Produced by Sami Sieranoja, Tapio Riikonen and PG Distributed Proofreaders MYTHS OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA Donald A. Mackenzie TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface Introduction I. The Races and Early Civilization of Babylonia II. The Land of Rivers and the God of the Deep III. Rival Pantheons and Representative Deities IV. Demons, Fairies, and Ghosts V. Myths of Tammuz and Ishtar VI. Wars of the City States of Sumer and Akkad VII. Creation Legend: Merodach the Dragon Slayer VIII. Deified Heroes: Etana and Gilgamesh IX. Deluge Legend, the Island of the Blessed, and Hades X. Buildings and Laws and Customs of Babylon XI. The Golden Age of Babylonia XII. Rise of the Hittites, Mitannians, Kassites, Hyksos, and Assyrians XIII. Astrology and Astronomy XIV. Ashur the National God of Assyria XV. Conflicts for Trade and Supremacy XVI. Race Movements that Shattered Empires XVII. The Hebrews in Assyrian History XVIII. The Age of Semiramis XIX. Assyria's Age of Splendour XX. The Last Days of Assyria and Babylonia PREFACE This volume deals with the myths and legends of Babylonia and Assyria, and as these reflect the civilization in which they developed, a historical narrative has been provided, beginning with the early Sumerian Age and concluding with the periods of the Persian and Grecian Empires. Over thirty centuries of human progress are thus passed under review. During this vast interval of time the cultural influences emanating from the Tigro-Euphrates valley reached far-distant shores along the intersecting avenues of trade, and in consequence of the periodic and widespread migrations of peoples who had acquired directly or indirectly the leavening elements of Mesopotamian civilization. Even at the present day traces survive in Europe of the early cultural impress of the East; our "Signs of the Zodiac", for instance, as well as the system of measuring time and space by using 60 as a basic numeral for calculation, are inheritances from ancient Babylonia.