Cuneiform records made some three thousand years ago are the basis for this essay on the ideas of death and the afterlife and the story of the flood which were current among the ancient peoples of the Tigro-Euphrates Valley. With the same careful scholarship shown in his previous volume, The Babylonian Genesis, Heidel interprets the famous Gilgamesh Epic and other related Babylonian and Assyrian documents. He compares them with corresponding portions of the Old Testament in order to determine the inherent historical relationship of Hebrew and Mesopotamian ideas.

CONTENTS:

List of Symbols and Special Characters
I. The Gilgamesh Epic
II. Related Material
III. Death and the Afterlife
IV. The Story of the Flood

AUTHOR:

Alexander Heidel was at the time of his death in 1955 on the research staff of the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago.