"Enkidu and the Woman" 31

Enkidu and the Woman (Gilgamesh, I.iv.16-21)

From: John R. Maier. 1997. Gilgamesh: A Reader. Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci. Pp. 29-35. 16 ur-tam-mi mam-hat di-da- r- ip-te-e-ma ku-zuub- il-q 17 ul i-hu -ut il-ti-qi na-pis-su 18 lu-bu-i- u-ma-si-ma el-a is-lal 19 i-pu-us-su-ma lul-la-a i-pir sin-ni-te 20 da-du- ih-pu-pu eli sr- 21 6 ur-ri 7 muti dEn-ki-d te-bi-ma mam-hat ir-hi No one questions that the woman, a shamhatu, whose title is now often taken as a personal name, Shamhat, meets Enkidu at a watering hole in the wilderness while he is running with the only companions he has known, the animals. In the passage, she seduces him, they make love for a week, and Enkidu finds he cannot return to the wild. It is the first step in the education, or humanization, of Enkidu, who is referred to as lull, the first and probably "primitive"human. Benjamin Foster (see below), who considers the passage Enkidu's "first stage of knowledge, sexual awareness," has noticed a pattern that will unfold later in Gilgamesh. Enkidu's remarkable week-long sexual encounterFoster thinks it is a single heroic act of intercourseopens a contrast between sleep and wakeful arousal that will play through the narrative until Gilgamesh is given last chance for immortality, a Sleeping Test, in Tablet XI. Foster has also noticed a certain wordplay in the passage (and what Foster himself judges a rather "lame" translation): Shamhat's dd in line 16, her vulva, anticipates Enkidu's ddu in line 20, his "passionate feelings." The translators' emphasis on the seduction has perhaps obscured the wordplay that sees in an intense lifegiving vigor and luxuriance something like a union of a female principle, full of the earth and waters below, and a male principle, mingling waters of the above. . . . (When Shamhat removes her dd, a strip of fabric a woman wound around the hips and between the legs, she is completely naked. That she spread her clothing on the ground and then receives Enkidu is a sign of an original humanhumanizingseparation from the animals.) Shamhat's kuzbu, for example, is an attribute of goddesses and gods that has a range of meanings from sexual vigor, charm, attractiveness, to abundance, luxuriant vegetation, and plentiful waters. The napu of Enkidu, taken away by the extraordinarily active Shamhat, is his "breath" (Foster considers it the "breath of life"), much like the better known naptu, "breath" and "wind," but also "life," "vigor," "body" and "self," "provisions for sustenance." (Both words relate to the verb, nabu, one meaning of which is "to expand," "to become abundant.") When Enkidu "rises" (tbima), it is clear that he is aroused for six days and seven nights. And when he "poured himself" into Shamhat, as Stephanie Dalley translated rhu, he completes a process that is indicated by the chiastic, envelope pattern that opens and closes the passage (urtammi amhat di-da-a . . . Enkid tbima amhat irhi). The word amhatu itself, whether it is taken as a title or a proper name, would seem to pick up the resonances of the verb amhu to which it is related. The title may be a prostitute, connected with the temple . . ., but its appropriateness in the context is the verbal form, "to grow thickly, abundantly," and "to flourish," meanings not unrelated to extraordinary beauty. 1. Leonidas Le Cenci Hamilton, 1884: She laughing comes again to him,Forsooth! Her glorious arms she opens, flees away, While he doth follow the enticer gay. He seizes, kisses, takes away her breath, And she falls to the groundperhaps in death He thinks, and o'er her leans where she now lay; At last she breathes, and springs, and flees away. But he the sport enjoys, and her pursues; But glancing back his arms she doth refuse. And thus three days and four of nights she played; For of Heabani's [Enkidus] love she was afraid. Her joyous company doth him inspire For Samkha, joy, and love, and wild desire. 2. R. Campbell Thompson, 1928: The girl, displaying her bosom, Shew'd him her comeliness, (yea) so that he of her beauty possess'd him, Bashful she was not, (but) ravish'd the soul of him, loosing her mantle, So that he clasp'd her, (and then) with the wiles of a woman she plied him, Holding her unto his breast. ('Twas thus that) Enkidu dallied Six days, (aye) seven nights, with the courtesan-girl in his mating.

32 Monsters and Scapegoats

3. William Ellery Leonard, 1934: Then the priestess loosened her buckle, Unveiled her delight, For him to take his fill of her. She hung not back, she took up his lust, She opened her robe that he rest upon her. She aroused in him rapture, the work of woman. His bosom pressed against her. Engidu forgot where he was born. For six days and seven nights Was Engidu given over to love with the priestess. 4. Alexander Heidel, 1949: [Him, the wild man, the prostitute saw, the savage man from the depths of the steppe. . . . ] Meretrix nudabat sinum suum, aperiebat gremium su- um, et is succumbuit venustati eius. . . . 5. E.A. Speiser, 1958: The lass freed her breasts, bared her bosom, And he possessed her ripeness. She was not bashful as she welcomed his ardor. She laid aside her cloth and he rested upon her. She treated him, the savage, to a woman's task, As his love was drawn unto her. For six days and seven nights Enkidu comes forth, Mating with the lass. 6. Herbert Mason, 1970: When he awoke he saw a creature Unlike any he had seen before Standing near the water, its skin smooth, tan And hairless except for its head And between its legs. He wanted to touch it, but then It made sounds he had never heard, Not like the sounds of his friends, the animals, And he was afraid. The prostitute Came close to him and the animals withdrew. She took his hand and guided it Across her breasts and between her legs And touched him with her fingers Gently and bent down and moistened Him with her lips then drew him Slowly to the ground. 7. Nancy K. Sandars, 1972: She was not ashamed to take him, she made herself naked and welcomed his eagerness; as he lay on her murmuring love she taught him the woman's art. For

six days and seven nights they lay together, for Enkidu had forgotten his home in the hills. 8. John Gardner and John Maier, 1984: The courtesan untied her wide belt and spread her legs, and he struck her wildness like a storm. She was not shy; she took his wind away, Her clothing she spread out, and he lay upon her. She made him know, the man-as-he-was, what a wom- an is. His body lay on her; six days and seven nights Enkidu attacked, fucking the priestess. 9. Benjamin Foster, 1987: Samhat unloosed her attire, opened her vulva, and he took her charms. She was not bashful, she took to herself his vitality. She stripped off her clothes and he lay upon her, She indeed treated him, man, to woman's work. His passionate feelings caressed her. Six days and seven nights was Enkidu aroused and made love to Samhat. 10. Stephanie Dalley, 1989: Shamhat loosened her undergarments, opened her legs and he took in her attractions. She did not pull away. She took wind of him, Spread open her garments, and he lay upon her. She did for him, the primitive man, as women do. His love-making he lavished upon her. For six days and seven nights Enkidu was aroused and poured himself into Shamhat. 11. Maureen Gallery Kovacs, 1989: Shamhat unclutched her bosom, exposed her sex, and he took in her voluptuousness. She was not restrained, but took his energy. She spread out her robe and he lay upon her, she performed for the primitive the task of womankind. His lust groaned over her; for six days and seven nights Enkidu stayed aroused, and had intercourse with the harlot. 12. Danny P. Jackson, 1992: Shamhat let her garments loose and spread forth her happiness, which Enkidu entered as a wind god enters an open cavern's mouth. Hot and swollen first, she jumped him fast knocking out his rapid breath with thrust after loving thrust. She let him see what force a woman has,

"Enkidu and the Woman" 33

and he stayed within her scented bush for seven nights, leaping, seeping, weeping, and sleeping there. 13. Ludmila Zeman, 1992: As night fell, Shamhat played her harp and sang in the darkness. Her voice cast a spell over the forest. Enkidu walked toward the sound then stopped behind a tree. He had never seen anything so lovely. He approached her slowly so as not to frighten her. Shamhat saw Enkidu and stopped singing. He looked more like a beast than a man but she knew he would not harm her. No one had ever looked at her with so much tenderness. In the days that followed, Shamhat taught him to speak and to sing and she fell in love with him. They explored the ways of love together and Enkidu prom- ised he would stay with her always. The complex wordplay is only gradually coming to light, but as the different translations show, the explicitness of the Akkadian poses problems for a modern, Western language that reflects a long struggle with active sexuality. On the one hand, explicit language is still considered "dirty," and on the other, euphemisms are considered vaguely hypocritical or evasive. Yet another problem is the tendency, again quite marked in Western discourse, . . . [against] active female sexuality. Richard Henshaw claims that a major category of cultic officiants in Mesopotamia consists of "priests" and "priestesses" who interpret sexuality and fertility. How much actual "sacred prostitution" and how widely "sacred marriage rites" were performed in Mesopotamia is still a matter of great controversy, but it is clear that it is difficult to categorize, today, a woman who humanizes and civilizes a manindeed, transforms the primitive Enkiduthrough sexual experience. . . . No single episode in Gilgamesh has yielded so many different interpretations. . . . Note, to conclude, the different terms used above to translate amhatu, and contemporary concerns with gender differences in language: Joy, the girl, the priestess, meretrix, lass, "a creature/unlike any he had seen before," courtesan, and harlot.