Background
The Epic of Gilgamesh is a poem that tells the story of the great king Gilgamesh, the culture of the Sumerians, and their religion, among other things. Sumerians valued ideas such as marriage, power, good morals, revenge, and pleasure. They expected their heroes and leaders to be of good morals and protect them.
Gender roles were distinct, with men typically protecting and women nurturing families. The polytheist community worshiped in temples and other places, such as rivers and mountains. Sumerians valued moral behaviors and had strong faith in various gods.
Important Ideas for Sumerians
Sumerians valued ideas such as power, marriage, pleasure, good morals, and revenge. The poem is about individuals who wield power and control over society. Indeed, it intentionally overlooks the poor and the powerless in the community. Although King Gilgamesh ruled over most people who were powerless, he only wrote about powerful gods such as Aruru, Ishtar, Ninsun, and his friend Enkidu (Nast).
Therefore, it is apparent that the people of Sumer gained significant power and control. From this perspective, being ancient means being extraordinarily powerful. As discussed in the poem, most people of Sumer had ways of controlling what happened to them. They also had the option to accept or refuse a life proposal or an outcome.
Values, Temples, and Gender Roles
The Sumerians practiced standardized behaviors, had temples for worship, and observed various gender roles. Marriage and pleasure seemed valuable to the Sumerians because people would often have weddings. Sumerians were responsible, respectful, humble before leaders, and of upright morals.
Sexual pleasure is also highly valued, and various characters take drastic actions for pleasure. Gilgamesh would spend the first nights with all the brides before they could sleep with their husbands (Nast). The husbands were unhappy about it and took action against Gilgamesh to preserve their own pleasure.
Enkidu too valued sexual satisfaction because he engaged Shamhat in an uninterrupted act of coitus for days (Sandars 22). Indeed, the Sumerian religion allowed temple prostitution as a respected profession. Temple prostitutes would serve as the gods of fertility, whose role was to bring happiness to the community’s men (Sandars 23). In other words, being a woman in Sumer meant assuming the role of serving men, who were the controllers of the community. Men were expected to be powerful, courageous, and ready to fight for their people and what they valued.
Culture, Friendship, Heroes, and Leadership Expectations
The Sumerian people had a culture that valued friendship and held high expectations for their leaders and heroes. Sumerians valued good morals and justice, and expected their rulers to uphold these principles for a better society. Angered by Gilgamesh’s acts of the ‘droit du seigneur’, the people of Uruk ask Ururu to stop his habits (Sandars 32). Ururu creates Enkidu to fight Gilgamesh, and by befriending him, they adopt good morals. Enkidu, too, acquires good morals after transforming into a human being.
The Sumerians believed in the importance of friendship, and the friendship between Enkidu and Gilgamesh exemplifies this. When Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh mourns for him for seven days, until his body becomes rotten. “Oh Enkidu, arise, I will conduct thee unto Eanna, dwelling place of Anu, where Gilgamish [oppresses] the souls of men” (Sandars 71). Gilgamesh was in disbelief that his friend Enkidu was no longer alive. He promised he would avenge and protect him if he woke up from death.
However, it was too late for the king to make such a wish. Sumerians expected their heroes to have good morals, be respectable, and protect the people. Revenge was a significant element amongst the Sumerians, as shown by Enkidu, Gilgamesh, and Ishtar. According to Gilgamesh, Ishtar often turned the men she loved into wolves and frogs (Nast). Indeed, she killed Enkidu as revenge because Gilgamesh had turned down her marriage proposal.
Religion and Dressing
The Sumerians were polytheists who believed in powerful and controlling gods and had a distinct mode of dress. The community built many temples where they worshiped different gods, for example, Ishtar, the goddess of love and war, Aruru, the goddess of creation, and Sin, the moon god. The Sumerian people worshiped in various locations, including temples and rivers. During the worship, they would perform sex, sacrifices, festivals, and shamanic magic (Sonik 801).
Sumerian rulers had the power to command their lands and subjects. For example, after the death of Enkidu, Gilgamesh asked the forest of Cedar and the pure Euphrates to grieve his friend. The Sumerians also expected their rulers to protect them from monsters such as Humbaba (Sandars 54). Consequently, Gilgamesh and Enkidu hunt the monster and kill it for the people.
Sumerians valued good hygiene by maintaining cleanliness and wearing well-made clothes. Men and women wore unique dresses, mostly tunics, and shawls made from one piece of material (Sonik 800). They would also wear skirts made of kaunakes, fleece-like fabric, and their lengths varied depending on hierarchical status. Deities and royalty wore long skirts, while servants wore short ones.
Dreams and Mortality
Sumerians believed in dreams and their interpretation, and were mortal. Gilgamesh had many dreams; amongst them, one where he embraced meteorites that fell to the earth, and another dream where he embraced an axe (Nast). His mother, the goddess Ninsun, would occasionally interpret his dreams. Indeed, she has revealed to Gilgamesh that he would have a friend, Enkidu, who would become a great comrade. Sumerians were mortal except for the historical Uta-napishti and his wife, who were granted immortality (Nast).
After the death of his friend Enkidu, Gilgamesh went in search of Uta-napishti to inquire about the possibility of becoming immortal. Uta-napishti refutes claims that he faced death by saying, “No one at all sees Death, no one at all sees the face [of Death,] no one at all [hears] the voice of Death” (Sandars 82). He assured Gilgamesh that no human was immortal and that he would eventually die. Therefore, the Uruk king started to appreciate what he had accomplished as the king.
Works Cited
Nast, Condé. “How to Read “Gilgamesh”.” The New Yorker.
Sandars, Nancy K. The Epic of Gilgamesh. Penguins, 1972.
Sonik, Karen. “Minor and Marginal(ized)? Rethinking Women as Minor Characters in the Epic of Gilgamesh.” Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 141, no. 4, 2021, pp. 779-802.