A PAUPER IN NIPPUR

Through the kind facebook posting of a friend I became aware of a short film produced by Cambridge Archeology, that fascinatingly tells a tale. "There was a poor fellow living in the city of Nippur, whose liver ached daily for want of meat and beer. So he sold his one robe in the market one day, and bought a goat. Then he went to the mayor .... "
The mayor treated him like dirt, basically. So he then went to the king, by whose favour he exacted threefold revenge on the mayor. The tale in Akkadian was written cuneiformically.
So it can be read in the present.


The entire short film is here:

THE POOR MAN OF NIPPUR

[SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxYoFlnJLoE.]


Akkadian is one of the first Semitic languages recorded. For the linguistically entranced, then, this short film present a wondrous spend of time.



From the Wikipedia entry on Akkad, comes this intriguing fragment about Sargon, a king four millennia ago:

"My mother was a changeling, my father I knew not. The brothers of my father loved the hills. My city is Azurpiranu (the wilderness herb fields), which is situated on the banks of the Euphrates. My changeling mother conceived me, in secret she bore me. She set me in a basket of rushes, with bitumen she sealed my lid. She cast me into the river which rose not over me. The river bore me up and carried me to Akki, the drawer of water. Akki, the drawer of water, took me as his son and reared me. Akki the drawer of water, appointed me as his gardener. While I was gardener Ishtar granted me her love, and for four and (fifty?) ... years I exercised kingship."

In another version, his mother is identified as a high-priestess, and his father is still entirely unknown.


Sargon of Akkad conquered the Sumerian states and was cup-bearer to king Ur-Zababa of Kish. Read more about him here: Šarru-ukīn.




PS.: It is because of Akkadian scriblers that we know what we know about the Hittite language. And that is a remarkable kettle of fish on its own.





==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================