The Tablet of Destinies

The Tablet of Destinies is the last volume of Roberto Calasso’s magnum opus on myth, literature and Western culture. Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, he turned in his last works first to the Old Testament and then to the even older myths of Mesopotamia; circling back to the dawn of civilization after having ventured all the way to the twentieth century.The myths of Sumer and Babylon, as is well known, contain symbolism that was transformed into the early chapters of Genesis, the myth of Hercules and the Theogony of Hesiod. A more mythologically inclined reader would no doubt pick up even more cross-cultural influences.But there is a point, an interpretation of Mesopotamian civilization, beyond retelling the myths and noting the similar flood, snake, etc. Calasso sees these peoples as terrified of the phenomena of chaos. The eponymous Tablets of Destiny are the order that the world must adhere to: meaning superimposed on necessity.Perhaps, as a people only little removed from hunter gatherer ways, these men saw the city, its gods, their rituals and their own social hierarchy as combatting the chaos beyond Gilgamesh’s walls. And as the people who invented writing, it could only be a tablet that protected the order of their universe; writing being the acme of their civilization.In the modern world it’s hard to feel much of a sympathy for these myths partly because of their semi-exotic imagery. But we also see everywhere the order imposed by fellow human beings: from the clock that tells us when it is time to start work to the civil code that has grown so vast that even attorneys have to choose an area of specialization. We suffer from a glut not a scarcity of order. The land between the Tigris and Euphrates experienced a very different reality, or at least experienced reality very differently.As the last work of Calasso this was a bittersweet read: so much knowledge, so much wisdom, now to write no more. That is, unless he has a part to play in writing that living tablet of destinies that our Mesopotamian cultural inheritance still allows us to imagine.

Roberto Calasso works his usual magic with mythology, this time with the Mesopotamian pantheon. First off, Calasso treats his subjects seriously, as Beings of great power and creation - not as curiosities or metaphors or objects of humor. Second, he does a wonderful job of weaving random myths and tales into a coherent narrative, anchored in a rough timeline.In this book, he adds an extra layer to his account by having an intermediary - Utnapishtim of the Sumerian account of the Great Flood - acts as the storyteller, in a series of conversations (really monologues) with a stranded Sindbad the Sailor. This adds a filter of a (near) human voice trying to make sense of his Gods' actions.Everything by Calasso is worth reading, and this is no exception.