Page:Assyrian and Babylonian Literature - 1901.djvu/436



NTRODUCTORY.— The chief fragments of the Nimrod epic were discovered in 1854 by Hormuzd Rassam in the ruins of Nineveh. The tablets, twelve in number, belonged originally to the famous library of King Ashurbanipal (668-626 B. C.), as the colophons to the several tablets clearly state. The text has not yet been completely restored. The contents of these tablets were first brought to light and translated by the late George Smith (✝ 1876), of the British Museum, in his "Chaldean Account of Genesis" (1872). The standard edition of the text, as far as it is accessible at present, is that of Professor Paul Haupt, "Das Babylonische Nimrodepos." Additions to Part I were published by the same author in an article on "Ergebnisse einer erneuten Collation der Izdubar -Legenden."

The only good recent translations of the whole epic are by Dr. Alfred Jeremias, "Izdubar-Nimrod, Eine alt-babylonische Heldensage. Nach den Keilschriftfragmenten dargestellt," and by Professor Jensen, pp. 116-273 of his "Assyrisch-babylonische Mythen und Epen."