The wild adopted Enkidu. He drank milk from the teats of gazelles and ran with the herd. He never knew he didn’t belong and never considered life in Uruk. Left undisturbed, he would’ve died a man among gazelles. But, a harlot seduced him. His herd shunned him. And Enkidu began a new life as a civilized man. From the beginning, Enkidu learned how to eat lavishly, an unrivaled tenet of human civilization. Soon, he quickly forgot about his past – a simple time when he lived among gazelles.
Enkidu lived free from extravagance in the wild. As described,
Coated in hair like the god of the animals with the gazelles he grazes on grasses, joining the throng with the game at the water-hole, his heart delighting with the beasts in the water. Epic of Gilgamesh. I.109-113
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There is none of the city activities – dancing, drinking, singing but instead life stripped to the necessities. He didn’t eat cooked food or drink ale like humans did in the city. He ate grass like a wild animal. Nevertheless, Enkidu enjoyed these simple times until he met Shamhat. A representation of civilization, she tempted him with sex and taught him how to eat like humans. How to eat bread Enkidu knew not, how to drink ale, he had never been shown. The harlot opened her mouth, saying to Enkidu: ‘Eat the bread, Enkidu, essential to life, drink the ale, the lot of the land!’ Enkidu ate the bread until he was sated, he drank the ale, a full seven goblets. His mood became free, he wanted to