Gods and Humans Alike

Often times, gods and goddesses are depicted as great figures beyond humans in many epics, mythologies, and more unless you happen to upset them in some way or another. As a result of the upset, they will be the reason for the despair of many heroes in tragedies. Otherwise, those gods and goddesses are the deities that are prayed to in order for good things to happen. However, in Tablet VI: Ishtar and the Bull of Heaven of The Epic of Gilgamesh, we see the goddess Ishtar acting more human than godlike, which provokes us to wonder how superior these higher powers really are in comparison to mortal beings.

Upon seeing Gilgamesh all washed up after the fight, Ishtar proposed to Gilgamesh in hopes that he be her bridegroom (VI 7). Gilgamesh mentions all of her previous lovers and what she had done to them and asks why he would willingly marry her when she would most likely do the same thing to him as she did to her previous bridegrooms. She becomes angry and tells her mother, Antu, and father, Anu, about what Gilgamesh says. In this scene, we see Ishtar like a spoiled brat, angry that she did not get what she wants. She asks her father for the Bull of Heaven in order to slay Gilgamesh and even threatens to smash the gates of the Netherworld and bring back the dead to consume the living in order to try and get her way (VI 94-100).

Of course the power of being able to send a Bull of Heaven to wreak havoc in a city is evidence for the superiority gods and goddesses have over humans, but the physical externalities should not be what constitutes who is more superior. But since that tends to be the case, it is no wonder humans are automatically subject to having faults.