Conflict of Cultures

As Enkidu is discovered to be wild in nature and uncivilized, I found the author’s choice of the person responsible for “civilizing” Enkidu to be very interesting. Prostitution is generally damned by most cultures, and Christianity criticizes it as an immoral act of sin against God. Despite these disparage around the world, Mesopotamian culture uses a female prostitute as the one who enlightens Enkidu and transforms him into a civilized man. Through the prostitute’s surprising abilities to domesticate and nurture, Enkidu is no longer a wild “untrimmed” beast. As opposed to other cultures or religions that denounce prostitution as lewd and uncouth, Mesopotamian literature believed otherwise, that the role of a prostitute was of cultivation and nurturing.