Religions across five continents claim humans were molded from clay

The idea that we are sentient dirt is one of humanity's most persistent metaphors. In the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, the goddess Aruru pinches off a piece of clay to fashion the wild man Enkidu, while Chinese myth tells of the goddess Nüwa hand-crafting aristocrats from yellow earth. When she grew tired, she began flicking drops of mud from a rope, which supposedly became the common people.