Quotes from The Epic of Gilgamesh

Quotations follow the Andrew George translation (Penguin Classics, 2003) — our recommended edition.

1. 2

   The life that you are seeking you will never find. When the gods created man they allotted to him death, but life they retained in their own keeping.

2. 3

   Gilgamesh, where are you hurrying to? You will never find that life for which you are looking. When the gods created man they allotted to him death, but life they retained in their own keeping.

3. 4

   Only the gods live forever... but as for us men, our days are numbered, our occupations are a breath of wind.

4. 5

   Only the gods live for ever with glorious Shamash, but as for us men, our days are numbered, our occupations are a breath of wind.

5. 6

   I will proclaim to the world the deeds of Gilgamesh. This was the man to whom all things were known; this was the king who knew the countries of the world.

6. 7

   He who has seen everything, I will make known to the lands.

7. 8

   When the gods created Gilgamesh they gave him a perfect body. Two thirds they made him god and one third man.

8. 9

   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.

9. 10

   There is no permanence. Do we build a house to stand for ever, do we seal a contract to hold for all time? Do brothers divide an inheritance to keep for ever, does the flood-time of rivers endure?

10. 11

    Deep in the pool there was lying a serpent, and the serpent sensed the sweetness of the flower. It rose out of the water and snatched it away, and immediately it sloughed its skin and returned to the well.

11. 12

    There is a plant that grows under the water, it has a prickle 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.

12. 13

    When the daylight came I loosed a dove and let her go. She flew away, but finding no resting-place she returned.

13. 14

    How can I be silent, how can I rest, when Enkidu whom I love is dust, and I too shall die and be laid in the earth.

14. 15

    O Enkidu, my brother, You were the axe at my side, My hand's strength, the sword in my belt, The shield before me, A glorious robe, my fairest ornament; An evil Fate has robbed me.

15. 16

    Which of your lovers did you ever love for ever? What shepherd of yours has pleased you for all time?

16. 17

    Forget death and seek life.

17. 18

    What is this sleep which holds you now? You are lost in the dark and cannot hear me.

18. 19

    Because of my brother I am afraid of death, because of my brother I stray through the wilderness and cannot rest.

19. 20

    It is only the nymph of the dragon-fly who sheds her larva and sees the sun in his glory. From the days of old there is no permanence.

20. 21

    The sleeping and the dead, how alike they are, they are like a painted death.

21. 22

    O Urshanabi, was it for this that I toiled with my hands, is it for this I have wrung out my heart's blood?