Gilgamesh Explained
A New
Scientist article, “Nursing Dreams of a Three-Parent Baby”, from their 2013 Holiday
Special issue, provides a science-fictional solution to an old literary
conundrum. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the titular anti-hero is two-thirds
divine. How could this be? The answer, I now speculate, is that the goddess
Ninsun provided egg-nucleus and womb; the mortal king Lugulbanda provided the
spermatozoon; and a second deity, identity unknown, provided the mitochondria.
Who
provided the mitochondria? Perhaps the sungod Shamash, considering the
favoritism he showed Gilgamesh later. But perhaps it had to be a female to
provide the mitochondria, in the cytoplasm of an ovum; which leaves the creepy
possibility that Gilgamesh’s mito-mom was Ishtar.
This fan
theory has tragic implications for Ninsun, whose defective mitochondria make
her vulnerable to blindness, seizures, dementia and mental impairment.
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