Shubari se Kerbi, High Priest of the High Priests of
Nanna and Ningal, processed from the Sacred Palace to the steps of the temple
accompanied by the Noble Priests, the Incantation Priests, the Throne Bearer
Priests, the Executioner Priests, the Libations Priest, the Incense Priest,
the Lower Order Priests, and many other priests, the entire route of the
procession across Ur's Sacred Area well protected by heavily armed.
contingents of the temple guard. Another Sixty armed with pike and short
sword stood to attention beneath the towering walls of the temple, Ur's the
House of the Unending Union Between Heaven and Earth. The High Priest Shubari,
outstanding in the midst of a sea of flowing, fluttering robes due both to the
fact of his massive bulk as well as the ostentatious majesty of his own
regalia, stood for another brief moment at the base of the temple's steps
gazing with an expression of benevolent concern toward the faithful of Ur now
crowded among the palaces, courtyards, and workshops within the Sacred Area's
walls. A dozen Incantation Priests, those who would accompany the High Priest
the entire distance to the top of the temple, sighed with relief. At least
Shubari endeavored to maintain a demeanor of pious solemnity in public. If
the manner in which the High Priest Shubari deported himself in the Divine
Chamber atop the temple ever became a topic of popular discussion, a far
greater percentage of the temple's revenue accumulated in the Great Court of
Nanna would have to be expended paying for the guards the Sacred Area would
need.
Shubari finally settled his bulk onto the portable
throne, and a dozen Throne Bearer Priests bent toward gold plated carry poles
extending to the front and to the rear of the throne, the priests groaning in
strain as they lifted it and its massive occupant onto their shoulders.
Followed by those priests who would accompany the High Priest up the slopes of
Ur's Holy Mountain, the High Priest Shubari began his ascent to the domain of
the gods.
Shubari allowed his features to lapse into apathy as
the distance from the admiring crowds of faithful standing at the base of the
temple increased. He glanced another long moment toward the roofs of the
king's palace just now visible to the south of the Sacred Area's walls.
Ibisien, Shubari muttered, his brow wrinkled in annoyance; Ibisien, a lover of
boys and men, who was probably sitting in his palace squirming in giggling
delight as his scribes, poets, and portrait carvers labored with pen or chisel
extolling the virtue and justice of a king who was seldom sober long enough to
appreciate any of it anyway. Ibisien, however, was by and large harmless, a
king, the High Priest Shubari decided, who reveled in his grandfather's glory
and honor, he and his statue carvers completely unconcerned for the fact that
he had done nothing himself to merit the glory and honor in which he reveled.
The Assembly, at least, was competent enough to appreciate this as well, had
refrained from petitioning for Ibisien's recognition as a living god.
Areshen, however, military governor of Ur, was a
different matter altogether, far from harmless. And Shubari was quite aware
that the Akkadian city of Isin was now far more than Areshen's military
headquarters. How dare that blasphemous apostate with no god of his own,
Shubari seethed, criticize the manner in which the High Priest of the High
Priests of Nanna and Ningal oversaw the faithful who worked on the temple's
farms and dug the temple's canals? What does Areshen, a man without even a
single concubine, a man who frolics with his wife's servants quite as though
they were his friends and his equals, know of the difficulties the High Priest
faced as interpreter of Holy Order, the Sacred Vessel through which Nanna and
Ningal spoke to the people of Ur? Perhaps, Shubari decided, when Setith was
installed as High Priestess in Bathul, she might be persuaded to pull Areshen
back onto his leash. Then again, Shubari sighed, Setith's cadre of agents and
spies was quite as extensive as his own. And Setith, Shubari sighed again,
was a very expensive bitch.
Shubari's greatest concern, however, was the
suppression of any popular movement in which the further privatization of
Sumer's farms and factories was again advocated. It had taken years for
Shubari to undo the damage the present king's grandfather had done when he had
wrested so much of the economy of Sumer from the control of its temple and
religious institutions, confiscating farm after farm, factory after factory
all across Sumer and Akkad and placing them under the jurisdiction of the
king's palace, or even worse, into the hands of private individuals. Even
today there were dozens, perhaps still hundreds of individuals, the bitch
Setith for instance, owned by no one, their wealth and their influence
rivaling that of the temple in the city in which they resided, a dangerous and
blasphemous situation. People owned by absolutely no one, Shubari mumbled in
amaze, people with no one to whip them for the pleasure of the gods. How
perverse society had become under Ibisien's grandfather. How fortunate that
he, Shubari, had become High Priest when he had. Perhaps, if a few thousand
more people were hung from posts with nails driven through their hands, the
delicate balance of Holy Order upon which Sumer depended could be restored.
Shubari doubted that Areshen of Isin, even if he did
in fact now rule most of Sumer and Akkad from his military headquarters in
Isin, felt any great measure of personal concern regarding social or economic
matters in Ur or Sumer. Shubari doubted that Areshen, raised according to his
spies and informants on a pig farm near Sannu, knew a great deal about such
matters to begin with. Areshen was undeniably a brilliant soldier, had
completely revitalized the armies of Sumer and Akkad the garrisons of which
were loyal to him almost to the last man. But Areshen had one major flaw
which Shubari, High Priest of Nanna and Ningal, could not tolerate. Areshen
was not afraid to fart into the faces of the gods. I, Shubari seethed, am the
only man in Sumer entitled to fart into the faces of the gods.
Shubari sighed in frustration, this time when he felt
the portable throne bump to the floor beneath the entrance chamber's pillars,
a tall domed structure on the temple's first terrace which gave access through
a rear portal to another set of steps leading up to the temple's summit and
the Divine Chamber. At the entrance chamber's rear portal stood the half
dozen male and female prostitutes who spent their days waiting in the entrance
chamber hoping to service Nanna and Ningal should god or goddess appear
wishing to be serviced.
With the help of two straining Incantation Priests,
Shubari pushed himself from the portable throne and then walked to the
chamber's rear portal, glaring with dismay toward the steps which led up to
the Divine Chamber, steps, Shubari sighed, which he must climb with nothing
more than the shoulders of Incantation Priests for help. Perhaps, Shubari
mused, Nanna and Ningal should pronounce that they had granted their
permission for the Throne Bearer Priests to carry the High Priest the rest of
the way up. No, Shubari sighed again, the fewer who knew what really went on
in the Divine Chamber, the better, and Shubari turned to the male and female
prostitutes who immediately intoned their liturgies.
"Most noble and exalted High Priest of Nanna," the
female prostitutes chanted in unison, "we have waited faithfully and in
prayer, beseeching Nanna to come so that we may fornicate with him. He has
not come."
"Most noble and exalted High Priest of Ningal," the
male prostitutes chanted, the same formula with the appropriate variations,
the word "not," as usual, inserted into the final line.
When the holy prostitutes had concluded their
liturgies, Shubari stood panting with mouth open for another long moment,
though no one in the entrance chamber expected him to deliver the proper
response, an ancient liturgy of considerable length and detail. Everyone in
the entrance chamber, however, was quite aware of the advantages of keeping
their own mouths shut. Only the most brazen and daring of gamblers and risk
takers chanced revealing the liberties the High Priest Shubari took with
proper liturgical procedure. Most who did so soon felt the bite of the ax to
their necks.
Shubari gazed across the submissive and pious faces in
front of him, daring them to show the least hint of emotion as he delivered
his response to their liturgy. Shubari then thrust his face toward the holy
prostitutes, his liturgical response a rasping, thundering belch which echoed
off the entrance chamber's four walls for a length of time most present would
previously have considered impossible. As usual, the Incantation Priests,
particularly those one or two who were devout worshippers of Nanna and Ningal,
struggled to control their despondent sighs. Only they would hear similar
liturgical responses resounding off the walls of the Divine Chamber atop the
temple, responses intentionally directed toward the Holy Couch on which Nanna
and Ningal sat, and emanating from a posterior orifice in the High Priest
Shubari's body.
In the beginning, there was water. Then An separated
the waters above from the waters below, and so there were waters above and
there were waters below. It was An who separated the waters above from the
waters below.
Then An said to his wife Tiatul, "come wife, Tiatul,
let us fornicate," and so An fornicated with Tiatul. Then Tiatul said, "Look,
An. I have produced another god because we fornicated."
An then made a man from the clay of the ground because
An was fatigued. "I will rest now," An said to the man he had made from the
clay of the ground, "because I am fatigued. You shall do my work for me and
feed me so that I may rest. I will fornicate with Tiatul and she will produce
many more gods for you to feed. Then the earth will flourish with cattle and
green things of every kind. Then I shall eat of the produce of the earth
which you shall gather for me. There will be many gods for you to feed."
The man had sons and daughters and they lived in the
south where two rivers flow to the sea.
Then a flood came, but Gosunuri built a boat and got
away.
Then after the flood the king of Epil came and learned
to write, and ruled the entire land of Sumer. Then every other king since
Epil was king has said, "I am the king of Epil," because the king of Epil was
a great king who ruled the entire land of Sumer.
Then the king of Oculu came, but nothing important
happened.
Then the king of Ur came who was called Apanada and
said, "I will build a temple which will rise up to heaven." Then Epenatu was
king of Ur. Epenatu did not die like other kings. Instead, Epenatu and his
entire household, his cup bearer and his harp players, his clowns and his
butler, his soldiers and his donkeys, his wives and his concubines, all said
to each other, "we will not die like other men." The reason they said this,
the cup bearer and the harp players, the clowns and the butler, the soldiers
and the donkeys, the wives and the concubines, was because they loved their
king. "We shall go with the king into his tomb." And so the entire household
of Epenatu, the cup bearer and the harp players, the clowns and the butler,
soldiers and donkeys, wife and concubines, accompanied the king into his
tomb. In all, twenty one men and two hundred and fifty six women accompanied
Epenatu into his tomb, and so they did not die like other men.
Then Innana came and leaned against a Tubul tree and
looked down on her private parts. "My private parts are magnificent private
parts," Innana said to herself, and she admired her private parts. "From my
private parts shall flow all the wealth of Sumer, the cattle and the green
things of the earth of every kind." That is why the High Priest of Uruk is
called the High Priest of Innana, although the people of Akkad say that it was
Tursetil who looked down on her private parts in admiration, but it was not.
It was Innana who looked down on her private parts in admiration.
Then Mestipal was king of Tagru and he said to the
High Priest of Tagru, "you are no longer the High Priest of Tagru, because the
people of Tagru have cried out to me. The High Priest of Tagru taxes our
cattle, he taxes our beer, he taxes our beds. We can pay no more taxes." So
the king of Tagru said to the High Priest of Tagru, "come, let us climb
together to the top of the temple. Have no fear, High Priest of Tagru, for I,
the king of Tagru, will certainly not throw you off the top of the temple."
So the king of Tagru climbed to the top of the temple with the High Priest of
Tagru. When the king of Tagru had climbed with the High Priest of Tagru to
the top of the temple after saying, "have no fear, High Priest of Tagru, for
I, the king of Tagru, will certainly not throw you off the top of the temple,"
the king of Tagru threw the High Priest off the top of the temple.
Then Peshenendu was king of Tagru and he gave the
temple back to the High Priest when he saw that the gods of Tagru were angry
and he realized that it was not right for Mestipal to have thrown the High
Priest off the top of the temple.
Then kingship passed to Sargon who built his city in
Akkad. Sargon conquered the whole world. Then Sargon said, "I am a god."
And so Sargon became a god. Sargon was the first king who became a god,
though the people of Sumer say that Sargon did not become a god. It was
Sargon's son who became a god.
Finally kingship passed back to Ur again and Urnammu
became king of Ur. Urnammu was king of Ur for seventeen years. Then Shulgi
became king of Ur. Shulgi was king of Ur for seven hundred and forty eight
years. Then Shuasen became king of Ur. Shuasen was king of Ur for nine
years. Then Ulanu became king of Ur. Ulanu was king of Ur for nine years.
Then Ibisien became king of Ur. Ibisien is still king of Ur.
After kingship had again passed to Ur, Urnammu who
ruled for seventeen years said, "I am the king of the Four Quarters of the
world." Then Urnammu wrote down the laws and said, "if a man puts out another
man's eye, he must pay that man ten shekels of silver because he has put out
another man's eye. If a man promises to deliver five loads of bricks and he
only delivers four loads of bricks, then he must deliver one more load of
bricks. If two men are fighting and one of them grasps the other man's
private parts, the man who grasped the other man's private parts shall have
his hand cut off unless he pays the other man five shekels of silver."
Urnammu built The House that Rises up to Heaven in Ur.
Then Shulgi became king of Ur. Shulgi who ruled Ur
for forty seven years said, "I am the High Priest too." And so Shulgi became
the High Priest too. Then Shulgi said, "Now I am a god." And so Shulgi
became a god.
Then Shuasen became king of Ur. Shuasen who ruled Ur
for fourteen years didn't do anything important.
Then Ulanu became king of Ur. Ulanu who ruled Ur for
nine years didn't do anything important.
Then Ibisien became king of Ur and king of the Four
Quarters, but most people say that Areshen of Isin is king of the Four
Quarters.
This is why.
The people of Tabru said that Areshen was their king
and that Ibisien was not their king because Areshen was their military
governor.
Then Ibisien said to Areshen, "you shall be military
governor of Oritu instead of Tabru, because the people of Tabru say that you
are king instead of me. They name the year as they choose instead of
according to my command."
Then the people of Oritu said that Areshen was their
king and that Ibisien was not their king because Areshen was their military
governor.
Then Ibisien said to Areshen, "you shall be military
governor of Susa instead of Oritu, because the people of Oritu say that you
are king instead of me. They name the year as they choose instead of
according to my command."
Then the people of Susa and the people of Asshur and
the people of Dolitu and the people of Nippur and the people of Lituru and
many other people said that Areshen was their king and that Ibisien was not
their king because Areshen was their military governor.
Then Ibisien said to Areshen, "why do the people of
Susa and the people of Asshur and the people of Dolitu and the people Nippur
and the people of Lituru and many other people say that you are king instead
of me? They name the year as they choose instead of according to my command."
Areshen said, "I don't know, king."
Most people say that Areshen called Ibisien king
because Areshen did not want to be the king. Still, Areshen did not say to
the cities which called him king instead of Ibisien, "you must not call me
king instead of Ibisien," even though Ibisien said that Areshen said to the
people who called him king instead of Ibisien, "you must not call me king
instead of Ibisien."
Then in the tenth year that Ibisien was king of Ur,
the Amuru broke across the wall that Shulgi had built in the north to keep the
Amuru out of Sumer and Akkad and the Amuru pillaged Sumer and Akkad.
Areshen went to the palace and said, "king, you must
make me military governor of Tabru or the Amuru will sack it."
But Ibisien said, "I will not, because the people of
Tabru will call you king and name the year as they choose instead of according
to my command. Belslurud will lead the army."
And so the Amuru sacked Tabru.
Then Areshen went to the palace and said, "king, you
must make me military governor of Akkad or the Amuru will sack it."
But Ibisien said, "I will not, because the people of
Akkad will call you king and name the year as they choose instead of according
to my command. Teredu will lead the army."
And so the Amuru sacked Akkad.
Then Areshen went to the palace - (fourteen
repetitions of the formula omitted).
Then all the people of Sumer went to the palace and
said, "king, you must make Areshen military governor of Isin, because the
Amuru have overrun the entire north. The north no longer sends its grain to
the south and we are starving. Send Areshen to drive the Amuru back across
the walls that Shulgi built to keep the Amuru out."
So the king said to Areshen, "Areshen, you may go to
Isin and be the military governor and drive the Amuru back across the wall
that Shulgi built to keep the Amuru out, but you must not let the people of
Isin call you king and name the year as they choose instead of according to my
command."
Ibisien said this because all the people of Sumer went
to his palace and grasped his private parts until he said it.
Then Areshen gathered the armies of Sumer and Akkad
onto boats. Areshen gathered twenty seven thousand foot soldiers and four
hundred and twenty nine chariots onto boats and sailed up the copper river
where he slaughtered the Amuru to the last man and then drove all the rest of
the Amuru back across the wall that Shulgi had built to keep the Amuru out.
Then Areshen said to the Amuru he did not drive back across the wall that
Shulgi had built to keep the Amuru out, "you may remain in Sumer and Akkad.
The High Priests will give you land to farm. The High Priests will not
mistreat you because Sumer and Akkad is a land of law and justice. The laws
have been written down." Areshen really believed this. He then showed the
chiefs of the Amuru and their horses the laws which Urnammu had written down,
and the Amuru and their horses said that they would not sack any more cities
because of the justice of the laws which had been written down.
Then Ibisien said to Areshen, "you are not military
governor of Isin anymore. You will be military governor of Ur." Ibisien said
this because the people of Isin called Areshen their king. The High Priests
of Isin also said that Areshen was a god, and Ibisien wanted Areshen to demand
that the people of Isin stop calling Areshen their king and their god.
Ibisien also wanted the people of Sumer and Akkad to let go of his private
parts. But Areshen did not ask the people of Isin to stop calling him their
king and their god. Areshen did make the people of Sumer and Akkad let go of
Ibisien's private parts.
"You must let go of Ibisien's private parts," Areshen
said, "or I will have to pay him five shekels of silver."
Areshen glanced up from the tablet for a quick moment,
then gazed through a window into the courtyard of Teru's house, a small
private school for aspiring young scribes not far from his own house. A dozen
students, most of them very young and the author of the tablet Areshen had
been reading most likely among them, were busy at a bench in the middle of the
courtyard preparing new writing tablets, picking small pebbles from pales of
clay, then packing the clay into small wooden molds.
Teru se Shathsurinu, Etwabi's brother, made a marginal
living as a private teacher here in this house, would have done better
teaching in a temple school, but for doctrinal reasons Areshen supposed he
would never understand, Teru refused to affiliate himself either with the
temple or the High Priest Shubari.
Areshen glanced another quick moment toward the young
man sitting at table across the room. Twenty five, with bright, intelligent
eyes, the resemblance between Teru and Etwabi was striking. Areshen fell
again into the warmth of Etwabi's arms, pondering the passionate, urging
strength of her embrace. Etwabi, before Areshen had left, had pled yet again
to become his concubine, Areshen promising to give the matter serious
consideration as he stepped through the door, Ibisien and the palace his
ultimate destination. Perhaps, Areshen had then decided, a few minutes
conversation with Teru might be settling. Ibisien and the palace, as usual,
could wait.
Areshen read again the final few lines on the tablet,
then with an easy smile pushed it back across the table toward Teru.
"You will, of course," Areshen stated, "wipe this
slate clean."
The young teacher released a soft chuckle, then
answered in complacent resignation.
"I will, of course. It seems a pity to do so,
however. An eight year old's tablet onto which a measure of truth has been
inscribed is wiped clean, while the archives of temple and palace sit
undisturbed, the lies therein contained sanctioned and eventually ennobled.
Sumer would best be served by it gods," Teru sneered, "should those gods
descend from the temple and wipe the officially sanctioned slate of Sumer
clean."
"Truth is a dangerous thing in Sumer these days, my
young friend. The archives of Isin will tolerate no more of it than will the
archives here in Ur. Not only am I god in Isin, but now I am Akkadian as
well, nine feet tall, son of the king of Mari."
"You are not?" Teru chuckled, feigned disbelief in his
features.
"It serves no one, Isin or Ur, that I was born on a
temple farm a few hour's drive from the walls of Ur and am as Sumer as Ibisien
or Shubari. Anyway, enough of nonsense. Are you leaving Ur, Teru?"
"You're quite in love with Etwabi, aren't you,
military governor?" Teru asked with a gentle smile.
"I want her to know happiness, Teru. I don't want her
to suffer needlessly. She says that you will not take your god with you -
or cannot take your god with you - " and Areshen hesitated, glanced about the
chamber in vain for Teru's god, then just waited for Teru to explain.
"Our god can be taken nowhere, Areshen, because he
lives in something which can either be harder than stone or metal, or
something which can be far more malleable. He lives in human hearts. He will
always live in Etwabi's heart whether or not she remains in Ur," and Teru
glanced toward the child's tablet laying on the table. "Did you notice young
Tethoduri's dissertation on the flood?"
"Certainly the brevity of it. 'Gosunuri built a
boat.'"
"Tethoduri's family are devout in their worship of
An. They come from a very ancient town where An still appears first on every
list of the gods. 'We are privileged,' young Tethoduri argues. 'We need no
minor gods to intercede for us. The god of the sky is our god.' Then
Tethoduri stands in wonder as I argue that there is a god even more ancient
than An, a god, in fact, begotten by no other god, a god who has never had
need of wife or consort. 'How can that be?' young Tethoduri asks. 'Did your
god not take a consort, there would be no other gods, no people, no nothing.
Your god would forever be alone.'"
"And is he?" Areshen asked.
"No, not as long as there are people like Etwabi, and
young Tethoduri in the world. And you, Areshen."
"Me?"
"Three months ago," Teru continued with a soft smile,
"Tethoduri's dissertation on the flood might have been as elaborate as that of
any other of my students, few of whom can fathom my family's retelling of the
flood poem, Sumer's, I will argue, a corruption of the original. Nor, I
suppose, can young Tethoduri yet understand the complexities, though he is
obviously now trying to do so. And I did not tell him to do so, Areshen. I
did no more than recite my family's traditional poem of the flood."
"The one that has the promise at the end?"
"I always suspected that you understood more than you
would ever admit, Areshen. Yes, the one with the promise at the end. Someone
else, as I say, told young Tethoduri to listen. It was not I. Tethoduri is
not yet able to understand our - strange god from the deserts, not yet able
to expound on truths he suspects lay hidden within that god's poetry. He now
finds that something is lacking in Sumer's traditions, however, a lengthy
dissertation on its flood poem not worth his time. To conclude, Areshen, our
god will still be with Etwabi even if I and the rest of my family leave Ur."
Again Teru broke into a soft smile as the military
governor of Ur, the man now proclaimed in most city's libraries save Ur's to
be the divine king of the Four Quarters of the World, messaged the ache from
his head. The only gods who did not give Areshen of Isin headaches, Teru
supposed, were the beer gods in Shensulith Square, gods Areshen was known to
reverence with considerable fervor.
"Teru," Areshen finally stated, "it almost sounds
quite as though you would not be unhappy were Etwabi to remain here in Ur with
me."
"I would cry for the distance between Etwabi and me,
military governor, not because there would be any distance between Etwabi and
god. And the fact that Etwabi continued to reside in the household of Areshen
would not be a matter of concern to me. Areshen's dissertation on the flood
would make Tethoduri's seem verbose."
"Perhaps that is why they call me the man with no god
of his own," Areshen chuckled.
"I would prefer to think, the man with no gods,
Areshen."
"Oh? Have you - ah - "
"Been talking to god again? Let me just say that I
try to listen."
"Before the battle of Duri Kul, the priests taking the
auspices plucked the liver from the sheep, and it was full of worms, the
auspices unreadable. 'You must not fight, military governor,' the priests
pronounced. 'The gods have spoken.' I fought anyway, and won - a decisive
victory. Then before the second battle of Duri Kul, the priests plucked a
clean liver from the sheep and slapped it onto the altar. 'The auspices are
favorable, military governor. You will vanquish the Amuru today. The gods
have spoken.' It rained in the desert; my chariots were mired to their axles
in the mud. No one vanquished anyone that day," and Areshen turned a
questioning expression of amusement toward the young man sitting across the
table. Areshen was quite aware that this and most of his other philosophical
musings were sources of considerable amusement to Teru. Areshen was
unconcerned for the fact, however. He genuinely enjoyed his impromptu
conversations with this intelligent young man.
"I own no sheep, Areshen," Teru just chuckled. "I
seldom have the price even of a liver. So I must do the best I can without
them."
"And I suppose I must do the best I can despite them,"
Areshen answered, releasing a long sigh of annoyance as he glanced toward the
courtyard, the garish and ostentatious magnificence of the palace's courtyards
now on his mind. "I suppose Ibisien will be devastated if I don't put in an
appearance today."
"Why do you bother with Ibisien and Ur, military
governor? Very few others do."
Areshen chuckled, though Teru's observation was most
certainly true. Ur and the palace of Ibisien were now little more than
pretense; a great many, for that matter, were not even bothering with the
pretense any more. Most other civil and military governors in Sumer and
Akkad, a few of whom now refereed to themselves as loyal and faithful servant
kings of Areshen, divine king of Isin and king of the Four Quarters, addressed
their correspondence to Areshen's military headquarters near Isin rather than
to Ur and Ibisien.
"I suppose I still respect Ibisien," Areshen finally
answered. "At least to an extent."
"He does nothing," Teru replied, question in his own
features. "He sits in his palace stupefied, a cup of wine in one hand, his
latest little boy pet in the other."
"Which leaves him little time to do much harm, Teru.
But what of Shubari, and Shubari's sitting on top of temples all across Sumer
and Akkad? There seems to have been a rather remarkable renewal in piety
across Sumer and Akkad over the past few years, wouldn't you say? The temples
are flourishing. People flock into the Sacred Area to pay their taxes without
a single visit from the temple guard."
"When the Amuru poured across the walls eight years
ago, people began trickling back into the temple here in Ur. When the famine
came, the trickle became a flood."
"And now Shubari is old king - what's his name, all
over again," and Areshen nodded toward the writing tablet laying on the
table. "Half the people in Ur are ready to follow fat Shubari into his tomb,
Teru. Those who do so will be very annoyed when the harp and pipe players
fall silent and the music blown from Shubari's hind end is all that bounces
off the crypt's walls."
"In other words," Teru chuckled, "you are asking how
so many people can follow a man like Shubari, his - eccentricities during
liturgical services atop the temple known to more than a few."
"It is the same, my advisors and agents in Isin tell
me, everywhere in Sumer and Akkad. Even in Nippur, especially in Nippur,"
Areshen sighed in frustration. The high temple of Enlil, the god Enlil for
centuries now supreme in the Sumerian pantheon of the gods, lay in the city of
Nippur, a city considered sacred across Sumer and Akkad and the office of its
High Priest, ceremonially at least, a position even more prestigious than
Shubari's in Ur. Even in Nippur, however, especially in Nippur, Areshen
sighed again, the High Priest enjoyed the unswerving loyalty of the city's
Sumerian and Akkadian populace, driving nails through their hands one after
the other. Nippur, however, had also been the site of the most recent slave
revolt by a tribe of Amuru which had been settled there by Areshen after the
war, a tribe the chiefs of which had believed Areshen when he had told them
that Sumer was a land of law and justice.
"Is it true," Teru chuckled, a moment's mirth in his
features, "that you presented the tablets of Urnammu to the Amuru's horses?"
"Old Terthex and Serthos," Areshen chuckled, "feigned
ignorance during the treaty negotiations when I showed the tablets to the
council of chiefs at the war's conclusion. Both Terthex and Serthos, before
they returned to their tribes, reluctantly I might add, were educated in
Nippur, developed a taste for the perfume baths, are quite as literate as any
High Priest. During the negotiations, however, they judged it convenient to
forget everything they had learned in Nippur. 'Then I will show the tablets
to the most intelligent of the company presently assembled,' I informed them,
and carried the tablets to their horses tethered just beyond the council
fires."
Areshen sat in pondering silence another moment,
vehemence in his voice when he continued.
"The military governor of Nippur has told me that many
of the Amuru who have lost loved ones to the High Priest's nails have been
found on the roads leading west, fleeing back across the walls. When they
arrive home, those who happen to have survived the nails will show their
brethren the scars in their hands. 'This is the justice that Areshen promised
us when he held the tablets of Urnammu in his hands proclaiming Sumer to be a
land of law.' Then another hundred thousand Amuru will pour across the walls,
Teru, and none of the chiefs will believe anything I have to say to them. The
child writing the next history of it all will just write, 'Areshen slaughtered
them all,' and nothing will follow. The child will not write that Areshen
allowed some of the Amuru to return home, that Areshen allowed others to
settle in Sumer and Akkad. The Amuru will look at the scars on the hands of
their brothers and sisters who believed Areshen the last time, and they will
say, 'do not believe Areshen. He is a liar. Do not believe him when he tells
you that the High Priests are just and gentle. Fight to the death this
time.' And that is what they will do, Teru."
Teru wasn't certain how to answer, could not help but
notice the anger in Areshen's eyes.
"Nails," Areshen sighed, once again in a thoughtful
and contemplative tone, "have also not been written onto the tablets of Sumer
and Akkad."
"They are an aberration. They do not belong in Sumer
and Akkad. They will go before the end of the year."
Areshen finally broke into a soft smile once again.
"So Etwabi has said. Has your god spoken, Teru? Will
he speak to the High Priests as well?"
"God has spoken, military governor. It will be the
military governor, however, who speaks to the High Priests."
"Somehow I suspected you might say that, Teru,"
Areshen sighed as he pushed himself to his feet. "Come to my house before you
leave Ur, Teru. Your god will not object to a short visit, will he?"
"Not unless you demand that I begin paying homage to
Eshla," Teru answered with a soft chuckle. Eshla, sitting in her small niche
near the entrance chamber in Areshen's house, was duly reverenced by Setith
and the household servants. To Areshen, Eshla's head was a convenient place
to toss his cloak on a cold winter's day.
"Your god is a jealous god, Teru," Areshen stated, not
really surprised when Teru readily agreed.
"He is a jealous god," Teru observed.
"And he seems to take a great deal of interest in the
manner in which you conduct yourself," and Areshen aimed a questioning smile
toward Teru, a young man who Areshen would readily admit lived his life
according to the demands of his god, no matter how strange and bizarre those
demands seemed. To Areshen, the gods were a slightly greater nuisance than a
family pet. As a child in the small temple village of Sannu, Areshen
remembered having to feed his family's gods at the most inconvenient times,
his mother forever scolding him when he was tardy. Both of the family's dogs
had always seemed far more patient.
"What," Teru began, hesitantly at first, obviously
searching his thought, "have the gods of Sumer promised you, Areshen?"
"Promised?" Areshen asked. The question didn't seem
to make sense. You feed gods. If you feed them according to schedules
annoying in their regularity, they stay off your back until it's time to feed
them again. "Your god has promised you something, Teru?"
"That's the one aspect of my family's belief which
young Tethoduri cannot understand either, though I believe he is trying to do
so."
"Well, my young friend," Areshen concluded as he
pushed himself toward the door, "if you are able, write and tell me how it is
with you when you have moved to the north."
"I will indeed be able to do so, Areshen. Were I to
travel to India, I would still not find myself beyond the king of Isin's
influence."
"Teru," Areshen answered, though now with a subtle and
yielding expression of amusement, "I am the lowly and humble military governor
of Ur."
"A ruse," Teru chuckled, "that will also not last the
year."
Continued
