The Intellectual Heritage of the Ancient Near East, pp. 597-612, 2023/04/12
Proceedings of the 64th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale and the 12th Melammu Symposium, University of Innsbruck, July 16‒20, 2018
Sumerian disputations and “diatribes” have often been described as “humorous” compositions, but the exact nature of the underlying humour has not been investigated so far. Bearing in mind the difficulties of identifying and correctly interpreting humour in ancient works of literature, an attempt at a systematic study of humour in Sumerian didactic disputations and “diatribes” will be made. The study will focus on a selection of relevant texts, namely the disputations between schoolboys known as Dialogues 1–3, the disputation between women known as Two Women B or Dialogue 5, the Diatribes B and C (also known as Engardu the Fool and He is a Good Seed of a Dog, respectively), as well as two hitherto unpublished “diatribes” against women entitled The Evil Mouth and Woman Perfecting Evil. Since all these compositions are characterized by an abundance of insults, one aim of the investigation is to determine if and how these insults could have had a humorous effect. In this context, the ancient “Sitz im Leben” of the compositions will also be taken into consideration. While it is evident that these texts were studied at school, and probably had little relevance outside of it, at least the disputations potentially could have been performed on stage. Hence, the presence of an (imaginary, potential or actual) audience will be included in the discussion of humour in Sumerian didactic literature.
