Inanna: From the Myths of Ancient Sumer by Echlin, Kim - 2003-09-01

Groundwood Books Ltd, 2003-09-01. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. this copy has a solid tight binding with clean unmarked pages...Long before the Bible and the Koran, before the myths of the Greeks and Romans were set down, the people of Sumer recorded the stories of their gods and kings on cuneiform tablets. The world's oldest epic poem is the 'Epic of Gilgamesh', the tale of a hero who was part god, part man. But just in the past century a thrilling discovery was made - the four-thousand-year-old stories of his powerful sister, the goddess Inanna. Inanna is a goddess who embodies the quest for growth. Her stories tell how she develops from childish inexperiece and youthful exuberance into maturity and gains the powers to create, to destroy and to name. She is a goddess of spunk and wisdom who outwits and defies the powerful, falls in love with the shepherd Dumuzi and, like Gilgamesh, dares to seek immortality. The people of Sumer associated Inanna with the planet Venus - radiant, changeable and mysterious. They worshipped her with awe and adoration. With the guidance of Sumerian scholars, Kim Echlin has produced a moving, sensitive and knowledgeable translation of the Inanna myths. They describe an ancient goddess who was at once a great warrior, lover, nurturer, seeker of knowledge and giver of power - a figure worthy of admiration by people of any age." Very tiny bump on bottom edge of front board. Dust jacket has very minor edge wrinkling.