Tablet XI of Gilgamesh and Mesopotamians' idea of relationship of man to God

Introduction

Before beginning to consider one aspect, this is that in speaking of Mesopotamia we are referring to a geographical area and not necessarily cultural, because the reality of Mesopotamia is the reality of many people: the Sumerians and Akkadians, under title which populations englobaremos Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian houses, this cultural diversity together with the fact that we refer to a very lengthy period of time causes confusion as to the gods that change their relationships and position quite often in the sources, being adopted by the gods and relegated others, while others are assimilated and fused into one.

Discussion

Therefore, the hierarchy is also modified so as to be situated above a god or another city, or rule according to possess hegemony (King, pp 145 - 159). The fact is that every city had a patron god, who was worshiped in that city priority, and therefore turned to mythology also a political element of great importance and therefore quite mutable (Mason, pp 90 - 101). Thus are the gods with different names and sometimes with some attributes changed or added.

The epic begins with Gilgamesh itself abusing their position and their irresistible beauty and presence to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh with all nubile maidens of Uruk, while forcing all young people to work in the city walls and in the temple (Jackson, pp 45 - 53). The inhabitants of the city, angry and upset, went to Araru, mother of the gods, urging her to create a rival to Gilgamesh (King, pp 145 - 159). This heard the pleas and taking a piece of clay in your hands will cast her into the field and created a primitive man, this is Enkidu whose body was covered with hair and adorned with braids and not knowing the human ways behaved like an animal. Enkidu grew between animals and dismantled traps preventing hunters hunt their brothers (Mason, pp 90 - 101).

The problem of facing death to immortality and youth aging has been a question that we know that man has tried to solve since there is evidence of their presence. The first written record about the problem over the years and even more about the search for eternity is the poem of Gilgamesh. The poem has been collected in twelve tablets, eleven of which have an exact sequential order and one-twelfth that seems to have added outside the original story (Stuart, pp 67 - 71). 

The tablets, which would date between 2500 and 2200 a. C. in a cuneiform script, talk about Gilgamesh, king of the Mesopotamian city of Uruk around 2650 a. C. It was a huge task the compilation of these tablets in various versions (Assyrian, Hittite, Sumerian and Babylonian) in order to get a better idea of ??the message of the work (Stuart, pp 67 - 71). In the city Gilgamesh exercised absolute power to meet all the attributes of political, military and religious, so abused their subjects through measures such as excessive taxation, ...