Last week I read Prometheus Bound. This week I traveled over 1,000 years further in the past to read the Epic of Gilgamesh. The exact date that it was written is unknown but I have seen it anywhere from the range of 2150 BC to 1400 BC. Whatever the actual date is it was a very long time ago.
As with Prometheus Bound this is a short read and can easily be finished in one sitting. The epic is divided into 11 parts. One for each of the tablets that it was engraved on.
Gilgamesh was a great king with no rivals. Enkidu grew up in the wilderness as wild as an animal and was of equal size to Gilgamesh. First they are rivals before becoming best of friends. They go to battle together and are victorious. Then Enkidu dies and Gilgamesh is forced to confront his own mortality.
There were a couple of things that I found interesting about this story including the reference to the flood. First at the beginning of the epic and then in greater detail towards the end. The author notes “He brought information of (the time) before the flood.”
The second thing that stood out to me was that when confronted with his own mortality Gilgamesh went in search for a way to prevent his own death. When confronted with the possibility of his own death he sought ways to prevent it.
The Epic of Gilgamesh provides some important questions to ponder about. First, how do rivals become friends? Second, what is the importance of true friendship? Third, how do you confront death?
As with Prometheus Bound I believe the epic of Gilgamesh was able to survive for so long because it touches on questions of importance no matter when or where you live.
William Wilberforce has been called an agitator for his commitment to ending the slave trade. One of his well known speeches on the subject was given on May 12, 1789.
Cardinal Richelieu has been hailed as a great statesman and as a subversive authoritarian. Depending on who you talk to he was a man needed to strengthen the monarchy in France, or he was a tyrant seeking personal power. Next week I will have a book review that may shed more light on Cardinal Richelieu.
When Lenin was working on his major writing projects he would often pace across the room formulating the ideas that he would write down by saying them out loud. Once he had the idea for what he wanted to write he would often repeat the idea to Nadezhda Krupskaya, who would provide feedback. Once this process was complete he would then write the ideas down.
Here is an AI rendering of what that might have looked like when he was drafting What is to be Done.
This month this community will focus on political subversion. What is subversion? When is it justified? What is the interplay between subversion and agitation? These are some of the topics to be discussed this month.
“You get used to the despot’s shortcomings, when they are not great vices, and the change of an autocratic ruler leads to involuntary fear.”
Sergei Trubetskoi
