Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary

by Jeremy A. Black, Anthony Green

Ancient Mesopotamia was a rich, varied and highly complex culture whose achievements included the invention of writing and the development of sophisticated urban society. This book offers an introductory guide to the beliefs and customs of the ancient Mesopotamians, as revealed in their art and their writings between about 3000 B.C. and the advent of the Christian era. Gods, goddesses, demons, monsters, magic, myths, religious symbolism, ritual, and the spiritual world are all discussed in alphabetical entries ranging from short accounts to extended essays. Names are given in both their Sumerian and Akkadian forms, and all entries are fully cross-referenced. A useful introduction provides historical and geographical background and describes the sources of our knowledge about the religion, mythology and magic of "the cradle of civilisation."

Genres: History, Mythology, Religion, Nonfiction, Reference, Ancient History, Archaeology

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

The University of Oxford, Oriental Studies, former faculty member .

Jeremy Allen Black, BA, BPhil, MA, DPhil (1 September 1951 – Oxford 28 April 2004) was a British Assyriologist and Sumerologist, founder of the online Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature.[1]

Not to be confused with Jeremy Black https://www.goodreads.com/author/show..., History professor at Oxford

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia is an exceptional resource to anyone interested in the religion and culture of ancient Mesopotamia. It is a thoroughly cross-referenced dictionary full of entries on everything from individual gods and goddesses like "Enki" or "Ishtar", to broad topics like "afterlife" or "divination". A brief but informative introduction lays out the broad periods of Mesopotamian culture, what is even meant by the geographical and cultural term "Mesopotamia", and which people constituted Mesopotamians at a given time. Most terms and names are rendered in Sumerian and Akkadian.

I've added it to my "perpetually reading" shelf because, as a reference work, I can see myself consulting it again and again as I read other historical or archaeological works about ancient Mesopotamia. I found this slender volume in the overstuffed shelves of Brattle Book Shop (a fabulous used bookstore in downtown Boston) and consider it a gem of a find. Even though it is a dictionary with discrete, alphabetically ordered entries, I read it cover to cover and was sorry to finish it.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to this whole subject, which, considering how arcane it is, is surprisingly readable and accessible.

[Steve Cran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Several thousands of years ago the first civilization, Sumeria , was born in Mesopotamia ( the land between two rivers. They had system of gods and theology. They developed cities with irrigation and organized political leadership. Their culture was the basis for the later Babylonians, Assyrians and Chaldeans would later rule Mesopotamia after the Sumerians. Mesopotamian culture would have a profound impact of the neighboring cultures who would borrow extensively from Sumeria. Most obvious would be the gods. They were copied by other culture with sometime little or no modification. Other nations like the Elamites, Gudeans and Isis Larsin would come in and conquer parts of Mesopotamia but in the end they would become Sumerianized.

This book gives a dictionary entry for different aspects of Mesopotamian civilization. The book talks about the gods. Using Inana as an example. Inanna was a goddess if love initially. Later n as the Akkadians took over she became Ishtar, goddess of love and war. Mind you she was a protectress of prostitutes and she had them in her temple. Before she became the Inanna we love and know there were other goddesses of love like Isharra who were absorbed into her. Plus there were other Inannas for different town and cities. These different Inanna’s had different characteristics and performed different functions, eventually they god absorbed. Still wonder why we say all Goddesses are one Goddess.
Assur and Marduk are ones that got exchanged quite a bit. Marduk was the God who slew Tiamat and Kingu when they rebelled and threatened chaos. It was Marduk that slew them an created humanity and the world from them. Marduk was so popular that some worshipped him strictly to the point of becoming a monotheistic religion. When the Assyrians came to power they chose their god Assur to take his place. He would take on different characteristic of different gods. He would become the head honcho who took down Tiamat.
Exactly who were the inhabitants of Ancient Mesopotamia. First were the Sumerians and they did not have a mighty empire but rather they were divided by city states. Each state had its own patron deity. They were honored usually in a high temple called a Ziggurat. The top of the Ziggurat was the portal the god came through on. All the way down to the lower level is where people gathered to worship the god. The Sumerians appeared to just pop up in Mesopotamia and they spoke an agglutinative language. They wrote in Cuneiform. Next would come the Akkadians who were Semitic invader descended from Amorites. Hammurabi was Amorite. From the Akkadians would spring the Assyrians and the Babyonians..
The Babylonians had 2000 gods many with no names. If you read this book you will get a good in depth history of these gods. Some gods came from other pantheons and settled into the Mesopotamian way of doing things. More often their gods were borrowed by neighboring cultures. Such borrowing would include Ishtar. She was borrowed by the Canaanites and called Astarte. Ishtar then traveled to Greece where she became Aphrodite. The storm god Adad who is represent by cattle of Bison was present among the Hurrians and Canaanites. For those of you involved in paganism and magic you will not be surprised to know that the Sumerians started the magic circle. They also started Hieros Gamos or the mating of the Gods.

The book is short but crammed with lots of information. If you enjoy Mesopotamian history then this book is for you. Definitely red in conjunction with other books on the subject.

[John Dolan · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those interested in the topic (and it is a fascinating topic), this can be a useful handbook. However, because it is presented in the form of an A-Z dictionary, and the subject-matter is vast and occasionally contradictory, unless you are familiar with Mesopotamian myths (and have read about them previously in a more ordered, logical way), it will be difficult to find a way in - even though the Introduction does lend some context.

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Serves as a good encyclopedia of Mesopotamian gods/demons, etc. Some descriptions could definitely use some adding to, as it seemed many were shortened, leaving out a lot of information. But generally speaking, if I need to find a god/demon from ancient Mesopotamia, I can at least get a good start with this book.

[[Name Redacted] · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good quick-reference guide, though it doesn't go into much depth or detail; also, entries are frequently organized according to what the editor thinks is most interesting, not according to their more common names or useages.

[Sarduriur F. Sverresdatter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-researched, accessibly-written collaborative survey/reference text on Ancient Mesopotamian cultures and religions. It has proven to be a very handy secondary source in my personal library of ANE texts.

My only gripe: the entries could have been longer.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

A useful and copiously illustrated dictionary that is handy if you get lost in the byeways of Mesopotamian mythology, groping amongst the Ishtars, Anus, Enlils, Inannas, Marduks and countless others.

[Brenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great basic dictionary-style reference bokok.

[Joshua Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book on Mesopotamian myth. Very interesting reading. Highly recommended.

[Kerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good source material

This work is cited extensively by more recent works on Ancient Mesopotamia, and it is really nice to have as a handy reference and jumping-off point for further deep dives on facets of life in that very long era. The authors distinguish clearly between Sumerian, Akkadian, and Elamite words for the same thing, which is nice, because then you get a sense of the time period of a term.

This scanned version of an original has some formatting issues, so you may need to confirm things before citing them. This is especially true for numbers and letters such as an S with Caron (makes the SH sound, the Caron didn't always register with whatever character recognition program they used).

[Mathew Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've had this book for a long, long time, and am very grateful to flip back through it whenever another question pops up. If you're into Sumerian or Mesopotamian culture, I would highly recommend this. It is a dictionary, so it's not story based by any means, but it's loaded with plenty of great information for what it is. Highly recommend.

[FoyaBeninax · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a little different than I think. It presents as a form of dictionary rather than narrative. It is very informative but I would like to suggest to use it as a reference book when you have a basic understanding of this topic. It is not the best choice for a total new starter.

[Roumodip Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A detailed guide for people curious like me, who are interested in mythology and Indian history. A detailed guide to the Mesopotamian beliefs, their thoughts about supernatural elements and other beings. All together it was a great experience going through the book.

[Abbigail K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read and very accessible. I would recommend pairing this with a more recent source, but I found the dictionary format useful for my research. This text is easy to read all the way through or pick through the entries at random.

[K.G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s an interesting, well-written and thoroughly researched introduction to Mesopotamian history. Despite the dictionary style I found it enjoyable to read through and the book offered a fantastic overview. Highly recommended!

[Costangeles · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good one, with a lot of images and good explanations!

[Apocryphal Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is published by the British Museum Press. Black and Green are two of the more prolific Sumerian scholars, and the people behind the book: The Literature of Ancient Sumer, and the Electronic Text Corpus of the Sumerian Language which is an amazing online resource.

If you want to create a Babylonian Bestiary or a Theogony, this book is a good starting point. Like so many of these books, it's not totally comprehensive, so this isn't your finishing point. It has most everything you'd expect, and a few things you wouldn't.

[Gavin White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent introduction to Mesopotamian culture with articles on everything from gods and sages through to burial customs and magic. Packed with useful information and cross-references which allows the reader to explore any topic further. Very good illustrations and photos.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

A necessary reference for the well-stocked library.

[Luna Salazar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great introductory resource.