Wives of the Flood

by Vaughn Heppner

  The ship’s fat captain made a few remarks, speaking about Jehovah and marriage and then he bade them speak their vows.

  Opis squeezed Gilgamesh’s hand, peering into his eyes. He promised to look after her in sickness and in health, to love her always and never to desert her. She promised to love, honor and obey him.

  Odin pronounced them man and wife: that Gilgamesh could go on and kiss his bride.

  Gilgamesh took her in his arms and kissed her.

  To the cheers of the crew and to their wild clapping, Gilgamesh picked her up and marched up the beach to a tent set up earlier by Ramses. There they indeed became man and wife, as Gilgamesh knew her.

  Opis’s fears of Uruk and Semiramis lessened. There was nothing those two could do to them now. They were man and wife. Jehovah had joined them, and as Father Adam had said long ago in the garden, “A man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.” She was safe at last. And that tiny knot of fear in her belly, Opis drowned that knot by the wonderful joy of being with her husband on their marriage mat.

  Father of Lies

  1.

  The New World was vast, empty and forbidding. The thought of striking out alone or in small family groups terrified people. To be swallowed up in obscurity, to be forgotten made life seem futile.

  The Tower cured that feeling. To build a mighty kingdom, one glorious and strong, struck a chord in people. It fired imaginations. In Japheth Land particularly, in those clans that had never feared Babel, there was talk about immigrating to the city. They wanted to follow their sons and daughters who already lived there.

  That year began the first great exodus from Japheth Land to Babel. And that year, the sons of Shem moved out of their valley, first in a trickle and then in a torrent. The majority of them moved to the upper Tigris River Region, to start a new colony along the lines of Babel. Others thought, why start from scratch? Go where they’ve already done the hardest work.

  Immigrants flooded Babel. Because of the increase and crowding, disputes became more frequent. Many accused the Babel elders—Kush, Put, Menes and Canaan—of favoritism in settling the quarrels. The Japhethites and Shemites soon grew resentful.

  Nimrod pondered this. His desire for fame, along with burning ambition, propelled him to a new course. It helped that Ham had left and lived with Shem beside the Tigris River.

  Nimrod started slowly. The first time, he found shepherds arguing with each other as they disputed grazing rights. Listening to their accusations, he attempted to make a fair ruling. Then he told them, “We must act justly with each other. Quarrels can too easily lead to bloodshed and that might lead to civil war.”

  Nimrod realized the people yearned for an impartial judge. If he became one, wouldn’t they grant him greater authority? With each case, he strove for fairness. It didn’t matter if a man was a Japhethite, Shemite or Hamite. He based his decision on the facts, nothing else.

  Soon, people recognized his fair dealing. Instead of going to the elders, they took their cases to Nimrod. He gained a reputation for being the only man to settle a conflict justly. Because of that, the number of his cases rose.

  The trickiest role came later. Nimrod went to the people. He told them that he had had enough of it. He would no longer sit in the chair of judgment.

  “Is it right for me to settle everyone else’s problems if I leave my own to fester? My Hunters have become dispirited because I no longer run with them. Soon, the beasts in the field will increase because of my absence. No, I must step down from this task. I’m exhausted by it.”

  Most people didn’t want to return to the elders for judgments. Then Kush made it worse by passing a law that said only the elders, as a group, could judge disputes. They had let one or two Japhethite and Shemite elders join them as judges. But as a group, the Hamites always outvoted the others. The outcry against the law grew, finally forcing Kush and his brothers to repeal it. Soon, thereafter, many whispered among themselves that lawlessness increased.

  At last, the people held a grand meeting to discuss the problem. During it, the friends of Nimrod did most of the talking.

  “We cannot continue to thrive in this land under the present conditions. Let us appoint a man to rule over us so that we can get on with our work. Otherwise, conflicts will continue and our new civilization will perish. What we need is someone honest, someone with the integrity of Noah.”

  Their arguments prevailed. Through it, the idea of monarchy reappeared as people debated it.

  “By his nature, an elder strives for the good of his clan, and who can blame the man? It is a common failing. But a king would have the entire people as his clan. He would desire justice for all because all would be beholden to him.”

  Men proposed candidates for king. During the debates, most the speakers spoke highly of Nimrod’s qualities. He was a fair judge and the mightiest among them. He, they agreed, was the man to be king, and so he became.

  Nimrod’s first act was to build a kingly palace. He soon appointed the Hunters as his guards. Then he introduced royal ceremonies. Admittance into his presence lessened. He preferred communication through heralds. It also became an offence to laugh or spit in his sight.

  “My reasons are simple,” Nimrod told Semiramis. “Ceremonies are a safeguard against the men who think they’re as good as me. People treat me differently, and most will begin to believe this difference is innate within me. If men see me too much, it might lead to jealousy and resentment. Plots would follow. But if they don’t see me, yet feel my hand, my legend will grow. Soon, people will think of me as more than a man.”

  Three new processes helped to secure his power.

  As his bodyguard, every Hunter received a suit of armor. They also practiced furiously with their short swords. And through constant drilling, they could act in unison while in rank. The tramp of their feet and the clank of armor through the streets of Babel awed the populace. People began to call them the Mighty Men.

  The second change happened with the Singers, the lovely maidens who played reed pipes and twirled about in provocative dances. They moved into the palace, into a special woman’s quarters under Semiramis’ control. King Nimrod often came to them. He taught the girls new dances and new insights into the angel of the sun. During many of the talks, he brought them strong palm wine and bid them drink. While they were intoxicated, he explained deeper truths about Bel.

  Soon, thereafter, whenever King Nimrod appeared in public, it was with a train of Singers dressed in fawn skins over their robes. They waved ivy-wreathed wands, and they seemed crazed with joy, singing:

  “O Bacchanals, come,

  Oh, come.

  Sing Bel,

  Sing to the timbrel.

  Joyfully praise him,

  Him who brings joy.

  Holy, all holy

  Music is calling.

  To the hills, to the hills,

  Fly, O Bacchanal

  Swift of foot.

  On, O joyful, be fleet.”

  The final transformation was the most stunning. It was like a seal, a stamp, and set the mark of Nimrod’s rule.

  The elders and their wives were the first to witness it. Soon, others visited the palace, come to see the wonderful sight. Horns blew as they entered the throne room, as Mighty Men bellowed, “Kneel before the King of Babel!”

  On a raised dais, sat King Nimrod, with his cheetah Azel, collared and leashed, sitting beside him. Red curtains hung behind the king. Mighty Men of valor in fish-scale armor stood below the dais. None of that created the awe. The throne itself did.

  The king had saved the bones of the dragon he’d slain years ago. Now those bones were cunningly woven together into a throne. At the top of the backrest perched the skull. Rubies winked in the eye-sockets. Ivory teeth, longer than the original, had been screwed into the mouth. The real dragon teeth adored the necks of selected Mighty Men. To finish the effect, the king wore a crown with a single jutting horn, and he wore a ro
be of silver ermine.

  Nimrod the Dragon-Slayer, the Mighty Hunter, the Killer of Black Mane the Cave Lion, He Who had Shot the Leviathan and the Champion Wrestler sat before them in majesty. He presided as he sat on the Dragonbone Throne.

  2.

  News of Nimrod’s crowning shocked Europa. It did so almost as much as when, long ago in Antediluvian times, her father had lost his crown, castle and his life to invading brigands. She should have seen this coming—just as long ago the growing depredations of the brigands had foretold their sudden boldness.

  What didn’t make sense to her was the strength of the Hamites. At least, it didn’t make sense in lieu of Noah’s curse. Japheth used to tell her the curse encompassed all the sons of Ham, not just Canaan. Now she was no longer convinced of that.

  She strolled along the Tigris in the company of granddaughters as they gathered flowers. Among them walked Hilda, the daughter of Beor. Hilda wore a gown, not the knee-length dress that her father allowed her when she drove his chariot.

  Hilda would have been good for Gog.

  Ah, Europa had had plans for him. That one had the bearing of a king. The daughter of Beor—there was something heroic about her. From her womb would be born kings and princes. Yet in the end, Hilda had been the death of Gog, the death of her favorite great-grandson. It hadn’t been the girl’s fault, other than that she was Beor’s daughter. Yes, that had proved fatal because Nimrod hated Beor.

  Europa recalled warning Beor about Semiramis. Like most warriors, he refused to heed wisdom in matters of the heart. It was a common failing, and she wondered why it was so easy for her to see who should marry whom. It appalled her the way Ruth and Rahab allowed their granddaughters and great-granddaughters to marry whomever they wished. There seemed to be no policy from those two, no long-range goals. Yet could she say that it had helped the Japhethites what she did?

  Europa drew her cloak a little tighter.

  Nimrod had been crowned king. Cunning, ambitious Semiramis was his wife. As bad, many of the best Japhethites had already gone to Babel. It only made sense then for Japheth to unite with the Shemites and the handful of Hamites here. It was either that, or go join everyone else in Babel.

  She brooded, trying to unravel Ham’s real reason for fleeing here. He claimed Noah had told him to escape from Babel while he could. She didn’t believe that, of course. There had to be another reason, something bold and foolhardy.

  How could she salvage events from this disaster of civilization being the product of the Hamites and not of the Japhethites? Which of her offspring had the qualities of king, of royalty?

  Like cards of old, she fanned the personalities in her mind. She wondered again about Odin, who had left Babel and traveled here. He was a grandson of Ashkenaz, from the line of Gomer. Once, Odin had been a Hunter, a captain among them. He had sailed to Dilmun, the Blessed Land, rescuing Gilgamesh and Opis. It was a romantic tale. Even before that, Odin had trekked to the Far North, to the land of snow and ice, the land of giant creatures. He was an adventurous lad, and he pined for Hilda, people said.

  Europa studied Hilda as the girl frolicked with her great-granddaughters. They laughed while they picked flowers, stuffing them into baskets. They didn’t understand that marriage was all-important. Upon them and their choices rested humanity’s future. Would it be a future ruled by Hamites, Shemites or Japhethites? The way events moved now…

  Europa grimaced. Hilda, they said, had spurned Odin. And that brute, Beor, distrusted anything that had a taint of Babel, especially anyone once a friend of Nimrod. Still, Hilda and Odin…

  Europa tried to envision what sort of sons and daughters the two might have. The idea had merit, possibilities.

  She picked a flower, sniffing it, setting it in her own basket. Somehow, she had to gather the shreds of a failed policy and retie them. She needed something to withstand the kingship of Nimrod the Mighty Hunter, ruler of Babel. It was either that, or she must go to the city to try to influence events from the heart of civilization.

  3.

  With the rise of the Tower, new inventions or ways of doing things increased. Lud discovered the first synthetic substance made deliberately by man. It was done to imitate the blue of lapis lazuli.

  First, the desired object, usually beads to make into a necklace, was shaped in talc-stone. Then it was dusted with powdered azurite or malachite and heated in a closed container in a kiln. The result coated the object with a skin of blue-green glass, faience.

  Nimrod said that hard work and sacrifice pleased Jehovah just as much as Noahic purity. Suppose someone drank too much, cheated on his wife or knocked the tooth out of a friend. Naturally, one shouldn’t do these things, but Nimrod said he spoke honestly, practically, how things really were instead of how they ought to be. Such “sins” happened to everyone. What good came then from fretting and worrying that Jehovah, frowning down from heaven, might snatch up his lightning bolt and spear?

  “No,” Nimrod said. “Sacrifice in the temple, in cost to the sin, and your soul will be cleansed of the evil. Hard work in Tower construction will also pay for many wrongdoings.”

  The idea took hold. People flocked to the temple to rid themselves of their sins.

  Kush, as High Priest, soon gained in power.

  Nimrod pondered that, and soon maneuvered Kush out of his position of High Priest. The Mighty Hunter took the office as his own, becoming the world’s first Priest-King.

  A mere priest now, known also as the Stargazer, Kush retaliated by letting Nimrod’s horoscope become public: that within the month, Beor and his comrades would lie dead upon the plain of Nineveh. Kush predicted that soon Babel’s king would be victorious and bring all humanity under his sway.

  It began a terrible chain of events.

  4.

  Like a menagerie-housed panther, Nimrod paced in his bedchamber. Lanterns burned while Semiramis lounged on the feather-soft bed.

  “Do thoughts of facing Beor frighten you?” she asked.

  For an answer, Nimrod’s vine baton smacked the flesh of his palm.

  “Is it Shem then that you fear to meet, as he gives you harsh words from Jehovah?”

  Nimrod continued pacing.

  Semiramis arched her eyebrows. “I hesitate to call this fear. But I know no other name for what you’re exhibiting.”

  “It’s fear,” Nimrod said.

  “You admit it?”

  “Why shouldn’t I?”

  “Because you’re out of the habit,” she said. “Because you’re so busy playing the invincible warrior, that you have forgotten genuine emotions.” Semiramis appeared troubled as she studied him. “I don’t understand why you haven’t readied the army. Kush read your horoscope and predicted total success. If we fail, it’s his head that will be lost.”

  Nimrod snorted. “You misjudge my fear. Certainly the people will follow me against Shem and Assur.”

  “Then why do you worry?”

  “The last time we marched to war, our mistake was in taking those I hadn’t rigorously trained. The so-called warriors balked at the first check, and their fear infected the others. This time, I’ll only take the Mighty Men. Instead of cowering, they will vie for honor and spoils.”

  “That’s what you really want, isn’t it?” Semiramis asked. “The spoils: young virgins to ravish?”

  Nimrod ignored the barb. “When Noah appeared in our camp and lifted his staff, he caused the thunderclouds to roll.”

  “Everyone’s belly turned to water and all knees gave out.”

  “Not everyone bowed,” Nimrod said.

  “What did that avail you to stand against him?” She laughed. “Now I understand your fear. It’s Noah.”

  Nimrod shook his head.

  “Look me in the eye and tell me that Noah doesn’t frighten you.”

  “Noah is a man, an old man. A single spear-thrust will kill him like any other. But his Jehovah…”

  Semiramis frowned.

  “You still don’t understand,”
Nimrod said. “Noah’s Jehovah flooded the world, destroying all who opposed Him.”

  “So we’ve been told.”

  “So it happened. Only a fool wouldn’t accept the obvious.”

  The mockery drained from Semiramis. “Speak no more about Jehovah and His awful wrath.”

  “Do you find it frightening?”

  “Don’t you?” she asked.

  “Ah,” he said. “Now you begin to understand my dilemma. Bel has made grandiose promises. Many of them have come true. But this last one…to confront… For the moment, I’ll call them the holy people.”

  “Bel says we’re the chosen ones, the holy people.”

  “Bel says many things that ring false.” Nimrod brooded. “I have many gifts and abilities, but I am not holy. For that matter, my love, nothing could possibly make you holy.”

  Anger contorted her features.

  “Think carefully, Semiramis. We’ve both heard about the bene elohim, how at the beginning of the Deluge, Jehovah’s angels dragged them to off-world dungeons.”

  “I’ve seen and heard enough of your worry. What I want to know is this: who is Bel?”

  “That is my quandary,” Nimrod said. “Is he a god, as he claims, or a rebellious angel who flails against his Maker? The question has plagued me until I wonder if I have the courage to dare the final challenge.”

  “To face Noah’s Jehovah?”

  Nimrod laughed darkly. “No. Whether I dare to demand an audience with Bel’s superior and find out if we truly have a chance at ultimate victory. You know his name. He is the Light-Bearer, Lucifer, the Dark Prince…Satan.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I will no longer fight blindly. Through Noah, Jehovah cursed Canaan and probably the rest of us as well. My father refused to buckle to that and he taught me likewise. Slave is it? Never! But ruler, master, king over all. Bel has played upon that. He is clever, and we too have used him as the Antediluvians must have used the bene elohim. I will not disparage Bel’s gifts of magic, astrology and Antediluvian history that Noah and his sons have hidden from us. Now, however, before I make the final play, now I will demand an audience with the terrible Serpent of Eden, Leviathan, he named the Great Dragon.”