Enuma Elish: The Babylonian Creation Epic: also includes 'Atrahasis', the first Great Flood myth

The highpoint of the ancient Mesopotamian year was the New Year celebrations. It was a time of parties, games and the reading of epic stories. In Nineveh, an important epic was their creation story, which told the story of the creation of the universe, and the rise to preeminence of the god Marduk (Nineveh's patron deity). Though lost for millennia, the seven cuneiform tablets containing the Assyrian creation myth were found in the ruins of Nineveh at the end of the nineteenth century, and were translated by L.W. King in 1902. Although translated so long ago, Mr. King's text is still easy to follow, and is a highly enjoyable read. Unfortunately, since there was only one set of tablets extant in 1902, and that set was damaged, there are holes in the narrative that do somewhat decrease the enjoyment of the story. As a student of Sumerian literature, I must say that I found this Assyrian text quite interesting, showing how the stories changed and evolved as they were passed on to later generations and cultures. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in ancient Mesopotamia.

The scholarship of Leonard W. King is superlative. Even in his own time, his genius in Mesopotamian studies was not fully appreciated. Like Sir E.A. Wallis Budge, his very successful effort to make archaeology and ancient languages accessible to the general public was and is treated with rehearsed snobbery by those who believe that saying "NO" indicates finer intelligence than a grateful "YES". The ENUMA ELISH translation of King has been unavailable for a long time, and it is thus an event of great importance that his work is now available again. I hope that a hard-bound edition will be forthcoming, but until then, the little paper edition of two volumes is a prize. I would recommend to the publishers that, in the next printing, they make the volumes the same size. At present, the second volume is slightly larger than the first, which detracts from private efforts to have the books bound in cloth. It is very common today for critics to insist that older books are no longer valid. This is just as true in the humanities as in the hard sciences. A lot of extremely valuable material from former times is virtually lost due to this posture of picyune selection assumed by those posing as experts. For those of us who actually teach and write books, contact with a truly great and creative teacher is refreshing, indeed, inspirational. Leonard W. King is such a teacher. What has been added to Mesopotamian studies since his passing is of importance, but it does not replace his work, or make it the less significant.