Ancient Near Eastern Myths & Stories

Many of these links are either to or derived from the excellent site Gateways to Babylon. There is more there than I have included. If this material interests you, you should visit that site as well. Since some pages are summaries, some versions of the full text, and there may be paraphrases, I have decided to add the page numbers from J. B. Pritchard's Ancient Near Eastern Texts if I can find them (not always easy -- feel free to enlighten me if you know some I have not located, or if I got one wrong (Alan Humm). Obviously, I haven't worked on the Mesopotamian texts yet, but you may still enlighten me.

Mesopotamian The Myth of Adapa (Adapa and the food of life) ANET pp. 101-103 Atrahasis Tablet 1 The creation of humans Tablets 2 & 3 The great famine & the great flood The Myth of Anzu - or The retrieval of the Tablet of Destinies A Dispute Between the Tamarisk and the Date Palm Babylonian Creation Myth (Enuma Elish) ANET pp. 60-72 Enki rising from the underworld The Eridu Genesis Enki & the E-Engurra Enki & Ninmah Enlil & Nam-zid-tara Enlil & Ninlil Enmerkar & En-suhgir-ana Enmerkar & the lord of Aratta Erra & Ishum The Myth of Etana Epic of Gilgamesh Sumerian Prologue to Gilgamesh Death of Gilgamesh Inanna in Pictures, Music & Drama - based on Wolkstein's + Kramer's work Inanna & Ebih Inanna & Bilulu Inanna & Shu-kale-tuda Descent of Ishtar to the Netherworld ANET pp. 52-57 Lugalbanda in the mountain cave Lugalbanda & the anzu bird Marduk's Ordeal The marriage of Martu The Journey of Nanna-Suen to Nippur The Herds of Nanna A Song of Praise to Nanna Nergal & Ereshkigal Ninurta & the Turtle - or Ninurta & Enki The Exploits of Ninurta The Return of Ninurta to Nippur The Creation of the Pickaxe The Worm & the Toothache How Grain came to Sumer Canaanite The Epic of Kret ANET pp. 142-149 The tale of Aqhat ANET pp. 149-155 Egyptian Modern harmonized creation account from various Egyptian sources Creation and the repulsing of the dragon or Ra & the Serpent ANET pp. 6f A theology of Memphis or A Memphis Creation Hathor and the destruction of humankind E. A. Wallis Budge Osiris according to Plutarch Horus of Behutet and the Winged Disk (Budge) The contention of Horus & Seth ANET pp. 14-17 The story of Sinuhe ANET pp. 18-22 The tale of two brothers (Anubis and Bata) ANET pp. 23-25 The possessed princess of Bekhten ANET pp. 29-31 Tale of The Eloquent Peasant Hieroglyphic version

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