Abstract
Abstract Since the eighteenth‐century European Enlightenment, scholars have repeatedly identified an “Axial Age” around 500 bce in which common ethical values had developed across Eurasia. After a survey of the scholarly debates about the Axial Age, this chapter presents an example story that appears both in the TaNaKH (Hebrew scriptures) and the Buddhist jataka ( jātaka ) tales, the “Judgement of Mahosadha/Solomon.” Three literary features distinguish Axial Age texts: imagery serving a pedagogical purpose, verbal irony, and a protagonist most essentially identified with ethical concerns.
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