Rating: 
Summary: A Scholarly Anthology
Review: An excellent anthology of stories from ancient Mesopotamia presented with a high degree of scholarship. Some readers may find the stories difficult to read due to frequent gaps in the text that have resulted from damage to the original cuneiform clay tablets, but it is a small price to pay to ensure accuracy and authenticity in the translation of ancient texts over 4000 years old. While all the translations are based on the various Akkadian versions of the stories, it would have been nice to read the Sumerian versions of these stories where they are extant. Each story is preceded with an introduction and historical context followed by copious technical notes. A detailed glossary is also included to assist the reader. A chart showing a timeline of the stories would have been helpful especially when making comparisons to other ancient stories from biblical, Greek, Middle Eastern, and Arabian traditions.
Rating:
Summary: A good introduction, but not the most recent translation
Review: Dalley presents many of the major myths of the Mesopotamian culture including "The Epic of Creation", "Atrahasis" (The Flood Myth), and "The Epic of Gilgamesh". Additionally, short essays are provided for most of the translations that help the modern reader to understand the stories. I thought Dalley's introduction did a good job of discussing structural markers and literary devices used in Mesopotamian poetry.
Since this book was published in 1990, more recent translations have become available. For example, Benjamin Foster's "From Distant Days" was published in 1995 and provides more complete translations of many of the same myths presented in Dalley. For example, the "Etana" myth in Foster includes a major portion of Tablet IV, which is completely missing in Dalley. Andrew George's "The Epic of Gilgamesh", which was published in 2003, contains a more complete translation of this story, along with Old Babylonian and Sumerian predecessors.
Despite these translation issues, general readers who want to sample a bit of Mesopotamian literature will most likely be pleased with Dalley's book. Dalley's translations are very accessible, despite the numerous gaps and ommissions present in the texts. For the person who wants a more complete anthology of Mesopotamian literature, I would recommend Foster's book, since he presents other types of literary genre, such as king legends, prayers, and love charms, in addition to more current translations of the major myths.
Rating: 
Summary: A trove of tales at a bargin price
Review: Dalley's book is perhaps the most recent compilation of Akkadian (the language of the Babylonian empire) myths in translation. The only rival for completeness here would be the Akkadian sections of James Pritchard's Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament - but Dalley trumps Pritchard in having more complete, more modern translations. Each tale is preceded by a brief introduction placing them in their historical context, and are followed by varying amounts of endnotes.Dalley's translations include:
Atrahasis - one of the Mesopotamian flood stories which resonates with Noah in Genesis and Utnapishtim in Gilgamesh
The Epic of Gilgamesh - the hero of the Sumerian King Lists, in his story's most complete form The Old Babylonian version of Gilgamesh - This version is very incomplete and contains bits of Enkidu's introduction and the Humbaba episode, as well as a bit surrounding Gilgamesh's lament/quest for the deceased Enkidu. The Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld - This brief seasonal dying and rising god/goddess story is much more developed in the surviving Sumerian Inanna cycle than it is here. Nergal and Ereshkigal - Dalley presents the Sulantepe and the Amarna versions of this tale of Nergal's visit to the Underworld. Adapa - a brief story of the antediluvian king's loss of immortality could draw some parallels with the fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis. Etana - the story of the king of kish who flew to heaven on the back of an eagle. Anzu(Standard and Old Babylonian versions) - the storm god Ninurta conquers the bird monster Anzu. The Epic of Creation - Known elsewhere as Enuma Elish, this is the story of the chaos/water/mother goddess/dragon Tiamat and her defeat at the hands of the storm god Marduk, who uses her body to create the universe, and his conquest to take charge of the pantheon. Theogony of Dunnu - a brief cosmology that shows that antimosity between cattle herders and shepherds goes back further than the Western. Erra and Ishum - Erra (Nergal) and Marduk argue, while Isshum calms things down.
Rating:
Summary: A trove of tales at a bargin price
Review: Dalley's book is perhaps the most recent compilation of Akkadian (the language of the Babylonian empire) myths in translation. The only rival for completeness here would be the Akkadian sections of James Pritchard's Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament - but Dalley trumps Pritchard in having more complete, more modern translations. Each tale is preceded by a brief introduction placing them in their historical context, and are followed by varying amounts of endnotes. Dalley's translations include:
Atrahasis - one of the Mesopotamian flood stories which resonates with Noah in Genesis and Utnapishtim in Gilgamesh
The Epic of Gilgamesh - the hero of the Sumerian King Lists, in his story's most complete form The Old Babylonian version of Gilgamesh - This version is very incomplete and contains bits of Enkidu's introduction and the Humbaba episode, as well as a bit surrounding Gilgamesh's lament/quest for the deceased Enkidu. The Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld - This brief seasonal dying and rising god/goddess story is much more developed in the surviving Sumerian Inanna cycle than it is here. Nergal and Ereshkigal - Dalley presents the Sulantepe and the Amarna versions of this tale of Nergal's visit to the Underworld. Adapa - a brief story of the antediluvian king's loss of immortality could draw some parallels with the fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis. Etana - the story of the king of kish who flew to heaven on the back of an eagle. Anzu(Standard and Old Babylonian versions) - the storm god Ninurta conquers the bird monster Anzu. The Epic of Creation - Known elsewhere as Enuma Elish, this is the story of the chaos/water/mother goddess/dragon Tiamat and her defeat at the hands of the storm god Marduk, who uses her body to create the universe, and his conquest to take charge of the pantheon. Theogony of Dunnu - a brief cosmology that shows that antimosity between cattle herders and shepherds goes back further than the Western. Erra and Ishum - Erra (Nergal) and Marduk argue, while Isshum calms things down.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome! And I wonder what these others expected?
Review: Despite what you see in some other reader reviews, this book is written for intelligent laypeople with an interest in history, not for scholars. Either that, or I'm more of a scholar than I realized, but apparently not, since I don't read any of the original languages. While translating the myths into clear English, this book presents them as they are, instead of constructing a speculative theory of what they might have been. Yes, there are acknowledged gaps. The book also provides multiple versions of some of the tales, with different gaps in each version. This shows the reality of what we are dealing with and lets readers do some theorizing of their own.
For me, the book offered a fascinating glimpse into a part of history that was long suppressed and nearly forgotten and is now often distorted, especially by people who want to transform Mesopotamian literature into external confirmation of the historical truth of biblical stories. Instead, these myths, including the very different version of the flood story in Gilgamesh, open a separate window onto the primitive, very human mindset that produced the Old Testament. Readers who are not prepared to accept that, and who want Discovery Channel-style historical pabulum, undoubtedly feel a need to disparage this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Dry, esoteric, and occasionally nonsensical
Review: I bought this book because I enjoyed each of several (partially reconstructed) translations of Gilgamesh I had read and because I generally enjoy primary sources of myths and legends. This book, unfortunately, is entirely too academic; reading the dry, fragmentary sources becomes an unpleasant chore, especially in "Gilgamesh." Dalley probably did as well as she could in translating the difficult originals in as close a form to the original cuneiform tablets as possible, but the result is a book with almost no interest to the general reader or even the armchair Assyriologist. Unless you're a hard-core would-be Joseph Campbell or a stuent planning to go into the field, you'd be advised to pass this book up.
Rating:
Summary: Dry, esoteric, and occasionally nonsensical
Review: If you're interested in this remote region of literature and wonder what's behind the scholarly debates, this is a really good collection. Not only does it reflect recent advances in comprehending ancient Mesopotamian languages, the translation is clear, notes are abundant, and introductions are excellent. Just as important is the range of selections. This one volume contains "Gilgamesh", "Atrahasis", "Enuma Elish", "The Descent of Ishtar Into The Underworld" and several other myths. Both standard and alternative versions are given for "Gilgamesh" and some other works. A terrific value!
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Collection and A Great Buy
Review: If you're interested in this remote region of literature and wonder what's behind the scholarly debates, this is a really good collection. Not only does it reflect recent advances in comprehending ancient Mesopotamian languages, the translation is clear, notes are abundant, and introductions are excellent. Just as important is the range of selections. This one volume contains "Gilgamesh", "Atrahasis", "Enuma Elish", "The Descent of Ishtar Into The Underworld" and several other myths. Both standard and alternative versions are given for "Gilgamesh" and some other works. A terrific value!
Rating:
Summary: Good stuff! Readable 4000 years old stories.
Review: Mesopotamia, now called Iraq, was the scene of a huge and prosperous society over 4000 years ago. This book contains translations of several of the greatest stories written by the Mesopotamians. I'm not a scholar, so can't comment on how accurate it is, however, I can recommend it as a very good read. The book is written backwards, starting off with the Epic of Gilgamesh, a rollicking tale describing the adventures of a hero king who does not want to die and finishing off with the Creation myths, that describe how several generations of gods create the cosmos, earth and mankind. Feminists will be peeved to hear that after the goddess Tiamat made a mess of thing, Mesopotamians had no truck with female deities. As the text is taken off ancient tablets, a few lines and words are missing. However, it doesn't in any way spoil the book. When reading translations of ancient texts, the fun is usually spoilt by academics who feel they ought to write in Chaucerian English just to show how old the real story is. In this book there is no such problem. The English is wonderfully modern which makes these tales accessible to anyone. Great stuff and well worth taking a look at.
Rating:
Summary: A distant echo of our true history ?
Review: MYTHS FROM MESOPOTAMIA : Creation, the Flood, Gilgamesh, and Others. Edited and translated with an Introduction and Notes by STEPHANIE DALLEY. 337 pp. Oxford World's Classics. Oxford University Press, 1998 (1989). ISBN 0-19-283589-0 (pbk.) Today we have the movies. It seems perfectly natural to us that time, energy, skills, and enormous resources should be devoted to the manufacture of an endless flood of 'stories,' stories which bear little if any relation to reality, and most of which are mere entertainment and utterly without any sort of meaning or significance. Think, for example, 007 or Indiana Jones. Think rubbish. What we fail to realize is that ancient peoples would have viewed us and our art with absolute horror. Having far more limited resources than us, and being fundamentally much more serious and in closer contact with reality, an art such as ours that lacked significance would have immediately been seen as the degenerate thing it is. True art for the ancients, in other words, meant deep significance. Look now at the title of the present book. What effect does the use of the word "Myths" have on your thoughts before you even open the book? One of the senses of this word today is "lies" or "falsehoods." The word is also commonly used of the stories that were told and cherished and handed down by ancient peoples. These were serious people, and their 'stories' held deep meaning and significance for them, though we no longer require our own to have much meaning. But the title of Dalley's book flicks a switch in our mind and readies us for a bunch of mere stories, tales dreamed up out of thin air in idle moments. Personally, I remain unconvinced. I don't think that the ancients were as ready to waste their time and resources on mere entertainment as we are. Neither do I think that their stories were pure products of imagination about an imagined class of beings that (since it's safer) our scholars have agreed to call "gods." I think these stories are distant echoes of actual historical events involving real persons, and so does scholar and linguist Zechariah Sitchin, whose books on Ancient Mesopotamia you ought to read as they will help rescue you from the paradigm paralysis of the Official World. The story of Ancient Mesopotamia, of its various peoples and languages, its amazing civilization, its fantastic cuneiform writing system, and of the exciting discovery of hundreds of thousands of baked clay tablets, in various states of preservation, and their patient decipherment by dedicated scholars over the last hundred years or so, is a fascinating story but far too complex to go into here. All I can do is refer you to my Listmania List, 'Sumer for Beginners,' for some suggested reading. Assyriologist Stephanie Dalley, who has taught Akkadian (the Semitic language of the conquerors of Sumer), is one such scholar, and although I'm not a specialist myself but merely an enthusiastic Sumerophile, I think she would agree that knowledge of Sumerian and Akkadian is still in a highly imperfect state, and that 'definitions' of words in these languages should not be seen as fixed and more or less final, as they are in languages such as Latin or Greek, but rather as currently fashionable educated guesses by specialists, guesses which may turn out to be wrong. Personally I doubt very much that her use, for example, of the word "gods," accurately reflects what the ancients really meant. Once again, I think that we are dealing not with 'myth' but with history. Although Professor Dalley's book was designed for the general reader, it's quite a scholarly production nevertheless. After a brief Preface and Introduction, she gives us brisk, clear, vigorous and wonderfully readable translations of the following important texts : Atrahasis (the Flood Story); two versions of The Epic of Gilgamesh; The Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld (The Journey of Ishtar to Africa ?); two versions of Nergal and Ereshkigal; Apapa; Etana; two versions of Anzu; The Epic of Creation; the Theogony (sic) of Dunnu; Era and Ishum. All of these texts have been provided with their own brief introductions, and all gaps and losses of text in the original tablets have been indicated in the translations. In addition, all texts have occasionally helpful endnotes which in most cases total a page or two, although Gilgamesh has over 10 pages. The book also includes a Chronological Chart (in a miniscule font); a Map of the Near East showing places named in the 'myths' (which would have been more useful if it hadn't been so tiny); a page of line drawings illustrating 'Mythical monsters (sic) referred to in the translations;' a detailed 14-page Glossary; and a 6-page Selected Bibliography which should prove useful to polyglots who have access to an excellent university library collection of Ancient Near Eastern materials. The book is clearly and excellently printed on strong paper in a smallish but readable font, and bound in a glossy wrapper, but sadly has one of those detestable glued spines that crack on opening. Here is an example of Dalley's vigorous style, chosen at random from Gilgamesh, with my obliques added to indicate line breaks: "He washed his filthy hair, he cleaned his gear, / Shook out his locks over his back, / Threw away his dirty clothes and put on fresh ones. / He clothed himself in robes and tied on a sash. / Gilgamesh put his crown on his head / And Ishtar the princess raised her eyes to the beauty of Gilgamesh. / 'Come to me, Gilgamesh, and be my lover! / Bestow on me the gift of your fruit!" (Page 77). Within its limits, Dalley's is an excellent scholarly compilation of her wonderfully readable and vigorous translations, and should be of real interest to anyone who is seriously interested in these fascinating ancient stories. But instead of allowing Professor Dalley to decide in advance for you, it might be better if you were to make up your own mind as to whether they are merely "myths," or are instead a distant echo of our true history.
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