Thursday, October 12, 2017

The Plant of Life According to Cadence (Epic of Gilgamesh)

Cadence's writing class is based on ancient history this year. James was thrilled when he found out she was supposed to retell part of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Apparently he has listened to the story on Story of the World, and it's one of his favorites. Go figure. So here is the part Cadence had to retell. I found it funny, so I thought I would share :) {Pardon the editing marks, she had to do that for her teacher for grading, and I'm too lazy to remove them ;)}

Gilgamesh, who was king of Urek for a long time, wished to discover how to live forever. He traveled through the mountains and desert till finally he discovered that the plant was in the  sea. He knew the Euphrates river would take him there so he plunged in. The current carried him swiftly until he saw the plant growing in the distance. The Seas smelled disgusting and the water tasted salty so he drifted by, and grabbed on to the plant and pulled extremely hard. It was covered in thorns and hurt his hands extremely badly. Finally it loosened and he swam up to the surface coughing and spluttering as he went. At the surface he looked at it. It was green slimy and covered with thorns. It looked disgusting.

On his way home Gilgamesh, whose hands stung, decided to bathe in a small pond,  so he stuck the plant under a smooth rock. Suddenly a sly serpent crawled sneakily over to the plant. Gilgamesh watched allit helplessly as the snake reached and ate his treasure. To his amazement the snake shed its ugly old scales and shiny new ones immediately appeared. Gilgamesh yelled into the sky in despair but there was nothing he could do. He felt terrible . His plant was gone forever. Glaring back at the water he murmured “snakes, those corrupt (voc) creatures”.

Gilgamesh, who was very sad, stood there crying bitterly when a voice called to him. It was his friend Enkidu, back from the afterlife. He was in the form of a mighty eagle but Gilgamesh could still validate (voc) that it was him. Thankful for his friend being there he was surprised that he did not feel contrary (voc) anymore. His friend took him on his back and flew over the rivers of Summer. It was hard to depict (voc) easily. There were many beautiful things. His friend said, “Here is the secret to being immortal. You will forever live in the hearts of your people for all your good deeds.”