The Folktale
Stith Thompson
Plant of immortality. (Cf. D965.) – Babylonian: Spence 158, 160, 178; Chinese: Eberhard FFC CXX 215. |
Part Two The Folktale from Ireland to India IV – The Folktale in Ancient Literature 2. Babylonian and Assyrian |
Historic records from the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates do not go back so far as those from the valley of the Nile, but even so they carry us into the past for a good five thousand years. From the ancient period with its interplay of Accadian, Sumerian, Chaldean, Assyrian, and Babylonian there remain an abundance of cuneiform writings, most of them from the latter part of the period. The texts consist largely of legal documents, business accounts, and religious writings. It is the latter which interests the student of the folktale, for though we may be reasonably sure that the illiterate masses told and enjoyed stories during all these centuries and long before, these oral tales have left not a trace behind. But it may well be that nevertheless some reflection of this old folklore is to be found in the mythological texts which have come down to us. These stories, obviously written by a priesthood and in a style far removed from that of the story-teller of the folk, contain many motifs familiar to all students of the folktale, and they thus bear witness to the early development of many of these narrative themes. Most interesting of these old stories is the epic of Gilgamesh, [433] dating in its [p. 277] present form from about 650 B.C., but certainly going back to at least 2000 B.C. This epic contains the adventures of a strong hero ( In a kind of beast fable from the same early period, the tale of Etana, [434] appear several motifs familiar in folklore all over the world, though there is certainly no necessity to suppose direct influence of this old tale on the folklore of modern Europe. The serpent complains to the sun god that the eagle has descended upon its young and has eaten them. On the advice of the god, the serpent hides in the carcass of an ox ( Even more famous than the descent of Gilgamesh to the lower world is the myth of the descent of the goddess Ishtar ( In addition to these three important myths, the folklorist is interested in a very old flood legend, parallel in many respects to the story of Noah. It seems to have influenced the Biblical tale, if not actually to be its original. [435] Finally, he will discover that the very famous story of wise Achikar ( |
[433] For a list of Gilgamesh studies, see Bolte-Polívka, IV, 102, n. 1. [434] See Johnston, "Assyrian and Babylonian Beast Fables," The American Journal of Semitic Languages, XXVIII (1912), 81-100. [435] See p. 236, above. For a discussion of the mutual relations of these flood legends, see S. H. Langdon, Semitic Mythology (Boston, 1931), pp. 206-233. [436] See also J151.1. For a bibliography of the Achikar material, see, in addition to these motif numbers, Bolte-Polívka, IV, 104, n. 2. |
Motifs A151.2, A672.1, A1335, B552, D1346.5, D1500.1.4, E481.1, F62, F81, F85, F133, F152.0.1, F610, F811.2.2, G303.3.3.15, H561.5, H1292, K751.1 |