Bilkent University

2003-2004 Fall

HUM111:

Cultures, Civilizations and Ideas

Fatih Sinan Esen

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POWER

Power is a common thing that everyone and every structure want to gain at all ages. Alike, ancient people wanted to gain power to handle some adversities, from nature or from elsewhere. First of all, the power was needed to be described before gained. Understanding of power varied from society to society, because some important concepts, such as traditions and climate, vary from area to area on the earth. With respect to the remains that found in Anatolia, the ancient people that lived in Anatolia (by looking the exhibitions in Anatolian Civilizations museum), decribed and showed the power, too. The ancient people in Anatolia described and showed the concept of “power” with gods, wealthyness, bigger shapes and huge buildings (like castles on higher hills).

In ancient times, the authorization of ruling has driven its source from absolute power of gods. One must be the loyal servant of gods in order to reach power and stay in power. Without gaining the favour of gods -one or many, depending on the society- neither the ruler could gain peoples trust nor people could feel safe from internal and external enemies. The king tries to gain the support of the gods, in order to preserve his power on the society and to stay on the throne. Because of the fact that every aspect has its own god, the king should get on well with those gods. On the other hand, not all the gods have absolute power, they had a hierarchy. The king was like a servant to gods to gain their support. He felt he had to satisfy their demand. Moreover, he prays and makes sacrifices. In return, with the support and favour of gods, they were powerful to their people. With divine power, they could carry on their hegemony on their subjects. One can observe this god-king relationship in the old tablets of Hittites which were excavated from Kargamish. In one of these tablets the king Sulumeli can be seen handing a divine

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drink. There are many tablets like these in which the rulers-kings are making rituals of sacrifices, offerings and vows. And also there are instances where they offer animals such as bull and deer.

The relationship between rulers and gods is nearly similar for the ordinary people. The people also try to satisfy the gods with worshiping them as well as they can. The similar pattern can be seen in Homer’s Odyssey. Besides, the size is an indicator of power in individuals. This can be observed in the Hittite tablets, and statues. Kings and gods are shown bigger than ordinary people; moreover the statues themselves are much bigger then normal human size. For example, in the tablet in which Gilgamesh is portrayed with animals; he is much bigger than normal human size, which can be inferred after looking at the sizes of animals. The same can be seen in Odyssey: Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war, with her divine power makes Odysseus seems to be bigger than he is. Moreover, people think that he is a god with his appearance and strength.

After mentioning the source of the power, it is significant to examine the reflection of this power on the society and people’s life styles. This can also be observed at their constructions. Castles, tombs and statues may be the symbols of the power. ‘Ankara Kalesi’, for instance, is an important sign of power with its height and sight-range allowing to control the whole city, and its towers and walls which seem unbeatable (when the conditions of the day is considered). The castle provided safety for not only the warrior society living inside but also the local people settled around it. With its glorious appearance, it scared the enemy and established a psychological pressure. And also being powerful required permanent presence, which is achieved by the Kale. Even today, with its strong existence the castle proves the power of its builders.

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Certainly, the size of the castle plays a significant role in showing the power of the society. In ancient societies, generally, power was related with the size. This holds for not only the castle but also the tombs. The mound of Midas is an example of this situation. The mound reflects the power of King Midas, which he had when he was alive, with its huge construction relative to the other buildings of the day.

At this point one can talk about the relation between wealth and power. In ancient times, wealth was so important, as it is now. The kings were shown in wealth in the tablets and vases, at ceremonies. The artifacts found in Midas’ tomb shows his wealth and accordingly his strength. His power allowed him to live prosperous not only when he was alive but also after his death.

As a conclusion, it can be said that the concept of power changed society to society and described with wealth, gods and buildings in Anatolia. Kings were servants of gods to gain power over their people. Also, they wanted to gain power with huge buildings like castles. They had to be powerful because managing a group requires power. Also, people should be powerful to handle adversities caused from nature and their enemies.