“My friend, the great
goddess cursed me and I must die in shame. I shall not die like a man fallen in
battle; I feared to fall, but happy is the man who falls in the battle, for I
must die in shame.” Sounds like Odysseus' lament when drowning.
"Gilgamesh had
peeled off his clothes…" after hearing his buddy's dream. Sort
of like tearing your clothing in grief. "Peeled"? Who peels off
their clothes in an emotional outburst? You
peel off your clothes carefully if covered in gasoline during a refueling
accident or if your t-shirt is covered in sweat. Up to this point I’d been reading a version
from Assyrian International News Agency Books Online www.aina.org
At this point I switched to William Muss Arnolt, "The Gilgamesh Narrative, Usually Called the
Babylonian Nimrod Epic," in Assyrian and Babylonian Literature: Selected
Translations, ed. Robert Francis Harper (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1901),
324-368; L. W. King, Babylonian Religion and Mythology (London: Kegan Paul, I found this translation more convincing and
written in language (King James English) more to my liking.
"He clad himself in the skins of the lions
" ala Heracles Who came first?
Urshinabi, the sailor of Utnapishtim - Charon, the sailor of Hades
Urshinabi removed his robes, and Gilgamesh
his garments, and from them Urshinabi fashioned a sail. " Gilgamesh, naked again.
This boy is really into showing off his body! Is nudity a requirement in
Assyrian ritual?
Ea says, "I did not reveal the mystery
of the great gods..."Thereupon Enlil arrived at a decision. Enlil went up
into the ship, took me by the hand and led me out. He led out also my wife and
made her kneel beside me; He turned us face to face, and standing between us,
blessed us, (saying) ‘Ere this Utnapishtim was only human; But now Utnapishtim
and his wife shall be lofty like unto the gods; " So because Utnapishtim knew the
mysteries of the gods, instead of slaying him like the Olympian gods did
Tantalus, the Assyrian dieties deified him and his wife.
"There is a plant resembling buckthorn;
its thorn stings like that of a bramble. When thy hands can reach that plant,
then thy hands will hold that which gives life everlasting " Assyrian Golden Bough or Moly?
"mother Ninazu, who is dark, whose
white, shining body is not clothed with a garment, whose breasts were bare like
stone." More nudity
"When Shamash, the hero and lord, heard
this prayer, he broke open the chamber of the grave and opened the ground, and
caused the spirit of Enkidu to rise out of the ground, like a wind. Gilgamesh
and Enkidu hugged and kissed one another, and shared their thoughts and
queries. " Like
Protesialus and his wife. The description of
the damned is almost cliché, the more sons, the better your position, the
innonce are well kept as are the heroes and the beloved.
That whole aborted
journey to Hades confuses me. I will re-read that with a third translation.
The nudity motif appears also in Ishtar/Inanna's descent to the underworld:
ReplyDelete"Following Ereshkigal's instructions, the gatekeeper tells Inanna she may enter the first gate of the underworld, but she must hand over her lapis lazuli measuring rod. She asks why, and is told 'It is just the ways of the Underworld'. She obliges and passes through. Inanna passes through a total of seven gates, at each one removing a piece of clothing or jewelry she had been wearing at the start of her journey, thus stripping her of her power. When she arrives in front of her sister, she is naked."
(Inanna's Wikipedia page, which also shows a nude vase depiction of the goddess.)
Gilgamesh goes on two journeys, wreaks havoc at home and abroad, but returns wiser, changed for better. Indeed, it seems that he will create nothing more (his great building projects are in his young wild days), but at least he has learned something.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember any such hero in Greek myth. Heracles travels and returns many times and many times wrecks havoc at home and abroad but never learns anything. Almost the same for Theseus. Achilles goes on a journey and dies instead of returning. Agamemnon dies immediately upon returning. Jason and Odysseus and Telemachus return and are changed, but hardly for better. Unless we count Telemachus' transformation from a weeping boy to a hangman. Maybe Diomedes renounces violence, but we haven't the details.
Maya,
ReplyDeleteThe Greek heroes were wiser after their quest might be limited to Cadmus and Perses. Ironically. Cadmus did not return home. I will have to do some research
Bill
Menelaus too! He returned home with the most beautiful woman of all time and a ticket to the Isle of the Blest.
ReplyDeleteI thought about Perseus. No one great works of poetry or drama deals with him, and this is for a reason. What to do with him? His story is like a traditional folk tail for a preteen audience. And his reward is suited to the wishes of a teen or preteen boy: a kingdom or two, a beautiful wife, but also keeping Mom all for himself, a powerful weapon against any bully, and the thorn-in-the-ass old family member killed by accident. Even his protectress Athena is finally fed up by his habit to show Medusa's head left, right and center and takes it for responsible keeping. (I don't say "use", because I don't remember Athena actually using this WMD against anyone; she may have inactivated it.)
ReplyDeleteMaya,
DeleteAthena attached Medusa's head to the aegis. I guess that way her enemies would be frozen with fear, ha ha,
Bill
But they were not!
DeleteI meant "folk tale", of course. Damn homophones!
ReplyDeleteMenelaus may indeed be wiser, but his marriage to Helen is unhappy, and he is haunted by guilt. You once wrote that "we know what happens (in Menelaus' home) after Telemachus leaves, and it isn't pretty". I was about to ask what you meant.
Cadmus, to me, is a wise and decent person right from the beginning. What fault do you see in him, that he killed the dragon? He didn't even know that Ares was fond of the monster. Some modern reader may think that the right thing to do was to write off the killed comrades as colateral damage, to tip-toe around the lair and to put labels "Dragon reserve". However, environmentalism was alien to the ancients. They migrated and settled by taking land away from the megafauna by lethal force.
To me, Ares is a strange figure in the pantheon. We have few stories about him, and they poorly fit together. In the Cadmus myth, Ares screws his own daughter in order to revenge the justified killing of a monster. In the Iliad (the only work known to me where he is "humanized") he is so distraught by the death of his mortal son that he almost revolts against Zeus; yet this son is a Greek warrior, and Ares supports the Trojans - we never know why.
I also thought of Thetis and her potential divine mates. The rescue of Hephaestus and Dionysus not only shows her role and character, but disqualifies both from becoming her partners. Dionysus is actually adult when she rescues him, but the language in which the event is described, "taking him to her bosom", implies a mother-like position, and we cannot imagine the same male and female making sex at any time in the future. Apollo is disqualified by his role in killing Achilles. So, who remains among the scarce male population of Olympus? Only Ares. But he somehow doesn't count, he is a nonperson.
Maya,
DeleteI always assume that after Telemachus left his host and hostess probably had a few words about one another's bad behavior in front of the youth.
The dragon that Cadmus killed was a daughter of Ares. And like Python-slaying Apollo Cadmus had to be purified and due penance. Also like Apollo the whole purification didn't work too well.
Why didn't it work well for Apollo?
DeleteMaya,
DeleteI don't know what the problem was with Apollo's purification. Maybe Gaia refused to forgive. Here is the a blog on the topic http://shortstories-bill.blogspot.com/2012/08/tfbt-peneus-thy-favor-shall-be-rewarded.html
Bill
Oops, I forgot Hermes. But he doesn't seem powerful enought to be a source of danger, and I don't think he would ever stand in opposition to Zeus. It's for a reason that I have disqualified him from being a true immortal.
ReplyDeleteMaya,
ReplyDeleteTo fulfill the prophecy, Thetis' husband had to be a son of Cronus. Zeus and Zposeidon were already applying for the job.
Is it stated anywhere that he had to be a son of Cronus? It seems to me that Zeus and Poseidon were the only males named as rivals for Thetis just because they, as rulers, were the only ones able to indulge in large-scale serial rape, like young Gilgamesh.
ReplyDeletePossibly every immortal could produce a powerful son, including dark horses such as Ares and Hermes. You cannot in all cases evaluate the genotype by looking at the phenotype. Otherwise, nobody would need a prophesy to identify the lady with the dangerous potential. Thetis herself is fragile. She is physically subdued by a guy who was himself subdued by a mortal girl.
Maya,
ReplyDeleteThe reference is Pindar, Isthmian Ode 8.3-5. Apparently, if she'd wed a Cronide her son could have weilded a weapon greater than a trident or thunderbolt.
Bill
Thhank you! This is an interesting text.
ReplyDelete"Zeus and splendid Poseidon contended for marriage with Thetis, each of them wanting her to be his lovely bride; for desire possessed them. [30] But the immortal minds of the gods did not accomplish that marriage for them, when they heard the divine prophecies. Wise Themis spoke in their midst and said that it was fated that the sea-goddess should bear a princely son, stronger than his father, who would wield another weapon in his hand more powerful than the thunderbolt [35] or the irresistible trident, if she lay with Zeus or one of his brothers. “No, cease from this. Let her accept a mortal's bed, and see her son die in battle, a son who is like Ares in the strength of his hands and like lightning in the swift prime of his feet. My counsel is to bestow this god-granted honor of marriage on Peleus son of Aeacus, [40] who is said to be the most pious man living on the plain of Iolcus. Let the message be sent at once to Cheiron's immortal cave, right away, and let the daughter of Nereus never again place the leaves of strife in our hands. On the evening of the full moon [45] let her loosen the lovely bridle of her virginity for that hero.” "
Thought on this:
ReplyDelete1) "One of his brothers", if the translation is accurate, includes Hades. I find this curious.
2) So, Thetis laying with Zeus, Poseidon or Hades would mean no next term for any of them. However, other immortals are not deemed safe, either. Otherwise, why is Thetis sent to a mortal's bed (and, as we know, a second-rate mortal to boot), and why is even the son of that mortal sentenced to die in battle?
3) The marriage is scheduled to take place in less than a month. Quite a haste!
4) "...Let the daughter of Nereus never again place the leaves of strife in our hands" - I find this funny, because the Olympians quarreled because of Thetis throughout the Iliad.
Maya,
ReplyDelete1). So this is an example of the interchangeability of characters in a lineage.
2) why Peleus? Isn't always the question?
3). One month? Was she pregnant? Isn't there a theory about that?
4) "leaves of Eris". That's an interesting phrase
Bill
I also ask myself why Peleus, no satisfactory answer yet.
ReplyDeleteAbout the theory - yes, there is. From Theoi.com:
"Melanippides, Fragment 765 (from Scholiast on Homer's Iliad) (trans. Campbell, Vol. Greek Lyric V) (Greek lyric C5th B.C.) :
"That is why Melanippides says that Thetis was pregnant by Zeus when she was given in marriage to Peleus because of the remarks of Prometheus or Themis [that she would bear a son greater than his father].""
It is true that a diagnosed pregnancy is the usual reason for a wedding to be planned so quickly.
On the other hand, the logic is that it is biological parentage that matters, and you would accomplish nothing by giving the baby a false patronyme. The presence of a formal mortal father did not quash the potential of Heracles, Theseus and Pirithous.
(Or it did? Who would they become if they had no mortal fathers? Asclepius seemed to have a wider cult than Heracles, and Dionysus obscured them all. Were Coronis and Semele killed in order to be prevented from remarrying and giving a mortal father to the child? Some scholars do think that killing and burning the mother in these cases contributed to the son's immortality: check J. Burges' "Coronis Aflame: The Gender of Mortality".)
However, no source ever mentions Achilles to be a biological son of Zeus, as Pirithous is.
Maya,
ReplyDeleteOn the question of Peleus; it struck me last night while walking my dog Derby, that we are looking at this all wrong. The question is not; why did the gods wed Thetis to the son of Aeacus? But rather why did they wed her to the grandson of Chiron?
Yes, Peleus inherited his father’s reputation for piety and ability to rape Nereids. Yes, he lost a wrestling match to a girl, so he is kind of wimpy which makes his son, “superior to his father” even less of a threat to Olympus. But, the wedding didn’t take place in Aeacus’ palace did it?
I never noticed until this morning’s research that Aeacus married Chiron’s daughter Endeis. That makes Chiron, Peleus’ mentor and grandfather. Plus the wedding was in Chiron’s cave on Mt Pelion. So instead of looking at the lineage of the Aeacides wondering why they were chosen to destroy Troy maybe we should be looking at the “sons” of Chiron.
Chiron was the foster father to;
• a tribe of Centaurs spawned on Mount Pelion by the cloud nymph Nephele,
• Jason,
• Peleus,
• Asklepios,
• Aristaios and
• Akhilleus.
Where this will go I don’t know, but something to think about.
Bill
Very interesting! Because my Chiron is infertile, I had quite forgotten the daughter of "real" Chiron.
ReplyDelete