Chapter 17: Gilgamesh: “There are people who are more savage than I…”

"Huh? Why does this king think you are thinking about something bad?" Gilgamesh looked at the servant.

"Oh no, magnanimous king, that must be your illusion. I am now going to give the highest reward to that mother." The servant with the lapis lazuli gem left in a hurry.

With the end of the fair trial, the City of Uruk has gradually calmed down, but they are still discussing the decree of the adjudicator with great interest because the adjudicator this time is different from the adjudicator who appeared in the past.

In the past, the adjudicator will carefully ask Gilgamesh, and after getting an answer from him, they made the verdict. Everything was in the favor of Gilgamesh.

But this adjudicator is different... He used ruthless and cruel actions to guide the truth about the incident, and the final result of the adjudication is so convincing and admirable.

Because of the convincing decree, some residents of Uruk sighed loudly.

"If that outsider becomes the priest in charge of the trial, then we don't have to need to worry about being misjudged by the nobles and priests."

"It makes sense, and I just heard about it! That outsider even refused the king's reward, and only wanted an answer from the king."

"Answer? What answer?"

"I'm not sure about this, but ah, the adjudicator who doesn't even want rewards must be asking about the fairest decree."

The discussions in Uruk's marketplace reached Gilgamesh's ears one after another. After thinking for a while, he showed a happy smile, waved his hand, wrote an order, and threw it to Siduri, the Chief Priest who had just rushed back to the palace.

"Chief Priest, you will pass this on to the outsider."

Siduri, who hadn't rested yet, spread out the golden silk in her hand, which contained the text left by Gilgamesh. After seeing the content clearly, Siduri looked at Gilgamesh in shock, " King, this is a priest's job, and not just any priest but a priesthood of the goddess, how can an outsider take over?"

"This position is very important. We have to go through layers of strict selection among nobles of noble blood, and then get the approval of the House of Elders before deciding who will serve the goddess. This decision of yours—how can it be possible? Arbitrarily choosing an outsider of unknown origin to hold such an important position!"

Mesopotamia had a very clear hierarchy.

God class, royal class, priest class, noble class, soldier class, commoner class, slave class...

The priest class is only under the gods and royals and is also higher than the noble class.

As once said before, humans were created by the gods of Mesopotamia to serve the gods and offer tribute to the gods.

Most of the gods in Mesopotamia are enshrined in temples, and the priests are the servants of the temple, responsible for presiding over sacrificial activities, festivals, chanting praying, divination, etc., so their identities, were only inferior to the gods and royals, and higher than the nobility.

The purpose of building temples is to have a sacrificial place for the gods to maintain a good relationship with the gods, so as to bless their city with good weather, peace, and prosperity.

The more temples that worship the gods, the better. The more there are, the more pious and sincere, so gradually, the number of temples for the gods is countless, and the gods are happy to see it.

Because the priests serve the gods, the priests gradually evolved into the representatives of the gods in the world, and a king obtains royal power from the priests representing the gods, thus becoming the spokesperson of the gods.

If the king's royal power is not obtained through the hands of the priests, then he is not a legitimate king. After going through a solemn and courtly ceremony, the priest representing the gods will hand over the royal power to the king, and there will he become a real king.

Therefore, under this theocracy, priests have great privileges.

Those who can become priests must be nobles of noble blood and must pass through layers of screening before they can take up the position of priests.

And the city god of Uruk is the Goddess Inanna. No one knows how many princes and nobles want to serve this goddess who symbolizes "fertility".

Although that goddess has been grounded for several years and has never been seen…Siduri doesn't think that's the point.

The point is that those noble elders knew that such a valuable and important position was taken away by an outsider of unknown origin, and Siduri felt that Uruk would riot.

It is really going to riot!

The civilian class may be indifferent to Gilgamesh's decision, but the noble class will definitely riot! They're not going to accept losing a position that allowed them to step up to the top.

The urban god Uruk enshrined first was [God Anu]. Anu was the king of the gods in the entire Mesopotamian mythology system, but then God Anu gave the temple dedicated to him in Uruk to his favorite great-granddaughter Inanna.

Therefore, the deity worshiped in Uruk became the Goddess Inanna, also known as the Goddess Ishtar.

If one is lucky enough to become a priest of the goddess, one may be able to get the favor of the goddess. If one is even luckier to get the goddess pregnant during the offering and give birth to a demigod, that would be even better.

"Tsk, there are people who want that goddess who is more savage and unreasonable than me." Gilgamesh smacked his lips. He said "savage" and the Chief Priest, Siduri, turned pale. The king of Uruk is disrespecting the urban god, if the urban god finds out it will bring disaster to Uruk!

Once the urban god in charge of "love and fertility" angrily cut off the relationship with Uruk, then Uruk's relationship between men and women and the harvest of plants will all be affected.

"My lord, please be careful with your words and take back this order." Siduri turned pale and handed the golden silk back to Gilgamesh.

Perhaps Gilgamesh also remembered the rules and regulations, and he no longer insisted on his whim, but he did not give up. He said, "Chief Priest, you must have known from my mother that the goddess Inanna will come to Uruk in the near future."

Seeing that Gilgamesh no longer insisted on that impossible order, Siduri breathed a sigh of relief, and she replied, "Yes, that's why we found the opportunity to build the temple of the Goddess Inanna, and in order to welcome the arrival of the god, we, Uruk's citizen have to prepare everything."

"So, the more skillful hands who are good at building temples, the better."

"Of course it is. Your Majesty, do you have any recommendations for skillful hands who are good at building temples?" Siduri asked in bewilderment.

"I don't have one, but I think that guy should be able to handle it, so you go to him and let him be a member of the temple." Gilgamesh threw the golden silk to Siduri again.