Shamhat (or
Šamhat) is the name of a female character who appears in Tablets I/and II of the
Epic of GilgameshThe Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from Ancient Iraq and is among the earliest known works of literary writings. Scholars believe that it originated as a series of Sumerian legends and poems about the mythological hero-king Gilgamesh, which were gathered into a longer Akkadian poem much later;...
-(and later in Tablet VII). She is given the title of "harimtu" reminiscent of "harim", a cultic devotee of the goddess
IshtarIshtar is the Assyrian and Babylonian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate northwest Semitic goddess Astarte.-Characteristics:Ishtar is a goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex...
, whose title originates from the verb "harāmu", the sense of which is "to cover" (and probably similar to Arabic root
hrm meaning "to forbid"), suggesting restricted exposure to the world outside the temple.
Shamhat (or
Šamhat) is the name of a female character who appears in Tablets I/and II of the
Epic of GilgameshThe Epic of Gilgamesh is an epic poem from Ancient Iraq and is among the earliest known works of literary writings. Scholars believe that it originated as a series of Sumerian legends and poems about the mythological hero-king Gilgamesh, which were gathered into a longer Akkadian poem much later;...
-(and later in Tablet VII). She is given the title of "harimtu" reminiscent of "harim", a cultic devotee of the goddess
IshtarIshtar is the Assyrian and Babylonian counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate northwest Semitic goddess Astarte.-Characteristics:Ishtar is a goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex...
, whose title originates from the verb "harāmu", the sense of which is "to cover" (and probably similar to Arabic root
hrm meaning "to forbid"), suggesting restricted exposure to the world outside the temple. Shamhat plays the integral role in Tablet I, of taming the wild man
EnkiduEnkidu is a central figure in the Ancient Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh. In the story he is a wild-man raised by animals and ignorant of human society until he is bedded by the Shamhat...
, who was created by the gods as the rival to the mighty
GilgameshGilgamesh, also known as Bilgameṣ in the earliest text, was the son of Lugalbanda and the fifth king of Uruk , ruling circa 2700 BC, according to the Sumerian king list...
. The texts attribute her with "
kuzbuKuzbu is an Akkadian word which means "seductive allure" or "sexual appeal." It is also generally thought of as "a divine attribute" or "sacred quality." It is used in the Epic of Gilgamesh to describe both the titular character, Gilgamesh, and other characters as well.In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the...
", or sexual attractiveness. She uses this attractiveness to tempt Enkidu from the wild, and his 'wildness', civilizing him through continued
sexual intercourseSexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which the male reproductive organ enters the female reproductive tract. The two entities may be of opposite sexes or not, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
. Unfortunately for Enkidu, after he enjoys Shamhat for "six days and seven nights", his former companions, the wild animals, turn away from him in fright, at the watering hole where they congregated. Shamhat persuades him to follow her and join the civilized world in the city of
UrukUruk was an ancient city of Sumer and later Babylonia, situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates river, on the ancient dry former channel of the Euphrates River, some 30 km east of modern As-Samawah, Al-Muthannā,...
, where Gilgamesh is king, rejecting his former life in the wild with the wild animals of the hills. Henceforth, Gilgamesh and Enkidu become the best of friends and undergo many adventures ... (starting with the
Cedar ForestThe Cedar Forest is the glorious realm of the gods of Mesopotamian mythology. It is guarded by the demigod Humbaba and was once entered by the hero Gilgamesh who dared cut down trees from its virgin stands during his quest for immortality...
and the encounter with
HumbabaIn Akkadian mythology Humbaba or Huwawa, also Humbaba the Terrible was a monstrous giant of immemorial age raised by Utu, the Sun. Humbaba was the guardian of the Cedar Forest, where the gods lived, by the will of the god Enlil, who "assigned [Humbaba] as a terror to human beings".-Description:His...
.)
Shamhat's name is a feminine form of the
AkkadianAkkadian is an extinct Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system derived ultimately from ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate...
adjective "šamhu", which comes from the verb "šamāhu", which can be translated into English as "to be magnificent". The meaning of Shamhat's name thus can be translated into English as "The Magnificent One".