The Pre-biblical Protagonists Behind Genesis' Eve: Shamhat and Inanna (Ishtar) of the Epic of Gilgamesh
Please click here for this website's most important article: Why the Bible Cannot be the Word of God.
11 August 2007
Revisions through 27 June 2008
For over a hundred years various professional scholars have proposed that Adam and Eve are recasts of Enkidu and Shamhat from the Epic of Gilgamesh. In 1898 Professor Jastrow (1861-1921) of the University of Pennsylvania made such a proposal and similar conclusions were reached as well by Professor Skinner (died 1925) in 1910 of Westminster College, Cambridge, England. More recently, in 1963, Professors Robert Graves (1895-1985) and Raphael Patai (1910-1996) also identified Adam and Eve as being later Hebrew recasts of Enkidu and Shamhat as well as Adapa of the Adapa and the Southwind myth. I understand that these professors are correct and this article goes into greater depth in expanding their somewhat brief and cursory observations.
The great British Orientalist Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson (1810-1895) had suggested that some of Genesis' accounts might be of Babylonian origin as noted by Thompson (1930), a notion I am in agreement with:
"The discovery of the Epic and the first arrangement and translation of its material was due to the genius of George Smith, although attention had early been drawn by Sir Henry Rawlinson to the probability that the accounts in Genesis had a Babylonian origin, and that Gilgamesh was a solar hero."
(p. 5. "Introduction." R. Campbell Thompson. The Epic of Gilgamesh, Text, Transliteration, and Notes. Oxford University Press. 1930)
Professor Clay (1923) noted that most Assyriologists understood that Genesis' stories had been borrowed from Babylonia and altered:
"As has already been noted, the versions found in Babylonia have much in common with the Hebrew stories. This fact has given rise to the conclusion, which has been many times retstated, that either the Biblical stories are derived from the Babylonian, or the Babylonian is derived from the Biblical, or that they have a common origin.
Assyriologists, as far as I know, have generally dismissed as an impossibility the idea that there was a common Semitic tradition, which developed in Israel in one way, and in Babylonia in another. They have unreservedly declared that the Biblical stories have been borrowed from Babylonia, in which land they were indigenous."
(pp. 149-150. "The Deluge Story." Albert T. Clay. The Origin of Biblical Traditions, Hebrew Legends in Babylonia and Israel. New Haven. Yale University Press. 1923)
It causes one to to pause and wonder how different life would be today had the Epic of Gilgamesh never been composed, Adam and Eve being recasts of Enkidu and Shamhat. That is to say Adam and Eve are fictious characters, based themselves on earlier fictional characters, Enkidu and Shamhat and fictional events such as Shamhat's supplanting Enkidu's animal companions at the watering hole in the Sumerian edin and her teaching the naked man of edin, _in edin_, that it is wrong to be naked. In other words it is my understanding that the Epic of Gilgamesh is responsible, in part, for the birth of today's three great monotheistic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
At the turn of the century (1876-1910) Enkidu was known to scholars like Jastrow and Skinner as Eabani and Shamhat as Ukhat, while Gilgamesh was being rendered as Izdubar, these being their Akkadian names (their Sumerian names being Enkidu, Shamhat and Gilgamesh or Bilgamesh).
Jastrow (1898) on Eabani (Enkidu) "mating with" the wild animals of the steppe (Sumerian steppe being rendered as edin) before his being aware of the existence of womankind:
"It would appear from these lines that previous to the coming of Ukhat, Eabani had satisfied his desire on the beasts. In Ukhat, however, he found a worthier mate, and he accordingly abandons his former associates to cling to her.
"He yields and obeys her command.
In the wisdom of his heart he
recognized a companion..."
(p. 478. Morris Jastrow, Jr. The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria. Boston. Ginn & Company. 1898. pp. xvi + 780)
"The creation of Eabani recalls the Biblical tradition of the formation of the first man, and Ukhat appears to be the Babylonian
equivalent to the Biblical Eve, who through her charms entices Eabani away from the gazelles and cattle and brings
him to Uruk, the symbol of civilized existence. It is significant that in the Biblical narrative, the sexual instinct and the beginnings of culture as symbolized by the tree of knowledge are closely associated. According to rabbinical traditions, the serpent is the symbol of the sexual passion. Eve obtains control of Adam with the aid of this passion. In the episode of Eabani, Ukhat, and the hunter - who, be it noted, plays the part of the tempter-we seem to have an ancient legend forming part of some tradition regarding the beginnings of man’s history, and which has been brought into connection with the Gilgamesh epic,-when and how, it is impossible, of course, to say."
(p. 476. Morris Jastrow, Jr. The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria. Boston. Ginn & Company. 1898)
Skinner (died: 1925), a Professor of Old Testament Language and Literature at Westminster College, Cambridge, England had, by 1910, also noted the parallels between Eabani (Enkidu) and the Harlot (Shamhat) in the Epic of Gilgamesh and Adam's forsaking his animal companions for Eve:
"The legend of Eabani, embedded in the Gilgamesh Epic...seems to present us...with a type of primitive man. Eabani, created as a rival to Gilgamesh by the goddess Aruru from a lump of clay, is a being of gigantic strength who is found associating with the wild animals, living their life, and foiling all the devices of the huntsman. Eager to capture him, Gilgamesh sends with the huntsman a harlot, by whose attractions he hopes to lure Eabani from his savagery. Eabani yields to her charms, and is led, a willing captive, to the life of civilisation:
When she speaks to him, her speech pleases him,
One who knows his heart he seeks, a friend.
But later in the epic, the harlot appears as the cause of his sorrows, and Eabani curses her with all his heart. Apart from its present setting, and considered as an independent bit of folklore, it cannot be denied that the story has a certain resemblance to Genesis 2:18-24. Only, we may be sure that if the idea of sexual intercourse with the beasts be implied in the picture of Eabani, the moral purity of the Hebrew writer never stooped so low...Far more instructive affinities with the inner motive of the story of the Fall are found in the myth of Adapa and the South-wind, discovered amongst the Tel-Amarna tablets, and therefore known in Palestine in the 15th century B.C."
(pp. 91-92. "The Origin and Significance of the Paradise Legend." John Skinner. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Genesis. Edinburgh, Scotland. T. & T. Clark. 1910. Revised edition 1930. Reprint 1994)
Professor Blenkinsopp of Notre Dame University on Atrahasis and Gilgamesh motifs in Genesis:
"...just as Genesis 1-11 as a whole corresponds to the structure of the Atrahasis myth, so the garden of Eden story has incorporated many of the themes of the great Gilgamesh poem."
(pp. 65-66. "Human Origins, Genesis 1:1-11:26." Joseph Blenkinsopp. The Pentateuch, An Introduction to the First Five Books of the Bible. New York. Doubleday. 1992. ISBN 0-385-41207-X)
In 1963 the two late professors Robert Graves (1895-1985) and Raphael Patai (1910-1996) teamed up to write a book on Genesis which identified Eve with Shamhat from the Epic of Gilgamesh and Adam as being drawn from Enkidu in that same epic (Robert Graves and Raphael Patai. Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis. New York. Doubleday & Company. 1963, 1964. Reprinted 1983 by Greenwich House a division of Arlington House Inc.).
Graves and Patai (1963) on the "priestess" (Shamhat the harlot-priestess of Uruk) being recast as Eve:
"Some elements of the Fall of Man myth in Genesis are of great antiquity; but the composition is late...The Gilgamesh Epic, the earliest version of which can be dated about 2000 B.C., descibes how the Sumerian Love-goddess Aruru created from clay a noble savage named Enkidu, who grazed among gazelles, slaked his thirst beside wild cattle...until a priestess sent to him by Gilgamesh initiated him into the mysteries of love. Though wise as a god, he was now shunned by the wild creatures; and the priestess therefore covered his nakedness, using part of her own garment, and brought him to the city of Uruk...Another source of the Genesis Fall of Man myth is the Akkadian myth of Adapa, found on a tablet at Tell Amarna, Pharaoh Akhenaten's capital...This myth supplies the theme of the Serpent's warning to Eve: that God had deceived her about the properties of the forbidden fruit."
(pp. 78-79. "The Fall of Man." Robert Graves and Raphael Patai. Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis. New York. Doubleday & Company. 1963, 1964. Reprinted 1983 by Greenwich House a division of Arlington House Inc.)
"Eden as a peaceful rural retreat, where man lives at his ease among wild animals, occurs...in the story of Enkidu...The fervent love between Enkidu and the priestess, though omitted from the Genesis story, has been preserved by a Talmudic scholiast who makes Adam wish for death rather than be parted from Eve. Yet the myth of the Fall licences man to blame woman for all his ills, make her labour for him, exclude her from religious office and refuse her advice on moral problems."
(pp. 80- 81. "The Fall of Man." Robert Graves and Raphael Patai. Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis. New York. Doubleday & Company. 1963, 1964. Reprinted 1983 by Greenwich House a division of Arlington House Inc.).
Professor Clifford (1994) on Enkidu's sexual encounter with Shamhat "the prostitute," being recast in Genesis as the sexual attraction between Adam and Eve being the cause for the institution of marriage:
"Another example comes from Gilgamesh I: the naked and animal-like Enkidu acquires wisdom from his seven-day dalliance with a prostitute. Afterward she clothes him and leads him to the city of Uruk and its king Gilgamesh. Genesis rearranges the same traditions to describe the institution of marriage!"
(pp. 148-149. "Genesis 1-11." Richard J. Clifford. Creation Accounts in the Ancient Near East and in the Bible. Washington, D. C. The Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series 26. The Catholic Biblical Association of America. 1994)
The Epic of Gilgamesh is written in Akkadian or Babylonian but scholars have determined that certain parts of it existed in Sumerian as a number of short stories about Enkidu and Gilgamesh that were later patched together and expanded into a great epic. The steppe Enkidu grows up in Sumerian is called edin, in Akkadian it was called seru.
The Sumerian word for uncultivated steppeland is edin. The Epic of Gilgamesh although written in Akkadian which renders "steppe" as seru or seri, states unequivocally that Shamhat saw Enkidu at the watering hole as a wild man of "edin" (the steppe). How is it that the watering hole is described as being in _the edin_ instead of being in _the seru_? Akkadian scribes were trained in both Sumerian and Akkadian, they frequently used Sumerian LOGOGRAMS (cuneiform signs) as "substitutes" for Akkadian words. Hence Enkidu "the wild man of the steppe" was written using the Sumerian logogram (EDIN)! The scribe knew upon seeing this logogram that it was synonymous with the Akkadian word seru or seri, meaning steppe. Professor Andrew George has advised me that both tse-ri (seri, seru) and edin are used interchangeably throughout the Epic of Gilgamesh. That is to say edin is _not_ exclusively the sole rendering for tse-ri, sometimes tse-ri appears instead of edin.
I understand that Enkidu's animal companions, the gazelles, who rejected his companionship after his having mated with Shamhat for six days and seven nights, became in the Hebrew recasting Adam possessing only animal companions who were _not_ a fit helpmeet or companion until God introduced a naked Eve to him. That is to say the Hunter who brought Shamhat to the watering hole, having her disrobe and enticing Enkidu with her voluptuous naked body, has been recast as Yahweh-Elohim who brought a naked Eve to Adam. Why was Genesis' Adam drawn from Enkidu? Adam is presented as "primal man," he has NO father or mother, he is a CREATED being. Enkidu is a type of "primal man" like Adam, he too has NO father or mother, he was CREATED like Adam by a deity, the goddess Aruru making him of a pinch of clay which she then cast upon edin the steppe to roam with wild animals for companions. Enkidu is "created" and placed _in the edin_ to roam naked with wild animals for companions and Adam is "created" and placed _in Eden_ to roam naked with wild animals.That is to say a GODDESS created naked primal man NOT a god, the Hebrews have reversed/inverted the myth! For further details please click here.
Nancy K. Sandars on Enkidu's curse of the Harlot-priestess and the Hunter who brought her to entrap him, comparing Enkidu to Christianty's notion of the "Fall" of Adam, but in "reverse":
"...Enkidu, the 'natural man', reared with wild animals, and as swift as a gazelle. In time Enkidu was seduced by a harlot from the city, and with the loss of innocence an irrevocable step was taken towards taming the wild man. The animals now rejected him, and he was led on by stages learning to wear clothes, eat human food, herd sheep, and make war on the wolf and the lion, until at length he reached the great civilized city of Uruk. He does not look back again to his old free life until he lies on his death bed, when a pang of regret catches hold of him and he curses all the educators. This is the 'Fall' in reverse, a felix culpa shorn of tragic development; but it is also an allegory of the stages by which mankind reaches civilization, going from savagery to pastoralism and at last to the life of the city."
(p. 30. "Introduction." N. K. Sandars. The Epic of Gilgamesh. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England. Penguin Books. 1960, reprint of 1969)
The Epic of Gilgamesh tells us Enkidu was made by the goddess Aruru of a pinch of clay in the image of Anu, and cast upon the steppe (Sumerian: edin) to roam with its wild animals like a naked beast. Like Adam he is a vegetarian, he eats grass with gazelles who offer him no physical harm as they are herbivores. I understand Adam is drawn in part from Enkidu, but recast. Both are created beings, without father or mother, created of earth by a deity and Adam lives in a location called Eden and Enkidu lives in a location called in Sumerian edin; both are naked, and both have herbivore, non-flesh-eating wild animals for companions. Adam is made in the image of God and Enkidu is made in the image of Anu, who is considered the supreme god.
Genesis portrays the animals as unfit companions for Adam, so God causes him to fall asleep and create of his side or rib Eve. When Adam awakes he finds before him a naked woman to supplant his animal companions. For me this is a recast of the Hunter bringing Shamhat the harlot-priestess of Uruk to the watering hole in the edin to have sex with Enkidu in order to separate him from his animal companions and supplant them as his companion. The Hunter, a male, has been recast into another "male," Yahweh-Elohim, who presented Adam with a naked Eve. God tells the naked couple to be "fruitful and multiply," which I understand is a recast of Enkidu's mating with Shamash, the Hunter had brought her to mate with Enkidu, telling her to disrobe and that when Enkidu beheld her volumptuous naked body he would be drawn to her in sexual passion and mate with her. She obeyed and disrobed and Enkidu's lust caused him to leave his gazelle companions at the watering hole and sleep with her (mating) for 6 days and 7 nights, recast as Adam "sleeping" in Eden. The Hebrews have inverted or reversed the storyline, naked Adam _after_ sleeping in Eden is introduced to naked Eve vs. a naked Enkidu being fully awake when introduced to a naked Shamhat _then_ sleeping (with her). My research suggests that inversions and reversals of events and motifs are "legion" in the Hebrews' recasting of the Mesopotamian myths.
When Enkidu had slaked his sexual lust, he rose from the side of the Harlot-priestess to rejoin his animal companions the gazelles. They turn and flee from him. He attempts to run after them but he falters, he is weaker, he doesn't have the stamina he had earlier to keep up with them. He comes to realize that his companions have rejected him and he returns to the Harlot. She tells him he is like a god, why roam with the animals of edin-the-steppe? She encourages him to leave edin's watering hole and come to ramparted Uruk to meet Gilgamesh. He agrees and she shares her garments with him, covering their nakedness, and both now clothed, leave the watering hole. This has been recast in Genesis as God expelling Adam and Eve from his garden in Eden for trangressing his commandment, he realizing this because they have covered their nakedness. Adam and Eve leave Eden clothed like Enkidu and Shamhat, but the latter left edin of their own free will, not because a God was enraged with them over their learning they were naked and clothing themselves.
The Hunter was upset that the naked Enkidu was tearing up his traps set for edin's wild animals. Because Enkidu was of such great strength the Hunter feared to physically confront him. When at Uruk the Hunter asked Gilgamesh what to do and was told to take a Harlot-priestess from the temple to have sex with the savage. His animal companions will reject him after sex with the woman and then he will no longer be their companion, the woman will supplant them. Enkidu will become a "civilized" man, he will cease tearing up the Hunter's traps and cease protecting the animals of edin.
Eve is made of Adam's side or rib, Hebrew teslah, which can mean, a rib, a side, or stumbling. Eve caused Adam to "stumble" having him disobey God. Shamhat caused Enkidu to "stumble" too, he his not able to maintain the pace of his animal companions that flee from him and he "falls" for the Harlot's wiles in having sex with her and comes under her persuasive powers as she convinces him to leave the watering hole in the edin.
Enroute to Uruk, and still in the edin, Enkidu and the Harlot encounter a shepherds' camp, they are offered food and drink as an act of courtesy. Enkidu has eaten only grass and drunk water with the gazelles, he knows not the eating of bread or the drinking of alcoholic beverages (apparently wine or beer being offered), so he _balks_ at consuming these items. Shamhat intercedes and tells Enkidu he _must_ consume these items it is the "custom" of the land (a guest should not be rude to his hosts in other words). He subjects his will to hers and consumes the items. Upon this act of consumption he is declared to be "a human," in other words he is like a beast no more, eating grass and drinking water for he is consuming the items of civilized men. He is given a new change of garments, probably more befitting a man as earlier he wore one of Shamhat's garments. I understand this has been recast as Eve offering the forbidden fruit to Adam and his eating of it then their covering their nakedness. Shepherds grazed their sheep in the edin, so the formerly naked Enkidu and Shamhat ate in the edin, and in the edin a naked man, Enkidu, learned it was wrong to be naked when the Harlot gave him clothing to cover his nakedness. Like Adam, Enkidu did not know it was wrong to be naked until _after_ his exposure to a naked woman in the edin. That is to say that _after_ Adam is exposed to Eve, he _then_ comes to learn it is wrong to be naked just as naked Enkidu _after_ coming into contact with a naked Shamhat learns too it is wrong to be naked.
Genesis has Eve giving Adam forbidden fruit and he eats. The food presented Enkidu was not 'forbidden' as it was given as an act of courtesy of a host to his guest. A naked woman (Shamhat/Eve) was not the "giver" of the food it was men, the shepherds. Shamhat did, like Eve, urge the formerly naked man of edin, Enkidu, to eat the food and he did so (although he had at first refused).
The wild animals of edin were _not_ allowed to forage in the city-gardens or fields of the gods tilled and cared for by civilized man. Some gardens were within city walls and others outside the walls. They consisted of fruit trees (apple, date palm, pomengranate, fig), vegetables, herbs, and fields of grain for bread and beer. To the degree that the shepherds in the edin offered Enkidu bread and alcoholic drink it could be argued that he consumed "forbidden food." Why? He originally ate grass with the gazelles in edin. The grain fields would be "forbidden food" for the gazelles. Bread is a grain product, beer, an alcoholic drink is another grain product, so the food and drink offered Enkidu were "forbidden food" items to the wild animals of edin the steppe. So the formerly naked man of edin who roamed with his herbivore companions the gazelles did consume in a sense "forbidden food" like Adam and Eve (Shamhat as a prototype of Eve and being a city-dweller, consumes these "forbidden products" too, and being a city-dweller she would, like Eve, have consumed this "forbidden food" _first_ before it being "later" proffered to the naked man of edin, Enkidu). In other words Genesis' notion that Eve ate of forbidden food _before_ Adam did is recalling the fact that Shamhat as a city-dweller would have eaten forbidden food, bread and alcoholic drink _before_ later encouraging Enkidu to do so too.
In agreement with other scholars I understand that Adam and Eve are recasts of not only Enkidu and Shamhat but other characters in other Mesopotamian myths. Adam is a recast of Adapa and Enkidu (as noted earlier by Jastrow, Skinner, Barton, Graves, Patai and others).
Adapa was told by his god Ea (Sumerian Enki) in Eridu _not to eat_ the BREAD of death or drink the water of death to be offered him in heaven by the gods Anu, Gishzida (Nin-Gish-Zida) and Dumuzi (Tammuz) or he would surely die. This has been recast by the Hebrews as God telling Adam not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil or he will die. Adapa was told _not to eat_ the BREAD of death, Enkidu at first balked or refused to eat the BREAD set before him and he refused to drink the alcoholic drink, just as Adapa refused to drink the water of death offered him. Adam after his expulsion from the Garden in Eden IS TO EAT BREAD in the sweat of his face. I understand that Genesis' notion of Adam eating bread is an echo of the Adapa and Enkidu episodes where BREAD was initially denied to man, it being recast as a fruit by the Hebrews. The notion of a water of death being water of life as presented by Anu becomes in the Book of Revelation Christ offering the water of life to the resurrected righteous who will also be allowed to eat of the tree of life at Jerusalem (Rev. 22:1-2). Christ's body as the bread man must eat and blood as wine man must drink (the Host or Eucharist rite observed by Catholicism), are echos of the bread and alcoholic drink set before Enkidu in the edin who was a created being of clay, without father or mother like Adam. That is to say the motifs about a "First Adam" (as first man) and Christ as a "Second Adam" and of food and drink bestowing immortality are nothing more than recasts and echos of earlier Mesopotamian concepts appearing in the Adapa and the Southwind myth as well as the Epic of Gilgamesh.
The gods' city-gardens were planted by the gods _before_ man was created. The gods in the myths built cities for themselves to live in in the midst of the edin (the great uncultivated plain or steppe through whch coursed the Tigris and Euphrates rivers) and the city-gardens were planted to provide their sustenance. Only after tiring of all this work do they decide to "later" create man to be their agricultural slave. Man will provide life's basics for the gods: food, shelter and clothing, giving the gods an eternal rest from physical toil upon the earth. Genesis of course denies all this in its recasting of these motifs.
The below translations of the Epic of Gilgamesh suggest the Harlot "fed" Enkidu, if this be correct then perhaps this notion was recast as Eve "giving" food to Adam?
Genesis 3:6,12 RSV
"...she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate...The man said, "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, SHE GAVE ME the fruit of the tree, and I ate."
Thompson's translation (1930), If I am understanding him rightly, suggests that Shamhat set the bread before Enkidu for him to eat (apparently on behalf of the shepherds?). This act of the formerly naked woman of edin's watering hole "giving bread" to a formerly naked Enkidu may have been recast as a naked Eve "giving a forbidden fruit" to a naked Adam in Eden.
Thompson speaking of Enkidu staring at the bread set before him by Shamhat at the shepherds' camp in the steppe (Sumerian edin, Akkadian seru):
"bread which she set before him he scanned..."
(p. 73. Line 26 Column V. R. Campbell Thompson. The Epic of Gilgamesh, Text, Transliteration, and Notes. Oxford University Press. 1930)
"bread which she put..."
(p. 75. Col. III.3. R. Campbell Thompson. The Epic of Gilgamesh, Text, Transliteration, and Notes. Oxford University Press. 1930)
The sun-god Shamash reminded Enkidu that the Harlot "fed" him food fit for a god (I understand that "bread" or "food" has been recast as a "fruit" being given to Adam by Eve):
"O Enkidu, why curse Shamhat the harlot,
WHO FED YOU bread that was fit for a god..."
(p. 58. Andrew George. The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Babylonian Epic Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian. London. Penguin Books. 1999)
Gardner and Maier:
"Why, Enkidu, do you curse the love-priestess, the woman
WHO WOULD FEED YOU with the food of the gods...?"
(p. 173. John Gardner & John Maier. Gilgamesh Translated From the Sin-Leqi-Unninni Version. New York. Vintage Books. 1985. 1984 Alfred A. Knopf)
Pritchard (?):
"Why, O Enkidu, cursest thou the harlot-lass,
WHO MADE THEE EAT food fit for divinity...?"
(p. 57. "The Epic of Gilgamesh." James B. Pritchard. Editor. The Ancient Near East, An Anthology of Texts and Pictures. Princeton, New Jersey. Princeton UNiversity Press. 1958. paperback)
Foster:
"O Enkidu, why curse Shamhat the harlot,
WHO FED YOU bread, fit for a god...?"
(p. 56. Benjamin R. Foster. The Epic of Gilgamesh. New York & London. W.W. Norton & Company. 2001)
Heidel:
"Why, O Enkidu, dost thou curse the courtesan, the
prostitute,
WHO TAUGHT THEE TO EAT bread fit for divinity...?"
(p. 59. "The Epic of Gilgamesh." Alexander Heidel. The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels. Chicago, Illinois. University of Chicago Press. 1946, 1949. Reprint 1993)
Dalley:
"Enkidu, why are you cursing my harlot Shamhat,
WHO FED YOU on food fit for gods...?"
(p. 87. "Epic of Gilgamesh." Stephanie Dalley. Myths From Mesopotamia, Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh And Others. Oxford & New York. Oxford Unversity Press. 1989, 1991)
Adam is portrayed as "listening to his wife's voice," suggesting she urged him to eat. This appears to be a recast of Enkidu listening to the voice of Shamhat who urges him to eat the bread set before him by the shepherds in the edin which he earlier balked at:
Genesis 3:17 RSV
"And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, "You shall not eat, cursed is the ground because of you."
Adam' s eating involved the acquistion thereby of "knowledge" (the knowledge of good and evil). I understand that this Hebraic motif of acquiring knowledge via an act of eating is in part derived (having been recast and transformed) from Enkidu's eating the bread set before him. It is stressed that Enkidu DOES NOT KNOW the eating of bread, he DOES NOT KNOW the drinking of alcoholic beverages (wine or beer?). AFTER CONSUMING THESE ITEMS HE NOW "KNOWS" THEM. He has acquired knowledge by eating and drinking with Shamhat's urging. Had she not been present he would _not have acquired the knowledge_ of eating bread and drinking alcoholic drink. I understand that his motif of Enkidu's acquisition of knowledge via eating because of Shamhat's urging has been recast as Eve urging Adam to eat and thereby acquiring knowledge (of good and evil). Put another way, one acquires the knowledge of what a food item tastes like after eating it. One also acquires knowledge of what wine or beer tastes like having consumed it and one comes "to know" its effects on the body as "drunkeness." One also "knows how" to eat a particular food item: bread is torn by hand or cut with a knife, or bitten off in mouthfuls. So the act of eating does involve "the acquiston of knowledge" in various forms to some degree.
"Enkidu did not know to eat bread,
Nor had he ever learned to drink beer!
The harlot made ready to speak, saying to Enkidu:
"Eat the bread, Enkidu, the staff of life,
Drink the beer, the custom of the land."
Enkidu ate the bread until he was sated.
He drank seven juglets of the beer...
He...turned into a man...
He put on clothing..."
(p. 14. Benjamin R. Foster. The Epic of Gilgamesh. New York & London. W.W. Norton & Company. 2001)
"They set bread before him,
He gagged, he gaped at it,
stared.
Enkidu had not known about the eating of cooked food,
About drinking strong wine
no one had taught him.
The love-priestess opened her mouth,
said to Enkidu:
"Eat the food, Enkidu,
as life requires.
Drink the wine, as is the custom of the land."
Enkidu ate the food
till he was full.
He drank the wine,
seven goblets.
His brain became loose, he became childish:
his heart became light...
he became a man...
He put on clothes;
he was like a groom.
(pp. 92-94. John Gardner & John Maier. Gilgamesh, Translated from the Sin-Leqi-Unninni Version. New York. Vintage Books, A Division of Random House. 1984, 1985)
The eating of "forbidden food" (bread and beer derived from the "off-limits" [off-limits to edin's wild animals] grain fields or city-gardens of the gods tilled by man) by Enkidu did not give him knowledge of good and evil. The myth stresses that after consuming the bread and alcoholic drink a "transformation takes place," Enkidu is declared to now be "like a human" (others translate "like a man") implying he was earlier an ignorant naked hairy beast eating grass and drinking water with the animals of edin the steppe. I understand Enkidu's consumption of food and his thereupon being given a new robe by the shepherds has not only made him into a civilized human he is also now "like a god"! For gods consume bread and alcoholic drink, wear clothes, live in cities, and have gardens. This life-style was not available earlier to Enkidu. That is to say Enkidu "_becomes like a god_" in that he now _lives like a god_:"knowing it is wrong to be naked" he wears clothes like a god, he eats bread like a god, he drinks alcololic beverages like a god, and he dwells in a city like a god. In other words Enkidu was in the beginning "living like a wild animal," a "beast," and the food grown in the gods' gardens was off-limits to the beasts of edin, including wild naked-man-the-beast. All this has been recast in Genesis as Adam and Eve after eating the forbidden fruit, becoming like God, "knowing good and evil," and clothing themselves in shame. Enkidu and Shamhat's leaving the watering hole of edin to live in the city of Uruk has been recast in Genesis as man after having been expelled from Eden by an enraged God, eventually settling in cities (Cain creating the city of Enoch in the land of Nod).
I understand that motifs associated with the Garden in Eden are being drawn from several different Mesopotamian myths, they are not all exclusively drawn from the Epic of Gilgamesh and Shamhat's encounter with Enkidu.
Does there exist a Mesopotamian account that has a woman saying to a man "let us eat" of a a tree to acquire knowledge"? Yes, it is a Sumerian myth regarding Shamhat's goddess Inanna (Akkadian: Ishtar) who speaks similar words to her brother the sun-god Utu. So perhaps the notion that a woman ate of a tree to acquire knowledge and encouraged a man accompanying her to do so too is a recasting of this Sumerian motif? Inanna in Sumerian hymns at Nippur bore two epithets, nin edin "lady of edin" and Inanna edin "Inanna of edin," her husband Dumuzi, the shepherd king of Urug was called mulu edin "the lord of edin." The "lady of edin" (Inanna/Ishtar) _did_ eat of a tree growing upon the earth in the midst of the Sumerian edin to acquire knowledge and she encouraged her male companion to do likewise, just as another lady of Eden, Eve, encouraged Adam.
I understand that Adam is a recast of Enkidu, Adapa and Dumuzi. Eve is a recast of Shamhat and Inanna of Uruk. Inanna bears the Sumerian epithet nin edin "lady of edin" and Inanna edin "Inanna of edin," her husband Dumuzi bears the epithet mulu edin "lord of edin." Genesis has a man and wife dwelling in Eden, both dying. Christians understand a forbidden tree fruit is consumed by them, AN APPLE. Inanna (one of Eve's prototypes) however did _not_ eat of an Apple or Fig Tree, she "ate of" Cedar trees on the earth _to acquire knowledge_ with her brother Utu the sun-god (she wanted to "KNOW" how to have sex with her new bridegroom husband, Dumuzi). Genesis does _not_ say what the fruit was that Adam and Eve consumed. Some scholars suggest a fig because after eating, they cover their nakedness with fig leaves (cf. Ge 3:6-7), others suggest pomengranates, grapes, etc.
Inanna, speaking to her brother, Utu the sun-god, to the effect that she has no knowledge about love and sex, requests that he accompany her in a descent to the earth, to the mountains, where she will eat the various plants there. It is only after having eaten these assorted, un-named herbs including, apparently, of Cedar Trees, that Inanna now possesses knowledge about love and sex in order to perform her wifely functions (in hymns she is "the bride" of Dumuzi and the goddess of Love and of Sex).
Some readers may be wondering just what is it that Inanna is "eating" associated with a Cedar Tree? The answer: Pine Nuts or more correctly "Cedar Nuts"! In Middle Eastern cuisine, Pine Nuts/Cedar Nuts are at times sauteed in olive oil and served as a complement or garnish to a number of different dishes in Israel, Syria, and the Lebanon. Note: You will not find much on "Cedar Nuts" on the internet as a food item, but under their alternate name, "Pine Nuts," one will find numerous ways of their being prepared in Middle Eastern dishes.
Dalley has sounded a note of caution regarding the Akkadian/Babylonian word erenu which is usually translated by scholars as a cedar (tree), she suggests that it is a pine (tree) instead. If she is right then Inanna who bore at Nippur the Sumerian epithet nin edin "the lady of edin," ate pine nuts rather than cedar nuts to obtain knowledge:
"The usual translation of erenu as 'cedar' is almost certainly wrong. The main grounds for a translation 'pine' are: that roof-beams thus named in texts have been excavated and analysed invariably as pine, and that the wood was obtained in antiquity not only from the Lebanon mountains, but also from the Zagros and Amanus ranges, where cedars do not grow. The Akkadian word may have covered a different and wider range of trees than the English word 'pine'."
(pp. 126-127. Note 20 to the Epic of Gilgamesh. Stephanie Dalley. Myths From Mesopotamia: Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh and Others. Oxford & New York. Oxford University Press. 1989, 1991)
Inanna speaking to Utu (emphasis mine):
"I am unfamiliar with womanly matters...I am unfamiliar with womanly matters, with sexual intercourse...kissing...Whatever exists in the mountains, LET US EAT THAT. Whatever exists in the hills, LET US EAT THAT. In the mountains of herbs, in the mountains of CEDARS, the mountains of cypresses, whatever exists in the mountains, LET US EAT THAT. After the herbs have been eaten, _AFTER _THE CEDARS_ HAVE_BEEN _EATEN_, put your hand in my hand, and then escort me to my house...Escort me to my mother-in-law, to Ninsumun..." ("A shir-namshub to Utu" [Utu F], The Electronic Texts Corpus of Sumerian Literature, Oxford University, England;
Leick understands_ that Genesis' motif of knowledge being obtained by eating a fruit is indebted to earlier Sumerian myths. Note: kur can be translated as earth, region, country, underworld and mountain (emphasis mine) whence the reason the preceeding (above) verse rendered kur as "mountains" but a kur "land" is just as possible (apparently Inanna is consuming cedar nuts also called pine nuts which are still today a popular garnish for many Middle Eastern dishes) (emphasis mine):
"Inanna and Utu is a mythical incident in a Sumerian hymn (BM 23631), which explains how Inanna came to be the goddess of sexual love. The goddess asks her brother Utu to help her go down to the kur where various plants and trees are growing. She wants to EAT THEM IN ORDER TO KNOW the secrets of sexuality of which she is yet deprived: 'What concerns women, (namely) man, I do not know. What concerns women: love-making I do not know.' Utu seems to comply and Inanna tastes of the fruit (the same motif is also employed in Enki and Ninhursag and of course in Genesis I) which brings her knowledge."
(p. 91. "Inanna and Utu." Gwendolyn Leick. A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology. London. Routledge. 1991 [Leick has a Doctorate in Assyriology from the University of Graz in Austria, and lectures at Richmond College and the University of Glamorgan, United Kingdom])
Professor Leeming (Emertius Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Connecticut) likening Inanna's eating of trees to acquire knowledge to Eve's eating of a tree's fruit (emphasis mine):
"One day Inanna asks her twin brother, the sun god Utu (Shamash), son of the moon god Nanna, to go with her to earth (kur), where she will eat various plants and trees that will cause her to understand the mysteries of sex. Like Eve in the Garden of Eden, Inanna tastes the fruit and gains knowledge."
(pp. 46-47. "The Mythology of Mesopotamia." David Leeming. Jealous Gods and Chosen People, the Mythology of the Middle East, A new perspective on the ancient myths of modern-day Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Yemen, the Gulf States, and Saudi Arabia. New York. Oxford University Press. 2004. ISBN 10:0-19-514789-8)
Leeming on Inanna's "searching for knowledge" which recalls for me Eve's "knowledge quest," recalling that the Nippur hymns call Inanna nin edin-na, "the lady of edin.":
"A queen of the above, Inanna, always in search of knowledge, longs to know the below of her sister Ereshkigal..."
(p. 48. "The Mythology of Mesopotamia." David Leeming. Jealous Gods and Chosen People, the Mythology of the Middle East, A new perspective on the ancient myths of modern-day Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Yemen, the Gulf States, and Saudi Arabia. New York. Oxford University Press. 2004. ISBN 10:0-19-514789-8)
We see now, that eating of a tree growing upon the earth in the midst of the edin does impart knowledge in the Sumerian texts. Note: Edin refers to uncultivated land which surrounds the cities of Sumer in which the gods live. They created man to work in their gardens which are _in_ the edin, that is tosay these gardens are surrounded by the uncultivated edin through which courses two streams associated with Eden, the Tigris and Euphrates.
Enkidu learns in a dream that he is to die for offending the gods in the slaying of the Bull of Heaven and Humbaba (Huwawa) the guardian of the gods' cedar forest atop a mountain in the Lebanon.
Adam is to die for disobeying God's command not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but Enkidu is to die for slaying a bull and a demi-god called Humbaba or Huwawa who guarded the cedar forest in the Lebanon. The supreme god Anu declared either Gilgamesh or Enkidu must die for killing Humbaba and Enlil argues that it should be Enkidu who is to die. The Sun god Shamash attempts to defend Enkidu claiming the slayings were done with Shamash's approval. In other words Enkidu's death sentence is an unjust one, he is not deserving of the sentence. Anu's and Enlil's wills triumph and Enkidu dies. Enkidu was modeled in the image of Anu and it is Anu who announced that either Enkidu or Gilgamesh must die for the slayings, so the god Anu that Enkidu was "created in the image of," also "decreed his death," just as Adam, created in the image of God, is given a death sentence by his God as well. It is worth noting here that Enlil who argues for Enkidu's death, in other myths is associated with creating man at Nippur to work in his garden and in yet another myth he sends a flood to destroy all of mankind. I understand Enlil is but one of several gods who was transformed in Yahweh-Elohim who condemened a naked man of Eden to death, created man to serve in his garden in Eden and who sent a Flood to destroy mankind.
Feeling sorry for himself, knowing he is to soon die, Enkidu curses the Harlot, blaming her for robbing him of his innocence at the watering hole in edin the steppe, and thereby setting off a chain reaction of events leading to his meeting Gilgamesh and slaying the Bull of Heaven and Humbaba. This has been recast in Genesis as God cursing Eve for encouraging Adam to eat of the forbidden fruit. Enkidu's curse is that Shamhat will be abused by men in her role as a harlot and will never know a family life with a husband, home and children. This has been recast as Eve becoming a wife and mother, but subject to a man's control.
Thompson on Enkidu's "loss of innocence" at the hands of Shamhat:
"he had lost the purity of his body...For the loss of innocence, see Loisy, Mythes 124..."
(p. 73. Column IV. 6, 26. R. Campbell Thompson. The Epic of Gilgamish, Text, Transliteration, and Notes. Oxford University Press. 1930)
Perhaps Enkidu's "loss of innocence" has been recast as Adam and Eve "losing their innocence" (not knowing it is wrong to be naked) in the Garden of Eden?
Shamash defended the Harlot and refused to carryout Enkidu's curse. He reminded Enkidu the Harlot had done him good, introducing him to fine food and drink, causing him to cover his nakedness with a fine robe and introduced him to Gilgamesh his comrade in arms. A chastened Enkidu then pronounces a blessing for the Harlot. This has been recast in Genesis as God cursing the naked woman of Eden, whereas in the original story the naked woman of edin (Shamhat) was _defended_ by her god, it being an "ingrate formerly naked man of edin" (Enkidu) who _unjustly_ cursed her; she is then a "victim" of an _unjust curse_ but unlike Eve her god came to her defense instead of cursing her!
Enkidu's sexual _desire_ for the naked woman at edin's watering hole was his "undoing." This has been recast in Genesis as Eve's "desire for her husband" to be her "undoing," she will be under his control. This a reversal or inversion of motifs in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Instead of man (Enkidu) being undone by his own sexual desire and thereby falling under a woman's powers of persuasion it will be a woman (Eve) who will be undone by her sexual desire and her powers of persuasion over her mate will be taken away from her by God and she will be subject to man's control instead of she controlling man.
The naked woman's (Shamhat's) persuasive power over the naked man of edin (Enkidu), causing him to eat food he initially balked at, persuading him to leave the watering hole in edin, persuading him to cover his nakedness has been recast in Genesis as Man (Adam) taking power over womankind, she will obey him and be under his power, no more will she have power of persuasion over man (another inversion of motifs in the Epic of Gilgamesh).
Eve is portrayed offering to Adam a forbidden fruit. Shamhat is told to unrobe and expose her naked breasts to Enkidu causing him to lust after her and thus mate with her. Could her breasts be the "fruit" offered Enkidu, forbidden because God doesn't condone mating with harlots? The Song of Solomon praises a maiden's breasts as fruit for her lover to enjoy. That is to say perhaps Shamhat's breasts were recast as forbidden fruit for the naked man of edin?
Song of Solomon 7:1-14 RSV
"...O queenly maiden...You are stately as a PALMTREE, and YOUR BREASTS ARE LIKE ITS CLUSTERS. I say I will climb the PALM TREE and lay hold of its branches. O may YOUR BREASTS BE LIKE CLUSTERS OF THE VINE, and the scent of your breath like APPLES, and your kisses like the best WINE...let us go into the fields...to the vinyards...see whether the vines have budded, whether GRAPE BLOSSOMS have opened and the POMENGRANATES are in bloom. There I will give you my love...I would give you spiced WINE to drink, the juice of MY POMENGRANATES...Under the APPLE TREE I AWAKENED YOU...O you who dwell in the gardens...Make haste my beloved and be like a gazelle or young stag upon the MOUNTAINS OF SPICES."
Ishtar (Shamhat's patron goddess) propositions Gilgamesh for sex asking for the "fruit" of his body:
"Glorious Ishtar raised an eye at the beauty of Gilgamesh:
"Come, Gilgamesh, be thou (my) lover!
Do but grant me of thy fruit,
Thou shalt be my husband and I will be thy wife."
(p. 51. James B. Pritchard. Editor. The Ancient Near East, An Anthology of Texts and Pictures. Princeton, New Jersey. Princeton University Press. 1958)
Could Enkidu's mating with Shamhat be seen as he partaking of her "fruit" (a euphemism for having sex)? Notice that after having had sated himself on her "ripeness" he is told he now possesses wisdom and is wise like a god, echoing Adam's partaking of Eve's forbidden fruit and thereby acquring wisdom, the knowledge of good and evil. What Enkidu has acquired is carnal knowledge of a woman. After sex, she compliments him for his returning to her instead of fruitlessly chasing after the gazelles who have fled from him. She tells him he is handsome and wise like a god, he should give up life with the beasts, a better life awaits him with civilized man in Uruk. Her compliments, congratulating him on his new-found "wisdom" in returning to her, is enhanced when he excercises this wisdom and agrees to abandon his beasts and accompany her to Uruk, whereupon he is given some of her clothing, realizing then that it wrong to be naked. I suspect the "fruit" offered Adam by Eve is a "veiled" sexual innuendo of the "fruit" or "ripeness" Shamhat presented to Enkidu, sex (or her breasts).
"The lass beheld him, the savage-man,
The barbarous fellow from the depths of the steppe:
There he is, O lass! Free thy breasts,
Bare thy bosom that he may possess thy ripeness!
Be not bashful! Welcome his ardor!...
The lass freed her breasts, bared her bosom,
And he possessed her ripeness.
She was not bashful as she welcomed his ardor...
[The harlot] says to him, to Enkidu:
Thou art [wi]se, Enkidu, art become like a god!
Why with the wild creatures dost thou roam over the steppe?"
(p. 44. The Epic of Gilgamesh." James B. Pritchard. Editor. The Ancient Near East, An Anthology of Texts and Pictures. Princeton, New Jersey. Princeton University Press. 1958)
Foster (Professor of Assyriology at Yale University) on erotic talk between two lovers, Nabu and Tashmetu, using sexual innuendos alluding to gardens and the plucking of fruit:
"These lines are lover's talk between Nabu and Tashmetu on the occasion of their marriage rite."
""Why, why are you so adorned, [my] Tashmetu?"
'So I can [go] to the garden with you, my Nabu.'
"Let me go to the garden...
"Let me go again to the exquisite garden...
I would see with my own eyes the plucking of your fruit...
Bind your nights to the garden and to the Lord,
Bind your nights to the exquisite garden,
Let my Tashmetu come with me to the garden...
May she see with her own eyes the plucking of my fruit..."
(p. 345. "Love Lyrics of Nabu and Tashmetu." Banjamin R. Foster. From Distant Days, Myths, Tales, and Poetry of Ancient Mesopotamia. Bethesda, Maryland. CDL Press. 1995)
The Hebrews, apparently, somewhat similarly to the above Mesopotamian verses, suggest Fruitfulness is associated with Adam and Eve having sex and progeny:
Genesis 1:27-28
"So God created man in his own image...and said to them "be FRUITFUL and multiply, and fill the earth..."
Genesis 1: 29
"And God said, "Behold, I have given you EVERY PLANT yielding seed which is upon the face of the earth, and EVERY TREE with seed in its FRUIT; you shall have them for food..."
Micah speaks of a child as a "fruit":
Micah 6:6-8 RSV
"With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on HIgh ? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old ? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil ? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the FRUIT of my body for the sin of my soul ? He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"
I understand that Adam and Eve are recasts of Enkidu and Shamhat. I suspect the Genesis account is alluding in veiled sexual innuendos to the sexual mating of Enkidu with Shamhat. We are told Adam and Eve acquire "knowledge" of good and evil after eating of the fruit, later Adam "KNOWS" Eve, his wife and she bears him a son called Cain. According to Professor Tigay, the Hebrew word "know" can also have sexual connotations, meaning to "have sex with." The Hebrews were fond of word punnings and innuendoes, words with double meanings for those in the audience who possessed a mastery of the language and the many different "veiled" meanings of words.
Enkidu and Shamhat eventually die _after_ leaving edin whereas Adam and Eve eventually die _after_ leaving `eden (Eden).
Shamash the sun-god, a patron of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, defends Enkidu from the death sentence pronounced by the god Anu and remonstrates against Enlil's choice of Enkidu as being the one who must die. Shamash defends Enkidu declaring him _innocent_ in killing the Bull of Heaven and Humbaba the guardian the gods' cedar forest, for Shamash encouraged them and was their protector or patron. Enlil is infuriated and accuses Shamash as being their constant companion.
Shamhat the Harlot-priestess was "used" by men to their own ends, she was a pawn. Enkidu's "undoing" or "fall" was because of his own sexual desire which Gilgamesh and the Hunter, being men subject to sexual desire, understood all too well and exploited. Enkidu did _not_ deserve to die according to the sun god Shamash. Shamhat did _not_ deserve Enkidu's curse, as noted again by Shamash; she had done great good for the naked savage of edin feeding him food fit for a god and giving him a fine robe to cover his nakedness and improving his life in civilized Uruk causing him to live like a god instead of roaming edin the steppe with wild animals as a naked ignorant savage unaware it is wrong to be naked. So to a degree, Enkidu and Shamhat were "victims" of forces more powerful than themselves.
Genesis' Serpent in the Garden of Eden tells Eve she will become like a god, possessing knowledge if she eats of the forbidden fruit. I suspect these words were originally spoken in somewhat different context by Shamhat to Enkidu, who apparently praises Enkidu for the reason, wisdom and understanding he has acquired after his exposure to her, likening him to being like a god. That is to say, Enkidu was naked and unaware it was wrong to be naked until he came into contact with Shamhat, who had disrobed to entice him to have sex with her and thereby separate him from the companionship of his wild animals the gazelles.
After exposure to the naked woman at edin's wateringhole the naked man of edin is described as "now" having reason, wide understanding, possessing wisdom like a god, motifs that I understand were recast by the Hebrews and assimilated to the encounter between Adam, Eve and the Serpent in Eden's Garden.
After acquring knowledge, a naked Adam and Eve clothe themselves and are expelled from Eden. After acquiring knowledge, reason and wide understanding the naked Enkidu and Shamhat clothe themselves and leave the Sumerian edin.
Please note: According to Professor Andrew George the Akkadian word for steppe, plain, open country or wild is seru, tseru, but _sometimes_ in the Epic of Gilgamesh the scribe uses the Sumerian logogram edin _in lieu_ of seru.
So it is my understanding that Genesis' notion of a naked Adam and Eve in a Garden _in_ Eden is recalling the naked Enkidu and Shamhat at the watering hole in edin.
Please also note that some scholars alternately render Sumerian edin as eden.
Some scholars have suggested that because Sumerian eden (edin) bears a resemblance to Hebrew `eden that perhaps Genesis' Eden is derived from this Sumerian word. In otherwords eden (edin) and `eden are understood to be _homonyms_, similar sounding and somewhat similarly spelled words, but with different meanings. Eden/Edin means "back" and by analogy refers to the uncultivated land that "backs" the irrigated lands about Mesopotamian cities. So the edin/eden is in a sense the "back-lands," the "open-copuntry," the "wilds." It is my understanding that Genesis' Garden _in_ Eden is recollecting the eden/edin where Enkidu (Adam's prototype) and Shamhat (Eve's prototype) mated in the nude with each other, and clothing themselves eventually left eden/edin for Uruk. In otherwords, Genesis' Eden is a recasting of motifs and concepts from the Epic of Gilgamesh and the encounter between Enkidu and Shamhat. Hebrew `eden means delight, joy, or lushness, a place well-watered according to various scholars. Two different words, Sumerian eden/edin and Hebrew `eden each are applied to a geographical area in their respective texts, the Epic of Gilgamesh and Genesis. And both of these regions are associated with a story of how a naked man falls for a naked woman, coming under her power as she succeeds in separating him from his animal companions, introduces him to new found knowledge, that it is wrong to be naked and clothed they both leave eden./eden the Hebrew `eden.
So what's new here?
Although numerous scholars have suggested motifs associated with Enkidu and Shamhat have been apparently recast and assimilated to Adam and Eve, I am _unaware_ of any scholar making the association of Eden with the eden/edin logogram used _in lieu_ of the Akkadian word seru or tseru appearing in the Epic of Gilgamesh, where the naked man and naked woman engage in sex and clothe themselves before leaving eden/edin.
If someone in the professionally published literature ( Journals, Manuscripts, Monographs, or Books) has already remarked on the appearance of the Sumerian logogram eden/edin in the Epic of Gilgamesh being what is behind Eden's appearance in Genesis I would appreciate hearing from you dear reader "to set the record straight" and "give credit where credit is due." Please provide the author's name, publication, date of publication, place of publication and I will be pleased to post this information on this website.
Genesis 3:4-5 RSV
"But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil...the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons."
Heidel (1946):
"But he had intelligence, wide was his understanding.
He returned and sat at the feet of the courtesan,
Looking at the courtesan,
And his ears listening as the courtesan speaks,
The courtesan saying to him, to Enkidu:
"Wise art thou, O Enkidu, like a god art thou;
Why dost thou run around with the animals on the steppe?
come, I will lead thee to Uruk, the enclosure...
The place where Gilgamesh is..."
(p. 22.Alexander Heidel. The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels. Chicago & London. The University of Chicago Press. 1946, 1949, 1993)
Sandars paraphrase (1960):
"So he returned and sat down at the woman's feet, and listened intently to what she said. 'You are wise, Enkidu, and now you have become like a god. Why do you want to run wild with the beasts in the hills? Come with me. I will take you to strong-walled Uruk...there Gilgamesh lives..."
(p. 63. N. K. Sandars. The Epic of Gilgamesh. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England. Penquin Books. 1960, 1969)
Gardner and Maier (1984):
"Yet he had knowledge, wider mind.
Turned around, Enkidu knelt at the knees of the prostitute.
He looked up at her face,
and as the woman spoke, his ears heard.
The woman said to him, to Enkidu:
"You have become wise, like a god, Enkidu,
