Gilgamesh & Enkidu: The Oldest Epic Love Story Written
Feature Movie Script by Demian
Logline:
King Gilgamesh's heavy rule is challenged when the gods create Enkidu. As comrades and lovers, they are invincible, until Enkidu is killed by the goddess Ishtar. Gilgamesh then abandons his throne, and wanders far, searching for immortality.
Based on multiple translations of the "Gilgamesh" tablets, the oldest epic poem on Earth.
Genesis of "Gilgamesh & Enkidu"
by Dr. Demian, Sweet Corn Productions
Used book store browsing provided my first look at the "Epic of Gilgamesh." The translated story was captivating, in spite of the maddening repetitions. It could make a great movie. As I read more translations, I found that they were not identical. Eventually, I read more than 30 versions, plus about 20 books on ancient cultures and myths.
Some of the translation do not mention the sex between Enkidu and the temple love priestess, Shamhat. In one translation, passages thought to be too risqué, where written in Latin. Sadly, I can't read Latin.
Some translations refer to Enkidu as Gilgamesh's "slave," or a "companion," or that their love was "brotherly." Most translations agreed that Gilgamesh as so distraught by Enkidu's death, that he gave up his throne and wondered in the desert. It doesn't seem logical that a king would give up his kingdom just because of the death of a slave.
Many versions of the epic tell of Enkidu death. Even though it's a motivator for Gilgamesh's pilgrimage, it disturbed me to put it in my script. There's a long history of erasing same-sex culture from art and history, and also requiring that homosexuals be punished at the end of a novel, play, or movie; by separation from their loved one, or death. Wanting to be true to the original text, I decided to make the death meaningful and transformative.
For me, the most important focus on Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Their connection was physical, and the sex between them must be explicit. Their relationship is anchored by their profound, mutual love - romantic, physical, and spiritual - and the resulting desire to protect one another from any hardships they may suffer.
The more I read of the Sumer culture, the more I realized that the middle east was the true birthplace of western civilization. Many surrounding cultures closely followed the Sumer peoples' pantheon of gods and goddesses. They followed Sumer's discoveries of astronomy, a lunar calendar, time measurement. They also benefited by the Sumerian technologies of bronze, irrigation, written language we call "cuneiform," and the wheel.
While there are 12 original clay tablets, eight versions of the "Epic of Gilgamesh" have been discovered. They're often grouped into early, middle and late periods, and were written in Sumerian, Akkadian, and Hitite. Likely the earliest known epic poems, they predating Homer (The Odyssey) and the Bible by at least a 1,000 years.
The Gilgamesh story is antecedent to the legends of Orpheus, and the Biblical stories of the flood, the snake in the Garden of Eden, and others. The ark in Gilgamesh landed on Mount Nisir, is thought to be modern-day Pir Omar Gudrun, south of Zab in Turkey, which is sometimes identified as the Biblical Ararat.
Gilgamesh is also a possible source of the Jewish folk tales of the "golem," a mud sculpture brought to life, which we later see reflected in the Gothic story of "Frankenstein."
Most Sumerians are olive-skinned with black, curly hair. Others are from Egypt, Africa, India, and Asia. Very few were light-skinned. My script must be played by people like them. Musical scales and instruments used in the fertile crescent region, would be a good place to start for sound track. No pop music.
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