Juno and her Rivals, Callisto (Chp. IV), Monsters (Chp. XVI

I’ve heard a bunch of times, around the media, and in church mainly, that our God up there is there to take care of us, to forgive us no matter how many times we screw up; so we can say he is someone good, some pleasant father that is always willing to give us a second chance, because he knows, and we know, some of us, that we can do it right.

But, when I read Juno and her Rivals, I started doubting whether all Gods, in all religions are as good as our God. Cause, in the myth, Juno is not what we could call patient.

So I thought the behaviour of our Gods towards us has varied, throughout time, in all religions. At the time in which Gilgamesh lived, if he did, it is easy to notice the Gods behaved different, mostly like Juno. They probably were this way, because the Gods, were much more linked to humans in some way or other. They lived among them sometimes, and gave them advice and punished them; they had more human-like characteristics.

As the myth Callisto shows, jealousy was a human-characteristic that Juno had; she was certainly jealous of the beautifulness of one of the nymphs, Callisto. As jealous and powerful as she was, she converted the poor nymph into a big brown bear, removing her attractive human characteristics.

How can we be sure if our God, today, is even human? He/she doesn’t definitely share human characteristic, cause it is rather hard to find a perfect human being.

But then, later on, no matter how angry might have Juno or her husband Jupiter be, humans and other mortals like to contradict them, just sometimes; at doing this, unlike modernity, they are fully aware of what dangerous consequences might rebellion bring.

In Monsters, this is similar to Gilgamesh as well, as Gilgamesh, part, human therefore part immortal, liked to disobey the Gods, when going into the Cedar Forest, when insulting Ishtar; Enkidu disobeyed hell, when breaking all the rules and doing sorts of things he wasn’t supposed to do. Practically, no matter how important might the Gods have been once to us, we, as humans, as imperfections, think evil and…ignore the Gods sometimes.