjsu.edu/people/cynthia.rostankowski/courses/HUM177AF17/Lecture%2001%20Epic%20of%20Gilgamesh%20-%20Tablet%20XI.pdf) K.2252 · transliteration republished by Theosis (https://theosislibrary.com/library/verified-gilgamesh-tablet-XI-k-2252) CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) Related traces Nachiketas · The third boon (https://elias-thorn.com/en/rooms/records/garden-nachiketas/)After the Flood · Gilgamesh and Genesis (https://elias-thorn.com/en/rooms/records/garden-two-floods/)