Creation of life from clay

The creation of life from clay can be seen as a miraculous birth theme that appears throughout world religions and mythologies. It can also be seen as one of gods who craft humans out of earthly materials. As such, this class of story falls within a larger set of divine or cosmogonic origin stories about creation, whether through divine emergence or divine craft.

"Prometheus Creating Man in Clay" by Constantin Hansen

Creation of Adam from a block of clay in the Great Canterbury Psalter

Khnum (right) is a creator god who forms humans and gods out of clay. Here Isis (left) gives life.

Religion, mythology, and folklore

Sumerian and Babylonian

• The Epic of Gilgamesh states that the goddess Aruru created humans out of clay.^[1][2] The epic goes on to narrate how Aruru also creates Enkidu out of clay^[3] as an equal partner in strength for Gilgamesh, "mighty in strength".^[2][3]

• The Sumerian myth of Enki and Ninmah (Ninhursag) states that humans were fashioned from clay to serve the gods (see Enki and the Making of Man). Of note, the creation of humans is portrayed as a contest between Enki and Ninhursag, who take turns finding correct places in society for the newly created humans.^[4][5] Note further that creation follows a period of gestation lasting nine days, the poet being careful to note that each day corresponds to a month in the human period of gestation.^[6]

• The Babylonian Epic of Atrahasis states that humans were created by Nintu (Ninhursag) from mixing clay with the blood of a sacrificed god.^[7][8] In context, the elder gods forced the younger gods to do all the hard labor so the younger gods devised a plan to create humans to do their bidding instead. The sacrificed god Ilawela (also written as Geshtu-(E), Geshtu, Gestu, or We-ila) is a minor god of intelligence (the text states this quite clearly: "Ilawela ...had intelligence").^[9]

• Contrary to what is commonly claimed, the Babylonian creation epic Enuma Elish does not state that humans are created from clay nor are they created by Ninhursag in this particular version. Rather, they are created from blood and bone.^[10] The first tablets uncovered suggested the blood was Marduk's^[11] but later tablets state the blood comes from Tiamat's fallen consort, Kingu.^[10] Similarly, it is oft claimed that Enki (Ea) creates humans from this blood but it is only because he received instructions to do so from the supreme deity, Marduk^[10] (in other words, this was Marudk's will or plan). Regardless, Tablet 6 of the Enuma Elish does not reference Ninhursag, Ninma or Aruru at all, and there is no reference in it to humans being created from clay.

Egyptian

• The Egyptian god Khnum is said to create human children from clay^[12] before placing them into their mother's womb.^[13] In context, though, Egyptians more generally believed in a cyclical view of time and rebirth. This meant humans were seen as part of a continuous cycle of creation and destruction, not necessarily originating from a single pair. Just as often, for example, the god Ptah was said to have created the world, including humans, from an act of speech.^[14]

Middle Eastern

• The Book of Genesis 2:7 states, "Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being"^[15] [New Revised Standard Version translation]. In context, though, it is important to note that there are two creation stories in Genesis: the one just mentioned in 2:7, and the preceding one in 1:26-27, which simply states, "Then God said, 'Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness;' ... So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."^[16]" [New Revised Standard Version].

• The word adam may refer to that this being was an "earthling" formed from the red-hued clay of the earth (in Hebrew, adom means "red", adamah means "earth").^[17]

• The Qur'an (Qur'an 23:12),^[18] states, "Man We did create from a quintessence of clay" [A. Yusuf Ali translation].

• In Jewish folklore, a golem (Hebrew: גולם) is an animated anthropomorphic being that is created entirely from inanimate matter, usually clay or mud.^[19]

Greek

• In Greek mythology, according to Pseudo-Apollodorus,^[20] Prometheus molded men out of water and earth. Near the town of Panopeus, the remaining used clay was allegedly still present in historical times as two cart-sized rocks that smelled like a human body.^[21][22] Myths about Prometheus were inspired by Near Eastern Myths about Enki.^[23]

• Also in Greek mythology, Prometheus moulds a clay statue of Athena, the goddess of wisdom to whom he is devoted, and gives it life from a stolen sunbeam.^[24]

• Pandora, from Greek mythology, was fashioned from clay and given the quality of "naïve grace combined with feeling".^[25]

Persian

• In Zoroastrian mythology, first the primordial ox, Gavaevodata, and subsequently the primordial human, Gayomart are created from mud by the supreme deity Ahura Mazda.

East Asian

• According to Chinese mythology, (see Chu Ci and Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era), Nüwa molded figures from the yellow earth, giving them life and the ability to bear children.^[26]

• In the Korean Seng-gut narrative, humans are created from red clay.
• The Ainu historically believed that Kamui built the Ainu on the back of a giant fish using clay, sticks, and water.^[27]

South Asian

Ganesha seated on the lap of his mother Parvati. Parvati is said to have created Ganesha from clay.

• According to Hindu mythology, Parvati, the mother of Ganesha, created her son from clay and turned the clay into flesh and blood.

• The Birhor of India believe that a leech was responsible for bringing the creator god mud which would later be made into humans.^[28]

• The Gondi people believe that Nantu (the moon) was made of mud that Kumpara spat onto his son.^[28]

• The Garo people in India believe that a beetle gave clay to the creator god Tatara-Rabuga, who made humanity from it.^[28]

• Andamanese Mythology women were fashioned from clay (while the men emerged from split bamboo).^[29][30]

Southeast Asian

• According to some Laotian folk religion, there are stories of humans created from mud or clay.

• In Vietnamese mythology, the Ngọc Hoàng and the Twelve Bà mụ created people from clay.^[31][32]

• Ara and Irik, two bird spirits from Bornean myth, created humans from clay and the sound of their own voices.

Central Asian

• Central Asian mythology, including Altaic and Mongolian, have stories about how the god Ulgen created the first man, Erlik, from clay floating on the surface of water. ^{[33] [28]}

• Buryatian mythology has the god Sombov create humans from clay and wool.^[28]

African

• The Yoruba culture holds that the god Obatala, likewise, created the human race from clay.^[34]

• The Efé people have a creation story in which the first man was made of clay and skin.^[28]

• According to Malagasy mythology, the sky deity Zanahary and the earth deity Ratovantany created the Malagasy people by breathing life into clay dolls.^[28]

• The Songye people have a creation myth involving two gods, Mwile and Kolombo, creating humans out of clay as part of a rivalry.^[28]

• Some of the Dinka of Sudan believe Nhialac, the creator, formed the humans Abuk and Garang from clay. The clay was put into pots to grow, and eventually came out as fully-grown adults. Other narratives attribute the creation of humanity to Nhialac blowing his nose or believe that humans came from the sky and were placed upon a river as full-grown adults. ^[35]

• The Dogon people believe the Earth goddess was made when Amma flung earth into the primordial void.^[36]

• In a Madagascar myth, two gods create human beings: the earth god forms them from wood and clay, the god of heaven gives them life. Human beings die so that they may return to the origins of their being.^[37]
• Woyengi, in Ijaw tradition, created humans from earth that fell from the sky before granting them identities.

Polynesian

• In Hawaiian tradition, the first man was composed of muddy water and his female counterpart was taken from his side parts (story may be partially or entirely Christianized).^[38]

• The Māori people believe that Tāne Mahuta, god of the forest, created the first woman out of clay and breathed life into her.

• Tane, in Polynesian mythology, created the original woman from red clay.^[28]

Norse

• In Skaldskaparmal, the god Thor encounters a giant named Mokkurkalfe [sv], who was made from clay.^[39]

Americas

• According to the beliefs of some Indigenous Americans, the Earth-maker formed the figure of many men and women, which he dried in the sun and into which he breathed life.^[40]
• In the K'iche' creation story Popol Vuh, the first humans are made of clay, although they soak up water and disintegrate.

• Iñupiat mythology has Raven create a human out of clay, who would later become Tornaq, the first demon.^[28]
• According to Inca mythology, the creator god, Viracocha, formed humans from clay on his second attempt at creating living creatures.^[41]

• The Aymaran creation myth involves the making of humans from clay.^[28]

Other

In science

• The role of clay minerals in abiogenesis was suggested in a 2013 paper titled Clay Minerals and the Origin of Life.^[42]

In fiction

• The superhero Wonder Woman was sculpted from clay by her mother Hippolyta and given life by the Greek gods.^[43][44][45]

References

1. Kovacs, Maureen Gallery (1998). The Epic of Gilgamesh (PDF). p. 2.
2. George, Andrew (1999). The Epic of Gilgamesh. Penguin Classics.
3. Kovacs, Maureen Gallery (1998). The Epic of Gilgamesh (PDF). p. 3.
4. Lambert, W.G. (2013). Babylonian creation myths. Winona Lake, Indiana. p. 330. ISBN 9781575068619.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
5. The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
6. Kramer, Noah (1944). "Sumerian Mythology". Nature. 154 (3905): 309. Bibcode:1944Natur.154..309B. doi:10.1038/154309a0.
7. Dalley, Stephanie (1989). Myths from Mesopotamia: creation, the flood, Gilgamesh, and others. Oxford University Press. p. 4 & 15. ISBN 978-0-19-283589-5.
8. Foster. Atrahasis Epic.
9. Dalley, Stephanie (1989). Myths from Mesopotamia : creation, the flood, Gilgamesh, and others. Oxford University Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-19-283589-5.
10. Luckenbill, D.D. (October 1921). The Ashur Version of the Seven Tablets of Creation. The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures. p. 21.
11. King, L.W. (1902). Enuma Elish The Epic of Creation.
12. Leeming, David Adams (2005). The Oxford companion to world mythology. p. 116.
13. Encyclopedia Britannica
14. Leeming, David Adams (2005). The Oxford companion to world mythology. p. 114.
15. {{cite web |title=Book of Genesis |
16. "Book of Genesis".
17. Fishbane, Michael (1987). "Adam" entry in Vol 1 Gale Encyclopedia of Religion. p. 29.
18. Q23:12, 50+ translations, islamawakened.com
19. "Golem". Jewish Museum Berlin. Retrieved 2023-07-17.
20. Bibliotheca 1.7.1
21. Pausanias, Description of Greece 10. 4. 4
22. Dougherty, C. (2006). Prometheus. Abingdon: Routledge.
23. West, S. (1994). Prometheus Orientalized. Museum Helveticum, 51(3), 129-149.
24. David Jonathan Hildner, Reason and the Passions in the Comedias of Calderón, John Benjamin's Publishing Co. 1982, pp.67-71
25. Colardeau, Charles Pierre (1775). "Les hommes de Promethée, poëme. Par m. Colardeau".
26. Handbook of Chinese Mythology, by Lihui Yang et al., Oxford University Press, 2008, pp. 170–172.
27. Leeming, David Adams. Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, 2010. External link p. 10-11
28. Leeming, David A. (18 December 2009). Creation Myths of the World [2 volumes]: An Encyclopedia [2 volumes]. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 978-1-59884-175-6.
29. Radcliffe-Brown, Alfred Reginald. The Andaman Islanders: A study in social anthropology . 2nd printing (enlarged). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1933 [1906]. p. 192
30. Witzel, Michael E.J. (2012). The Origin of The World's Mythologies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 309-312
31. Oxford Companion to World Mythology. Oxford University Press. 2009. p. 394. ISBN 978-0195387087.
32. "Thần thoại Ông Trời - Thần thoại Việt Nam" [Mythology of Ông Trời - Vietnamese Mythology] (in Vietnamese). TruyệnXưaTíchCũ.com. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
33. "Altaic Mythology".
34. "Obatala is Tempted with Palm Wine".
35. Leeming, David Adams. Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, 2010. External link p. 95-96
36. Leeming, David Adams. Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, 2010. External link p. 312
37. Long, Charles (1987). "Ancestorys: Mythic Ancestors" in Vol 1 Gale Encyclopedia of Religion. p. 326.
38. Abraham Fornander; Thomas Thrum (1920). Fornander Collection of Hawaiian Antiquities and Folk-lore. Bishop Museum Press. p. 335.
39. Gemynthe, Finn (2023). Jætternes Saga. Vor ældste slægtshistorie (in Danish). Lindhardt og Ringhof. p. 269. ISBN 978-87-28-42752-1.
40. Almost Ancestors: The First Californians by Theodora Kroeber and Robert F. Heizer
41. Steele, P. R., & Allen, C. J. (2004). Handbook of inca mythology. In Handbook of Inca mythology (pp. 53-54). Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO.
42. Brack, A. (2013-01-01), Bergaya, Faïza; Lagaly, Gerhard (eds.), "Chapter 10.4 - Clay Minerals and the Origin of Life", Developments in Clay Science, Handbook of Clay Science, vol. 5, Elsevier, pp. 507–521, doi:10.1016/B978-0-08-098258-8.00016-X, retrieved 2019-08-19
43. Wonder Woman: The Complete History by Les Daniels, published by Chronicle in 2000, ISBN 0811829138
44. The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore, published by Knopf in 2015, ISBN 0804173400
45. The Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes by Michael L. Fleischer, published in 1976, ISBN 9780020800804

Further reading

• Bellows, Henry Adams (Trans.) (1936). The Poetic Edda. Princeton University Press. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation.
• Leeming, D. A. (2008). The Oxford illustrated companion to world mythology. New York: Tess Press.
• Byock, Jesse (Trans.) (2006). The Prose Edda. Penguin Classics. ISBN 0-14-044755-5
• Davidson, H. R. Ellis (1975). Scandinavian Mythology. Paul Hamlyn. ISBN 0-600-03637-5
• Dronke, Ursula (Trans.) (1997). The Poetic Edda: Volume II: Mythological Poems. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-811181-9
• Larrington, Carolyne (Trans.) (1999). The Poetic Edda. Oxford World's Classics. ISBN 0-19-283946-2
• Lindow, John (2001). Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-515382-0
• Orchard, Andy (1997). Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend. Cassell. ISBN 0-304-34520-2
• Puhvel, Jaan (1989 [1987]). Comparative Mythology. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-3938-6
• Schach, Paul (1985). "Some Thoughts on Völuspá" as collected in Glendinning, R. J. Bessason, Heraldur (Editors). Edda: a Collection of Essays. University of Manitoba Press. ISBN 0-88755-616-7
• Simek, Rudolf (2007) translated by Angela Hall. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. D.S. Brewer. ISBN 0-85991-513-1
• Thorpe, Benjamin (Trans.) (1907). The Elder Edda of Saemund Sigfusson. Norrœna Society.
• Thorpe, Benjamin (Trans.) (1866). Edda Sæmundar Hinns Frôða: The Edda of Sæmund the Learned. Part I. London: Trübner & Co.
• Steele, P. R., & Allen, C. J. (2004). Handbook of Inca mythology. In Handbook of Inca mythology (pp. 53-54). Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO.