Texts in Conversation
The Epic of Gilgamesh and Ezekiel use sexual imagery to criticize cities and their values. In Gilgamesh, Enkidu is seduced by a prostitute when entering city life. Ezekiel uses similar language to describe Jerusalem as a prostitute seduced by power.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Epic of Gilgamesh I 178
Ancient Near East, Babylonian
176 (Then) Šamḫat saw him, the man-savage, 177 a murderous fellow from the midst of the wild. 178 ‘This is he, Šamḫat! Uncover your breasts; 179 bare your sex so he may take in your charms! 180 Do not show fear, take in his scent! 181 He will see you and he will come up to you. 182 Spread your clothing so he may lie on you, 183 treat the man to the work of a woman! 184 his herd will be estranged from him, though he grew up in its presence. 185 His ‘love’ will caress and embrace you, 186 Šamḫat let loose her skirts, 187 she bared her sex and he took in her charms. 188 She showed no fear, she took in his scent: 189 she spread her clothing and he lay upon her. 190 She treated the man to the work of a woman, 191 his ‘love’ caressed and embraced her. 192 For six days and seven nights Enkidu, erect, did couple with Šamḫat.
Date: 2100 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Ezekiel 16:15
Hebrew Bible
14 Your fame spread among the nations because of your beauty; your beauty was perfect because of the splendor that I bestowed on you, declares the Sovereign Lord. 15 “‘But you trusted in your beauty and capitalized on your fame by becoming a prostitute. You offered your sexual favors to every man who passed by so that your beauty became his. 16 You took some of your clothing and made for yourself decorated high places; you engaged in prostitution on them. You went to him to become his. 17 You also took your beautiful jewelry, made of my gold and my silver I had given to you, and made for yourself male images and engaged in prostitution with them.
Date: 600–501 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... In Ezekiel 16:15 the wife Jerusalem is accused, “you used your fame to become a prostitute”. The image of the prostitute is particularly apt to describe the mores of the city life. In ancient Mesopotamia as well as in ancient Israel, the prostitute was the representative par excellence of the city and of the urban mode of life. In the Gilgamesh Epic, in order to initiate the wild man from the steppe, into the amenities of civilized life, the hunter brings Enkidu to a courtesan, the “joyful one” (Harimtu Shamḫat). She teaches him the art of love-making but also how to behave, dress, eat and drink as a city dweller (Gilgamesh I.iv.16 and beginning of Gilgamesh II). The prostitute is the epitome of what is artful and sophisticated, of sensuousness and civilization. Similarly, the nomadic Hebrews acquire their first contact with Canaanite urban life through Raḥab, the Jericho prostitute ..."
Daniel Bodi, “When YHWH's Wife, Jerusalem, Became a Strange Woman: Inversion of Values in Ezekiel 16 in Light of Ištar Cult,” in Foreign Women—Women in Foreign Lands: Studies on Foreignness and Gender in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East in the First Millennium BCE, ed. Angelika Berlejung and Marianne Grohmann (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019), 77–108.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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