Chapter 1
Zombies in Our Midst
I will break in the doors of hell and smash the bolts; There will be confusion of people, those above with those from the lower depths.
I shall bring up the dead to eat food like the living; And the hosts of dead will outnumber the living!
—The Epic of Gilgamesh, ∼2700–2300 B.C.
The reason most people today are so scared of zombies could be a fluke of translation. The idea of the flesh-eating zombie depicted in modern-day books and movies originates from a 5,000-year-old epic, in which the goddess of love asks the father of gods to create a drought to punish the man who rejected her love. She then threatens to stir up the dead if her wish isn’t granted. Written in Sumerian, Babylonian, and other ancient languages, ...
