What did Enkidu eat before meeting Shamhat?

Before meeting Shamhat, Enkidu ate grass with the gazelles and other wild animals.

At the beginning of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Enkidu is a powerful wild man created in the steppe to challenge Gilgamesh. He has long, animal-like hair, lives away from cities, drinks at watering holes, and grazes with the herds. The grass detail establishes that he belongs to the natural world rather than to human society.

Shamhat's arrival marks the turning point. After she spends six days and seven nights with Enkidu, the animals no longer accept him as one of their own. She then introduces him to human food, clothing, speech, and the customs of settled life. In many translations, he eats bread and drinks beer at a shepherds' camp, so bread is an important later food—but not the answer to what he ate before Shamhat.

The episode uses food symbolically. Grass represents his untamed existence, while bread and beer represent agriculture, community, and civilization. Enkidu's transformation is not simply physical: it prepares him to leave the wilderness, meet Gilgamesh in Uruk, and become the hero's closest friend.