Socrates and Gilgamesh: comparative philosophical traditions

Socrates

Compare and contrast the relationship between God and humanity for Socrates in the "Apology" and for Gilgamesh in "Gilgamesh"

Both the ancient Greek text of Socrates' "Apology" and the Mesopotamian epic of origins "Gilgamesh" are tales of pre-Christian lives, of people who are actively struggling with the concept of morality and the divine. Rather than a traditional moral economy of righteousness receiving rewards and evil actors being punished, these works present the gods as capricious entities, dispensing fate by their whim rather than basing their rewards upon the moral nature of individual human beings. However, both of the main protagonists still struggle to make sense of this chaotic and unjust state of affairs, and to find some way to live moral lives in the midst of tragedy.

The tale of "Gilgamesh" depicts a heroic and powerful king living in a far-off time. The "Apology" is not, strictly speaking, a narrative at all. Rather it is a speech ostensibly made by the philosopher Socrates in a law court, defending himself against charges of impiety and corrupting the young. For a long time, Socrates had been tolerated in open-minded, democratic Athens as an iconoclastic figure, but as in the case of many democracies, Athens was experiencing a time of heightened concern and repression of unorthodox ideas. Socrates became a victim of this paranoia about the dangers of free speech.

Over the course of both works, the main protagonists suffer perceived or real injustices. Gilgamesh sees his dearest friend Enkidu die, after he is marked out to suffer by the gods. Socrates stands accused of impiety by the Athenian demos, even though he states that he believes in the gods. Set in a mythological past rather than a historical present, Gilgamesh and friend Enkidu must deal with the gods on a one-to-one basis, unlike Socrates who merely deals with the gods as abstractions, in dialogue with his fellow Athenians. Gilgamesh's friend falls ill because Enkidu has been impious by urging his friend to hill the demon of the Cedar Forest Humbaba. Humbaba curses Enkidu to die before Gilgamesh. Even though Humbaba was attacking the two men and is described as an evil entity the greater influence of Humbaba upon the will of the gods means that his word is heard, not that of Gilgamesh or Enkidu.

Socrates' words, of course, also fall on deaf ears and he is condemned. But Socrates' "Apology" is set in a real, historical place and time, an Athenian law court, not during an age where gods walk the earth. There Socrates is accused of impiety, amongst other charges, by human actors, not by the gods. Rather than showing actual acts of physical disrespect to personified, divine beings, the accusations of impiety are rather vague, and seem to suggest a more symbolic disrespect shown to the city's gods, rather than pertain to actual actions against physically manifest divine beings. Of course, the Greeks had a very colorful pantheon of gods in their mythology, but by the time of the setting of the "Apology," the issue was not chopping down a sacred tree, much less actually offending Zeus as a person. Rather, the idea of impiety meant atheism and atheism was deemed to be offensive and anti-Athenian. Socrates' apparent disrespect is really against his fellow human beings, not against the gods as actors.

Over the course of the "Apology" Socrates insists that he does believe in the gods, of course. The fact that he believes in the gods differently than some of his neighbors seems to cause them to view his teachings as atheism. In the "Apology," Socrates says: "Some one will say: And are you not ashamed, Socrates, of a course of life which is likely to bring you to an untimely end? To him I may fairly answer: There you are mistaken: a man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong, acting the part of a good man or of a bad." This sense of pursuing goodness does not mean that Socrates believes he will necessarily have a better place in the afterlife. However, Socrates believes that to act morally is its own reward, not something that will win him favor in the eyes of the gods, or even human esteem.

In "Gilgamesh," the epic life of the hero is often characterized by violence and blatantly unethical actions, such as the violence Gilgamesh frequently inflicts upon others during his rule. The hero, until the death of his friend, seems uninterested in anything with implications about the life beyond. Confronted with the grim reality of death and the afterlife, however, rather than resolving to make his brief life on earth as fruitful as possible like Socrates, through moral deeds, Gilgamesh instead resolves to find the secret of eternal life and becomes a philosopher of sorts as a result of his life's circumstances.