Enki devised the plan to create Lullu from clay mixed with the blood and flesh of the slain god We-ilu, while Ninhursag shaped the fourteen pieces of clay into the first seven pairs of men and women to bear the gods' labor.
Enlil drove his hoe into the earth at Nippur, prising heaven from the ground, and from the crack Lullu — the first human — sprouted like a plant.
⚠ Other Mesopotamian traditions attribute humanity's creation to Enki and Ninhursag (Enki and Ninmah) or to the sacrifice of a slain god (Atrahasis). The Song of the Hoe represents the Nippur-centric tradition.
Marduk conceived the plan to create humanity — the lullû — from the blood of the slain Kingu, fashioning a race of servants to bear the gods' labor and free the Igigi from toil.
⚠ In Atrahasis Tablet I, humanity's creation is attributed to Enki and the birth-goddess Mami (Nintu), not Marduk. The Enuma Elish reassigns the act to Marduk as part of Babylon's theological program.
Nammu shaped Lullu, the first human, from clay drawn above the Abzu at Enki's instruction, kneading the primordial substance so that the gods might be relieved of their toil.
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