124 paolo merlo
and 6th centuries B.c.,52 the language of the proverbs seems older and
can be dated around the 8th and 7th centuries B.c. it is therefore better
to deal with these two parts of the work separately.
the story of aḥiqar introduces the main character as a sage court
counselor, who served the assyrian kings Senacherib and esarhaddon.
the childless aḥiqar adopted and educated Nadin, his nephew. aḥiqar,
having grown old, presented Nadin to the assyrian king as his successor.
Nadin won the king’s favor, but unexpectedly plotted against his adoptive
father and slandered aḥiqar. the king, persuaded by Nadin, sent one of
his officers, Nabusumiskun, to kill aḥiqar, but the officer spared aḥiqar
as a reward for having been rescued by him some time earlier. he killed a
eunuch instead of aḥiqar, so the latter was believed to be dead. according
to later versions of the story, sometime later, during a crisis, esarhaddon
needed aḥiqar’s counsel, so Nabusumiskun brought him alive to the king.
aḥiqar managed to save the kingdom and consequently esarhaddon real-
ized that aḥiqar had been defamed by Nadin. finally, esarhaddon pun-
ished Nadin and restored aḥiqar.
this composition is a didactic wisdom story53 with moral instructions
(aḥiqar is saved by good deeds he committed a long time before and by
his wisdom) and with some literary patterns that are typical of the folk
and wisdom tales (i.e., a falsely accused minister restored by his wisdom;
a hidden old man saving the nation; the fall and restoration of the main
character; and the apparent death of the leader).
the collection of proverbs54—none of the extant column is fully
intact—shows a composite inventory of literary figures that find various
comparisons in wisdom literature of the neighboring cultures (Old testa-
ment, egypt, Mesopotamia).
from a literary point of view,55 the main literary forms are instructions or
admonitions: “My son, do not damn the day until you see the night” (no. 2),
or “[do not multiply] wealth, and do not lead your heart astray” (no. 51);
riddles: “What is stronger than a braying ass... ?” (no. 84); numerical
sayings: “two things are good, and a third, which is pleasing to Šamaš:
one who drinks the wine and pours it out as libation, one who masters
wisdom [and guards it], and one who will hear a thing and will not tell it”
52 the writing is from the 5th century B.c.
53 “Weisheitliche Lehrerzählung,” cf. Müller 1977–1978.
54 Numbering of the proverbs follows porten – Yardeni 1986 in taD c.1; for other num-
berings, cf. taD c: Xv–Xvi; and the synopsis in Weigl 2010: 851–860.
55 cf. Watson 1994: 72–86; Kottsieper 2009: 415–422; Weigl 2010: 543–636.