The tale of Gilgamesh is one of love and loss, what one would go through to try and retrieve a loved one in a time of personal crises. Gilgamesh is in love with Enkidu and when Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh’s love for him drives Gilgamesh crazy with fear of his own death. Perhaps he even wants to try and bring back Enkidu with the secret of immortality that he searches the underworld for. It may be a reach to think of Gilgamesh and Enkidu as a couple, the story does not come out and openly state it, but there are times when it is obvious that Gilgamesh cares for Enkidu more than a brotherly sense.
Early on in the epic there is talk of how Gilgamesh is does not leave any boys to their family. The book says “Gilgamesh lets no son go free to his father” (p 4). Then it says “Gilgamesh lets no girl go free to her bride[groom.]” This makes it sound like Gilgamesh does not care who he takes to bed, but he gets first choice. Since it is everyone that Gilgamesh takes to bed there would be some if not all who were not willing. This is not a good thing that Gilgamesh did and the people of the city where he lived were not happy about it. In comes Enkidu.
Enkidu has his own back story. He is not born of a man or woman, but instead made from a Goddess. Perhaps this is why he is a good match for Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is two-thirds God and one-third human, perhaps it took the direct creation of a god to win his heart. Not just that, but Enkidu was made for Gilgamesh. The people of the town prayed that Gilgamesh would leave them alone, but they could do nothing about it. They had to rely on a god for intervention. Enkidu is the creation of a God who knows exactly what Gilgamesh wants and finds appealing in another person.
This could be why after Enkidu is humanized he challenges Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is not going to want a timid partner. He will want someone who is not afraid of him, someone who will stand up to him and say “no”. Not only deny the god with words, but then back it up with a physical challenge after. Like when Enkidu and Gilgamesh wrestle after Gilgamesh is denied the brides virginity by Enkidu. Gilgamesh obviously needs a partner he sees as an equal, someone who can tame him. Who could tame Gilgamesh better than someone who was recently tamed himself?
Enkidu was not tamed the same way that he tamed Gilgamesh. Enkidu started out in a different place and was more of animal than a man. Again, the way Gilgamesh is acting, he could be considered animalistic. 'where Gilgamesh is perfect in strength, like a wild bull lording it over the menfolk.' Without reason” (p 8, line 211-12). He acted on instinct. Gilgamesh does not care what society says about him or who he makes mad. He is the alpha and the alpha get first pick of what he wants. The only way to unseat him as alpha would be have someone fight him and win. Enkidu acted as an animal too, but not a predatory animal, more of grazing animal. He would eat grass with his friends and graze with them. Enkidu being the nice creature that he is would also destroy the traps set to catch his companions. This all changes when a prostitute comes to make Enkidu realize he is a human. They have sex together for days and when the act is over the animals no longer respond to Enkidu as a brother, but as a man.
When Enkidu defends the bride he is doing to Gilgamesh what was done to him. Enkidu is removing Gilgamesh from what he is used to by being alone the greatest. Now there is someone there who can equal him. Both are good looking and they wrestle over the idea if Gilgamesh can have sex with the bride. When people wrestle it is a close contact thing, not to far away from sex games. Wrestling could in some cases be considered a sex game. After this wrestling match Gilgamesh sees his equal and is smitten. It is not the wrestling that made Gilgamesh fall for Enkidu, not by itself. It was the fact that Enkidu stood up to him and had the ability to back it. In this way he tamed Gilgamesh. When they were done wrestling Enkidu says “My friend, my heart is aggrieved ... 'Through sobbing [my legs do] tremble, terror has entered my heart” (p 18 line 189). The first time we feel love it can be a scary thing. Enkidu has just had two hard transitions, from being clay then being made to live, then from living as an animal to being made conscious. Now, not long after either of those events he has found the one he loves and he knows it on an instinctual level. His legs are shaky, his heart is full of terror, I read this and think he has just felt the power of true love for the first time and understood what a magnificent power it is.
Times have changed and cultures are different. In Russia, men kiss on cheeks three times when seeing each other. Really close friends of the same sex kiss on the lips. People go to the bathhouse with the same sex and help each other clean their bodies. To us in America it could be taken as a homosexual act, but it should be seen as a sign of the culture. Some may read Gilgamesh this way too. That the two were just really good friends. They is no explicit scene where they have sex of pronounce their vows to teach others. How is this considered a homosexual epic? Enkidu and Gilgamesh both sleep with woman in this story repeatedly, so what makes it a homosexual love story?
It is the way the two are meant for each other, Enkidu literally, and what happens when Gilgamesh loses his partner. It is the interpretations of the dreams by Gilgamesh’s mother. Gilgamesh’s has a couple of dreams and his mother Ninsun interprets them for him. ''[Like a babe-in]-arms they were kissing its feet, like a wife [I loved it,] caressed and embraced it. [I lifted it up,] set it down at your feet, [and you, 0 mother, you] made it my equal" (p 10 254-59). “You lifted it up, set it down at my feet, and I, Ninsun, 1 made it your equal. Like a wife you loved it, caressed and embraced it: a mighty comrade will come to you, and be his friend's savior” (p 10 263-68). , "Mightiest in the land, strength he possesses, his strength is as mighty as a rock from the sky. Like a wife you'll love him, caress and embrace him, he will be mighty, and often will save you.(p 10 269-73"
It could be glazed over her and just chalked up to cultural differences and translation about loving him like a wife, but put all together it feels like more. It feels like it has sexual undertones his strength being mighty as a rock, caress and embrace, like a wife made it my equal. It has been established they are equals already, but the reader is not let in on any scenes of caressing or lovemaking between the two. Still there is a kind of ceremony where Ninsun makes Enkidu her son saying “Enkidu, whom [I love,] I take for my son” (p 27. 127). Now Ninsun would have a son and a son in law, it reads to me very much like a formal declaration of coming together into Ninsun’s family. Even will all of this there is more.
Enkidu and Gilgamesh lead each other around holding hands and completing fantastic quests. When you risk your life together all the time sexual tension will grow. The idea of life and death being around the corner or death being able to strike at any time will stress out people’s emotions. They both would need someone to rely on and who better than the one you love. Enkidu tries to talk Gilgamesh out of the some of the quests they embark on together. He is afraid that Gilgamesh will be hurt of die. How could one live without the other?
It is not Gilgamesh who ends up dying. It is Enkidu and this is where the love really shines through. Gilgamesh spends many gold and other lavish materials on items made for Enkidu's death. I mean a lot, like enough to buy a small island a lot. Money is not something that means love, but Gilgamesh is not known as the Gilgamesh the philanthropist, or Gilgamesh’s touch, which turned everything to gold. It must have cost him a real price and he wanted the best for the one he loved. After Enkidu was buried, Gilgamesh went a sojourn.
Gilgamesh could not stand not living without Enkidu, that and for the first time in his life he had to face mortality. In Gilgamesh’s mind there was a solution. There was talk that a way to be immortal had been found. Perhaps Gilgamesh wanted to try and bring Enkidu back to life with it and live happily ever after. Maybe it was just that Gilgamesh was so immersed with grief that he could find nothing else to cling to. So off he goes on his sojourn where he runs into a few people. Each time someone sees him they tell him that he looks like crap. Basically his eyes are sunken and he malnourished and has not slept. People can really let themselves go when they are suffering the loss of a loved one.
As Gilgamesh continues, his journey to search out his was of becoming immortal he continues to be told he looks like crap until he comes to the end of his journey. He finds the person with the knowledge of what makes people immortal and basically collapses. He has pushed himself so far and so hard, now he has come to the end of his journey. This is when he finds out how he can get his partner back, but he just can't push any further and falls asleep for a week.
Upon waking, it seems that all of Gilgamesh’s grief has gone. He is ready to move on to the next stage of plan and get the immortality cure which he is told is a plant at the bottom of a body of water. To be careful because it will not be easy to get and it will cut up his hands. This is Gilgamesh though, so instead of getting something to cover his hands or use trickery of any kind he just goes for it. This may be one of the most meaningful things he has done on his life, but he botches it. When Gilgamesh does not get the plant the story just kind of peters off.
Even though it is not a great ending, it tells us that Gilgamesh may have lost the love of his life, but he has now grieved. He tried unsuccessfully to bring back the one he loved from beyond the gates of death. Now that he has literally exhausted every avenue to try to get Enkidu back, he can rest.
Gilgamesh’s epic may not be the most blatant story of two men loving each other, but it is there. They were more than friends and their story together was a short one, but it shined brighter because of it. To have your ideal made for you, then to know them, love them, and lose them must have been a beautiful and then horrible ordeal. In this way, Gilgamesh is an early love story, not just an Epic.
Citations
George, Andrew R. The epic of Gilgamesh: the Babylonian epic poem and other texts in Akkadian and Sumerian. London: Penguin, 2000. Print.