Enuma Elish: The Babylonian Epic of Creation

(Hardback)

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This work, the first in a groundbreaking series making Babylonian literature accessible, presents Enuma Elish in transcription and translation, with an introduction for non-specialist readers and essays from leading scholars in the field. Acting as a companion to the poem, the book provides readers with the tools they need to explore Enuma Elish in greater depth. Essays cover important historical and contextual information, offer discussions of key topics and explanations of technical terms, as well as suggestions of relevant further reading. The books interpretive and reflective approach, which pays special attention to questions of poetic style, intertextual resonance, and literary and cultural significance, encourages a greater understanding of the poem as a work of literature while remaining grounded in philology. The critical essays examine Enuma Elish and the following themes: the poems rhythm and style; its modern receptions, issues of gender, motherhood and masculinity; Marduks rise to power; Babylonian astronomy; intertextuality and the poem as as counter myth. Enuma Elish and the Library of Babylonian Literature series will be an indispensable companion for anyone interested in the literature, culture and religion of ancient Assyria.

Author Bio

Johannes Haubold is Professor of Classics at Princeton University, USA Sophus Helle is Postdoctoral Fellow at The Free University of Berlin, Germany and Oxford University, UK Enrique Jimnez is Chair of Ancient Near Eastern Literatures at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany Selena Wisnom is Lecturer in the Heritage of the Middle East, University of Leicester, UK