That’s the oldest story of a human hero, there’s more in myths and cult practices that’s just straight up all of that. The cult of Inanna / Ishtar had non binary people, men taking the role of female mourners and singers (gala / kalu), passive males “whose maleness Ishtar turned female” and “effeminate” cultic personel, women taking male military roles, women given a “spear” by Ishtar (kurgaru or ursal, literally man-woman), male palace attendants for the female quarters (presumed to be castrated but not necessarily), “childless men” / childless castrates working in administration, actual statuettes clearly depicting a woman’s body but marked with a male name in a female role… And then there’s the myth of Ishtar getting stuck in the underworld in which the only being that is able to go free her from Ereshkigal is Asu-shu-namir, neither male nor female. While they escape, Ereshkigal curses the non-binary to always be in the shadow, an outcast, subject of suspicions, but Ishtar counters the curse with a blessing that they’ll be a wise healing prophet (pointing to the people in her cult). We’re talking from the Sumerian period, to Old Babylonian period, all the way to Neo Babylonian period, from before 2200 BCE to after 800 BCE.

By the way, the Inanna / Ishtar cult, goddess of love and war, was the most popular, universal (present in basically all cities), long-lasting cult of the Mesopotamian civilization.

lmao