Romance of Enkidu and Gilgamesh

¶ … romance of Enkidu and Gilgamesh vs. The brotherly conflicts of the Bible

Stories from the ancient Near East, like the epic struggles of the Bible and the story of Gilgamesh often contain contentious male relationships. They relate stories of people struggling for power in a harsh world, and each male strives in his own way to prove himself. The first and most memorable story of this type in the Hebrew Bible is that of Cain and Able, whereby the more primitive tiller of the land Cain kills the more advanced tender of the flock Able, even though Able is his brother. "Am I my brother's keeper?" he asks (Genesis 4:9). In the Bible, family love and family romance does little to deter cruel and self-serving behavior. Other examples of this can be found in the story of the hairy, wild Esau who is deprived of his birthright and his father's blessing by the more civilized Jacob as well as the brilliant younger son Joseph, hated by his older brothers. However, the Epic of Gilgamesh translates this idea of male rivalry into a kind of romantic friendship, intense first in its hatred, and then in its love (as is the case with many romantic plots between men and women). The relationship between Enkidu and Gilgamesh is far more loving and intense than the relationship between the gods and man, in contrast to the Bible which could be read as the love story between God and his Chosen people. Humans betray one another in the Bible, but not God, while in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Enkidu and Gilgamesh are true to one another -- the gods are false.

Although Enkidu and Gilgamesh form a male couple, their relationship has a lover-like intensity. Their initial meeting is stormy: Although Enkidu is a wild man who must learn the ways of civilization; he seems to have more of a moral compass than the king. When Enkidu first meets Gilgamesh, he tries to stop Gilgamesh from having sex with one of his subject's brides on the first night of a couple's wedding. Enkidu tries to prevent the rape. The two men fight, and although Gilgamesh triumphs, they become friends out of mutual respect. The nature of exchange in their relationship is fairly equal -- Enkidu urges Gilgamesh to contain his kingly power, Gilgamesh brings Enkidu into civilization.

This stands in profound contrast between the relationship of the brothers Jacob and Esau. Although the two should theoretically love one another, in the Bible there seems to be little emotional connection or even physical and spiritual similarity between the two men. Nor is Esau even beloved by his mother. "And Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob" (Genesis 25: 28). At Rebecca's urging, Jacob disguises himself under animal skins as his older brother and takes his blind father Jacob's blessing. The wild, hairy man loses his supremacy in power because of a trick -- and also because of his own greed, as Jacob urged Esau, when he was hungry, to trade his birthright for pottage. Although the two men are brothers, no mutual respect is formed between the two of them when they grapple for supremacy because their natures are so different. Their conflict is not settled in physical terms, rather through trickery and the family romance ends in animosity.

In contrast to the moral God of the Hebrew Bible, the gods of the Epic of Gilgamesh are amoral. The God of the Bible favors Jacob as more righteous as when he enables Jacob to trick Laban so he can marry Rachel. But when Enkidu and Gilgamesh embark upon a quest to kill the demon of the Cedar Forest Humbaba, the gods side with Humbaba. And the gods punish Enkidu for his friend's crime. At first Enkidu does not want to kill the demon, because he has portents of a bad outcome. He only helps Gilgamesh because of his love for the king, and the gods turn against him for that reason. Unlike the omnipotent God of the Bible, the gods in Gilgamesh can be tricked -- for example, Enkidu urged Gilgamesh to kill Humababa even when Humbaba tempted Gilgamesh with dominion over the Cedar Forest because he sense the gods were coming to Humbaba's age. Enkidu is cursed for his loyalty to his fellow human and friend, because Humbaba knows that hurting Enkidu is the best way to hurt Gilgamesh. None of the male pairs of the Bible show such sympathetic concern for one another, even for their own brothers. The most intense relationships in the Bible are not between lovers or family members, but between God and one of God's most chosen young sons like Jacob and Joseph. In contrast, the relationship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu is much more intense than the relationship between the gods and Gilgamesh.

Some might dispute the idea that the relationship between God and humans in the Bible are more intense than Gilgamesh, because the gods in Gilgamesh are depicted as desiring human beings sexually. When Gilgamesh rejects Ishtar he sets off a chain of events that will result in Enkidu's death. The theme of 'hell hath no fury like a woman spurned" is depicted in a human scenario in the Bible, when young Joseph is even sold into slavery by his brothers. Joseph makes the best of his plight, but is nearly undone when his master Potiphar's wife attempts to commit adultery with him. Yet while feminine sexuality is also threatening to men in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Bible, a comparison of these two stories suggests that it is the desire of humans that is untrustworthy in the Bible, while in Gilgamesh the relationship the king has with Enkidu is fundamentally pure -- it is the gods that are capricious and overly sensual.