This is a summary of the course Religions and Gender by Lourens Minnema. The summary contains all the information from his slides, my own notes, examples and important images.
RELIGIONS AND GENDER
LECTURE 1: 10/01/2022
Topic: Male and female role models and stereotypes in ancient narratives: mythological and
legendary couples and gender differences in:
- the Babylonian Gilgamesh epic (Gilgamesh, Enkidu, Ishtar)
- Homer’s Odyssey epic (Odysseus and Penelope)
- the Hindu: Mahabharata epic (Nala and Damayanti, Yudhisthira and Draupadi)
- the Hindu: Ramayana epic (Rama and Sita)
READINGS FOR TODAY
- Gilgamesh epic plot summary (hand-out)
- Homer’s Odyssey epic plot Odysseus and Penelope testing each other (hand-out)
- Nala and Damayanti plot summary (Mahabharata 3.50-80) (hand-out)
- Ramayana and Mahabharata plot summaries (Hillary P. Rodrigues, Introducing Hinduism.
New York/London: Routledge, 2006, 136-153, Chapter 7: The Epics)
- Ria Kloppenborg, “Female Stereotypes in Early Buddhism: The Women of the Therigatha,”
o Guiding question: Which ambiguities play a role in the female stereotypes of early
Buddhism, and how exactly? Please, include specific examples.
GILGAMESH EPIC AND GENDER
- Oldest epic in the world
- It is a compilation of texts
Gender itself is a tricky concept. There is a notion that male and female sex refer to
a physical way and gender refers to it in a cultural and social way. When you have a
male gender they expect certainmasculinity culture same for females and femininity.
Short summary of the epic
➔ Main outline for what’s important and necessary to know for the exam
Story begins with Enkidu, a wild person living with animals and then he meets a temple prostitute
(important part of civilization) who socializes him and brings him into the kingdom of Gilgamesh
- The fact that Enkidu gets drunk is a sign of civilization → cultivate the land into wine so from
nature to culture
- Prostitution is not necessarily about sex, it is about getting civilized and socialized
- Enkidu gets upset when he hears that Gilgamesh has sex with whoever he wants and decides
to step up and they get into a fight after which they become best friends
- They kill Humbaba together (who was actually protecting the forest) which the gods are not
pleased with, they cut the trees
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,THE EPIC
The epic begins with Enkidu. He lives with the animals, suckling at their breasts, grazing in the
meadows, and drinking at their watering places.
A hunter discovers him and sends a temple prostitute into the wilderness to tame him. When Enkidu
sleeps with the woman, the animals reject him since he is no longer one of them. Enkidu eats food
and gets drunk (cf. Noah after the flood!) Now, he is part of the human world. Then the prostitute
teaches him everything he needs to know to be a man.
RELATIONSHIP ENKIDU - GILGAMESH
Enkidu is outraged by what he hears about Gilgamesh’s excesses, so he travels to Uruk to challenge
him. When Enkidu arrives in Uruk, Gilgamesh is about to force his way into a bride’s wedding
chamber. Enkidu steps into the doorway and blocks his passage.
The two men wrestle fiercely for a long time, and Gilgamesh finally prevails. After that, they become
friends and set about looking for an adventure to share.
GILGAMESH AND ENKIDU FIGHTING HUMBABA
- Gilgamesh and Enkidu decide to steal trees from a distant cedar forest forbidden to mortals
- A terrifying demon named Humbaba, the devoted servant of Enlil, the god of earth, wind,
and air, guards it
- The two heroes make the perilous journey to the forest, and, standing side by side, fight with
the monster; with assistance from Shamash the sun god, they kill him
- then they cut down the forbidden trees, fashion the tallest into an enormous gate, make the
rest into a raft, and float on it back to Uruk
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,RELATIONSHIP ISHTAR - GILGAMESH
Upon their return, Ishtar, the goddess of love is overcome with lust for Gilgamesh, who rejects her
THE BULL OF HEAVEN
Enraged, the goddess Ishtar asks her father, Anu, the god of the sky, to send the Bull of Heaven to
punish Gilgamesh. The bull comes down from the sky, bringing with him seven years of famine.
Gilgamesh and Enkidu wrestle with the bull and kill it.
ENKIDU DIES – GILGAMESH LAMENTS HIS FRIEND
The gods meet in council and agree that one of the two friends must be punished for their
transgression, and they decide Enkidu is going to die. He takes ill, suffers immensely, and shares his
visions of the underworld with Gilgamesh. When he finally dies, Gilgamesh is heartbroken.
“But his (Enkidu’s) eyes do not move, He touched his heart, but it beat no longer. He covered his
friend’s face like a bride, Swooping down over him like an eagle, And like a lioness deprived of her
cubs He keeps pacing to and fro.”
Let Enkidu die as punishment and Gilgamesh mourns his friend
➔ Reminded of his own mortality
➔ Tries to find access to eternal life
GILGAMESH ON HIS JOURNEY TO UTNAPISHTIM
- Gilgamesh can’t stop grieving for Enkidu, and he can’t stop brooding about the prospect of
his own death. Exchanging his kingly garments for animal skins as a way of mourning Enkidu,
he sets off into the wilderness.
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, - He is determined to find Utnapishtim. After the flood, the gods had granted Utnapishtim
eternal life, and Gilgamesh hopes that Utnapishtim can tell him how he might avoid death
too.
- Gilgamesh’s journey takes him to the twin-peaked mountain called Mashu, where the sun
sets into one side of the mountain at night and rises out of the other side in the morning.
Utnapishtim lives beyond the mountain at the end of the earth, but the two scorpion
monsters that guard its entrance refuse to allow Gilgamesh into the tunnel that passes
through it. Gilgamesh pleads with them, and they relent.
*Utnapishtim is the same person as Noah
SIDURI, A VEILED TAVERN KEEPER (PROSTITUTE)
- After a harrowing passage through total darkness, Gilgamesh emerges into a beautiful
garden by the sea
- There he meets Siduri, a veiled tavern keeper, and tells her about his quest. She warns him
that seeking immortality is futile and that he should be satisfied with the pleasures of this
world. However, when she can’t turn him away from his purpose, she directs him to
Urshanabi, the ferryman of Utnapishtim
GILGAMESH’S RETURN TO URUK, THE PLANT AND THE SERPENT
- When Gilgamesh insists that he be allowed to live forever, Utnapishtim gives him a test. If
you think you can stay alive for eternity, he says, surely you can stay awake for a week.
Gilgamesh tries and immediately fails. So Utnapishtim orders him to clean himself up, put on
his royal garments again, and return to Uruk where he belongs.
- Just as Gilgamesh is departing, however, Utnapishtim’s wife convinces him to tell Gilgamesh
about a miraculous plant that restores youth. Gilgamesh finds the plant and takes it with
him, planning to share it with the elders of Uruk. But a snake steals the plant one night while
they are camping. As the serpent slithers away, it sheds its skin and becomes young again
*Snakes as symbol of eternal life, immortality because they shed their skin
He faces the fact that he is mortal and will eventually die just like Endiku
- When Gilgamesh returns to Uruk, he is empty-handed but reconciled at last to his mortality.
He knows that he can’t live forever but that humankind will.
- Now he sees that the city he had repudiated in his grief and terror is a magnificent, enduring
achievement—the closest thing to immortality to which a mortal can aspire.
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