Freudian Ideas in GE

After reading Harris' article "Images of Women in the Gilgamesh Epic," it seemed to me that the epic of Gilgamesh was written by and for males who have extremely masculine desires and subconscious ideas. The modern psychologist Sigmund Freud argued that males have a deep, subconscious lust towards their mothers, because of their maternal and nurturing nature. He also argued that the humans' subconscious is driven by the sexual desires. According to Freud, then, the epic of Gilgamesh was created without any repressions of these subconscious desires. The women are depicted as sexual creatures yet when the male characters (Gilgamesh, Enkidu) are in need, the women transform to become nurturing, supporting, and wise. It seems quite evident that the men who created this story for a most likely male audience, wrote with their natural instincts in order to appeal to the mass audience. The epic of Gilgamesh is almost like a male fantasy in that the women are depicted as sexual creatures, yet at the same time they can become motherly. This is especially evident in the fact that Gilgamesh and Enkidu "respect" Shamhat, who is a prostitute, whereas Ishtar, they ridicule and disrespect. Ishtar is the complete opposite of a male fantasy, because she presumes a masculine role in the epic and is not the motherly figure. It is quite interesting that the Freudian concepts are so prevalent in an epic written in such ancient times, which prove the universality of the themes in the epic.