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Enkidu and Shamhat

Joseph Campbell compares Adam, who before the creation of woman, lived together with the animals in paradise, with Enkidu, who prior to his encounter with Shamhat the prostitute, lived in harmony with the creatures of the wild:

Coated in hair like the god of the animals, with the gazelles he grazes on grasses, Joining the throng with the game at the water hole, his heart delighting with the beasts of the water. (I 110)

In Genesis, among all the creatures the LORD God had made, not one of them was a suitable companion for Adam, so the LORD God put Adam into a deep sleep and formed a woman from his bone and flesh. What follows is the fall of mankind. The serpent deceives Eve into eating the fruit of Knowledge of good and Evil, who in turn, shares it with her husband:

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked;
so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Genesis 3:7

And so a curse fell upon creation and Adam and Eve were expelled from Paradise (Genesis 3:16–24).

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, A hunter encounters Enkidu at the water hole, and is filled with fear. His father advises him to take the matter to Gilgamesh himself, who tells the hunter to take the prostitute Shamhat to the waterhole to seduce Enkidu. When Enkidu arrives at the water hole together with the herd of wild animals, the hunter compels Shamhat to unclothe herself and “do for man the work of a woman” (I 185). She lays with Enkidu for six days and seven nights. Afterward, Enkidu turned back toward the herd to rejoin them, but they spurned him. We are also told at this point that;

Enkidu had defiled his body so pure,
his legs stood still, though the herd was in motion.
Enkidu was weakened, could not run as before,
but…

like his counterpart in the garden of Eden;

…now he had reason, and wide understanding.

He returns to the prostitute:

She stripped and clothed him in part of her garment,
the other part she put on herself. (p.70)

Together they leave the the water hole and the wild behind, and head off toward the city of Uruk.

The cosmological variant of this type of myth is of a androgynous, or hermaphroditic being, who at the beginning of time split in two to create male and female and all creation. I came across an article which brought the account of Enkidu and Shamhat back into focus. The article came from Persian Journal and was entitled ‘Another look at the myth of Gilgamesh’ About half way through the article an observation is made concerning Enkidu, being the ‘Animus’ or feminine side to Gilgamesh’s ‘Anima’, or masculine side. This is based on a number of verses in the Epic, that are seen to imply that Enkidu was partly perceived as feminine. Before Enkidu arrives at Uruk, Gilgamesh has two dreams. In the first dream a star falls from heaven, which is too heavy for Gilgamesh to dislodge, and in the second dream, a crowd had gathered around an axe lying in the street, which Gilgamesh takes and lays at his mothers feet. He refers to both the star and the axe as being…

Like a wife I [loved] it, caressed and embraced it (I 255 & 285)

His mother, the goddess Ninsun, interprets both the star and axe as symbolizing the arrival of a champion and companion for Gilgamesh, namely Enkidu.

“…Like a wife you loved it, caressed it and embraced it:
a mighty comrade will come to you, and be his friend’s saviour. (I 265)
..Like a wife you’ll love him, caress and embrace him,
he will be mighty, and often will save you.” (I.270)

Also Enkidu is described as having, in part, the features of a woman.

All his body is matted with hair,
he bears long tresses like those of a woman:
the hair of his head grows thickly as barley,… (I 105)

And also we are told that the prostitute Shamhat shares her clothes with Enkidu

She stripped and clothed him in part of her garment,
the other part she put on herself. (p 70)

Perhaps Enkidu was thought to have a feminine side?

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