In Those Distant Days: Anthropology of Mesopotamian Literature in Hebrew.

• Author: Katz, Dina
• Position: Review

By SHIN SHIFRA and JACOB KLEIN. Tel Aviv: AM OVED PUBLISHERS, 1996. Pp. 744, 8 color plates. IS 103.

For readers of modern Hebrew, the close ethnic and political ties between the ancient Mesopotamian and Hebrew peoples have always generated much interest in the cultural legacy of Sumer and Akkad. It is, therefore, remarkable that so far only a handful of Sumerian poems, published in literary magazines, and the epic of Gilgamesh, adapted from a German translation fifty years ago, were available in Hebrew. The book under review offers Hebrew readers for the first time a wide selection of Mesopotamian texts translated from the Sumerian and the Akkadian sources. The overwhelming enthusiasm with which this anthology was received by the general public in Israel testifies to the extent that such a publication was missed.

In the project which took twelve years to complete, Jacob Klein of Bar-Ilan University and the poetess Shin Shifra aimed at providing the Hebrew reader with literary and yet scientifically accurate translations. The corpus embraces the full range of genres, from monumental canonical compositions such as "The Epic of Gilgamesh" to popular poems known only from a single copy.

The translations are based on scientific editions of the texts which include the latest findings of fragments, readings, and publications. Each is introduced by a general summary of its content, followed by some comments on the literary properties of the text, the provenience of the sources and their date. The epilogue (pp. 642-62) details the historical and cultural background of the ancient Mesopotamian literature, its development, and its poetics. A wealth of footnotes, explaining the names and roles of divinities as well as identifying geographical names, bring the texts closer to readers who are unfamiliar with Mesopotamian religion and culture. In addition, a selective though relatively detailed commentary for each text is found at the end of the book. Here the interested reader will find a full list of bibliographical references to earlier publications: justification for some of the reconstructions, including quotations of the cuneiform originals; explications for difficult passages; and references to biblical parallels. Since Klein made use of unpublished material, this commentary is also beneficial to the assyriologist, especially regarding compositions with as yet no scientific edition. The volume concludes with an index of divine, proper, and...