Shamhat

Shamhat (or Šamhat) is the name of a female character who appears in Tablets I/and II of the Epic of Gilgamesh-(and later in Tablet VII). She is given the title of "harimtu", a cultic devotee of the goddess Ishtar, whose title originates from the verb "harāmu", the sense of which is "to cover" [Black, J., George, A., and Postgate, N. (2000) "A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian", 2nd (corrected) printing, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 107.] , suggesting restricted exposure to the world outside the temple. Shamhat plays the integral role in Tablet I, of taming the wild man Enkidu, who was created by the gods as a rival to the mighty Gilgamesh. The texts attribute her with "kuzbu", or sexual attractiveness. She uses this attractiveness to tempt Enkidu from the wild, civilizing him through continued sexual intercourse. Unfortunately for Enkidu, after he enjoys Shamhat for "six days and seven nights", his former companions, the wild animals, turn away from him in fright, at the watering hole where they congregated. Shamhat persuades him to follow her and join the civilized world in the city of Uruk, where Gilgamesh is king, rejecting his former life in the wild with the wild animals of the hills. Henceforth, Gilgamesh and Enkidu become the best of friends and undergo many adventures ... (starting with the Cedar Forest and the encounter with Humbaba.)

Shamhat's name is a feminine form of the Akkadian adjective "šamhu", which comes from the verb "šamāhu", which can be translated into English as "to be magnificent". [Black, J., George, A., and Postgate, N. (2000) "A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian", 2nd (corrected) printing, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 352.] The meaning of Shamhat's name thus can be translated into English as "The Magnificent One".

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