Why does gilgamesh visit utnapishtim

Each day Utnapishtim would sacrifice a bull or lamb and beer and wine were in great supply for a great feast. Each day ended with a festival-like celebration. In just seven days, the boat was complete. Utnapishtim loaded all his belongings on to the vessel and after some difficulty was able to cast off. Storm clouds gathered as Utnapishtim set the boat adrift. Utnapishtim shields himself inside the boat with the help of Puzuramurri, the caulker.

He gives the caulker his home as thanks and settles in while the storm rages outside. Utnapishtim describes a terrible storm that lasts for seven days. The storm is so thick that the gods cannot even see the earth from the heavens. Ishtar cries out in anguish over the loss of humanity. When the storm finally subsides, Utnapishtim looked out but saw nothing moving. There were no signs of life anywhere but he sees something in the distance that may be an island. He tries to steer the boat in that direction but finds that the boat is caught on the peak of Mount Nisir.

After being stuck there for seven days Utnapishtim releases a dove into the air to see if it can find a place to land. It returns to the boat. Utnapishtim next frees a swallow into the air but it too returns to the boat. Finally, Utnapishtim releases a raven and the bird does not return this time.

After that, Utnapishtim released all the birds. Upon reaching shore, Utnapishtim prepares a sacrifice and offers libations to the gods. The gods descend and gather around the altar. Ishtar tells Utnapishtim that she will never forget the flood and its terrible price. She says that Enlil is forbidden from attending this ceremony. Enlil does appear, however, and upon seeing the boat and Utnapishtim becomes enraged, demanding to know how one man was able to survive.

Ninurta tells Enlil that Ea has the answer. Ea reprimands Enlil for inflicting a punishment on all of humanity for what one man may have done to upset him. Ea states that the punishment does not fit the crime. Ea suggest a reward is in order for Utnapishtim. Enlil then took Utnapishtim and his wife aboard the boat and made them kneel before him.

He touches their foreheads and decrees that their mortality has ended and that they are admitted into the company of the gods, to live forever. He tells them they will now journey to the Faraway, a place beyond the world of mortals, where all the rivers originate, and reside there.

Utnapishtim then asks Gilgamesh what he has done that would require the gods to convene and grant him immortality.

He challenges Gilgamesh to stay awake for six days and seven nights. Gilgamesh accepts and seats himself, ready to take the test. As soon as he does, an ocean mist comes over him from the shore and he falls asleep. Utnapishtim remarks to his wife that the hero who seeks eternal life now sleeps. She asks him to wake Gilgamesh and tell him to return to his home.

Instead, Utnapishtim tells her to bake a loaf of bread each day and lay it next to Gilgamesh for each day that he sleeps, as proof that he has been asleep. She also marks the wall to record each day. Gilgamesh sleeps for seven days and when he awakes finds seven loaves of bread by his head but denies having slept at all. Utnapishtim directs his attention to the loaves of bread. The first is crusty and stale, while the most recent is fresh.

Gilgamesh is demoralized again and asks Utnapishtim what he should do. Utnapishtim tells Urshanabi the boatman that he is now forbidden from this shore. However, she directs him to Urshanabi, the ferryman, who works for Utnapishtim. Gilgamesh approaches Urshanabi with great arrogance and violence and in the process destroys the "stone things" that are somehow critical for the journey to Utnapishtim.

When Gilgamesh demands to be taken to Utnapishtim, the ferryman tells him that it is now impossible, since the "stone things" have been destroyed. Nevertheless, he advises Gilgamesh to cut several trees down to serve as punting poles; the waters they are to cross are the Waters of Death, should any mortal touch the waters, that man will instantly die.

With the punting poles, Gilgamesh can push the boat and never touch the dangerous waters. After a long and dangerous journey, Gilgamesh arrives at a shore and encounters another man. He tells this man that he is looking for Utnapishtim and the secret of eternal life; the old man advises Gilgamesh that death is a necessary fact because of the will of the gods; all human effort is only temporary, not permanent.

Gilgamesh and Enkidu wrestle with the bull and kill it. The gods meet in council and agree that one of the two friends must be punished for their transgression, and they decide Enkidu is going to die. He takes ill, suffers immensely, and shares his visions of the underworld with Gilgamesh. When he finally dies, Gilgamesh is heartbroken. Exchanging his kingly garments for animal skins as a way of mourning Enkidu, he sets off into the wilderness, determined to find Utnapishtim, the Mesopotamian Noah.

After the flood, the gods had granted Utnapishtim eternal life, and Gilgamesh hopes that Utnapishtim can tell him how he might avoid death too. Utnapishtim lives beyond the mountain, but the two scorpion monsters that guard its entrance refuse to allow Gilgamesh into the tunnel that passes through it. Gilgamesh pleads with them, and they relent.

After a harrowing passage through total darkness, Gilgamesh emerges into a beautiful garden by the sea. There he meets Siduri, a veiled tavern keeper, and tells her about his quest. She warns him that seeking immortality is futile and that he should be satisfied with the pleasures of this world.

Urshanabi takes Gilgamesh on the boat journey across the sea and through the Waters of Death to Utnapishtim. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh the story of the flood—how the gods met in council and decided to destroy humankind. Utnapishtim was rewarded with eternal life.

Men would die, but humankind would continue. When Gilgamesh insists that he be allowed to live forever, Utnapishtim gives him a test. If you think you can stay alive for eternity, he says, surely you can stay awake for a week. Gilgamesh tries and immediately fails. So Utnapishtim orders him to clean himself up, put on his royal garments again, and return to Uruk where he belongs.