Gender Roles In Gilgamesh Essay

Perspectives on gender roles throughout history majorly favor the male over the female; her abilities are underestimated by society thus her role is belittled and objectified. The ancient Mesopotamian epic, Gilgamesh, follows this norm of males being in the lead. However in truth, the women play a small but significant role as their drive. The females provide the wisdom and balance the main characters need to endure their journey. Men worship the opposite sex, relying on the power of their love to the point where they are ultimately exposed to a new way of life.

The first form of power that is revealed to the reader is that of female Mesopotamian gods. Aruru is the goddess of birth (95). Without her loving, delicate craft of creation, there

Women in the epic of Gilgamesh hold the power in ways that only “a woman knows how to do” (8). With her body, a woman—like Shamhat—can bring a man even a man as strong as Enkidu down. As a result of laying with the temple prostitute, “the mind of the wild man there was [a] beginning [of] a new understanding” (9). He seeks Shamhat’s knowledge and is introduced to advancement. She slowly tames him, first by covering his naked body and “leading a worshipper into the temple precinct; as if he was a child she held his hand” (12). She protects Enkidu in his vulnerable state by clothing him and keeping him content. Soon she brings him to a shepherd home where he progresses more into

His experiences now involve humanity and its creations such as cooked food and alcohol consumption. At this point, like the shepherds, Enkidu has one foot in the wild and one foot in civilization. Once Shamhat brings Enkidu to Gilgamesh, Enkidu has completed the process of becoming cultivated with “garments suitable for a prince to wear…[and] a place of honor nearest the king” (40). In a sense, Shamhat created or gave a rebirth to Enkidu, who gratefully praises her to no end. Without the woman, Enkidu would have never evolved into a prince like figure. Shamhat became the bridge that has connected Enkidu from wilderness to