Tolstoy’s ‘Esarhaddon, King of Assyria’

• Carr, C. ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Oxford

     University of Oxford

     Oxford District, Reino Unido

     
• Localización: Aula Orientalis: Revista de estudios del Próximo Oriente Antiguo, ISSN 0212-5730, Vol. 41, Nº. 1, 2023, págs. 33-40
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo (pdf)
• Resumen

  • This article concerns a curious piece of Assyriological reception, a short story by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy entitled 'Esarhaddon, King of Assyria' (1903). The fable features two kings taken from Assyrian history, and whilst Esarhaddon may have been familiar to an educated audience, the name of the other king, Lailie, appears only very infrequently in the Assyrian sources. Here, I investigate how Tolstoy would have discovered the name of king Lailie, and how and why he amalgamated Assyrian history with his own religious beliefs from his later years to produce this unusual fairy-tale.