Myths of Babylon

The World's Greatest Myths and Legends

by Jake Jackson (Editor)

Babylonian myths, inherited in Mesopotamia from Sumeria, influenced by the ancient Assyrians represent a pinnacle of human achievement in the period around 1800 BC. Here we find humankind battling with the elements in their Flood myth, a grim creation story and the great Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the earliest recorded literary treasures. Babylon, a powerful city state at the time of the ancient Egyptians was a centre of profound spiritual, economic and military power, themes all represented in the fragments and myths of this book of classic tales.

FLAME TREE 451: From mystery to crime, supernatural to horror and myth, fantasy and science fiction, Flame Tree 451 offers a healthy diet of werewolves and mechanical men, blood-lusty vampires, dastardly villains, mad scientists, secret worlds, lost civilizations and escapist fantasies. Discover a storehouse of tales gathered specifically for the reader of the fantastic.

Genres: Mythology, Nonfiction, History, Religion, Classics

255 pages, Paperback

Published September 26, 2018

About the author

SF and dark fantasy author but also a writer/creator of practical music books - Beginner's Guide to Reading Music, Guitar Chords, Piano Chords, Songwriter’s Rhyming Dictionary and How to Play Guitar. Other publications include Advanced Guitar Chords, Advanced Piano Chords, Chords for Kids, How to Play the Electric Guitar, Piano & Keyboard Chords, Scales and Modes and Play Flamenco. Also editor of Mythology books 

Released EP Jakesongs on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, LastFM, etc and on CDBaby. Lifelong passion for fantastic worlds of any kind, from movies to fiction, art to music, posters, album and paperback book covers.

Jake Jackson is the artist name for Nick Wells, Publisher of Flame Tree Press / Flame Tree Publishing.

Reviews

[Naomi Ruth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was not impressed with this book. I was fifty pages away from finishing it and finally gave up - considering the last fifty pages was a story from Voltaire--- if I wanted to read a European author I would read a European author. Beyond that, the text was written in occasionally King James language, which made no sense and was awkward and made understanding the text more difficult. There were also some remarks and choices in transliteration that made me doubt the trustworthiness of the authors. And don't get me started on how annoyed I was by how often they used the terms "barbaric" and "uncivilized" and other offensive terms to speak about an ancient culture. This book was so steeped in Colonialism and West-centric phallologocentric nonsense that it made it painful to read. The only reason why it gets two stars is that at least it gave some sense of the complex and rich history of the Mesopotamian area, but considering all of the other drawbacks (including the misleading title since it is not only about myths from Babylon) I would not recommend this book. It would be better to find a copy of Epics of Early Civilization of the Myth and Mankind series.

[Jessica McKendry · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’ve literally been “reading” this book for over a year, which is sad because it’s only 255 pages. And yet, despite the amazing myths and beliefs that are chronicled in this book, the author’s writing is SO DRY. As a writer and an avid reader of both fiction and non-fiction, I KNOW you can write non fiction in an interesting and engaging way. Let me tell you, I have read countless books about complex traditions, religions, and cultures that are absolutely fascinating.

The author and editors of this were clearly not interested in writing something that would engage the general public. And I don’t mean the authors/editors use language that is too complicated or sophisticated for the general public. The whole book was very easy to understand, and I had no issue absorbing the actual informational content. I really wish the writing had been better because the beliefs and myths that are described in this sound like they should be interesting, but the authors managed to make them seem impossibly boring to get through.

In summery, this was absolutely terrible.

I swear I’m not a mean person, but I can confidently say that with my mediocre writing skills I could rewrite this book and it would be infinitely more engaging.

Anybody have suggestions for books about Babylonian mythology that are actually well written?

[Ross Heinricy · Rating 3 out of 5]

very interesting book in the sense of a like an abbreviated history of mythological gods and goddesses from the millenia of mankind's existence. The writer tries time and again to tie the Bible and it's stories into the mythological categories in base and obscure ways, but never makes a good or even practical point of it. i only gave 3 stars because the style is very stop and start, staccato.

[riley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely a neat topic, one that I’ve always been interested in but never really knew where or how to start learning about it. I got this book because it was cheap, on sale, and only 250 or so pages long.

Because these myths come from such an ancient civilization, one of the firsts, I understand that it’s hard to put together the genealogy and whatnot with any sort of certainty. However, the way this book went about organizing and categorizing the myths and cultures of these civilizations (technically they consider “Babylon” as an umbrella term for all the early Tigris/Euphrates city-states and empires pre-Persian takeover, like the Sumerians and the Akkadians) is so confusing. Even his explanation in the introduction of the basic history and classification of/between the Semitic and the Akkadian cities was super hard to follow.

Not only that, but when he does get to the myths he separates them between old and later gods however a lot of them are the same or (at least) have the same name, and the differences are so small that a re-introduction and explanation of them in the different categories of the book just becomes repetitive.

I will say, I did learn some things. But I feel like this book could be shorter with how it was formatted—which is saying a lot since it’s already pretty short for covering such a wide subject. I find the confusing way this was written as sort of a surprise, because the same editor did the Celtic Myths book from this same series and it was much better written, in my opinion (although I’ve only read bits of that one.)

[Typical Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I definitely recommend this book.
I read other criticisms of this book before buying it. A lot of the criticisms I have read compared to reading it first-hand? Are missing out the point. It is "given" that Babylonian myth is of course complex. Each pantheons and versions are different from each city-states in the region of Mesopotamia. However, the Editor does not have to delve too much in details. The Editor only wants to paint the big picture, while including some details, but not too many details.
I admire the writing style, it is brief and straight to the point. For me, the contents and explanations are sufficient and informative. The focus is not just on the mythology, but also on Babylon's history and how it affected their belief system.
One of the criticisms this book received is why the Editor cross-references the Babylonian myth to the Bible. I do not see the big deal. I guess the reason why is to because we are very familiar with the Bible, whether you are a Christian or an atheist. It is common. But the point of the Editor is how Babylonian myth and Genesis parallels with each other; i.e. similarities and derivations.
I admire the visual arts in both book cover and within the book.
My only complaints in this book are:
1) There is no author's page. I honestly do not know who Jake Jackson is like his educational background, career besides as an author/editor. It is safe to assume that Jake Jackson is just the Editor; rather than the Researcher.
2) The book cover states clearly that Jake Jackson is the General Editor, then who are the researchers? May I at least know their professions? Because I honestly am worried that the researchers are just amateurs who got their sources from random Internet websites/pages than having a rigorous educational background on the subject at hand.
As for the last part of the book, when the Editor suddenly dived into a story, The Princess of Babylon, I admire it. The point of the last part is giving a shortened story of Voltaire's version of the story so that we can marvel into the Babylonian world and their interaction with the rest of the evolving world. It is not necessarily historical accurate, because again, it came from Voltaire's story.
Therefore, I recommend this book. It is still a perfect star because of the content.

[Mikayla Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was informative of times, information, events, myths, and tales from Babylon. The book was good, interesting at times, and informative. The book shows several connections between the myths of Babylon to the Bible and several other mythologies around the world. The book also hints at and discusses some of the prominent or heavily featured tropes and stereotypes within mythologies, fairy tales, and folk tales. The negatives about this book were that the writing was very dry and dense and really could have benefitted from more editing, a different writing style, and better spacing between sentences and paragraphs. The book discusses several topics, but the organization of these topics feels all over the place to the point it is hard to keep up with what topic has already been discussed in the book. Overall, the book is a good book for anyone looking to learn and read about the myths of Babylon.

[Nathan Blaser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good general information on the mythology of Mesopotamia. Naturally, with the title of the book what it is, it has a bias of Babylonian perspective rather than say trying to explore the various gods and myths from the different city-states in the Fertile Crescent. It also tends to try to view the mythology through a heavy use of a greek lens, and tries to connect more of it than I would like back to Christianity.

All in all, a good primer on the mythology if one knows nothing about it. If it interests you after finishing the book, be aware that gods and locations had different names heavily dependent on location and time period e.g., Tiamat could be Mummu-Tiawath, Enki is Ea, and Bel-Merodach is what we today call Marduk, etc.

[Alex Goldenhar · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not only is this book outdated and, frankly racist at some points (the use of the terms “Red Indians of America,” “Chaldeans” and the term “primitive races” springs to mind), much of the information provided is outright wrong. The incorrect, outdated spellings/patronages of gods’ names are used and they are identifies with each other when they were distinct in ancient times.
Biblical stories are used to supplement missing information instead of Babylonian/Assyrian text, and the citations of professors and studies are outdated by 100 YEARS. One theory (which has since been proven wrong) was proposed in 1898.
Let that sink in

[Jambean8 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting collection of tales, yet the book ends with a fictional story from Voltaire, who lived a couple of thousand years later. It's a very odd choice given that it simply uses a Babylonian setting, and only at the beginning, to tell a political, allegorical story about Voltaire's own time.

I did appreciate the weaving in of the Assyrian contexts of the myths, as well as the origins of eastern magic and astrology. I wasn't aware there was such an influence on the western world from that.

[John Majerle · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was considerably disappointed with this book. It did contain some good historical information but the entire book was riddled with unsubstantiated opinions and conjectures. It even included 19th century fictional material only loosely based on Babylonian gods.

What I was really expecting was a book on the "Myths of Babylon" as the title indicated.

[Olivia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unlike all of the other books in this series, this is not a book of myths. It is an explanation of the Babylonian gods and an analysis of the myths but there are virtually zero myths in this book. Extremely disappointing.

[Marjorie Schultz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best to be used as a reference book

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't appreciate the style of this author or the layout of the various topics. Having said that it is a passable introduction into the general gods and monsters of Babylon

[Dani Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

it's very simplistic and dry at times.
What I expected : colorful narrative
What I got : unromantic explanation.

good for textbook reference though save for Voltaire's fanfiction.

3 stars for making it a struggle to finish.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book in a book mill in MA. It's a little short, but the beginning gives you a brief history of the Babylonian people, to help give more clarification for the myths and gods those people had created. It was a nice touch and was appreciated