Olive and Olive Oil Myths II - The Epic of Gilgamesh
06-11-2024
14:32
Clay tablet fragment XI containing the most famous cuneiform text recounting the flood myth in the Epic of Gilgamesh, 2 columns of Akkadian inscriptions on each side, 49 and 51 lines + 45 and 49 lines, Neo-Assyrian period, 7th century BC, Library of Ashurbanipal, excavation site northern Iraq, Kouyinjik ( source ).
The Civilization of Wild Enkidu, Companion of Gilgamesh
The Epic of Gilgamesh, which tells the story of the strong friendship between a demigod and a demi-animal human and what they achieved together, is considered the first great work of ancient literature to have reached us . It is thought that the epic was known since the Sumerian-Akkadian period and was then continued by the Babylonian people. Researchers believe that the epic has survived in the minds of the people for a long time thanks to its powerful poetic power, and that it spread by penetrating its sphere of influence into more than one language and culture in those ages.
The myth, which has a history as old as the Sumerian Civilization in the geography of Mesopotamia, is thought to have existed as an oral tradition that was continued among the people for many years - before it was written down -. It began to be written down in cuneiform around 2000 BC, and in time, copies of it on clay tablets in different Mesopotamian languages emerged. The 8th clay tablet - although it does not contain the word "olive oil" - is the first written source about the existence of an oil that was an indicator of "sacredness" for the people of Mesopotamia at the time.
The epic tells the extraordinary adventures of a demigod male hero who does not want to die and cannot accept death. It contains many mythological elements in terms of content. The translations of the writing on the tablet are controversial, this problem has been tried to be overcome in recent years with the artificial intelligence bot called Fragmentarium developed at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Germany. Some of the tablets are missing or damaged, so the same phrase has been translated in several different ways:
"Whore, … you rubbed yourself with oil and felt good,
"let him mourn."
"Weep for Enkidu, O Whore, you who used to rub him with perfume..."
"May the young woman in the temple who anoints herself with perfumed oils shed tears for you..."
In the epic, the people ask the gods to create a rival for the powerful but uneducated demigod Gilgamesh, who treats them arrogantly. The goddess Aruru (Bright Mother of the Void) creates Enkidu, also known as the "Lord of the Pleasant Place", from clay. When he is first created, Enkidu is a savage living in the wild. In this state, he reminds us of the lonely state of Adam in the holy books when he was first created - before Eve existed. On the other hand, he is the archetype of the Paleolithic human type who had not yet established a settled life culture and lived in small groups of hunters and gatherers in touch with nature. Aruru, on the other hand, is a memory of the times when the belief in goddesses was stronger than the male gods in human consciousness. When the male demigod Gilgamesh learns of Enkidu's existence, he sends the priestess Shamhat to the place where he drinks water to catch him. The temple is the symbol of urbanization, and the priestess devoted to the temple dresses him and anoints him with scented oils. After seven days of love-drunk, Enkidu is now out of the wilderness. He is taken to Gilgamesh, the Lord of the Pleasant Place, who is educated and civilized by the prostitute priestess Shamhat, who is devoted to the Bright Mother of the Void, in a plot similar to the transformation that Adam went through when he was tempted by Eve and ate the fruit of the tree of wisdom. The animal-like man Enkidu is prepared for the god-like man Gilgamesh by means of the female object depicted as the sacred prostitute. The rest of the story is the story of the friendship and companionship between the two men, the process of integration and transformation, and their completion of each other.
"Weep for Enkidu, O Whore, you who used to rub him with perfume..."
"May the young woman in the temple who anoints herself with perfumed oils shed tears for you..."
In the epic, the people ask the gods to create a rival for the powerful but uneducated demigod Gilgamesh, who treats them arrogantly. The goddess Aruru (Bright Mother of the Void) creates Enkidu, also known as the "Lord of the Pleasant Place", from clay. When he is first created, Enkidu is a savage living in the wild. In this state, he reminds us of the lonely state of Adam in the holy books when he was first created - before Eve existed. On the other hand, he is the archetype of the Paleolithic human type who had not yet established a settled life culture and lived in small groups of hunters and gatherers in touch with nature. Aruru, on the other hand, is a memory of the times when the belief in goddesses was stronger than the male gods in human consciousness. When the male demigod Gilgamesh learns of Enkidu's existence, he sends the priestess Shamhat to the place where he drinks water to catch him. The temple is the symbol of urbanization, and the priestess devoted to the temple dresses him and anoints him with scented oils. After seven days of love-drunk, Enkidu is now out of the wilderness. He is taken to Gilgamesh, the Lord of the Pleasant Place, who is educated and civilized by the prostitute priestess Shamhat, who is devoted to the Bright Mother of the Void, in a plot similar to the transformation that Adam went through when he was tempted by Eve and ate the fruit of the tree of wisdom. The animal-like man Enkidu is prepared for the god-like man Gilgamesh by means of the female object depicted as the sacred prostitute. The rest of the story is the story of the friendship and companionship between the two men, the process of integration and transformation, and their completion of each other.
As understood from the clay tablet inscriptions on the Kültepe Kaniş tablets, it has been understood that during the period 1950-1750 BC, women in Assyrian merchant families who carried out trade colonies from Mesopotamia to the interior of Anatolia used a type of oil for smearing (perfume) and offering to their gods. The tablets document that oil cans and measuring cups obtained from different raw materials were used both for daily use and as valuable items in local palaces. Although the word "olive oil" is not found in the inscriptions, it is highly probable that one of the materials used in perfume production was olive oil. Archaeological findings have shown that stone mechanisms designed for the purpose of grinding olives began to become widespread from the end of the Late Bronze Age (1750-1200 BC). This trade era, which coincides with the time immediately before these centuries, shows that olive cultivation and olive oil production had reached considerable levels in Mesopotamia, but that it was still a rare product. In one of the same inscriptions, the share of the inheritance of a merchant's daughter, who was said to be a "nun", was documented in detail.
Tappūtī-Bēlet-ekalle, mentioned in a cuneiform tablet containing a list of ingredients used in the production of perfume oils, was probably one of the female perfumers in the Assyrian palace. She is thought to have lived around 1200 BC and to have been the first recorded person to perform distillation. The perfume depicted in the tablet is an aromatic ointment created by soaking plant materials in a series of oil and water processes. Scholars believe that the profession of perfume making dates back much further and that women were always involved in this profession. It is understood from the tablets that there were other female perfumers in the palace, but their names are not fully understood. One interpretation is that the word in the inscription does not mean a name but rather "a woman who makes perfumes " or "assistant to the lady of the palace".
It is understood that the culture of applying oil to the body was a culture that existed only among the wealthy and upper-class elites and that being a temple priestess was not an ordinary profession, therefore it is a shallow perspective to think of the female figure described as "prostitute/whore" in the myth as an ordinary sex worker. It is known that in those times, especially in temples built for the goddesses of love and fertility such as Ishtar and Kybele, there were temple priestesses who dedicated themselves to serving the goddess. It is more rational to see the woman described as "prostitute" in the epic as a symbol of female figures who prepare a man for life, tame his discordant and vulgar nature, and enter his life as a mother first and then as a wife he falls in love with. Priestesses were urban elite educated women who served merchants or traveling foreigners who visited the temple and made their prayers and offerings, and who hosted foreign men who were devoted to this job. They provided financial gain to the temple in return for the services they performed. In one respect, they resembled geishas, Japanese women who were specially trained and educated to host guests and make their guests feel welcome.
Compiled by: Uğur Saraçoğlu ( ugisaracoglu@yahoo.com.tr )
Source:
1. https://www.ancienttexts.org/library/mesopotamian/gilgamesh/tab8.htm.
2. Livelihoods of the Local People in the Assyrian Trade Colonies Period, MA, Marmara University, Department of Ancient History, Burhan Bozkurt.
3. The Epic of Gilgamesh and Yusuf of Kuyucak in the Face of Nature: Enkidu and Yusuf as the Wild Man/Natural Man Archetype; Gülseren Özdemir Riganelis, Karadeniz Technical University Faculty of Letters Department of Turkish Language and Literature / Trabzon, Research Article, Motif Academy Journal of Folklore, 2020, Volume: 13, Issue: 29, 134-154.
4. https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/foreigners/womans-touch?utm_source=chatgpt.com .
5. http://www.holladaypaganism.com/goddesses/cyclopedia/a/ARURU.HTM .
6. https://uruk-warka.dk/Gilgamish/The%20Epic%20of%20Gilgamesh.pdf .
7. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0am%E1%B8%ABat .
8. http://www.bibleorigins.net/illustrationofGilgameshAndEnkidu.html .
9. https://arkeonews.net/new-ai-tool-fragmentarium-brings-ancient-babylonian-texts-together/ .
10. Gold Cult Goods of Assyrian Merchants Mentioned in the Kültepe Tablets ; Nurgül Yıldırım, Ankara University Journal of the Faculty of Language, History and Geography 53, 2 (2013) 327-343.
11. " ...He Will Sit With Them, Eat With Them, And Be Greased" ... us bat aksat u passat istîsunu; İrfan Albayrak, Ankara University, Faculty of Language, History and Geography, Department of Sumerology, Archivum Anatolicum-Anatolian Archives (ArAn), //1, 2004, 1-21.
12. https://aktuelarkeoloji.com.tr/kategori/bir-uygarlik/kultepe-kanis .
13. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapputi-Belet-ekalle .