When Heroes Love The Ambiguity of Eros in the Stories of Gilgamesh and David

Description

Toward the end of the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh King Gilgamesh laments the untimely death of his comrade Enkidu, ""my friend whom I loved dearly."" Similarly in the Bible, David mourns his companion, Jonathan, whose ""love to me was wonderful, greater than the love of women."" These passages, along with other ambiguous erotic and sexual language found in the Gilgamesh epic and the biblical David story, have become the object of numerous and competing scholarly inquiries into the sexual nature of the heroes' relationships. Susan Ackerman's innovative work carefully examines the sto... Abbreviations Prologue 1. Of Greeting Cards and Methods: Understanding Ancient Near Eastern Sex The Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh 2. Introducing Gilgamesh 3. Gilgamesh and Enkidu 4. The Liminal Hero, Part 1 5. The Liminal Hero, Part 2 The Biblical Story of David and Jonathan 6. Introducing David 7. David and Jonathan 8. Liminality and Beyond Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index