Comment by lukan
7 hours ago
"Where do you think organized crime came from?"
Where do you think governments come from?
The oldest Epos we have, Gilgamesh (from the top of my head):
"We came early in the morning. Anyone opposing, we killed. We took everything.
...
until they learned it was better to submit to us."
The rest is how he became then a king, but got bored and now thought, might as well be a good king (but that too got booring, so he got onto adventures angering the gods).
So this is the founding mythos of Babylon. Often considered the root of civilisation.
I like Gilgamesh and I don't recognize that part. My translation has "the king should be a shepherd to his people" on the first page. This is part of complaining about Gilgamesh's arrogance, which is why the gods have to distract him by creating Enkidu, his equal. I mean sure, Gilgamesh is an asshole, a liability, but the text seems to know that.
It was pretty much in the beginning, will have to look it up (has been ages).
" Gilgamesh is an asshole, a liability, but the text seems to know that."
Kind of? It is not really condemned I think. He is still their powerful (god)king and might is right. (So he had the right to be an asshole).