Gilgamesh

“Who is there, my friend, can climb to the sky? <br /> Only the gods dwell forever in sunlight.<br /> As for man, his days are numbered, <br /> whatever he may do, it is but wind.”

“What should I do and where should I go?<br />A thief has taken hold of my flesh!<br />For there in my bed-chamber Death does abide,<br />and wherever I turn, there too will be Death.”

“Read out<br />the travails of Gilgamesh, all that he went through!”

“opened his mouth, <br /> saying to Gilgamesh: <br /> "where you've set your mind begin the journey,<br /> let your heart have no fear, keep your eyes on me!"”

“Father, let me have the Bull of Heaven<br />To kill Gilgamesh and his city.<br />For if you do not grant me the Bull of Heaven,<br />I will pull down the Gates of Hell itself,<br />Crush the doorposts and flatten the door,<br />And I will let the dead leave<br />And let the dead roam the earth<br />And they shall eat the living.<br />The dead will overwhelm all the living!”

“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.”

“Unable to stand up, unable to sit down, he laments.<br>Unable to eat, unable to drink, he laments.<br>Held fast by the door-bolt of Namtar, he is unable to rise. [...] Like a gazelle caught in a trap.”

“You will be accounted a god. [...] Lord of Kulaba, [...] hero of the pristine mountain.”

“Because of your purity, youthful Utu has made everything abundant for you; may a sweet life be your lot, son of Ninsumun.”

“The life that you seek you never will find: <br /> when the gods created mankind, <br /> death they dispensed to mankind, <br /> life they kept for themselves.”

“When the seventh day dawned I loosed a dove 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 resting-place 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.”

“O man of Shurrupak, son of Ubara-Tutu; tear down your house and build a boat, abandon possessions and look for life, despise worldly goods and save your soul alive. Tear down your house, I say, and build a boat.”