Jamie R. Novotny

The Etana Epic, known in antiquity (after its incipit) as "They Planned out a City" or the "Series of Etana" narrates the story of an eagle, a serpent, and Etana, a king of Kish. This literary composition is known from Old Babylonian (Larsa ? and Susa), Middle Assyrian (Assur), and Neo-Assyrian (Nineveh) recensions. Even though the earliest exemplars of the epic date to the early second millenium, the story of Etana's flight into the heavens was certainly known by the last half of the third millenium, since this heroic ascent is recorded in the Sumerian King List and a man mounted on an eagle, probably Etana, is depicted on Old Akkadian cylinder seals.

The Standard Babylonian version of the Epic has been translated, in part or in full, by ... René Labat ("Les religions du Proche-Orient asiatique", Paris 1970) ..., S. Dalley ("Myths", 1989, pp. 189-202) ... and B.R. Foster ("Before the Muses" I, Bethesda, 1993, pp. 449-460) and "From Distant Days" (Bethesda 1995, pp. 102-114). The translations of Dalley and Foster can be used as companions to this volume.