The culture of conflict is just as important as the conflict itself. The reasons for conflict and the inner agony of pride are all do to culture. The epic poem of Gilgamesh, and The Odyssey, the story of Genesis have many forms of many conflicts. Cultural conflicts have many different forms, but pride is usually at the root of all of them. The book of Gilgamesh has many conflicts, and battles. Gilgamesh was a flashy warrior and leader that resolved everything with primitive actions. He was a conflict all his own because the towns people didnt like his leadership.
His acts of womanizing and mistreating the towns people is what caused this hatred towards him. They all wished for an equal to come. Enkido was a forest man that was an equal to Gilgamesh. He came, and at first wasnt an equal to Gilgamesh, but a rival. Gilgamesh and Enkido battled through the streets of the town. These actions were pride based and human nature must have had an impact. In anything once a leader is challenged he will do anything to keep his leadership and step up to the occasion. In this case, Gilgamesh the leader was challenged. Enkido stood, guardian on the threshold of the martial chamber,
To block the way of the king, The aura and power of the wild ox, Gilgamesh, Who was coming to the chamber and take his bride. Stormy heart struggled with stormy heart, As Gilgamesh met Enkido in his rage, At the marital threshold they wrestled, bulls contending: The doorposts shook and shattered; the wrestling staggered. (Gilgamesh_14,15) Once the battle ended, Gilgamesh knew that they were equal. Being the leader that he was, he decided not to be rivals, but be friends. They decide to travel to the forest of Cedars, where they set to challenge the org Huwawa.
Enkido doesnt want to proceed with this thought but Gigamesh wants to continue. They show up and battle the superhuman guardian, kill him, cut down the forest, cut off Huwana’s head as a trophy, build a raft, and head back to Uruk. The really only cultural experience in this battle isnt just the battle itself, but after the battle when they cut off Huwawa’s head and made it into a trophy. Making his head into a trophy exemplifies their in their great victory. It demonstrates was gained and shows that they had something to remember it by. The battle wouldnt have gone the way it did without the help of Enkido.
The chemistry between the two friends was one of the reasons they won that great battle. Gilgamesh found him and said: Two people, companions, they can prevail to together against the terror. (Gilgamesh_26,27) In the Holy Bible, story of genesis, a lot of conflicts take place, but not a lot of fights. The distinction between conflicts and fight is that a fight is mostly known as a violent struggle with contact, a conflict can be that of a fight but also can be a verbal fight, or just a everyday challenge. Mostly it is god himself that is the main subject of the conflicts.
The almighty one he is passionate, yet very mean in some of the decisions that he makes. A lot of people suffered in some of the decisions in what god made. For instance, God created Adam and Eve. God said to both Adam and Eve to not eat from the forbidden tree. They could have anything in the world, but not eat from the tree in Eden. One day as they were enjoying themselves in Eden, a snake came about to Adam and Eve and deceived them into eating the forbidden fruit. Adam and Eve were mistaking that the snake was correct and Eve ate from the tree. God found out and was very upset.
The conflict in this matter was the Eve had to be punished. I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you. (Genesis_4:16) The conflict consists in disobeying Gods word. By this conflict taught God the world and the religion if someone does something wrong that they had to be punished to teach them a lesson. This example also shows that in this early religion man was taught to be superior to women. This in itself has caused many conflicts over time.
Also in Genesis, God told Noah to make an ark because he wanted to start over. Earth was polluted with many obnoxious people who were corrupted and unruly. He told Noah to build an ark, and to fill the ark up with a combination of all the creatures in the world and set sail for forty days and forty nights flooding the earth and kill everyone. Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female to keep there various types alive throughout the earth.
Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. (Genesis_8:4) Gods objective was to rid the world of everything that was impure. This goal would obviously cause conflict for a great number of people because god thought that the world was utterly corrupt and couldnt be reform therefore he killed everyone by flooding the earth. Is this just? To justify one would have to think of the culture of conflict within this world. In such a culture, God apparently felt his own option was to start all over. I think God was wrong.
Was he saying that everyone that he killed was wrong, or just the majority? I dont think God realized what he was doing. If God himself, the merciful, the wise, seemed to think that everyone in the world was wrong, and corrupt, but I feel there had to be some righteous, noble and nice people in the world. God killed them too. Nowadays we resort to numbers, and percentages for scaling everything in life. We say this is a change from the old ways but it has not. God killed everyone because the majority of the population was corrupt, but there were still righteous people in the world.
In the book the Odyssey, there are many different types of conflicts. But the one that sticks out and the most exciting conflict is the battle between Odysseus and the suitors. Now stripping his rags, Odysseus, master of craft and battle, vaulted onto the great threshold, gripping his bow and quiver, bristling arrows, and poured his flashing shafts before him, loose at his feet, and thundered out to all the suitors: Look- your crucial test is finished, now, at last! But another targets left that no ones hit before- well see if I can hit it-Apollo give me glory! (The Odyssey_439)
A man away from his home for years, and for many years these suitors have been taking advantage of his house, his possession, and above all his wife. This is horrible. The way that Odysseus acted was right. His Life was that and people corrupted that. What was his wife thinking? Her man was away and she pulls this type of action behind his back, she violated him, she was wrong to him, and he should have killed her as well. The man Odysseus was full of rage and showed it. Odysseus portrays pride in this matter. Was this a reason that kept him going, to keep him on edge? Pride is a huge factor.
In Odysseuss culture, his family and Possession was the most important things for him. His rage reflects his pride. He was angre and showed it when killing the suitors. The suitors were shocked but got what was coming to then. In no way should you ever covet your neighbors wife. If you do, and get caught you should be punished. The culture of war and the individual agony of the persons experiences it in there early text are no different from conflict in the world today. When leaders collide they discover ways of resolution if not thy experienced hatred towards each other as in the initial meeting between Enkido, and Gilgamesh.
God was learning by contrast, in the bible, how to rule his culture and he seems to need more experience in governing. As a result, many of the conflicts he generated might be averted once he gets the feel for what he is doing. Finally, in the Odyssey the central conflict between Odysseus and the suitors. In no way should anyone ever take someones possessions and not think that anything would happen to him or her in return. Culture hasnt changed because it is human nature that these epic poems/novels were about and would never change.