The process of civilization begins with the transition from the natural to the custom. Enkidu starts out running with the animals, his own countenance as a wild animal. The description of Enkidu is quite straightforward: the trapper says to his father, “[Enkidu] ranges over the hills with wild beasts and eats grass” (14). Enkidu is the original wolf boy of Hesse, claimed by humans but captured through the “woman’s art” (ibid) to be turned into a man. Of interesting note, the trapper already knows that Enkidu is immortal or divine. The transition from animal to man is not one of merely the physical civilization of a wild human, but of bringing forth an understanding of this inherent divine nature of Enkidu. This could be a whole topic in itself which time and space prohibit here.
The harlot is brought from the temple of Ishtar. The cult of Ishtar was one of a sexual nature. Briefly, women were expected to provide services to men and there is some indication that much of the rites of puberty for both genders were a subject of the temple’s purpose. In some ways, this civilization process of Enkidu could be seen as the transition from child (the wild animal) to the adult (the civilized man). But also there are hints here of a similarity of transition from ignorance into wisdom. Much like the myth of the garden of Eden with Eve and the serpent, the harlot tells Enkidu after their six days and seven nights of sexual initiation that he had become more than a man saying, “You are wise, Enkidu, and now you have become like a god” (15). Compared with the serpent and its dialogue with Eve: “Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof [of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil], then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3.4-5 KJV).
This initiatory process, brought on by the loss of sexual innocence and bringing the wild boy into the realms of civilized man, is extremely important to the story as a whole. It is likely that Gilgamesh went through a similar process that merely is not recorded in this tale. It is not that different from our own times, however we wish to sugarcoat it, when we understand that many of our transitions from children to adults is a matter of the loss of sexual innocence more than any other indicator. Such transitions held more power and respect in the past than they do now, but our lack of understanding and respect for these transitions does not make them any less powerful in our psyche.
There are physical indicators of this transition for Enkidu. The harlot first clothes him and leads him to the shepherds. The phrase used is that she “led him like a child” (16). In any transition, the newness of perspective with which that event brings can be approached with a new and different kind of innocence. Poetically speaking, this is “like a child.” Next Enkidu is taught how to eat like a civilized man. He was no more a wild animal obtaining his meals from the earth. They put bread and wine before him, both of these specific signs of the initiatory process in several different cultures. Salt is missing from the story for this point to be even more salient, but wine and oil are both shown here as part of the civilizing process. The wine he drank—this is what adults or, in this case, men do—and then he “anointed himself with oil” (ibid). He also grooms himself, it is noted. As a child, or a wild man, he had no reason to groom himself, but the point is made clearly and almost out of place that Enkidu, once he was all fixed up by the harlot, “appeared like a bridegroom” (ibid). Enkidu is now showing his true colors as a man. He has been through the process of initiation that takes him from an uncultured and uncivilized, yet innocent, child and moves him into the beginning of adulthood. However, what we see through all of these various rituals is that Enkidu is provided with the customs of civilized society. With more time and more space, again, this topic alone could fill a book.
Unfortunately, much of the richness of the early rites of transition for either gender have been lost to antiquity. Also, at least for the United States in a cultural sense, due to a lack of understanding of the importance of these transitions more brutal and pathological forms take their place, e.g., gangs in major urban centers (Cf. the shepherds teaching Enkidu to eat and be a man), teachers sleeping with students (Cf. the harlot of Ishtar initiating Enkidu from child to man through the “woman’s art”). While much could be said about Enkidu’s transition being one of trickery and self-preservation on the part of the trapper, there is an underlying theme that could be compared (or contrasted even) to parents working toward the freedom and maturity of their children. And, much like the curse and eventual blessing of Enkidu toward the harlot, our children will curse us for waking them up to the world outside only to realize that we may have given them to most precious gift of all: wisdom of experience.
(Assignment for WorldLit: Discussion Board 1. Note: This is merely over “Parts 1-3″ in the text.)
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