While I was reading the story of Gilgamesh, something that surprised me is the fact that the people sends a harlot to Enkindu in order to investigate and discover who Enkindu really is. The father orders the trapper to go to Gilgamesh and “ask him to give you a harlot, a wanton from the temple of love; return with her, and let her woman’s power overpower this man (p.4 par. 4).” In a way, the harlot is a form of diplomat trying to communicate and discover a foreign group or in this case man. It can be assumed that it is best to send a woman because a righteous man would not dare hurt a woman.
In the Philippines, the government control has been full of corruption and chaos. In specific, the control for the Mindanao area has been very critical. In an attempt for a candidate to take some control of the Philippines, Mr. Mangudadatu [opposing candidate] “sent his wife and other female relatives…because he believed the Ampatuans [incumbent] would not dare hurt the women (Onishi par. 7).” Unfortunately, everyone that was sent by Mr. Mangudadatu was massacred on the spot.
In both stories, women signify as a form of diplomacy and communication. In Shamar’s case, she was sent in order to turn this “animal” into a normal human being. They wanted him to become more human like filled with desire. In Mr. Mangudadatu’s case, he sends the women in his family in order to inform others of the new person [Mr. Mangudadatu] in the scene. They wanted to open up the eyes of the local people to vote for a change.
Works Cited
“The Epic of Gilgamesh.” Assyrian International News Agency.
<http://www.aina.org/books/eog/eog.pdf> 9 September 2010
Onishi, Norimitsu. “Clan Planned Philippine Massacre Over Dinner, Witness Says.” The
New York Times. 8 September 2010. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/world/asia/09phils.html?scp=4&sq=philippines&st=cse>. 9 September 2010.
I, too, was very struck by the story of the massacre of women and children in the Mindanao area of the Philippines. Your comparison is excellent.
However, the final sentence of your first paragraph confuses things a bit. Those who send the harlot to Enkido know that he will not kill her — but not because they are counting on him to be righteous. He is like an animal, at that point, remember? Why is Gilgamesh certain that Enkido will not kill Shamhat, the harlot?