Myths of Babylonia and Assyria

These are humanity's oldest stories. The myths of Babylonia and Assyria, preserved on clay tablets in a language dead for millennia, gave birth to the flood narrative, the garden of Eden, and the Epic of Gilgamesh. Donald Alexander Mackenzie traces this mythological heritage across three thousand years, from the mysterious Sumerians who invented writing to the golden age of Babylon under Hammurabi and the final days of Nineveh. This is not mere legend: these myths were the living religion of the first great cities, the prayers spoken at dawn and dusk along the Tigris and Euphrates, the stories that shaped the Hebrew Bible and Homer alike. Mackenzie weaves together narrative and history, showing how each empire inscribed its anxieties and aspirations onto the cosmos. For anyone seeking to understand where storytelling began, this volume offers an unparalleled journey to the cradle of civilization.