Instructions of Shuruppak
Sumerian wisdom literature framed as a father's counsel to his son Ziusudra, among the oldest surviving literature. Its framing sage is legend, its writers unknown.
- Original byline
- Anonymous
- Published
- Date not recorded
- Form
- Other works
- Authorship
- Still unknown
- Reason for anonymity
- Unrecorded
- Copyright
- Public domain
- Reference
- Wikipedia · Wikidata
The authorship story
The Instructions of Shuruppak is a collection of Sumerian proverbs and counsel framed as the advice of Shuruppak, son of Ubara-Tutu, to his son Ziusudra, the flood hero. Copies survive from Abu Salabikh around 2500 BCE, placing it among the oldest literature known. The frame is a literary device of wisdom tradition: Shuruppak is a figure of legend, and treating him as the author would mistake the genre. The scribes who composed and transmitted the instructions across a millennium left no names. What survives is advice without an adviser.
Questions readers ask
Who wrote Instructions of Shuruppak?
Nobody knows. No author for Instructions of Shuruppak has been identified in the documented record.
Can I read Instructions of Shuruppak for free?
Yes. Instructions of Shuruppak is in the public domain and the full text is free to read at the Internet Archive.
Related works
- Still unknown
Amduat
An ancient Egyptian netherworld book describing the sun god's journey through the twelve hours of night. Like all Egyptian funerary literature, it names no author.
- Still unknown
Book of Caverns
An ancient Egyptian netherworld book depicting the sun god's passage over six caverns of the underworld. No author is recorded in the tradition.
- Still unknown
Book of the Dead
The ancient Egyptian collection of funerary spells guiding the dead through the afterlife. Tradition associates such texts with the god Thoth; no historical author exists in the record.
- Still unknown
Book of the Earth
An ancient Egyptian funerary composition showing the sun's night journey through the earth god Aker. Anonymous, like all Egyptian netherworld books.