Gilgamesh Greed Quotes

“Knowledge is power. Power to do evil...or power to do good. Power itself is not evil. So knowledge itself is not evil.” - Veronica Roth, Allegiant This quote references the age old theme of power versus knowledge. In The Epic of Gilgamesh, a young king named Gilgamesh strives for immortality. Gilgamesh acted for his own glory, and was a tyrant over his own people. This made him act less like a person, and his greed was his hubris. Gilgamesh was power hungry, never straying from his hoarding habits, even in the wake of a friend’s death. Gilgamesh was an example of human corruption through power. some texts from ancient times, such as the Bible, have many common themes, such as how to rule, and what kind of choices one should make. Like Ebeneezer

This early Gilgamesh is the example of his poor past actions, and how his greed turned him into a monster. “The young men of Uruk he harries without warrant, / Gilgamesh lets no son go free to his father. / By day and by night his tyranny grows harsher, / Gilgamesh, [the guide of the teeming people!] / It is he who is shepherd of Uruk-the-Sheepfold, / [but Gilgamesh] lets no [daughter go free to her] mother.” (67-72, Gilgamesh) Gilgamesh is a warrior of his people. He uses threats and brutality to control his citizens. He rapes the young women of the town, and abuses the boys. This king is abusively powerful and greedy, a hoarder of power. His form of ruling is very similar to the type of tyrants warned about in Proverbs 29:4. "By justice a king gives a country stability, /but those who are greedy for[a] bribes tear it down." Even in ancient times people knew how a malicious king rules, and that people like Gilgamesh define that with their ideas of power. Sumerian society was power centric with a definite hierarchy, and the leaders at the time did have a familiar relationship with the gods. This did not guarantee, however, the common people had no pull with the gods. Gilgamesh may be related to figures in their religion, but gods still worked with the

His idea of a god is akin to the character or Ishtar, a goddess who takes whatever she wants from others. “You loved the speckled allallu-bird, but struck him down and broke his wing: / now he stands in the woods crying, "My wing!" / You loved the lion, perfect in strength, / but for him dug seven pits and seven / You loved the horse, so famed in battle, / but you made his destiny whip, spur, and lash. / You made his destiny a seven league gallop, / you made his destiny to drink muddy water, / and doomed Silili his mother to perpetual weeping." Ishtar was a homewrecker of a goddess; finding love and then crushing that person she adores. Like Gilgamesh and his narcissism, Ishtar only cares about her needs and takes pleasure in other's suffering. Ishtar makes the mothers of the men she loves weep as much as the mothers of the brides Gilgamesh defiles. The only difference between those two events is how the woman in Gilgmesh’s town still had enough ability to call on the gods for help. The men Ishtar woos are doomed to their fate the moment Ishtar sees them. In their time together, Gilgamesh sees his own future in the best way possible; someone who has already headed too far down the same road he’s on. He does not realize that in its own way, Ishtar's appearance was a warning that he did not heed. Ishtar gained more greed and evil by being immortal and not choosing to help