CREATION: Aruru (also known as Belet-ili), the mother-goddess of creation, creates Enkidu from the earth. Ninurta ("Lord Earth," Aruru's male counterpart), a great warrior, adds his favor. Thus Enkidu is an elemental force and a worthy opponent to Gilgamesh.

MASTER OF THE ANIMALS: Enkidu belongs to a mythic type known as the Master of the Animals. (The Greek Herakles derives from the same type.) Enkidu, as the "human animal," balances Gilgamesh, the "human god."

SEDUCTION: virginity as power? the significance of the "temple prostitutes"? Is Enkidu "tamed" or "civilized"?

COMBAT: Why is Enkidu outraged at Gilgamesh's excercise of the jus primae noctis?

Here, as elsewhere, the descriptive similes involve the bull, the standard metaphor of male potency in Mesopotamian cultures.