The Food of Civilization: Humanity, the Natural Order, and the Epic of Gilgamesh The Epic of Gilgamesh is widely known as an epic about early human civilization and what it means to be human. While these ideas are often researched and discussed in scholarly works, there is one aspect of civilization that is frequently overlooked: food. Food and it’s procuration are one of the three basic needs of a human—as we all known from mister Abraham Maslow and the various forms of Psychology 101 taken at universities across the country. In the Epic of Gilgamesh food plays a symbolic role that shows just how important it is to be human and what happens when humanity is lost. The first appearance of food is in the epic’s opening tablet: the man-beast
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In several key scenes from the epic the mention of beer and bread by name highlights their historical importance to the cultures that produced the epic. In the beginning, Enkidu’s constant destruction of the hunter’s traps hinders the hunter on a personal level but also hinders the economy of Uruk. Enkidu’s first taste of civilized food consists of beer and bread. This scene shows just how important beer and bread are to the kingdom of Uruk and to real ancient civilizations. By having this wild man-beast’s first taste of civilization be that of beer and bread it drives home the import of these foods. The beer and the bread finish Enkidu’s transformation from wild man to a civilized man in a way that is almost spiritual in nature, supported by historical records of bread on sacrificial ingredient lists. This shows up again in the epic when the god Shamash chastises Enkidu for cursing Shamhat who had only ever helped Enkidu by turning him into a man and feeding him bread and beer. Later in the epic bread becomes a very literal symbol for the natural progression of life and its relationship with decay when Utanapishtim and his wife bake a loaf of bread for every day that Gilgamesh has been asleep. In an epic as widely enjoyed and studied as The Epic of Gilgamesh, it is impossible to overlook just how important the small details are, even when those details are as simple as the foods the heroes
In several key scenes from the epic the mention of beer and bread by name highlights their historical importance to the cultures that produced the epic. In the beginning, Enkidu’s constant destruction of the hunter’s traps hinders the hunter on a personal level but also hinders the economy of Uruk. Enkidu’s first taste of civilized food consists of beer and bread. This scene shows just how important beer and bread are to the kingdom of Uruk and to real ancient civilizations. By having this wild man-beast’s first taste of civilization be that of beer and bread it drives home the import of these foods. The beer and the bread finish Enkidu’s transformation from wild man to a civilized man in a way that is almost spiritual in nature, supported by historical records of bread on sacrificial ingredient lists. This shows up again in the epic when the god Shamash chastises Enkidu for cursing Shamhat who had only ever helped Enkidu by turning him into a man and feeding him bread and beer. Later in the epic bread becomes a very literal symbol for the natural progression of life and its relationship with decay when Utanapishtim and his wife bake a loaf of bread for every day that Gilgamesh has been asleep. In an epic as widely enjoyed and studied as The Epic of Gilgamesh, it is impossible to overlook just how important the small details are, even when those details are as simple as the foods the heroes