Achilles and the Caucasus - Université de Montréal

Achilles and the Caucasus (K. Tuite) — août 17, 2007 — pg. 40
sexual contact. The hunter who first discovered him returns with a
‘harlot’ named Shamḫat, who spends a week mating with Enkidu.
At the end of this experience, Enkidu returns to his beloved
animals, but they run away from him:
But when he turned his attention to his animals,
the gazelles saw Enkidu and darted off,
the wild animals distanced themselves from his body. …
Enkidu was diminished, his running was not as before.
But then he drew himself up,
for his understanding had broadened. (I.178-184)
The civilizing process has already begun (Tigay 1982: 198-
213; K’ik’nadze 1976: 161-183). 43 Shamḫat leads Enkidu to the
city of ramparted Uruk, where the former wildman learns to eat
and drink like a human, and even to dress like one. The clothes
make the man:
He splashed his shaggy body with water,
and rubbed himself with oil, and turned into a human.
He put on some clothing and became like a warrior(?).
He took up his weapon and chased lions,
so that shepherds could rest at night.
[from the Old Babylonian version (Kovacs 1989: 16, note 2)]
Civilization implies not only improved table manners, but more
importantly a need — indeed, an obligation — to form alliances. In
Shamḫat he has found a sexual companion, in Gilgamesh he finds
a friend. Yet a new-found awareness of his humanity has come at
the price of confronting his mortality, and as he lies dying, Enkidu
43 According to D’jakonov (1977: 351) the story of Enkidu is to be read, one
might say, both phylogenetically and ontogenetically: It represents the Old
Mesopotamian folk-theory of the evolution of human society from savagery to
urban civilization, as well as the development of each individual through the
stages of socialization, mating, friendship, adult activity, and death.