The Proverb

Mesopotamia produced thousands of proverbs, gathered into large Sumerian collections that were copied by students in the scribal schools. They are pithy, earthy, and frequently sly: observations about money and poverty, fools and the wise, dogs and foxes, women and men, fate and luck. Some are moral, many simply shrewd, and a good number are wry to the point of comedy. As a window onto the everyday outlook of an ancient people — their humor, anxieties, and hard-won common sense — the proverb collections are without equal.