Epic literature is focused on the feats and demises of heroic humans or gods. The stories have religious context and are written to guide individuals to a path of inner success. An epic remains timeless because it focuses on basic human instincts and struggles. In this way it can also be applied to all aspects of modern life – even the developing concept of life on the internet.
Society is still learning how to deal with the rapid technological growth of the last decades and we must decide how to incorporate issues of morality with the great amount of information we have access to. The online classroom is an aspect of this world where etiquette is important but what is appropriate is still in a grey area. For this reason we can use epics to help us better understand our own position in the online classroom.
The Epic of Gilgamesh focuses on the immorality through physical structures, and the online classroom has immorality because it will always exist on the internet. If you take into consideration that you are held accountable for the information you present online, then you are more likely to hold a moral standard to the content of the information, whether that be accuracy or basic etiquette.
In the last tablets of the Epic of Gilgamesh a quote resonates with our online classroom:
”Study the brickwork, study the fortification;
climb the ancient staircase to the terrace;
study how it is made; from the terrace see
the planted and fallow fields, the ponds and orchards.”
I have interpreted this quote to tell the reader to understand their history, and how society has developed through the structures ancestors have left behind. There is great value in knowing our history to help understand our current actions and desires. The online classroom is still a young development in history, but we must look into the significance and value of the structure we are lucky enough to be part of building.
