gods making dubious choices because mesopotamian gods are not moral figures
eg.
«When Anu had gone up to the sky, and the gods of the Apsu had gone below, the Annunaki of the sky made the Igigi bear the workload.
The gods had to dig out canals,
Had to clear channels, the lifelines of the land.
The gods dug out the Tigris river
And then dug out the Euphrates.
And in the deep they set up the Apsu of the land inside it raised the top of all the mountains
They were counting the years of loads. For 3,600 years they bore the excess, Hard work, night and day. They groaned and blamed each other, grumbled over the masses of excavated soil:
"Let us confront our Chamberlain
And get him to relieve us of our hard work! Come, let us carry the Lord The counselor of the gods, the warrior from his dwelling"
[strike preparations, not dissimilar to a #NoJusticeNoSleep rally in that they take place outside the bosses house in the middle of the night]
Nusku opened his door,
Took up his weapons, went before Ellil
In the assembly of all the gods
He bowed, then stood and told the message.
Your father Anu, your counselor warrior Ellil, your chamberlain Ninurta, and your canal controller Ennugi have sent me to say
"Who is in charge of the rabble?
Who is in charge of the fighting?
Who declared war?
Who ran to the door of Ellil?"
[The Igigi replied] The Every single one of us declared war! We have put a stop to the digging. The load is excessive, it is killing us! Our work is too hard, the trouble too much! So every single one of us gods has agreed to complain to Ellil"
Nysky took his weapons, went and returned to Ellil...Ellil listened to that speech. His tears flowed. Ellil spoke guardedly, addressed the warrior Anu: "noble one, take a decree with you to the sky, show them your strenght--while the Anunnaki are sitting beforey ou call up one god and let them cast him for destruction!" [this does not work, but the text is to fragmented to be completely clear why]
But Ea made his voice heard and spoke to the gods his brothers: "why are we blaming them? Their work was too hard, their trouble was too much. Every day the earth resounded. The warning signal was loud enough, we kept hearing the noise. Belet-ili the womb goddess is present--let her create primeval men so that he may bear the yoke, so that he may bear the yoke of the work of Elllil, let man bear the load of the gods!"»
re: gods making dubious choices because mesopotamian gods are not moral figures
Anyway then there's a long bit where Belet-ili and the gods create mankind (mostly out of clay, as was the norm at the time) and the gods keep treating the humans like shit until Enki feels bad and suggests the they try striking too and we get an escalating series of events that ends in the great Mesopotamian flood (which you might be familiar with as Noah's ark)
The surviving version of this myth is speculated to have been written by Enki stans btw