Inanna — Kim Echlin

Long before the Bible and the Koran, before the myths of the Greeks and Romans were set down, the people of Sumer recorded the stories of their gods and kings on cuneiform tablets. The world's oldest epic poem is the Epic of Gilgamesh, the tale of a hero who was part god, part man. But just in the past century a thrilling discovery was made  -- the 4,000-year-old stories of his powerful sister, the goddess Inanna.

Inanna is a goddess who embodies the quest for growth. Her stories tell how she develops from childish inexperience and youthful exuberance into maturity and gains the powers to create, to destroy and to name. She is a goddess of spunk and wisdom who outwits and defies the powerful, falls in love with the shepherd Dumuzi and, like Gilgamesh, dares to seek immortality. The people of Sumer associated Inanna with the planet Venus.

With the guidance of Sumerian scholars, Kim Echlin has provided a moving, sensitive and knowledgeable translation of the Inanna myths. They describe a goddess who was a warrior, lover, nurturer, seeker of knowledge and giver of power  -- a figure worthy of admiration by people of any age.