To date, no complete Sumerian myth has been found. However, some Sumerian literary works such as myths and hymns that are not directly related to the myth of the opening of heaven and earth contain some fragments of the myth of the opening of heaven and earth. For example, the myth "Gigamesh, Enkidu and Hades" mainly tells the story of Enkidu going to Hades in search of two gifts from Gilgamesh, but it begins with the mentions: "When the sky was removed from the earth and the earth was separated from the sky, when the name of the human being was determined, the god Ann took the sky and Enlil, the god of air, took the earth." 6 The above fragment of the myth shows that the heavens and the earth were originally united, and that when the heavens and the earth were separated, the god Ann took the sky and the air god Enlil took the earth. Obviously, the god Ann and the god of air Enlil are the protagonists of this version of the myth of the opening of heaven and earth.

For example, the Sumerian hymn "The Song of the Hoe" praises one of Enlil's feather hoes, which begins: "He [Enlil] not only gave the world a complete form when it appeared, but hastened to separate heaven from earth in order to make man grow." 7 Here, it was Enlil who created the world, and he separated the heavens and the earth in order to give mankind a space to grow. There is no doubt that Enlil is the protagonist of this version of the myth of the opening of heaven and earth.

It can be seen that there are at least two different versions of the Sumerian myth of the opening of heaven and earth: one is that when heaven and earth were separated, the god of heaven and earth and the god of air Enlil took away heaven and earth respectively; The second is that Enlil, the god of air, created the world and separated the heavens and the earth.

There is also more than one fragment of the Sumerian myth of the origin of man. According to "The Song of the Hoe": "In the 'place where man grows,' he wields his hoe and puts the first human model into a brick mold, and his human begins to break through the ground and walk towards Enlil. 8 The above text shows that Enlil planted man in the soil like a crop.

The Sumerian flood myth also retains some information about the origins of man: "After Ann, Enlil, and Ninhursag created the black-haired man, animals also multiplied, and all kinds of quadrupeds adorned the earth with life." 9 In this version of the myth of the origin of man, humanity was created by the three great gods Ann, Enlil, and Ninhursaag, although the manner in which they created humanity is unknown.

In addition to the above-mentioned fragments of the myth of the origin of man, Sumer also has a more complete myth of the origin of man, namely Enki and Nyingmach. According to this myth, after the gods were created, each god had a task, with the greater god supervising and the lesser god performing manual labor. The gods complained about the heavy labor, and they brewed a riot. Enki, the god of wisdom, sleeps in Apozu all day and is the only god who does not need to work. Worried about the crisis, the Mother Goddess Namu awakens Enki and asks him to think of a solution. After Enki had created a pair of ovaries, he said to his mother, Namu, "Oh, my mother, where are the ovaries on which you have passed on your lineage, put them on God's birthing bed!" You leach the essence from the soil of Abozu's father, and the ovaries can make the fetus bigger. When you attach limbs to it, Nyingmah can be your assistant; When you let it be born, Ninyima, Shuzidanna, Nyingmada, Ninsara, Nyingbara, Nyingmog, Duduhe, Ereguna will assist you. 10 Enki, the god of wisdom, not only created the ovaries for the growth and development of the fetus, but also told the mother god Namu the specific steps of creating man, and he is the protagonist of this mythical version of the origin of mankind, and goddesses such as the mother god Namu also played an important role in the creation of humans.

It seems that there are at least three different versions of the Sumerian myth of the origin of mankind: one is that the god of air Enlil was created alone, the second is that the god of heaven Ann, the god of air Enlil and the mother goddess Ninhursag worked together to create it, and the third is the joint creation of the goddesses such as Enki, the god of wisdom, and Namu, the mother goddess.

In Sumerian history, the gods Ann, Enlil, and Enki, the god of wisdom, as well as the mother gods Namu, Ninhursag, and the goddess Nyingmah, were the protectors of different Sumerian city-states: Ann was the protector of Uruk, Enlil was the protector of Nippur, Enki was the protector of Elidu, and Ninhursag and Nyingmah were the protectors of Kish. Sumerian cities were closely related to their patron gods, and some Sumerian cities were attributed to the creation of gods. For example, in the myth Enki's Journey to Nipur, Enlil says to the Anunnaki gods: "My son, King Enki, made Elidu rise from the ground like a mountain, and he built a temple on it. (11) Thus, Elidu is believed to have been built by Enki, and the temple of Eridu is also his masterpiece.

Since the patron gods of the Sumerian city-states were so important, each city-state may have invented various myths for their patron gods in order to enhance and emphasize the status of their patron gods in the mythological system, and thus to illustrate the importance of their city-states in Sumer. Therefore, the complexity of the Sumerian creation myth should be linked to the historical development of Sumer.

After the disintegration of the Sumerian clans and tribes, the Sumerian region formed not a unified kingdom, but a dozen city-states with no subordinate relations. By the late early dynastic, the Sumerian city-states were basically mature, and dozens of city-states appeared in the region. From the middle of the Early Dynasties, the Sumerian powerhouses of Kish, Uruk, your, and Wemma all tried unsuccessfully to unify Sumer. For the first time, the Akkadian kingdom unified most of the two river basins, but its rule was not stable, and the Sumerian city-states' struggle for independence continued throughout the history of the Akkadian kingdom. At the end of the Akkadian Kingdom, the city-state of Uruk was revived, and the Fifth Dynasty was established. During the reign of the Kuti, the Sumerian city-states gradually regained their independence and eventually expelled the Kuti from the valley of the two rivers. Although the Third Dynasty of your unified the Sumerian region, the Sumerians had come to an end in history. Throughout the history of the Sumerians, it can be seen that the Sumerian city-state had tenacious vitality, and the multiplicity of city-states was one of the most prominent features of its historical development.

The city-state's long-standing presence as a form of government in the Sumerian region had a profound impact on both Sumerian history and culture. Since there was no strong unified power in Sumer, it was impossible to unify the ideological and cultural activities; The myths invented by the Sumerian city-states for their patron gods continued to circulate, and several versions of Sumerian mythology, including the creation myth, were preserved. Different city-states believe in different gods, and different versions of mythology celebrate different gods, so it's no surprise that the diversity of the protagonists of the creation myth is not surprising. In short, the complexity of the Sumerian creation myth and the diversity of the protagonists of the creation myth are inseparable from the characteristics of the city-states in the historical development of Sumer.