The Creation of Humankind
Humans were made from clay and a god's blood, for one purpose: to do the gods' work.
In the central Mesopotamian myth, humans were created to do the work the lesser gods had wearied of: to dig the canals and feed the gods with offerings. In Atra-hasis, the mother-goddess fashions humankind from clay mixed with the flesh and blood of a slain god, so that something divine is mingled into the human. Enki/Ea is the divine craftsman behind the making. Humanity's very purpose, in this view, is service to the gods — and its population, left unchecked, becomes the problem the Flood is sent to solve.
Key passages(6)
In those days, in the days when heaven and earth were created; in those nights, in the nights when heaven and earth were created; in those years, in the years when the fates were determined; when the
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Not only did the lord make the world appear in its correct form -- the lord who never changes the destinies which he determines: Enlil, who will make the human seed of the Land come forth up from the
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When, upon the hill of heaven and earth, An spawned the Anuna gods, since he neither spawned nor created grain with them, and since in the Land he neither fashioned the yarn of Uttu nor pegged out the
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[... ]... [... ] [... ] mankind, he imposed the gods' work (on them) and set the gods free. [... ] the wise Ea [... ] (and) imposed the work of the gods on them, [... not ] suitable for understanding
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A tigi to Enki for Ur-Ninurta (Ur-Ninurta B)
Lord of complex divine powers, who establishes umderstanding, whose intentions are unfathomable, who knows everything! Enki, of broad wisdom, august ruler of the Anuna, wise one who casts spells, who
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After the flood had swept over and brought about the destruction of the countries; when mankind was made to endure, and the seed of mankind was preserved and the black-headed people all rose; when An
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