What Lessons Does Enkidu Learn

The Humanizing of Enkidu

From Gerald R. Lucas

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A t the starting time of The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh is a tyrant and a poor male monarch. He is two-thirds god, and that has become an issue for his people. In essence, he terrorizes them, like a malignant human being might an pismire hill or some puppies.

Rather than, equally the men complain at the outset, being a "shepherd to his people," he kills the men and rapes the women.^[one] The text implies that he does this, not necessarily because he is evil, but that he is singular—i.east., he has no ane else to challenge him or to exist his equal. Or, peradventure, no i to distract him from being a scumbag. Figuratively, Gilgamesh is merely one-half of a person. Like a sociopath: he feels she is superior to anybody, so he is not jump by the moral codes of humanity. He is missing an integral quality that would make him a man beingness. This is why Enkidu is created.

Enkidu represents the human side of Gilgamesh—a part of him that's closer to the earth. Created by Aruru, the great female parent goddess of creation, literally "pinched off clay" to create Enkidu as a friction match for the tyrant: "let it be as like [Gilgamesh] as his own reflection, his second self, stormy middle for stormy eye."^[2] A mirror image to Gilgamesh, Enkidu is ii-thirds animal, more child-like with a natural altruism that Gilgamesh does not share.^[iii]

At get-go, Enkidu must himself acquire the ways of civilization, being "innocent of mankind" and "cultivated country."^[two] Both of these are meaning, every bit the epic begins to ascertain what it means to be human in the time of Gilgamesh. Here is the get-go clue: while some of the nonetheless hunt, agriculture is more of import to culture, and therefore being human. Therefore, earlier he tin deed as foil to Gilgamesh, he must learn the ways of humanity. A common theme in Mesopotamian literature is the conflict betwixt the animate being nature and man beliefs, and Enkidu exemplifies this struggle as he is educated.^[4] Indeed, it's this emphasis on the conquering of knowledge that's important in the ballsy, rather than the heroic deeds the heroes volition later perform, equally teaching is what makes a civilized human beingness in the poem.^[five]

The "harlot" Shamhat^[6] is brought in for the job. She plays an important curl, but the selection of labeling her "harlot" in this translation is unfortunate, every bit it suggests she is a mutual prostitute rather than i of acolytes of Ishtar'south temple: one of the "priestesses who give their bodies / to any human being in honor of the goddess."^[7] Mitchell explains that in that location is no convenient English word for what Shamhat is: like a "opposite nun," she is an incarnation of the goddess and a servant of eros who "dedicated her life to what the Babylonians considered the sacred mystery of sexual wedlock."^[8] She is not a prostitute for personal gain, but uses her gifts for all who need them in a selfless mode. In this sense, Shamhat uses her "love-arts" to atmosphere and brainwash the animal nature in Enkidu and prepares him to go to Uruk.

Presently, as well, Enkidu yearns for "a comrade, for ane who would empathize his center."^[9] Later on Shamhat has educated him sexually, his mind begins to expand equally his animal side diminshes. He tries to run over again with the animals, only finds he cannot, and he begins to intuit just what he was created for.^[x] Coupled with the curious dreams Gilgamesh begins having near Enkidu—his mother, Ninsun who is a minor goddess, says "you lot will love him as a woman"—the text suggests the importance male friendship. This promises to be no typical friendship, but one that is much more powerful, has suggestions of same-sex love, and is cemented with strong, spouse-like bonds.

Shamhat tells Enkidu of the glories of civilization in Uruk, clothes him, and takes him to run across the shepherds. They offer him bread and vino, and he start fumbles, knowing simply how to swallow raw meat and suckle milk. Bread and wine are pregnant, in that they are both products of agriculture and take a sure skill and composure to brand, thus they are potent symbols of the humanity that Enkidu is learning to embrace. Shamhat shows him how to consume the bread and vino, and, predictably, he overdoes it with the latter. Another facet of alcohol is that 1 must learn temperance in its consumption—another particular that makes it a human being potable. Finally, Shamhat brushes his pilus, and then "Enkidu had become a man."^[11] Afterward dressing in more than appropriate apparel, he "appeared like a bridegroom" set to run across his bride (Gilgamesh?) one assumes. A human establishment, spousal relationship is a civilized affair—a contract and bond between tow humans, for life.

The use of benedict here has another significance. When Enkidu learns that Gilgamesh "demands to be outset with the helpmate"—that is accept sex with her before the husband—Enkidu decides to challenge Gilgamesh. Hither, Enkidu the wild human seems offended that the king of Uruk acts and so uncivilized, so immoral, so similar an animal. He vows to do something: the next step is to humanize Gilgamesh, arguably what the epic is actually almost.

notes

↑ Mack, Maynard, ed. (1999). "Gilgamesh". The Norton Anthology of Globe Masterpieces. i. Translated by Sandars, Northward. Thou. (Seventh ed.). New York: Due west. Due west. Norton. p. 19.
↑ ^2.0 ^ii.1 Mack 1999, p. 19.
↑ Mitchell, Stephen, ed. (2004). Gilgamesh: A New English Version. New York: Free Press. p. xi.
↑ Mack 1999, p. 17.
↑ Foster, Benjamin R., ed. (2019). The Epic of Gilgamesh. Norton Disquisitional Edition (2nd ed.). New York: W. W. Norton. pp. xx–xxi.
↑ Curiously, she is unnamed in Sandars' translation.
↑ Mitchell 2004, p. 12.
↑ Mitchell 2004, p. thirteen.
↑ Mack 1999, p. 21.
↑ Mitchell 2004, p. 17.
↑ Mack 1999, p. 22.