Book Information
Gilgamesh: A New Rendering in English Verse
David Ferry
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York
Copyright 1992
ISBN: 978-0-374-52383-1
Gilgamesh and Enkidu, after killing Huwawa in the Cedar Forest, return to civilization as heroes, at least in the eyes of the citizens of Uruk. The fertility goddess Ishtar, the primary deity of the city, falls in love with Gilgamesh. She tries to entice him to mate with her and promises a life of unimaginable bounty and luxury. Instead, he meanly rejects her with verbal abuse, calling her, among other things, the door that lets the cold in, the fire that goes out, and the house that falls down (Ferry 30). Rather than live a life of luxury with her, he says that she would treat him the same as her other lovers, all who met terrible fates. Ishtar is offended by his rejection and pleads to the gods for revenge. Gilgamesh’s vehemence against her is puzzling, especially considering the temple he built for her as one of his earliest achievements as a young king. The idea that one would rail against a deity so disrespectfully and without mortal fear is shocking. The episode serves as another reminder that Gilgamesh is what the literary critic Northrop Frye calls a ‘dingy hero’ (Frye 210).
To make sense of Gilgamesh’s puzzling behavior, it is helpful to understand how Ishtar became a fertility goddess. Having her background also helps us to understand her subsequent actions against the abusive king. And, we learn that, despite his arrogance and rashness, there is a reason for his antipathy toward her. According to David Leeming in The Oxford Companion to World Mythology, Ishtar becomes a fertility goddess through her relationship with her husband, Dumuzi. “[T]he [Ishtar]-Dumuzi myth was central to the ubiquitous Mesopotamian ritual of the sacred marriage. In hymns for these occasions, the goddess longs for and achieves intercourse with the king in order to bring fertility to the land. Dumuzi was represented by reigning kings in Sumerian sacred marriage rights, especially at Uruk.” (Leeming 196)
So far so good. What then is the source of Gilgamesh’s rejection of her? Turns out that she is not a great wife. According to Leeming, the most famous myth about her is that of her descent to the underworld, which is ruled by her sister, Ereshkigal. She disappears for three days and nights. She eventually makes her way back to the world of the living and finds “… a cheerful, well-dressed Dumuzi is acting as king, apparently unmindful of the loss of his once-beloved wife. An enraged [Ishtar] condemns him to the sacrifice. Terrified, Dumuzi begs his brother-in-law [Shamash] for help, but even when he is turned by the sun god into a snake, he cannot escape. He, too, must experience the dark world of [Ishtar’s] other side, Ereshkigal, in order to become a ‘truly great king’. Dumuzi is taken away, but his sister Gestinanna arranges to spend six months of the year in the underworld so that he can spend those months back in the world above.” (Leeming 197)
On the surface, Gilgamesh’s antipathy seems reasonable and even logical. But as we dig deeper into the meaning of the mythology and its symbols, we realize that Gilgamesh’s behavior is a literary device used by the author to teach a lesson. From Leeming, we learn that “[t]he myth of the hero’s descent to the underworld is found in most cultures. The particular myth of [Ishtar’s] descent and the sacrifice of Dumuzi, which is associated with it, add the element of resurrection that links it in varying degrees to such stories as those of the Greek Persephone, the Egyptian Isis and Osiris, and the Christian Jesus. And these stories and others like them have in common the celebration of physical or spiritual fertility related to a ritual journey to the depths, where shamanic powers are experienced or gained. There is also in [Ishtar’s] descent an implicit agricultural element involving ‘planting’ under the earth and ultimately productive decomposition.” (Leeming 196) Ishtar, as fertility goddess, serves an important function for the survival of human life.
When Gilgamesh so rudely rejects her, Ishtar is offended and goes to her parents, Anu (Sky God) and Antum, and demands from them the Bull of Heaven to be used as a weapon in her fight against Gilgamesh. This seems to be an overreaction to a would-be lover’s rejection. Digging deeper, however, we see that her response makes perfect sense. Gugalanna, the Bull of Heaven, is “a figure traditionally linked to the generic great goddess, at least from the Neolithic period, and was important in Sumer as an animal representing the King of Uruk as well as other kings and gods of Mesopotamia. He is also an astrological figure (Taurus), who disappears in the winter in Sumer and returns in spring. The Gugalanna theme, then, supports the descent myth’s association with agriculture and beneficial sacrifice.” (Leeming 196) The Bull of Heaven, like Ishtar, relates to fertility and the on-going survival of life.
After guaranteeing her father, Anu, that there is enough food stored to see the people through the seven years of the hard times that will come with the Bull’s removal from heaven, Ishtar unleashes the beast on Uruk. Gilgamesh and Enkidu team up to kill it and make an offering of the Bull to Shamash. Shamash is Gilgamesh’s protector, but he does nothing to protect Gilgamesh from making stupid decisions – another sign that Gilgamesh is a cautionary device. Enkidu makes his own stupid decision and throws the Bull’s leg at Ishtar. She quenches her rage and retreats to her temple where she and her retinue perform mourning rituals over the haunch of the Bull. Gilgamesh, full of arrogance and disrespect, brags about his latest feat. The city, in response, disrespects their goddess. The gods are extremely displeased and meet to formulate a plan against our dingy hero Gilgamesh. In the next tablet, we will learn what it is…
Bibliography
Ferry, David. Gilgamesh: A New Rendering in English Verse. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1992.
Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 1957.
Leeming, David. The Oxford Companion to World Mythology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
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