Reviews

Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature by Benjamin R. Foster

spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition

4.0

This is probably the most comprehensive collection of ancient Akkadian literature outside of a museum's archives. Spanning three millennia, the anthology includes everything from poetry to prose to music; this particular edition, the third, has been updated since the previous edition to include additional compositions, new translations of various works, incorporation of new artefacts recently discovered, delightfully robust footnotes and annotations, and copious amounts of references and commentary reflecting the latest scholarly work (as of the time of publication). If the length is any indication, this is an academic text: it could probably be read by laypersons, but a relatively solid background in ancient Akkadian society, culture, and literature will certainly help to elucidate much of the contextual information not explicitly spelled out in this volume. Anyway, it's good.