One of the darker posts yet. This post about the Epic of Gilgamesh describes a dream of the hero Enkidu foretelling his death.
The Mesopotamians did not believe in heaven. Instead, they thought that all souls will enter a house in the underworld, where they will lead empty, non-substantial lives for all eternity. This gloomy prospect made that Mesopotamians had to come to terms with their mortality, similar to many of us today.
The full text reads:
‘There is the house whose people sit in darkness; dust is their food and clay their meat. They are clothed like birds with wings for covering, they see no light, they sit in darkness. I entered the house of dust and I saw the kings of the earth, their crowns put away forever; rulers and princes, all those who once wore kingly crowns and ruled the world in the days of old. And there was Ereshkigal the Queen of the Underworld; and Befit-Sheri squatted in front of her, she who is recorder of the gods and keeps the book of death. She held a tablet from which she read. She raised her head, she saw me and spoke: ‘Who has brought this one here?’ Then I awoke [in terror].
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The image depicts Arzu, a demon who stole the tablet of destiny from the gods and was subsequently defeated by the god Ninurta.
"The Great World History Book"