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Jealous Gods and Chosen People: The Mythology of the Middle East

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At the Middle East Forum, Alexander H. Joffe stated: Leeming, an emeritus professor of English at the University of Connecticut, is best noted for his biography of James Baldwin.[James Baldwin: A Biography (New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1995).] He has also produced a stream of books on world mythology.

As usual, the ancient Near East carries a heavy burden since "the events and stories under consideration here cannot be reasonably separated from the recent history." The mythological past is the political present, especially for "nationalized religious traditions, particularly Israeli Jew and Arab Muslim (with significant Western Christian participation)." But Leeming's goal is ecumenical to say the least; "with nonexclusionary vision, other people's religious narratives can be seen as tribe-defining cultural dreams and as significant metaphors that can speak truthfully to people across cultural and sectarian boundaries." In his view only "fundamentalists" feel otherwise.

The volume provides highly schematic and often poorly informed background chapters on prehistory, the Bronze Age, Iron Age, and "Jews, Christians and Muslims." These are followed by individual chapters on the mythology of prehistory, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia, the western Semites, and Arabia and the Muslims. Some of the primary gods and mythological cycles are introduced, particularly heroes and creation myths. These hardly exhaust, or begin to describe, the vast range of mythological motifs, their interaction and significance, across some ten thousand years.

The volume is produced entirely from secondary sources without command of the many languages in question. This is not an impossible obstacle, of course, provided there is sensitivity to the material and its complexities. A prerequisite is consulting editio princeps of the many texts cited, or collections such as the classic Ancient Near Eastern Texts Related to the Old Testament and its modern descendents. Sadly, Leeming relies to an unreasonable degree on general articles in the Eliade-edited Encyclopedia of Religion, and non-experts such as Joseph Campbell and Karen Armstrong, rather than far more authoritative monographic syntheses.

There have been numerous books dealing with Near Eastern mythology from the standpoint of individual cultures and in comparative terms by estimable scholars past such as Sabatino Moscati and Samuel Noah Kramer, and more recently Stephanie Dalley and Gwendolyn Leick, to name but a few. They are still to be recommended.

Alexander H. Joffe

Since a huge percentage of the world's people belong to one of the Abrahamic faiths, Leeming could not possibly avoid offending some of them. He is respectful of the myths of all religions, although he honors them more for spiritual than literal truths. He is also hopeful that monotheisms, at least related monotheisms, can find common ground and avoid violent conflict. I can only suggest that the reader choose materials with this in mind. If the reader cannot bear the inclusion of Abrahamic faiths with ancient pagan religions, this is not for them.

I have no expertise in this area, I cannot really judge its accuracy. It is a brief, straightforward and informative guide. I would certainly recommended it as a first book on the subject, and perhaps as a reference guide in reading more extensive works. The myths are not recounted in story-teller form, although they are interestingly told. I particularly liked that the multiple (and sometimes overlapping) names of the deities and variants of myths. I am sometimes bewildered by the different renderings of tales that I thought I knew, and this is quite helpful in pulling them together. Leeming notes continuing themes and motifs, such as the sky god as bull, and relates the material to Joseph Campbell's works on commonalities among world mythologies.

Leeming says that the ancient religions took their myths more metaphorically than literally, and I would have liked a little more information on this point.

There is both an extensive bibliography for further research and a detailed index with helpful cross-references, e.g. Enlil, see also storm gods. The one feature I might have suggested is a listing of the variants of deities, perhaps with some sort of graphic timeline of cultural exchanges, but this is pretty well covered in the text.

This book is a great example of mythical documentation and centers on the roots of myth as well as their purpose in society quite fluently. A great example of literary reference as it both gives informative and exciting stories from the cradle of civilization.Although only a quick synopsis of Middle Eastern Myth and legend the Leeming does a good job of presenting myth as well as philosophy.

The book does an astonishing job of leveling as well as maintaining a heigtened aspect of people as well as their use for myth and its effect on how they lived their lives in adherence to belief. This however may present problems to the less accepting reader who may take offense to Leeming's views of religion as he sees myths(including biblical)as rather metaphorical than historically true. Looking past this however Leeming presents quite an intersting aspect of middle eastern comparitive mythology that is the basis for many cultures today.

all togethyer though this book is a good representation of BASIC middle eastern myths and only just scratches the surface on some points. Yet on the bright side the stories that are included(mostly creation as well as primal myths to the cultures) are told in a interesting as well as comparitive matter, enjoyable to read as well as to refer to.

Being a layperson without much background in Middle Eastern mythology, I was initially attracted to this book because it seemed to be an interesting overview of Middle Eastern mythology. Having now finished reading it, I found it to be highly condensed in its approach to these mythologies, and therefore a bit overwhelming.

The book begins with something of a "thumbnail sketch" of the history of the Middle East, which I found hard to follow, especially since it lacked any timelines or maps to help the reader keep everything straight. The book touches here and there on how historical trends and major historical events might have impacted the mythologies of the region, but it does so in a piecemeal fashion. It would have been nice if the book delved into this a little bit more, and perhaps in a more systematic manner.

The remainder of the book is an overview of the major mythologies of the region, from prehistory to the present day. With all the different traditions associated with these mythologies over a period of several millennia, again, the book seems to cover a lot of ground. I was hoping that the book would explore in more detail how these mythologies changed over time, and how they influenced each other.

The book did give me a sense of what subjects to pursue further in terms of specific mythologies, but overall, it left me somewhat unsatisfied. I'm not sure who Leeming's target audience for this book was, but I'm fairly sure it didn't include me.

Very disappointing, requires in-depth knowledge of the subject matter to follow the story lines. Each sentence chock full of names and/or dates. Boring and difficult to comprehend for persons not already well versed in this field.