The Epic of Gilgamesh

So, I have just finished reading tablets 1-12 of the Epic of Gilgamesh, and I’ll say right off the bat going into the reading I thought I was going to absolutely loathe this text. I have to say though that I really enjoyed the epic of Gilgamesh. Not only am I thrilled that this was part of the curriculum for Mosaics, but I feel like I have become a more knowledgeable person from this ancient text.

                Now my goal for this blog post is to explore a theme that I noticed throughout the tablets and while there are apparent themes of nature, love and leadership the theme I want to explore is the Human-like Gods and the God-like humans. The tale of Gilgamesh features King Gilgamesh who is 2/3 God. He is told to be God-like in all ways, he is the strongest in the land, he is the ruler and there is none greater than Gilgamesh. Then there is Gilgamesh’s best friend/adopted brother Enkidu, who is made by the Gods for Gilgamesh. Enkidu is from the wild and is strong as a rock and like Gilgamesh in strength. The two are put on high pedestals and for human beings are made to seem like Gods from their adventures. Another example of glorifying humans would be Uta-napishti who survived the Great Deluge and was given immortality by the Gods. Now glorifying humans is not uncommon in today’s society, for example take a look at celebrities and athletes, in some cases they seem to be treated like Gods. The theme I find most interesting is how the Gods are made to seem human-like with flaws. In the Christian church God is seen as all good and all pure, and everyone should strive to be better people so they can one day join God in heaven. There are tales of humans and their faults but never tales of God’s faults. In the Epic of Gilgamesh there are many Gods that have huge character flaws.

                Ishtar, the daughter of Anu, the goddess of sexual love and war approaches Gilgamesh and wishes to be his wife. Gilgamesh refuses based on the history of her past lovers and embarrasses her and ridicules her. In a very human-like way Ishtar is filled with rage and storms off to daddy asking him to give her permission to use the bull of heaven to fight Gilgamesh. Now Anu is father of the Gods, so you would think that Anu would not let a silly thing like that happen because his daughter is upset, but Anu gives in to Ishtar and grants her the bull of heaven.  Gilgamesh being so God-like kills the bull of heaven to Ishtar’s dismay. Now let’s examine this, the God Ishtar is jealous and gets filled with rage when she is rejected just like normal humans. Anu the father despite knowing that the idea isn’t intelligent, gives in to his daughter due to her dismay. These do not sound like wonderful traits of the Gods you worship. I think the most human-like God is by far Enlil. Enlil is the God who decided for Enkidu to die instead of Gilgamesh even though Gilgamesh is the one who killed Enlil’s Humbaba and the bull of heaven. Enlil is always filled with rage and has a short temper. When the Uta-napishti survives the Great deluge Enlil is furious. Should a God that is worshiped have such a short temper?

                What is the reasoning behind the human-like Gods and the God-like humans? The writers of the tablets probably want to show that Gods are not perfect, and obviously no human is perfect as well. I think the God-like humans are there to inspire people to be the best they can be and give them a level of perfection that they can strive for. The human-like Gods are shown to be human like to show that the Gods don’t have everything together, they are not always making the right decisions which is why bad things do happen. I think of the saying everything happens for a reason but I think the writers of the tablets want to show that sometimes bad things just happen and the Gods aren’t doing it intentionally. I think the connection between Gods and humans is quite a major theme throughout this epic and I have am a new found fan of the epic of Gilgamesh.

Body Ritual among the Nacirema

Hello World!

My name is Kevin John Murray. I am a freshman musical theatre major at Temple University, about to embark on my second semester. Above you will see my headshot that I use at my auditions. I went to Neshaminy High School and graduated in the top 5% of my class and was very involved. Coming to Temple I am in the Honors Program and so far have loved my experience. This blog is being created for my Honors Mosaics 1 class as an analytical analysis of what I feel about texts I read. Now let me just say a little about myself. I am from Levittown Pennsylvania which is about 30 minutes north of Philadelphia and in 2 weeks, my family and I will be moving to Langhorne PA which is right by Sesame Place Amusement Park. I work there as an Entertainer. My future goals and career path involve me doing many auditions and trying to work in the entertainment business. Now why would I be coming to college when all I'm going to do my whole life is audition? Well I'm glad you asked! I've always dreamed of going to college and hopefully one day when I'm older, with my college degree I'll be able to work high on the totem pole at Sesame Place. I have a wide range of intellectual interests. I am very into the arts, seeing as I'm a musical theatre student but I'm very into math and English. English has always been my favorite subject because it's your chance where there is no right answer and you can be as creative as you would like. The answers are in your hand when writing and I love having creative control. Through this Mosaics course I'm hoping to learn a lot about important texts that I could find useful in the future. I'm hoping to improve my college writing ability and my ability to read, analyze and comprehend. I'm very excited to see what this class has to offer me!

I just read Horace Miner's Body Ritual among the Nacirema and I was rather taken aback by the practices that are performed. The people believe in magic. They go through rituals every day and really drastic, horrific rituals annually throughout the year. Their underlying belief seems to be that the human body is ugly. Now this sounds absolutely horrible, that a culture would tell someone they are hideous, but isn’t that exactly what happens in today’s society? There are always people judging and saying you are not good enough, whether it’s too fat, too skinny, etc.  Criticism exists everywhere but I find it highly fascinating that criticism is worked into this religion.  The Nacirema find a lot of power in the mouth. They believe that painful and torture-like rituals help improve all social relationships. The “holy mouth men” pretty much puts their mouths through incredible pain and the people believe without these practices their “teeth would fall out, their gums would bleed and their jaws would shrink.” The practices of the Nacirema really take me for a spin. When the people get extremely sick they are taken to the temple, and this is where many die. They are put through very rigorous torture methods which are meant to help them survive but some of the weak frail bodies can’t make it through. To get in one must present a gift which I believe is outlandish to present a gift just to be tortured.

The thing that really intrigues me about the Nacirema is the relation to the Catholic Church today. I’m Catholic and I find it very interesting different forms of organized religion and their similarities and differences. The Nacirema essentially pray to charms that are filled with magic, and in the Catholic Church we direct our prayers to crucifixes so they are better heard. In the Catholic Church when one is sick a priest comes to give them last rights, the Nacirema bring the sick to the temple. The Nacirema must present gifts to the temple, in the Catholic Church every mass there is a donation, where everyone is expected to donate to the church. I find it interesting how throughout so many cultures throughout the world there has always been faith, or a knowing of something greater. In the Catholic Church we believe in God, the Nacirema believe in magic.