Gilgamesh

One common theme of the epic of Gilgamesh is Love.  Love, both erotic and spiritual, inspires change in Gilgamesh. Enkidu changes from a disorderly man into a decent one because of Gilgamesh, and their friendship changes Gilgamesh from a persecutor and an oppressor into an commendable king and hero. Because they are evenly matched, Enkidu puts a restraint on Gilgamesh’s restive, powerful energies, and Gilgamesh pulls Enkidu out of his egocentricity. Gilgamesh’s relationship to Enkidu makes it likely for Gilgamesh to recognize with his people’s interests. The love the friends possess for each other makes Gilgamesh an enhanced man in the first part of the epic, and when Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh’s heartache and horror push him onto a unsuccessful search for immortality. The classic may be short of a female love interest, but erotic love still plays an important part. Enkidu’s education as a man starts with his sexual beginning by the temple harlot, and the two heroes’ dilemma begin with their denial of Ishtar, the goddess of love. Humanity renews itself through the female life force, which includes sex, fertility, domesticity, and nurturance, not through an random gift of the gods. When Gilgamesh at last sees that his place is here on Earth and returns to Uruk to resume his kingship, Ishtar goes back to her place of tribute.