How ancient literature can still help guide us today
Across the span of recorded history, at the birth of writing and civilization, there was the Epic of Gilgamesh. This seminal tale of gods, kings, battles, friendship, loss, the fear of death, the search for immortality and advice on how one should live life, represents the first great work of literature.
While the origin of the Epic of Gilgamesh is lost to the sands of time, it is probable that this story had been verbally transmitted for a very long time before the invention of writing, but we have no way of knowing when, where or why the story actually originated or even how many original contributors there were. What we do know is that the story encompassed a large number of concepts, ideas and philosophies, and was considered important enough that it was told from generation to generation for hundreds of years, before being immortalized in clay around four thousand years ago.
Unfortunately, the original "Old Babylonian" version of the Epic of Gilgamesh is incomplete, making it difficult for us to piece together the exact story our ancient ancestors considered so important. However, several critical fragments of the original Epic have been recovered and differ in significant ways from later more complete versions. One of the most fascinating of these original fragments is the Sippar tablet which was discovered near the city of Sippar, on the Euphrates river, upstream of the Babylonian region in present day Iraq. The Sippar tablet contains the earliest recorded advice, presented by a beautiful young girl called Siduri, on how we should live our lives. Interestingly, in a later version of the Epic of Gilgamesh (referred to as the "Akkadian" version) Siduri’s advice was removed from the Epic and much of her original role was given to Utnapishtim, an immortal wise old man. One theory for the diminishment of Siduri’s role is that Siduri being young, female and working class (a wine maker), and Utnapishtim being old, male and high class (an immortal wise man) may have contributed, and may suggest possible differences between Sumerian and Akkadian culture. Specifically, this change may highlight a degree of ageism, sexism and/or classism in Akkadian culture, and the removal of Siduri's advice could represent the first recorded case of censorship.
Siduri's words come to us from the beginning of recorded history, but what exactly was her message? How exactly we deconstruct the brief text on the Sippar tablet is open to individual interpretation, and a major caveat of the following section is that it represents my analysis of her words, and I fully respect that others may reach different conclusions.
Siduri's ancient advice, as recorded on the Sippar tablet:
"Whither are you wandering?
Life, which you look for,
you will never find.
For when the gods created man,
they let death be his share,
and life withheld in their own hands.
Fill your belly,
day and night make merry,
let days be full of joy,
dance and make music day and night.
And wear fresh clothes,
and wash your head and bathe.
Look at the child that is holding your hand,
and let your wife delight in your embrace.
These things alone are the concern of men."
http://EpicOfGilgamesh.webs.com
In my perspective, the three core concepts of Siduri's philosophy are: 1) understanding, 2) joy and 3) family.
1. Understanding. Siduri tries to understand Gilgamesh, his motivations, his pain at the loss of his brother and his dream for immortality, and she advises him to understand that we must all eventually die and must accept our mortality. Siduri teaches us first to try to understand others in our lives, what their motivations are and can we see things from their perspective. If we wish to follow Siduri’s ancient teachings, we should make every effort to live with understanding in our lives, and make sure that our colleagues, friends and family feel that we appreciate their point of view.
Dale Carnegie elegantly developed this concept of understanding in his extremely popular book "How to win friends and influence people" and one of his key suggestions was that we should look to understand and sincerely appreciate other people and their perspectives. Carnegie advocated sincere appreciation but was extremely disapproving of flattery, which is at its core insincere. If we can find nothing to sincerely appreciate then perhaps we are not looking hard enough! Siduri and Carnegie teach that we should make every effort to find common ground that will genuinely interest us and let us understand the world through the eyes of our friends, colleagues and family. The Sidurian concept of understanding is one of the most important abilities we can possess and represents a skill that, if regularly practiced, should dramatically improve our interactions with others and help guide us towards a happier life.
2) Joy. Siduri tells Gilgamesh to "Fill your belly. Day and night make merry, let days be full of joy, dance and make music day and night". We should consider heeding Siduri's advice and living lives full of music, dancing, good food, good wine and general merriment. However, while seeking a life full of joy, Siduri also advises us to keep our daily responsibilities in mind and "wear fresh clothes, and wash your head and bathe". It is unclear exactly how far we can interpret Siduri’s words on minding to our daily responsibilities, but it may be prudent for us to include attending to our mental, physical and financial well-being as a foundation to build future joy on. We must be healthy if we are to dance day and night, and good food and wine require a stable source of income! Nevertheless, we can, while attending to our daily responsibilities, consider making every effort to introduce joy into our lives, and do what makes us happy.
Joy, specifically, the concept that we should look to promote joy in our lives, was developed into its most extreme form by the Hedonistic philosopher Aristippus of Cyrene (one of the students of Socrates) who held that the sensation of pleasure was the highest good. Some have claimed that Siduri promoted Hedonism and her advice to Gilgamesh was the first recorded advocacy of Hedonism and the general Carpe Diem (seize the day) concept. While Siduri was the first recorded to advocate the Carpe Diem concept, she did not support unbridled Hedonism and immediately following her instructions to seek joy and merriment, she then advised Gilgamesh to also tend to more mundane responsibilities. Therefore, at most, Siduri promoted "Responsible Hedonism" and should we wish to follow Siduri's advice we should bear this distinction in mind. Indeed, the Sidurian concept of joy, or "Responsible Hedonism", can help guide us towards a happier life as long as we do not fall into the trap of irresponsibility!
3) Family. Siduri ends her advice to Gilgamesh with "Look at the child that is holding your hand and let your wife delight in your embrace. These things alone are the concern of men". In this, Siduri ends on a very strong pro-family message, the general implication for us being that we should get married, have a family and make sure our children and significant others are happy. Specifically, that we should pay attention to our children and ensure our significant others are delighted in our embrace. We can interpret "embrace" in both its platonic and sexual forms, although the latter interpretation of Siduri's teachings would appear to be the one most often associated with delight and making a new family. It is interesting to note that while Gilgamesh sought physical immortality, Siduri suggested he abandon his quest and instead focus on family. Richard Dawkins in "The Selfish Gene" suggests that through our children we pass on the essence of who we are. These genes, or as Dawkins called them "immortal coils", give us a form of genetic immortality through our children and our children's children. This drive to procreate is the core purpose of life, not just for humans, but for all life on this planet, and only by achieving our fundamental biological purpose to procreate can we achieve the deepest happiness and contentment with our lives.
On a personal note, the Sidurian concepts of understanding, joy and family have dramatically improved my life and had a profound positive psychological influence on me. Specifically, I have found the Sidurian concept of understanding to be one that has improved my marriage and helped me in my work. Trying to understand things from my wife's point of view has made her significantly happier and she has reciprocated, making me happier. At work, I was tasked to give a presentation to a group of highly skeptical colleagues, with little chance of a successful outcome. I discarded my original presentation and re-created one from scratch, trying to find and mention areas of collaborative interest for each person, by name, in the group. It took a lot of time, thought and effort, but the change was incredible, skeptics became supporters and the proposal was approved.
I have found the Sidurian concept of joy to be a pleasure to introduce. I purchased and play singing and dancing video games with my wife and daughter, dance with them and I must admit to enjoying Siduri's support for feasting and drinking wine! I have also kept my responsibilities in mind, working hard, socializing with friends and making sure I stay healthy.
The desire for a family is one that I have agreed with for many years, and while on a superficial level sleep deprivation and stress can be regular annoyances, there is no deeper source of happiness in my life than my family. For me at least, Siduri's teachings have worked and continue to work, and although you inhabit a different world, and your interpretations of her words may differ, I suspect her ancient advice will nevertheless work for you too.
While Siduri's words are over 4,000 years old we can still today take her philosophies to heart and try to live with more understanding, joy and appreciation of family in our lives. Although ancient, good advice is eternal, and Siduri’s teachings can help guide us to happier lives today.
Warm regards,
Peter Dyr
Author "The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Teachings of Siduri and How Siduri's Ancient Advice Can Help Guide Us to a Happier Life"
Free eBook can be downloaded at:
http://EpicOfGilgamesh.webs.com
