Book Information
Gilgamesh: A New Rendering in English Verse
David Ferry
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York
Copyright 1992
ISBN: 978-0-374-52383-1
The wilderness is the setting of the first Tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The human characters, Enkidu, Shamhat, the hunter, and his son, have acted outside of civilization and the laws of nature have presided. We know more about the inner workings of Enkidu’s mind than we do of Gilgamesh. We know that he is willing to listen to someone wiser than he is. We know that he wants a friend. We know that he wants to challenge Gilgamesh to put an end to the King’s violent and arrogant behavior.
Enkidu’s arrival in Uruk upends Gilgamesh’s life and therefore civilization. He learns that Gilgamesh forces himself on the brides of Uruk on their wedding nights, insisting that he be the first to sleep with them, not their husbands. This enrages Enkidu. According to Assyriologist Andrew George, “... [Gilgamesh’s] demands mean that filial and conjugal duties are displaced... It is certainly true that in the old Babylonian version of the epic the Babylonian audience, like Enkidu, would have reacted with horror to ‘the right of the first night’ (ius primae noctis) which the wedding-guest reports as customary in Gilgamesh's Uruk:
Gilgamesh will couple with the wife-to-be,
he first of all, the bridegroom after.
Such things did not happen in Babylonia in the historical period. However, according to the text this activity was divinely sanctioned...” (George xlvii)
In their very first interaction, Enkidu acts as protector to the bride when it is supposed to be Gilgamesh's duty to protect his people. A wrestling match ensues – a battle between nature and civilization. Is the wild man or the King more civilized? Enkidu is not even human:
“Enkidu listened as Rimat-Ninsun spoke
to Gilgamesh her son: ‘Enkidu has neither
father nor mother: there is no one to cut
the wild man’s hair. He was born on the grasslands and grazed
with gazelles and the other beasts on the grass of the grasslands;
Enkidu, the companion, will not forsake you.’” (Ferry 15)
Aruru created Enkidu specifically to tame, distract, and support Gilgamesh. Yet Gilgamesh, who takes advice from no one save Enkidu, is not fully human without him. Civilization needs the laws of nature.
Gilgamesh wins his wrestling match with Enkidu. They become inseparable friends. Yet he has learned nothing. He immediately concocts a scheme to kill Huwawa (also known as Humbaba), guardian of the Cedar Forest. “Several months’ journey across this wilderness, over many ranges of mountains, there was a sacred Forest of Cedar, where some said, the gods dwelt. It was guarded for the gods by a fearsome ogre, the terrible Humbaba, cloaked for his protection in seven numinous auras, radiant and deadly.” (George xxxii)
Gilgamesh’s mother, the model of enablement, blames Shamash, the Sun God, for Gilgamesh’s foolish idea. She believes the god has put her son up to it. The reader knows that Gilgamesh, and Gilgamesh alone, is responsible for his own bad choices. To understand Ninsun’s perspective, basic knowledge of the Mesopotamian pantheon is helpful.
“Foremost among the gods was the supreme triad, which comprised the Sky God, Anu, remote in his celestial palace, the more important Enlil, who presided over the affairs of gods and men from his temple on earth, and the clever Ea, who lived in his freshwater ocean beneath the earth…Then there [was] the Moon God, Sîn, the majestic son of Enlil. The Moon’s children were Shamash, the Sun God, the patron of travelers and Gilgamesh’s special protector, and the Babylonian Venus, the impetuous Ishtar, whose responsibilities were sexual love and war…” (George xxxi)
Gilgamesh’s mother Rimat-Ninsun, a lesser deity, is, like her son, constantly referred to as all-knowing. She may have some wise advice, but she, like her son, is not all-knowing. A better description would be that they think they know it all. We learn nothing characteristic of Lugalbanda, Gilgamesh’s father. Without him, there is truly no one to temper Gilgamesh. Ninsun, not wanting to face the realities of her son’s character flaws, instead blames his choices on the gods.
As he prepares for his misguided adventure to kill Huwawa, it is not only his mother who tries to talk reason with Gilgamesh. The same Uruk elders who first asked the gods to create a foil for Gilgamesh, try to warn him from going after the ogre. It was bad enough when they were dealing with a king who was beating up men and molesting women; now they are facing a potential absent ruler headed out on an adventure purely for ego’s sake. And then Enkidu himself, Gilgamesh’s created companion and protector, tries to warn him off. But Gilgamesh will not listen. He says:
“It is Gilgamesh who will venture into the Forest
and cut the Cedar down and win the glory.
My fame will be secure to all my sons.
The journey I will undergo has never
been undergone before. Give me your blessing.
I will return to celebrate the feast
of the New Year. Uruk will shout in praise.” (Ferry 17-18)
The only bit of advice that Gilgamesh will accept is the elders’ and Enkidu’s suggestion that Enkidu lead the way. Resigned to his friend’s mission, Enkidu convinces Gilgamesh to be intelligent about it. The wild man of the grasslands knows more about the wilderness than Gilgamesh does. It is a kind way of telling him that he is not all-knowing. Enkidu is consistently associated with water, an essential element for life. We shall learn if he is essential to Gilgamesh’s survival as he takes on Huwawa in the Cedar Forest…
Bibliography
Ferry, David. Gilgamesh: A New Rendering in English Verse. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1992.
George, Andrew. The Epic of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Epic Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian. London: Penguin Books, 1999.
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