Who the enemy is we are not told, and such is the fragmentary condition
of the tablet that we are left to conjecture the outcome of the city's
distress.

In the second tablet, Gilgamesh is introduced as a hero of superior
strength and in control of Uruk. Is he the savior of the city or its
conqueror? One is inclined to assume the latter, for the inhabitants of
Uruk are represented as complaining that Gilgamesh has taken away the
sons and daughters of the place. From a passage in a subsequent tablet
it appears that Uruk is not the native place of the hero, but
Marada.[865] Moreover, the name Gilgamesh is not Babylonian, so that the
present evidence speaks in favor of regarding the first episode in the
epic as a reminiscence of the extension of Gilgamesh's dominion by the
conquest of Uruk. When this event took place we have no means of
determining with even a remote degree of probability. The representation
of Gilgamesh on very ancient seal cylinders[866] warrants us in passing
beyond the third millennium, but more than this can hardly be said.

Gilgamesh is a hero of irresistible power. The inhabitants of Uruk
appeal for help to Aruru, who has created Gilgamesh:

He has no rival....
Thy inhabitants [appeal for aid?].
Gilgamesh does not leave a son to his father.
Day and night,...
He, the ruler of walled Uruk,...
He, their ruler,...
The strong, the preeminent, the cunning,...
Gilgamesh does not leave the virgin to [her mother],
The daughter to her warrior, the wife to her husband.
The gods [of heaven] hear their cry.
They cry aloud to Aruru, "Thou hast created him,
Now create a rival (?) to him, equal to taking up the fight against
him (?)."

So much at least is clear from the badly mutilated lines that Gilgamesh
has played sad havoc with the inhabitants of Uruk. In personal combat,
as it would appear, he has triumphed over the warriors of the place. The
son is taken away from his father, the virgins are taken captive,
warriors and husbands are snatched from those dear to them. Aruru is
here appealed to as the creator of mankind.[867] She who has created the
hero is asked to produce some one who can successfully resist Gilgamesh.
Aruru proceeds to do so.

Aruru, upon hearing this, forms a man of Anu.[868]
Aruru washes her hands, takes a bit of clay, and throws it on the
ground.
She creates Eabani, a hero, a lofty offspring, the possession of
Ninib.[869]

This creature