Ahikar
From Freepedia
Ahikar or Ahiqar or Haiqar or Achiacharus was a man known in the ancient Near East for his outstanding wisdom.
Achiacharus is the name occurring in the book of Tobit as that of a nephew of Tobit (Tobias) and an official at the court of Esarhaddon at Nineveh. There are references in Rumanian, Slavonic, Armenian, Arabic and Syriac literature to a legend, of which the hero is Ahikar for Armenian, Arabic and Syriac. It was pointed out by scholar George Hoffmann in 1880 that this Ahikar and the Achiacharus of Tobit are identical. It has been contended that there are traces of the legend even in the New Testament, and there is a striking similarity between it and the Life of Aesop by Maximus Planudes (ch. xxiii.-xxxii.) An eastern sage Achaiicarus is mentioned by Strabo. It would seem, therefore, that the legend was undoubtedly oriental in origin, though the relationship of the various versions can scarcely be recovered.
According to folklore, Ahikar was chancellor to the Assyrian kings Sennacherib and Esarhaddon. Having no child of his own, he adopted his nephew Nadab, and raised him to be his successor. Nadab ungratefully plotted to have his uncle murdered, but Ahikar escaped. Nadab died in prison.
Much of the story of Ahikar consists of wise proverbs directed to his nephew.
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This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, which is in the public domain.
