When a Man Loves a Man
The male competitive spirit is, often times, thought to be related to repressed homo-erotic tendencies and thoughts. Whether hyper aggressive behavior is used as a front for hiding repressed urges to kiss another dude, or whether it’s just to have an intimate embrace with your best bro who you love but, like, not in a gay way or anything, is up for debate. It was all so much simpler back in the day. One minute you’re throwing some dude to the ground, next minute you’re throwing that fellow in bed.
Let me preface this by saying that I am no expert on history. I am merely using what I’ve read of Gilgamesh, Stephen Mitchell’s introduction, and other myths from around the world, coupled with internet scouring and Wikipedia. If I’ve got the wrong idea somewhere, feel free to offer your own insights in the comments
The ancient Greeks get a lot of flack for their incredibly gay sports, but I think that by focusing on this one culture, we’re missing something bigger. It seems like ancient cultures all over the place were, simply, less sexually repressed, and that, as a result, sexual orientation was not really the oh-so-important (sarcasm) identifier it has become today. In ancient Greek society, the important thing was what role one played in the sexual act. Whether one was the active or passive participant seems to have indicated who would be considered normal to their fellows. Like the Greeks, the ancient people at the time of Gilgamesh’s writing seem to have a more lax attitude about sex in a general sense. There has been, as far as I can tell, some evidence that certain later versions of Gilgamesh’s story have been altered subtly to reduce some of the homosexual elements, though they still survive in one form or another. This coincides with later mandates regarding homosexual acts in law codes. What we’ve got in the story now is enough to make one think.
Near the beginning of the story, Gilagmesh and Enkidu face off in combat. Enkidu, enraged by the tyranny Gilgamesh inflicts on his people, is fighting to dethrone the king and become top dog (presumably a kinder, more friendly dog). The fight doesn’t last long and ends up with Enkidu the loser. Suddenly, the whole thing goes from aggressive fighting to some kind of…semi-repressed gay love. Enkidu and Gilgamesh become fast friends, and through his love for Enkidu, Gilgamesh becomes a better man. He is no longer a tyrant, no longer out to repress and take advantage of his people. His heart is still restless, still after fame and immortality for his name, but he is undeniably a better man. There are allusions to Gilgamesh “loving” and “embracing” Enkidu “as a man does a woman” in a dream that he has about a rock. Later, the anguish he feels when he loses Enkidu is incredibly similar to that of a man losing his soul mate. Nothing overtly homosexual is stated in the text itself, there’s no sex scene, no discussion of seven days of lovemaking like the bit about Enkidu and the priestess, Shamhat, but do we really need it? The guys are clearly into each other.
It’s kind of cute, when it comes down to it. Two gigantic men, aggressive, monolithic, combative and all they need is one another. D’awww!
All of this is lying just under the surface of the poem, and while it isn’t meant to be a major plot point, it’s something sweet and also a lot of food for thought, especially nowadays in America. While other places may be a bit more forward-thinking about the rights of other human beings, folks in the States seem to get hung up on silly shit like who gets to love who. The fact of the matter is that people, gay or otherwise, are just people. We are all entitled to love who we want, how we want, as long as it isn’t hurtful. Homosexual love is just love, and it should be admired and respected just like heterosexual love. It all comes from the same place. Love simply makes us better people. If Gilgamesh can go from tyrant to hero simply because he’s open to the love of another man, that’s an incredible thing and we should respect that concept.
Because when we start to ridicule and hate love, there’s something deeply wrong with our society and ourselves.
Yaoi fan girls will eat this up.
>:L
needs more bishonen sparkles <3
What about the Yaoi fan boys? Damn girls get to have all the fun reading those naughty stories… erhum…
*Cough* good points K.
The comments on this strip are already phenomenal. hahaha
What’s this? Is that the mad kluking of the keyboard typing I hear?
Why it’s another slash fiction being written somewhere out there in the great sea of cyberspace :DDD
Hey K,
I just wanted to let you know that you are one of my most favoritest human beings on this planet. Every day I thank the universe for you being there for us in your eternal epicness, drawing badass comics and providing people with happiness and insight.
In short, I love you bro. No homo.
Awww <3 Thanks seriously. It means a lot. I'm super thankful for you and everyone else that reads and comments here. 🙂
i dunno man. i think you might be reading into it a little much…you’re describing actions as being homosexual- though no intercourse is literally mentioned…and like you said, they went into the gritties about that preistess…could it be that poets of the time were just less conscious about that stuff and instead of something superstraight like “they hugged like the tightest of bros, yo- no homo” we get “embraced as a man embraces a woman”…i think more than older cultures being less repressed (though they probably were) what we could have here is modern cultures implying modern values to ancient literature.
not that i’ve read the poem. you could be totally right.
I did say it’s not a major plot point of the story. In thematic terms, it’s not even on the radar, but it is an interesting thing to note in relation to our current cultural values. I do agree that people nowadays have a tendency to look at the past and try to look at it in terms of their own values. We do this with other cultures as well. There has been a recent surge lately with people just looking at history and trying to figure out who was gay! The reality is that these cultures were what they were, the people were who they were, and our values and cultures don’t really make sense there a lot of the time. It doesn’t mean we can’t look at it and learn and see where we’ve come from though, and this blog post was really about that.
Besides, I tend to have to make fun of the sillier bits of the stories rather than the major plot points, which tend to hold up very well ;D
As a huge literature nerd, I can tell you that the homosexual undertones of Gilgamesh are a hotly debated topic in the halls of academia, at least in the halls that still read the ancient classics. The general consensus is that earlier versions did have explicit homosexual acts intact, but they were lost either through time or censorship. Reading between the lines still gives us a pretty gay theme, with the two heroes embracing “like man and woman” and later with Gilgamesh covering Enkidu’s face “like a wife’s.”
The good thing is, in the modern university setting, the general feeling of the students is usually ranges from “oh, they were gay, whatever” to “that’s kind of hot.” I count this as progress.
I blame Enkidu’s parents for his lascivious ways. I heard they were a bunch of animals.
I mean, I feel this even furthers the last comic about Gilgamesh. Despite how much emphasis American pop-culture places on sex, open discussion about sex is too regularly viewed as inappropriate. American culture also greatly plays down the importance of sex in a loving relationship, homo or hetero, by placing this huge superficial importance on it. I love how ancient cultures just knew the importance of sex and weren’t afraid to say it. They didn’t need all the innuendo, they didn’t dance around it. Sex is sex, and its important! The same thing can be said about nudity and other things American culture largely considers socially wrong or awkward. I feel we are too afraid to admit that despite all the superficiality and all the pop-culture that sex, nudity, and love are all part of the natural order, no matter what form they take.
When you announced on the last comic that today’s comic would again be about Gilgamesh… I somehow knew it would be something like this. As always, your comics and comments on said comics are amusing and insightful way to end my Fridays.
Had this been more explicit, it could have been an Oglaf strip. 😮
I believe – and I dearly wish I could remember where I had read this – that it has something to do with social status. In some societies you encounter the idea that sex is properly between equals, and in others you encounter the idea that sex is properly between a superior and an inferior, with the positions allocated accordingly.
One could go from this idea onto the subject of feminism, but that would be tiresome.
This is fantastic!
K,
I’ve only been following you for a few months (tho I did go back and read every comic and a lot of the blogs) but I just need to say that you are awesome!
The talent, intelligence and humor in both the comics and the blogs is obvious from the word “Go.”
Keep it up. You’ve got a lifetime fan here. 🙂
Also, may I link this to facebook?
JJ
Thank you very much 🙂 And of course you’re welcome to link it!
I love these comics! If you’re still interested in the were they/weren’t they Enkidu and Gilgamesh relationship, there is a great book called When Heroes Love by Susan Ackerman. It also talks about the story of David and Jonathan from the Hebrew Bible.
…Uh, that’s it. Did I mention that I loved Happle Tea?
Ive been reading your comics for a long long while now, and you seem to always bring more interesting tales or in-depth discussion to the table each time. every comic you have made is a rare gem in the rough.
this comic in particular seems to truly show just how North America (in particular) has censorship’d itself of such ideals even if it was something so common and was apart of the norm so long ago. i don’t wish to point fingers or offend but i think the start of such censorship towards same gender coupleing started around the time when the Christan religion started to pick up steam. but this is all speculation and something i just thought up at this very moment.its actually quite a compelling thought though.
keep up the good work. fan for life <3
I love that translation! We had to read it for my Freshmen Seminar in college, and I loved it, so I went out and read a bunch of different ones. Me? A nerd? What ever are you talking about?
We had to write a short paper on Gilgamesh for that class. I almost discussed the homosexuality inherent in parts of the story, but instead I discussed how the opposing forces that were Gilgamesh and Enkidu affected the story.
“Soulmate” doesn’t apply gender or anything like. It’s a connection deeper then flesh.
Love does make us better people and there isn’t enough love out there. I think that’s because there isn’t a clear understanding, what with all the mumbo-jumbo floating about in pop culture about “love”.
I’m glad you brought this up. I’m always working for a better world and I think it can be achieved through LOVE AND PEACE!
That sort of complex is exactly why I like bara. Don’t google it.
I read a lot of folklore and myths and I get the same feeling from most of them. Cross dressing (like in the Herakles myths) is also prominent but often glossed over or toned down in certain versions. What most people don’t seem to realize is that taboos change with the times. And that there are reasons that certain things don’t stay taboo.
Hahahaha! this strip remind me of meltwater! only difference is that meltwater put the actual action…
sorry for posting more then once… here’s a link to what I’m talking about! http://www.oglaf.com/toll/
As a fellow artist I just want to say I really admire your work. Your comics are well made, and you put a lot of thought behind them. So thanks, and keep up the good work. ^^
The only thing weird here is how Gilgamesh goes from a charge to a throw. The momentum alone should’ve been an easy pin.
1. It appears to me that historical sexual role definitions were more animalistic. The term “pecking order” comes to mind. The impression I get is that it’s about dom/sub not gay/str8.
2. Testosterone is both the male sexual hormone and the male aggression hormone. How we managed to deal with this to the point of constructing romantic love and weddings/marriage as the ideas instead of “hunt your mate down” leaves me in awe of how woman have secretly gotten the upper hand. Note that Enkidu was first seduced/subdued by a woman.
3. Blatant pitch for Mitchie and Dougie
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS18MyfVC6uFShTXmRpcBMQBFrEZCaFCT
I recently was notified that the fact that Enkidu put his foot in the marriage house door is suggestive because of the old world linkages between the foot and gentialia.
The rant by the artist is quite true, but unfortunately countless centuries of religious propaganda has turned love between same sex people into something to be condemned with a fascist attitude and ridiculous actions and laws against it and the people who were always going to swing that way. Thank god people are loosening up these days, I honestly thought the fiery heart of Hell had to freeze before the USA made same sex marriage legal.