Ninhursag

Ninmah took clay from above the Apsû and fashioned human bodies during a contest with Enki. The gods had already made sure that humans procreated, supplied food for the gods, and carried out their work. Enki watched as Ninmah tested what she could make from clay. She declared that she could decide whether a human body was good or bad and could give each body a good or bad destiny. Enki answered that he would assess every destiny she assigned.

Ninmah made several people with impaired bodies. Enki examined each person and gave each one a destiny and bread. He found a place for the blind man, the dim-witted man, and the incontinent man. He appointed the woman who could not bear children as a weaver and placed her in the women's workhouse. He gave the man whose body lacked both penis and vulva the name of courtier and stationed him at the head of the king. He also assigned destinies to the other people Ninmah had fashioned.

Ninmah then continued the contest. Enki made a body for his slave girl with an abnormality already present in the womb. He told Ninmah that the woman would bear this offspring after the womb received fertilising semen, and he asked Ninmah to decide its destiny. She tried to find a place for the new person, as Enki had done for her creations, but she could not remedy the condition or give it a workable purpose. She declared that the person was neither living nor dead and said that she could not bear it. Enki had won the contest.

Ninmah threw the clay from her hand onto the ground and fell silent. Enki then reminded her that he had given destinies and bread to all her creations. Ninmah afterwards claimed that she was being persecuted and driven from house and home. She called on Enki for help, but the exchange ended before his answer and the result of his help were known.