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: EnkiduShe teaches him the whole of being human in one sequence — sex, clothing, bread, beer, the city — and the epic gives her the credit for it explicitly, in the mouth of Shamash.Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet II: Shamhat clothes Enkidu, teaches him to eat bread and drink beer, and leads him to Uruk. (primary)

Sources

• Shamhat is the ḫarimtu of Uruk who draws Enkidu out of the wilderness and civilises him, and whom the dying Enkidu first curses and then blesses after Shamash's rebuke.: Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablets I, II and VII. (primary); Reference treatment of Shamhat as the ḫarimtu who tames Enkidu and is cursed and then blessed by him in Tablet VII. (secondary)