Enki and Ninmaḫ

"Enki and Ninmaḫ" is a short Sumerian literary composition, of circa 140 lines, that addresses the creation of humans and the decree of their destinies. At some point, during the celebration for the anthropogenic act, Enki and Ninmaḫ seem to compete to find out who can better define the appropriate destinies for some newly created disabled humans. Enki manages to decree a good fate to every single case/creature created by Ninmaḫ, but on the contrary, the goddess is unable to do so for Enki's creature, Umul. As such, the composition ends with Enki being praised. Several translations for this composition were proposed over the years, beginning with a partial one by Kramer (1944), and a first complete one by Benito (1969), to which more were followed. More recently, Lambert (2013) and Ceccarelli (2016) offered new proposals, working with several manuscripts and copies, mostly dated from the Old Babylonian period, though they also used some bilingual versions exhumed in Nineveh, dated to Ashurbanipal's reign (668-627). The narrative can be divided into two main parts, with different sections each. The first part starts with a description of the cosmic status quo in a distant time, where a group of "minor" gods worked for the group of the "senior" ones at great expenses (lines. 1-11). Upon hearing their complaints, Namma, the primeval goddess, felt compelled to act, thus exhorting her son, Enki, to create a "substitute" for the divine workers (lines 12-23). After pondering on the matter, Enki agrees to act, summoning several goddesses related to creative powers, and together the first humans are molded from clay (lines 24- 37, followed by some fragmentary lines). When the narrative resumes, which can be identified as the beginning of the second part, the deities are feasting together, celebrating the anthropogenic act (lines 44-71). The abundant consumption of beer, particularly by Ninmaḫ and Enki, provoked some enthusiasm, leading the goddess to brag on her capacities to decree destinies to every single human (ls. 52-55). Enki's reaction is immediate, defying the goddess to a contest: he claims he will define a good fate to every single human with disabilities she fashions, and defies her to do the same to a creature of his own making (lines 56-61). For seven times, Ninmaḫ creates these humans with disabilities or illnesses (the first on the hands, the second on the eyes, the third on the feet, the fourth with some kind of a mental problem, the fifth with a genital condition, the sixth with infertility and the last one as a human with no sexual organs) , and for seven times, Enki decrees a good fate for them (respectively: unspecified service for the ruler, musician for the ruler, silverwork, unspecified service for the ruler, healing of the genital disease, service to the queen as weaver, and, lastly service for the ruler) (lines 63-82). Then, Enki fashions Umul, who some scholars (Kilmer 1976: 267; Rodin: 2014:293; Kağnici 2018: 442) understood as a premature child or even (an aborted?) not fully developed baby, that displays several disabilities, to whom Ninmaḫ is unable to decree a good fate (lines 83-101). In the last section, both deities exchange words, with the goddess seemingly accepting the winning and thus the superiority of Enki, who is praised by the narrator (lines 102-141). As such, one can say there are two intertwined topoi in this composition: the anthropogonic account, which according to Frymer-Kensky (1977: 155) and more recently Pinto (2014: 17-18) was deeply influenced by the famous epic composition Atraḫasīs; and the explanation for the divine-origin of disabilities and illnesses, with accordingly solutions for their societal integration (either by decreeing them functions or by providing the means to cure/relieve the ailment). Both topoi are entangled in the theocentric mentality that these literary compositions display, diachronically.