Myths and Legends of the Ancient Near East: Religion, Cosmology, and Sacred Texts from Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Ugarit

Mesopotamia, "e;the land between the rivers,"e; lies cradled by the Tigris and Euphrates. In the modern world, this area encompasses Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and southwestern Iran. To the ancient mind, it was a liminal place, where the forces of life and death were ever in tension. Fertile soil gave birth to the first great urban civilizations, but it was bordered by deserts,...