Chapter 9 Summary

Chapter Nine begins the second episode of the epic of Gilgamesh: Gilgamesh's search for the secret of life and death. For many days and nights, Gilgamesh wanders on foot until he reaches the Mountains of Mashu. Looking up at the towering peaks, Gilgamesh wonders if he has truly reached the mountains, whose peaks touch the heavens, and whose foundations reach into the bowels of the earth: the home of the scorpion-people. One of the said scorpion-men, looking down from his high promontory, sees Gilgamesh and asks his identity. The scorpion man's wife replies that the stranger is two-thirds god and one-third man. The scorpion-man asks Gilgamesh how he has come to be there and Gilgamesh responds that he has come to seek his ancestor Utnapishtim who knows the secret of life and death and can, therefore, tell Gilgamesh where his friend Enkidu has...