I, the Sun

by Morris, Janet

  “But what of Carchemish, the town?” I demanded, sorting through the clay tablets. We were in my estate in the town of Uda, where Telipinus had come to meet me after driving up to Hattusas and finding out I was in the Lower Country performing a festival.

  “Carchemish, itself, the one town, did not make peace with us. So I left six hundred men and chariots under Lupakki, in winter camp in Murmuriga, and came up to meet with you, to see what you would have me do. The town is high-walled and brash, and within it are generals and soldiers of Tushratta, and it seems to me that fighting them on the plain before the city is useless – as I am fighting them before the city, reinforcements sneak into it from behind.”

  So, while we were in Uda, Telipinus and I devised a plan for the taking of Carchemish, which we were intent on having by harvest time so that we could present it to Piyassilis on the thirty-seventh anniversary of his birth.

  This plan made use of Ugaritic boats and Amurrite siegecraft, and we dispatched messengers to Niqmad of Ugarit and to Aziru of Amurru, and to Piyassilis and Tarkhunta-zalma who had replaced Lupakki in Halap as the Hittite commanders overseeing the restive Nuhasse and tickling the Egyptian toes of Amqa, and watching my “allies” there as well.

  But even while we were sending these troop levies to our vassals and girding on our swords, a message came from Lupakki:

  When the Mitannians saw that the Priest was gone, the troops and chariots of Tushratta came and surrounded Murmuriga. And they were superior in number to the troops of Hatti who were there.

  And at the same time that word was brought to me that the Mitannians had surrounded Lupakki’s army, I heard from Piyassilis that to the country of Kinza, which I had conquered and made my country with Aitakama my vassal king ruling for me, troops and chariots of Egypt had come. And they attacked the country of Kinza. And within the country, revolt broke out among the people, some of whom wanted to stay loyal to the Sun, and some of whom wanted to go back over to the Egyptians. And further, Piyassilis said that the government of Kinza had thrown in its lot with those who wanted to return to Egypt’s overlordship. The only thing that was not clear was where the king of Kinza, Aitakama, stood in all of this. Piyassilis could not find him anywhere: he seemed not to be in his palace. So there was no way to tell whether he himself had broken his treaty with me and revolted, or his councilors had arisen and wrested the country from his hands. And I was wroth so that my scars were livid. I drove up to Hattusas in the dead of night, and for the first time in all my years of driving, killed a team of horses. Would that a man could get from another man that loyalty which a horse can demonstrate, that which makes a horse run until his heart bursts, only because you have commanded it.

  Once in Hattusas, I mobilized all available troops and marched down into the Hurrian country. When I arrived in the country of Tegarama, I made a review of my troops and chariots. From there I sent Arnuwandas and Zida, my brother the Gal Meshedi, from Tegarama ahead into the Mitanni country, though I was fain to expose my heir to the jeopardy a man faces leading point into enemy territory. But then, that was why I sent Zida with him, and I was not truly worried. It would have been something to worry about if Arnuwandas had not demanded to lead the column, or if I had been unable to find it in my heart to allow him his desire.

  That year I was as iron-gray as the scalloped decorations on my chariot, facing my forty-first season in the field, with all my .grown sons ranged about me. And it was to me a consummate justification of all struggles past, just to see them and to hear them and to know that each was as fit as a man may be. I had, on leaving Hattusas, had a terrible and lengthy argument with my Tawananna, Malnigal, which I had won, but which I thought to be the formal opening of hostilities between us: I had brought her just-manned son Mursili, two months shy of fourteen, out to battle. Since all the rest of my boys were with me, and he longed to be rescued from under his mother’s skirts, I could not refuse him. Mursili was ecstatic, driving for his brother Zannanza, Khinti’s boy. Both I kept ever in my personal thirty. If harm came to them, it would be because I, myself, had fallen, and I was not about to fall.

  Now, when Arnuwandas and Zida came down into the embattled country, the enemy came against them for battle. And, before I could even join them, the gods of the Sun helped my brother and my eldest son Arnuwandas, and they defeated the enemy besieging Lupakki. But the enemy fled in front of our forces and escaped into the mountains and into the fortified town.

  So when I arrived in the vicinity of the fortified town of Carchemish, I surrounded it and prepared to besiege it. On this side and on that side, so that I surrounded it completely, deployed men about the city. Across the Mala into deepest Mitanni I sent troops; and up the river from the deepest Mitanni I sent troops; and up the river from the west and south, from Ugarit and from Amurru the troops of my allies came by ships and boats, bringing with them disassembled siege engines and mountains for scaling the walls of Carchemish.

  Never had anyone seen the like of that army in the memory of mankind. It blackened the river’s bank of this side and that. Its extent made the night glow as if a thousand giant fireflies had come to alight upon the plain. And all the greats of my army, and of Aziru’s army, and of Ugarit’s seafaring forces, were meeting in tents and mumbling plans around bites of stew, and calling down their gods to aid them.

  As soon as I arrived in the camp I called forth Lupakki and Tarkhunta-zalma, the latter being at least partly responsible for the mishandling of affairs that had allowed Kinza to defect to Egypt and Artatama, Kinza’s country’s king, to disappear from sight like a shekel dropped into the muddy Mala’s current. These two commanders, with troops and chariots, as many as they desired, I sent forth to reclaim Kinza and proceed to Amqa, an Egyptian country I had long coveted, to seek revenge: since Egypt had attacked my country of Kinza, and taken it by default, then I would do the same with their country, Amqa. So did they depart, to do my will, to bring back Kinza into the Hatti land, and Aziru’s troops and chariots came out to help them, and they brought uncountable booty, sheep and cattle and deportees from the Egyptian country of Amqa.

  By the time Lupakki’s troops returned with their Egyptian booty and deportees, I had Carchemish encircled so that no single scout could penetrate into the city.

  Now, in the field, a man sleeps whenever he may, and I had just awakened from a sunset nap during which the blue-cloaked lord had ushered me into the temples of Carchemish and I had reached out to take the golden clothes from the gods of Carchemish, and my hand had shriveled before my eyes, and fallen away at the wrist like the branch falls from a blighted tree.

  Rubbing the sleep and the cold sweat away, I called for food and drink. Mursili, whose voice was just cracking and becoming the voice of a man, hurriedly ran out to fetch it for me.

  The tent in which I was holding court was low and not spacious, big enough for the image of the Storm God standing on his sacred bulls, a brazier, two stools and a map board.

  Into it, behind Mursili’s heavy-shouldered form – Malnigal had whelped me a squat lusty, big-boned pup – stooped Hattu-ziti, his head bald as an egg, his brow looking like a field just plowed.

  The pig-tailed son of Malnigal proudly served his sire’s wine, and asked in his irresolute voice if he should depart.

  “Should he, Hattu-ziti? What is it that brings you here?”

  “Is the Great Bull not a man?” smiled Hattu-ziti at Mursili, who had got that nickname on account of the magnificent organ with which the Gods had favored him, whose proportions were in need of no exaggeration by the prostitutes who had so praised his manhood when it had become incumbent on him to prove his prowess a scant month past. “But take up your scribe’s utensils, and sit yourself down inconspicuously, and you will hear, son of the Sun, what no man has heard since the gods gave us ears. That is, with the Great King’s permission?”

  “Stay, then, Mursili. What is this? You have pricked my curiosity, secretary.”

  “My lord, Great King, a messenger fro
m the Egyptian court awaits without.”

  “What?”

  “I said –”

  “I heard you. I have – Did he say – No, he would not. Is it Hani?”

  “No, my lord, it is a man with whom I am not familiar, one of the Theban court. But he was brought here by Hatib, who –”

  “Bring him here. I would see Hatib.”

  But it was not to be. Hatib’s path was no longer that of the Sun.

  “– by Hatib, my lord, Great King, who said he was sorry, but could not remain, and commended this messenger unto your mercy and suggested that whatever your Majesty did with him would include his safe disposition back southward.”

  “You do know what this man wants, do you not?”

  “My lord, no amount of cajoling or browbeating could persuade this messenger to turn over to me the sealed tablet he carries. It is for your eyes only.”

  I watched Mursili watching, fascinated, without letting him see me noticing his interest. “Then Hattu-ziti, bring him in. But, is Aziru arrived yet?”

  “No,” he said hesitantly, troubled to the extent of forgetting to politely address me. “No, he is not, though the king of Ugarit is here with his entire entourage and his upholstered couches and –”

  “I can imagine. After this Egyptian messenger is relieved of his duty, I want guards at my threshold to escort him wheresoever I decide. And I will see the king of Ugarit at moon’s rise. And if Aziru should arrive, even if I am sleeping, wake me.”

  And he departed, to do as I had bid. None of us were talking much about Aziru’s conspicuous absence. He had sent troops, but had not accompanied them hither; he was close to being in violation of his oath. And all of us were wondering, those that knew him, close had grown his friendship to Aitakama of Kinza, who now stood in formal violation of his oaths (and would, if I could catch him, lose his life for it), if Aziru’s absence had anything to do with the disappearance of the king of Kinza.

  I shook those loathsome conjectures from my mind as the Egyptian messenger, dressed like a soldier in kilt, mantle and helmet, ducked through the tent-flap with Teshub-zalma and my foster-son Zidanza accompanying him, blades drawn and ready.

  I took from the messenger the sealed tablet and dismissed him, whereupon he most respectfully informed me that he had been instructed to wait and take my answer back with him to Thebes.

  So I suggested that he wait without the tent, and all three filed out again, leaving only Mursili and myself. “Mursili, build up the fire,” I ordered, and as he was doing that I cracked open the envelope with my dirk’s hilt and pulled the message from out of it.

  And it was formal, and properly attested, and I read it thrice before the words sunk in, before the meaning spoke to me. And then I could only wonder at how easily, and how quickly, I had thrown fear into their Egyptian hearts by attacking their protectorate Amqa, and why I had waited so long to do so.

  And then, estimating the time it takes to get a message to Thebes from Amqa high on the coast beneath the Hattian plateau, and turning the tablet absently in my hands, I wondered if fear was the motive for this consummately astounding document, which was, if the words incised in the clay did not lie, from the Great Wife Ankhsenamun, who had formerly been Ankhsenpaaten, wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Nibhuria Tutankhamun. Or widow thereof, if the tablet spoke truly, for this is what the message from the Queen of Egypt said:

  “My husband has died. A son I have not. But to you, they say, the sons are many. If you would give me one son of yours, he would become my husband. Never shall I pick out a servant of mine and make him my husband! I am very much afraid.”

  Mursili says I gave a great sigh like a windbroken horse. I do not remember that, only the consternation in my heart. Was she saying she was afraid of my battle, this widow who was now queen of Egypt? Was it Aye, the Divine Father, or Horemheb, General of the Armies, of whom she was speaking when she stated she would never pick out a servant of, hers and make him her husband? Was it one of them of whom she was afraid?’

  I had hardly started to fight with Egypt. She had only tasted my might. On that account, had she sent to me to give her a son to be Pharaoh and rule over the richest country in all the world? Or was this some trick, some scheme… my mind whirled, slowed, lay quiet.

  I rose up and hit my head upon the tent pole, then growled at Mursili to go fetch Hattu-ziti, and to call together all the greats of the army, the Shepherd, my princes, the generals and commanders, with whom I would meet as soon as they could be gathered.

  “Shall I get the Egyptian messenger?” cracked my son in his changing voice, while he craned his neck to try and get a glimpse of the words inscribed on the Egyptian clay.

  “Not yet. Have him wait. I will answer him in the morning. See to his billet and his safety: it is your charge. Now, run!”

  And Mursili ran.

  And so, when all the Great Ones were gathered, I threw the matter open to discussion in the cool night air before my tent. Staring into the fire, I told them that such a thing had never happened to me before in my whole life, and solicited their advice upon the matter.

  My sons’ faces were guarded, their words were carefully cautious, not a one said: send me. But not a one said: do not send anyone. Each agreed that this was an opportunity the like of which no one had ever had previously, not in the whole of former times. Piyassilis, just returned from Syria, was leaning back on his elbows, giving me my own impassive look from across the fire. Telipinus was staring into the blaze as if all future events were revealed therein. Arnuwandas chewed a piece of grass, relaxed, knowing that he was not being considered, and trying to appear howsoever he thought I would want him to appear. Zannanza, Khinti’s wide-eyed, arrestingly handsome son, looked at me steadily from out of his mother’s wisdom and said only that whoever took the chance would earn the reward, if indeed there was to be one. Mursili tried his best to look old enough and wise enough to be sitting among those heroes who had so distinguished themselves in my service.

  Now among those, caution prevailed. The great Shepherd rubbed his white-streaked temples and said that he would be glad to go and search the truth out, but that a son I should not send them.

  Hattu-ziti objected that it would take twenty days to get to Thebes by chariot, at the fastest clip, and longer to return word to Hattusas; and that by the time the deceased Pharaoh Tutankhamun was placed in his tomb, whoever was to succeed him must be in Egypt to perform the ceremony of the Opening of The Mouth upon the corpse.

  It was at that moment Aziru of Amurru appeared, with a strange look and disheveled countenance I did not then understand, and pointed out that the embalming process took seventy days, so that there was some need to proceed decisively, but no need to proceed without heed to the consequences should the matter be a trap. And in his face I saw all the bitter months he had spent in Egypt, and the misery he had experienced therein, and I nodded, and raised myself up with a grunt that I could not suppress after so long sitting cross-legged on the ground. So, to cover this involuntary commentary on the state of my joints, I said to Hattu-ziti:

  “Go and bring the true word back to me. Maybe they deceive me. Maybe, in fact, they do have a son of their lord. Bring the true word back to me!”

  And with that I dismissed them all but my chamberlain himself. And I saw the Shepherd shake his head and try to catch my eye, but I pretended I did not see him and ushered Hattu-ziti into the privacy of my tent.

  “You know I would not send you if I thought there was any danger we could not surmount, don’t you?” I said to him.

  “My lord, I am thankful beyond expression. My joy overflows all bounds. I will go and come back again so fast you will not know I have been away, and I will make smooth the way for a Hittite king to rule from the double throne, and all the gods will aid me. It is time! It is your time, your moment!” He was moved unto tears, overwhelmed, and we fell into a long, maudlin conjecture as to what to do in this circumstance or that, all tinged with Hattu-ziti’s unshakeable fait
h that this was the beginning of a new era of peace and prosperity for the Hatti land, which, if it ruled Egypt’s Pharaoh, would be the master of the entire world.

  And when he had gone to his rest and I should have been going to mine to make ready for the siege to begin on the morrow, I instead had a light meal and with it, Aziru, king of Amurru, brought to me.

  Aziru was looking no better, he was still black-faced with trail dirt and he had not changed his clothes nor washed, from the smell of him.

  After he made deep obeisance to my Majesty, I invited him to sit, to partake of my table, to say what it was that had detained him when his obligation demanded he be at my side overseeing the deployment of his Amurrite and Hapiru warriors.

  “My lord… you don’t know, do you? I –”

  “It is late,” I warned him. “I am simply not jumping to conclusions that would be deadly to you. I am waiting for you to tell me what part you have played in the disappearance of my ex-vassal, the criminal Aitakama of Kinza, who gave his country over to Egyptian chariots so that I am warring and sacking in my own provinces.”

  Aziru said something inaudible, then, upon my snarl of exasperation, looked up at me like the cornered wolf and said: “I have him. I have brought him to you, as the bond of my oath demands.”

  “Ah-hah! Then bring him before me, shackled and naked, and you shall see what happens to a kinglet so foolish as to defy the Sun!”

  “My lord, Great King, just listen to me, and when I am finished, you can slay him if you choose. He is awaiting in my tent, not chained or bound in any way, for he threw himself upon my mercy, begging me to intercede in his behalf with you, to put the matter right in the eyes of the Sun –”

  “The only way he can put the matter right is to hand me back my country! And as for you, I am still not sure you have not revolted along with him, and are only now coming to your senses and trying to pretend that you were faithful all along! Why did you not send word to me that you had this rebel, who has spat upon my protection, who was treated like a prince in my palace and who betrayed me once I had set him back upon the throne of his father? Speak, you of little honor!”