Customer Reviews

Sumerian Mythology

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Any piece of scholarship that has a preface that baldly states that quite a bit of the following translations are wrong immediately throws out warning signals.
However, this is quite a useful handbook, even if the author pointedly tells the reader that "History begins at Sumer" is more accurate. It has that touch that encompasses all ancient historical secondary sources written in the early part of the twentieth century - a narrative style, whereby it is just as important to provide both a description of actions and a background of the people and methods that got the several thousand clay tablets translated.
Given today's somewhat dry "facts, facts, facts" attitude of most ancient historians, it is most refreshing because understanding those who compiled the work gives a better understanding of the translation.
The book excellently gives a rundown of the pantheon of Sumerian Gods, the acculturation of Sumerian mythology into Semitic and translates a goodly portion (sometimes inaccurately as the preface warns!) of the tablets.
Whilst any serious Sumerian scholar must move on to latter translations and works, this is a good starting point, particularly for those wanting to see a 'decipherment' in progress.

while i find this book a good read, i was left very unsatisfied. i felt there was much left out of this book that could have been touched on. also i found myself bored to death through the authors commentary on what little translation of the sumerian texts there were. while i was led to believe that this book would discuss much of their religious customs,myths, and beliefs, it touches on very little of any. while this is not a terrible read i am sure there is much better than this.

I found this book to be a very refreshing introduction to Sumerian mythology.

However, like the author states some of the translations are not that accurate. Also, I wish this book was longer.

Besides those two things, this book is awesome and I recommend it to anyone just beginning to study Sumerian mythology.

Great portable sized book. It contains many pictures of artifacts, ancient symbols and ancient texts. It contains the Sumerian writing system in a very organized chart for easy interpreting. Highly recommend this book.