"It's only epic if we slay something"
Apparently, they didn't have dragons in ancient Mesopotamia. Therefore, Gilgamesh and Enkidu had to slay something else in order to become famous. In their case it was a giant monster named Humbaba who was the guardian of the Cedar Forest. He looks pretty horrific and intimidating. He has the head of a lion and he breathes fire, which is admittedly, really scary. The gods have put him in the forest to terrify men. So he actually has a purpose. But a hero wouldn't be a hero in the epic sense if he would give a damn about divine laws. I mean, laws are there to be broken. That's how you become famous in ancient times. But it's also how you create yourself an archenemy. Odysseus knows exactly how that's like since he and Poseidon are not exactly best friends either. He didn't slay the cyclops Poseidon but hurt him enough to make his father Poseidon REALLY angry. In the course of the Odyssey, however, Odysseus' crew slaughters the cattle of the sun which also can be seen as slaying something that was placed somewhere by a god or a goddess. Similarly, Gilgamesh didn't stop by killing Humbaba. He was bold enough to slay the "Bull of Heaven". (It's quite interesting that gods everywhere seem to have bulls and cattle!) This eventually leads to severe punishment by the gods. In the medieval epic the beasts that are slain suddenly transform into dragons or in the Cid's case: moors. The epic hero needs something to kill in order to become famous and to prove his masculinity it seems.It doesn't matter what it is. It only has to attract attention.
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