Ninhursag, Lady of the Foothills, also Ninmah, Great Lady, Nintur, Lady of the Womb, and Mami or Aruru, is the Sumerian mother goddess who fashions human beings out of clay. In Atrahasis, Mami pinches off fourteen pieces of clay and places them in fourteen wombs, seven male and seven female; in the Gilgamesh epic it is Aruru who creates Enkidu. In the Sumerian myth Enki and Ninhursag she grows eight plants from her own body in Dilmun, Enki eats them and falls ill in eight parts, and she gives birth to the healing deities who cure each part. Her omega-shaped symbol marks her in the art.
Modern Practice
Ninhursag is worked by midwives, mothers, potters and makers of anything from raw material, and by anyone who has to shape something and then live with what it becomes. The clay is the model: formed by hand, fired hard, breakable.