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Updated: June 13, 2025
It has already been pointed out that according to one tradition Ea is the creator of mankind, and the conjecture has also been advanced that at Nippur, Bel was so regarded. In Aruru we have evidently a figure to whom another tradition, that arose in some district, ascribed the honor of having created mankind.
In personal combat, as it would appear, he has triumphed over the warriors of the place. The son is taken away from his father, the virgins are taken captive, warriors and husbands are snatched from those dear to them. Aruru is here appealed to as the creator of mankind. She who has created the hero is asked to produce some one who can successfully resist Gilgamesh. Aruru proceeds to do so.
After the dreadful deluge has come, Ishtar breaks out in wild lament that mankind, her offspring, has perished: "What I created, where is it?" She is called 'the mistress of the gods, and if Jensen is correct in an ingenious restoration of a defective text, Aruru is given the same epithet in a lexicographical tablet. The Ishtar occurring in the Gilgamesh story is the old Ishtar of Erech.
Accordingly a compromise was effected, as in the case of Marduk and Ea. Aruru is associated with Marduk. She creates mankind with Marduk, and it would seem to be a consequence of this association that the name of Marduk's real consort, Sarpanitum, is playfully but with intent interpreted by the Babylonian pedants as 'seed-producing.
Aruru, upon hearing this, forms a man of Anu. Aruru washes her hands, takes a bit of clay, and throws it on the ground. She creates Eabani, a hero, a lofty offspring, the possession of Ninib. This creature Eabani is described as having a body covered with hair. He has long flowing locks and lives with the animals about him.
The Gilgamesh story is connected with the city of Erech, and it is probable that the tale at least in part originated there. It becomes plausible, therefore, to trace the tradition ascribing the creation of man to Aruru to the same place. A passage in the Deluge story, which forms an episode of the Gilgamesh epic, adds some force to this conjecture.
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