The readings for this class stood out to me more than the others. Having great personal interest in our modern understanding of ‘The Cosmos’, I signed up for this blog date as a way to compare my present day understandings of the workings of the universe, to the beliefs of civilizations long ago.

Upon beginning the reading on Aten, I noticed that it credited much of the plot of the hymn to being created as an example of how people should live their lives when faced with confrontation. Since the tale speaks of gods, it is meant to act as a guide for certain situations in life. Gods are rarely wrong.

As I read the more familiar ‘Genesis’, the story acted less as a guide, and more as a simple explanation of how things came to be. In my eyes it serves less as a guide, and more as irrefutable history. This can raise the question of what is the inner purpose of these cosmos stories; is it to guide, or to educate? And how does this purpose have an effect on how the stories are used and applied?

With the Rig Veda, we see yet another attitude. Here, the story admits that nobody can truly know how everything came to be, for even the gods were not around for the creation of the universe. Here the tale presupposes the gods with the creation of the world, and not the other way around.

Important to think about what societal or cultural influences can be the cause of the content and ideology of the various creation stories?

Death is inevitable, maybe in Gilgamesh’s era immortality seemed like a possibility, we know it will reach us eventually. The true mystery is, how would we approach the unescapable future and what would we leave behind as our legacy? Many people face this dilemma, and we can’t avoid it. Gilgamesh, who was so closed to being considered a God, has everything in life that a man can wish for, but he’s not your typical human. The two-thirds of a God, which he has in him, is missing a very important piece, immortality. Any man in their normal state of mind would not even think of achieving the impossible, but not Gilgamesh. What is the reason for such tremendous need for immortality?

As Utnapishtim said “No one sees death” (Page 142 line 228). We are all afraid of the unknown, but could the mighty king’s one-third human side be feeling the same fear we feel, “grown afraid of death” (Page 134 line 5)? Or is it because of seeing his equal, Enkidu, be brought down so spontaneous and unexpectedly? If you believe Enkidu is the reason for his initial search of immortality, then why does he crave it much prior to the downfall of Enkidu, “I must establish eternal fame” (Page 110 line 191). Could it be because he wants to forever remain as the greatest kings, or maybe it’s because he realizes that after he passes away he will leave nothing behind, not even a child to continue his legacy, or is it just a simple human fear of death?

Welcome: I hope you find this a productive space in which to explore the texts we read. While each student is assigned a blog post and four responses, feel free to use this blog to post questions, links to relevant videos and information, and thoughts at any time; we can use these posts to generate discussion in the classroom.

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