Description
Book Synopsis"Kramer ranked among the world's foremost Sumerologists... The book will interest both the scholar and the general educated reader."-Religious Studies Bulletin
Trade Review"Kramer ranked among the world's foremost Sumerologists. . . . The book will interest both the scholar and the general educated reader." *
Religious Studies Bulletin *
"[Kramer] possesses the enviable ability to speak authoritatively in a lively and captivating style." *
Choice *
Table of ContentsPreface to the First Edition
List of Illustrations
Photographic Sources
Introduction
Chapter 1 Education: The First Schools
Chapter 2 Schooldays: The First Case of "Apple-Polishing"
Chapter 3 Father and Son: The First Case of Juvenile Delinquency
Chapter 4 International Affairs: The First "War of Nerves"
Chapter 5 Government: The First Bicameral Congress
Chapter 6 Civil War in Sumer: The First Historian
Chapter 7 Social Reform: The First Case of Tax Reduction
Chapter 8 Law Codes: The First "Moses"
Chapter 9 Justice: The First Legal Precedent
Chapter 10 Medicine: The First Pharmacopoeia
Chapter 11 Agriculture: The First "Farmer's Almanac"
Chapter 12 Horticulture: The First Experiment in Shade-Tree Gardening
Chapter 13 Philosophy: Man's First Cosmogony and Cosmology
Chapter 14 Ethics: The First Moral Ideals
Chapter 15 Suffering and Submission: The First "Job"
Chapter 16 Wisdom: The First Proverbs and Sayings
Chapter 17 "Aesopica": The First Animal Fables
Chapter 18 Logomachy: The First Literary Debates
Chapter 19 Paradise: The First Biblical Parallels
Chapter 20 A Flood: The First "Noah"
Chapter 21 Hades: The First Tale of Resurrection
Chapter 22 Slaying of the Dragon: The First ''St. George"
Chapter 23 Tales of Gilgamesh: The First Case of Literary Borrowing
Chapter 24 Epic Literature: Man's First Heroic Age
Chapter 25 To the Royal Bridegroom: The First Love Song
Chapter 26 Book Lists: The First Library Catalogue
Chapter 27 World Peace and Harmony: Man's First Golden Age
Chapter 28 Ancient Counterparts of Modern Woes: The First "Sick" Society
Chapter 29 Destruction and Deliverance: The First Liturgic Laments
Chapter 30 The Ideal King: The First Messiahs
Chapter 31 Shulgi of Ur: The First Long-Distance Champion
Chapter 32 Poetry The First Literary Imagery
Chapter 33 The Sacred Marriage Rite: The First Sex Symbolism
Chapter 34 Weeping Goddesses: The First Mater Dolorosa
Chapter 35 U-a A-u-a: The First Lullaby
Chapter 36 The Ideal Mother: Her First Literary Portrait
Chapter 37 Three Funeral Chants: The First Elegies
Chapter 38 The Pickaxe and the Plow: Labor's First Victory
Chapter 39 Home of the Fish: The First Aquarium
Corrigenda and Addenda to the Second Edition
Glossary
Appendix A. A Curse and a Map: New Gleanings from the Tablets of Sumer
Appendix B. The Origin and Development of the Cuneiform System of Writing and Other Comments on the Illustrations
