Was gilgamesh gay

Nancy Sandars' translation* of the Epic of Gilgamesh clearly says that "His lust leaves no virgin to her lover, neither the warrior's daughter nor the wife of the noble", so definitely not gay. Initially, it was pretty much only white gay men who were visible, but gradually, the queer sphere has expanded to include women, people of color, transgender people, bisexual and pansexual.

The epic describes the relationship between Gilgamesh, the great powerful ruler of Uruk, and Enkidu, a male created by the gods to divert Gilgamesh from wreaking havoc in the world. Gilgamesh. In "The Epic of Gilgamesh," Gilgamesh and Enkidu are not depicted as a gay couple. Instead, their relationship is a deep, homosocial bond, akin to brotherhood, common in ancient heroic.

There is a wealth of evidence in the text to suggest that Gilgamesh and Enkidu are lovers. We see them grappling together in mock combat as they describe each other in erotic language and then hold hands. When Enkidu is on his deathbed, Gilgamesh describes him as his beloved. Different people give different answers to this question.

Scholars, mostly historians, have argued for and against various interpretations of sexuality in the Epic for decades. For another example, see the queer scholarship surrounding the Bible. When Gilgamesh and his mother talk about his foreboding dream of an axe, she tells him:. I mean—come on. When Gilgamesh has taken over the city of Uruk, his oppression and tyranny are so terrible that Enkidu is created by the gods just to stop him.

And as it happens, one of the tyrannical things Gilgamesh does as the ruler of Uruk is this:. Even translated into English, there are some obvious sexual undertones there.

gilgamesh and enkidu relationship fate

Still, these scholars claim, innuendo and implication are not enough to claim anything about the sexuality of either hero of the Epic. So, on one hand, we have some readers myself included who say the relationship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu is homosexual. And on the other hand, we have some historians claiming this label is meaningless to use in the ancient world.

With all due respect, I will try to disagree with them in this article. To disprove the existence of homosexuality as we know it today in ancient Mesopotamian literature, historians tend to cite ancient Assyrian laws that were in place around the same time as the Epic was first conceived. The same domination and power, notably, that were already codified by this time in heterosexual relationships.

Historians further argue that homoeroticism, therefore, was not seen as a legitimate form of romantic or sexual expression, but as a tool of domination in a patriarchal society. Homoeroticism in the ancient world was just an extension of regular old patriarchal, oppressive, and violent heteronormativity. One interesting thing to note here is that, in the actual text, the relationship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu is only ever platonic and heterosexual.

Anything more can only be supposed though subtext. And their agency is the willpower or lack thereof that they have to put that view out there into the world. Reading into an innuendo or interpreting dreams is, much like reading into a suggestive look, or interpreting a flirtatious gesture, emotionally driven and entirely subjective. There is no historical, textual, or theoretical evidence that will ever be enough to prove the exact nature of their relationship.

Our own, subjective interpretation will have to do. In trying to historicize the Epic of Gilgamesh, in treating it purely as an artifact of ancient Mesopotamian culture, we minimize the importance of it as a work of literature, and our connection to it as a work of art. Instead, history consists of the present, and its relationship to the past. Understanding that we observe the past through the lens of the present, we are able to begin the process of queering history itself.

None of this is to dismiss the work of all these historians. Of course, the historical research and archeological work done to be able to make claims about obscure Assyrian laws from millennia ago is important. I want to wrap this up with a little thought-experiment. Much like today, there were definitely people in those times who were attracted to the same sex as themselves. And just like today, homosexual acts were socially stigmatized for them, punishable by law, and by death.

So despite the fact that ancient Mesopotamians did probably see homoeroticism differently to how we see it today, all the way in , we still have something in common with them. We share problems, experiences, oppressive systems. Therefore, we might also share common emotions and interpretations of the world.