Power of Women in The Epic of Gilgamesh

After reading ”Images of Women in the Gilgamesh Epic” by Rivkah Harris, I realized how much power women actually had in The Epic of Gilgamesh, and it definitely helps to define what kind of role women in society in comparison to men. There are some duties, responsibilities, and characteristics that women have to give them the power to have a predominant role in society. And, in some instances, we can see that the women has more power than the men, and there is a type of role reversal going on and defies social norms at times. Harris brought up a very interesting point about the epic, in that this epic was written and read for the purpose of enjoyment for a male audience (220), and thus, it would be safe to assume that the role and view of women were viewed upon from the male point of view.

Personally, I don’t believe that there is any “humor and comedy” (221) in the role reversal of women, simply because we are probably immune to that in our society today. It is interesting, though, that the people in ancient civilizations found the woman being dominant amusing rather than threatening. I suppose since they all knew and were comfortable with the different roles of both men and women that they did not feel threatened by any instances of uprising of power in women, especially with something like role reversal.

My primary argument here is the fact that the females have pretty much as much power as the males. Our first example/case is going to be Shamhat: Shamhat is indeed a very lowly temple prostitute whose main job is to pleasure the high royalty (basically men). However, her role in the story is huge- she not only pleasures Enkidu, but “it is the intermediary role of the prostitute in transforming Enkidu from one at home with nature and wild animals into a human being” (223). Amazingly, even though she is only a lowly person, she introduces Enkidu to society, brings her in as a “friend” (come in contact as such), cleans him up, and teaches him how to eat, drink, and dress himself. In addition, Harris makes a point that even Shamhat speaks in a “proverbial language and as a woman of wise counsel” (224), which means that she acts like a highly respective figure, and she can also be characterized as a sexual creature as well as a maternal figure for Enkidu. That has indeed given Shamhat, who is technically a lowly prostitute in Uruk’s society, a lot more power than what society has given her, and it has really described how much power women have in this society.

In addition, let’s just take a look at the gods in general. They all have unique names that are directly translated from the ancient times, and so we don’t need to necessarily be biased about who is a female and who is a male. Once I think about it, I have actually gotten very confused throughout the epic on deciding whether or not a particular god or goddess is male or female. They all seem to have a variety of different powers, and they are indeed divided up by a social hierarchy. But there doesn’t seem to be a gender divide, and the males and females all have a variety of different powers and are respected. If we think about it, the females are acting a lot like males, acting with a sort of power and passion, and we don’t hear of any gods taking advantage of others by gender, etc.

So, if we look closely at the gender divides in the epic, we see that upon further analysis, females have almost the same amount of power as males, and sometimes, they tend to surprise us with gender and role reversals. In terms of gender, even though most commentators don’t mention it, there is a surprisingly positive and powerful image of women and men in The Epic of Gilgamesh, and it is interesting to see that because while reading, it seems almost as if towards the end, the divides between men and women get blurred and their roles are less-than-clearly defined.