PLAY (while class is entering): Blue Moon performed by Frankie Avalon; song composed by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart (1934)

Transcription

1 CLC 1023: Sex and Culture Lecture Six: The Wild Man and The King PLAY (while class is entering): Blue Moon performed by Frankie Avalon; song composed by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart (1934) Slide 1: Title The King and His Boyfriend [Babylonian Cylinder Roll showing Gilgamesh and Enkidu defeating a Monster] Cylinder Seal (brown agate): Assyria, ca. 7th c. BCE, h. 3,9 cm, diam. 1,6 cm image: Enkidu, wearing a short kilt decorated with rosettes, hair and beard in curls, an axe in one hand, holding the tail of the Bull of Heaven in the other, the winged human-headed bull crouches down on its foreleg, in front Gilgamesh, wearing long fringed robe with rosettes, a double horned headdress, long curled hair and beard, holding one of the bull's horns while plunging his sword into its neck. Slide 2: Announcements > Breakout Groups 1. New! > Breakout Groups Folder at WebCT OWL (after Study Aids) contains a Powerpoint file with the following information a. How to Find Your Breakout Group b. Schedule of Meetings for Breakout Groups c. Teaching Assistants: Contact Information d. Grades for Breakout Groups This information will also be posted to the world on the Course Website (linked to the Pride Library website). 2. First Meeting of Breakout Groups: Friday, September Click on the Calendar on WebCT OWL: I ve marked on it all the meetings for Breakout Groups throughout the year > also all due dates for assignments and the date of the midterm test. Now that add/drop is over and the class size has stabilized, we re to divide you all into six groups and to assign a TA to each group. Here are the divisions. Please take a minute or two to locate yourself in your group and to note down the name of your TA for the year and the room in University College where you ll be meeting.

2 Slide 3: Breakout Group Division Breakout Groups Teaching Assistants Rooms (University College) Group 1: Almawy > Carreiro TA: Mansoor UC 137 Group 2: Carroll > Grant TA: Echo UC 201 Group 3: Gravelle > Maze TA: Bruna UC 202 Group 4: McFadden > Ruetz TA: Lydia UC 204 Group 5: Sajo > Zouki TA: Rahel UC 212 ANY QUESTIONS? Slide 4: Gilgamesh Dreams of Enkidu [Moon image with asteroid] When the Wild Man Enkidu establishes his place in Uruk as the King s favorite the chum who accompanies him on his youthful heroic exploits -- Gilgamesh will no longer be alone at the top of the social hierarchy without a dream in his heart. In fact the coming of Enkidu will be announced to the King in a series of erotically charged dreams. In one of the King s dreams, Enkidu will be represented as a meteorite hurtling through Ishtar s heavens and landing in the town square of Uruk before an astonished crowd of Gilgamesh s subjects. Today we ll be exploring the remarkable relationship of the King and Enkidu as it develops at the end of Tablet 1 and through Tablet 2 of the poem. Slide 5: Frankie Avalon > Blue Moon The lyrics to our theme song today > the Rodgers and Hart ballad Blue Moon (here sung by Frankie Avalon) > are peculiarly appropriate to the condition of King Gilgamesh at the start of the epic. Though he has plenty of company in Uruk (including numerous brides, as we ll see), he s unhappily alone without a dream in his heart, without a love of his own.

3 Blue Moon You saw me standing alone Without a dream in my heart Without a love of my own Blue Moon You knew just what I was there for You heard me saying a prayer for Someone I really could care for And then there suddenly appeared before me The only one my arms would ever hold I heard somebody whisper Please adore me... And when I looked, the moon had turned to gold Blue Moon Now I m no longer alone Without a dream in my heart Without a love of my own A blue moon, by the way, is a somewhat rare phenomenon > a second full moon within one month. Now it just so happens that the Moon (blue or otherwise) is Ishtar s special heavenly body, and the Babylonians were fascinated with lunar magic and its observably powerful influence on the earth and its waters. Though we never see Gilgamesh mooning around in lovelorn solitude like Frankie Avalon, he will come under Ishtar s influence her moon-beamy Hi-Li power as soon as there appears before him the only one his arms will ever hold : namely, his heroic chum Enkidu. But first >let s review what we discussed last class.. Slide 6: Topics Covered Last Class 1. Enkidu and Shamhat as Sexual Personas 2. Nature and Culture as Sexual Spaces 3. Modern Distinction between Sex and Sexuality 4. Enkidu s Erotic Acculturation > Sexual Myth #1 5. Provocative Propositions #1 and #2 Slide 7: REVIEW > Provocative Propositions Provocative Proposition #1 Whatever is perceived as natural about SEX is re-invented by the City as SEXUALITY Provocative Proposition #2 SEX is knowable only through its cultural representations, i.e. as an effect of SEXUALITY.

4 Slide 8: Sex and Sexuality Distinction We noted how the Sex/Sexuality distinction is reflected (even symbolized) in the erotic initiation of Enkidu by Shamhat. Enkidu knows SEX only as a timeless natural phenomenon before he meets Shamhat, whose work is to appropriate his body and its erotic energy for the regime of SEXUALITY back in the city of Uruk. REVIEW: SEX = a natural biological given outside of history, a condition / activity of the erotic body going back to the beginnings of the world [comparable to the eternal Hi-Li transmitted to Enkidu s body by the gods] SEXUALITY = the cultural appropriation of the human body and its physiological capacities by an IDEOLOGY with a history of institutions and power-relations > sexuality is thus always associated with POWER and its institutions, and therefore with the exercise of power in HISTORY Slide 9: The Big Q What fairy tale (made into a famous French movie) is a romantic retelling of Sexual Myth #1? REVIEW: SEXUAL MYTH #1: CITY WOMAN TAMES WILD MAN Men in their originally natural state apart from the civilizing power of Women are wild beasts that must be tamed. Slide 10: ANSWER Beauty and the Beast Still from Jean Cocteau s 1946 film La Belle et la Bête Animals and Gods operate outside the human regime of TABOO. Sex from their viewpoint is natural or ahistorical or wild. A figure like the Beast is poignantly caught between the Human and the Animal Worlds, and can only be brought (back) into the realm of human civilization through the erotic power of a Beautiful Woman (la Belle). Slides 11-12: Pop Culture variations of Beauty and the Beast TV series: > starring Linda Hamilton as the Beauty and Ron Perlman as the Beast Disneyfied kiddie version > animated feature (1991): note how the taboo-bound regime of sexuality is articulated by the talking cutlery and appurtenances of civilized life

5 NOTE: When I use the term sexual myth, I don t mean an old falsehood or superstition or any kind of misinformation about sex ( myth in the bad sense). I simply mean a story we ve been telling ourselves about sex for a very long time. Slide 13: The Wild Man Icon > Enkidu as Sexual Persona Several members of the class have come up to me after lecture to say that they have spotted many other versions of the Wild Man in modern culture (and maybe even around campus!). Enkidu certainly has many other descendants in literature and film. Here s one of them: SCREEN: metamorphosis scene from American Werewolf in London DISCUSS: Why is the Werewolf transformation scene so horrifying? > it reverses Enkidu s acculturation process We see a civilized man turning back into a beast SEXUALITY (with its taboos) is sliding back into pure SEX > also horrifying is the transgression of the category of the HUMAN (a category preserved by consciousness of TABOO) We see the poor werewolf losing his human-ness in a physical sense and at least partly in a psychological/moral sense. > Note how the moon (Ishtar s planet) functions as the transmitter of superhuman Hi-Li > the werewolf evokes the ancient magical world-view of the Sky Father, The Earth Mother, and the mediating figure of the lunar Sex Goddess Slide : The Wild Man Icon > chart of sexual personas Here s a diachronic chart (a charting through time ) of some of the sexual personas of the Wild Man Icon. I m sure you could add many more personas to the chart if you look for the variations of the Wild Man in literature and the visual arts. Erotic Icon: The Wild Man Persona Persona Persona Persona Persona Persona Enkidu Greek Satyr The Beast Werewolf Tarzan Hagrid

6 Slide 19: Type and Antitype I d like now to introduce a new pair of words into our terminology about Erotic Icons and their Sexual Personas Erotic Icon Persona With a positive moral charge Persona With a negative moral charge = TYPE =ANTITYPE Slide 20: Illustration of Type/Antitype in the Wild Man Icon Enkidu is a type of the Wild Man in so far as he is represented as morally good (if initially innocent) > potentially cultured American Werewolf is an antitype of the Wild Man with a transgressive (immoral) charge because he loses his human acculturation. Slide 21: King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (artist: William Blake, 1795) Here is Blake s striking portrait of Nebuchadnezzar going mad and living with the beasts of the field. QUESTION: What about this famous Babylonian from the Bible? Is he a type or an antitype of The Wild Man? ANSWER: Antitype > strongly negative moral charge (he s a sinful king, a transgressor against God) Slide 22: Type / Antitype in the Great Whore Shamhat, the sacred prostitute of Uruk, is a moral (human) type of the Great Whore. (She s might also be perceived as a sexual persona of The Beauty Queen in so far as she is a human representative of Ishtar) QUESTION: Can anyone think of an antitype of the Great Whore? ANSWER: If the sexual persona we ve been calling Black Venus is represented as a mandestroying witchy slut, then she would be an antitype. (In the Bananarama song Venus, she certainly has strong bewitching powers but appears to be an erotic force without a negative implication.) If the sexual persona we ve been calling Blonde Venus is represented as a

7 cockteasing call girl, then she too would be an antitype. (She s not that in the Bananarama song.) An unmistakably clear antitype of The Great Whore would be... Slide 23: The Whore of Babylon (detail) Slide 24: The Whore of Babylon (artist: William Blake, 1809) Like King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who belongs to the Old Testament, the Whore of Babylon (who appears in the New testament) is a Biblical figure with a strongly negative moral charge. She is the figure of all sinful female sexual predators in the Fallen World > note her associationm with the monstrous many-headed Beast of the Apocalypse. Slide 25: Gilgamesh, King of Uruk Today we re going to focus on the morally ambiguous figure of King Gilgamesh as presented in the first two tablets of the epic. Gilgamesh is definitely NOT a Wild Man. As the young King of Uruk, he is the vigorous male embodiment of urban CULTURE > its defender, its commander, its high priest. As a shepherd is to his sheep, so the King is to his subjects. The walled city of Uruk is figuratively represented as his Sheepfold. He should also be the upholder of the TABOO against violence, in general, and against sexual violence in particular (as ceremonially instituted in the ritual of marriage). He should be the peaceful law-maker and the pacifying law-enforcer > he should be, yes, but at the start of the poem he s NOT. In tablet one, he is described as having a storm in his heart > he is a transgressor, a force of violent disorder. QUESTION: What is he doing wrong? Slide 26: Tablet 1, line 90 ANSWER: Gilgamesh lets no girl go free to her bridegroom (tablet 1, line 90) In other words Gilgamesh starts out on bad footing with his people by exercising his droit de cuissage or droit de seigneur (as the French would say): the tyrannical custom of a ruler to have sex with every new bride on her wedding night. He also harries (violently bullies, attacks) the young men who want to consummate their marriages. Slide 27: Gilgamesh ravishes the Brides of Uruk [illustration by Thom Kapheim, 1999] He transgresses against the TABOO on violence and sex (or sexual violence) by in effect raping every new bride in URUK.

8 Not surprisingly, the people protest, praying to the Sky Father Anu to devise some strategy to stop this anti-social practice. Anu forms the idea of creating a male companion for the king (clearly as a sexual distraction), and the earth mother Aruru makes this idea a reality by fashioning Enkidu the Wild Man out of clay. Even before Enkidu is tamed and brought to Gilgamesh in Uruk, Shamhat reveals to Enkidu that the King has been dreaming of the Wild Man s fateful entrance into his life. At the end of Tablet one, two prophetic dreams are described and then interpreted for the King by his mother, the goddess Ninsun. Slide 28: Gilgamesh s Dreams: Dream Object #1 > shooting star, meteorite In the first dream, Enkidu appears in the symbolic guise of a shooting star > a meteorite, a large rock fallen from the heavens, which draws a large crowd of curious spectators The stars of the heavens appeared above me, Like a rock from the sky one fell down before me... [tablet 1, lines ] Slide 29: Gilgamesh s Dreams: Dream Object #2 > axe In the second dream, Enkidu appears in the symbolic guise of a great axe > a weapon closely associated with royal power in ancient Mesopotamian culture In a street of Uruk-the-Town-Square, an axe was lying with a crowd gathered round [tablet 1, lines ] When Ninsun interprets these dream objects, she reveals that they both stand for the same thing or rather the same person. The rock from heaven prompts this prediction from Mom: A mighty comrade will come to you, and be his friend s saviour. [tablet 1, line 268] The great axe prompts a similar prediction: My son, the axe you saw is a friend [tablet 1, line 288] QUESTION: What spaces do these objects represent? Slide 30: Nature / Culture divide mapped onto the two dream objects

9 ANSWER: The astral rock > a synecdoche for NATURE (divine strength, energy) The great axe > a synecdoche for CULTURE (human strength, energy) QUESTION: But are the rock and the axe also sexual in implication? Slide 31: Sexual Metonymies/Metaphors in Gilgamesh s Dreams ANSWER: Yes, an argument could be made that the rock and the axe also function as sexual metonymies/metaphors in relation to Enkidu. Shooting Star /Rock >Enkidu s natural sexual power (derived from the divine) Shooting Star = Ejaculatory phallic power? Heavy Rock = Enkidu s heroic muscular body Axe > Enkidu s phallus as appropriated for the King s use under the regime of Taboo [it s now a cultural object]. By interpreting these images as sexual metonymies/metaphors, I am effectively interpreting the King s prophetic visions as EROTIC DREAMS > perhaps the first gay wet dreams in literary history! (The poet doesn t tell us whether Gilgamesh actually has any nocturnal emissions during his troubled sleep!) HOWEVER: there is textual evidence (lines in the poem) that support my hypothesis that these dreams should be read erotically, that the imagery is sexual. Gilgamesh s Mother, the Cow-Goddess Ninsun, is pretty clear about the sexual fantasies her son is having, though he himself is quite clueless until she point it out to him. Slide 32: Ninsun s interpretation of the Rock About the rock, she says: You lifted it up, set it down at my feet, and I, Ninsun, I made it your equal. Like a wife you loved it, caressed and embraced it: a mighty comrade will come to you, and be his friend s saviour. Tablet 1, MUCH more than a saviour, one suspects > a male lover? A male husband?? Slide 33: Ninsun s interpretation of the Axe About the axe, she says:

10 My son, the axe you saw is a friend, like a wife you ll love him, caress and embrace him... And I, Ninsun, I shall make him your equal, A mighty comrade will come to you, and be his friend s saviour. Tablet 1, MUCH more than a mere friend, this phallic axe > a BOYFRIEND NOTE: Gilgamesh s Mom is not distressed by her son s passionate bond with Enkidu In fact she encourages it and stresses the sameness (equalness) of its erotic character: I shall make him your equal > Enkidu must be a good match for her son. In fact Gilgamesh and Enkidu are matched in physical terms: they re both Sumerian hunks blazing with male beauty (which is symbolically related to agriculture): Slide 34: Gilgamesh s beauty Here s what the poet has to say about Gilgamesh s beauty: The hair of his head grew thickly as barley, When he grew tall his beauty was consummate, By earthly standards he was most handsome Tablet 1, Slide 35: Enkidu s Beauty Enkidu is perhaps a bit hairier, at least to begin with (in his Wild Man phase), but when he s fixed up by Shamhat and made presentable to the people of Uruk, he s the King s rival in physical beauty as well as strength. Here s what the poet has to say about Enkidu s beauty: He bears long tresses like those of a woman: The hair of his head grows thickly as barley... Tablet 1, You are handsome, Enkidu, you re just like a god! Tablet 1, 207 IMPORTANT POINT Clearly, in the culture of URUK, same-sex bonding (mating, marriage even) is not TABOO > it s Mom-approved > provided, at least, that the boyfriends are heroes! TRANSGRESSION on the sexual front, as we ve seen, appears to lie solely in Gilgamesh s rape of the brides.

11 Slide 36: Tablet 2 Let s pick up the story again at the start of TABLET TWO: Shamhat the harlot continues her transformation of Enkidu into a useful member of Uruk society by leading him to a shepherd s camp, where he becomes a pastoral watchman or guardian of the herds. When Enkidu hears from a stranger about Gilgamesh s sexual tyranny, he is outraged and decides to enter the City (known as the Big Sheepfold ) to protect the brides from the violent interventions of the King. Slide 37: Gilgamesh wrestles with Enkidu...and they become boyfriends When Enkidu encounters Gilgamesh at the start of a wedding, they immediately duke it out until Enkidu accepts the King s supreme command over him. They become boyfriends. The door of the wedding chamber = a sexual metonymy for the bride s vagina. When the wall of the wedding house is said to shudder (Tablet 2, II 115), this is probably a sexual metonymy for the bride s body as the bride prepares for the violent intrusion (penetration) of the King. Note: the body/house analogy (as in Walking on Sunshine ) At this erotic threshold an elemental sexual space the fight takes place between the two heroes, but ironically it is also HERE that the King forges his love-bond with Enkidu. Significantly they do not enter the door but decide instead to kiss each other. The text is fragmentary at this point, but even so it s pretty clear that Ninsun s prophecy has come true. Gilgamesh is erotically distracted by his new chum and the two of them seal their friendship with a significant gesture: Slide 38: Gilgamesh kisses Enkidu Why do you desire to do this thing?...anything...do you want so much? Let me... A feat that was never done in the land. They kissed each other and formed a friendship. Tablet 2, Y14-17 No longer interested in lording it over brides, the King proposes that he and Enkidu embark on

12 a series of heroic exploits beginning with an expedition to the Cedar Forest where the evil giant Humbaba dwells. Fearing the departure of their Ruler, the elders of Uruk try to dissuade Gilgamesh from leaving the City, but he is so smitten with his new boyfriend that he pays no attention to the political concerns of his advisers. And that s where Tablet 2 leaves off. When we come to Tablet 6 on Friday, we ll consider how the love-bond of Gilgamesh and Enkidu withstands the intrusion of a powerful FEMALE FORCE (the goddess Ishtar). Slide 39: Questions to consider for Friday 1. How does the gender system operate in Uruk? 2. Why does Ishtar become so angry at Gilgamesh?