ABSTRACT
Like most of mankind before or after them, the Sumerians were puzzled by the world and felt keenly the need to explain it to themselves. Through the medium of their language they created splendid images and stories to link the worlds of gods and men, with the facility with which the Egyptians carved in stone to the same purpose. They wondered at the world and took, on balance, a rather humble view of their place in it. Their gods, an unappealing and generally disagreeable race, were, with few exceptions, largely ill-disposed or at best indifferent to man.
