A Bilingual Proverb Collection — A Late Babylonian collection of bilingual proverbs in Sumerian and Akkadian — social wisdom and rain proverbs from a first-millennium clay tablet.
Ludlul Bēl Nēmeqi — The complete four-tablet Babylonian poem of the righteous sufferer — 'I Will Praise the Lord of Wisdom.' Shubshi-meshre-Shakkan endures catastrophic loss and illness, then is restored through Marduk's mercy and dream-visions. Standard Babylonian Akkadian, ca. 11th–10th century BCE. Good Works Translation from the Akkadian.
Ludlul Bēl Nēmeqi — The complete four-tablet Babylonian poem of the righteous sufferer — 'I Will Praise the Lord of Wisdom.' Shubshi-meshre-Shakkan endures catastrophic loss and illness, then is restored through Marduk's mercy and dream-visions. Standard Babylonian Akkadian, ca. 11th–10th century BCE. Good Works Translation from the Akkadian.
The Dialogue of Put-Ishtar and His Son — An Old Babylonian dialogue between the sage Put-Ishtar and his rebellious son, debating wisdom, divine favor, filial duty, and fate. From a clay prism, c. 1800 BCE.
The Dynastic Chronicle — A Sumerian dynastic chronicle from Ashurbanipal's library at Nineveh, recording the passage of kingship from Sippar and Kish through Hammurabi's Babylon to the Sealand, the Bazi dynasty, and the Elamite interregnum — two thousand years of succession in formulaic verse.
The Examination of the Scribe — A bilingual Sumerian-Akkadian scribal examination catechism, defining the scribe as one born of the great tablets. From the library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh.
The Fable Collection (VAT 8807) — A Neo-Assyrian compendium of animal fables from Nimrud (716 BCE) — the pig, the fox, the ant, the mongoose, the gnat and the elephant, the horse and the mule. Predates Aesop by two centuries.
The Father and His Son — First English translation of YBC 2394 — an Old Babylonian wisdom dialogue between a father (Put-Ishtar) and his son, ending with a lament on the death of Naram-Sin and a curse tablet.
The Instructions of Shuruppak — The oldest wisdom text in the world — a father's counsel to his son, composed in Sumer nearly five thousand years ago. Good Works Translation from Sumerian.
The Story of Ahikar — The oldest surviving wisdom tale in world literature — the story of a vizier betrayed by his nephew, rescued by his own good name, and vindicated through proverbs and cunning. From Aramaic and Syriac sources.
The Sufferer's Monologue — A Neo-Assyrian first-person suffering monologue from Ashurbanipal's library at Nineveh. Illness, exile, and rescue by the king of the Kassites. K.2599, Kuyunjik collection.
The Trial of the Fox — A Mesopotamian debate poem in which the Fox stands trial before Shamash, the sun-god of justice, accused of wickedness — and the Lion pronounces sentence.