Still Looking for Paradise

In Tablet 11, Gilgamesh notices that Utnapishtim is also a person like him, so he asked him his story. Utnapishtitm tells him his story, and how he had to save all the animals and put them on a boat.

I think this part was way too familiar, because it sounded a lot like Noah's Arc, and like the Atrahasis Epic. Most of the lines are the same, and the whole point also.

After that, he told Gilgamesh that why should he have the same power as him? So he told him that if he stayed seven days without sleeping, he would be granted immortality. Still, right after he finished talking, Gilgamesh fell asleep.

Utnapishtim designed a way to know how much he had slept by using bread. After knowing his failure, Gilgamesh had to leave, but when he was getting back into the boat, Utnapishtim's wife told him to have mercy. He then told Gilgamesh how he could use a plant from the bottom of the ocean to become instantly younger.

Gilgamesh finally got it, but as he was taking a bath, a serpent caught it and shed its skin. Gilgamesh was mad.

This is the tablet that has the most noticeable proximity to other stories, and it's sad how Gilgamesh makes such a long trip, and fails in every aspect of it. His only way out now is to go back to Uruk and search for Enkidu!