The Poor Man of Nippur

Tale of Gimil-Ninurta

Anonymous / tradition · 701 BC (Sultantepe tablet colophon; the underlying composition is likely older, though its precise date is unresolved) · Nippur (Iraq) · other

A destitute citizen humiliated by Nippur's mayor over an insultingly small goat argues his case not through law but through three escalating disguised revenges, a comic tale suggesting that trickery, repeated three times, was the only justice available to a man without status.