384 Paul A. Kruger especially in ancient Near Eastern socio-political-religious contexts that the mundus inversus topos has found its broadest application (1) to depict in a negative sense a world in which everything is turned upside down, or (2) to propagate in a positive fashion a future messianic or utopian age, where these contraries of life will finally be reconciled (28). In his most informative analysis of the basic social characteristics of “das Mythologem von der verkehrten Welt”, the sociologist Mühlmann (29) devotes special attention to these two important socio-historical manifestations of symbolic inversion (30). The former pessimistic version he associates with the socio-political upper or aristocratic level of society (“Oberschicht”), whilst the latter euphoric stance is found among the plebs or the underdogs on the social ladder (“Untersicht”) (31). One such ancient Near Eastern text, which may be regarded as a classic example of “inverted social criticism” from an upper-class point of view, is a papyrus of the 19th dynasty in Egypt, “The Admonitions of Ipuwer”. It laments a world where the entire social order is “inverted”, if compared to what is usually regarded as the norm in that specific sphere. The text runs: Indeed, poor men have become owners of wealth, He who could not make for himself sandals own riches. (First Poem Lines 2.4-5) (32) Behold, the possessors of robes are (now) in rags, He who never wove for himself is (now) the possessor of fine linen. Behold, he who never built for himself a boat is (now) the possessor of ships, ... Behold, he who had no property is (now) a possessor of wealth. (Second Poem Lines 7.11-8.1) (33) (28) R.C. van LEEUWEN, “Proverbs 30:21-23 and the Biblical World Upside Down”, JBL 105 (1986) 599-610. Another important religious manifestation of the topos of inversion in many cultures in the world is the marking of boundaries between normal life and life after death: life after death is in many instances the direct reverse of ordinary life; see e.g., P.A. KRUGER, “Symbolic Inversion in Death: Some Examples From the Old Testament and the Ancient Near Eastern World”, Verbum et Ecclesia 26 (2005) 398-411 = “Symbolic Inversion in Death: Some Examples from the Old Testament and the Ancient Near Eastern World”, Psalms and Mythology (ed. D.J. HUMAN) (London 2007) 204-216. Ancient Near Eastern mourning rites often display a similar “topsy turviness”; for this, cf. P.A. KRUGER, “The Inverse World of Mourning in the Hebrew Bible”, Biblische Notizen NF 124 (2005) 41-49. (29) W.E. MÜHLMANN, “Das Mythologem von der verkehrten Welt”, Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 13 (1961) 614-624; see also his Chiliasmus and Nativismus (Berlin 1961) 333. (30) For the following examples supplied here, cf. KRUGER, “The World ‘Topsy- Turvy’”, 119. (31) MÜHLMANN, “Das Mythologem von der verkehrten Welt”, 618. (32) The translation is by N. SHUPAK, “The Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage: the Admonitions of Ipuwer”, The Context of Scripture (ed. W.H. HALLO, et al.) (Leiden 2003) I, 94. (33) The translation is by SHUPAK, “The Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage”, 96.