| This dissertation studies the textual corpus of ancient Near Eastern fables and explores features of the Ante-Aesopic fable traditions. Collecting all the extant fables from Sumerian, Akkadian, Egyptian, Hurrian, Hittite, Hebrew and Aramaic literary texts, the author examines their features and significance. The dissertation focuses on the transmission and the agents of transmission of the Ante-Aesopic traditions. Ultimately, the author proposes a hypothesis about the origin of the fable and explains why the fable as a form of communication began and developed in the ancient Near East. The significant factor in the evolution of communication, namely the development of writing, is relevant with the rise of agrarian societies and the resulting economic revolution in the ancient Near Eastern civilizations. New societies required elaborate communication systems. The metaphorical conception of the world operating in the fable is an essential process for thinking and speaking. Analogous features in the evolution of cuneiform writing illustrate the intellectual processes behind the development of the fable. |
