Storytellers Bring Gilgamesh to Life : Babylonian Legends of Desire and Courage Uncover Old Delights, Enduring Traits

Most people probably think of Ishtar as the title of the Warren Beatty-Dustin Hoffman road movie that bombed so spectacularly in the ‘80s. Actually, the original Ishtar makes much better Hollywood material.

A mercurial goddess of love who had her paramours killed when she wearied of them, Ishtar vowed revenge when the all-powerful Babylonian ruler Gilgamesh rejected her marriage proposal.

A warrior king who craved immortality, Gilgamesh is the hero of a 5,000-year-old Sumerian epic that has come down to us in a handful of poems and a tale inscribed on a dozen stone tablets.

Ancient Mesopotamians heard these psychologically revealing stories of larger-than-life characters from the mouths of narrators. This afternoon at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana--where contemporary artifacts from the royal tombs of Ur are on display--the Gilgamesh tale will receive a rare retelling by two members of the Adult Storytelling League of the Pacific Coast.

Like all epic heroes, Gilgamesh has lots of adventures, beginning with a victorious trial of strength against Enkidu, a domesticated “wild man,” sent by the gods to make the stern ruler more compassionate.

Enkidu subsequently becomes the hero’s manservant and boon companion, lending a hand to slay a many-headed monster in true “buddy” adventure style. But after helping to kill a divine bull--sent by the spurned Ishtar, who was out for blood--Enkidu dies, a victim of the gods’ displeasure. (Not that he didn’t have it coming: He threw the bull’s hindquarters in Ishtar’s face.)

Grieving, Gilgamesh sets out to locate a fabled survivor of the Babylonian flood, the Noah of his day. After reaching a mountain that circles the Earth and prevailing over a creature who rains fire over trespassers’ bodies, Gilgamesh finally meets old Ut-napishtim, who tells him the story of the flood and shows him the plant that provides eternal life. But a snake snatches away the precious herb while Gilgamesh goes swimming, and our hero sadly trudges back home.

Today’s performance will combine the Gilgamesh tale with the story of Inanna, the Sumerian name for Ishtar (as she was known in Babylon).

In subsequent incarnations, Inanna was known as a compassionate mother goddess, responsible for the Earth’s fertility.

But in Sumerian times she was believed to be a willful creature, liable to make very big changes at the very last minute. Before her infatuation with Gilgamesh, she had condemned her husband, Tammuz, to the underworld--and then decided she wanted him back.

Michael Wing, director of the Laguna Hills-based storytellers group, explains that in ancient Sumer, which had advanced systems of government, jurisprudence and trade, women were extremely powerful, serving as queens and priestesses. Later alterations in the epics reflected patriarchal beliefs that eventually became the norm.

“So, when Inanna comes to Gilgamesh,” Wing said, “he’s already king. He spurns her, saying, ‘All your lovers have come to bad ends.’ Her character is subtly made subject to the male will.”

Taking late 20th century attention spans into account, Wing-- who performs with Debra Inanna Jordan--has selected key portions of the stories of Inanna and Gilgamesh for the 1 1/2-hour presentation.

“What storytellers do is something in between the narration you’d find in a book and an actor who stays entirely in character,” he said. “We will be telling a large part of the stories firsthand, and there is costuming. It’s done the way [Sumerians] would have experienced it from the mouths of their sacred storytellers, with a little bit of drumming.”

Along with their entertainment value, the stories offer moral dilemmas to chew on.

“They are about family relations and our emotional [dealings] with each other, our rites of passages and the nature of the society we live in,” Wing said, noting that our notions of lust, love, grief, friendship and immortality remain much the same.

“There’s a Sumerian proverb, ‘He who knows, why should he keep it hidden?’ The extroverted character of the West comes from such attitudes.”

* The epics of Inanna and Gilgamesh will be performed today by the Pacific Storytelling League at the FHP/Robert Gumbiner Conference Center, Bowers Museum, 2002 N. Main St., Santa Ana. 2 p.m. Tickets: $20 at the door, $15 in advance at the museum store or by calling: (714) 730-3444.