How do men and women bond today in friendships?
Shamhat and Enkidu spend time with some shepherds. Here Enkidu eats his first human food and is cleaned up and shaven, becoming both fully civilized and fully human. Then he hears from a passerby that Gilgamesh is sleeping with all the new brides in the city before their husbands do (a right of lords known in the Middle Ages as Droit de seigneur, no one seems much upset at Gilgamesh about this). But the information inspires Enkidu to prove he is stronger than Gilgamesh by challenging him to a fight. “I will challenge him. I will shout to his face: I am the mightiest! I am the man who can make the world tremble! I am supreme.” (Mitchell 87) Shamhat and Enkidu journey to Uruk. There Enkidu blocks the door to the most recent brides room. Gilgamesh arrives and the two fight for hours. Finally Gilgamesh pins Enkidu, but the two now recognize the other as their true friend. Shamhat disappears from the story. Tablet 3: Focus question – What types of feats do people do today in order to “achie
