Antiquity Studies

Proverbs and Gnōmai in the Epic of Gilgamesh

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Abstract

This essay discusses proverbial expressions and wisdom sayings in the Gilgamesh tradition. It contends that certain critical strategies developed for ancient Greek poetry can be applied to Babylonian epic, particularly the analysis of poetic gnōmai and narrative irony. I begin by isolating the type of expression at issue, building on a flexibility in scholarly definitions of proverbs, gnōmai and sayings that goes back to antiquity (§ 2). The core of the paper (§§ 3‑5) charts and comments on wisdom sayings in the first-millennium Standard Babylonian (SB) Gilgamesh with reference to the earlier poetic tradition. After some concluding remarks (§ 6), I include an indication of potential comparative avenues involving Homeric epic (§ 7).


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: Nov. 24, 2023 | Accepted: March 4, 2024 | Published July 9, 2024 | Language: en

Keywords Gilgamesh • Narrative irony • Proverbs • Homer • Wisdom

Copyright © 2024 Bernardo Ballesteros. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-776-0/013


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