WWW.VINNYS.NET Presents TAVA'S PIER MURALS

The Fall: 
 
Enkidu was at one with nature. . . . Gilgamesh
gave (permission) for a young hunter to
"lay bare her ripeness" and seduce Enkidu at his
watering-place.
. . .afterward Enkidu found that the wild beasts
no longer welcomed him.
However, he "now had wisdom,
broader understanding."

The Meeting:
 
The harlot convinced . . .Enkidu to . . .challenge
Gilgamesh. . . . the harlot teaches Enkidu the
ways of
modern man, and he becomes a hero to the
country people -
watching over the cattle and scaring off the lions.
Enkidu then
goes to Uruk and confronts Gilgamesh.
They clash like

mighty bulls,
[see Tava's Print 4]

shaking the very wall of Uruk.
The fight goes on
for hours,
with Enkidu emerging as the nominal victor. After
this battle, Enkidu
and Gilgamesh become inseperable friends

(Don't They Mean Lovers?
-- Love is still Love
with or without sex)

and joint heroes of Uruk,
with Gilgamesh no longer abusing
his position of authority.

Fighting Huwatha:

Gilgamesh is determined to
fight the monstrous Huwatha in
the Cedar Forest,
telling Enkidu that only by defeating this
beast will
his name achieve

immortality.
[read my other text on this website]

On the way,
Gilgamesh has
terrible dreams of death and despair, and
loses morale.
Enkidu repeatedly reassures him, and in the end
            
Huwatha is defeated
(note that in some versions of the myth,
it is
Enkidu that has the dreams).
Details of the actual fight
with Huwatha are sparse,
but it is clear that both heroes play
a part in the victory.
The pair return to Uruk in glory.

 
Goading Ishtar:
 
After Enkidu and Gilgamesh
return from the Cedar Forest,
the goddess Ishtar
becomes entranced with Gilgamesh, and
attempts to seduce him.
However, Gilgamesh rejects her,
recounting in detail the
less than admirable fates of her past
lovers. Ishtar is enraged at this
insolence, and begs her father
Anu to send the Bull of Heaven to
destroy Gilgamesh. In
exchange for a seven year drought,
he agrees, and the Bull of
Heaven wreaks havoc on Uruk, killing hundreds of men.

Enkidu seizes the
Bull by its horns, and together with
Gilgamesh slays the creature.
Ishtar appears on the walls of
Uruk, cursing Gilgamesh.
Enraged by her capricious actions,
Enkidu tears off a
leg of the bull and hurls it at Ishtar,
lamenting that he cannot rend her as well.

Enkidu's Death:

In response to the
deaths of Huwatha and the Bull of Heaven,
the council of gods
dictate that one of the heroes must die.
The god Enlil
dictates that it shall be Enkidu, despite
Shamash's protests that
he is

an innocent
(like Tava's portrayal of Christ) 

[see Tava's Print 67]

in the whole matter.

So it is that

Enkidu is
struck by sickness.

Could This Be Our AIDS Crisis Of Today?
The disease Tava was struck down by?

Embittered Enkidu
bemoans the train of
events which have led to his downfall,
cursing the hunter who
found him and the harlot who seduced
him. . . . Twelve days
after being stricken,
Enkidu dies.

Gilgamesh's Angst:
 
Gilgamesh is devastated by Enkidu's death, . . .
Forced to confront
his own mortality, Gilgamesh dons a simple lion skin . . .
. . .(he hears of) . . .
a survivor of the Great Flood (who) keeps
the secret of
eternal life, Gilgamesh resolves
to search him out. Although
he eventually finds Utanapishtim,
his quest is in vain -
immortality can not be achieved.

Enkidu as Hero:

Although Gilgamesh
is ostensibly the hero of this epic, Enkidu
has the more
heroic personality. Conceived as the savior for
the people of Uruk,
he undergoes a fall from grace which
transforms him
from a peaceful creature at one with nature to
a knowledgeable man,
with all the attendant worries and
problems.
Unlike Gilgamesh, Enkidu becomes a benefactor
of the common people.
Fighting Gilgamesh, he cleanses him
of his tyranical spirit.
During their Huwatha adventure, Enkidu
must coddle Gilgamesh
back to bravery after every bad
dream. Finally, even
though it is Gilgamesh who angered the
Gods by deciding to kill
Huwatha and insult Ishtar, it is
innocent Enkidu who must
pay the price. After Enkidu's
death, it is not his
absence that primarily torments Gilgamesh,
but rather the
realization of his own mortality. In short,
Gilgamesh is a
self-centered, bad-tempered cry-baby, while
Messianic Enkidu is the
magnaminous righter of wrongs.
That's our take, at least.

----

Unfortunately I don't agree
totally with their take on it!
I see Gilgamesh and Enkidu
As Great Lovers
Equal in Every Respect!

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