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Epic of Gilgamesh: Difference between revisions
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== Importance of Food and Drink == | == Importance of Food and Drink == | ||
When we are first introduced to Enkindu, it is when “he was innocent of mankind, he knew nothing of the cultivated land” (19). He also “ate grass in the hills with the gazelle and lurked with wild beasts at the water-holes” (19). Though he is biologically human, he lives like a wild animal. One aspect of his animalism is his eating habits. The food we eat, the ways it is prepared and consumed, and the rituals of hospitality are all forms of culture and civilization. In order for Enkindu to learn to be human, he must learn to eat as one. When the shepherds originally present food to him the text states that, “Enkindu could only suck the milk of wild animals. He fumbled and gaped, at a loss what to do or how he should eat the bread and drink the strong wine” (22). Because he only knows how to eat as an animal, he is an animal. | |||
Immediately after the harlot explains to him the way of human eating, and he consumes the bread and wine like a man, “He rubbed down the matted hair of his body and anointed himself with oil. Enkindu had become a man” (22). His new discovery of human eating has led to his humanization. According to Jager, Enkindu’s “exodus from an older and more primitive and confluent world and his entrance into a human cosmos is marked by a distinctly different way of…eating and drinking.” His new understanding of how humans prepare and eat food has granted him the capacity to act as a man, and therefore be admitted into human civilization. Jager also explains that “Fully human eating begins by domesticating natural grasses, roots and berries and by transforming them into agricultural crops.” Farming shows human advancement and technology. A refined taste for food and drink and an understanding of cultivation reflects cultural appreciation. Now that Enkindu can properly eat human food, he can acknowledge the society which produces it. | |||
== Attitudes Toward Women == | == Attitudes Toward Women == | ||