MESOPOTAMIAN MYTHOLOGY
The Creation of man
In the beginning there was only the goddess Nammu, the Primordial Sea who lived in total darkness until she gave birth to the universe, Anki, who was heaven and earth in one. Anki then made the air god Enlil who split the universe in two, making An, the god of the sky and Ki, who became the goddess of the earth.
Enlil and Ki would go on to have a child together named Enki, who was the god of water and the lord of the whole universe. He took some water from Nammu and created the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, making the soil fertile and rich so that he could introduce animals to the area. Many other gods and goddesses would soon be born and lived in great cities in the land between the two rivers.
The Creation of the Moon
Enlil lived in the city of Nippur along with other deities including the young goddess Ninlil, whose mother warned her to be weary when bathing in the local canal as Enlil would want to have his way with her if he were to see her naked. This motherly advice turned out to be sound and when the air god saw the young goddess, he immediately tried to seduce her. When Ninlil refused his advances, Enlil was not deterred and after obtaining a boat, he went over to where she was washing herself and raped her, impregnating her in the process with the moon god Nanna.
The other gods were furious with the forced copulation of Enlil and Ninlil and exile him for his crime, forcing him to head for the underworld. As she was now pregnant with his child, Ninlil followed him but the pair would soon realise independently of each other that if she continued, her unborn baby would be forever doomed to live in the underworld.
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