On: Sumerian dog jokes, or the difficulty of translating dead languages

[jcranberry]

This recently also had a post on the AskHistorians subreddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/tbgetc/this_...

[blamazon → jcranberry]

From the linked set of proverbs: [1]

"81-82. (cf. 6.2.3: UET 6/2 225) The dog understands "Take it!", but it does not understand Put it down!"

This is ancient form of the modern "No take, only throw" meme! [2]

[1]: https://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/proverbs/t.6.1.05.html#t6105.p...

[2]: https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/433/498/10e...