Epics Are Literary Progenies of Every Civilization - Essay Example

?Avaneesh .M Essay. Client. Epics have been the most striking literary progenies of every civilization. Epics were perceived not as mere stories, butas historic events in which mortals stood in par with the immortals. They depicted the self-esteem and valour of legendary heroes, the virtues and vices of gods and goddesses, how the two realms affected each other to create profound changes in the course of time. Those were the times when humans and the divine visited each others’ astral plains on a regular basis. They helped each other, fought with each other, made love to each other and even killed each other. But, beyond these colourful incidents, epics must have contained a more sublime philosophical reason. The great poets who could write thousands of splendid lines would not have done it just to entertain men. Instead they must have a finer purpose. One which can guide humans to aspire more, to cultivate values, to stand the test of time and fate , or even challenge the gods to protect one’s integrity. In the epics of the world, goddesses were pictured as noble and whimsical, elegant and vain, strong and naive. In the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, goddess Ishtar lustfully offers her love to Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk. Gilgamesh was such a womaniser. As Andrew George says in his translation of Epic of Gilgamesh: Gilgamesh, [the guide of the] teeming [people.] Though he is their shepherd and their [protector,] Powerful, pre-eminent, expert [and mighty,] Gilgamesh lets no girl go free to her bride[groom.] (4) But, he scornfully rejects her saying that she is not to be trusted in the matter of love. As Guirand notes “thou has loved the lion, mighty in strength, and thou hast dug for him seven and seven pits! Thou hast loved the steed, proud in battle, and destined him for the halter, the goad and the whip” (58). Ishtar is the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility, love, war and sex. Though Ishtar is said to be naive and cruel, it cannot be said that she is always so. In the ancient story of Utnapishtim, after the massive flood, Ishtar laments the mass destruction of life; and the other gods weep beside her. This proves that she had sympathy for mortal lives and she was capable of mercy. But when it comes to the matter of love and lust, she was inconsistent. Ishtar is the embodiment of beauty and sexuality. Many a men, mortal and immortal, have fallen prey to her beauty and seduction. Noble and chivalrous men have fallen for enchanting women time and again in myths and history. Ishtar is a mythical representation to show that the quality of a fruit is not judged by its colour. Mortal or immortal, women especially beautiful ones tend to be emotionally inconsistent, yet they always demand for love and worship. If rejected, they might go to any level to take revenge like a petty child. Then they are irrational and illogical. Great poets recited such unique epics for the later generations to comprehend human nature. They conveyed it through the medium of gods and goddesses who stand at a higher platform than humans and hence worthy of being looked up to and learned from. Ishtar is infuriated by Gilgamesh’s rejection and she complains to her father Anu the great God and asks him to unleash the bull of heaven. The great God, realizing his daughter’s folly, tries to dissuade her and calm her down. But, having lost all her senses in fury, she threatens to liberate all the dead souls from the hell. And thus, the great God Anu is forced to give the bull of heaven to his daughter which causes great destruction to humans. Gilgamesh and his ally Enkidu kill the beast and further, Enkidu insults Ishtar by hurling the hinds of the beast at her. Thus, this is a clear depiction of the fact that, even divinity coming from its level to a lower esteem is to be insulted. And also shows that a heroic and virtuous human always thinks of the past and the possibilities of the future before taking a decision, however tempting it is. Ishtar conveys the message that one must never forget one’s social importance and never underestimate the capabilities of lower beings. Goddesses are not always frivolous and unscrupulous. A perfect example is Athena’s role in The Odyssey. Athena, the favourite child of Zeus is the protector goddess of Odysseus (Stebbins 1). Learning about Odysseus’ plight after the Trojan War, she does everything possible to unite him with his wife and son. She discusses his fate with Zeus, the king of gods at a time when Poseidon, who was Odysseus’s enemy was not present at mount Olympus. She disguises herself as Mentes and goes to Telemachus, Odysseus’ son to give him proper directions to search for his father. She even disguises herself as Telemachus to find a ship and crew for the original Telemachus. Thus she truly proves that she is indeed the goddess of wisdom. This is a scene where a goddess truly stands firm as a divine patron. She loves like a mother and devices like a minister. Odysseus smartly chooses the goddess of wisdom as his protector because such a skill would certainly get him out of any situation, unlike the people of Uruk, whose patron goddess is the lust smitten goddess Ishtar. In the introductory phase of The Odyssey, we see another immortal woman who is absolutely different and intriguingly unique from the goddesses we have so far discussed. Calypso was a nymph in Greek mythology, who lived on the island of Ogygia, where she detained Odysseus for a number of years (Grimal 86). She falls deeply in love with Odysseus and wants to make him her immortal lover. She seduces him and they sleep together, although he soon comes to wish for circumstances to change. His patron goddess Athena asks Zeus to order the release of Odysseus, and Zeus sends the messenger god Hermes to tell Calypso to set Odysseus free, for it was not his destiny to live with her forever. Burning with anger she comments on how the gods hate goddesses having relations with mortal men. But once her anger is down, she comes to terms with the not-meant-to-be reality. And calypso sends Odysseus on his way with a boat, wine and bread. Odysseus admits to her that she is more beautiful than his wife, but he has to go back home for other reasons. On one side, when a goddess attempts to destroy everything including her lover when she is rejected, here we have a noble immortal who sacrifices her heart for the happiness of her lover, even when she had the power to challenge destiny. People lose their logic and wit when they are in love. But here, this divine being teaches us the lesson that, one should have a clear conscience, whatever the situation is. And one must not greedily crave for something/someone that is not meant to be. In almost all religions, god is an abstract entity which is beyond description. Since all religions were created to guide human race, they needed to follow a god’s plans. Since it was difficult for ordinary men to comprehend an abstract entity, great sages and teachers of the ancient days took different virtues and vices and attributed them to different gods and goddesses. In that way, people can choose their own favourite quality bearing gods and worship them. That way, divinity becomes a more comprehensible phenomenon. Hence, polytheistic-monotheism (one abstract divine being above a group of definable godly beings) can serve the true purpose of religion. Works Cited George, Andrew. The Epic of Gilgamesh. Trans. Unknown. 1999. London: Penguin, 2003. Print. Guirand, Felix. New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology. Trans. Richard Aldington, Delano Ames. 1987. Print. Stebbins, Elinor. “Pallas Athena, Goddess of Wisdom.” Arthistory.sbc.edu. n.p. n.d. Web. 10 Sep. 2011. Grimal, Pierre. The Dictionary of Classical Mythology. Trans. Wiley Blackwell. 1986. Print. Read More