Day, so that "men beheld the Sun-god in the Gate of his
going forth".

The idea that a goddess should take part with a god in man's creation
is already a familiar feature of Babylonian mythology. Thus the goddess
Aruru, in co-operation with Marduk, might be credited with the creation
of the human race,(1) as she might also be pictured creating on her own
initiative an individual hero such as Enkidu of the Gilgamesh Epic. The
_role_ of mother of mankind was also shared, as we have seen, by the
Semitic Ishtar. And though the old Sumerian goddess, Ninkharsagga, the
"Lady of the Mountains", appears in our Sumerian text for the first time
in the character of creatress, some of the titles we know she enjoyed,
under her synonyms in the great God List of Babylonia, already reflected
her cosmic activities.(2) For she was known as

"The Builder of that which has Breath",
"The Carpenter of Mankind",
"The Carpenter of the Heart",
"The Coppersmith of the Gods",
"The Coppersmith of the Land", and
"The Lady Potter".

(1) Op. cit., p. 134 f.

(2) Cf. _Cun. Texts in the Brit. Mus._, Pt. XXIV, pl. 12,
ll. 32, 26, 27, 25, 24, 23, and Poebel, _Hist. Texts_, p.
34.

In the myth we are not told her method of creation, but from the above
titles it is clear that in her own cycle of tradition Ninkhasagga was
conceived as fashioning men not only from clay but also from wood, and
perhaps as employing metal for the manufacture of her other works of
creation. Moreover, in the great God List, where she is referred to
under her title Makh, Ninkhasagga is associated with Anu, Enlil, and
Enki; she there appears, with her dependent deities, after Enlil and
before Enki. We thus have definite proof that her association with the
three chief Sumerian gods was widely recognized in the early Sumerian
period and dictated her position in the classified pantheon of
Babylonia. Apart from this evidence, the important rank assigned her
in the historical and legal records and in votive inscriptions,(1)
especially in the early period and in Southern Babylonia, accords fully
with the part she here plays in the Sumerian Creation myth. Eannatum and
Gudea of Lagash both place her immediately after Anu and Enlil, giving
her precedence over Enki; and even in the Kassite Kudurru inscriptions
of the thirteenth and twelfth centuries, where she is referred to, she
takes rank after Enki and before the other gods.