The Mythology Book

US_178-179_Asia_Chapter_4_Opener.indd 179 01/12/17 4:23 pm ...

I n around 4000 BCE, the first large cities emerged in Sumer, in southern Mesopotamia. Soon after, the peoples of the region dev ...

CA. 140 BCE Shan Hai Jing, or “The Classic of Mountains and Seas,” compiles Chinese myths. Historical Records of the Three Sover ...

FROM THE GREAT HEAVEN THE GODDESS SET HER MIND ON THE GREAT BELOW THE DESCENT OF INANNA US_182-187_Inanna.indd 182 05/12/17 4:16 ...

FROM THE GREAT HEAVEN THE GODDESS SET HER MIND ON THE GREAT BELOW THE DESCENT OF INANNA US_182-187_Inanna.indd 183 05/12/17 4:16 ...

184 called The Descent of Inanna, which relates how she, the Queen of Heaven, determined to visit her widowed sister Ereshkigal, ...

185 Inanna is often depicted with wings and standing on two animals, as in this terracotta relief from the 2nd millennium bce. S ...

186 the Underworld: the world above lost its ability to be fertile. Animals and humans would not reproduce, and the land became ...

187 Cylinder seals provide important pictorial evidence of life and lore in Mesopotamia. This example from ca. 2250 bce depicts ...

188 T he Enuma Elish (“When on High”) is a collection of seven tablets recovered in 1849 from King Ashurbanipal II’s library in ...

ASIAASIA 189 Marduk-balatsu-ikbi, one of several Babylonian kings who bore the god’s name, and his dagger bearer Adad-etir on a ...

WHO CAN RIVAL HIS KINGLY STANDING? THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH US_190_197_Gilgamesh.indd 190 05/12/17 4:16 pm US_190_197_Gilgamesh.ind ...

US_190_197_Gilgamesh.indd 191 05/12/17 4:16 pm ...

192 THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH T he story of Gilgamesh follows the eponymous hero as he wrestles with the inevitability of death, dis ...

ASIA 193 Meanwhile, Gilgamesh had dreamed of a being whom he would love more than a woman—someone as strong as himself. Gilgames ...

194 THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH was overestimating his abilities— for the king even to reach the forest, let alone fight Humbaba, he h ...

ASIA 195 protection. Despite Shamash’s best efforts, the gods decided that Enkidu must die. Death and the quest Coming to grips ...

196 THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH Utnapishtim told Gilgamesh that humans could not be immortal. The gods, he said, decided the length of ...

ASIA 197 Gilgamesh could not become immortal, he had become a good king, who could describe not just the limits of his city, but ...

198 TWO SPIRITS, ONE GOOD, THE OTHER EVIL, IN THOUGHT, WORD, AND DEED AHURA MAZDA AND AHRIMAN A ccording to a particular branch ...