The last three tablets-----number nine, ten and eleven----from the Royal Library of Nineveh comprise the conclusion of the Epic, beginning with the wanderings of Gilgamesh, his passage through the mountain Mashu, through which the sun passes making day and night. He arrives at last to the sea on the edge of the world where he meets Siduri, the Alewife, who keeps a tavern for travelers, and she directs him to the boatman who must take him to Ut-napishtim, the one man who not yet died.

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The image, a clay impression

from an ancient Sumerian cylinder,

is of sun god Shamash,

bestriding the cleft

of the mountain Mashu, featured

between the twin pillars

which hold up the sky.

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Music excerpt is “Kish” from the album

The Forest by David Byrne