mīnu attā malṭarī?

This article aims to provide a workable methodology for the classification, analysis, and discussion of “parodic” texts in the ancient Near East. Since the publication of the Poor Man of Nippur by O. Gurney (1956, 145–164), scholars have recognised the humorous nature of various additional cuneiform texts, several of which have been termed “parodies” or similar. However, in choice of terminology, the lack of a strict, structural approach has led to an obfuscation of the relationship these texts exhibit with their respective “parodied predecessor(s)”. The following advocates for using the trans-textual theory of Gerard Genette’s Palimpsests (1997) to approach the topic of Par-ody in the cuneiform literature. After outlining Genette’s theory, a survey of texts often termed “parodies” follows, to better clarify their textual relationships. Thereafter, a full application of the methodology is demonstrated with the Poor Man of Nippur to argue that the text is a Mock-Heroic Pastiche that both reinforces previous readings and has bearings on literary history.