ACHIACHARUS, the name of an eastern sage whose "say ings" spread far and wide and had a remarkable influence on the world's gnomic literature. His history and moralizing sayings have been preserved, in whole or in part and with interesting minor variations, in Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic, Armenian and Slavonic translations, and fragments of his teaching have sur vived among the Jewish papyri from Elephantine (see later). Rumanian and old Turkish versions are also in existence.
In the story of his life he is represented as the chief adviser of the Assyrian king Sennacherib. He adopted a nephew, Nadan by name, to succeed him. Profligate and wearied by Achiacharus' unending inculcation of wisdom in proverbial form, Nadan brought about his uncle's downfall. But saved from death by his executioners, Achiacharus survived in an underground dungeon and resumed his former position at court when the king was in dire need of his services as an envoy and magician who could satisfy the demands of the king of Egypt. Thus he built a castle in the air and twisted ropes out of sand. On his return to Assyria he took vengeance on his nephew, flogged him, condemned him to his former dungeon-dwelling, constantly visited him to taunt him and give him instruction in which, as in Aesop's fables, animals and birds give expression to shrewd moral and ethical ideals. Nadan avoided execution by swelling out suddenly and bursting asunder, thus anticipating and possibly inspiring one of the New Testament descriptions of the end of Judas.
The date of composition and the original home of this work are matters of dispute. The Elephantine Papyri provide evi dence that it was in existence by the fifth century B.C. The men tion of Sennacherib may well point to Mesopotamia as its original home. But the story and the sententious sayings contained in it are probably far older than the Assyrian Empire. Sennacherib's name was probably inserted in the story when it had already assumed a fixed form in most other respects and had already embarked on its career of permeating the literature and thought of Palestine, Egypt and the Mediterranean coastlands.