Huluppu- Tree
http://www.mesopotamiangods.com/the-huluppu-tree/
SUMERIA
The Gilgamesh Epic of ancient Sumeria tells of Gilgamesh’s search for the meaning of life. Gilgamesh was told the plant of eternal life lay at the bottom of a certain lake.
After retrieving the plant Gilgamesh rests. A snake comes and eats the plant. The snake becomes immortal and Gilgamesh goes home to die.
The Snake is on this seal from ancient Sumer with the Huluppu Tree.
The Sumerian arch serpent-god whose name was Zu or Ningizzida is lord of the watery abyss from which mortal life arises and to which it returns. Emblem of the healing god Ningishzida:
As the birds began to sing at the coming of the dawn,
The sun God, Utu, left his royal bedchamber.
Inanna called to her brother Utu, saying:
“O Utu, in the days when the fates were decreed,
When abundance overflowed in the land,
When the Sky God took the heavens and the Air God the earth,
When Ereshkigal was given the Great Below for her domain,
The God of Wisdom, Father Enki, set sail for the underworld,
And the underworld rose up and attacked him.... [3]
“At that time, a tree, a single tree, the huluppa-tree
Was planted by the banks of the Euphrates.
The South Wind pulled at its roots and ripped its branches
Until the water of the Euphrates carried it away.
I plucked the tree from the river; [4]
I brought it to my holy garden. I tended the tree, waiting for my shining throne and bed.
Then a serpent who could not be charmed
Made its nest in the roots of the tree,
The Anzu-bird set his young in the branches of the tree,
And the dark maid Lilith built her home in the trunk.
I wept.
How I wept!
(Yet they would not leave my tree.)”