and weeps bitter tears.
He pours out his woe to Ardi-Ea, but there is nothing left except to
return to Uruk. He reaches the city in safely. His mission--the search
for immortality--has failed. Though healed from his disease, the fate of
mankind--old age and death--is in store for him. With the return to Uruk
the eleventh tablet ends. It but remains, before passing on, to note
that the narrative of the deluge in this tablet is connected with the
character of the eleventh month, which is called the 'month of rain.' We
may conclude from this that the mythological element in the story--the
annual overflow--predominates the local incident of the destruction of
Shurippak. Gilgamesh, we must bear in mind, has nothing to do with
either the local tale or the myth, except to give to both an
interpretation that was originally foreign to the composite narrative.

In the twelfth tablet--which is in large part obscure--we find Gilgamesh
wandering from one temple to the other, from the temple of Bel to that
of Ea, lamenting for Eabani, and asking, again and again, what has
become of his companion. What has been his fate since he was taken away
from the land of the living? The hero, now convinced, as it seems, that
death will come to him, and reconciled in a measure to his fate, seeks
to learn another secret,--the secret of existence after death. He
appeals to the gods of the nether world to grant him at least a sight of
Eabani. Nergal, the chief of this pantheon, consents.

... he opened the earth,
And the spirit[992] of Eabani
He caused to rise up like a wind.

Gilgamesh puts his question to Eabani:

Tell me, my companion, tell me, my companion,
The nature of the land which thou hast experienced, oh! tell me.

Eabani replies:

I cannot tell thee, my friend, I cannot tell thee!

He seems to feel that Gilgamesh could not endure the description. The
life after death, as will be shown in a subsequent chapter, is not
pictured by the Babylonians as joyous. Eabani reveals glimpses of the
sad conditions that prevail there. It is the domain of the terrible
Allatu, and Etana[993] is named among those who dwell in this region.
Eabani bewails his fate.[994] He curses Ukhat, whom, together with Sadu,
he holds responsible for having brought death upon him. In Genesis, it
will be recalled, death likewise is viewed as the consequence of Adam's
yielding to the allurements of Eve. Special significance, too, attaches
to the furthe