Power

Power can make men corrupt… Gilgamesh was strong, “awesome to perfection” as the book says. 2/3 god 1/3 human, he was handsome, mighty like a wild bull, no rival could raise a weapon against him. And all of those good things going for him gave him power. Power that is not constrained makes men corrupt; we see it all throughout history. I’m taking a history class this semester and we’ve been talking about the US Constitution and how it was created and how it works. Our country was formed because the people wanted freedom; freedom from oppression and corrupt laws. Gilgamesh is the perfect example of this for his time. He was the king and he used his power to do bad things. He slept with all the girls who were betrothed on their wedding night. The people were upset, and sought for a power mightier that Gilgamesh. They prayed to the Gods, and they created Enkidu. Enkidu was created to be Gilgamesh’s equal, to put him in his place. When Enkidu learned of the things Gilgamesh was doing he went and fixed the problem right away. He fought Gilgamesh and told him the things he was doing were wrong. Enkidu won, and so Gilgamesh stopped so in a way Enkidu was Gilgamesh’s constraint. He kept his power in check.

Sometimes people who don’t necessarily have power but they use their own devices to have an advantage over people of power. The example of this is Princess Ishtar. Princess Ishtar was offended by Gilgamesh and she went and cried to her mother and father and asked them if she could have the bull of heaven to kill Gilgamesh. Her Father at first said something to the effect of, “didn’t you start it”, but then gave into his daughter when she threatened to break down the Netherlands door and let the dead come up and kill the living. I couldn’t help but think of Ishtar as a spoiled little girl who runs to daddy every time something doesn’t go the way she wants because she has him wrapped around her finger and will get what she wants in the end.

Another completely random thought I wanted to share was that I found it interesting the other night a commercial came on for a car company and they used the Greek Gods and Mount Olympus in their sells pitch. It kind of surprised me because I haven’t ever noticed the Greek Gods in the media before. It makes me wonder how often the Greek Gods are part of commercials and other media in our society today… (Word Count 435)