THE PSYCHOLOGICAL EDUCATION OF ENKIDU AND THE SYMBOLISM OF THE TEMPLE OF LOVE IN THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH

Abstract

What became known as the Epic of Gilgamesh is an Assyrian version of 8th century BC mythical accounts of the Sumerian king Gilgamesh, who would have lived in the third millennium BC. Apart from influencing certain stories such as the biblical flood, the poem contains a rich scenario around the psychological evolution of humanity, which ends up presenting political and social consequences that certainly influenced the beginnings of our civilization. This article aims to demonstrate how the character that would have been created to fight Gilgamesh, Enkidu, is in fact the central aspect for the psychological and, thus, the social-political process of the king Gilgamesh himself and the city of Uruk. Enkidu appears to be a kind of second “I” of Gilgamesh himself and, thus, becomes one with him in order to pacify his barbaric and tyrannical behavior. The whole basis of this process, however, is realized by Enkidu's own transformation through a sentimental process that he experienced with a priestess from the Temple of Love. Although the poem does not mention descriptive data about this temple, it presents its high symbolic importance and eventually becomes the basis for the entire process of psychological education of the two characters.