Atra-Hasis

The Atra-Hasis Epic is named after its human hero, and was composed sometime between 1800 and 1700 BCE. It contains both a creation and a flood account, and is one of only three surviving Babylonian flood stories. In its cosmology, heaven is ruled by the god Anu, earth by Enlil, and the freshwater ocean by Enki. Enlil set the lesser gods to work farming the land and maintaining the irrigation canals, but after forty years they refused to work any longer. Enki, who is also the wise counselor to the gods, proposes that humans be created to take on the work, so the goddess Mami makes humans by shaping clay mixed with saliva and the blood of the under-god We, who was slain for this purpose.