Igigi- Mesopotamian GroupCollective
Domains
Description
After 3,600 years of digging canals for the senior gods, the Igigi burned their tools and besieged Enlil's temple by night. To resolve this divine labor revolt, Enki proposed creating humanity from clay and the blood of a slain god: a replacement workforce that would toil so the gods would not have to.
Mythology & Lore
The Rebellion
For 3,600 years, the Igigi dug the canals and cleared the waterways that the senior gods, the Anunnaki, required. The Atrahasis Epic tells what happened next. The Igigi burned their tools and surrounded Enlil's temple by night. They refused to continue.
Enlil awoke to find his compound besieged. He summoned the great gods in council. Enki proposed the solution: create a new race to bear the work. The mother goddess Nintu mixed clay with the blood of the slain god Geshtu-e, and from the mixture she fashioned human beings. The ghost of the dead god within the clay gave humanity consciousness. The clay bound them to labor. Humans were made to do what the Igigi would not.
Above and Below
In the Enuma Elish, after his victory over Tiamat, Marduk divided the six hundred great gods: three hundred Igigi stationed in the heavens above, three hundred Anunnaki set in the earth below.
Relationships
- Serves