Darmok

In the Epic, Gilgamesh is a powerful man with great authority. The Gods decide to make Enkidu, a man of the wilderness who is as powerful as Gilgamesh, to compete against him. Enkidu declares,

“I will challenge him.

Let me shout out in Uruk: ‘I am the mighty one!’

Lead me in and I will change the order of things. . .”

Enemies at first, they become friends and join together with a common goal, to take Cedar from the Cedar Forest, which is protected by the beast Humbaba. This is similar to the Israel and Palestine leaders in their compromise of peace and land. The New York Times article states, “The leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority held more than two hours of face-to-face peace talks in this Red Sea resort on Tuesday, delving into several of the core issues that divide the two sides but not breaking an impasse over Jewish settlements.” Even though they may not be allies, the Israelis and the Palestinians are trying to find a peaceful way to get what they want.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/world/middleeast/15mideast.html?ref=world

In the Epic Gilgamesh and New York Times Article,“New Afghan Corruption Inquiries Frozen”, there was a common theme of mistrust due to changing perceptions.  In the New York Times Article, I notice similarities between the mistrust of Enkidu by wild animals and the Afghan Administration and their Anti – Corruption Officials.  Enkidu is view different by the animal afterward more like a man and less as part of the wild after meeting Shamhat. The Anti -Corruption officials similarly are view as a tool to check their power by Coalition by the Afghan Administration.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Enkidu loses the trust of the animals after he has sex with Shamhat. “His Lust  groaned over her; for six days and seven nights Enkidu stayed aroused, and had intercourse with the harlot until he was sated with her charms. But when he turned his attention to his animals, the gazelles saw Enkidu and darted off, the wild animals distanced themselves from his body.” (p.63, l. 166-173)

As cited in the last paragraph of the New York Times Article, “A prominent Afghan businessman who knows Mr. Karzai well said he was just stalling. “The Americans are damned,” he said, referring to the Salehi case. “It’s about sending a signal: the fact that the guy got away means it’s a toothless tiger.”’ 

The difference of how some is perceive comes from either one party gaining new knowledge that is different the other party does not understanding.  For when Enkidu meets Shamhat who introduce him to the world of man and the animals perceive him differently. In the case of  Anti-Corruption officials, the perception may be that they are the tools of the west but in their eyes the officials might see that in order to be able to govern efficiently, certain activities must be weed out  so the people can trust their government again. It is through whomever’s  eyes you are looking through that becomes your perception of the event, place or thing.

Sources:

Damrosch, David and Pike, David L.  2009. Longman Anthology of World Literature The Ancient World, Vol. A 2^nd Edition. “The Epic of Gilgamesh” p.56-97

Nordland, Rod and Rubin, Alissa J.  2010.  “New Afghan Corruption Inquiries Frozen”  nytimes.com,  September 14 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/world/asia/15afghan.html?pagewanted=1&ref=asia

While I was reading the story of Gilgamesh, something that surprised me is the fact that the people sends a harlot to Enkindu in order to investigate and discover who Enkindu really is. The father orders the trapper to go to Gilgamesh and “ask him to give you a harlot, a wanton from the temple of love; return with her, and let her woman’s power overpower this man (p.4 par. 4).” In a way, the harlot is a form of diplomat trying to communicate and discover a foreign group or in this case man. It can be assumed that it is best to send a woman because a righteous man would not dare hurt a woman.

In the Philippines, the government control has been full of corruption and chaos. In specific, the control for the Mindanao area has been very critical. In an attempt for a candidate to take some control of the Philippines, Mr. Mangudadatu [opposing candidate] “sent his wife and other female relatives…because he believed the Ampatuans [incumbent] would not dare hurt the women (Onishi par. 7).” Unfortunately, everyone that was sent by Mr. Mangudadatu was massacred on the spot.

In both stories, women signify as a form of diplomacy and communication. In Shamar’s case, she was sent in order to turn this “animal” into a normal human being. They wanted him to become more human like filled with desire. In Mr. Mangudadatu’s case, he sends the women in his family in order to inform others of the new person [Mr. Mangudadatu] in the scene. They wanted to open up the eyes of the local people to vote for a change.

Works Cited

“The Epic of Gilgamesh.” Assyrian International News Agency.

<http://www.aina.org/books/eog/eog.pdf>  9 September 2010

Onishi, Norimitsu. “Clan Planned Philippine Massacre Over Dinner, Witness Says.” The

New York Times.  8 September 2010. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/world/asia/09phils.html?scp=4&sq=philippines&st=cse>. 9 September 2010.

Three Chinese scientists set the journey to plunge into the bottom of the South China Sea and they were successful. The dive was approximately 3,759 meter in depth and the scientists were in a tiny submarine, size of a small truck. This is the furthest anyone has tried to go in depth. There were previous tries but none of them were as deep as this one. And in the future years, the Chinese scientists plan to push even deeper. It is a very big accomplishment for the Chinese because they have outcome all the forces and problem to conquest even the deepest sea. They have accomplished a huge goal by exploring the deep, dark and enormous sea bed. They even planted their flags in the sea bed where the submarine landed. By now you can tell how this is related to the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Gilgamesh is a powerful king, and so he decides to conquer the Cedar Mountains and kill Humbaba, the beast who ruled the lands of the cedar forest. And he is successful in accomplishing his goal, and he does it with the help of Enkidu. Similarly, in the case of the scientist, they were successful because they had each others help. If they worked alone then they might not be successful just the Gilgamesh would not be able to conquer the cedar forest without Enkidu. The Scientists conquered the enormous sea just as Gilgamesh conquered the vast Cedar Forest.

The Article:

The Epic of Gilgamesh narrows the story of a beautiful and strong King who is two-thirds god and one -third human, king like no other king.  Throughout the whole epic, Gilgamesh is described as a brave, bold and wise man with a brave and youthful heart, who has no adversaries that would even dare to rise against him, “There is no rival who can raise a weapon against him.” (A, 60)     

Additionally, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, we see how Gilgamesh fights to protect his people and to create a name for himself that would pass generation after generation “He walks out in front, the leader, (…) mighty net, protector of his people.” (A, 60) After Gilgamesh fights and experiences all the passages he has, trying to conquest his own quest, he realizes that he has not achieved anything for himself that everything he has done has been in vain. At the end of his journey he wonders what he has done and who he has been doing it all for;

 “Counsel me, O ferryman Urshanabi!

For whom have my arms labored, Urshanabi?

For whom has my heart’s blood roiled?

I have not secured any good deed for myself,

but done a good deed for the ‘lion of the ground’! (A, 97)

I found a very interesting small article that can be very much related to Gilgamesh. The article is about another leader of our current era, that just like Gilgamesh is strong, brave and it seems that no opponent would rise against him. I’m talking about the former president of Cuba, Fidel Castro. The New York Times had an article on September 09, 2010 called “Fidel Castro’s Doubts about Cuban Communism and Iranian Anti-Semitism”  This article is based on an interview with Fidel Castro. During this interview Fidel Castro is asked if he still believed on his communism system, “I asked him if he believed the Cuban model was still something worth exporting. “The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore,” he said.” (New York Times)

The answer of Castro is that the communism model does not even work for Cuban society anymore. At the end of his journey Castro realizes that everything he has done it is not as worthy and useful for his country and his people as he thought it was. Just like Gilgamesh realizes at the end of his journey.

Robert Mackey.  “Fidel Castro’s Doubts about Cuban Communism and Iranian Anti-Semitism.” New York Times. Web September 09, 2010. <http://thelede.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/fidel-castros-doubts-about-cuban-communism-and-iranian-anti-semitism/?ref=middleeast>

In The New York Times article titled “Buildings Are Set Ablaze During Protests in Kashmir” is a story about wanting your way and instilling fear by means of violence to accomplish getting what it is you’re hoping for. Kashmir is a region in the Himalayas shared by India and Pakistan but ruled by India. Against this rule are thousands of Muslims who turned to hostility in hope of a shift of power. “Thousands of demonstrators staged a violent protest in Kashmir on Saturday, setting fire to a police office and other government buildings in the latest angry outburst after three months of almost daily protests against Indian rule in the Himalayan region”.( NYT10) Fear of violence and death is thought to be a sure way of getting a point across and expecting a desired action to be completed.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh there is a similar story about using brutality to achieve a goal. When Gilgamesh returns from his successful journey into the forest he is approached by the goddess Ishtar who has a strong desire to be with him. “Come to me Gilgamesh, and be my bridegroom; grant me seed of your body, let me be your bride and you shall be my husband.” (Gilgamesh*) Gilgamesh refuses her advances. “I would pour out barley to stuff your granary; but as for making you my wife-that I will no.”(Gilgamesh*) She became so angry with Gilgamesh that she set out to punish him for good.  “When Ishtar heard this she fell into a bitter rage, she went up to high heaven.”(Gilgamesh*)  When she got there she requested that the gods give her the Bull of Heaven to ultimately destroy Gilgamesh, she knew this wish would not be easy to acquire so she threatened the gods with cruelty. “My father, give me the Bull of Heaven to destroy Gilgamesh. Fill Gilgamesh, I say, with arrogance to his destruction; but if you refuse to give me the Bull of Heaven I will break in the doors of hell and smash the bolts; there will be confusion of people, those above with those from lower depths. I shall bring up the dead to eat food like the living; and the hosts of dead will outnumber the living”.(Gilgamesh*)  The connection I made between the two stories is the use of wrath and hostility, whether it is spoken or actually acted out, to achieve a desired result regardless of it actually working.

*I will put the page numbers as soon as I get a chance to look at the book. I have not yet received my order and had to get a copy of the story from somewhere else and it most likely has different page numbers. Sorry for the inconvenience.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/world/asia/12kashmir.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=protesters%20set%20fire&st=cse

T. S. Eliot once said: “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”  And indeed, throughout the history of mankind we can find many brave individuals who travel the world in search of undiscovered and unexplored places.

The theme of traveling and exploration is reflected almost in every part of the Epic of Gilgamesh. In this work, Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu go on various journeys: Enkidu’s journey to Uruk from the wilderness, Gilgamesh and Enkidu’s journey to Cedar Forest to kill the great Humbaba, and finally Gilgamesh’s journey to find the immortal Utanapishtim in the Faraway. In his travels, Gilgamesh “[roams] long roads through the wilderness” (Damrosch, p. 85), “crosses through mountains, for twelve leagues it is darkness throughout” (Damrosch, p. 85), sails the Waters of Death using a boat which he builds from 120 trees.

Even with the lapse of time, we still realize that this notion of traveling and exploration remains intrinsic and essential to our modern values. William J. Broad in his article “China Explores a Frontier 2 Miles Deep” describes how “Chinese scientists plunged to the bottom of the South China Sea in a tiny submarine … exploring remote and inaccessible parts of the ocean floor.” This achievement allows going deeper than any other technology in the world despite the darkness and pressure.

These two examples illustrate the constant humans’ desire for exploring places. However, Gilgamesh and the Chinese scientists don’t travel just for the sake of traveling; their journeys have particular purposes, they are meant for someone’s benefit. Gilgamesh, who is oppressed and fears death, overcomes the obstacles on his way to Utanapishtim in order to find the secret of immortality. On the other hand, the Chinese scientists travel to the bottom of the ocean floor mainly because it is “rich in oil, minerals and other resources.” So, it’s obvious that in both cases a favorable outcome of the journey will place the explorer above the rest of world.

William J. Broad “China Explores a Frontier 2 Miles Deep”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/science/12deepsea.html?src=twr