Wisdom & Instruction (the Counsels of a Father)
A father's oldest advice, four thousand years on: guard your tongue, choose your friends, fear your god.
One of the oldest forms of Mesopotamian thought is practical wisdom: a father instructing his son, or a sage his pupil, in how to live well and prudently. The Instructions of Shuruppak — among the oldest works of literature anywhere — gathers terse counsels on honest work, careful speech, choosing friends, avoiding quarrels, treating dependents fairly, and respecting the gods. The Akkadian Counsels of Wisdom continue the tradition. This is not lofty metaphysics but the distilled common sense of an old civilization: how a person of sense conducts a life.
Key passages(11)
In those days, in those far remote days, in those nights, in those faraway nights, in those years, in those far remote years, at that time the wise one who knew how to speak in elaborate words lived i
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Ud-ul-uru (Old man cultivator) gave advice to his son: When you have to prepare a field, inspect the levees, canals and mounds that have to be opened. When you let the flood water into the field, thi
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I pick the bones from the fish ……. My husband picks the bones from the fish for me. A plant as sweet as a husband does not grow in the desert. A pig ……. Where is my husband? it said. When it realis
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My husband picks the bones from the fish for me. …… is not in the desert. A …… shepherd's sex appeal is his testicles (?); a gardener's is his hair. …… a waterskin. He who does not support a wife, an
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When a fattened pig is about to be slaughtered, one says I must replace what I eat. As the piglet snuffles around, it says I can no longer take pleasure in eating. He who annihilates a house destroys
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The palace bows down, but only of its own accord. Income ……. Expenditures never cease. Violent cursing and chasing away a son from his father's house are abominations to Ninurta. To spit without co
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The advice of a supervisor to a younger scribe (E-dub-ba-a C)
(The supervisor speaks:) One-time member of the school, come here to me, and let me explain to you what my teacher revealed. Like you, I was once a youth and had a mentor. The teacher assigned a task
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The battle-club does not find out his name, it just finds his flesh. The city may change its name, but let my name stand! The mongoose does not know fear of god. Accept your lot and make your mothe
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The king …… not having questioned ……. When a fattened pig is about to be slaughtered ……, one says Let me replace what I am about to eat. As the piglet snuffles around, it says ……. A man's daughter-
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It became cloudy, but it did not rain. It rained, but no one undid their belt. Although the Tigris was on its high tide, no water reached the arable lands. It rained on the riverbank, but the dry land
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The rich man's heart is sick, it is very sick indeed (?) -- the man with a troubled heart is sick, he is very sick indeed (?). Why are the interest payments so small? He who carries a light burden c
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