Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others (Oxford World's Classics) | 
 enlarge | Creator: Stephanie Dalley
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
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Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 47565
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0192835890
Dewey Decimal Number: 299.21
EAN: 9780192835895
ASIN: 0192835890
Publication Date: September 17, 1998
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Product Description
These tales from the ancient civilizations of the "fertile crescent" stand alongside the Odyssey and the Arabian Nights in being popular with an international audience at the dawn of recorded history. Here are myths of the Creation and of the Flood, as well as the fascinating Epic of Gilgamesh, a story of heroic failure in a moment of human weakness.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 More pedagogical than pleasurable. December 30, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Though many of you would already know this, I think it's important that lay readers realize that this book contains direct translations of these tablets--so chunks of text will be missing from the stories. This is not a transliteration, so you're not going to have a series of stories that read particularly easily.
However, if you need to do research on ancient Mesopotamian mythology this book is a true treasure to behold. I'm writing a novel that requires me to dig deep into everything we truly know about these ancient civilizations, and I feel very confident that the book makes the most truth-preserving claims as the author could make, regarding what we can say for certain. She puts relevant background information as well as brief histories on the studies of each myth, then tells the tales while preserving the poetic style that the mythical originators wrote with.
 Modern Translation in an Attempted Perfectionism August 6, 2007
3 out of 8 found this review helpful
Revised review: I read the revised edition of 2000 - with 10 new primary sources - of the originally 1989 book. The author chose rather the Akkadian versions over the Sumerian ones. Included are ten stories of variating length: Atrahasis, The Epic of Gilgamesh*, The Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld, Nergal and Ereshkigal*, Adapa, Etana, Anzu*, The Epic of Creation, Theogony of Dunnu, Erra and Ishum. (* = including standard version and older & shorter version). As you see, there isn't a story called "The Flood" as suggested by the title of the book. However, the flood is a recurring theme in several of the other stories.
Usually I detest footnotes, however, it makes perfect sense to use them here, as a translated text by someone else, from a distant civilisation has to be explained. Lost in translation puns and alliterations are pointed out. Also variating translations, which differ considerably. If the Bible translations via various languages have been done in a similar vagueness, I am not surprised that one or the other message has been misinterpreted. This book now uses modern English, which I am very thankful for, as it wouldn't make any sense to indulge in some sort of pretentious antique "translation". Stephanie Dalley is a perfectionist in the sense that she meticulously includes any missing line and lost word. Which sometimes leaves only a word per line extant. That is frustrating for sure occasionally, but unavoidable, if a reliable translation is sought. With some pages I was happy that I still have 99% of human vision, this tiny the text has been printed.
Though at times purposefully repetitious, the stories themselves are mostly interesting or/and indeed worthy to read. Not only for themselves, but also for the origin of some Western-known stories. However, one should be careful to draw direct lines of origin, as for one thing the same subject may be very different or, as the author points out, may variate considerably WITHIN the very long time of the Mesopotamian culture(s). In fact, the longer stories have largely been pieced together from different sources.
What she fails to mention is that the Mesopotamian culture(s) are derived from the Egyptian culture, as she avers the Mesopotamian one would be the first of mankind. That's an old Western urban legend attempting to dissociate from African culture, from Black culture as far as possible. Which is rather futile as Mesopotamia is located in Africa in geological reality for one thing and for the other, these specific ancients had been Black just the same. Which doesn't become clear at all in this book. Read The Africans Who Wrote the Bible or When We Ruled: The Ancient and Medieval History of Black Civilisations among many other books elaborating on that. However, I find it amazing that the derivations of the goddess Ishtar are mentioned, but she herself is presented as the original. Whereas it is long and officially accepted fact, even by the conservative science establishment that Ishtar in turn is derived from the Egyptian "Isis". In other words the Mesopotamian version may just be a sister derivation from Egypt, not the direct source for Western culture. In some instances that sister culture got remarried into the sources for later Western culture.
Speaking of conservatism and pseudo-origins: Elsewhere, the Epic of Gilgamesh is fancied as the first homosexual story in the world. To begin with, again, the Egyptians are able to top that. (For example with the story of Horus and Seth, though of course the concept of "homosexuality" differs from the modern one.) For another, the Gilgamesh story is rather bisexual, using modern Western terminology, as that concept was viewed differently back then and there as well. However, I find it remarkable that Stephanie Dalley isn't including that information in her veneration list. Accordingly, one can almost read this translation without noticing its however homosexual content. Gilgamesh's mother clearly speaks of Enkidu as if a son-in-law, but in the rest of the text he is translated in the like-a-brother routine. Well, maybe a "warm brother" as dated German slang would term him. Personally, I don't care about the translator's or my own view on this issue. It's even fun and safe for me, no matter my personal opinion, as in Rasta terminology, homosexuals happen in "Babylon" anyway (smile)... It's just interesting that she obviously leaves her path of perfectionism as soon as it comes to her bias. As I am a layperson on this, I wouldn't know, where else she missed some points. But maybe the reason for this is that the running gag in this story is that as soon as it turns homosexual, further text has been lost... Sure interesting to read in the ancient text that God made some humans nonbreeders to slow overpopulation. That almost sounds like modern slang.
I do recommend this book. Be sure to get the latest revision or another more recent book respectively.
This is the one scholars quote from . . . September 6, 2005
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
A collection of the major Mesopotamian myths translated by a respected scholar. This is an excellent source for those desiring an authoritative translation. Even so, these myths can be somewhat awkward to read given Dalley's use of square brackets to indicate gaps in the text and omission dots to indicate an unknown word or phrase. No doubt these are accepted academic techniques for translating ancient texts, but I do hope someone will come along and render these myths in a more enthralling format. For just such an example of how ancient texts can be made to come alive for the modern reader, see "Gilgamesh: A New English Version" by Stephen Mitchell . Nonetheless, I give Dalley five stars, but also highly, highly recommend Mitchell's new version of Gilgamesh.
Very Interesting February 20, 2005
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is a thorough compilation of Akkadian myths. These are modern translations based on up to date scholarship. While Dalley does a good job of bringing out the poetry of these myths, these are direct translations of the original texts showing all omissions and as yet untranslated words and phrases. This approach gives a very good idea of both the character of the myths and also of the difficulties encountered by scholars in reconstructing these texts from the fragmentary available records. Readers will end numerous echoes of better known myths in these translations. The introductory essays, footnotes, and background information are excellent.
Great Collection Of Early Mesopotamian Literature October 27, 2004
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
This is an excellent collection of several ancient Mesopotamian mythical stories. The original sources used for these translations were all written in Akkadian (which includes Semitic Babylonian and Assyrian dialects). Included in this collection are "Atrahasis", "The Epic of Gilgamesh" (standard and Old Babylonian versions), "The Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld", "Nergal and Ereshkigal" (standard and Amarna versions), "Adapa", "Etana", "Anzu" (standard and Old Babylonian versions), "The Epic of Creation", "Theogony of Dunnu", and "Erra and Ishum".
This large collection of stories, along with the well written introductions and notes provided, enables the reader to put these epic stories into context, and recognize the parallels within the different stories. I prefer this book to those that concentrate only on the Gilgamesh epic.
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