A complete guide to mythology and legends of the East.

The role of mythology in ritual and its place in the origins of customs, cults, and hero worship are the areas covered by this survey. Based on firsthand sources, this book recounts the legends of the Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Hittites, and Canaanites, in addition to discussing the mythological elements of the Jewish apocalyptic literature and the New Testament. The author's well-documented commentary highlights the similarities between various Middle Eastern legends and offers revealing citations from documents, tablets, and inscriptions recovered by archaeological excavations. It contains 16 black-and-white illustrations.

This volume centres on one of the most important questions in the study of antiquity – the interaction between Greece and the Ancient Near East, from the Mycenaean to the Hellenistic periods. Focusing on the stories that the peoples of the eastern Mediterranean told about the gods and their relationships with humankind, the individual treatments draw together specialists from both fields, creating for the first time a truly interdisciplinary synthesis. Old cases are re-examined, new examples discussed, and the whole range of scholarly opinions, past and present, are analysed, critiqued, and contextualised. While direct textual comparisons still have something to show us, the methodologies advanced here turn their attention to deeper structures and wider dynamics of interaction and influence that respect the cultural autonomy and integrity of all the ancient participants.

The Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology covers sources from Mesopotamia, Syro-Palestine and Anatolia, from around 2800 to 300 BC. It contains entries on gods and goddesses, giving evidence of their worship in temples, describing their 'character', as documented by the texts, and defining their roles within the body of mythological narratives; synoptic entries on myths, giving the place of origin of main texts and a brief history of their transmission through the ages; and entries explaining the use of specialist terminology, for such things as categories of Sumerian texts or types of mythological figures.

Scholar Leeming offers the first comprehensive narrative study of the mythology of the Middle East, that tumultuous region that was the cradle of civilization. Leeming begins with a brief history, followed by an in-depth discussion of the mythology of the region, ranging from prehistoric figures such as the mother goddess of Catal Huyuk to Mesopotamian gods such as Marduk and mythic heroes such as Gilgamesh, to the pantheon of Egyptian mythology. He also explores the mythology of the three great monotheistic religions of the region: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In a provocative epilogue, Leeming notes that fundamentalists in the area's three religions today all see their way as the only way, forgetting that myths represent truths that are spiritual and philosophical, not historical events that can be used to justify acts of violence.--From publisher description.

Collects stories from ancient Middle Eastern mythology, including the Babylonian creation story, the mythical life of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, the Canaanite origin of the seasons myth, and the stories of Mesopotamian gods and goddesses.