LEADER 04524nam 22006014a 450 001 9910777572703321 005 20231222212503.0 010 $a0-231-50725-9 024 7 $a10.7312/acke13260 035 $a(CKB)1000000000457744 035 $a(EBL)909309 035 $a(OCoLC)818856980 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000270987 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11215279 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000270987 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10280210 035 $a(PQKB)11436919 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC909309 035 $a(DE-B1597)458575 035 $a(OCoLC)213304831 035 $a(OCoLC)979739415 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780231507257 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL909309 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10183389 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL853813 035 $a(EXLCZ)991000000000457744 100 $a20041220d2005 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurun#---|u||u 181 $ctxt$2rdacontent 182 $cc$2rdamedia 183 $acr$2rdacarrier 200 10$aWhen heroes love $ethe ambiguity of eros in the stories of Gilgamesh and David /$fSusan Ackerman 210 1$aNew York :$cColumbia University Press,$d2005. 215 $a1 online resource (xvi, 353 pages) 225 1 $aGender, theory, and religion 311 0 $a0-231-13260-3 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 301-326) and indexes. 327 $tFront matter --$tContents --$tAbbreviations --$tPrologue --$t1. Of Greeting Cards and Methods: Understanding Ancient Near Eastern Sex --$tThe Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh --$t2. Introducing Gilgamesh --$t3. Gilgamesh and Enkidu --$t4. The Liminal Hero, Part 1 --$t5. The Liminal Hero, Part 2 --$tThe Biblical Story of David and Jonathan --$t6. Introducing David --$t7. David and Jonathan --$t8. Liminality and Beyond --$tEpilogue --$tNotes --$tBibliography --$tIndex --$tCitation Index 330 $aToward 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. 410 0$aGender, theory, and religion. 606 $aHomosexuality in literature 606 $aHomosexuality in the Bible 615 0$aHomosexuality in literature. 615 0$aHomosexuality in the Bible. 676 $a809/.93353 700 $aAckerman$b Susan$01483592 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 912 $a9910777572703321 996 $aWhen heroes love$93701769 997 $aUNINA