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pantheon, the shrine of the gods, was 'animated' by a group of beings who possessed fairly recognisable human shape, but appear to have been superhuman, indeed immortal. But the Sumerian texts do not refer to their 'gods' with vague imprecision; they say quite clearly that the people had once seen them with their own eyes. Their sages were convinced that they had known the 'gods' who completed the work of instruction. We can read in Sumerian texts how everything happened. The gods gave them writing, they gave them instructions for making metal (the translation of the Sumerian word for metal is heavenly metal’) and taught them how to cultivate barley. We should also note that according to Sumerian records the first men are supposed to have resulted from the interbreeding of gods and the children of earth. Sumerian tradition says that the sun god Utu and the goddess of Venus, Inanna (at least) came from the universe. The Sumerian word for rib is 'ti’; 'ti' also means 'to create life'. Ninti is also the name of the Sumerian goddess who creates life. Tradition has it that Enlil, the god of the air, made many humans pregnant. A cuneiform tablet says that Enlil discharged his seed into the womb of Meslamtaea: 'The seed of thy lord, the gleaming seed, is in thy womb; the seed of Sin, the divine Before men were created and only gods dwelt in the town of Nippur, Enlil raped the delightful Ninlil and made her pregnant on orders from above. At first the lovely child of earth, Ninlil, was unwilling to be fertilised by a 'god'. The cuneiform text from Ninlil's fear of the act of violation: 'My vagina is too small, it does not understand intercourse. My lips are too small, they do not understand how to kiss ...' The divine Enlil overheard Ninlil's words of refusal, but it was a decision of the 'gods' to wipe the loathsome brood of unclean beings from the face of the earth and so Enlil discharged into Ninlil's womb. On one of the tablets translated by the Sumerologist S. N. Kramer we read: In order to destroy the seed of mankind the decision of the council of the gods is proclaimed. According to the commanding words of An and Enlil ... their dominion shall come to an end... formed ... Was the 'chamber of creation of the gods' the same as the 'Duku'? And was the 'Duku' from which the two were to descend the space-ship of the gods? This assumption is automatically suggested by the name, is in my womb ...' So it was quite clearly a matter of wiping out the impure. Another tablet says: In those days, in the chamber of creation of the gods, in their house Duku were Lahar and Ashman In those days Enki said to Enlil: Father Enlil, Lahar and Ashman, they who were created in the Duku, let us allow them to descend from the Duku."" vivid description.