Genesis' Literary Borrowing:
Adam and Eve and
Their Prototypes:
Enkidu and the Temple Courtesan Shamhat
From the Epic of Gilgamesh
23 October 2004
Updates & Revisions through 14 December 2007
Please click here for this website's most important article: Why the Bible Cannot be the Word of God.
For Christians visiting this website _my most important article_ is The Reception of God's Holy Spirit: How the Hebrew Prophets _contradict_ Christianity's Teachings. Please click here.
Please scroll down for various _pictures, drawings, photos, images, illustrations and art_ of Enkidu, Shamash and Gilgamesh portraying events appearing in The Epic of Gilgamesh. Most of these examples are modern impressions in clay of ancient cylinder seals from the 3rd-1st millenniums B.C.
It must be emphasized here that I do _not_ understand that the Hebrews are "copying" the Mesopotamian myths, they are taking various motifs and concepts appearing in these myths and transforming them via "new twists" creating new names for the protagonists, new locations, and changing the sequence of events to present a "new story" about primeval man's origins which in effect _denies, refutes and challenges_ Mesopotamian notions and beliefs.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This article in a nutshell:
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 of the University of Pennsylvania made such a proposal and Professor Skinner in 1910 of Westminster College, Cambridge, England also noted the same parallels. More recently, in 1963 Professors Robert Graves and Raphael Patai identified Adam and Eve as being later Hebrew recasts of Enkidu and Shamhat. I understand that these professors are correct and this article goes into greater depth in expanding their somewhat brief and cursory observations.
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.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Apparently sometime before 1875, the famous British Orientalist Sir Henry C. Rawlinson (1810-1895) had expressed the notion that the book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible probably had its origin in Babylonian concepts as noted by George Smith (1840-1876) who discovered in 1872 the Chaldean version of Noah's Flood in the Gilgamesh Epic while translating cuneiform tablets excavated from the Assyrian King Asshurbanipal's library in Nineveh at London's British Museum (Smith correctly determined that the Epic of Gilgamesh consisted of 12 clay tablets which he published between 1872-1875, he calling Gilgamesh Izdubar):
"Although it was known that Assyria borrowed its civilization and written characters from Babylonia...it could not be guessed beforehand that the peculiar national traditions of Babylonia would be transported to Assyria...as new texts were brought into notice, it became evident that the Assyrians copied their literature largely from Babylonian sources...Attention was early drawn to these points by Sir Henry Rawlinson, who pointed out several coincidences between the geography of Babylonia and the account of Eden in Genesis, and suggested the great probability that the accounts in Genesis had a Babylonian origin."
(p. 3. "The Discovery of the Genesis Legends." George Smith. The Chaldean Account of Genesis...From the Cuneiform Inscriptions. London. Whitingham and Wilkins. 1876. Reprint: 1994 by Wizards Bookshelf. San Diego, California)
Archaeologists have recovered from the ruins of Ur, Genesis' Ur of the Chaldees, the home of Abraham (Ge 11:31) fragments of a clay tablet bearing verses from the Epic of Gilgamesh. Dalley on the Epic of Gilgamesh being found at Ur dating to the early 2nd millennium B.C. (the very time period some scholars date Abraham to):
"...the different versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh...The Old Babylonian tablets written in Akkadian, which date to the early second millennium, in some passages diverge fairly widely from the standard version...They were found at Ur in southern Iraq; at Sippar on the Euphrates above Babylon, and at Ishchali in the kingdom of Eshnunna, east of the Tigris."
(p. 45. "Different Versions of the Epic." Stephanie Dalley. Myths from Mesopotamia, Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh and Others. Oxford & New York. Oxford University Press. 1989, 1991)
The late Sumerologist Professor Samuel Noah Kramer (1897-1990) suggested that perhaps some of Genesis' motifs and concepts are traceable to Mesopotamia via Abraham who lived at Ur before migrating to Haran and eventually Canaan. I suspect that Kramer is correct and that it probably was Abraham who transformed the Mesopotamian myths regarding the origins of primeval naked man who wandered the edin with wild animals and who gave them and life in the edin up to seek companionship with a naked woman he had encountered in the edin (That is to say Adam and Eve and their leaving of Eden are recasts of motifs associated with Enkidu and Shamhat and their leaving the edin as found in the Epic of Gilgamesh). Israel's forefathers who lived beyond the Euphrates are described in the Bible as being originally Polytheists. Apparently Abraham was a Polytheist too and therefore well-acquainted with Mesopotamian gods and goddeses and the stories about man's primeval origins. Perhaps it was Abraham who, upon repudiating Polytheism, recast the Mesopotamian motifs and concepts?
Professor Kramer on Abraham's birth being possibly circa 1700 B.C. (Which falls in the general period 1800-1700 B.C. when yawi names occur at Kish in Lower Mesopotamia and Mari in Upper Mesopotamia, Abraham having embraced Yahweh as his God while residing at Ur of the Chaldees in Lower Mesopotamia):
Genesis 15:7 RSV
"And he said to him, "I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess."
Joshua on Israel's patriarchs being originally Polytheists in Mesopotamia, the land beyond the Euphrates River:
Joshua 24:2-3, 14 RSV
"And Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, "Your fathers lived of old beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many...Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord."
Professor Kramer:
"However, there is another possible source of Sumerian influence on the Bible...Father Abraham himself. Most scholars agree that while the Abraham saga as told in the Bible contains much that is legendary and fanciful, it does have an important kernel of truth, including Abraham's birth in Ur of the Chaldees, perhaps about 1700 B.C. and his early life there with his family."
(p. 292. "The Legacy of Sumer." Samuel Noah Kramer. The Sumerians, Their History, Culture, and Character. Chicago & London. The University of Chicago Press. 1963, 1972)
Professor Hooke on Genesis' Myths :
"The mythological material was specifically affected by this process; hence three main problems confront us in studying the mythology of the Old Testament. First we have to inquire what was the source and original form of the myths which we find there; then what modifications did the Hebrew writers or editors make in the mythological material which they borrowed from Canaanite or other sources; and lastly whether Israel produced any myths of its own.
The final editors of the Old Testament collected most of the mythological material into the first eleven chapters of Genesis but other myths and legends are to be found in fragmentary form scattered through the sagas and poetry of Israel..."
(pp. 104-105. S. H. Hooke. Middle Eastern Mythology. Penguin Books. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England. 1966, 1981 [paperback]. Note: The late Samuel Henry Hooke, 1874-1968, was Professor Emeritus of Oriental Languages at Toronto University)
Rogerson understands Genesis was composed in the Exile or shortly thereafter, I understand it was composed in 560 BCE (Emphasis mine) :
"The simple answer to the question of date is that Genesis 1-11 is _part of the larger work_ containing Genesis to 2 Kings...This COMPLETE WORK did not reach its final form until during or after the Babylonian Exile in the sixth century BCE. However, the date of the final editing does not determine the date of the individual items to be found in Genesis 1-11."
(p. 76. "The Date of Genesis 1-11." J. Rogerson. Genesis 1-11. Sheffield, England. JSOT Press [University of Sheffield]. 1991)
It is my understanding that Genesis' motifs and characters, God, Adam, Eve, the Serpent, and Noah, are adaptations and transformations of characters and events occurring in earlier Near Eastern Myths. In some cases several characters and motifs from different myths have been brought together and amalgamated into Genesis' stories.
Lambert, has made a very important observation regarding the manner in which Mesopotamian mythographers worked:
"The authors of ancient cosmologies were essentially compilers. Their originality was expressed in new combinations of old themes, and in new twists to old ideas."
(p.107, W.G. Lambert, "A New Look at the Babylonian Background of Genesis," [1965], in Richard S. Hess & David T. Tsumra, Editors, I Studied Inscriptions From Before the Flood. Winona Lake, Indiana, Eisenbrauns, 1994)
I believe Lambert's observation can be applied to the Hebrews who were combining old themes and putting "new twists" to old ideas. My research indicates that, at times,"reversals" or "inversions"are occurring in the Hebrew transformation and reinterpetation of the Mesopotamian myths. These "reversals," as I call them, can take the form of different characters, different locations for the settings of the stories, and different morals being drawn about the nature of God and Man's relationship.
Another scholar, Wenham, made another important observation about Genesis, it is apparently a polemic, challenging the Mesopotamian view of the relationship between God and Man-
"Viewed with respect to its negatives, Gen 1:1-2:3 is a polemic against the mythico-religious concepts of the ancient Orient...The concept of man here is markedly different from standard Near Eastern mythology: man was not created as the lackey of the gods to keep them supplied with food; he was God's representative and ruler on earth, endowed by his creator with an abundant supply of food and expected to rest every seventh day from his labors. Finally, the seventh day is not a day of ill omen as in Mesopotamia, but a day of blessing and sanctity on which normal work is laid aside. In contradicting the usual ideas of its time, Gen 1 is also setting out a positive alternative. It offers a picture of God, the world, and man...man's true nature. He is the apex of the created order: the whole narrative moves toward the creation of man. Everything is made for man's benefit..."
(p.37, Vol. 1, "Explanation," Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1-15 [Word Biblical Commentary, 2 vols.], Word Books, Waco, Texas 1987, ISBN 0-8499-0200-2)
Lambert's and Wenham's observations are "keys" to understanding how and why Genesis was formatted in the manner it now appears. In other articles posted on this website I have explained why I believe that Genesis was composed in the Exilic era (ca. 560 BCE), I accordingly understand that the Ancient Near Eastern myths and their motifs being utilized by Genesis' author, are of periods preceeding 560 BCE.
The Epic of Gilgamesh is required reading for many College Sophmores in World Literature classes in the U.S.A.
Not generally known to these students is the fact that for over 100 years some professional scholars (possessing PhDs and trained in Ancient Near Eastern Religions) who have studied the origins of the Bible have proposed that motifs appearing in the Epic of Gilgamesh appear to have been transformed and assimilated to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden account.
Enkidu is portrayed as naked, unaware it is wrong to be naked, wandering the Mesopotamian plain or steppe with wild animals for companions. He espies a naked woman at a watering hole in the steppe and mates with her.
Like Adam, Enkidu was a created being, he has no mother or father. Like Adam, he gives up his animal companions for the companionship of a naked woman (Shamhat). She convinces him to leave the steppe and when he agrees she presents him clothing and thus both clothe their nakedness upon leaving the watering hole in the steppe, just as Adam and Eve clothe their nakedness before leaving Eden's garden.
What is _not_ realized by many students _including some College instructors_, as they read the Epic of Gilgamesh in English, is that the word being rendered "steppe," "plain" or "the wild" is _not_ Akkadian (Babylonian) _seri_, its a Sumerian logogram transliterated into English as _EDIN_ which was "commonly" used in _lieu_ of seri as a type of "shorthand" (Please note: Some professional scholars prefer to render Sumerian edin as eden, so it can appear under either spelling in the professional literature). My thanks to Professor Andrew George for alerting me that the Akkadian scribe is _not consistent_ in writing the word translated as the wild, wilderness, desert, steppe, plain: Some times he spells the word out as Akkadian s-e-r-i (tse-ri), other times he renders the word by the Sumerian logogram edin (a single sign which, in effect, is being employed as a short-hand version for seri/tseri).
Just as a naked Adam gave up his animal companions _in_Eden_ for a naked Eve as more fit companion, so a naked Enkidu gave up his animal companions for a naked Shamhat _in_ EDEN/EDIN_. Just as Adam and Eve left _Eden_ clothed, so Enkidu and Shamhat leave the _EDEN/EDIN_ clothed. Enkidu learned _in_ EDEN/EDIN_ it was wrong to be naked _after_ his exposure to a naked woman, Shamhat, who presented him some of her clothing to wear. Like Enkidu, Adam, _after_ being exposed to a naked woman, Eve, _in_Eden_, comes to realize it is wrong to be naked too.
Naked Enkidu's heart's "_delight_" was the water of EDEN'S/EDIN'S watering hole. I understand that the Hebrews took this motif of a primeval naked man in EDEN/EDIN "_delighting_" over water and _morphed_ EDEN/EDIN into the Hebrew `eden (English: EDEN) meaning "delight" or place "well-watered."
Please scroll down (below) for additional details on the appearance of the Sumerian logogram _EDEN/EDIN_ in the Epic of Gilgamesh being a substitution for the Akkadian word _seri_ or _seru_, meaning "steppe," "plain" or "the wilds."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Other Epic of Gilgamesh Articles of interest:
Please click here for how the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was derived from the Epic of Gilgamesh
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jastrow (1861-1921) a Polish born Jewish Rabbi and a Professor of Semitic Languages and Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, had, by 1898, noted that Adam and Eve appeared to be recasts of Enkidu and Shamhat of the Epic of Gilgamesh. In 1898 Enkidu was known to scholars 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)
Jastrow on Eve's name possibly being related to Ukhat's (Shamhat):
"It is to be noted that in the Yahwistic narrative, Adam is in close communication with the animals about him (Gen. ii.20). It is tempting also to connect the Hebrew form of Eve, Khauwah (or Khauwat) in some way with Ukhat, not etymologically of course, but as suggestive of a dependence of one upon the other, -the Hebrew upon the Babylonian term. Professor Stade...commenting upon Gen. ii.20, points out that Yahwe's motive for asking Adam to name the animals was the hope that he would find a 'helpmate' among them. In light of the Babylonian story of Eabani living with animals, Stade's suggestion receives a striking illustration." (footnote 879. Jastrow. 1898)
Professor Jastrow noted the "parallels" between Enkidu (Eabani) and Ukhat (Shamhat) and Adam and Eve regarding a woman being blamed for a man's demise (Sadu is the "Hunter" who brought Ukhat to the watering hole in the steppe):
"Eabani bewails his fate. He curses Ukhat, whom, together with Sadu, he holds responsible for having brought death upon him. In Genesis, it will be recalled, death likewise is viewed as the consequence of Adam's yielding to the allurements of Eve. Special significance, too, attaches to the further parallel to be drawn between Adam's punishment and Eabani's fate. Dust thou art, and unto dust shall thou return applies to Eabani as well as to Adam. He was formed of clay, as we have seen, and when he dies he is turned to clay."
(p. 440. Morris Jastrow, Jr. The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria. Boston, New York, Chicago, London. Ginn & Company. 1898. Reprint by the Dodo Press, United Kingdom)
Jastrow in an article (1899) noted attempts as early as 1875 by George Smith to identify some of the characters in Genesis with Babylonian personages appearing in myths (Smith thought Gilgamesh, who he called Izdubar, was Genesis' Nimrod):
"Attempts have been made at various times to discover traces of the story of Adam and Eve among the Babylonians."
(p. 193. Morris Jastrow Jr. "Adam and Eve in Babylonian Literature." pp. 193-214. The American Journal of Theology. Volume 15. No. 4. July 1899)
Harper's (1899) review of Jastrow (1898) noting Jastrow's attempt at identifying parallels between Genesis' Adam and Eabani of the Epic of Gilgamesh and Adapa of the Adapa and the Southwind myth (Note: I am in agreement with Jastrow, that Eabani/Enkidu and Adapa "are the principal characters" that have been recast as Adam):
"...the Old Testament are the author's views (some old, some new) on the following subjects: Parallelism between Adam and Eabani and between Adam and Adapa..."
(p. 753. Robert Francis Harper's review of Morris Jastrow Jr. The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria published in 1898. Cf. pp. 753-756 in The American Journal of Theology. Volume 3. No. 4. October 1899)
Jastrow (1914) on Enkidu, his "Engidu," being a prototype of Adam as a "first man," refers the reader to his two works (1898 and 1899) on Enkidu as a prototype of Adam:
"Gilgamesh is thus brought into direct association with a figure, Engidu, who embodies probably a tradition of the first man and of the early condition of man on earth. See the analysis in the author's Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, chapter XX III..."Adam and Eve in Babylonian Literature," in the American Journal of Semitic Languages, vol. XV, pp. 193-214."
(p. 209. "Views of Life After Death." Morris Jastrow, Jr. Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions, The Haskell Lectures Delivered at Oberlin College in 1913, and since Revised and Enlarged. New York. Charles Scribner's Sons. 1914)
Skinner, 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 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)
I understand that Genesis' Adam is -in part- drawing from the Epic of Gilgamesh and he is a later recast of Enkidu the naked wild man of the steppe (Akkadian seru, Sumerian edin). Adam's sleep in Eden is Enkidu's 6 days and 7 nights of "sleeping with" Shamhat the temple harlot or coutesan of Uruk in edin-the-steppe. Adam and Eve wearing clothes upon departing the garden in Eden recalls Enkidu and Shamhat leaving edin-the-steppe clothed (actually "steppe" is Akkadian seru, which replaced Sumerian edin). Also echoed is Adapa's change of clothes before leaving Anu's heavenly abode in the myth titled "Adapa and the South Wind." I understand that Genesis' Adam is a fusion primarily of Enkidu of the Epic of Gilgamesh and of Adapa of the Adapa and the Southwind myth. For pictures of Adapa as a fish-man please click here. For Adam being a recast of Adapa in the Adapa and the Southwind myth please click here.
Adam's companions being animals is drawing from Enkidu having only animal companions until the hunter brings a harlot or temple prostitute called Shamhat to the watering hole, enticing Enkidu to lay with her. When, after 6 days and 7 nights of sex, he attempts to return to his animal companions they flee. The harlot, a temple prostitute, asks him, "Why seek companionship with animals, he now possesses knowledge like a god", she provides him "food fit for a god" instead of the grass he ate with the animals, and shares her garments to cover his naked hairy body and they leave the steppe, called seru in Akkadian or edin in Sumerian, and go to meet Gilgamesh in Uruk (biblical Erech of Genesis 10:10). The harlot most likely lies behind Eve, for later, when Enkidu is dying, he curses the harlot for robbing him of his innocence. Before her appearance he roamed naked with animals for companions and ate grass and was not ashamed of his nakedness, just as Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed in Eden. She introduced him to civilization, teaching him that nakedness was wrong, men must be clothed, and to "eat food fit for the gods", perhaps an allusion to the myths that stress that the gods made man to plant, harvest and present food to them so that they need not toil anymore on the earth for their food. Perhaps Enkidu's cursing of the harlot, blaming her for his impending death is behind God's cursing of Eve, telling her she will bear her children in pain and sorrow and that her husband will bear rule over her? We are informed by the Epic of Gilgamesh that the harlot takes Enkidu by the hand "like a MOTHER" and leads him to civilization. Perhaps the biblical notion of Eve meaning "MOTHER of all living" (Ge 3:20) recalls this epithet originally bestowed on the harlot Shamhat? Apparently Enkidu and Shamhat were locked in a sexual embrace _side-by-side_ for 6 days and 7 nights. When sated Enkidu apparently rises _from her side_ to rejoin his animal companions. Was Enkidu's rising from or leaving Shamhat's side recast as Eve being taken from Adam's side while he is asleep in Eden? Enkidu and the Harlot would have had to sleep at intervals, side-by-side, to "restup" and catch their breath for the next bout of lovemaking over the 6 days and 7 nights. So Enkidu's sleeping side-by-side with the harlot may have been recast as Adam's sleep, Eve being "taken" from his side. The Hebrew word for rib is tsela but it can also mean "a side, literally, of a person" (cf. # 6763 Strong's Hebrew and Chaldee Concordance. James Strong. Strong's Exhaustive Concordance). Tsela can also mean a "limping or fall" ("falling") or "adversity" (# 6761 Strong). Perhaps the Hebrews were being playful in that tsela has several connotations all applicable to Adam's "fall" because of his contact with Eve, and Enkidu's "falling" for Shamhat? Enkidu also "fell-back" in that he was unable to maintain the running pace of his former companions the Gazelles.
Could Gilgamesh and Enkidu's attaining access to the trees of the forbidden Cedar Mountain have been reformatted in Genesis as Adam and Eve and the Trees of Knowledge and of Life ? In the Inanna and Utu myth she descends to the earth to eat of cedar trees (eating the cedar nuts, or pine nuts), said act of "eating of a tree" giving her _knowledge_ about sexual matters. In Eden, Adam and Eve have knowledge of their nakedness _after_ eating of a tree and "later" engage in sex and have children. Thus the "wisdom" Adam and Eve attained was not only that they were naked, but of "how" to have sex, like Inanna. Some Jewish traditions (Hasmonean) understood the Tree of Life to a Date-Palm, of interest, is that one of the below seals of the Neo-Assyrian period shows the two adventurers slaying Humbaba (Huwawa) before a sacred Palm-Tree instead of a Cedar Tree. Palm Trees accompanied Cherubim in the Temple of Solomon, cf. 1 Kings 7:36. If I am correct in dating the Primary History, Genesis-Kings to 560 B.C., perhaps the Neo-Assyrian imagery is being drawn from as winged sphinxes are shown guarding a Sacred Date Palm?
Commentators have noted that initially Enkidu possesses a higher sense of "right and wrong" or "justice" than does his counterpart Gilgamesh, whose tyranny at Uruk outrages him. Could this portrayal of Enkidu be what is behind the notion of knowledge about Adam and Eve's acquisition of "good and evil" in the Genesis account? Commentators have also noted that Enkidu's "domestication" by the harlot is a prerequisite for Gilgamesh's "moral" education via his contact with Enkidu (the savage's sense of justice or of "good and evil" tames the outrageous behavior of the "civilized" man).
Enkidu egged Gilgamesh on in the killing of Humbaba. In revenge, Enlil takes Enkidu's life. Could the notion that Enkidu and Gilgamesh "accessed" forbidden trees, cutting them down be -in part- what is behind Adam and Eve's access to forbidden trees, and their losing their lives for violating a God's injunction? Gilgamesh and Enkidu realized they would die like all other men and they wanted to achieve in their lifetimes some act of heroism that would give them fame and thus a type of "immortality," their deeds being recounted for hundreds of years into the future. So, Eabani, the naked man of edin, who was undone by a naked woman in edin (Shamhat), _did_ access forbidden trees, slaying the trees' guardian Huwawa to do so. He paid with his life for this act, and when he learns of his imminent death he curses Shamhat and the Hunter, blaming them for his misfortunes (Recast as Yahweh cursing Adam and Eve). All the ingredients are here from Genesis' garden of Eden: a naked man (Enkidu/Adam), naked woman (Shamhat/Eve), forbidden trees (tree of knowledge and tree of life vs. forbidden Cedar trees), a semi-divine creature to deny man access to the forbidden trees (the biblical Cherubim vs. Huwawa/Humbaba), but recast and transformed into a "new story" in order to _refute, deny and challenge_ the Mesopotamian notions about man's origins and purpose in life.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A note of caution: The below identifications are for the most part, _my own_. Some scholars tend to describe the individual I identify as Enkidu as "the nude hero with curls". I am unaware of _any_ scholar identifying Shamhat on any glyptic art associated with cylinder seals.
Black and Green argue that while some earlier scholars associated the 'nude hero with curls' as being Gilgamesh and the bull-man as being Enkidu, they aver that they are wrong, and that "the nude hero with curls" is a Lahmu:
"There is no basis for the suggestion that the figure of the bull-man in art represents the legendary hero Enkidu." (p. 49. "Bull-man." Jeremy Black and Anthony Green. Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia. London & Austin, Texas. University of Texas Press [in association with the British Museum Press]. 1992.)
"Lahmu ('Hairy') is the name of a protective and beneficent diety, originally associated with Enki/Ea...Figurines of the god, who was represented with long hair and beard (often represented with four or six large curls), were used as foundation deposits to ward off demons and sickness. In art this figure (inappropriately termed the 'Nude Hero') is often closely associated with the kusarikku (see Bull-man)." (p. 115. "Lahmu." Jeremy Black and Anthony Green. Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia. London & Austin, Texas. University of Texas Press [in association with the British Museum Press]. 1992.)
Favoring Black and Green's notion that the Nude "hero" with curls is a Lahmu is the fact that Gilgamesh is NOT portrayed in any text as wandering about NAKED. When his clothes wearout from his wanderings after Enkidu's death, he slays a lion and makes of its skin a garment for himself. Another fact is that no text exists mentioning Gilgamesh as a gate guard for Enki (Ea) in his apsu dwelling (a cylinder seal exists showing Enki seated in his apsu house with two naked Lahmu holding stylized gate/door posts). Gilgamesh is mentioned dwelling in the underworld as a judge of the dead however.
Because Lahmu means "hairy" and Enkidu is described as NAKED and _HAIRY_ before meeting Shamhat in the Epic of Gilgamesh, it may be that Enkidu is a "type" of Lahmu, naked and hairy and of great strength. Lahmu guard entrances and Enkidu positions himself at a doorway to bar Gilgamesh from entering and deflowering a bride on her wedding night. Perhaps a confusion arose of Enkidu then being a "type" of Lahmu, and he is the "nude hero with curls" (instead of he being Gilgamesh) who wrestles with wild animals like cattle and lions. We are told that Enkidu possesses hair like a woman, perhaps an allusion to the curls reaching the nude hero's shoulders? I have suggested below, that the 'nude hero with curls' is possibly Enkidu. There is a problem however: while it is true that Enkidu before meeting Shamhat the harlot roamed about NUDE with gazelles, after his sexual encounter with her, she clothes him and when he meets Gilgamesh in Uruk he is CLOTHED. So, we should expect that any scenes showing Enkidu _with_ Gilgamesh "ought" to show both men as clothed, rather than Enkidu naked and Gilgamesh clothed. Of course, it is possible that the artists of the below seals took some "liberties" and showed Enkidu naked and Gilgamesh clothed to avoid confusion in the spectator's eyes of who was who in the scenes.
Mesopotamian myths portrayed man in the beginning as a beast or animal, naked and eating grass with other animals (cf. the Ewe and Wheat myth) before being separated from his animal companions and dwelling in the gods' cities and working their gardens (cf. the Eridu Genesis myth). Man the beast is civilized by the gods and learns to make and wear clothes. For the Mesopotamians man's acquisition of clothing signals his _end as a beast_ and _becoming like a god_, for in the beginning ONLY the gods wore clothes. The "naked" hero in the below scenes, then, might be Enkidu _before_ his "civilization" by Shamhat, for she introduces him to the wearing of clothes. Shamash as a patron-god of Shamhat and Enkidu apparently was not upset about the naked man of edin-the-steppe acquring the knowledge it is wrong to be naked (Shamhat clothes him before leaving the steppe for Uruk), for the sun-god reminds Enkidu that the harlot is not deserving of his curse, she provided him a fine robe to clothe his nakedness. A chastened Enkidu thereupon pronounces a blessing for the harlot. Genesis has changed the story-line. In the original story, Enkidu and Shamat (Adam and Eve), a God (Shamash) did NOT CURSE the naked man and naked woman. A god did NOT EXPELL THEM from seru/edin "the steppe." A god (Shamash) was NOT UPSET about their covering their nakedness with clothes before leaving seru/edin the steppe.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Below a drawing of a cylinder seal impression found at Ebla, Syria. _The "interpretation" of this seal is my own NOT Porada's (who does _not_ attempt to identify the individuals with Gilgamesh and Enkidu)_. I wonder if the half-bison/half-man is the protector-god of animals Sumerian Shakkan, Akkadian Sumuqan to the right of the lion savaging a domesticated bull wearing a harness? To Shakkan's (?) right is the Hunter (?) who brought Shamhat the harlot to entrap Enkidu . I wonder if the woman to the far left might be Shamhat, her breasts appear to be bared. Could the kneeling (a wrestling position?) naked bearded individual holding up four heads be Enkidu? Perhaps the four heads, two of a man and two of a lion represent the enemies (lions and men) of the gazelles, bison, and cattle who were Enkidu's companions and his holding them over his head symbolizes his successful efforts in "overthrowing" them as a "wrestler," protecting his animal companions as the naked wild man of the steppe (Sumerian: edin, Akkadian:seru); the ropes (?) about his shoulders might symbolize "the snares" or "traps" set by the Hunter which Enkidu has "ripped apart" in order to protect his animal friends? The unusual dress of Shamhat (?) and the Hunter (?) has been described as "tufts of wool" by Porada, suggesting for me a sheepskin garment or kilt as worn by Sumerian men and women in art forms of the 4th-3rd millennium B.C. (However Sumerian women tend to be shown with their breasts covered or partially covered by the sheepskin garment which usually crosses one of their shoulders). Could Shamhat's hand grasping the bull's neck/nape and tail mean she has triumphed over the beasts that once were the companions of Enkidu (he roamed with gazelles)? Could the bull-man be the protector-god of wild animals Sumerian Shakkan, Akkadian Sumuqan? His hand grasping the neck/nape and tail of the lion indicate he was a protector of the gazelles defending them from predators like lions as well as man the hunter? If the man wearing the sheepskin kilt is the hunter, does his hand on Sumuqan's (?) neck/nape and tail suggest his triumph over this god who protects wild animals? Genesis portrays God making clothes of animal skins for Adam and Eve before expelling them from the garden of Eden, could these "skins" be recalling the sheepskin garments worn by Shamhat (?) and the Hunter (?) in this seal? I understand the Hebrews have recast Shamhat as Eve and Enkidu as Adam, so the below seal, is for me what Eve and Adam "looked like" before the Hebrews recast them (cf. fig. 14. p. 92. Edith Porada. "Syrian Seals From the Late Fourth to the Late Second Millennium." Harvey Weiss. Editor. Ebla to Damascus, Art and Archaeology of Ancient Syria. Washington DC. Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibit. 1985. ISBN 0-86528-029-0 paperback).
The below seal shows the woman with apparently BARED BREASTS, the Hunter told Shamhat to BARE HER BREASTS to entice Enkidu to have sex with her.
Professor Speiser (Emphasis mine):
"There he is, O lass, FREE THY BREASTS,
Bare thy bosom that he may possess thy ripeness!
Be not bashful! Welcome his ardor!
As soon as he sees thee, he will draw near to thee.
Lay aside thy cloth that he may rest upon thee.
Treat him, the savage, to a woman's task! Reject him will his wild beasts that grew up on his steppe,
As his love is drawn unto thee."
The lass FREED HER BREASTS, bared her bosom,
And he possessed her ripeness.
She was not bashful as she welcomed his ardor..."
(p. 44. E. A. Spieser. "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)
I understand in the below drawing that the kneeling man is Enkidu with torn-up rope snares set by the Hunter for edin's wild animals. We are told that Enkidu _did_ tear-up_ the Hunter's snares, hence the reason why the Hunter brings Shamhat to the watering-hole to entrap Enkidu and separate him from his animal companions:
Spieser's translation:
"The hunter opened [his mouth] to speak...strength he has...[He filled in] the pits I had dug, [He tore up] my traps which I had [set], the beasts and creatures of the steppe [He has made slip through my hands]..."
(p. 42. E. A. Spieser. "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)
Below, a molded baked clay image of a couple mating on a possible bed. Some suggest the male is the god Dumuzi (biblical Tammuz) and the female is his "bride" or wife Inanna (Ishtar), others have proposed a Mesopotamian king in the "role" of Dumuzi mating with a temple priestess representing Inanna/Ishtar. The imagery for me, applies just as well to the harlot-priestess Shamhat, who tamed the naked wild man of the steppe or edin, Enkidu. If the below female is indeed a temple-priestess assuming the role of her goddess Inanna (Ishtar), then we have an iconic rendering of a naked Shamhat the harlot-priestess of Inanna (Ishtar) from Uruk, who later was recast as Genesis' Eve. If the couple on the bed are intended to be Dumuzi and his bride Inanna, it is interesting to note that in Sumerian Dumuzi was called mulu edin-na "lord of edin" and Inanna was called nin edin-na "lady of edin." Both also bore the Sumerian epithet ama-ushumgal-an-na "the mother is a great serpent-dragon of heaven." Inanna descended to the earth with Utu the Sumerian sun-god to acquire knowledge about sex by eating of various herbs and trees of the kur (kur can mean mountain or land). After consuming these herbs and tree products she asks to be escorted to her mother-in-law's home to fulfil her conjugal duties with her new husband. Worth noting is that the "lady of edin" eats of a cedar tree (cedar nuts or pine nuts are consumed in Middle Eastern dishes as a garnish) to acquire knowledge, sexual knowledge, and Eve of the garden in Eden also eats of a tree to acquire knowledge (after eating of it she later has sex with Adam). I suspect Dumuzi and Inanna are prototypes of Adam and Eve, and are fused with Enkidu and Shamhat (Adam and Eve prototypes who have sex at a watering hole in the Sumerian plain or steppe near Uruk called edin). Hence the below picture of a naked Dumuzi and his bride Inanna show Genesis' pre-biblical prototypes, the naked Adam and naked Eve (man and wife) of eden/edin.
Of interest is that the female appears to be offering her lover her breasts. In the Song of Solomon which is very erotic, praising a young damsel's physical beauty to her lover, the breasts are compared to young roes (deer) and clusters of dates on a date-palm tree, and again as grapes and pomengranates. That is to say the female's breasts are LIKENED AS FRUIT FROM A TREE. Is it possible that Eve's "fruit" offered Adam was Shamhat's breasts to Enkidu? After sex with her and enjoying her "fruits" or "breasts" (?) he attempts to rejoin his animal companions and they flee from him; he realizes they will not accept him anymore as their companion, he thereupon decides to cast his lot with Shamhat and civilized clothes-wearing man in Uruk.
Excerpts from the Song of Solomon alluding to a lover's breasts as two roes (deer), two towers of spices, dates, grapes, pomengranates, some of which are various "fruits," note that the damsel is addressed as a "queenly maiden" which was an epithet of Inanna (Ishtar) the goddess of sex and love as well as of whores and prostitutes. To the degree that a woman's breasts are likened to a tree's "fruit" one might also argue that the woman is "herself," metaphorically speaking, "a fruit-bearing tree"! And, as harlots, whores and prostitutes (as in Shamhat and Inanna) are taboo or forbidden to Israel in the Bible, they become "forbidden fruit and forbidden fruit-trees" whose access is denied to man by Yahweh-Elohim.
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 opned 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 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. E. A. Spieser. "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)
Could Enkidu's mating with Shamhat be seen as he partaking of her fruit (a euphemism for sex)?
"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. E. A. Spieser. "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." Benjamin 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?"
A prostitute in Inanna's service is likened to being a source of DELIGHT, an ORCHARD OF APPLE TREES:
"The beautiful maid (ki-sikil), who stands on the street,
The maid, the prostitute, daughter of Inanna...
Sitting down, she is an orchard of apple trees, bringing
delight,
Lying down (she?)...pleasure,
She is a sprig of cedar giving shade..."
(pp. 196-197. "Love Magic and Potency Incantations." Gwendolyn Leick. Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature. London & New York. Routledge. 1994. Reprint 2003)
An incantation to make a woman fall in love and have sex mentions the giving of a fruit to her, an apple or pomegranate, she will suck their juices and become a passionate lover.
"Incantation: The beautiful woman has brought forth love.
Inanna, who loves 'apples' and pomegranates,
Has brought forth potency...
Incantation: For a woman to look upon the penis of a man.
The ritual: Either to an apple or a pomegranate
You recite the incantation three times.
You give (the fruit) to the woman (and) have her suck their
juices.
That woman will come to you; you can make love to her."
(p. 202. "Love Magic and Potency Incantations." Gwendolyn Leick. Sex and Eroticism in Mesopotamian Literature. London & New York. Routledge. 1994. Reprint 2003)
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 in God's command to Adam and Eve to have sex with each other: "be fruitful and multiply," as Shamhat was told to "have sex" with Enkidu. 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.
Ishtar is the Sumerian Inanna, who bears the Sumerian epithets, Inanna edin-na "Inanna of edin" and nin edin-na "lady of edin" (edin is the Sumerian word for steppe) according to hymns found at Nippur extolling Dumuzi and Inannna. Inanna in one myth descends to the earth with her brother Utu the sun-god to acquire knowledge by eating various herbs and or trees on the earth (kur) in order to know how to perform sex with her new bridegroom Dumuzi. After eating of Cedar and Cypress trees and other herbs she asks to be taken to her mother-in-law's house to perform her wifely conjugal duites. Her husband Dumuzi was a king of Uruk (the same city Gilgamesh ruled at), and Dumuzi bore the Sumerian epithet mulu edin-na "lord of edin." Inanna (Akkadian Ishtar) is the goddess of lovemaking (and of whores and prostitutes) and of sex between man and wife. Shamhat the harlot served Inanna/Ishtar as a Temple whore or prostitute.
The below photo is to be found on page 43 of Diane Wolkstein & Samuel Noah Kramer. Inanna Queen of Heaven and Earth, Her Stories and Hymns From Sumer. New York. Harper & Row, Publishers. 1983.
