… I, for example, remember that Simon Bolivar built the pyramids,
defeated the invincible Armada and made the first flight to the moon.
“You didn’t mention that he married Cleopatra.
- Oh, that. Oh sure.
R. Heinlein, Starship Troopers
Each person who has left a significant mark in the history of his people is idealized over time and endowed with some noble traits, often not even peculiar to her. Moreover, the more time passes from the moment of his activity, the more incredible and majestic these actions appear. Sometimes it happens that this figure is endowed with absolutely incredible, almost divine features, turning from a historical personality into a legendary one.
The first of these rulers was the Sumerian king, founder of the First Dynasty of Uruk, Gilgamesh, who ruled in the 26th century BC. Undoubtedly, before him there were personalities whose activities were deified, for example, Narmer, who unified Egypt, but it was the cult of Gilgamesh that was the first in which the exaltation of the miraculous qualities of the hero acquired a truly universal scale.
And besides, what was left of almost all the rulers of that time? A couple of artifacts and several bas-reliefs describing their exploits. The deeds of Gilgamesh are described in six cuneiform epics, each in hundreds of lines, detailing everything that happened to the main character. Some scholars believe that the "complete set" of Gilgamesh's writings is superior to the Iliad and Odyssey combined. But here you need to understand that in the works of Homer dozens, if not hundreds of people are described, and in the books about Gilgamesh, the main character is one …
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One of the most interesting facts associated with these works is that they were written not after the life of the protagonist, but practically during it, that is, myths about the ruler were composed during his lifetime. What does Gilgamesh do during his achievements, conquests and wanderings! He conquers countries, conquers giants, and has romances with goddesses, and searches for the secret of immortality, and saves the Earth from a flood and much more.
Who was this man and why did his actions find such a lively response in the hearts of the chroniclers that they had to create a whole cult of Gilgamesh's personality?
Let's start with the political situation of that period. Ancient Mesopotamia consisted of about four dozen independent cities located in the plains of two rivers - the Tigris and the Euphrates. The cities were engaged in trade and wars with each other. There was no question of any common state: each city was controlled by one family or clan, and the owners looked down on other cities and clans. Every now and then one of these forty cities took over the "palm" in trade, somehow forcing the main cargo flows to pass through it, but it did not come to some kind of administrative subordination of cities to each other. At the time of Gilgamesh's appearance on the political scene, the “main” city of Mesopotamia, or rather, its trade center, was Kish.
Gilgamesh himself was the son of a simple shepherd. More precisely, not simple. His father, Lugalbanda, was indeed a shepherd at the beginning of his career. However, he understood the recipe for success in time and went into the service of the priests of Kulab. As a result, after some time, Lugalbanda himself becomes the high priest. Having removed all competitors in the religious line, he proclaims himself, no more, no less, "the god of the shepherds", and makes his wife, Nesun, "the goddess of pastures." How a simple shepherd managed to do this is a mystery, however, this fact is difficult to deny, since, supported by the authority of his father, Gilgamesh becomes a lugal (military leader) of the city of Uruk.
By the way, the first book about Gilgamesh, describing his actions as a lugal Uruk, is devoid of any supernatural events. It describes how Gilgamesh confronts the Kish army, who tried to force the inhabitants of Uruk to provide them with slaves to build a canal. The elders of the city decided to hand over the slaves to the kishites, however, Gilgamesh, supported by the people, refused. As a result, he defeats Kish's army, and, having returned to his city as a winner, very quickly becomes its full owner. Agga, the king of Kish, left without an army, gives Uruk autonomy and Gilgamesh begins to conduct his own policy.
The result of this policy is the unification of about a dozen cities of the lower Mesopotamia into a single state with Gilgamesh at its head. Such a change in the natural course of things could not but affect the improvement of the economic situation of these cities. Before this merger, each city had its own laws, taxes and management nuances, but after that, everything became more or less standardized and much simpler. There were practically no obstacles to crafts and trade, and they began to develop at an accelerated pace. In addition, freed from the need to pay tribute to someone or give their slaves, cities began to develop on their own faster.
That, of course, did not fail to affect the further character of the descriptions of our hero. Gilgamesh's second book is replete with heroic deeds and epic victories. It tells about his confrontation with the guard of a grove of giant cedars. In fact, this is just an allegorical story about the war between the Lower Mesopotamia and Lebanon, in which Gilgamesh's army wins and takes rich trophies.
Etc. All each subsequent act of Gilgamesh seems more and more pretentious and majestic, until it reaches its highest point - the search for immortality and the reunification of the protagonist with the gods. As already noted, in the books about Gilgamesh there is a place for love affairs, and for cultural and educational work. The beloved of our hero is the goddess Ishtar, and he shows his pedagogical talents in the transformation of the beast Enkidu into a man, by introducing him to the values of human civilization.
One gets the impression that all these works were specially created to strengthen the people's faith in their leader. And what happened in the end:
• "Gilgamesh and Agga": Our hero is a patriot who liberates his hometown from enemies;
• "Gilgamesh and the Mountain of the Immortal": a genius strategist who conquers other lands;
• "Gilgamesh and the Heavenly Bull": an ardent lover to whom nothing human is alien;
• "Gilgamesh and the Underworld": the great enlightener who transforms the beast into a man, the teacher who carries the rational, good and eternal;
• "Death of Gilgamesh": a brilliant scientist who learned the secret of immortality, but realizing its danger, sacrificed himself and did not apply it.
Some kind of "universal soldier" turns out. If you look at the rulers of the 20th century, it turns out that many of them were guilty of PR that did not go far from this. Suffice it to recall the popular fairy tales about Lenin or Kim Il Sung. However, liberal capitalism did not go far: Churchill, descended from the peerage of the Spencer family, when needed perfectly reincarnated and was photographed in the role of a bricklayer or in the company of police operatives on a mission. What can't you do for popularity?
However, not all historians agree that all works about Gilgamesh were written during his lifetime. A detailed analysis of the style and vocabulary of the works suggests that some of them were written a little later. In addition, the cuneiform script itself has changed over time - both in the style of the depiction of symbols and in their content.
Almost no one doubts the dating of the first two books: they were written in the 25-26th centuries BC. The time of writing the remaining books dates back to about the 18th century BC, which is almost 800 years later than the time when their main character lived. And if the authors of the first books, one might say, worked in the department of agitation and propaganda of the First Dynasty of Uruk, then who were the authors of the subsequent books, and why did they need to stir up the sands of the past almost a thousand years ago?
And everything is really simple. At that time, Mesopotamia was already called Babylon and the king of Hammurabi ruled there, the same one who created one of the first codes of laws and created at that time the most perfect administrative apparatus of the Ancient World.
Hammurabi descended from the Amorite Dynasty, which formed on the ruins of the Third Dynasty of Ur, and that, in turn, albeit distantly, took its origins from the First Dynasty of Uruk, which Gilgamesh founded. The same situation could be observed in Europe by the example of its nobility. The most seedy baroness derived her genealogical line, if not from Clovis, then from Charlemagne with a guarantee!
So Hammurabi derived his ancestral line from the legendary Gilgamesh and, naturally, was interested in further popularizing his image. The era of Hammurabi did not require wars, it was the time of the restructuring of the old state and the creation of a new one, therefore special attention was paid to the chronicles with a "non-military" plot.
Nothing is new in this world. Rulers will come and go, but their methods of government and their methods of influencing the masses will remain unchanged. However, I still want to believe that the works about the exploits of Gilgamesh will remain just a beautiful fairy tale, and not the work of the ancient department of agitprop …