Tuesday, November 3, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org

General Texts

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Texts

Adapa and the Food of Life — R.W. RogersThe Babylonian myth of Adapa, who was granted wisdom but denied eternal life, translated by R.W. Rogers from cuneiform tablets.Ancient Fragments — I.P. CoryIsaac Preston Cory's Ancient Fragments — the preserved writings of Sanchuniathon (Phoenician cosmogony), Berossus (Chaldean history), Manetho (Egyptian dynasties), and other ancient authors surviving only in Greek quotation. The primary source collection for ancient Near Eastern religions as known through classical intermediaries.Babylonian and Assyrian Literature — Epiphanius WilsonThe revised edition of 1901 of Babylonian and Assyrian Literature, with Epiphanius Wilson’s special introduction: Leonidas Le Cenci Hamilton’s verse epic Ishtar and Izdubar, and nineteen cuneiform texts (exorcisms, charms, hymns, penitential psalms, proverbs and songs, private contracts, and the royal inscriptions of Assur-nasir-pal, Tiglath Pileser I, Shalmaneser II, Nebuchadnezzar and Sargon) in the translations of Sayce, Rodwell, Talbot, Rawlinson, Boscawen, Lenormant and Oppert.Hymn to BabylonA newly discovered Babylonian hymn praising Marduk, the Esagil temple, and the city of Babylon — celebrating its people as protectors of orphans, liberators of prisoners, and welcomers of foreigners.Ishtar and Izdubar — Leonidas Le Cenci HamiltonLeonidas Le Cenci Hamilton's 1884 Victorian poetic rendering of the Gilgamesh saga, among the first English translations of the Babylonian epic.Myths & Legends of Babylonia & Assyria — Lewis SpenceLewis Spence’s 1916 popular account of the religion, mythology and legend of ancient Babylonia and Assyria, from the creation myth, the Gilgamesh epic and the descent of Ishtar to the gods of both lands, star-worship, the priesthood and temples, magic and demonology, tales of the kings and the modern excavations, with a note on the pronunciation of Assyrian and an index.Myths of Babylonia and Assyria — Donald MackenzieDonald Mackenzie's 1915 survey of Babylonian and Assyrian mythology, religion, history, and culture, from the dawn of Sumerian civilization through the fall of the empires.The Babylonian Legends of the Creation — E. A. Wallis BudgeE. A. Wallis Budge’s 1921 British Museum monograph on the Babylonian creation legends: the discovery and publication of the tablets from Nineveh, the “bilingual” version, the accounts of Berosus and Damascius, a description of the Seven Tablets of Creation and a line-by-line English rendering of them, with a list of the signs of the Zodiac by Sidney Smith and C. J. Gadd.The Babylonian Story of the Deluge as Told by Assyrian Tablets from Nineveh — E. A. Wallis BudgeE. A. Wallis Budge’s short monograph, written at the British Museum and signed in July 1920, on the finding of the library tablets at Nineveh by Layard, Rassam and George Smith, with Berosus’s account of the Flood, a line-numbered English rendering of the Deluge story from the Eleventh Tablet of the Gilgamish Series, and a summary of all twelve tablets of the Epic of Gilgamish.The Chaldean Account of Genesis — George SmithGeorge Smith's 1876 monograph presenting his translations of the Babylonian Creation, Flood, Tower of Babel, and Izdubar (Gilgamesh) tablets, in the 1880 edition revised and corrected by A. H. Sayce — the full book, not the shorter 1872 lecture on the Deluge tablet alone.The Chaldean Account of the Deluge — George SmithGeorge Smith's 1873 paper announcing the discovery of the Babylonian flood narrative from the cuneiform tablets of Nineveh, a landmark in Near Eastern archaeology.The Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions — Arthur John BoothArthur John Booth’s 1902 history of how the trilingual Persian, Susian and Babylonian inscriptions of the Achaemenian kings were found and copied by European travellers from Barbaro onward and deciphered by Grotefend, Burnouf, Lassen, Westergaard, Hincks, Rawlinson, Oppert and others, with tables of the values each assigned to the signs.The Epic of Gilgamish — R. Campbell ThompsonR. Campbell Thompson's 1928 translation of the Epic of Gilgamish, rendered into English hexameters from a fresh collation of the cuneiform tablets in the British Museum.The Letter of Ilum-maAn Old Babylonian personal letter from a man in fear to his friend, asking Shamash whether he should die or live. From Sippar-Amnanum, circa 1800 BCE.The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria — Morris JastrowMorris Jastrow, Jr.'s 1898 scholarly survey of Babylonian and Assyrian religion — pantheon, magic, prayer, omens, cosmology, the Gilgamesh epic, and the cult — with its full apparatus of footnotes, bibliography, and index. Distinct from this library's other same-titled 1906 survey by Theophilus Pinches.The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria — Theophilus PinchesTheophilus Pinches' survey of the religion of Babylonia and Assyria, covering the pantheon, mythology, cosmology, and religious practices of ancient Mesopotamia.The Second Letter of Ilum-maA second Old Babylonian letter from Ilum-ma to his friends, pleading for counsel and safe passage to Sippar. From Sippar-Amnanum, circa 1800 BCE.