Gilgamesh and Enkidu: One and the Same

Now that I have finished the standard version of The Epic of Gilgamesh, I would like to examine the story’s two chief characters and the rapport they share with one another. It is well understood that Gilgamesh and Enkidu are related as lovers or at the very least, brothers. After all, there are moments when they are said to be “kiss[ing]”, “[making] love”, and holding each other “hand in hand”, all of which are gestures of love and companionship (George 10, 11 & 22). As for the evidence of their relationship as brothers, Gilgamesh’s mother, Ninsun, officially adopts Enkidu in Tablet III: “Enkidu, whom I [love,] I take for my son” (27). Although there are signs that point to their kinship of love and/or brotherhood, I would like to suggest the possibility that their relationship takes on more of a twin-like, parallel quality. Rather than seeing Gilgamesh and Enkidu as two separate entities, their similar features and feats as depicted in the epic seem to assemble into one single character.

Despite the fact that they were born at different times, Gilgamesh and Enkidu’s arrival into the world seems to take on a doubling motif: firstly, in all of his earthly “beauty” Gilgamesh is said to be two-thirds god and one third human, while Enkidu was himself a result of the gods’ creation (3)! Not only is Enkidu the “equal of Gilgamesh”, but his good looks rival those of the king of Uruk, as exclaimed by Shamhat the harlot: “You are handsome, Enkidu, you are just like a god!” (4 & 8). Their identical features of beauty and of divine strength suggest that they are of the same person, or at least representative of one. Not only that, but the fact that Enkidu declares that Gilgamesh defeated Humbaba and Ishtar’s Bull “by your strength alone” affirms that the feat was done by one person (47). Because each victory had required the help of the two of them, the suggestion that Gilgamesh had slew the monster by himself makes it seem that the contributions of Enkidu have been swallowed up by Gilgamesh’s singular accomplishment.

Even in Enkidu’s absence in life, the likeness between him and Gilgamesh cannot be shaken. As Gilgamesh wanders the world in grief of Enkidu’s passing, his physical features takes on an observable transformation: “his body is tousled with matted hair, the pelts have ruined his body’s beauty” (97). It is as if he is embodying his old friend, Enkidu, who once was described as such: “all his body is matted with hair … the hair of his head grows thickly as barley” (5). Even upon crossing the Waters of Death, Uta-napishti asks Gilgamesh, “Why do you wander the wild in lion’s garb?”, which implies that Gilgamesh has now taken on a more feral approach to life, something that we saw Enkidu had done in the beginning of the epic (83). I have also noticed that Gilgamesh’s attempt to defeat Sleep for seven days parallels Enkidu’s act of making love to Shamhat for a week. Both of them came out of their respective deeds realizing that the path they had traversed before was not meant for them: for Enkidu he shed his animal ways and became a human while Gilgamesh realized that his aimless wandering in sorrow was all for naught.

We may never know the true nature of Enkidu and Gilgamesh’s relationship, but there always can be a theory. Here I have pointed out a number of their physical features and actions that suggests that their identities could have easily morphed into one single person.