Danielle Allen in the
Washington Post:
The world’s oldest surviving text is about how to deal with a problem like Donald Trump.
In the “Epic Gilgamesh,” which dates to 2100 B.C., the people of the
city of Uruk in Mesopotamia lift their voices to the gods in complaint
about their king, Gilgamesh. In David Ferry’s marvelous translation, the
people of Uruk lament: “Neither the father’s son nor the wife of the
noble is safe in Uruk; neither the mother’s daughter nor the warrior’s
bride is safe.”
The people first try to protect themselves by
seeking a double for Gilgamesh, someone who is in some important sense
like him, who can contend with him and who can keep him in check. . . . In the epic, the double’s name
is Enkidu, and it is Enkidu who finally blocks Gilgamesh from entering a
bridal chamber ahead of the bridegroom. . . . In the epic “Gilgamesh,” the tyrant becomes a good king only when he
comes to recognize that in his own mortality he is no greater than the
lowliest peasant. Reflecting on death, he says, “And then I saw a worm
fall out of his nose. Must I die too?” Assimilating this lesson,
Gilgamesh is at last able to rein in his passions, develop virtues and
become a beneficent king.
