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In the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh there are two chief characters: Gilgamesh and Enkidu.

Both are male, and it is striking that ancient Mesopotamian culture hit upon the same overriding tensions between these two characters as those that Friedrich Nietzsche, in his Birth of Tragedy, postulated for Greek tragedy between its two chief archetypal male characters, Apollo and Dionysus.

Apollo, for Nietzsche, represents order and Dionysus represents wildness, and it is the tension between these two that sets the stage for drama and tragedy.

Why? Because it seems inevitable that the Apollonian assertion of order and persona into the otherwise Dionysian world of disorder, wildness, and multiplicity will always ultimately end badly for Apollo.

Dionysus, in the long run, seems to hold most of the cards. I am reminded of the response that the philosopher Gregory Bateson gave to one of his children about why it is so difficult to keep one’s bedroom in the way that we call ‘clean.’ Bateson replied (and I’m paraphrasing here):

Because there are so many more ways that we call a room ‘dirty’ than the ways that we call it ‘clean.’

In other words, the sheer force of entropy and numbers makes the world move toward the Dionysian; that is, toward the way that we don’t want it.

Apollonian meticulousness and assertion is thus difficult to maintain without a constant effort. 

This Batesian, and ultimately Nietzschean, model for understanding the human condition, applied to Gilgamesh and Enkidu, actually functions pretty well as a way of reading The Gilgamesh Epic, wherein Gilgamesh is an Apollonian figure, setting forth a dynamic persona against the world, and Enkidu is a wild Dionysian figure to be tamed.

Here’s how the The Gilgamesh Epic describes Gilgamesh in Book 1:

Gilgamesh went abroad in the world, but he met with none who could withstand his arms . . .

In other words, Gilgamesh is an assertive Apollonian persona, travelling and subduing. He is also a builder of civilization, managing the intercourse of men with men, and men with gods:

In Uruk he built walls, a great rampart, and the temple of blessed Eanna for the god of the firmament Anu, and for Ishtar the goddess of love.

It sounds like religion at Urdu had a balanced, Jesus-Mary Catholic quality to it, in which both a male sky god, Anu, and a female deity, Ishtar, are given equal attention and appeasement. Gilgamesh is clearly about the maintaining of order, balance, and safety for his people. But his imperial Apollonian assertion is also dangerous and Dionysian when directed at others. He is interested in bringing his own energetic persona ever further out into the world. The gods, noticing this,

cried to Aruru, the goddess of creation, ‘You made him, O Aruru, now create his equal; let it be as like him as his own reflection, his second self, stormy heart for stormy heart. Let them contend together and leave Uruk in quiet.’

The goddess responds in the creation of Enkidu, in a fashion that is striking for its similarity to the book of Genesis, in which God forms Adam (which means clay) from the dust of the earth:

She dipped her hands in water and pinched off clay, she let it fall in the wilderness, and noble Enkidu was created.

Enkidu, unlike the armored and civilized Gilgamesh, is a Dionysian hippie:

His body was rough, he had long hair like a woman’s; it waved like the hair of Nisaba, the goddess of corn. His body was covered with matted hair like Samuqan’s, the god of cattle. He was innocent of mankind; he knew nothing of the cultivated land. Enkidu ate grass in the hills with the gazelle and lurked with wild beasts at the water holes; he had joy of the water with the herds of wild game.

Recall that Adam, in the Hebrew Bible, is at first also a forager and innocent. It is ultimately the loss of innocence and cultivation of the land by the sweat of the brow that becomes Adam’s curse.

Like the Biblical story, in which Adam is driven out of his innocence and into the reality of a harsh world where he will ultimately die, so Enkidu will have a similar transformation through his encounter with Gilgamesh.   

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Taking the stress out of your life

 

This one is for those of you with children.

 

Children of all ages need a lot of praise and encouragement to perform household tasks willingly and without nagging. You will have to buy some gold or silver glitter, this will be your Tinker Bell dust.  Buy scrap books, glue sticks, items for decorating each page of the scrap book, and a number of scissors that cut in fancy patterns.  It is important that there is enough of each of these items for each child to have something to work with at all time. 

 

I know it is difficult to get children to clean up their rooms and help with housework around the house.  I am going to give you some ideas of how to do this.  I would like any of you who have any other ideas to please leave a comment or email me.

 

Rent the movie “Peter Pan”  by Disney, or read the story to your children.  After watching the movie, reading the book, or telling the story explain to them that Tinker Bell is going to start visiting them everyday, but they will never see Tinker Bell. 

 

Tell them that Tinker Bell will leave them some Tinker Bell dust and a reward whenever they clean their room, make their bed, perform a chore around the house, etc.  Use your imagination. 

 

You are going to become Tinker Bell.

 

Explain to your children that after they clean their room, perform a chore, help around the house, that Tinkle Bell will visit and leave them a note or a small surprise.

 

If you have older and younger children you can enlist the older ones to be Tinker Bell.

 

All of you can have a lot of fun with this.

 

Rewards can be a treat, a gift, a note of encouragement, a hug, a note promising some alone time with you, a promise of a special meal.  It is very important that you leave dust and a reward every single time that your child does something to help around the house.  If you don’t act on it immediately you will lose their trust.  You must be careful to be age appropriate with your surprises.  Older children benefit from this also.  You have to be honest in your praise and assistance.

This is an ideal time to teach sharing and co-operation.

It will be a good idea, at least for the first few months, to have everyone sit down at the kitchen table at the same time, with all of the equipment spread out in the middle of the table.  Each person can have their own scrape book in front of them.  First you can have them decorate the front of their own scrape book.  Ask the older children to help the younger ones.  If you only have young children you may have a will have to demonstrate how to glue notes etc. into the scrapbook.  Remember, it is always more work (at first) to teach children how to do something.  But, in the end it will be worth it because they will soon be able to do to job themselves.  Don’t correct what they have done only PRAISE.  People learn more from positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement.  We all respond and improve with true praise.

 

Now go out and encourage those children to clean.

 

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