ZEUS' RISE TO POWER: THE CREATION OF MORTALS 105
Dalley, Stephanie. Myths from Mesopotamia. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Translations of Akkadian texts, including Gilgamesh, Atrahasis, and the Descent of
Ishtar. Especially valuable for the inclusion of recently published texts.
Hooke, S. H. Middle Eastern Mythology. Baltimore: Penguin, 1963.
Lebrun, R. "From Hittite Mythology: the Kumarbi Cycle/'in Sasson (1975), vol. 3, pp.
1971-1980.
Mondi, R. "Greek Mythic Thought in the Light of the Near East," in Lowell Edmunds, éd.,
Approaches to Greek Myth (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), pp. 142-198.
Moran, W. "The Gilgamesh Epic: A Masterpiece from Ancient Mesopotamia," in Sasson
(1995), vol. 4, pp. 2327-2336.
Penglase, C. Greek Myths and Mesopotamia: Parallels and Influence in the Homeric Hymns and
Hesiod. New York: Routledge, 1994.
Pritchard, J. B., ed. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. 3d ed. Prince-
ton: Princeton University Press, 1969. The standard collection of texts in translation
and by far the most comprehensive.
, ed. The Ancient Near East. 2 vols. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958 and
- A selection of texts, mostly from the previously listed volume.
Sasson, J. M., ed. Civilization of the Ancient Near East. 4 vols. New York: Scribner, 1995.
A comprehensive survey of all aspects of the ancient Near East: 189 essays by ex-
pert scholars. For students of myth those by Moran and West are especially useful.
West, M. L. Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Valuable introduction by the preeminent scholar on Hesiod.
. "Ancient Near Eastern Myths in Classical Greek Religious Thought," in Sasson
(1995), vol. 1, pp. 33-42.
NOTES- This very stone was exhibited at Delphi in ancient times; it was not large, and oil was
poured over it every day. On festival days, unspun wool was placed upon it. - Ten years is the traditional length for a serious war, be it this one or the famous con-
flict of the Greeks against the Trojans. - Notus is the South Wind; Boreas, the North Wind; and Zephyr, the West Wind.
- Later versions have it that Heracles was an ally of Zeus in the battle; the giants could
be defeated only if the gods had a mortal as their ally. In addition Earth produced a
magic plant that would make the giants invincible; Zeus by a clever stratagem plucked
it for himself. - A fragment attributed to Hesiod (no. 268 Rzach; no. 382 Merkelbach and West) adds
that Athena breathed life into the clay. At Panopea in Boeotia, stones were identified
in historical times as solidified remains of the clay used by Prometheus. - Aidos is a sense of modesty and shame; Nemesis, righteous indignation against evil.
- In his fourth eclogue, Vergil celebrates gloriously the return of a new golden age ush-
ered in by the birth of a child. The identity of this child has long been in dispute, but
the poem itself was labeled Messianic because of the sublime and solemn nature of
its tone, reminiscent of the prophet Isaiah. - A similar but more sober and scientific statement of human development, made by
some of the Greek philosophers and by Lucretius, the Roman poet of Epicureanism,
provides a penetrating account of human evolution that in many of its details is as-
toundingly modern (De Rerum Natura 5. 783-1457).