Shamhat

Shamhat does more to move the plot than anyone in the epic except Enkidu himself, and she is usually described in a half-line as a prostitute. The word is ḫarimtu, and what she actually does is a civilising sequence: she takes Enkidu out of the herd, then clothes him, then feeds him bread, then gives him beer, then walks him to Uruk. Tablet VII is where the epic weighs it. Dying, Enkidu curses her for the whole business; Shamash answers that without her he would never have eaten good food or worn fine clothes or met Gilgamesh; and Enkidu takes the curse back and blesses her instead — 'my mouth that cursed you, let it bless you'. That exchange is one of the very few places in ancient literature where a character is made to reckon publicly with what he owes such a woman.

Domains

• civilisation

Relations

• guide of: Enkidu

Sources

• Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablets I, II and VII.
• Reference treatment of Shamhat as the ḫarimtu who tames Enkidu and is cursed and then blessed by him in Tablet VII.