Creation of life from clay

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

The creation of life from clay (or soil, earth, dust, or mud) appears throughout world religions and mythologies, some of the earliest occurring in the creation myths about the origin of man in the cosmology of the ancient Near East. The idea occurs in both biblical cosmology and Quranic cosmology. The clay represents an unformed, chaotic material which is shaped and given form by the gods in a creative process. A related motif is the use of clay to seed or create the world.^[1] In southwest Asia, the clay-shaping was cast as a magical act. In the same way that humans would use clay to make terracotta images of their gods, so the gods moulded humans out of clay in their godlike form. They were described as obtaining this material by pinching off pieces of wet mud.^[2]

The most famous example of this is in the biblical Book of Genesis (2:7), where Adam is made out of dust, an idea that appears across the Bible (Job 10:9; Psalm 90:3; 104:29; Isaiah 29:16, etc.). The idea is also found in the Epic of Gilgamesh where the goddess Aruru creates Enkidu from clay, in Egyptian mythology where Khmun makes man out of clay, and various Greek texts crediting Prometheus (one of the Titans) with doing the same.^[3] Later, the concept would influence art history, such as the impact it had on the work of Giorgio Vasari.^[4]

List of examples by region and culture

Ancient Near Eastern

The Epic of Gilgamesh states that the goddess Aruru created humans and animals out of clay. The epic goes on to narrate how Aruru also creates Enkidu out of a pinch of clay.^[5]

The Sumerian myth of the Ninhursag states that humans were fashioned from clay to serve the gods (see Enki and the Making of Man) as part of a competition. In the Akkadian version, the Epic of Atrahasis, Enki advises that a god is killed and that Nintur (the birthg oddess) mix his flesh and blood with clay to create humans. A similar idea is seen in the Enuma Elish, where Enki creates man out of the blood of a slain revel god.^[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 common misconception, the Babylonian creation epic Enuma Elish says that humans were created from a combination of blood and bone, and not clay. Marduk instructed Enki (Ea) to do this, which he did using the blood of Tiamat's fallen consort, Kingu.^[10]
The Book of Genesis 2:7 states that man was made out of dust. The name Adam may be based on the Hebrew word adāmāh, which literally means "red clay".^[11]
In Jewish folklore, a golem (Hebrew: גולם) is an animated anthropomorphic being that is created entirely from inanimate matter, usually clay or mud.^[12]

In the cosmology of the Quran, man is said to have been created from clay (Quran 23:12), referred to by the Arabic ṭīn. Adam is also said to have been made from dust (turāb). Like other traditions, the concept has negative connotations in the Quran, and the use of this matter to make Adam is cited as justification by Iblis (Satan) to reject God's command to prostrate to him.^[13]

Egyptian

In Ancient Egypt, it was the Egyptian god Khnum that was most commonly associated with the creation of humans. Khnum is said to create human children from clay^[14] before placing them into their mother's womb.^[15] Khnum was the crafter of all living things, including some gods, on the potter's wheel: "You are the master of the wheel, who is pleased to model on the wheel . . . you have made humans on the wheel, you have created the gods; you have modelled the small and large cattle; you have formed everything on your wheel each day, in your name Khnum the potter".^[2]

Greek

In Greek mythology, according to Pseudo-Apollodorus,^[16] 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.^[17]^[18] Myths about Prometheus were inspired by Near Eastern Myths about Enki.^[19]

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.^[20]

Pandora, from Greek mythology, was fashioned from clay and given the quality of "naïve grace combined with feeling".^[21]

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.^[22]

The Ainu historically believed that Kamui built the Ainu on the back of a giant fish using clay, sticks, and water.^[23]

South Asian

The Birhor of India believe that a leech was responsible for bringing the creator god mud which would later be made into humans.^[24]

The Gondi people believe that Nantu (the moon) was made of mud that Kumpara spat onto his son.^[24]

The Garo people in India believe that a beetle gave clay to the creator god Tatara-Rabuga, who made humanity from it.^[24]

Andamanese Mythology women were fashioned from clay (while the men emerged from split bamboo).^[25]^[26]

Southeast Asian

In Vietnamese mythology, the Ngọc Hoàng and the Twelve Bà mụ created people from clay.^[27]^[28]

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. ^[29] ^[24]

Buryatian mythology has the god Sombov create humans from clay and wool.^[24]

African

The Yoruba culture holds that the god Obatala, likewise, created the human race from clay.^[30]

The Efé people have a creation story in which the first man was made of clay and skin.^[24]

According to Malagasy mythology, the sky deity Zanahary and the earth deity Ratovantany created the Malagasy people by breathing life into clay dolls.^[24]

The Songye people have a creation myth involving two gods, Mwile and Kolombo, creating humans out of clay as part of a rivalry.^[24]

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. ^[31]

The Dogon people believe the Earth goddess was made when Amma flung earth into the primordial void.^[32]

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.^[33]

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).^[34]

Tane, in Polynesian mythology, created the original woman from red clay.^[24]

Norse

In Skaldskaparmal, the god Thor encounters a giant named Mokkurkalfe [sv], who was made from clay.^[35]

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.^[36]

Iñupiat mythology has Raven create a human out of clay, who would later become Tornaq, the first demon.^[24]
According to Inca mythology, the creator god, Viracocha, formed humans from clay on his second attempt at creating living creatures.^[37]

The Aymaran creation myth involves the making of humans from clay.^[24]

In fiction

The superhero Wonder Woman was sculpted from clay by her mother Hippolyta and given life by the Greek gods.^[38]^[39]^[40]

References

^ Leeming, David Adams (2010). Creation myths of the world: an encyclopedia. ABC-Clio. pp. 312–313. ISBN 978-1-59884-174-9.
^ ^a ^b Stavrakopoulou, Francesca (2023). God: An Anatomy. Picador. p. 277.
^ Kuruvilla, Abraham (2014). Genesis: A Theological Commentary for Preachers. Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 57. ISBN 978-1-7252-4872-4.
^ Cheney, Liana De Girolami (2025). Giorgio Vasari: The Quest of a Painter. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 129–130.
^ Atkins, Peter Joshua (2023). The Animalising affliction of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4: reading across the human-animal boundary. T&T Clark. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-567-70619-5.
^ Publishing, Britannica Educational; Kuiper, Kathleen (2010). Mesopotamia: The World's Earliest Civilization. Britannica Guide to Ancient Civilizations. Chicago: Britannica Educational Publishing. p. 172. ISBN 978-1-61530-208-6.
^ Dalley, Stephanie (1989). Myths from Mesopotamia: creation, the flood, Gilgamesh, and others. Oxford University Press. p. 4 & 15. ISBN 978-0-19-283589-5.
^ Foster. Atrahasis Epic.
^ Dalley, Stephanie (1989). Myths from Mesopotamia : creation, the flood, Gilgamesh, and others. Oxford University Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-19-283589-5.
^ Luckenbill, D.D. (October 1921). The Ashur Version of the Seven Tablets of Creation. The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures. p. 21.
^ Fishbane, Michael (1987). "Adam" entry in Vol 1 Gale Encyclopedia of Religion. p. 29.
^ "Golem". Jewish Museum Berlin. Retrieved 2023-07-17.
^ Decharneux, Julien (2023). Creation and contemplation: the cosmology of the Qur'ān and its late antique background. Studies in the history and culture of the Middle East. Berlin Boston (Mass.): De Gruyter. pp. 234–236. ISBN 978-3-11-079401-4.
^ Leeming, David Adams (2005). The Oxford companion to world mythology. p. 116.
^ "Khnum | Ram-Headed, Creator, Nile River | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2025-03-13.
^ Bibliotheca 1.7.1
^ Pausanias, Description of Greece 10. 4. 4
^ Dougherty, C. (2006). Prometheus. Abingdon: Routledge.
^ West, S. (1994). Prometheus Orientalized. Museum Helveticum, 51(3), 129-149.
^ David Jonathan Hildner, Reason and the Passions in the Comedias of Calderón, John Benjamin's Publishing Co. 1982, pp.67-71
^ Colardeau, Charles Pierre (1775). "Les hommes de Promethée, poëme. Par m. Colardeau".
^ Handbook of Chinese Mythology, by Lihui Yang et al., Oxford University Press, 2008, pp. 170–172.
^ Leeming, David Adams. Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, 2010. External link p. 10-11
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k 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.
^ Radcliffe-Brown, Alfred Reginald. The Andaman Islanders: A study in social anthropology . 2nd printing (enlarged). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1933 [1906]. p. 192
^ Witzel, Michael E.J. (2012). The Origin of The World's Mythologies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 309-312
^ Oxford Companion to World Mythology. Oxford University Press. 2009. p. 394. ISBN 978-0195387087.
^ "Thần thoại Ông Trời - Thần thoại Việt Nam" [Mythology of Ông Trời - Vietnamese Mythology] (in Vietnamese). TruyệnXưaTíchCũ.com. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
^ "Altaic Mythology".
^ "Obatala is Tempted with Palm Wine".
^ Leeming, David Adams. Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, 2010. External link p. 95-96
^ Leeming, David Adams. Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, 2010. External link p. 312
^ Long, Charles (1987). "Ancestorys: Mythic Ancestors" in Vol 1 Gale Encyclopedia of Religion. p. 326.
^ Abraham Fornander; Thomas Thrum (1920). Fornander Collection of Hawaiian Antiquities and Folk-lore. Bishop Museum Press. p. 335.
^ Gemynthe, Finn (2023). Jætternes Saga. Vor ældste slægtshistorie (in Danish). Lindhardt og Ringhof. p. 269. ISBN 978-87-28-42752-1.
^ Almost Ancestors: The First Californians by Theodora Kroeber and Robert F. Heizer
^ Steele, P. R., & Allen, C. J. (2004). Handbook of inca mythology. In Handbook of Inca mythology (pp. 53-54). Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO.
^ Wonder Woman: The Complete History by Les Daniels, published by Chronicle in 2000, ISBN 0811829138
^ The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore, published by Knopf in 2015, ISBN 0804173400
^ The Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes by Michael L. Fleischer, published in 1976, ISBN 9780020800804