Sumer, Greece, America, and Conan

    Having abandoned a writing project because the ideas which I was trying to illuminate with the story were a little unclear to me, I went for a bike ride into desolation because I am always alone in the wild when I see the world and decided to linebacker my databases and paradigms by filling the gap of a relatively new subject, Sumer and its civilization. I began to read in things Sumerian.
    I found there a mythos and art of civilization that surpassed the Greeks. The Sumerians invented civilization and significant elements they originated were given to the Greeks by way of succeeding societies. Sumerian myth is like getting civilization from the horse's mouth; Greek myth is like reportage. Let me qualify this bold statement by saying that if I were to be stranded on an island and given the task of recreating civilization using one written work, it would be 'Prometheus Bound', the Greek classic.
    However, I find in my acquaintance with Greek myth no succinct statement of the essential act of civilization, the ethos of the whole milieu we so label, as the Sumerian: 'The good things from the pure sheepfold are why man was given breath.' It is all there, stewardship, husbandry, and artisanship, the essential roles of civilization. I find nothing so real, so illuminating as the story that Enki, the god of wisdom, was drunk when he decreed the arts of civilization. It probably was not a particularly wise thing to do as the Sumerians found out when Conan, I am being metaphorical, had their lunch.
   Civilization proceeds at a measured pace in a world of great risk. Exceed your wisdom, La Belle Epoque, and you risk losing everything, the First World War and all that followed. Hubris, as the Greeks termed the sin of pride, is as true now as it was then. Do not tempt the gods, Conan is waiting.
   There is a shiny new world being born today that smacks of hubris, from the highways to the cell towers to Amazon.com, there is that pride in taking risks and reaping rewards that does so tempt the gods.
Be Well and Do Well.