Since the spectacular discovery of Nineveh 150 years ago, countless excavators have been searching for the lost civilizations of the ancient Near East. We now know the names of thousands of gods and goddesses, the words of hymns and litanies, the daily procedures of the Babylonian cult, as well as a growing number of mythological tales. A substantial number of the texts discussed in this volume originate from the archives of such ancient cities as Nineveh, Ur, Babylon and Hattusa. Through a collection of accessible entries, which provide sufficient detail and cross-referencing to be of use to the more specialist reader, Gwendolyn Leick has produced a scholarly guide to this complex and little-known world of ancient mythology. There is a wide-ranging bibliography which makes use of a particularly interesting and possibly unfamiliar collection of sources, and an extensive index for ease of reference.