Shamhat

But a trapper sees him and is horrified.

imagine spending days preparing a pit arranging a snare tracking the movement of game only to find that some enormous naked man has undone all your work the trapper goes to his father his father tells him to go to uruk and in uruk the solution is not a weapon it is shamhat Shamhat is often called a temple prostitute in older translations, though her exact social role is more complicated than that label suggests.

She is a woman connected to sacred and urban life, someone who understands the human world Enkidu has never entered.

She goes out to the watering place and waits.

Then Enkidu comes with the animals.

What happens next is one of the strangest and most important transformations in ancient literature.

Shamhat reveals herself to Enkidu.

She invites him toward her.

A nearby hunter notices him and asks first his father and then King Gilgamesh what to do about the wild man.

Both tell him to take a temple harlot, in quotes, named Shamhat to Enkidu so that she can seduce him.

Footnote.

It's unclear what Temple Harlot means, exactly.

Back to the text.

This unusual strategy is successful.

A week of sex with Shamhat turns Enkidu into a tamed beast.

Footnote.