I was just watching a video on Youtube by a scholar/Youtube personality who posts under the name Metatron. Metatron, by the way, has to be one of the finest scholars on Youtube, if you watch any of his videos it is clear how careful and thorough he is in his research, how far he goes as a historian to be unbiased.
And this particular video was on the epic of Gilgamesh.
Specifically, the relationship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu.
Now, this relationship is the lynchpin of the entire work.
Its emotional core, the key to its plot, everything.
Half of the story is their relationship, the other half is driven by Gilgamesh mourning Enkidu's death.
And so it makes the story so much more powerful to know that the two had a very deep, profound, passionate relationship.
Gilgamesh and Enkidu were lovers.
But they were not just lovers.
Some of the imagery used, as put in the original cultural context by Metatron, could almost be straight out of a Jim Steinman song.
I can imagine Gilgamesh singing 'It's All Coming Back to Me Now' to Enkidu.
Just before he meets Enkidu, Gilgamesh has a dream.
In that dream, talismans of his love with Enkidu to come come to him from out of a meteor out of the sky!
Some of the imagery in the dream is religious- ancient Sumerian religious, of course!
And when Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh mourns for Enkidu as one would a beloved wife!
This was a deep and profound relationship!
And this is the relationship that is the lynchpin of the entire story!
It makes the story just so much more powerful!
I do hope there are good translations out there!
By the way- the Youtube video is 'did I say Gilgamesh was gay?' by Metatron if you want to know more- some of this is linguistic and cultural references that would not come through in any translation, especially with no prior knowledge of Sumerian and Babylonian culture (some of it is poetic double entendres that would also require knowledge of Sumerian culture to understand, but would be as obvious to a Babylonian as saying I let the cat out of the bag is to a modern English speaker!) (Though clearly not the meteor! The meteor comes through translation just fine!)
Anyway, maybe this will give you as much a sense of deep profound beauty and narrative power as it gave me!
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson