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cuofeng · 6 years

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A New Version of Gilgamesh: Gilgamesh and Agga of Kish

Gilgamesh and Agga of Kish

In previous centuries the city of Uruk had been vassel to the nearby city of Kish, paying tribute to its king to be spared its wrath. However, as fortunes changed and Uruk rose as Kish fell, Uruk ceased paying this tribute and the kings of Kish did not press the issue. However, the relationship had never officially ended so when Agga, son of En-me-baraga-si, rose to the throne of Kish he declared that Uruk must be reminded of its ancient oaths. To this purpose, he began raising and training an army. The bronze-smiths of Kish hammered into the night, setting the city to glow orange. By their art the soldiers of Kish were equipped with the sharpest blades and and deadliest arrows ever yet assembled by mankind.

Agga's envoys arrived in Uruk and presented their demands before the throne of Gilgamesh, Lord of the Kulaba plain, as Enkidu sat on a couch at his left hand. Agga's message was presumptuous and insulting, but Gilgamesh restrained his anger and dismissed the envoys. He then took the matter to the elders of Uruk, choosing his words carefully as he presented the situation.

"Agga of Kish sends men demanding we give him tribute and acknowledge him as master of this city. The message is insulting, yet I believe it is deliberately so. Agga knows that Uruk's greatest strength lies in its strong walls. He hopes to pull our men outside the city, meet his army on the plain where he has the greatest chance of success. I say, why should we go to war simply because this foreign man wishes that we do? In our land there are still many wells left to dig, many irrigation canals to extend. Our city is currently full of hoisting gear for new construction. Our men's effort is best spent there. We should not submit to Kish, but we need not rush to smite them down with our weapons."

However, the elders of Uruk had heard of Agga's new army and were fearful. They said, "Yes, there are wells to deepen and canals to extend. That is why we must submit to Kish. Our people cannot work with the threat of war hanging over their head. Tribute and bowing is a small price to pay for peace. Do not raise weapons against Agga."

However, Gilgamesh did not like this answer and so took the question to a new audience. He convened a meeting of all the able-bodied men of Uruk, all those of fighting age, and presented the same case to them.

The men of Uruk roared out. "We do not consent to be servants of this foreign king! 'Standing duty, bowing down, escorting princes, holding the donkeys' reins: who has that much breath?' So the saying goes and so say we now. Do not let those old men pull us down. We, the young of Uruk, will take up our weapons and smite down anyone who tries to march against out city. Our ziggurat was raised by the greatest gods, gods dwell in the temples of Eanna, our walls are laid on a foundation set out Anu the Creator himself. Gilgamesh, you are our king and our protector. When Agga approaches he will see you standing against him and then he will cower in terror! This army he brags of may hold bright bronze spears, but his forces are small and disorganized. When Agga marches at the front it makes a fearsome image but the back ranks scatter into confusion."

Gilgamesh was heartened by their response and his spirit was emboldened. He said to Enkidu, "My men want battle. On their account, let the weapons and armor be made ready. Enkidu, fetch your great war-mace. When Agga comes you will stand beside me on the walls of Uruk and that man shall know true fear. The mere sight of us will overwhelm his men and throw them into disarray. Then we will fall among them like a bull that tramples new grown grass."

In five days Agga declared war against Uruk, and in ten days his army arrived to lay siege around the city. They came down the Euphrates river in great barges and unloaded before the moat that surrounded the city. When those forces had been far away the men of Uruk had laughed about fighting them, but now that the sun shone down and they saw the gleaming bronze of thousands of spears those same men began to grow fearful. Disorder and confusion began to spread through the forces of Uruk, though they were still safe behind strong walls. Gilgamesh saw this and so went to the market square to address his forces.

He called out loud and bravely, joking to lift their spirits. "Men of Uruk, Agga waits outside my walls, begging audience with me. However, at the moment I am too busy to see him. I am sorry to put this lowly task to you, but could one of you go out there and send him away? The rest of us have far more important things to do."

The men of Uruk laughed and their bravery returned. A man named Birhur-tura, one of Gilgamesh's own royal guard stepped forth, his face shining with admiration for his king. "My king, I will go. Evidently Agga has not heard the true stories about you, so I will enlighten him. However, it is not my fault then if he flees before you get the chance to fight him."

The people of Uruk laughed once again and Birhur-tura walked towards the main gate. Outside, beyond the moat that surrounded the city, the forces of Kish saw the gates of Uruk crack open and readied their weapons to face the full might of Gilgamesh's army. However, when they saw only a single man walking out through the dust of the causeway they were confused. Soldiers charged forward and captured Birhur-tura just outside the city gate. They threw him to the ground and beat him terribly before at length they brought him before Agga, standing in his four wheeled chariot drawn by strong beasts, hybrids of donkeys and wild asses.

Despite his bruises, Birhur-tura began to speak to Agga as if nothing had happened, telling him that the great King Gilgamesh demanded that he go away. However, before Birhur-tura finished speaking, a minor officer of Uruk stepped up onto the city wall and leaned against its parapets to watch how Birhur-tura was doing. At once Agga grabbed Birhur-tura by the collar and dragged him to face the wall.

Agga said, "Slave, is that your king?"

Birhur-tura laughed. "That man is not my king. If he were my king, where are his brows like thunderbolts? Where are his bison eyes, where is his beard like precious lapis lazuli carved by the gods? If that were my king your forces would fall down into the dust, the prows of your barges would be shattered, and he would take you captive in the middle of your entire army.

Agga's soldiers seized Birhur-tura and beat him once again, laying terrible blows across his entire body. Then Gilgamesh himself climbed up to look over the wall of Uruk. Behind him came all the armed men of Uruk, arrayed above the gate. From the great gate itself, once again only a single man stepped forth. Enkidu walked out alone on to the causeway, holding his massive battle-mace loosely in one hand. Above him, Gilgamesh put one foot up on the edge of parapet, standing like a shining god in the sun.

The army of Kish stepped back in fear. In the center of them, Agga beheld Gilgamesh and grabbed Birhur-tura once again. "Slave, is that your king?"

Through the blood in his mouth, Birhur-tura smiled and said, "That man is indeed my king."

Enkidu raised his mace and charged while behind him Gilgamesh dropped down from the top of the wall. Such a fall would have shattered the legs of a normal man but Gilgamesh landed and raced into the fray. Mighty Enkidu smashed into the army of Kish like a rampaging bull breaking the stalks of dry reeds, and Gilgamesh followed into his wake. It was as Birhur-tura had said, the legions of Kish were cast down into the dust, the barges were shattered, and the canal mouths were choked with the fallen dead. Gilgamesh captured Agga, King of Kish, in the middle of his own army.

Witnessing the might of these two heroes, Agga fell down to his knees. Gilgamesh drew near to him and Agga prepared for death. But Gilgamesh did not slay him, instead he lifted him up and welcomed him. "Agga my watchman, Agga my lieutenant, Agga my governor, Agga my general. You give me breath, you give me life, you welcome the fugitive into your embrace, and provide the fleeing bird with grain."

Reversing the rituals of vassalage, Gilgamesh now welcomed the city of Kish as the servant as Uruk. Accepting defeat and grateful for his life, Agga gave over his armor and his weapons as tribute, and Gilgamesh accepted them. Then he set Agga free to return to Kish, now his subject.

From that day every person in Mesopotamia praised Gilgamesh as the greatest warrior and the greatest king, one radiant beyond any other mortal.

#gilgamesh #the epic of gilgamesh #enkidu #mythology

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mrfritzteufel · 6 years

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huh, I thought Eskimo was considered derogatory by native people, but looking into it it depends on where they are from. Apparently Inuit refers specifically to Canadian tribes and natives in Alaska might prefer being called Eskimo over Inuit.

Using the wayback machine, I found this snopes-style article from the defunct urbanlegends dot com

“It now seems unlikely that "Eskimo" means "eater of raw meat". Merriam-Webster changed its etymology when it brought out MWCD10, and referred me to an article by Ives Goddard in Handbook of North American Indians (Smithsonian, 1984), vol. 5, p. 5-7. Goddard cites the following Amerindian words:

Montagnais ayassimew="Micmac" Plains Cree ayaskimew="Eskimo" Attikamek Cree ashkimew="Eskimo" North Shore Montagnais kachikushu or kachekweshu="Eskimo" (not analyzable but explained by speakers as meaning 'eater of raw meat') Ojibwa eshkipot="Eskimo" (literally "one who who eats raw") Algonquin Eastern Ojibwa ashkipok="Eskimo" (literally "raw eaters")

Goddard writes: "In spite of the tenacity of the belief, both among Algonquian speakers and in the anthropological and general literature [...] that Eskimo means 'raw-meat eaters', this explanation fits only the cited Ojibwa forms (containing Proto- Algonquian *ashk- 'raw' and *po- 'eat') and cannot be correct for the presumed Montagnais source of the word Eskimo itself. [...] The Montagnais word awassimew (of which ay- is a reduplication) and its unreduplicated Attikamek cognate exactly match Montagnais assimew, Ojibwa ashkime 'she nets a snowshoe', and an origin from a form meaning 'snowshoe-netter' could be considered if the original Montagnais application (presumably before Montagnais contact with Eskimos) were to Algonquians."

A Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language by Bishop Frederic Baraga (Beauchemin & Valois, 1878) gives ashkime="I lace or fill snowshoes"; the phrase agim nind ashkima with the same meaning (agim is the noun for "snowshoe"); askimaneiab="babiche, strings of leather for lacing snowshoes"; and ashkimewin="art or occupation of lacing snowshoes". But there are no other obvious cognates: the words for "snowshoe", "lace", "leather", "net", and "string" are all unrelated. In all other words beginning with "ashk-" or "oshk-", the prefix signifies "raw, fresh, new".

Eskimos' self-designations include:

singular: Inuk, Inupiaq, Inuvialuk, Yupik, Yuk

plural: Inuit, Inupiat, Inuvialuit, Katladlit, Yuit

language: Inuktitut, Inupiaq, Kalaallisut, Yupik

places: Canada/West Greenland, North Alaska, Mackenzie Delta, Greenland, Southwest Alaska, Siberia, St. Lawrence Island

"Inuk" and "Yuk" mean simply "person"; "Inupiaq" and "Inuvialuk" mean "real, genuine person".

Goddard writes: "In the 1970s in Canada the name Inuit all but replaced Eskimo in governmental and scientific publication and the mass media, largely in response to demands from Eskimo political associations. The erroneous belief that Eskimo was a pejorative term meaning 'eater of raw flesh' had a major influence on this shift. The Inuit Circumpolar Conference meeting in Barrow, Alaska, in 1977 officially adopted Inuit as a designation for all Eskimos, regardless of their local usages [...]."“

#canada #native #inuit #I'm trying to learn more

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nunoxaviermoreira · 4 years

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Baraga Plains by Zach Frieben Some pretty wild roads up here https://flic.kr/p/2jFRXLL

#IFTTT #Flickr

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cyndiperkins · 4 years

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“Two of life’s greatest pleasures, by my reckoning, are camping and reading – most gloriously, both at once.” —Michael Finkel, The Stranger in the Woods Apt line from our #michigantech Reading as Inquiry for incoming first-years. It’ll be the fifth year I’ve moderated a student reading group. Looking forward. In addition to the just-finished Stranger, just started Jodi Picoult’s Plain Truth, re-reading Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants, and cherry-picking @eckharttolle’s A New Earth (perfect for these times). And of @thekristamitchell crystal primers daily. What’s on your TBR pile? It can never get too tall! #tbr #read #ilovebooks #writers #novel #nonfiction #bookstagram (at Baraga, Michigan) https://www.instagram.com/p/CDcytpYF4rp/?igshid=1tesupwdt2vw0

#michigantech #tbr #read #ilovebooks #writers #novel #nonfiction #bookstagram

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missourifreereport · 5 years

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