Rating: 
Summary: A new translation worth purchasing
Review: Stephanie Dalley presents us an excellent translation of Ancient Babylonian cuneiform texts. This Akkadian translation includes all the essentials in Mesopotamian Mythology, from the Epic of Creation to The Story of Ishtar's Descent into the underworld and of course the Gilgamesh Epic (Standard and Old Babylonian versions). This book is well worth the purchase. However, I do also suggest adding two other Mesopotamian Myth anthologies to your library. "The Ancient Near East" Volumes 1 & 2 Edited by James Pritchard are enduring translations. Pritchard develops more Sumerian Myths in his book than Dally preceeds to in her anthology. All of these books are excellent sources into Mesopotamian literature and highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Only The Serious Need Apply
Review: This book is exactly what it purports to be, meaning it is for the serious student only. Because the original tablets and scrolls are incomplete, so is the resulting translation. The missing sections are well marked.Not for the casual reader, you must truly be interested in the roots of Western Civilization in Ancient Mesopotamia to find this book of any use. For the non-scholar, this book raises as many questions as it answers. The fault is not with the translation or the publisher, but with the incomplete Sumerian and Assyrian source documents, and with the obscure references to civilizations that predate even the Patriarchs of the Old Testament.
Rating:
Summary: Very Interesting
Review: This is a thorough compilation of Akkadian myths. These are modern translations based on up to date scholarship. While Dalley does a good job of bringing out the poetry of these myths, these are direct translations of the original texts showing all omissions and as yet untranslated words and phrases. This approach gives a very good idea of both the character of the myths and also of the difficulties encountered by scholars in reconstructing these texts from the fragmentary available records. Readers will end numerous echoes of better known myths in these translations. The introductory essays, footnotes, and background information are excellent.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Collection Of Early Mesopotamian Literature
Review: This is an excellent collection of several ancient Mesopotamian mythical stories. The original sources used for these translations were all written in Akkadian (which includes Semitic Babylonian and Assyrian dialects). Included in this collection are "Atrahasis", "The Epic of Gilgamesh" (standard and Old Babylonian versions), "The Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld", "Nergal and Ereshkigal" (standard and Amarna versions), "Adapa", "Etana", "Anzu" (standard and Old Babylonian versions), "The Epic of Creation", "Theogony of Dunnu", and "Erra and Ishum".
This large collection of stories, along with the well written introductions and notes provided, enables the reader to put these epic stories into context, and recognize the parallels within the different stories. I prefer this book to those that concentrate only on the Gilgamesh epic.
Rating:
Summary: Old Time
Review: When time restarted.The Sumerian the start of the Jews.Yes?They are not Myths it is the way it was.The First Jew was born in Nippur the first Sumerian city.It was Abraham his father was a high preist at Nippur.They moved to Ur.And that was the Hebrews.
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