Poems of Heaven and Hell from Ancient Mesopotamia (Penguin Classics)

Rating:
Summary: An interesting collection
Review: The bulk of this book consists of the Babylonian creation myth, and the Sumerian myth of the Descent of Inanna. There are also several smaller poems, including an invocation to "the Gods of Night." I came across this book in a used bookstore, and snapped it up--I am an incorrigible mythology buff, and it's not every day you find a collection of primary sources like this one.

The Babylonian creation myth is the story of the hero-god Marduk's defeat of the chaos goddess Tiamat. Sandars explains that the myth covers an older layer--the remnants of the time in which the Goddess was supreme and complex, and in which there were many more gods, their powers later being assimilated into the figure of Marduk.

The Descent of Inanna details that goddess's journey into the underworld, where she is killed and held prisoner by her sister, the death-goddess Ereshkigal, and is finally rescued by Enki, who sends two spirits to console Ereshkigal in the pains of childbirth. As a reward, she gives them Inanna as a gift, and the goddess of life is restored to the upper world. The idea of the death goddess giving birth as Inanna is revived is an evocative image--is it Inanna who is being born here? Echoes of the later Eleusinian mysteries, in which Persephone was said to give birth in the underworld. Food for thought. The legend also includes several similar accounts of the capture of Dumuzi, Inanna's husband, who is forced to take Inanna's place in hell.

A fascinating hodgepodge, this book has a place of honor on my shelf.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting collection
Review: The bulk of this book consists of the Babylonian creation myth, and the Sumerian myth of the Descent of Inanna. There are also several smaller poems, including an invocation to "the Gods of Night." I came across this book in a used bookstore, and snapped it up--I am an incorrigible mythology buff, and it's not every day you find a collection of primary sources like this one.

The Babylonian creation myth is the story of the hero-god Marduk's defeat of the chaos goddess Tiamat. Sandars explains that the myth covers an older layer--the remnants of the time in which the Goddess was supreme and complex, and in which there were many more gods, their powers later being assimilated into the figure of Marduk.

The Descent of Inanna details that goddess's journey into the underworld, where she is killed and held prisoner by her sister, the death-goddess Ereshkigal, and is finally rescued by Enki, who sends two spirits to console Ereshkigal in the pains of childbirth. As a reward, she gives them Inanna as a gift, and the goddess of life is restored to the upper world. The idea of the death goddess giving birth as Inanna is revived is an evocative image--is it Inanna who is being born here? Echoes of the later Eleusinian mysteries, in which Persephone was said to give birth in the underworld. Food for thought. The legend also includes several similar accounts of the capture of Dumuzi, Inanna's husband, who is forced to take Inanna's place in hell.

A fascinating hodgepodge, this book has a place of honor on my shelf.