Forbidden Fruit

Ancient Near Eastern Sexual Metaphors

Ronald A. Veenker
Western Kentucky University

In the literature of Sumer, Babylon and Assyria one encounters a broad variety of
sexual metaphors. This study focuses upon sexual metaphors taken from garden im-
agery, including such terms as “fruit” and “eating,” found in a variety of cuneiform texts.
After cataloging a select few ancient Near Eastern examples of such metaphors, the fo-
cus shifts to ancient Hebrew literature, the Bible and the Talmud, seeking similar exam-
ples of fruit, garden and eating images. Following the presentation of several biblical
and talmudic sexual metaphors, a detailed analysis of the Garden of Eden narrative in
the Hebrew Scriptures reveals that the biblical writer was familiar with such usage and
even employed sexual fruit metaphors in the story of Adam and Eve. Finally, in pursuit
of a better understanding of “knowledge” and “sexual knowing,” a comparison is made
between the Garden narrative and an episode from the Gilgamesh Epic known as
the “Seduction of Enkidu”(tablet I :160–93). From this comparison we learn that the
“ascent of knowledge” theme is a part of the structure of both narratives.

Forbidden Fruit a flavor has

That lawful Orchards mocks —
How luscious lies within the Pod
The Pea that Duty locks —
— Emily Dickinson

When one analyzes ancient Near Eastern sexual metaphors with a view toward
elucidating sexual references in the Hebrew Bible, new light is shed on the
rhetoric of the Garden of Eden narrative in Genesis.¹ The focus of this analysis
will be sexual metaphors from the Bible and ancient Near Eastern texts having
to do with fruit and sexual eating. It turns out that “eating fruit” in Genesis 3 is
a simple metaphor for intercourse and, therefore, the biblical narrator wishes
to tell the reader by means of this metaphor that Adam and Eve experienced
sex for the first time in the Garden. That carnal knowledge is the first rung on
the ladder of human “knowing” is not only seen in Genesis, but is found in the
structure of the Gilgamesh Epic as well. A comparison of the two narratives
results in clarification of the “ascent of knowledge” theme often neglected by
commentators on the book of Genesis.
1 The abbreviations used are those employed by the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, the Pennsylvania
Sumerian Dictionary, and Patrick H.Alexander et al., eds., The SBL Handbook of Style for Ancient
Near Eastern, Biblical, and Early Christian Studies (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1999).

57

05 HUCA70/71 Veenk 10sw 57 10/16/01, 8:52 AM

 58 ronald a. veenker 2

Sexual Fruit Metaphors

The universality of sexual fruit metaphors may be linked to the intrinsic sexuality
of fruit itself. Fruit is the reproductive part of the plant — its sexual organs.

Fruit is . . . very colorful and shaped so that it is readily differentiated from

foliage. It is attractive to the eye, and tempts one to approach and touch
it. Fruit exudes an appealing fragrance, especially strong and irresistible
when it is very ripe. Fruit makes an ideal metaphor for sex because the
two have quite similar sensual attributes. The sex organs are irregular in
shape in comparison to other body parts. They increase in size and change
color during sexual arousal, making them more attractive. The odors of
the vaginal and seminal fluids also serve to attract and arouse. And the
juiciness of both fruit and pudenda is obvious.²

When we humans unlocked the secrets of botanical reproduction and fertility

and began effective plant domestication, these metaphors appeared in the hu-
man lexicon ; they are, therefore, present in the world’s most contemporary as
well as its most ancient literature. For example, the mandrake is commonly asso-
ciated with fertility and is thought to be an aphrodisiac because its roots resem-
ble both male and female genitals.³ The fig, which is also seen as both male and
female, is a fruit often associated with sexual images.⁴ Fruit metaphors and re-
lated images taken from the world of gardens abound in the English poets from
Lawrence to Chaucer, in the works of Europeans in all periods, and in the
literature of classical Greece and Rome.

Ancient Near Eastern Sexual Fruit Metaphors

fruit images
The theme of gardens and their sexual metaphors is found as well in the ancient
Near Eastern world. Lush orchards and fruit-filled gardens are frequently men-
2 L.A.Morrissett, “Gender Role and Sexuality in the Garden of Eden : Some Considerations of the
Mythology and Meaning of Genesis 2–4” (Unpublished MS, 1992) 2. “Food is created by the sex
of plants and of animals ; and we find it sexy. When we eat an apple or peach, we are eating the
fruit’s placenta. But, even if that weren’t so, and we didn’t subconsciously associate food with sex,
we would still find it sexy for strictly physical reasons. We use the mouth for many things — to
talk and kiss, as well as to eat. The lips, tongue, and genitals all have the same neural receptors,
called Krause’s end bulbs, which make them ultrasensitive, highly charged. There’s a similarity of
response.” Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses (New York : Random House, 1990) 132.
3 Marvin H. Pope, Song of Songs : A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, AB 7c
(Garden City : Doubleday, 1977) 647–50.
4 For a very salacious male lyric see May Sarton “The Fig,” in J. and J. Digby, eds., Food for Thought :
an Anthology of Writings Inspired by Food (New York : Morrow, 1987) 394.

05 HUCA70/71 Veenk 10sw 58 10/16/01, 8:52 AM

 3 forbidden fruit 59

tioned in Mesopotamian literature. The Akkadian word kuzbu is used to describe

the “luxuriance” and “abundance” of fruit in orchards and gardens.⁵ And this
same kuzbu (Hi-li in Sumerian) is frequently used to indicate sexual appeal in a
human or a god : “she (IStar) is wrapped in charm and loveliness, adorned with
attractiveness and sexual appeal (and decked out with) cosmetics.”⁶ As a simple
noun it can refer to one’s sexual stamina, e.g., the god Ninurta is described as he
“whose sexual vigor is inexhaustible.”⁷
The noun kuzbu can also refer simply to sexual organs. For example, in a
well-known passage from the Gilgamesh Epic the hunter instructs a prostitute
on seductive body movements : “Expose your vulva ! Let him take your kuzbu !”⁸
In this poetic context kuzbu is a synonym for vulva ; the focus never leaves the
woman’s pelvic area in the parallel stichs. In another Akkadian text : “Here is
my kuzbu, get an erection! Let me have sex with you!” ⁹
Another “garden” word in Akkadian is inbu “fruit.” While there is no lack of
examples of inbu as literal “fruit,” notice that it functions as a sexual metaphor
in the same manner as kuzbu and, in fact, occurs in parallel with kuzbu : “she
carried off the young woman’s attractiveness (inibSa); by her angry look she took
away her charm (kuzubSa).”¹⁰ Again, like kuzbu, inbu metaphorically refers to
the penis. In the Gilgamesh Epic, when she makes her seduction speech, Ishtar
says to Gilgamesh, “Come on, Gilgamesh, be my lover and grant me your fruit !”¹¹
“Give me your penis” seems to be the demand of the adventurous goddess of sex-
ual attraction. Again, in an Old Babylonian love lyric, a female incites her lover

5 E.g., kirï nuHSi ßippat NÍG.SA.SA.hI.A uSasHirSuma musarê kuzbi itâtiSu uSalme,“I surrounded it
(the bït akïti) with a fertile grove, an orchard with all kinds of fruit, and edged it with luxuriant
flower beds,” OIP 2 137 :35 and, further, kirâtiSu . . . Sa inba u karäna za1nama kïma tïk Samê inattuka,
“his orchards, studded with fruit trees and vines, dripping (with fruit as abundant) as the rainfall,”
TCL 3 + KAH 2 :223 Sargon.
6 Sät mëleßim ru1ämam labSat za1nat inbi miqi1äm u kuzbam, RA 22 170 :6 and 8.
7 [Hi].li.bi nu.til.la : Sa kuzubSu la qatû, Lugale IV 6.
8 ürki pitêma kuzubki lilqi, “expose your üru that he may take your kuzbu,” GE I iv 9.
9 kuzbi annüti tibi lurtäma, VAT 17347 Rev 14, W. G.Lambert, “Divine Love Lyrics from the Reign of
Abi-eSuH,” MIOF 12 (1966) 50. As well, kuzbu refers to the penis : nära la ibbir kuzubSu imaqqut, “he
shall not cross a canal or his kuzbu will fall (i.e., he will lose his erection),” KAR 177 r. iii 34, Iraq
23 : 90 :12.
10 Sa ardati damiqti inibSa itbal, ina nekelmîSa kuzubSa ilqe, e†la ippalisma bäStaSu ïkim, ardata
ippalisma inibSa itbal, ïmurannima kaSSäptu illika arkija, ina imtiSa iptaras alaktu, “she carried off
the young woman’s attractiveness ; by her angry look she took away her charm. She looked upon
the young man and took away his virility. She looked upon the young woman and carried off her
attractiveness. The sorceress saw me, she followed me, with her spittle she blocked (my) way.” Maqlû
III 9–14 Marie-Louise Thomsen,“The Evil Eye in Mesopotamia,” JNES 51 (1992) 28 n. 18. Note the
same phenomenon in RA 22 170 :6 : za1nat inbi . . . u kuzbam, “adorned with attractiveness . . . and
sex appeal” and further compare Nanâ bëlet kuzbi, “Nana, mistress of sexual charm”(Biggs saziga
31 :22) with IStar bëlet inbi, “IStar, mistress of sexual charm” (KAR 357 :28).
11 inbïka jâSi qäSu qïSamma, GE VI 8.

05 HUCA70/71 Veenk 10sw 59 10/16/01, 8:52 AM

 60 ronald a. veenker 4

to become sexually aroused so that they might make love.¹² While engaging in
foreplay, he is invited to stroke her vulva and play with her breasts whereupon
she announces that her “thighs are open” so that he can “enter.”¹³ During the fore-
play she says,“your caresses are sweet (and) your ‘fruit’ is growing luxuriantly”¹⁴
viz.,“your penis is swelling.”
In an erotic Assyrian literary text, there is a passionate exchange between
Nabû and TaSmëtu. The goddess begs for access to Nabû’s “exquisite garden”
and yearns,“may my eyes behold the gathering of your fruit, may my ears hear
the twittering of your birds!”¹⁵ The first half of the phrase employs the verb qa-
täpu which suggests “harvesting.” TaSmëtu wants to see Nabû’s “fruit harvested,”
i.e., she hopes to enjoy his penis to the point of ejaculation. So, if the first stich
of poetry refers to ejaculation, then we would expect that “twittering birds” is a
parallel image. That the penis can be called a “bird” is neither unknown in the
ancient Near East nor elsewhere. Note from The American Heritage Dictionary :
“bird. 8. An obscene gesture of anger, defiance, or derision made by pointing or
jabbing the middle finger upward.”¹⁶

garden images
Turning from “fruit” to the “garden” as sexual metaphor, let us consider a poem
from ancient Sumerian literature. In an astonishing royal love song we hear the
voice of a female speaking to us through a number of metaphors :
12 Col. i :3’–4’ Kich I B472 (Ki 1063) Joan Goodnick Westenholz,“A Forgotten Love Song,” in F. Rochberg-
Halton, ed., Language, Literature and History : Philological and Historical Studies presented to Erica
Reiner, AOS 67 (New Haven : American Oriental Society, 1987) 422–23.
13 Col. i :6’–15’ Kich I B472.
14 dädüka †âbu muHtanbu(!) inbüka col. i :6’–7’ Kich I B472.
15 20’) qatäpu Sa inbïka ënäja lïmura 21’) ßabäru Sa ißßürïka uznäja lisamme1a IM 3223 van Dijk Sumer
13 (1987) 119 pls. xxvi-xxvii (= TIM 9 54) ; edition : Eiko Matsushima, “Le Rituel Hiérogamique de
Nabû” ASJ 9 (1987) 131–75 ; Benjamin R. Foster, trans. Before the Muses : an Anthology of Akkadian
Literature (2 vols.; Bethesda, Md.: CDL, 1993) 2 :902–4 ; Alasdair Livingstone, Court Poetry and
Literary Miscellanea, SAA 3 (Helsinki : Helsinki Univ. Press, 1989) 35–37.
16 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (3d ed.; New York : Houghton Mifflin,
1992) 191a. See Thompson Gilg VI 43 : a-a-ú al-lal-ki [ ] i-lu-ú. This “ascending bird”(allallu elû)
may in the context refer both to the “little Shepherd Bird” Dumuzi and his erection (Thompson
Gilg. pl. 21 and p. 39). For further use of the bird metaphor for penis see S. H. Stephan,“Modern
Parallels to the Song of Songs,” JPOS 2 (1922) 251, Waßf xiii :8 “O Mansur, there is a bird under the
navel . . .” “Bird” refers to either the pudendum muliebre or the membrum virile (Pope, Song of Songs,
60). See Matsushima, ASJ 9 :174 21’. Also note the seduction scene in the Ugaritic myth “The Birth
of the Beautiful Gods” (23 [52] : 41, 44, 47 f.): “Lo the bird roasts over the fire, bakes over the coals”
(Pope, Song of Songs, 61). Note the same image in a sixteenth century Italian text (Pietro Aretino,
1534) : “And juggling with little balls is less difficult to master than how to stroke a prick [“caress
the bird” accarezzare lo uccello] so that, even if desire is lacking, it gets erect.” D. O. Franz, Festum
Voluptatis : A Study of Renaissance Erotica (Columbus : Ohio State Univ. Press, 1989) 64. Further, in
modern English usage,“to lose one’s bird” means to lose an erection.

05 HUCA70/71 Veenk 10sw 60 10/16/01, 8:52 AM

 5 forbidden fruit 61

Vigorously he sprouted,
vigorously he sprouted and sprouted,
watered it — it being lettuce!
In his shaded grove of the desert bearing much yield
did my darling of his mother,
my barley stalk full of allure in its furrow,
water it — it being lettuce,
did my one — a very apple tree bearing fruit at the top —
water it — it being a garden!¹⁷

In this poem, lettuce and garden refer metaphorically to her vulva while the
barley stalk and apple tree are metaphors for the male member. I wish to focus
on line four and the apple tree image.¹⁸ One person’s metaphor can be a skeptic’s
literal text. How does one convince a doubter of the reality of subtle literary
allusions, metaphorical or otherwise ? What constitutes “proof ” in an enterprise
so intuitive as literary criticism ? If the poet accidentally or for effect breaks the
metaphor, extends it beyond its limits, his precise intention could become clear
to the reader. For example, how is this apple tree like a phallus ? First, it is turgid
and erect, stiff and sturdy. Second, it is “bearing fruit at the top” i.e., the glans
penis is growing bright red like an apple. But an apple tree does not “water” or
“flood” the “garden” beneath it. In order to refer to an emission of semen, the poet
must break the metaphor and no doubt remains as to what is intended sexually.¹⁹
Now, let us look at the “garden” metaphor in more detail : In the royal love
song “Vigorously he sprouted,”one can see the germination of a metaphor deal-
ing with the vulva.²⁰ In line one “lettuce” can be understood as a female’s labia
majora and labia minora. In the next line the words “shaded grove” or “black gar-
den” work to crystallize the vulva image further ; it can now be seen as nothing
less than a reference to the pubic hair which surround the labia. Next, in line
three, the poet uses the word “furrow” to accentuate the garden image, the im-
age of the vulva, already “plowed.” And finally, in the fifth line,“the apple tree
17 Kramer, PAPS 107 :508–9 ; ISET 2.40 (Ni. 9846) and Ebeling, KAR 1 158, ii. 52. Thorkild Jacobsen, trans.,
The Harps That Once . . . : Sumerian Poetry in Translation (New Haven : Yale Univ. Press, 1987) 94.
18 g̃iS HaSHur-àm sa ¹²-mà gurun il-la-mu kiri ⁶ -àm a ba-an-dug ⁴ “did my (darling) apple tree bearing
fruit at the top flood the garden.” UET VI 121/ TCL XV 20. Thorkild Jacobsen,“Two BAL-BAL-E Dia-
logues,” in John H. Marks and Robert M. Good, eds., Love & Death in the Ancient Near East : Essays
in Honor of Marvin H. Pope (Guilford, Conn.: Four Quarters, 1987) 62, n. 29. B. Alster, “Marriage and
Love in the Sumerian Love Songs,” in M. E. Cohen, et al., The Tablet and the Scroll (Bethesda, Md.:
CDL Press, 1993) 21b. Further, Yitschak Sefati, Love Songs in Sumerian Literature (Ramat Gan : Bar-
Ilan Univ. Press, 1998) 167. Related is the image “apple in the wildwood” Cant 2 :3 below, p. 7.
19 Perhaps the metaphor is not broken, however. One must consider the possiblity that the watering
from the top of the tree could be the apples which fall to the ground beneath, i.e., the garden floor
and impregnate the earth.
20 The writer here departs slightly from the details of Jacobsen’s interpretation.

05 HUCA70/71 Veenk 10sw 61 10/16/01, 8:52 AM

 62 ronald a. veenker 6

bearing fruit at the top”(the penis)“watered”(emitted semen into) the female’s

“garden” (the vestibule of the vagina).

the eating metaphor

Having examined “fruit” [kuzbu/inbu] and “garden” metaphors, we will examine
“eating” as a sexual verb. In a Sumerian/Akkadian proverb, we find the idea of
sexual eating in poetic parallelism :
40 [nu.um.me.d]a.ná al.peS₄.a. ina la na-ki-mi-i e-rat-me
41 [en?.e.S]e nu.kú.da.a.ni ina la a-ka-li-me
42 [a]l.kur₄.re.en.e.Se ka-ab-rat
40 “Can she be pregnant without having had sex ?
41 Without having eaten
42 Can she be fat ?” ²¹

A further example from Gilgamesh should be considered as well. In the sixth

tablet, Ishtar proposes marriage, or something like it, to the victorious hero Gil-
gamesh. After she asks him to “share his fruit”(line 8), he rejects her offer, spurns
her, and recites the sad tale of her previous lovers who probably wish they had
never met her. Finally he brings up her shameless pursuit of the family gardener,
Ishallanu, throwing her own words of seduction in her face (Gilg VI 68–69) :

ISullania kiSSütäki ï nïkul O, my ISullänu, let me eat your strength,

qätka Süßâmma luput Hurdatni Put forth your hand and touch our vulva !

Taking the infinitive “to eat” as a reference to penile/vaginal intercourse,²²

“strength” would quite naturally be understood as the phallus. The parallel term
in the second stich confirms the suspicion. In a number of Near Eastern contexts
“hand” is used as a euphemism or metaphor for the male member. The meaning
of the passage would be :

O, my Ishullanu, let me (my vagina) devour your penis,

Thrust your erection against my vulva !

The better known metaphor “hand” confirms the contextual identification of

the more unusual metaphor “strength.”²³

21 II R 16 40–42 See Lambert BWL 241 40–42 and R. Pfeiffer, “Akkadian Proverbs and Counsel,”
ANET 2, 425.
22 See note 34 below.
23 That qätu “hand” is a commonly recognized euphemism for a phallus can be seen from the follow-

05 HUCA70/71 Veenk 10sw 62 10/16/01, 8:53 AM

 7 forbidden fruit 63

Ancient Hebrew Sexual Fruit Metaphors

fruit /garden images
In the Hebrew Bible, itself a product of ancient Near Eastern culture and sharing
many literary and linguistic affinities with the literature cited above, we find
some of the same sexual metaphors (Cant 2 :3) :²⁴

reih iceb xoptk Like the apple in the wildwood,

Minbh Nib idod Nk So is my love among boys.
itbwio itdmx olcb In his shade I become sexually aroused ; I crouch down
ikxl qotm oirpo And his fruit is sweet to my taste.

Or could the passage be translated “his fruit is sweet in ‘my mouth’”?²⁵ Here we
see the apple tree representing the male lover, and his penis referred to as “fruit”
calling to mind the words of the goddess Ishtar : “Come on, Gilgamesh, be my
lover and grant me your fruit!”²⁶
The notion of “giving one’s fruit” is found as well in the Talmud. In b.B.Qam.
82a there is a list of seven decrees (tonqt) proclaimed by Ezra, the fourth of
which states that garlic should be eaten on Fridays because of the law of hnoe.²⁷
It’s scriptural proof lies in Psalm 1 :3,“who brings forth (literally ‘gives’) his fruit
in its season.” ²⁸According to R.Judah, this refers to“him who performs his mari-
tal duty every Friday night.” The gemara continues,“Our Rabbis taught : Five

ing examples. Cant 5 :4 : di xlw “My love thrusts hºis ‘hand’ into the hole,” i.e., he inserts his penis
into her vagina. Also, an Arabic waßf : “I stretched out my hand to the guarded thing.” (Stephan,
“Modern Parallels,” 251 : Waßf xiii 2b [Pope, Song of Songs, 60]). As early as the nineteenth century,
scholars interpreted the word “hand” in Is 57 :8–10 as “phallus.” (NRSV : “you have gazed on their
nakedness” with a footnote indicating “phallus.”) The Ugaritic poem “Birth of the Beautiful Gods”
(i 34–ii 1) also employs the word hand for penis : yd.e’l occurs three times in the passage. Note
a’rk.yd.e’ l.kym “El’s penis is as long as the sea” (cf. Pope, El in the Ugaritic Texts, 35–42). See Pope,
Song of Songs, commentary to 5 :4 and further Edward Ullendorf, “The Bawdy Bible,” BSOAS 42
(1979) 441. The unusual word for vulva, Hurdatu, is derived from a text which uses the simile : “this
date palm is like a vulva.” See Maureen Gallery Kovacs,The Gilgamesh Epic (Stanford : Stanford Univ.
Press, 1989) 53 n. 5.
24 For itdmx see M.Jastrow, A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the
Midrashic Literature (New York : Pardes, 1950) 475 ; also Ullendorf, “Bawdy Bible,” 449 and Pope,
Song of Songs, 371–73.
25 As in Cant 5 :16 where Kx is used similarly. See Pope, Song of Songs, 549.
26 See above, n. 11.
27 The term hnoe refers to the “duty of marriage,” i.e., the frequency with which certain classes of men
are required to have sexual relations with their wives.
28 oteb Nti oirp rwa

05 HUCA70/71 Veenk 10sw 63 10/16/01, 8:53 AM

 64 ronald a. veenker 8

things were said of garlic : It satiates, it keeps the body warm, it brightens up
the face, it increases semen, and it kills parasites in the bowels. Some say that it
fosters love and removes jealousy.”²⁹ Those who are required to perform their
marital duties every Friday night are scholars (Mimkx idimlt).³⁰
The Mesopotamian lyrics found in the preceding section also bring to mind
a passage from Canticles which employs the garden/vulva metaphor (4 :12–13a):

hlk itxa loen Ng A garden locked is my sister bride,

Motx Niem loen lg A pool locked, a fountain sealed,
Minomr sdrp Kixlw Your groove a pomegranate grove
Midgm irp Me with fruits delectable . . .

Reinforcing images abound in these two passages. The “locked garden” refers to
the vulva/vaginal area of the female’s body while the experience it promises her
lover is to be found in the“delectable fruit”references in 13a. Having seen these im-
ages, it is a small step to understanding the Kixlw “groove” as the vagina as well.³¹

The Eating Metaphor

Having examined these few nouns pertaining to sexual metaphors, it remains to
scrutinize a verb. The late, lamented Thorkild Jacobsen has commented on the
use of love metaphors in his well known essay “Toward the Image of Tammuz”:

The experience of the delicious, the rapture of the sweet, appears superfi-
cially not unlike the experience of, and the rapture of, the more significant
and profound fascination and captivation that is love. Why this should be
we are unable to say, and we must content ourselves with pointing to the
universal use of metaphors from the realm of eating and tasting for love,
ranging from sexual “appetite” and “hunger” to the lover’s desire to “eat” his
beloved, and to his use of terms like sweet, delicious, honey.³²

Keeping in mind the infinitive “to eat” as a metaphor in the language of love, we
turn to Israelite wisdom literature. Proverbs 30 :18–19 contains a riddle which
29 B.B.Qam. 82a :
amitiao Nmxn br amitiao hdohi r”ao oteb Nti oirp rwa bitkd hnoe Mowm w”eb Mow Nilkoa ohiwo
eibwm Mowb orman Mirbd hwmx r”t w”el w”em otjm wmwmh hz Nnxoi ’r amitiao anhk br
hanqh ta aicomo hbha sinkm a”io Miiem inbbw Mink groho erzh hbrmo Minp lihcmo Nixwmo
30 B.Ketub. 62b : w”el w”em laomw rma hdohi br rma tmia Mimkx idimlt lw hnoe
31 See Pope, Song of Songs, 490–91 ; Ullendorf, “Bawdy Bible,” 449.
32 T. Jacobsen, Toward the Image of Tammuz, W. L. Moran, ed. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press,
1970) 79–80.

05 HUCA70/71 Veenk 10sw 64 10/16/01, 8:53 AM

 9 forbidden fruit 65

involves a comparison of four things : “the way of an eagle in the sky, the way
of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man
with a maiden.” It appears that in order to solve the riddle, one must find an
element common to all four, i.e., what do the first three have in common with
human sexual relations (“the way of a man with a maiden”)? A clue is provided
by the special case of “a serpent on a rock.” The addition of solid rock to the
picture suggests that a serpent slithering in sand would not qualify for inclusion
in the riddle. And what is the distinction being made ? A serpent on rock leaves
no tracks ! Neither does the eagle leave a trail in the sky and after a ship has cut
through the sea, the water immediately closes up leaving no trace of the direc-
tion the vessel has taken. But what might this solution say about human sexual
relations ? A man and woman come together in clandestine illicit intercourse,
part from each other and leave no clue as to what has occurred.³³ All well and
good, but someone may protest : Maybe you are right but where is your proof
that this is the intent of the proverb ? Prov 30 :20 not only provides the clue to
the riddle but contains the very metaphor in which we are interested :

tpanm hwa Krd Nk This is the way of an adulteress :

hip htxmo hlka she eats, and wipes her mouth,
Noa itlep-al hrmao and says, “I have done no wrong.”

The metaphors are clearly recognizable since we encounter the issue of adultery
in the first line. The adulterous woman engages in sexual intercourse (“eats”),
douches her vagina (“wipes her mouth”) and suggests that no one will be the
wiser! It is quite clear that the biblical writer understands the verb “to eat”as ordi-
nary coitus as opposed to the modern usages implying oral sex.³⁴
Now that we have examined several metaphors drawn from orchards, gardens,
and their products as well as the image of sexual eating, please turn to Cant 4 :16b:

33 Some wags may wish to point out one obvious biological liability which might well be a result of
cohabitation.
34 The metaphor “eating” which in this passage indicates normal sexual congress should not be
confused with American slang “eating” for fellatio or cunnilingus. See further Ullendorf, “Bawdy
Bible,” 445. Ullendorf has also suggested (449–50) that Cant 5 :1 uses “eating” similarly Mier olka
Midod orkwo otw “Eat, friends, drink, be drunk with love !” The expression “to eat bread/food” is em-
ployed similarly in Gen 39 :5–6 in the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife : “So he left all that he had
in Joseph’s charge ; and, with him there, he had no concern for anything except the bread which he
ate.” Further, when Jethro tells his daughters to invite Moses for a meal, more than breaking bread
is implied : “And he said to his daughters, ‘Now where is he ? Why have you left the fellow ? Summon
him that he might eat bread.’” I.e.,“perhaps we can make a marriage”(Exod 2 :20). See also Michael
V. Fox, The Song of Songs and the Ancient Egyptian Love Songs (Madison : Univ. of Wisconsin Press,
1985) 138–39.

05 HUCA70/71 Veenk 10sw 65 10/16/01, 8:53 AM

 66 ronald a. veenker 10

ongl idod abi Let my love enter his garden.

oidgm irp lkaio Let him eat its delectable fruits.

On the assumption that these two lines are parallel poetic stichs, we will unpack
the metaphors in an attempt to establish the basic meaning of the passage. The
female here invites her lover to “enter his garden”; since garden is well estab-
lished as “vulva” and the verb “to enter” has a straightforward sexual connota-
tion the phrase means “to initiate coitus with her.” We expect the parallel stich
to speak to us in a synonymous image. And so, since “eating” is now established
as sexual intercourse and “fruit” can serve as a metaphor for the sexual organ,
he has been invited “to enjoy making love to her.”

Sexual Fruit Metaphors in the Garden Narrative

From the overt eroticism of Canticles, we turn to the more covert of Genesis.
Listen to a phrase based upon the Eden narrative : “eating from the fruit of the
tree in the midst of the garden”(Ngh–Kotb rwa Ceh irpm lka). In the early verses
of the third chapter of Genesis, the images resonate clearly : “garden,” “fruit,”
“trees,” “eating.” To each of these we have given some attention and each is laden
with erotic connotations. I am suggesting that there is a sexual element in the
morphological structure of the Eden narrative. Is it possible that “eating fruit
from the tree in the garden” implies sexual congress between Adam and Eve ?
At this point the metaphors either communicate eroticism or they do not. So,
apart from the metaphors involved, what is to be learned from the structure of the
passage ? Gen 2 :25 provides the transition from the second to the third chapter :

otwao Mdah Mimore Mhinw oihio And the man and his wife were both naked,
owwbti alo and were not ashamed.

This transition verse, in conjunction with 3 :7, form an inclusio marking a sepa-
rate unit :³⁵
Mhinw inie hnxqpto Then the eyes of both were opened,
Mh Mmrie ik oedio and they knew that they were naked . . .

Gen 2 :25 speaks of child-like innocence : they were naked but were lacking self-
consciousness pertaining to the meaning of the condition.³⁶ Yet when we read
Gen 3 :7, we are aware that something has changed, viz., no longer are they in

35 See Phyllis Trible, God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality (Philadelphia : Fortress, 1978) 105 and Claus Wes-
termann, Genesis 1–11 : A Commentary, J. J. Scullion, trans. (Minneapolis : Augsburg, 1984) 234–35.
36 See especially James Barr, The Garden of Eden and the Hope of Immortality (Minneapolis : Fortress,
1991)64–65.Also Westermann, Genesis 1–11, 235–36 and Bernard Batto, Slaying the Dragon : Mythmak-

05 HUCA70/71 Veenk 10sw 66 10/16/01, 8:53 AM

 11 forbidden fruit 67

“the state of unaffected innocence in which (they) were not yet conscious of their
nakedness.”³⁷ Whereas in the first, there is no awareness of sexuality, in the sec-
ond, they are cognizant of their sexual nature. The solitary narrative act in the
interim is the “eating of fruit.” They were in a state of sexual innocence, they ate
fruit, and all of a sudden were aware of their sexuality. So we see that not only
do the images with which we have dealt throughout the paper speak to us of
erotic themes in the Eden story, but also the very structure of the narrative itself
suggests that “the transgression,” or the “eating of the fruit,” is the sex act and
nothing less.³⁸
Early Interpreters of Genesis 3
The history of early exegesis on Genesis 3 is most interesting and separates quite
consistently along sectarian lines. Rabbinic Judaism freely admits that Adam
and Eve had sex before leaving Eden, while some Christian fathers seem to have
a great stake in opposing the idea. The differing attitudes have to do with each
group’s position on intercourse generally. During the early centuries ce, Jews
understood the theological concept of “holiness” to refer to the state of marriage
and the begetting of children, while many Christians believed that “holiness”

ing in the Biblical Tradition (Louisville : Westminster/John Knox, 1992) 54–55. According to C.Car-
michael,“naked and unashamed” means that they are in an“undifferentiated state”; like the animals,
man and woman eat, drink and are naked, without shame. They are not marked off from the animals
until they exhibit the civilizing influence of shame (Calum M. Carmichael, “The Paradise Myth :
Interpreting without Jewish or Christian Spectacles,” in P. Morris and D. Sawyer, eds., A Walk in the
Garden : Biblical, Iconographical and Literary Images of Eden [Sheffield : JSOT Press, 1992] 48, 52).
37 Westermann, Genesis 1–11, 251. Note that Adam and Eve become aware of their nakedness (2ârûm-
mîm) which, in addition to its assonance, is semantically similar to the awareness (2ärûm) of the
serpent in 3 :1 (Carmichael,“The Paradise Myth,” 49).
38 Since the research for this manuscript was completed, J. Milgrom (“Sex and Wisdom: What the
Garden of Eden Story Is Saying,” BRev 10:6 [December 1994] 21) has come to the very same
conclusion. After calling attention to the implications of verses 2 :25 and 3 :7 when read together, he
says,“The Bible thus explicitly informs us that after eating the forbidden fruit, they were ashamed
of their nakedness. Does this not tell us, through euphemistic language, that Adam and Eve
had sex ?” See also J. Barr, The Garden of Eden, 66–69. The cuneiform text BM 23631, treated by
Kramer in Or NS 54 (1985) under the title “Bread for Enlil, Sex for Inanna,” is, like most Sumerian
literary texts, complex and ambiguous. As described by G. Leick, A Dictionary of Near Eastern
Mythology (London : Routledge, 1991) 91, it is an etiological myth explaining just how Inanna be-
came the goddess of sexual love. Inanna is in a state of “innocence” concerning the secrets of sexual-
ity. She asks her brother Utu to allow her to travel to a place where trees and plants are growing.
When she arrives and eats certain of the herbs and other fruits, she presumably gains the knowl-
edge which she desires.
“At the mountain of herbs, at the mountain of cedars,
At the mountain of cedars, at the mountain of HaSur-trees,
That which exists in the mountain, that, let us eat.” (141–45)

Leick points out the similarity here to the themes of Genesis 3.

05 HUCA70/71 Veenk 10sw 67 10/16/01, 8:53 AM

 68 ronald a. veenker 12

demanded continence in marriage.³⁹ So Jews believed that sex was good and
God wanted them to have children while some Christians were convinced of
precisely the opposite. Both groups sought to establish their particular belief
on the basis of a close reading of the Eden narrative. These Christians aligned
themselves with an exegetical tradition based upon 2 Bar. 56 :5–6 : “For when
(Adam) transgressed, untimely death appeared, . . . the conception of children
was brought about and the passion of parents roused.”⁴⁰ The rabbis assumed
rather casually that Adam and Eve had intercourse before the expulsion from
the garden.⁴¹ Although they never defend the idea nor seek to justify it, they
probably fall into the line of thinking that derives from Jub. 3 :2–6 : “And [God]
brought her to him and he knew her and said to her, ‘This is now bone of my
bones and flesh of my flesh.’” Notice, however, that in this case intercourse takes
place before they entered the garden!⁴² Many church fathers, on the other hand,
find marriage, intercourse, and paradise incompatible.⁴³ Tatian, for example,
believed that Adam and Eve were created as holy beings, i.e., non-animals, who
possessed the spirit of God and were destined to live forever. They abandoned
their marriage to the spirit of God and entered into a sexual relationship with
each other which God did not intend so that all humans have now lost the
original divinely intended non-animal nature. Tatian’s disciples even said that
Eve lost the spirit of God in the sexual act which she had been taught by the ser-
pent who introduced to her the ways of the animal world.⁴⁴
If our suggestion (that “eating fruit” in Gen 3 :6 refers to intercourse) is correct,
then on the surface, it rather ironically supports the exegetical tradition of those
Christian fathers like Tatian and his followers. That is to say, since we believe
that the “eating of fruit”refers metaphorically to sexual intercourse, the context
39 See Aphrahat, Demonstrations, Patrologia Syriaca, lines 841.3–9 in G.Anderson, “Celibacy or Con-
summation in the Garden ? Reflections on Early Jewish and Christian Interpretations of the Garden
of Eden,” HTR 82 (1989) 122.
40 H. F. D. Sparks, ed., The Apocryphal OT (London/New York : Oxford Univ. Press, 1984) 876.
41 See Gen. Rab. 19.3, 18.6 et al. (Anderson,“Celibacy,” 124).
42 Anderson,“Celibacy,” 128–29.
43 E.g., Gregory of Nyssa, Ambrose, and Jerome. See Peter Brown, The Body and Society : Men, Women
and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity (New York : Columbia Univ. Press, 1988) 399.
44 Brown, The Body and Society, 93 f. There is a second century ce Greek allegory which may have
influenced Tatian. According to that text, when the elephant, a beast which has no natural desire
for sex, decides to have a family, a pair travels east toward Paradise. After secluding themselves
in the garden, the female eats first from the mandrake tree, persuades the male to do the same,
whereupon they engage in sexual intercourse. The commentary explains the allegory as referring to
Adam and Eve. See D. Rottzoll, “. . . ihr werdet sein wie Gott, indem ihr ›Gut und Böse‹ kennt” ZAW
102 (1990) 385–91. We do not wish to suggest that all early Christians took these extreme positions.
See, e.g., the more positive sexual attitude of Augustine which is consonant with the rabbinic
view in Brown,The Body and Society, 400–403 ; also David G.Hunter, “On the Sin of Adam and Eve :
a little-known Defense of Marriage and Childbearing by Ambrosiaster,” HTR 82 (1989) 283–99.

05 HUCA70/71 Veenk 10sw 68 10/16/01, 8:53 AM

 13 forbidden fruit 69

of Genesis 3 clearly establishes that act as a transgression and, therefore, sexual

intercourse as a sin. This notion will not catch on quickly in the modern world !
On the other hand, the rabbis take a much more positive attitude with regard
to procreation. And why shouldn’t they ? After all, begetting children is the very
first of the six hundred thirteen commandments in the Torah.⁴⁵ So if God said,
“Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth !” why would he cast his first beloved children
out of paradise for merely obeying orders ? In light of the rabbinic attitudes
surveyed above, those of the more moderate church fathers, and the sexual
mores of most of the modern world, how is it reasonable to suggest that Adam
and Eve lost paradise as a result of intercourse, an act which the biblical narrator
considered a sin ?

Thematic Analysis : The Ascent of Knowledge

First of all, the stories of early Genesis are composed of very complex layers of
tradition. It is not incumbent on anyone to demonstrate that a particular inter-
pretation, to be judged reasonable, must be “consistent” with everything in its
larger context. Phyllis Trible, in writing on Genesis 2–3, said

If the story is simple, it is not, at the same time, neat and tidy. Abrupt, terse,
elliptic, tentative, its language carries a plurality of meanings. From begin-
ning to end the narrative is riddled with ambiguity. Embodying tension,
connotations, hints and guesses, it compels multiple interpretations, as
centuries of exegesis amply demonstrate.⁴⁶

Nevertheless, I want to argue for the reasonableness of sexual intercourse as

the act which lead to the expulsion from the garden.⁴⁷According to Gen 3 :22,⁴⁸ the

45 Crah–ta oalmo obro orp “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth . . .” Gen 1 :28.
46 Trible, God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality, 72.
47 One might simply appeal to the results of source criticism and argue that the commandment to
be “fruitful” is from the “P” creation story of Gen 1 and the injunction to abstain is from a separate
source, i.e.,“J” from Gen 2 :4b–3 :24. If P says “Be fruitful . . .” and J casts aspersions on sexual activ-
ity, why should we demand that separate traditions agree ? (For more details, see Milgrom, “Sex
and Wisdom,” 21). I prefer, however, that my analysis not rest upon one’s acceptance or rejection
of source critical theory.
48 Gen 3 :22 is a puzzling verse. Because of the fragmentary nature of the final clause of the verse
(Mlel ixo lkao Miixh Cem Mg xqlo odi xlwi–Np hteo “And now, lest he stretch forth his hand and
take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever —”), i.e., because it is a fragment or depen-
dent clause without normal attachment to an independent clause (see Waltke and O’Connor, An
Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax [Winona Lake : Eisenbrauns, 1990] §39.3.3a), it may be a
well known quotation which has no need for completion having achieved proverbial status in the
cultural tradition. In any event, its intended completion is obvious from the context, viz.,“we had
better get them out of the garden.” However, it does not appear to be a quotation from an Israelite

05 HUCA70/71 Veenk 10sw 69 10/16/01, 8:53 AM

 70 ronald a. veenker 14

humans were banished from the garden because they knew too much. The sin
in question is hubris, desiring to be like gods, knowing everything (“they have
become like one of us”).⁴⁹ The Eden story is complex and part of its thematics is
embedded in the Near Eastern tradition of the “ascent of knowledge,” the story
of how we progress from our “creaturely” state to our “human” state and ulti-
mately to our status as fully “civilized” beings.⁵⁰ The biblical narrator under-
stands what happened in the Garden as progress ; the man and the woman have
become clever [likwh]. The statement “The man has become like one of us” sug-
gests ascent rather than descent, i.e., a “fall.”⁵¹ They have progressed by eating
fruit. Similar to the change from childhood to the adult state, Adam and Eve
microcosmically represent humankind progressing toward complete civiliza-
tion.⁵² In Eden they were childlike and innocent, hardly fit for the world outside

source based upon monotheistic assumptions. Notice that the garden theme of “wisdom” and
“immortality” is encapsulated in the verse. Rather than speaking of the relationship of human to
divine in biblical terms (e.g., the complex notion of imago dei found in the other creation story of
Genesis 1), this theme is drawn from a Mesopotamian literary topos (compare, e. g., the description
of the man Adapa as favored by the divine Ea : “To him he gave wisdom, but did not give eternal
life” (S.Dalley, Myths from Mesopotamia [Oxford : Oxford Univ. Press, 1989] 182). Further, the tone
of the divine voice in 3 :22 is that of a “threatened adversary” more typical of Mesopotamian myth-
ological divine/human relations than of man and Yahweh in the Hebrew Bible (see as well, Gen
11 :6–7 where the same phenomenon occurs). And finally, in the context as described, the plural pro-
noun can signify polytheism : onmm dxak “like one of us.”
49 I understand “knowledge of good and evil” as a merism meaning “knowledge of everything from
good to evil,” i.e., everything.” See, e.g., 2 Sam 13 :22 : boj–deo erml Nonma–Me Molwba rbd–alo “But
Absalom spoke to Amnon neither good nor bad,” i.e., he spoke to him not at all. See W. Malcolm
Clark, “The Legal Background to the Yahwist’s Use of ‘Good and Evil’ in Gen 2–3,” JBL 88 (1969)
267–78 ; Howard N. Wallace, The Eden Narrative, HSM 32 (Cambridge : Harvard Univ. Press, 1985)
128–29 ; Robert A. Oden, Jr.,“Divine Aspirations in Atrahasis and in Genesis 1–11,” ZAW 93 (1981)
212–13 ; Rainer Albertz, “‘Ihr werdet sein wie Gott’ (Gen 3,5),” in F. Crüsemann, ed.,“Was ist der
Mensch . . . ?”: Beiträge zur Anthropologie des Alten Testaments (München : Kaiser, 1992) 14, n. 13.
For a new and very interesting view of the meaning of “knowing good and evil,” see Milgrom, “Sex
and Wisdom,” 21. Milgrom, on the basis of 2 Sam 19 :36 and Deut 1 :39, makes an excellent case for
“knowing the difference between good and evil” as biblical code for sexual experience itself.
50 The theme of our creatureliness begins in the narrative of chapter two. In vs. 7, God forms the
“human”(Mda) from the “ground”(hmda) and the creature becomes a “living being”(hix wpn). Then
in vs. 19, Yahweh, using the same substance as before, “ground”(hmda), forms animals and birds to
whom the narrator also refers as “living beings”(hix wpn). Both the human and the animal, created
out of the earth, are designated “living beings”(hix wpn). Yet one ascends over the other as Yahweh
gives the human responsibility for the taxonomy of the animal kingdom. Adam participates in
the process of creation when he gives the beasts names (see G. von Rad, Old Testament Theology
[2 vols.; New York : Harper and Row, 1965] 2 :81). In so doing, he begins to move away from his
beastliness into his humanity.
51 See Carmichael,“The Paradise Myth,” 47, 53. As well, Carmichael connects man’s desire for knowl-
edge and his desire for a woman with the wisdom tradition in Prov 30 :18–20 (p. 50).
52 Westermann, Genesis 1–11, 251.

05 HUCA70/71 Veenk 10sw 70 10/16/01, 8:53 AM

 15 forbidden fruit 71

paradise. Then they ate fruit, i.e., they “knew”each other sexually, thus beginning
the “ascent of knowledge” which led them to make clothes for themselves, a fur-
ther sign of their civilization. Now they were ready for life in the world beyond
Eden. These themes continue in chapter four with the recapitulation of the
theme,“ascent of knowledge”: “Then the man knew Eve his wife and she con-
ceived and bore Cain . . .”(Gen 4 :1) ; and in verse 17 :“Cain knew his wife and she
conceived and bore Enoch ; and he built a city . . .” So the ascent of knowledge
continues as humans acquire wisdom, expand their culture, and eventually pro-
duce an urban civilization.⁵³

Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the Ascent of Knowledge

Similar themes are found in the Epic of Gilgamesh.⁵⁴ In the first tablet of the
epic, the gods create Enkidu, a playmate for Gilgamesh equal to his strength, and
place him in the grassy plains far from urban culture and civilization. He is a
man of nature as opposed to Gilgamesh who lives within the walls of human cul-
ture. And, as a natural man, Enkidu is sexually innocent. The literary signs of
his sexual innocence are his acceptance by and communication with a herd
of gazelles as well as the physical strength and speed necessary to roam with
them.⁵⁵ However, Enkidu is human, capable of reasoning beyond the gazelles,
and so he teaches them to avoid the trapper’s pits and snares. The trapper suffers
economic loss and seeks a solution to his problem. His father advises that he
consult with Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, who counsels the trapper to hire a pros-
titute to seduce Enkidu.

Go, trapper, bring the harlot, Shamhat, with you.

When the animals are drinking at the water place
have her take off her robe and expose her sex.
When he sees her he will draw near to her,
and his animals, who grew up in his wilderness,
will be alien to him.⁵⁶
53 That difficulty in childbirth (Gen 3 :16) is also a sign of inculturation has been pointed out by Tikva
Frymer-Kensky, In the Wake of the Goddesses : Women, Culture and the Biblical Transformation of
Pagan Myth (New York : The Free Press, 1992) 23.
54 For an excellent translation, see Maureen Gallery Kovacs, The Epic of Gilgamesh (Stanford : Stanford
Univ. Press, 1989) 5–10. See especially the analysis of Foster, “Gilgamesh : Sex, Love . . . ,” 21–42 ; also
Foster, Bi Or 36 (1979) 187b and Batto, Slaying the Dragon, 55–56. For a Jungian interpretation of
Enkidu’s sexual encounter, see Rivkah Schärf Kluger, The Archetypal Significance of Gilgamesh : A
Modern Ancient Hero (Einsiedeln, Switz.: Daimon, 1991) 40–51.
55 Note the similarities between Enkidu and Tarzan. Tarzan also communicates with the animals of
his jungle, is stronger than the ordinary man, and is sexually innocent (remember “boy” was the
sole survivor of a plane crash according to the Hollywood version).
56 Kovacs, Gilgamesh, 8.

05 HUCA70/71 Veenk 10sw 71 10/16/01, 8:53 AM

 72 ronald a. veenker 16

The trapper and the prostitute wait for Enkidu and the gazelles to appear at the
watering hole. Upon their arrival, the trapper encourages the woman to do the
task for which she was hired :

That is he, Shamhat, free your breasts.

Spread your legs that he might take your charms.
Do not shy away – take his virility ! ⁵⁷

So the woman seductively exposed herself to the wild fellow who fell for her act
totally and exuberantly. He made love to her, groaning lustfully, and maintain-
ing his erection for six days and seven nights !⁵⁸ When he had had his fill of her
charms, he returned to his gazelles,but they did not recognize him.⁵⁹ They darted
off into the grassy plains with Enkidu desperately trying to follow, but he “was
diminished, his running was not as before.”⁶⁰ Enkidu had lost his natural life of
innocence with the animals. Now he is less creaturely and more human. He had
achieved a new level of understanding through carnal knowledge of the pros-
titute. She spoke to him :

You are beautiful, Enkidu, you are become like a god.

Why do you gallop around the wilderness with the wild beasts ?
Come, let me bring you into Uruk-Haven,
to the Holy Temple, the residence of Anu and Ishtar,
the place of Gilgamesh, who is wise to perfection,
but who struts his power over the people like a wild bull.⁶¹

Enkidu now has knowledge and understanding, he has “become like a god.” How
similar the rhetoric here to that of Gen 3 :22 : The pair had “become like one of
us (gods), knowing good and evil.”
Enkidu then leaves his life in nature for a new life in culture. The prostitute

57 8) annû Sü fsamHat rummî kirimmiki 9) ürki petêma kuzubki lilqe 10) e taSHuti leqë napissu Thomp-
son Gilg. pl. 4 8–10 ; S. Parpola, The Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, SAACT 1 (Helsinki : Neo-
Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 1997) 73, lines 163–65. The word napïSu,“penis,” is found in the Uga-
ritic epic of Danel as “soul/penis” and also in the biblical Prov 19 :2 where nefeS and raglayim,“feet,”
both have sexual meaning (M. H. Pope, “Euphemism and Dysphemism in the Bible,” ABD 1 :721a).
58 SeSSet urri sebe muSäte Enkidu tebima fsamHat irHi GE I iv 21 (Thompson Gilg. pl. 4 21); Parpola, Epic
of Gilg., 73, line 177.
59 Lines 178–80. He smells of humans according to Frymer-Kensky, Wake of the Goddesses, 33 ; he
cannot run so swiftly having exhausted himself in his epic length tryst. Note that the underlying
premise, loss of physical strength due to excessive sexual activity, is found also in the story of
Samson in the Philistine brothel, Judg 16 :1–3.
60 Lines 181–83. Kovacs, Gilgamesh, 9.
61 Lines 188–93. Kovacs, Gilgamesh, 9.

05 HUCA70/71 Veenk 10sw 72 10/16/01, 8:53 AM

 17 forbidden fruit 73

introduces him to civilization by first clothing him with some of her wardrobe.⁶²
Then he learns to drink beer and eat bread in the city and, advancing further in
human culture, he must find a job and work to earn his living —

Enkidu scattered the wolves, he chased away the lions.

The herders could lie down in peace,
for Enkidu was their watchman.⁶³

When we first encounter Enkidu, like Adam, he is in the company of beasts

having as yet no knowledge of a woman. Both Adam and Enkidu experience the
ascent of knowledge through seduction and sexual knowing.⁶⁴ The experience
results in wisdom, but it is bought at a great price : Enkidu may no longer enjoy
communication with his gazelles and, as well, the days of Eden’s talking serpent
are brought to an end. Enkidu’s and Adam’s lives of innocence are lost to the
past and there lies ahead for the both of them a painful and difficult road as each
leaves the simplicity of nature for the ambiguous complexities of human culture.
When considered in its larger Near Eastern literary context the theme of the
“ascent of knowledge” is not so negative as the notion of “original sin” or a “fall”
and leaving the garden may be viewed as difficult and necessary, but generally
positive.⁶⁵

Thanks are due several colleagues without whose help this paper would be
appreciably shorter and significantly impoverished. The writer is especially grate-
ful to P. R.Obermark, H.C.Brichto,† P. Michalowski, S.Greengus, E.Goldman,
A.K.Guinan, and T. Frymer-Kensky for their careful reading of the manuscript
and their lucid criticism. Of course, errors remaining are the responsibility
of the author. Thanks also to B.A.Bow, E.Brady, J.S.Flynn, T. Frymer-Kensky,
A.K.Guinan, C.A.Millburn, J. W. Miller,† K. L.Pelz,† and M. T. Roth for sugges-
tions and examples. Special thanks are due Edward L. Counts, Jr. and the staff
of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Western Kentucky University for
invaluable technical assistance.
62 See Foster, “Gilgamesh : Sex, Love . . . ,” 29. Cf. with the story of Uttu the weaver in the Sumerian
myth of Enki and Ninhursag. See, also, Frymer-Kensky, Wake of the Goddesses, 23, 32–33. Notice
how Shamhat behaves as a mother figure while Enkidu, the “child” who is just beginning his
ascent of knowledge and his entry to the man’s world, passively takes her instruction, trusting
her in wordless simplicity (see R. Harris, “Images of Women in the Gilgamesh Epic,” in T. Abusch,
J. Huehnergard, and P. Steinkeller, eds., Lingering Over Words : Studies in Ancient Near Eastern Lit-
erature in Honor of William L. Moran [Atlanta : Scholars Press, 1990] 224, n. 23).
63 Tablet II, lines 54–56 ; Kovacs, Gilgamesh, 15–16.
64 For a more detailed analysis of the love poetics and thematics of the Gilgamesh Epic, see the ex-
cellent analysis of Foster, “Gilgamesh : Sex, Love . . . ,” 21–42.
65 Albertz,“‘Ihr werdet sein wie Gott,’” 11–27.

05 HUCA70/71 Veenk 10sw 73 10/16/01, 8:53 AM

05 HUCA70/71 Veenk 10sw 74 10/16/01, 8:53 AM