The Mesopotamians saw their gods' society as being composed of two great "classes:" as the top were the chiefs, the greatest gods, who never worked but only governed the world; and beneath them. the others, the divine lower class, forced by their superiors for the common good to dedicate themselves to manual labor...

So one fine day, the worker gods decided they have had enough and go on strike... The wisest of the great gods, Enki/Ea, then devises and proposes a plan to save them: they will have to create a substitute for the striking gods -- a creature that alone will accomplish the work in their place be never claim, as the "strikers" did, promotion to the ruling gods' condition.

— The Oldest Cuisine in the World by Jean Bottéro (Page 108)