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Ancient Near East

Ancient Near East

Ziggurat: (c) J.B. Hare 1999


General

 Myths and Legends of Babylonia and Assyria
by Donald A. Mackenzie [1915]
A massive survey of the religion, culture, and history of the ancient Near East.

 The Religion Of Babylonia And Assyria
by Theophilus G. Pinches 159,537 bytes

 Legends of Babylonia and Egypt
by Leonard W. King 396,030 bytes [1916]

 Sumerian Mythology
by Samuel Noah Kramer [1944, 1961]

 The Philistines, Their History and Civilization
by Robert Alexander Stewart Macalister [1913]
What is known about the ancient and enigmatic Philistine people?


Texts

 Records of the Past
Translations of mythological and historical texts from the Ancient Near East.

 The Seven Tablets of Creation
by L.W. King [1902]
The Babylonian creation saga, one of the earliest written myths.

 The Enuma Elish (The Epic of Creation)
translated by L. W. King [1902]
The Babylonian creation saga.

 The Seven Evil Spirits
translated by R. C. Thompson [1903]

 The Code of Hammurabi
translated by L.W. King [1915].
The earliest known legal code, is considered the basis of many Near Eastern legal systems.

 The Syrian Goddess
translated by Herbert A. Strong [1913]
Lucian of Samosata’s account of Astarte worship in the late classical era, in what is now Turkey.

 The Babylonian Legends of Creation
by E. A. Wallis Budge [1921]
The text of the Babylonian creation myth.

Gilgamesh

 The Epic of Gilgamish
by R. Campbell Thompson [1928]
The first complete academic translation of Gilgamesh.

 The Chaldean Account of the Deluge
by George Smith [1873]
A historic article in which the discovery of the Babylonian Deluge account was announced, an episode from the Gilgamesh myth.

The Chaldean Account of Genesis
by George Smith [1876]
Early translations of key texts: the Enuma Elish, the Descent of Ishtar, and the Gilgamesh saga, including the Babylonian Flood.

 Ishtar and Izdubar {Gilgamesh}
by Leonidas Le Cenci Hamilton. [1884]
An early translation of the Gilgamesh myth.

 Adapa and the food of Life
Translated by R. W. Rogers [1912]
A fragment of the Gilgamesh saga.

 Descent of the Goddess Ishtar into the Lower World
translated by M. Jastrow [1915]
A pivotal episode in the Gilgamesh saga involving the Goddess Ishtar.

 The Babylonian Story of the Deluge and the Epic of Gilgamish.
by E. A. Wallis Budge [1929]
A short pamphlet which contains the ‘Deluge’ portion of the Gilgamesh epic and a summary of the rest of the text.


Links

The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
An excellent academic repository of Sumerian texts [External Site].

We also recommend:
Ancient Near Eastern Religion: Frequently Asked Questions [External Site]:
The Assyro-Babylonian Mythology FAQ
The Canaanite Mythology FAQ
The Hittite Mythology Reference
Sumerian Mythology FAQ