Myths of Babylonia & Assyria

by Donald A. Mackenzie

Ancient Babylonia has made stronger appeal to the imagination of Christendom than even Ancient Egypt, because of its association with the captivity of the Hebrews, whose sorrows are enshrined in the familiar psalm: By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down; Yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows. In sacred literature proud Babylon became the city of the anti-Christ, the symbol of wickedness and cruelty and human vanity. Early Christians who suffered persecution compared their worldly state to that of the oppressed and disconsolate Hebrews, and, like them, they sighed for Jerusalem--the new Jerusalem. When St. John the Divine had visions of the ultimate triumph of Christianity, he referred to its enemies--the unbelievers and persecutors--as the citizens of the earthly Babylon, the doom of which he pronounced in stately and memorable phrases: Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, And is become the habitation of devils, And the hold of every foul spirit, And a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For her sins have reached unto heaven And God hath remembered her iniquities. The merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her, For no man buyeth their merchandise any more. "At the noise of the taking of Babylon," cried Jeremiah, referring to the original Babylon, "the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations. It shall be no more inhabited forever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation." The Christian Saint rendered more profound the brooding silence of the desolated city of his vision by voicing memories of its beauty and gaiety and bustling trade: The voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers and trumpeters shall be heard no more at all in thee; And no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; And the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: For thy merchants were the great men of the earth; For by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, And of all that were slain upon the earth.[3] So for nearly two thousand years has the haunting memory of the once-powerful city pervaded Christian literature, while its broken walls and ruined temples and palaces lay buried deep in desert sand. The history of the ancient land of which it was the capital survived in but meagre and fragmentary form, mingled with accumulated myths and legends. A slim volume contained all that could be derived from references in the Old Testament and the compilations of classical writers.

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

537 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1915

About the author

Donald Alexander Mackenzie was a Scottish journalist and folklorist and a prolific writer on religion, mythology and anthropology in the early 20th century.

Reviews

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mackenzie was an excellent scholar. You'll not find rosy prose here, but an excellent description of the evolution and causes of Middle Eastern mythology.

Extended:

If you’ve never been introduced to the seldom-seen myths of the ancient Middle East than this is a good book to start with. While it is out of date, and more recent scholarship has most certainly been done, this book is free both on Gutenberg.org and recorded for free on Librivox.org. I saw nothing present in this book that has been definitely dismissed in the last 100 years since it was published, and this author writes more liberally than many older professors used to.

It’s a really comprehensive and understandable guide, to this region’s mythology. It requires no previous knowledge on the region or mythological trends, it’s all there already.

This audiobook is provided free at Librivox.Org

[Christy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was excited to learn more about the subject matter but was sadly let down by the content. Did I miss the myths? I kept trying to grasp the content but is was all over the place and didn't seem to flow at all.

[Anja · Rating 1 out of 5]

The title of this book promises an overview of the myths of Babylonia and Assyria, or even a retelling and analysis of them, but at least the 50 or so pages I read were anything but about myths.

This book is a strangely unstructured mix of information and very difficult to read. It almost feels like it is composed of several bad scientific papers that didn't make it through peer review and were mashed together into one book.

After reading the first fifty pages, I just couldn't bring myself to read any more, so I decided not to finish this book and look for a better book on Babylonian myths.

[Sotiris Makrygiannis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book but bored to write a proper review

[Geoff Sebesta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once you get past the ancient racism, this is a pretty great book.

The study of mythology is sort of inextricably bound up in the ancient histories of people and therefore the racial differences between people. This stuff stretches way, way back, and the people of the olden days were racist as crap as well. So the chapters early in this book where the author spends a lot of time speculating on the Semitic nose, well, they're unfortunate. But when you compare it to how crazy the people he was writing about were, it's a pretty clear arc from ancient ignorance to modern...well, whatever it is.

Anyway, once the book gets started, boy howdy! What a bunch of fun characters. Even though the point of view of 1925 on the ancient Babylonians is helplessly infected by the Bible....that's honestly a pretty good lens for the subject! Abraham's perspective on Babylonian religion at the dawn of history is still very relevant.

So here I am making apologies for a pretty racist book, and I hate doing it. Maybe if you can't get through some hundred-years-old dumbassery you shouldn't read it. Maybe I shouldn't have read it. But when you get through that and you get to the meat of the story, man is it good. The chapters on Hammurabi and the mention of Jonah was my favorite part.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dry and disappointing. I was hoping for a collection of stories that would make the pantheons of Babylonia and Assyria more accessible, that I might understand them as I do the Greek/Roman gods, the Norse, or the Egyptian. Uh, no such luck- for me it was densely academic, disorienting, and mish-mashy. It was more or less a mixture of discussions of historical timelines (with lots of mortal kings and whatnot), cultural descriptions and deity expositions arranged in a organizational structure that I never quite grasped. Perhaps part of the confusion arose due to the nature of the mythology: despite the polytheistic structure, the gods appear largely interchangeable depending on geography and represent general fertility, just as logically represented by an ear of corn as by a scaly fish. I did glean some distinguishing things about the peoples of Babylonia and Assyria and their roles in history. Plus it was nice to learn about Baal from the perspective of its followers rather than the hollow, naughty golden calf presented in the Old Testament.

[William Frost · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love both history and mythology. I expected the latter, but was pleasantly surprised by how much of the former I got in reading this. My major concern, of course, is with the accuracy--I'm not a scholar, but I felt like many of these theories and things were likely out of date, especially with their emphasis on racial characteristics. However, as it was a region I knew nothing of previously, I felt like I learned quite a bit while also absorbed by interesting stories.

[Rosie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Talks about, rather than retells the myths. Very disappointing.

[sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

dropped. awfully written and has little to do with what it claims to be in its title.

[Marie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dry academic papers on ancient folklore.

[Todd Howell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative, more so that I thought it would be.

Only real problems are that it lacked maps and the author threw so many facts at you that it is easy to get lost in them all.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was disappointed to find it's mostly about the history and not the myths but still a good book.

[Anthony Hunt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an excellent overview of Assyro-Babylonian culture and beliefs, a good starting point for a comparative study of world religions and myths. It is however marred by it's age and ideas prevalent at the beginning of the twentieth century. I personally struggled through the opening chapter in which MacKenzie discusses the origins and movements of races in the Middle East. The tragic outcome of focusing on race instead of more properly cultures, languages and economics would have horrified MacKenzie (I hope), overshadowing an otherwise well researched, referenced and written work.

[Winnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It says 'Myths of Babylonia and Assyria' but halfway through it becomes a chronicle of the infamous aforementioned kingdoms. It's not a terrible book, but it's not a great if you're looking for a compendium of myths. It is, however, a great intellectual examination of the myths by paralleling them with myths from other parts of the world, as well as a brief historical summary of the rise and decline of Babylon and Assyria.

[Hunter Johnson]

Myths of Babylon and Assyria, by Donald A. Mackenzie. A choppy narrative of both the myths and ancient history of Babylon and Assyria, with comparisons and parallels drawn to Greek, Egyptian, Norse, Indian, and other mythologies as well as Egyptian and Hebrew history. I could do with smoother narration and less chop for an introductory text.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good intellectual text. I like the exposition.

[Owen Swart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating stuff, but I was hoping for more.