从“自然”到“教化”——解读《吉尔伽美什史诗》中的角色恩启都

From Nature to Culture:Analyzing the Character of Enkidu in The Epic of Gilgamesh

《吉尔伽美什史诗》是两河流域流传至今的最著名的文学作品,也是人类历史上第一部英雄史诗。恩启都作为其中的一个关键角色,最初是诞生于荒野的自然生物,后经过教化蜕变为人类文明社会的成员。这一蜕变成为解读该角色在全文发展变化的关键线索,也得到《史诗》的阿卡德语原文在文本层面的证据支持。不过恩启都虽然经历了教化,但其人类化的进程并不彻底。他在作品的叙事框架中始终未成为严格意义上的“人”。

The Epic of Gilgamesh from ancient Mesopotamia is hailed as the first heroic epic in world literature.One of the main characters,Enkidu,experiences the transformation from a savage born in the wilderness to a civilized member of the human society.This transformation provides the key to analyzing and interpreting the life story of Enkidu and finds strong support in the standard Babylonian version of the Epic.A close reading of the text further reveals that Enkidu may be regarded as civilized but not humanized,and he remains at most a quasi-human being in the narrative of the work.