Gilgamesh Immortal Read online

  It struck Gilgamesh how oddly crammed the port was with boats and ships from all over the world. From the Indus Valley to Egypt, their styles spoke of the universal appeal this paradise had over the minds of mankind. But there were no people. Anywhere. It was like a ghost harbor.

  Furthermore, the beach was also crammed with older decaying ships all the way up into the tree line.

  “What is this?” asked Gilgamesh. “Where are all the people? This is Dilmun?”

  “Yes,” said Urshanabi as he tied up the boat to the dock and led Gilgamesh to his destination.

  Gilgamesh complained, “Well it looks more like the Land of Ghosts than the Land of the Living.”

  Urshanabi said, “Now you are beginning to sound like me.”

  “You never told me about this,” said Gilgamesh.

  Urshanabi gave a wry jab, repeating Gilgamesh’s own words to him, “I am to speak only when spoken to.”

  Gilgamesh rolled his eyes, a victim of his own temper.

  “Okay, Urshanabi,” snapped Gilgamesh, “I grant you the royal privilege to explain to me what in Sheol is going on here?”

  As he finished his words, they arrived at the peak of a hill overlooking a vast expanse of barren land. It was a graveyard. A gargantuan necropolis. It was larger than anything he had ever seen before. Miles and miles of “tumuli” burial mounds and other tombs completely filling the land as far as the eye could see. There were hundreds of thousands of them.

  “Welcome to the abode of the blessed, the Land of the Living,” said Urshanabi.

  “You mean the Land of the Dead,” said Gilgamesh.

  The only sign of life was a handful of tomb builders laying stone for underground burial vaults and several small lines of priests at various locations carrying sarcophagi in funerary processions. Smoke and incense trailed their handheld censors and small troupes of minstrels played dirges.

  “On Dilmun, Death is worshipped as a religion,” explained Urshanabi. “Everyone comes to the island hoping to find eternal life.”

  Gilgamesh felt a shudder go through him. Was he just another fool in pursuit of the impossible?

  Urshanabi continued, “They believe that by entering Sheol through this Paradise, they will have a better chance at blessing in the underworld. The island is an antechamber to the spirit world. The island’s inhabitants perform the ceremonies for a fee paid in the possessions of the client. Thus Dilmun has become a trade center for the world.”

  “Where are the living?” asked Gilgamesh.

  Urshanabi said, “Over the hills on the south of the island. But you are not here to meet them.”

  Gilgamesh nodded. “Take me to Noah.”

  They travelled along the shoreline of the island until they arrived at a small beautiful jungle full of life. It was like a real oasis on this faux oasis. It was a pocket of life on an island of death. Gilgamesh could hear insects, birds, and monkeys screaming out their instinctual tones.

  When they walked inside, they were besieged by a world of foliage and plant life he had never seen. Huge palm trees spread across the ceiling of foliage, creating a canopy over a moist interior. Animals ran around without concern for their human presence. And Gilgamesh was not wearing his magical animal skins. They came to a huge waterfall of crystalline water spilling over into a bubbling river alive with visible schools of fish.

  Now, this is more like it, he thought. This is the kind of beauty that one could conceive of as Paradise.

  Urshanabi found a small clearing with a modest couple of huts and a small garden beside them.

  Gilgamesh glanced at Urshanabi, who nodded to him.

  And when he looked back, he saw a man and woman step out of the hut to greet them. A very old man and woman. They were a bit bent over. The man had a cane to steady himself. The woman held onto him, he could not tell whether it was to help the man or keep herself steady.

  Gilgamesh’s eyes teared up. He had travelled so long and so far, and had suffered so many hardships, all in pursuit of the impossible, that it all came flooding back into him like the waterfall behind them.

  The old man and old woman recognized Urshanabi so they were not afraid. But they did not know who this nine foot tall giant was stumbling toward them, bawling his eyes out.

  They stepped back in caution. Urshanabi gestured to them not to fear.

  Gilgamesh dropped to his knees yards from them. He could not make it the rest of the way. It was as if his strength had failed him. The old man and woman closed the distance with their hobbling pace.

  They arrived at the kneeling weeping giant.

  Gilgamesh muttered, softly, painfully, “Grandfather.”

  Noah ben Lamech, well over nine hundred years old by now, reached down and lifted the head of the blubbering giant.

  Emzara clutched Noah’s arm and started to weep sympathetically.

  Noah said simply, “Son of Cush.”

  Then he sniffed and wrinkled his nose, and added, “You stink to high heaven.”

  Gilgamesh’s crying turned to laughter. Through all the exertion of his mighty strength in battle and in toil, since his evening with Shiduri the ale wife over a week ago, he had failed to wash his body or his clothing. It was true. He stunk to high heaven.

  Emzara added, “Let us get you washed up and in some clean clothes.”

  Chapter 45

  Gilgamesh sat in the humble little hut of Noah and Emzara. He had cleansed his body in the waterfall and washed his matted hair as clean as could be. Emzara threw his old garments out to sea, and they draped a royal robe over him as a sign of honor and dignity as their guest. Of course it was a bit small for his giant nine foot frame, but it did the job.

  Urshanabi sat next to Noah. Emzara prepared a drink from water and tea leaves that she presented first to Noah with an affectionate whisper, “My Utnapishtim.”

  Noah reached up and kissed Emzara, whispering back, “My Naamah.”

  So this is where the names came from, thought Gilgamesh. Someone overheard their nicknames.

  She poured Gilgamesh some tea, and Noah asked him, “Your face looks sunken and hollow, like one who has travelled a long distance with great sorrow in your heart.”

  “I have been getting that a lot,” said Gilgamesh. “Is it that obvious?”

  Noah and Emzara nodded timidly.

  “I have travelled too far and too wide,” said Gilgamesh. “And I am weighed down with despair.”

  He proceeded to tell Noah and Emzara of his life. How he had been raised by Ninsun the goddess queen of Uruk, and how he was told he was a child of Lugalbanda and Ninsun. How he had become an oppressive king whose pride was humbled by a Wild Man from the steppe called Enkidu, who taught him how to suck the marrow out of life and became his only true friend. He spoke of how together, they killed the giant Humbaba, and the great Bull of Heaven, how they stood in the assembly of the gods and defied Ishtar the goddess of war, and how Enkidu died and shattered Gilgamesh’s world.

  “Death has haunted me my entire life,” said Gilgamesh. “No matter what I do, no matter what I achieve, it all comes to nothing in the end because I too will turn to clay and will be gone forever. But when I learned that I was a son of Cush from the line of Noah ben Lamech, I understood why I felt so different, and why I felt I had a destiny to fulfill. I hoped and prayed to the gods to find you because you were the only man to be given immortality from the gods. I have travelled through Sheol and back to find you. I have scourged myself with sleeplessness, I have filled my sinews with endless pain, to find you with the hope that I too could have the eternal life that you alone attained. I even considered that I may have to fight you to gain the gift of the gods.”

  Suddenly, Gilgamesh’s countenance turned dispirited. “But now I see you and my hand is stayed. For you are old and weary. Your form is no different than mine. You are just like me. Your flesh appears weak and near death.”

  Gilgamesh looked to Noah expectantly. Noah gave a glance to Emzara that indicated a deep sorrow
and resignation.

  He turned to Gilgamesh and said, “Gilgamesh, everything you know to be true is a lie.”

  It took a moment for the extremity of the statement to sink into Gilgamesh.

  Everything?

  Noah said, “I will tell you the truth, but I warn you, you will not like it. It will require a challenge in your soul that all men must face, but few are willing to accept. And your response will determine your eternal destiny.”

  Emzara gave a slight smile as she watched her husband speak. He had always been one for bluntness in his talk to the point of insensitivity. She used to struggle with it. She wished he would ease a person into the truth rather than blast him with it. Uriel the archangel used to chide him for it with smooth subtle sarcasm. That was so long ago. But over the years she had learned to love Noah and to live with his ways as he had learned to love her and live with her ways. And she had also learned that sometimes barefaced brazen truth was exactly what was needed.

  Noah continued, “Emzara and I do not have immortality. That is a false myth. We came to Dilmun to escape our shame of the moral descent of our family. As you now know, this is not the Land of the Living, it is the Land of the Dead. The truth is we will die. This flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God. I am sorry to say, my son, that you have exhausted yourself with ceaseless toil. Filling your sinews with endless pain and sleepless nights has merely hastened your demise, brought you nearer to the very death you seek to overcome. Man is one whose life is snapped off like a reed in the marsh. He is like a mayfly, born in a numberless swarm only to die mere moments later. It is only the swarm that lives on. No matter who you are, great king, or lowly peasant, beautiful young woman or mighty Gibborim warrior, death will hack you down. It is the way of all mankind.”

  Gilgamesh listened silently. He could feel the rage slowly rising in him with every word Noah spoke. It was all for nothing. He had sought the one last chance to attain immortality and it had ended in death. He had come to the end of his journey, to the end of his rope. There was nowhere else to go. But he still refused to accept it.

  One word came out of Gilgamesh’s mouth. One word that held back the volcano of anger bubbling inside him, “Why?”

  “Because all humanity has turned its back on the Creator. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, and they worshipped and served the creation rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. When our forebear Adam disobeyed the Creator, he and his beloved were exiled from the Garden and from the Tree of Life, that would have been the source of continued renewal to live forever. As Adam’s descendants, we are exiled from our Creator. The immortality you seek, lies in him and in his Chosen Seed.”

  “I have never heard of such a story,” complained Gilgamesh.

  “I did not expect that you would,” said Noah. “Cush was a rebellious son who sought to defy his own heritage, deny his Creator, and create his own cosmos of power, and the narrative to go with it.”

  Gilgamesh reacted, “I have seen the assembly of the gods in Mount Hermon. Anu the father sky god, Enlil the lord of the air, and all the others. Ninurta, my protector and storm god awaits me in Uruk. Who is this Creator you speak of?”

  Noah answered, “His name is Yahweh Elohim and he is the one who created you and me, and all things.”

  Noah had used the covenant name of the Creator, Yahweh Elohim, that distinguished him from all other claims of deity. He was the true and Living God among the gods.

  Noah continued, “The gods you speak of are bene ha Elohim, Sons of God from the divine council of Elohim’s heavenly host. They are Watchers of mankind. But they fell to earth in rebellion and set up their “assembly of gods” as a mockery of God’s own divine council. They have sought to draw worship away from the Living God unto themselves and to corrupt the bloodline of the coming king.”

  “Coming king?” interrupted Gilgamesh. This struck him where it most hurt. Gilgamesh had sought to be the greatest king. “Who is this king?”

  “I do not know,” said Noah. “But the plan of the Watchers was to mate with human beings and corrupt that royal bloodline. Their progeny was the Nephilim, demigod giants who they sought to engage for their nefarious purposes. The Nephilim and their allies are the Seed of the Serpent at war with the Seed of Eve our mother.”

  Gilgamesh was stunned by the implications, “My mother told me I was a Naphil as well. But you are saying that I am a Seed of the Serpent? Am I so cursed? Am I beyond redemption?”

  Noah said, “I do not know that either, Gilgamesh. There is much about Elohim that I do not understand and have even wrestled with over my long life. He seems to do things that we humans do not understand nor approve of. But he is the Creator, and not we ourselves.”

  Gilgamesh erupted, “What kind of a Creator creates a vessel purely for destruction, and others for nobility at his whim?”

  Noah did not answer. But he said, “The Nephilim had spread upon the land, and the inhabitants had turned to worshipping the Watchers instead of Yahweh. But the Watchers also corrupted creation through their diabolical miscegenation. They sought to unify what God had made separate. To eliminate all distinction so that creation itself might become a part of God. Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that his heart was fixated on evil. All flesh was corrupted and the land was filled with violence. It grieved Yahweh’s heart, and he regretted that he made man. So he sent the Deluge to blot out all life from the face of the land. But only after telling me to build a large boat to save the animals. Elohim was returning the land to chaos in order to recreate the cosmos and begin anew.”

  Gilgamesh interrupted again with irritation, “But he did not kill all the Nephilim. You said yourself that I was born through the very line of Cush. Why would he allow this so-called ‘Seed of the Serpent’ to survive? What kind of puppet game is he playing with this world?”

  “I am sorry,” said Noah. “I just do not know. Perhaps you can be the first Naphil who repents, who turns back to Yahweh and humbles himself before the Most High God.”

  Gilgamesh would not accept such tyrannical pompous despotism. “Most High God? I am the Scion of Uruk, Wild Bull on the Rampage. I have defied kings and gods. I have made a name for myself through my own exploits. Who is this suzerain who seeks to sublimate me as vassal, while damning me without my approval? Where is he hiding?”

  “Alas, I do not know that either,” said Noah. “Yahweh has been silent in this postdiluvian world. I do not know his plans.”

  Gilgamesh said, “For being the Chosen Seedline, you do not know very much. Do you have any answers?”

  “I have faith,” replied Noah. “Faith in my Creator that he will do as he promised and one day put the world to rights. How he will do so he has not revealed, nor is he obligated to.”

  Gilgamesh said, “Well, I do not approve of this invisible Yahweh and his unyielding demands upon me. Repent? I say explain himself if he requires such subservience. What is more, if he creates me as a Seed of the Serpent, then what right has he to claim judge over my actions? Am I not a servant of his will?”

  Emzara tightened with fear. She could see Gilgamesh was increasing his anger with each accusation. Urshanabi knew just how powerful and dangerous Gilgamesh was. He started to tremble.

  Noah noticed this and changed the subject. “Gilgamesh, there is a word we have for such incorrigibility and defiance.”

  “Do you?” said Gilgamesh.

  Noah told him the special word and said, “It means ‘to rebel.’ Do not be so.”

  Gilgamesh said nothing. But he tucked that special word in the back of his mind because he was drawn to it. Drawn like a crocodile to flesh or a sea dragon to chaos. A strange word that he had never heard before, but knew that he would use it one day as a badge of honor in the face of a tyrannical god who had the gall to create a world founded upon suffering and then demand allegiance.

  Emzara tried to keep her eyes from tearing up. She sniffled.
She had the uncanny ability to see the end of a person based on his behavior. She could see Gilgamesh’s end and it was terrifying.

  Urshanabi was dreading the fact that he would have to bring this seething ingrate back to the mainland on his boat. He wondered if he would be drowned at the end of it all out of spite. Maybe that would not be so bad after all since Urshanabi had been released from employment as Noah’s boatman. He had disobeyed his orders not to bring anyone to Noah without prior approval.

  Noah then challenged Gilgamesh. “What would you do with immortality should you gain it?”

  Gilgamesh thought for a moment. Then pronounced, “I would rule the world. The cosmos would be mine.”

  “And what would you do to those who defied you?” asked Noah.

  Gilgamesh looked at him with contempt. He knew exactly where he was going with that line of questioning. He was trying to force Gilgamesh to admit he would do the same exact thing he condemned Yahweh for doing. He was not going to fall into that lion trap. He changed the subject.

  “I did not come here without a plan of my own,” said Gilgamesh. “Yahweh is not the only potentate who does not reveal his secret machinations.”

  Gilgamesh was referring to the plan that Enlil and the assembly of gods had commissioned him to engage. He was not about to unveil that plan and suffer the possible leak of intelligence to his enemies who would seek to stop him and cut him down. Now that he had discovered that the immortality he sought was out of his reach with Noah and his god, then the only other option he had left was to follow through with the plan of the gods.

  “What plan are you talking about?” asked Noah.

  Gilgamesh answered, “Let us just say that there is more than one way to achieve immortality. More than one god who can bestow eternal life.”

  “The gods you worship are imposters,” said Noah. “Whatever they offer you is in their own interest.”

  Gilgamesh replied, “And your god’s offering is not?”

  “Do you really think they will not discard you when they are through using you?” said Noah. “They will chew you up and spit you out.”