Women In The Gilgamesh Epic

We live in the 20th Century-- we have new technology coming out everyday. New trends sparking up, tastier treats, to enjoy and more things to do, we even have a new device that replaces your legs so you don’t have to walk anywhere ever again; why is that women are made out to be inferior to men? In the short readings, Images of Women in the Gilgamesh Epic, by Rivkah Harris, and, The Marginalization of the Goddess, by Tikva Frymer- Kensky the roles that women such as Ninsun, Shamhat and Siduri are discussed, taken into consideration and applied to figure out their significance in the epic.
Something that both authors talk about, both Harris and Frymer- Kensky touch upon is the concept of role reversal. Harris and Frymer- Kensky both have different

views on the topic of how women are being depicted in the novel, but both articles touch on this subject. Harris touched on the character Siduri and how she was seen as a young girl and was more modest because of the way she dressed and how she presented herself. Then again she switches from the 200 BC depiction of women being that they are modest housewife's, to being someone that is wise and gives advice, aiding the hero or protagonist on their journey. Frymer- Kensky focused more on one character rather than all of the female characters in Gilgamesh, and that's Ishtar. Going on with how both articles relate to role reversal, the author talks about how Ishtar was more of a dominant goddess, possessing more manly qualities and exuding fear, even though she is still beautiful and desirable how all women should be. As mentioned, women are suppose to be soft, beautiful frail beings, but Ishtar represents role reversal in this article because she is the exact opposite, but still has a feminine characteristics.
Looking into the first reading by Harris it was directed solely to the role that women played throughout the entire epic, and why they were depicted in that manner.

The author says that, "Women are regarded positively only when they assist Gilgamesh (and Enkidu) in their activities, when they nurture, advice in maternal fashion" (pg. 80). An example from the text that correlates to this quote is when Shamhat was sent to help ease Enkidu in the forest where she took off her clothes and helped by engaging in intercourse with him for a week, which helped transition Enkidu into manhood, stripping him of his animal instincts. "While the two of them together making love, he forgot the wild where he was born. For seven days and seven nights Enkidu was erect and coupled with Shamhat" (pg.12). Shamhat was introduced into the epic as a prostitute, but is seen as being helpful in this scenario because she aided Enkidu in his transitioning from the wild into civilization. This relates to one of Harris's key points in that women are only expressed in a good light when they are assisting-- in the example above Shamhat being helpful when she is doing a favor in assisting Enkidu, but before that she was just known as the prostitute around town, which is a good representation of women as a

whole.
Harris ends her article off by saying, "The Gilgamesh Epic informs and reveals cultural stereotypes and ideals, perhaps even the irretrievable life experiences of its author(s), but what can it inform us about everyday life? In most situations an audience would express anger form an author leaving off with a cliffhanger like that, but lucky for us Frymer- Kensky gives us the answer to Harris's lingering question. Frymer- Kensky gives us more about occurrences that happened throughout history and how and why they changed the depiction of women. She expresses, "Much of the diminution of the goddess is associated with the god Enki" (pg. 96). Enki's mother Nammu, was the goddess of the sea but throughout history she was never actually given the title of being the goddess of anything because only gods rule realms. Going on to say that the motherly figures are dissipating as well because the come about of gods was changed from it being by their mothers, or goddess, to gods came about from heaven and earth-- or their position of being a god is fulfilled and represented by their sons. "The eclipse of goddesses can be seen dramatically by the fortunes of mother-figures... According to theology, the gods resulted from the union of An (heaven) and Ki (earth)" (pg. 97).
The last component that links the two articles together even though they express different standpoints is symbolic inversion. Symbolic inversion, "may be broadly defined as any act of expressive behavior which inverts, contradicts, abrogates, or in some fashion presents an alternative to commonly held cultural codes, values and norms..." (pg. 81) of article one. Harris expressed that this was key to how women were perceived and how it came about because essentially symbolic inversion is just something being done in the opposite manner. An example from Harri's point of view was giving Enkidu qualities that a woman is supposed to posses; Enkidu is portrayed as this big, tough man. An example directly from the text quotes, "Coated in hair like the god of animals, with gazelles he grazes on grass, joining the throng with the game at the water-hold" (pg. 5). Referring back to Frymer- Kensky's article, the focus was more on Ishtar and her masculine presence. Women were looked at to be soft and sweet, but having the delineation of manly qualities wasn’t something that was socially acceptable in the time period.
Harris and Frymer- Kensky both had very different views on the actual role that women played during this century-- but where somehow linked together with ideas and concepts. Their views and perspectives open up another side of thinking for us as the audience, actually making us ponder and think about things that aren't necessarily happening now, but can still affect us today. We have to ask ourselves, "Is it possible that the actions that happened many years ago play apart in our everyday issues?" Like women's portrayal and so on? Taking all of these questions and thoughts, and then getting answers through an article and relating that back to the book makes you gain a lot more, and answers that cliffhanger that Harris left us with, "The Epic of Gilgamesh informs and reveals cultural stereotypes and ideals, perhaps even the irretrievable life experiences of its author(s), but what can it inform us about everyday life?" Was successfully answered.