(2) Cf. Cun.  Texts in the Brit.  Mus., Pt.  XXIV, pl. 12,
     ll. 32, 26, 27, 25, 24, 23, and Poebel, Hist.  Texts, p.
     34.

In the myth we are not told her method of creation, but from the above titles it is clear that in her own cycle of tradition Ninkhasagga was conceived as fashioning men not only from clay but also from wood, and perhaps as employing metal for the manufacture of her other works of creation.  Moreover, in the great God List, where she is referred to under her title Makh, Ninkhasagga is associated with Anu, Enlil, and Enki; she there appears, with her dependent deities, after Enlil and before Enki.  We thus have definite proof that her association with the three chief Sumerian gods was widely recognized in the early Sumerian period and dictated her position in the classified pantheon of Babylonia.  Apart from this evidence, the important rank assigned her in the historical and legal records and in votive inscriptions,(1) especially in the early period and in Southern Babylonia, accords fully with the part she here plays in the Sumerian Creation myth.  Eannatum and Gudea of Lagash both place her immediately after Anu and Enlil, giving her precedence over Enki; and even in the Kassite Kudurru inscriptions of the thirteenth and twelfth centuries, where she is referred to, she takes rank after Enki and before the other gods.  In Sumer she was known as “the Mother of the Gods”, and she was credited with the power of transferring the kingdom and royal insignia from one king to his successor.

     (1) See especially, Poebel, op. cit., pp. 24 ff.

Her supreme position as a goddess is attested by the relative insignificance of her husband Dunpae, whom she completely overshadows, in which respect she presents a contrast to the goddess Ninlil, Enlil’s female counterpart.  The early clay figurines found at Nippur and on other sites, representing a goddess suckling a child and clasping one of her breasts, may well be regarded as representing Ninkharsagga and not Ninlil.  Her sanctuaries were at Kesh and Adab, both in the south, and this fact sufficiently explains her comparative want of influence in Akkad, where the Semitic Ishtar took her place.  She does indeed appear in the north during the Sargonic period under her own name, though later she survives in her synonyms of Ninmakh, “the Sublime Lady”, and Nintu, “the Lady of Child-bearing”.  It is under the latter title that Hammurabi refers to her in his Code of Laws, where she is tenth in a series of eleven deities.  But as Goddess of Birth she retained only a pale reflection of her original cosmic character, and her functions were gradually specialized.(1)

     (1) Cf.  Poebel, op. cit., p. 33.  It is possible that, under
     one of her later synonyms, we should identify her, as Dr.
     Poebel suggests, with the Mylitta of Herodotus.