Editing Enkidu (section)

{{short description|Character from the Epic of Gilgamesh}}
{{distinguish|Enkimdu}}
{{Infobox mythical creature
|name          = Enkidu<br>{{nobold|{{cuneiform|𒂗𒆠𒄭}}}}
|AKA           = 
|image         = File:Enkidu, Gilgamesh's friend. From Ur, Iraq, 2027-1763 BCE. Iraq Museum.jpg
|image_size    = 
|caption       = Representation of Enkidu (2027–1763 BC)<ref>[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Enkidu,_Gilgamesh%27s_friend._From_Ur,_Iraq,_2027-1763_BCE._Iraq_Museum.jpg Commons Link for Image].</ref>
[[Ninhursag|Aruru]] (creator)
|Folklore     = [[Ancient Mesopotamian religion]]
|Grouping      = [[Mythic humanoids]]
|Sub_Grouping  = [[Wild man]]
|Country       = [[Uruk]]
|Region        = [[Sumer]]
|Details       = [[Steppe]] (formerly)
|First_Attested = 
|Similar_entities = 
}}

[[File:Indus bull-man fighting beast.jpg|thumb|Fighting scene between a beast and a man with horns, hooves and a tail, who has been compared to the Mesopotamian bull-man, suggestive of [[Indus–Mesopotamia relations]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Littleton |first1=C. Scott |title=Gods, Goddesses, and Mythology |date=2005 |publisher=Marshall Cavendish |isbn=9780761475651 |page=732 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u27FpnXoyJQC&pg=PA732 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Marshall |first1=John |title=Mohenjo-Daro and the Indus Civilization: Being an Official Account of Archaeological Excavations at Mohenjo-Daro Carried Out by the Government of India Between the Years 1922 and 1927 |date=1996 |publisher=Asian Educational Services |isbn=9788120611795 |page=389 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ds_hazstxY4C&pg=PA389 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Singh |title=The Pearson Indian History Manual for the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination |publisher=Pearson Education India |isbn=9788131717530 |page=35 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wsiXwh_tIGkC&pg=PA35 |language=en}}</ref> [[Mohenjo-daro]] (seal 1357), [[Indus Valley civilization]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Richter-Ushanas |first1=Egbert |title=The Indus Script and the Ṛg-Veda |date=1997 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ. |isbn=9788120814059 |page=123 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4DZYbWQbKAsC&pg=PA123 |language=en}}</ref>]]
{{Mesopotamian myth|expanded=4}}

'''Enkidu''' ({{langx|sux|{{cuneiform|𒂗𒆠𒄭}}}} ''EN.KI.DU<sub>10</sub>'')<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://oracc.iaas.upenn.edu/epsd2/cbd/sux/o0044312.html|title = Epsd2/Sux/Enkidu&#91;1&#93;}}</ref> was a legendary figure in [[Mesopotamian mythology|ancient Mesopotamian mythology]], wartime comrade and friend of [[Gilgamesh]], king of [[Uruk]]. Their exploits were composed in [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] poems and in the [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] ''[[Epic of Gilgamesh]]'', written during the [[2nd millennium BCE|2nd millennium BC]]. He is the oldest literary representation of the [[wild man]], a recurrent motif in artistic representations in [[Mesopotamia]] and in [[Ancient Near East]] literature. The apparition of Enkidu as a primitive man seems to be a potential parallel of the [[Kassites|Old Babylonian]] version (1300–1000 BC), in which he was depicted as a servant-warrior in the Sumerian poems.

There have been suggestions that he may be the "bull-man" shown in Mesopotamian art, having the head, arms, and body of a man, and the horns, ears, tail and legs of a bull.<ref name="LK">{{cite book |last1=Kalof |first1=Linda |title=Looking at Animals in Human History |date=2007 |publisher=Reaktion Books |isbn=9781861893345 |page=15 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PyJZyabg7OsC&pg=PA15 |language=en}}</ref> Thereafter a series of interactions with humans and human ways bring him closer to civilization, culminating in a wrestling match with Gilgamesh, king of Uruk. Enkidu embodies the wild or natural world. Though equal to Gilgamesh in strength and bearing, he acts in some ways as an [[antithesis]] to the cultured, city-bred warrior-king.

The tales of Enkidu’s servitude are narrated in five surviving [[Sumerian poems]], developing from a slave of Gilgamesh into a close comrade by the last poem, which describes Enkidu as Gilgamesh's friend.<ref>The death of Gilgamesh on the ETCSL lines 63-81</ref> In the epic, Enkidu is created as a rival to king Gilgamesh, who tyrannizes his people, but they become friends and together slay the monster [[Humbaba]] and the [[Bull of Heaven]]; because of this, Enkidu is punished and dies, representing the mighty hero who dies early.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Wolff, H. N. |date=April–June 1969 |title=Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the heroic life |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=89 |issue=2 |pages=392–398 |publisher=American Oriental Society|doi=10.2307/596520 |jstor=596520 }}</ref> The deep, tragic loss of Enkidu profoundly inspires in Gilgamesh a quest to escape death by obtaining godly [[immortality]].<ref>{{cite EB1911|last=Jastrow |first=Morris |author-link=Morris Jastrow Jr. |wstitle=Eabani|volume=8|pages=788–789}}</ref>

Enkidu has virtually no existence outside the stories relating to Gilgamesh. To the extent of current knowledge, he was never a [[god]] to be worshipped, and is absent from the lists of deities of ancient Mesopotamia. He seems to appear in an invocation from the [[First Babylonian dynasty|Paleo-Babylonian]] era aimed at silencing a crying baby, a text which also evokes the fact that Enkidu would be held to have determined the measurement of the passage of time at night, apparently in relation to his role as herd keeper at night in the epic.<ref>George 2003 , p.  143-144.</ref>