The Poor Man of Nippur

"The Poor Man of Nippur" is a humorous tale written in Akkadian, unique in his genre in Mesopotamian literature. It narrates the misadventures of Gimil-Ninurta (lit. "Ninurta's revenge"), who seeks the favour of the mayor of Nippur, fails to get it, but finally gets his own back. The composition, which is 160 lines long, may be divided into 5 episodes, each of them being similarly structured.

The first episode (STT 1, 38 [/cams/gkab/P338355/]: o i 1 - o ii 22) depicts Gimil-Ninurta's situation. He does not live in accordance with his social status as a citizen of Nippur and has no silver, no gold, no food. He then decides to exchange his last clothes for a sheep, but only gets a goat. He could slaughter it to share with his family and friends, but finally decides to offer it to the mayor, expecting great favours in return for his gift.
In the second episode (STT 1, 38 [/cams/gkab/P338355/]: o i 23 – o ii 12), the mayor receives the poor man. He accepts the goat but, instead of sharing it with Gimil-Ninurta as expected, gives him only a bone and the sinews, together with very bad beer. Soon after, he chases Gimil-Ninurta away. Mortified and abashed, the poor man gives the gatekeeper a message for the mayor: he will get his revenge three times. On hearing this, the mayor bursts into laughter.
The third episode (STT 1, 38 [/cams/gkab/P338355/]: o ii 13 – r i 3) witnesses Gimil-Ninurta visiting the king. He asks the ruler to give him a chariot and gold, so that he can parade about like a nobleman. Unexpectedly, the king agrees without question. Gimil-Ninurta puts two birds in a sealed box, and returns, on his chariot and richly dressed, to the mayor's house. Pretending to be a correspondent of the king who has been sent to bring gold to Ellil's temple in Nippur, he asks for the mayor's hospitality. Honoured by his presence, the mayor greets him and slaughters a ram, so that they feast together. When the mayor finally falls asleep, Gimil-Ninurta opens the box and frees the birds, making the mayor believe that the gold has been stolen. The fake nobleman beats the mayor, still groggy from sleep, from head to toe. The mayor begs for his life, and finally gives him gold to replace what was allegedly stolen. As he leaves the house, Gimil-Ninurta proudly tells the gatekeeper that he has revenged the mayor once and that two retaliations remain.
To prepare the second requital, accounted in the fourth episode (STT 1, 38 [/cams/gkab/P338355/]: r i 4 – r i 28), Gimil-Ninurta goes to a barber to have all the hair on the left side of his head shaved off and then fills a black bowl with "stuff". Thus dressed as a healer, an asû, he returns to the mayor again. As soon as he is introduced to his presence, he immediately identifies the wound he had himself inflicted on the mayor in his guise as a nobleman. The mayor is immediately convinced the healer is competent, and agrees to be "treated". Gimil-Ninurta then takes him into a dark room, ties him to five pegs in the ground, and beats him from head to toe once more. As he leaves the house, Gimil-Ninurta proudly tells the gatekeeper that he has requited the mayor twice and that one revenge remains.
The fifth episode (STT 1, 38 [/cams/gkab/P338355/]: r i 29 - r ii 5) thus recounts Gimil-Ninurta's final revenge. This time, he asks a young man to call at the mayor's house claiming that he is the "man with the goat". On hearing the young man announce himself, the mayor sends all his household after him and he himself runs out of his house to watch the chase. Gimil-Ninurta catches him by surprise and beats him yet again from head to toe. Boasting that he has claimed his third revenge, Gimil-Ninurta leaves for the countryside, while the mayor miserably crawls back to the city.

The story in itself is humorous, and appears to be a satire on society, rulers as well as healers. But the humour also results from many situational trick, role reversal being the most predominant, as well as the characters' naivety. The composition also contains a lot of wordplay, using many ambiguous words or expressions that can be understood in different, often contradictory, ways.

The fullest recension of this composition comes from Huzirina. Only two other brief and fragmentary manuscripts, both dating from the first millennium, have been found in Nippur and Nineveh. The colophon of the Huzirina manuscript clearly implies that the composition was used in scribal training, as it was copied by the young apprentice Nabu-rehtu-uṣur PGP , pupil of Nabu-ah-iddin.

The Poor Man of Nippur

Further Reading