Past, present or future? The time period does not actually matter. The oppression of women has always been alive through all periods of time with no end. However, the role of women in the society has changed as time passed on. Some women were often recognized as slaves for sexual desires in old times while others in the society were treated with high respect in the later times. The common trait in both periods is that women were treated disrespectfully and given lower importance than men. Even in our modern society today, although rights for women are already in place, there are still incidents of women being mistreated like in the past. The diverse role of women is clearly seen in the women characters from Gilgamesh, the three daughters from…show more content… The status of many women in this epic, excluding the female deities, were nothing more than just objects of sexual desires for men, namely Gilgamesh, whether the women were single, married, or even a prostitute. Apparently, the women in the society did not have a choice to go against Gilgamesh’s desire as “[t]here was no withstanding the aura or power of the Wild Ox Gilgamesh […] nor wife of the noble […] the mother’s daughter nor the warrior’s bride was safe” (Ferry 4). Even the women of higher rank were sex toys to Gilgamesh as he continued to sexually assault them without showing any care. This clearly reflects that women in early Mesopotamian civilization did not have equal rights as men, and they were treated with disrespect regardless of their ranks in the…show more content… For example, in Tablet I there was a hunter who was terrified by the strange and uncivilized Enkidu and worried about losing his position as a hunter as a result of Enkidu’s action of saving the animals by destroying the trap. He aimed to tempt Enkidu using a harlot named Shamahat. Enkidu’s lust for the harlot caused him to lose his strength, his animal-like behavior, and finally his kin, the animals. “And now the wild creatures had fled away; Enkidu was grown weak, for wisdom in him, and the thoughts of a man were in his heart [and he returned to the civilized world]” (Ferry 6-8). This example reveals that a woman’s sexuality was not only a device for lust and sexual desires, but also held a tremendous power over men. The power of Shamahat has played a major role in bringing knowledge and wisdom to transform a wild man of great strength to guide him towards civilization. I believe Shamahat’s art to seduce Enkidu has an enormous impact on the story throughout the entire epic. Though there is no mention of Shamahat after Enkidu’s entry into the city and encounter with Gilgimesh, her role is still essential because without her there would have been no continuation of the story in the epic. Moreover, I find Shamahat to be much different from all other anonymous prostitutes as she not only uses her sexuality for