Poverty, Pessimism, and Comedy in Ancient Mesopotamia - Oldest Stories Podcast
23Today we read through the Dialogue of Pessimism and the Poor Man of Nippur. Both are comedies with a bit of edge to them, though in very different formats, showing the richness of ancient literature. Dialogue of Pessimism is basically a two-man standup routine, with a fair amount of philosophical ideas thrown in as part of the comedy. Poor Man of Nippur is a farce mixed with a revenge tale, grounded with a perspective we rarely see in ancient literature, the common man viewing the wealthy and powerful.
It is also the subject of the world's first movie made in the Babylonian language which can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/pxYoFlnJLoE?si=jr4O7CGWpls6ulzU
Notes for the episode are on the webpage at oldeststories.net
The Oldest Stories podcast tells the history and myth of bronze age Mesopotamia beginning with the first written clay tablets circa 3000 BCE. Using their stories and histories, we can learn a great deal about the people of the ancient world and see how the people of the very first civilizations were not all that different from us nowadays, except of course for the places where they were very different. The past is a foreign country after all.
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This youtube channel is an extension of the Oldest Stories podcast, which is also available on any good podcasting app, or at the website http://oldeststories.net.