Enuma Elish

Enuma Elish, the Babylonian version of the story of creation, predates much of the Book of Genesis. Passed down orally for generations until finally being recorded on seven clay tablets, this epic was discovered by 19th-century archeologists among the ruins of the Library of King Ashurbanipal in modern-day Iraq. Translator and editor L.W. King has divided the Seven Tablets of Creation into two volumes. Here, in Volume 1, readers will find the English translation of each of the seven tablets, plus sections on the composition of the poem, parallels in Hebrew literature, and the reconstruction and arrangement of the text. (Volume 2 includes other accounts of the history of creation, an index, a glossary, and numerous indices and appendices.) Religious scholars and anyone interested in human origins will enjoy King's translation of and commentary on this classic, first published in 1902. British classical scholar LEONARD W. KING (1869-1919) was Assistant Keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities at the British Museum and professor of Assyrian and Babylonian archaeology at the University of London, King's College. He also wrote Babylonian Magic and Sorcery (1896) and A History of Sumer and Akkad (1910).