Les neiges d’antan:“Early rulers” and the vanity theme in Mesopotamian wisdom literature and beyond: “Early Rulers” and the vanity theme in Mesopotamian wisdom literature and beyond

This article will examine the occurrence of the “Vanity Theme” in Mesopotamian wisdom literature and elsewhere. However, the main interest of this investigation lies in the list of rulers or illustrious men of old which is manifest in a variety of wisdom “Vanity Theme” compositions. We will argue that it will not suffice to speak about the “Vanity Theme” in various literatures of the ancient Near East and the Mediterranean. We should try to identify a particular literary expression that is associated with this type of composition. We contend that this expression is the list or naming of “Early Rulers” that comes to serve as an exemplum to the basic assertion of the “Vanity Theme“.