Poems of Heaven and Hell from Ancient Mesopotamia

This collection includes The Babylonian Creation, the first of the Ancient Mesopotamian poems that was composed in the twelfth century BC.

Comparable with the Book of Genesis, this collection opens in watery chaos and sings of the foundation of the world and its center, the fabulous golden city of Babylon. A hymn of praise in celebration of Marduk, the city’s noble and cunning god, it was chanted at the New Year Festival and formed the most crucial element in the ancient Mesopotamians’ ritual attempts to keep their perilous world in order. Inanna’s Journey to Hell tells the story of the Sumerian fertility goddess and is the earliest known poem on that greatest of myths—the descent into the underworld.

The Sumerian Underworld, Adapa: The Man and A Prayer to the Gods of Night are also included in this edition, which comes complete with introductions and a glossary of names. -- Penguin