As I was reading Gilgamesh, there were some ideas and themes, both explicitly stated and implicitly hinted at, which I felt are relevant even today. Namely is the depiction of women, as infantile and impulsive.

The actions which take place in today’s section of the reading is brought about by a fateful conversation between Gilgamesh and the goddess of love Ishtar. Ishtar is attempting to seduce Gilgamesh. Yet not only does Gilgamesh rebuke her advances, he also chastises her for her treatment of her other objects of desire. After their conversation the goddess goes to her father Anu and to complain and demand that the bull of heaven be released to her so she can exact revenge on Gilgamesh.

What’s interesting in Ishtar’s description is the way in which she is depicted. She is impulsive and vengeful towards her objects of desire, especially Gilgamesh. Furthermore, she is depicted as manipulative. This is especially clear when we see her interacting with her father, at which point she adopts the manner of speaking of a child.

I found this interesting because it seems that even after a few millenniums certain character motifs seem to stick. The jilted, vengeful woman, seems to persist, from Ishtar to the rage experienced by Athena and Hera when Paris chooses Aphrodite as the most beautiful Goddess. And while I think it pretty obvious that this motif is a side effect of living in a society that’s historically been patriarchal, the consistency of these themes brings up another question.

Does the reoccurrence of certain literary tropes through time and in different places represent a universal human concern or is it rather a process of social reinforcement were we’ve been exposed to the same ideas so many times that it seems to be universal but is rather the product of certain peoples in a given time?