Myths from Mesopotamia Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others (Oxford World's Classics)

Having read the negative comments about Zechariah Sitchin I wanted to read the original stories on their own with a good translation. This book is brilliant although not the easiest to read as it doesn't smooth over gaps. I prefer this as it let's me make up my own mind how to fill them. The idea of extra terrestrials having visited the earth can be easily deducted from these texts, one only needs to read the first story "Atrahasis" to get the idea "When Anu had gone up to the sky, [And the gods of] the Apsu had gone below, The Anunnaki of the sky Made the Igigi bear the workload."These gods are not portrayed in a way we like to think of gods as kind of heavenly beings but remind us of greek gods, real people but from a different place, another planet. These gods are as human as we are, they are sleeping in houses, grumble over hard work, complain and start rebellions. And like us humans, who want to ease the work-burden and use workers/slaves, so did they, they created mankind to do the work for them.They " ... clear channels, the lifelines of the land, ... 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"The stories are all very human, have even a modern feel to it sometimes. They really make you think and wonder, who are these Anunnaki, are they really gods in a sense of how we understand gods, supernatural beings, or are they simply a kind of human from a different planet who created workers in their own image but a shorter life span. Even the process of creation as described in these stories do remind one of modern genetic engineering. After reading these stories, I believe that Sitchin might really have a point, there really might have been people from another planet who visited this planet and created us.Of course there are always other interpretations possible, but considering the style these stories are written in and how there are so many other cultures with similar stories and artefacts that still puzzle science and historians today, I think we should keep an open mind. This book is a good start to get a more 'un-biased' view about ancient cultures like the Sumerian. Let the stories speak for themselves.

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I am doing some research for an author who wishes to relate the story to actual historical events/timeline and in a seemless manner, and have been looking into the various myths, legends, fairytales of ancient times and the historical significance of these when I decided on aquiering this book.I have read some of these stories before such as the epic of Gilgamesh and the descent of Ishtar, and have to say that this translation is a great starting point for anyone interested in the ancient tradition of storytelling and oratory history of old. Though a lot is lost in translation it gives you enough to see the beautiful allegorical usage and also gives you a pleasurable reading experience.It is a must read for anyone interested in the ancient times and gives you a great selection for further reading if the stories speak to you (be it for their language, content or historical refrences) or you'r just plain curious of the origins of modern civilization.I would also recomend that one reads the complete stories of 1001 nights and those wonderful stories of the ancient Egyptian mythologies for comparison.

This new translation of Akkadian myths by Stephanie Dalley contains not only the well-known 'Epic of Gilgamesh', but also astonishing fragments from 'Atrahasis', 'The Epic of Creation', the short 'Theogony of Dunnu' with its recurrent themes of incest, patricide, and matricide, and the violent poem 'Erra and Ishum'.The Epic of GilgameshThis book presents a translation of every major excavated clay tablet about Gilgamesh's search for eternal life. Therein, the 'alewife' ridicules Gilgamesh's quest: 'Gilgamesh you will not find the eternal life you seek … the gods appointed death for mankind. Kept eternal life in their own hands. So, Gilgamesh, day and night enjoy yourself in every way'.For a modern rendition of the epic, I recommend the outstanding version by Stephen Mitchell, 'Gilgamesh' (Profile Books).Atrahasisis a raw poem with an astonishing interpretation of the flood. It was provoked by the gods to combat overpopulation ('the people too numerous … the gods grew restless'). The gods also used other brutal means like starvation, which led to cannibalism : 'they served up a daughter for a meal, served up a son for food.'The Epic of Creationis an ode about the Babylonian hero-god Marduk, the creator of the primeval man.Marduk slays the opponent of his own gods, Tiamat, ending chaos and allowing creation to proceed.Out of Tiamet he built the world: 'he opened the Euphrates and the Tigris from her eyes … he piled up clear cut mountains from her udder ...'Erra and IshumErra is the god of the plague and the underworld, while Ishum is his counselor, 'a pious slaughterer'.More belligerent and murderous stances are hard to find: 'his heart urged him to make war. He spoke to his weapons, 'Rub yourselves with deadly poison!''Like one who plunders a country, I do not distinguish just from unjust … one does not snatch a corpse from the mouth of a marauding lion.'These outspoken and explicit texts are truly remarkable. They tackle profound human themes such as war and peace (power struggles), gods and men (religion), and love and death. Of course, they don't have the polished form of the Greek masterpieces, but they are up to 2000 years older than these.

It blew my mind to see that many stories from genesis are here in earlier and more detailed forms. For example, Atrahasis is basically Noah, in more detail with massive differences. There's very little in this book to imply the Anunaki were aliens though. The blanks are kept in (the book explains the tablets were damaged, which isn't surprising as they are about 6000 years old) , so if you want to fill the blanks with aliens and flying saucers you are free to do so ;)I like how the blanks have stayed, and she hasn't made guesses to fill them in.