WORLD CIVILIZATION

Detailed explanation-1: -Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh that at the bottom of the sea there lives a boxthorn-like plant that will make him young again. Gilgamesh, by binding stones to his feet so he can walk on the bottom, manages to obtain the plant.

Detailed explanation-2: -The flood story was included because in it, the flood hero Utnapishtim is granted immortality by the gods and that fits the immortality theme of the epic. The main point seems to be that Utnapishtim was granted eternal life in unique, never-to-be-repeated circumstances.

Detailed explanation-3: -But a snake steals the plant one night while they are camping. As the serpent slithers away, it sheds its skin and becomes young again. When Gilgamesh returns to Uruk, he is empty-handed but reconciled at last to his mortality. He knows that he can’t live forever but that humankind will.

Detailed explanation-4: -In his quest for immortality, Gilgamesh walked paths no one had trod before, walking alongside the sun and across the Waters of Death. His quest was personal but his motivations were similar to those that have shaped modern medicine: the quest to prolong life and conquer death.