This classic work has served students of Akkadian literature as a useful sourcebook and as a model publication for the study of a specific corpus of cuneiform literature. These timeless proverbs, instructive precepts, and ancient fables demonstrate a rich heritage in the Mesopotamian development of this genre. Lambert’s focused collection also provides scholars with a unique comparative reference for those studying biblical wisdom literature. An Eisenbrauns classic reprint.

Babylonian Wisdom Literature

Literature & Fiction

Lambert, Wilfred G.

History & Criticism

Eisenbrauns

The Babylonian tamitu texts are a corpus of questions addressed to the sun-god Shamash and the storm-god Adad jointly. Professional diviners were employed to put the questions with the appropriate rites and to formulate the wording correctly, since the only answer would be “yes” or “no.” Thus the questions had to include a detailed exposition of the matter, and they open up intimate glances of things not otherwise available. Kings ask whether they should undertake a certain campaign, laying out a detailed plan of action. At the other end of the scale, a man wants to know whether his wife is telling him the truth. All tablets are of first millennium B.C. date, though some of the questions date from the second millennium B.C. Scribes copied out questions to serve as models for later use.
In this volume W.G. Lambert has gathered together all the known material, including 54 tablets and fragments not previously published. All are given in cuneiform copy, transliteration, translation, with notes and an introduction. By far the greater part of this material has not been edited before.

Babylonian Oracle Questions (Mesopotamian Civilizations)

History

Ancient Civilizations

The Babylonian flood story of Atra-hasis is of vital importance to ancient Near Eastern and biblical scholars, as well as students of history, anthropology, and comparative religion. Professors Lambert and Millard provide the reader with a detailed introduction, transliterated Akkadian with English translation, critical notes, and line drawings of the cuneiform tablets.
The epic opens in a time when only the gods lived in the universe. Having decided on their established spheres of influence, the chief Mesopotamian gods—Anu, Enlil, and Enki—began their divine labors. In a joint effort, Enki and Mami (the mother goddess) engineered the creation of mankind from clay and the flesh and blood of a slain god. The remainder of the story recounts the expansion of humanity, the consequent irritation of Enki by this expansion, the attempt by Enki and Enlil to destroy humankind through a great flood, and the escape from the flood by Atra-hasis in a boat, accompanied by his possessions, family, and animals.
This classic scholarly edition of the epic is once again made available as a quality Eisenbrauns reprint.

Atra-Hasis: The Babylonian Story of the Flood, with the Sumerian Flood Story

Millard, Alan R.

Civil, Miguel

For much of the last half of the twentieth century, W. G. Lambert devoted much of his research energy and effort to the study of Babylonian texts dealing with Mesopotamian ideas regarding creation, including especially Enuma Elish. This volume, which appears almost exactly 2 years after Lambert’s death, distills a lifetime of learning by the world’s foremost expert on these texts. Lambert provides a full transliteration and translation of the 7 tablets of Enuma Elish, based on the known exemplars, as well as coverage of a number of other texts that bear on, or are thought to bear on, Mesopotamian notions of the origin of the world, mankind, and the gods. New editions of seventeen additional “creation tales” are provided, including “Enmesharra’s Defeat,” “Enki and Ninmah,” “The Slaying of Labbu,” and “The Theogony of Dunnu.”
Lambert pays special attention, of course, to the connection of the main epic, Enuma Elish, with the rise and place of Marduk in the Babylonian pantheon. He traces the development of this deity’s origin and rise to prominence and elaborates the relationship of this text, and the others discussed, to the religious and political climate Babylonia.
The volume includes 70 plates (primarily hand-copies of the various exemplars of Enuma Elish) and extensive indexes.

Babylonian Creation Myths (Mesopotamian Civilizations)

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Books by Lambert, Wilfred G.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Lambert, Wilfred G.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Babylonian Wisdom Literature

Babylonian Oracle Questions (Mesopotamian Civilizations)

Atra-Hasis: The Babylonian Story of the Flood, with the Sumerian Flood Story

Babylonian Creation Myths (Mesopotamian Civilizations)