But Gilgames destroyed the bull, an achievement, however, for which he was punished by Heaven.
Ea-bani died of the bite of a gadfly, and his spirit mounted to the skies, while Gilgames himself was smitten by a sore disease.

To heal it he sailed beyond the mouth of the Euphrates and the river of death, leaving behind him the deserts of Arabia and the twin-mountain where men in the shape of huge scorpions guard the gateways of the sun.

At last he found Xisuthros, the hero of the Deluge, and learned from him how he had escaped death.

Cured of his malady, he returned homeward with a leaf of the tree of life.

But as he rested at a fountain by the way it was stolen by a serpent, and man lost the gift of immortality.
In Babylonia, and to a lesser extent in Assyria, women were practically on a footing of equality with the men.