The Mother-goddess Ishtar, by Evelyn Paul . Illustration from Lewis Spence: Myths and legends of Babylonia and Assyria (1916)

The first part of the second ritual drama was easy enough to design.

The Trapper…who looked so good in his costume, he should really dress that way all the time… brought the news to Gilgamesh that a strange and wild man had been seen in the forest, running with the animals. A man who could be the King’s double.

Gilgamesh, recognising that this might be the personage whose appearance was prophesied by his dream, ponders how best to address the situation. He cannot be seen to be over-eager to greet this new being… that would be perceived as a weakness…especially as, in that dream, this new being seemed to receive all the adulation normally reserved for himself. Nor can he ignore the perceived threat of having his ‘double’ roam free within the kingdom. Control is everything to Gilgamesh…as it is to the untamed ego.

He finds what he believes to be the perfect solution… he will send Shamhat, the High Priestess, to ‘civilise’ this wild man by giving herself to him. Then she will bring him to the royal court, thus allowing Gilgamesh to gain the upper hand while, at the same time, taking his revenge for the Priestess’s earlier rejection of his demands by forcing her to accept this uncouth lover.

The Trapper is despatched with the King’s command… a term to which the High Priestess objects. She has already explained to the King that, where the gift of her body is concerned, she need obey only her own heart… or the will of the gods.

It is the Trapper who, with a mind and heart unclouded by political chicanery or heightened emotion, poses the question that stops the angry Priestess in her tracks; just what is the will of the gods in this matter? The Fates turn the wheels of Destiny as Shamhat seeks her answer from the Divine Council.

The Council, knowing that the wild man is Enkidu, the being formed from the heart of the goddess Aruru to be Gilgamesh’s Second Self, tell the Priestess that she must go to him, using all the gifts of love to bring his humanity to life, balancing the beast within and opening his heart.

And here, we met a problem…

Continue reading at The Silent Eye