Ancient advice for a happy life

[Hagoth]

I'm studying the epic of Gilgamesh. In this oldest know piece of literature, 4-5000 years old, one of the gods gives the following advice for a happy life:

"But you, Gilgamesh, let your belly be full,
enjoy yourself always by day and by night!
bake merry each day,
dance and play day and night!

Let your clothes be clean,
let your head be washed, may you bathe in water!
Gaze on the the child who holds your hand,
let your wife enjoy your repeated embrace!"

This wisdom was taken to heart by the ancients and was repeated in the Old Testament in Ecclesiastes 9:
"Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart... Let thy garments be always white: and let not thy head lack anointment. Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of thy life." (assuming it is translated correctly)

So there you have it, the key to a happy life: eat drink and be merry, wear clean clothes and remember to bathe, appreciate your kids, love and embrace your spouse. The original gospel.

There is a distinct pattern of the oldest myths and wisdom showing up much later in the Bible. The creation, the nature of the cosmos, Adam and Eve and the serpent are based on Babylonian Myths, Noah is a retelling of the story of Uta-Napishti, Sargon's mother put him in a reed basket on the river to be found and raised to be royalty, the temple of Solomon was based on the standard Mesopotamian model, and on and on.

Maybe it's time for a restoration of all things from the beginning. The actual beginning.

[Newme]

I'm studying the epic of Gilgamesh. In this oldest know piece of literature, 4-5000 years old, one of the gods gives the following advice for a happy life:

"But you, Gilgamesh, let your belly be full,
enjoy yourself always by day and by night!
bake merry each day,
dance and play day and night!

Let your clothes be clean,
let your head be washed, may you bathe in water!
Gaze on the the child who holds your hand,
let your wife enjoy your repeated embrace!"

Good, simple advice!
I think the idea of being happy is too often overlooked in the church.
Yet, if we can't even make ourselves happy, how can we make others happy?

[document]

Eat, drink, and be merry. Remember that Jesus turned water into wine to keep a party going. It was the good wine, too.

Side note: The Epic of Gilgamesh was the first ancient text outside of the Bible that I ever studied. It led me down a lifetime of world mythology.

[alas]

The study of ancient mythology, religion, and wisdom is quite educational. Not that they knew more than we do, but that we can begin to see where religion came from and how it evolved.

The earliest religion seemed to be oral wisdom that was shared sitting around a campfire. Then it started getting written down and then as society grew from hunter gathers to farmers, then into city states, then nations, the religion evolved along with society.

Then when society was organized to a certain point, priests were needed to tell the religious stories, and they learned they could make money off of religion. The prophets could sell people their fortune, the fertility goddess's priestesses could sell sex, rather than just celebrate fertility, and priests could charge to have sins forgiven.

My own theory, but I think I could write a book on how money changed religion

[No Tof]

I have thought for a long time that the hippies had it mostly right.

If we can just free our minds from all the guilt and rules we would find ourselves much happier.

[Corsair]

That's a great list, Hagoth. In many ways humans continually complicate their living conditions and happiness. I might add that we should wash our hands at strategic times, but regular bathing could take care of a lot of that also. It's nice to see the idea of "restoration of all things" that doesn't try to shoehorn plural marriage into this supposed gap.

[Silver Girl]

I have thought for a long time that the hippies had it mostly right.

Yes - we hippies did have it right.

[moksha]

Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of thy life." (assuming it is translated correctly)

In the Joseph Smith translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh, it is translated "Live joyfully with your wives whom will lovest and obeyeth thee all thy days". Additionally, on the back side of the stone tablet, there is a footnote which predicts the coming of Joseph in the last days.

[document]

Well, Gilgamesh does believe he has the right to virgins on their wedding night.....maybe Joseph did translate it.

[Hagoth]

Well, Gilgamesh does believe he has the right to virgins on their wedding night.....maybe Joseph did translate it.

Hah, good point. But Gilgamesh is introduced as a selfish tyrant looking for eternal life, who eventually gains emotional maturity and realizes he has to accept that he can't always get what he wants.

[document]

He truly is an Anti-Smith then, right?