1. Gilgamesh - Description of the Underworld
Gilgamesh starts out his journey to attain immortality at the mountain Mashu where he encounters the Scorpion-men, guardians of boundary between earth and sky, who tell him "It is impossible Gilgamesh, Nobody has passed through the mountain's inaccessible tract. " (Epic of Gilgamesh 140) Gilgamesh is upset since he is asked to leave, no human can make pass through the mountain Mashu. ...
Recent studies have begun to see the Homeric epics in the light of other epic traditions, notably epics from Mesopotamia, and have begun to look at striking similarities. There is a supposed lineage that can be seen connecting the Homeric epics most directly with the world of Akkadian epics (Gresseth 2). The connections run from similarities in methods of transmission, namely the oral traditions, to themes, characters and formal structural components. The epic of Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk, and the Iliad, with its focus on the menis of Achilles, provide a look at heroic life and its relations...