Gilgamesh said to Uta-napishtim, the far-away: “I look at you now, Uta-Napishtim, and your appearance is no different from mine; there is nothing strange in your features. Tell me truly, how was it that you came to possess everlasting life? Uta-napishtim said to Gilgamesh “I will reveal a mystery to you, I well tell you a secret of the gods. You know the city Shurrupak, it stands on the banks of Euphrates. One day the gods agreed to exterminate mankind because there was too much of an uproar. Ea, who attended the council, warned me in a dream, whispered their words to my house: O man of Shurrupak, tear down your house and build a boat, abandon possessions and look for life, despise worldly gods and save your soul. Then take up into the boat the seed of all living creatures.
When the tempest raged, gathering fury as it went, it poured over the people like the tides of battle; a man could not see his brother nor could the people be seen from heaven. Even the gods were terrified at the flood, they fled to the highest heaven, the firmament of Anu. For six days and six nights the wind blew, torrent and tempest and flood overwhelmed the world. When the seventh day dawned, I opened a hatch, I looked at the face of the world and there was silence; the whole of mankind was turned to clay. The gods gathered in a council and gave me everlasting life. Uta-napishtim said: “as for you Gilgamesh, who will assemble the gods for your sake, so that you may find that life you are searching for?”
Gilgamesh and Urshanabi launched the boat on to the water and boarded it. Uta-napishtim –the Far-away – said to Gilgamesh: “Gilgamesh, you came here a man weary out, you have worn yourself out. What shall I give you to carry you back to your own country? Gilgamesh, I shall reveal a secret thing, it is a mystery of the gods that I am telling you. There is a plant that grows under the water, it has prickles like a thorn, like a rose. It will wound your hands, but if you succeed in taking it, then your hands will hold that which restores his lost youth to a man”.
When Gilgamesh heard this, he went to seize the plant and took it back to Uruk. On his way back, he saw a well of cool water, and he went down to bathe. A snake sensed the sweetness of the plant. It rose out of the water, snatched it away, and immediately it sloughed its skin and retuned to the well. Then Gilgamesh sat down and wept, and down his cheeks ran the tears: “was it for this that I toiled with my hands, it is for this I have wrung out my heart’s blood? For myself I have gained nothing. Not I, but the beast of the earth has joy now.”
