When Heroes Love

Susan Ackerman offers close, original readings of the homoerotic imagery and language found in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the biblical story of David and Jonathan. Ackerman focuses on the relationship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu and David and Jonathan. Ackerman cautions against applying modern conceptions of homosexuality in understanding the nature of these relationships; instead, she analyzes the stories of David and Gilgamesh in terms of the sexual relations and gender roles prevalent at the time.

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 stories' sexual and homoerotic language and suggests that its ambiguity provides new ways of understanding ideas of gender and sexuality in the ancient Near East and its literature.

In exploring the stories of Gilgamesh and Enkidu and David and Jonathan, Ackerman cautions against applying modern conceptions of homosexuality to these relationships. Drawing on historical and literary criticism, Ackerman's close readings analyze the stories of David and Gilgamesh in light of contemporary definitions of sexual relationships and gender roles. She argues that these male relationships cannot be taken as same-sex partnerships in the modern sense, but reflect the ancient understanding of gender roles, whether in same- or opposite-sex relationships, as defined as either active (male) or passive (female). Her interpretation also considers the heroes' erotic and sexual interactions with members of the opposite sex.

Ackerman shows that the texts' language and erotic imagery suggest more than just an intense male bonding. She argues that, though ambiguous, the erotic imagery and language have a critical function in the texts and serve the political, religious, and aesthetic aims of the narrators. More precisely, the erotic language in the story of David seeks to feminize Jonathan and thus invalidate his claim to Israel's throne in favor of David. In the case of Gilgamesh and Enkidu, whose egalitarian relationship is paradoxically described using the hierarchically dependent language of sexual relationships, the ambiguous erotic language reinforces their status as liminal figures and heroes in the epic tradition.

Susan Ackerman is professor of religion and women's and gender studies at Dartmouth College and chair of the Department of Religion. She is the author of Warrior, Dancer, Seductress, Queen: Women in Judges and Biblical Israel and Under Every Green Tree: Popular Religion in Sixth-Century Judah.

Alexandra Reid:
[Ackerman's] book stands as a testament to balanced scholarship, excellent methodology, and a provocative exegesis that leaves the reader wanting more.

Martti Nissinen:
Ackerman's engaging study gives these narratives a new interpretive framework... essential—and enjoyable—reading.

Benjamin R. Foster:
[A] provocative study... Ackerman has surely brought the discussion... to a broader and more intellectual sophisticated plane.

Jean-Fabrice Nardelli:
This is a brilliant book, learned, moderate, sensible.

Anthony Heacock:
The quality of the scholarship in this book is impeccable

Peter D. Miscall:
Ackerman presents a detailed and thorough introduction... Her study is both informative and challenging.

Raymond-Jean Frontain:
A superb reading of The Epic of Gilgamesh.