The Epic of Gilgamesh - Tablet IX - Along the Road of the Sun

 
As promised, Gilgamesh now wanders the wilderness, disheveled, slightly mad, dressed in the skins of animals. He is no longer primarily upset by the loss of his friend, but is rather obsessed with fear of his own mortality, of which Enkidu’s death was a grim reminder.
He remembers hearing tell of a man who had been granted eternal life by the gods, a man called Utanapishtim, also known as “the Far Away.” He determines to find this man and obtain from him the secret of immortality. Utanapishtim is said to live at the Mouth of the Rivers, which lies beyond the Road of the Sun and the Waters of Death, and further, the Road of the Sun is meant to be guarded by terrifying creatures. But Gilgamesh is undeterred, and sets forth with determination.
At the mouth of the Road of the Sun (which is a long, dark tunnel) stand two guards, a male and female Scorpion Being. They see Gilgamesh approaching, and recognise that he is part god and part man. Gilgamesh advises that he must pass and travel along the Road of the Sun. They warn him that it is pitch black inside, but he insists, and they allow him to pass.
Gilgamesh travels through the stifling darkness, making it all the way through and emerging into a brilliant garden, where the sunlight shimmers off of trees that are adorned with all the most precious jewels of the world.
After a moment of elation at surviving this portion of the journey, he reminds himself that more lies ahead, and, spying a small building near the distant seashore, resolves to go there and seek advice on how to proceed.