Peter Boyajian

NEHC 20004 1
Reading Response 3
October 30, 2017

Analysis and Summary of Cooper (2002)

In his 2002 article, Buddies in Babylonia, author Jerrold Cooper analyses the prominence of

homosexuality in Mesopotamian culture. He begins the article by commenting on the physical

appearance, and summarizing the views, of a different author, Thorkild Jacobsen. While Jacobsens

appearance is utterly irrelevant, he does have notable views on the homosexual nature of Gilgamesh and

Enkidus relationship. Specifically, Jacobsens opinion on this matter is seen to waver; in 1930, he

published an article which claimed that they had a homosexual relationship, in 1976, he claimed that they

were just friends, and, in 1990, he published another work which did not consider their relationship to be

sexual. Other scholars also held various views on whether or not their relationship was homosexual, and

many of these views are discussed by Cooper. The majority of these views tend to fall on the side that

there was no evidence for any homosexual encounters, and the remaining few allowed the possibility,

but are cautious (Cooper 75).

Next, Cooper considers the question of just how Gilgamesh oppressed Uruk. First, he analyzes

the scene where Gilgamesh is making all of the men play ball in the street, and highlights several aspects

in which this scene can be seen to be sexual. He then goes on to point out how Gilgameshs troubled

sexuality, which plays such a pivotal role in the Akkadian epic, is completely absent from the Sumerian

tradition (81). After giving examples of how the story can be interpreted as a tail of maturation, he

finally begins discussing Middle Assyrian and Greek laws having to do with homosexual practices.

While, the relevance of Greek views on homosexuality is not immediately clear, the Middle

Assyrian laws could obviously reflect the views of Ancient Mesopotamia with regards to homosexuality.

After analyzing them, Cooper concludes that they are not a condemnation of homosexuality and goes

on to note that, in Ancient Mesopotamia, men were only permitted to have sex with their wives, slaves,

and prostitutes (84).

Peter Boyajian
NEHC 20004 1
Reading Response 3
October 30, 2017
The two things which stand out most to me in this article, and which I have already touched upon,

are the irrelevant and inappropriate comments made by Cooper about, first, the physical appearance of

Jacobson, and, second, homosexuality in Greek culture. It is my opinion that both of these comments

drew my focus away from the main argument of the article, and hence weakened the article overall.

Coupled with the complete lack of any sort of thesis or introduction, and the presence of a quote in a

foreign language which is never translated into English (84), I think that there are still many ways in

which the structure and contents of this article could be improved.