The creation of life from clay is a miraculous birth theme that appears throughout world religions and mythologies. Religion and folklore According to Genesis 2:7 "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul". According to Islamic mythology (Qur'an 23:12), God created man from clay. In Jewish folklore, a golem (Hebrew: גולם) is an animated anthropomorphic being that is created entirely from inanimate matter, usually clay or mud. In Sumerian mythology, the gods Enki or Enlil create a servant of the gods, humankind, out of clay and blood (see Enki and the Making of Man). In another Sumerian story, both Enki and Ninmah create humans from the clay of the Abzu, the fresh water of the underground. They take turns in creating and decreeing the fate of the humans. According to Egyptian mythology, the god, Khnum, creates human children from clay before placing them into their mother's womb. In Greek mythology, according to Pseudo-Apollodorus, Prometheus molded men out of water and earth. Near the town of Panopeus, the remaining used clay was allegedly still present in historical times as two cart-sized rocks that smelled like a human body. Myths about Prometheus were inspired by Near Eastern Myths about Enki. Also in Greek mythology, Prometheus moulds a clay statue of Minerva, the goddess of wisdom to whom he is devoted, and gives it life from a stolen sunbeam. Pandora, from Greek mythology, was fashioned from clay and given the quality of “naïve grace combined with feeling”. In Zoroastrian mythology, first the primordial ox, Gavaevodata, and subsequently the primordial human, Gayomart are created from mud by the supreme deity Ahura Mazda. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Enkidu is created by the goddess Aruru out of clay to be a partner for Gilgamesh, "mighty in strength". According to Chinese mythology, (see Chu Ci and Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era), Nüwa molded figures from the yellow earth, giving them life and the ability to bear children. In the Babylonian creation epic Enuma Elish, the goddess, Ninhursag, created humans from clay. According to Hindu mythology, the mother of Ganesh — Parvati — made Ganesh from clay and turned the clay into flesh and blood. According to some Laotian folk religion, there are stories of humans created from mud or clay. In Hawaiian tradition, the first man