Teeming with gods, goddesses and heroes, the ancient Middle East served
as the cradle of numerous mythologies that provided the religious,
political and cultural foundations of civilizations from Egypt and Sumer
to Palestine. In this helpful primer, Leeming (Myth: A Biography of
Belief) summarizes the cultural and historical contexts in which various
myths developed. He devotes the first section of his book to a brief
chronological survey of the development of civilizations from prehistoric
times through the Bronze and Iron Ages to the Crusades and finally the
20th century. He chronicles various features of the societies he examines,
such as the Sumerians' invention of writing, the warlike nature of the
Hyksos and the Hebrews' adaptation of Canaanite religion and ritual.
In the book's second section, Leeming sketches each culture's mythologies,
examining their pantheons of gods and heroes and retelling their major
myths. Thus, in his chapter on Mesopotamia, Leeming introduces us to gods
like Mardukwho killed the storm goddess Tiamat and chopped her into pieces,
thus creating the earth-and heroes like Gilgamesh, whose divine birth and
trip to the underworld provided later models for Moses and Jesus. Flood
myths are common to all of these cultures, so Leeming retells the myth
from the Mesopotamian Enuma Elish (which features Gilgamesh); the biblical
book of Genesis, featuring Noah; and the Islamic tale starring Nuh, or
Noah. Leeming's useful survey offers an introductory guide to tales that
for centuries have influenced people's religion and culture.

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