Noah Primeval (Chronicles of the Nephilim) (24 page)

A pair of Nephilim dragged Noah roughly up the long stairway to the heavens of Anu’s temple. The chains hanging from his tortured limbs made the climb exhausting.
Swirling clouds and flashes of occasional lightning with booming thunder made a sea of turmoil on the horizon. It was getting closer. An earthquake shook the city and temple. Noah and his guards stumbled, regaining their balance.

At the top of the White Temple,
the guards ushered Noah into the sanctuary and into the presence of Anu and Inanna. They sat on thrones, guarded by their bull-man and lion-man aladlammu. Noah expected them, but he was not prepared to see what was off to the side of the thrones.

Uriel
hung from the ceiling. He was upside down, bound and chained like a animal for slaughter. He was so badly beaten, Noah could barely recognize him.

Anu saw Noah’s reaction. “If he were human, he would be dead. But alas, he is not human.”

Noah remembered that angels could not die. They could suffer, feel pain, and even experience limitations of the flesh this side of the heavenlies, but they could not expire. Uriel barely held to consciousness. He let out a groan.

The sound pierced through Noah’s soul. This archangel, this warrior who had sacrificed all for Noah,
now hung like a captured animal for slaughter because of the recklessness of Noah’s own choices. What had he done?

“Noah ben Lamech,” Anu interrupted Noah’s thoughts, “the Chosen Seed. I was ready to wage war to find you. Yet, here you are, delivered if you will, by the very hands of Elohim.”

Noah hated this evil miscreant with every fiber of his being.

Anu’s chin
rose pompously in contempt, a common pose for him. He gestured flamboyantly with his hand. “Welcome to my holy temple. I am Anu, the supreme god, king of kings, and lord of lords. My consort, Inanna, Queen of heaven and earth.” He paused ceremoniously with an arrogant grin. “But you already knew that.”

T
hen, the mocking stab, “So, where is
your
god?”

Noah would not dignify the remark. Instead, he prophesied, “I know who you are, Semjaza and Azazel, fallen
Sons of God. You have laid the nations low, you sit on the mount of assembly, you have made yourselves like the Most High. But you will be brought down to Sheol.”

Inanna broke in bitterly, “He imagines himself a prophet now, and privy to the Watchers’ secrets.”

Anu chuckled in mockery, “I shall call you ‘Atrahasis,’ ‘exceedingly wise one.’ Or would you prefer, ‘Ziusudra,’ ‘He of immortality,’ since you fancy yourself a slayer of gods?”

“WHERE IS YOUR GOD
?” Inanna interrupted with a roar, her voice echoing like thunder through the temple mount and in Noah’s ears.

Noah would not answer.

Another groan from Uriel drew their attention. His parched lips parted enough to force out a few words with great effort. “Elohim—is—coming.”

Anu would not tolerate any
more of Uriel’s insolence. He rose from his throne and strode over to Uriel’s vulnerable form. He picked up one of his swords and promptly cut off Uriel’s head.

Noah screamed, “NOOO!” He
lunged toward Anu ready to kill him with his bare hands, but the Nephilim held him back from his futile gesture.

Inanna snickered, “That will shut him up.”

Anu spoke to two servants watching Uriel, “Throw the body in the dungeon. Keep it away from the head. Archangels have a nasty habit of regeneration.” He reconsidered. “On second thought, give me the head. I will keep it with me.”

One of the servants brought Uriel’s head to Anu. He grabbed it by the hair and looked into Uriel’s face. He
turned it to show it to Noah.

Noah
gasped. Uriel’s eyes found Noah’s. He was still alive. He could not speak because his vocal cords had been severed from his lungs. But their eyes made a connection far deeper than words.

The servants cut down Uriel’s body and took it away. Anu placed the head on the floor next to him.

Lugalanu and Ham entered from the rear of the temple. They were dressed in the royal robes of the priest-king and soon-to-be ensi high priest. At Lugalanu’s other side was his new consort, Emzara, bedecked in splendid queenly robes.

Ham could not look at Noah
. But Emzara would not take her eyes off him. Noah knew exactly what she was saying to him: she was and always would be only his alone. A silent tear of vengeance slid down Noah’s cheek.

Anu
announced, “Ah, my faithful priest-king and his entourage.”

Lugalanu and Ham took their place beside the thrones and bowed to Anu and Inanna.

Anu proclaimed with characteristic self-importance, “Tomorrow is Akitu, the New Year festival. The gods of the land will convene in divine council. Canaanu will become a high priest of Inanna. Lugalanu will marry this woman, Nindannum, who I understand has some relation to you, my captive?” It was a rhetorical question designed to twist the dagger in Noah’s liver rather than receive an answer.

Emzara’s
expression plead with Noah for rescue. But rescue was not forthcoming.

“As rite of passage,” continued Anu, “the new high priest’s charge will
be to sacrifice the Chosen Seed to the pantheon.”

Emzara looked at Ham with
horror. She had not known this monstrous plan.

Ham could only look down in shame. But he knew his place and his need for affirmation of devotion.
He looked back up. He raised his chin high in royal emulation of Anu’s own conceit. Lugalanu beamed with pride.

Noah’s eyes blurred with the
sting of betrayal. He could not believe his son would do such a thing. It defied his comprehension. His son had been ripped from his family culture and tradition, raised in a world of slavish idolatry, but still, how could one do such a thing to his own flesh and blood?

Inanna
had the last word, “Let us put an end to this ridiculous Revelation of ‘the man who would end the rule of the gods.’ If Elohim is so high and mighty, let him come to end this himself.”

The dungeon lay below the temple complex. It seemed fitting that the location of imprisonment in this realm would be below the edifice of religious power. Noah, Shem, and Japheth were locked in separate small cells with iron bars. The cells instilled a sense of enclosing fear and isolation, containing barely enough room to stand, let alone sit. But Noah and his sons stood—and prayed.

“Almighty Elohim,” said Noah, “creator of heaven and earth. Forgive our sins. Hear our prayers. May we, your servants
, be found acceptable in your sight. I have not always done what you have asked of me, and it has taken your heavy rod of chastisement to bring me back in line with your purposes. I do not ask for our survival, but for your will to be done.”

A
door opened and slammed shut around the corner, interrupting them. They could not see what it was. They strained to hear and figure out what was happening.

Out of their sight,
around the hallway corner, two guards led a cloaked figure through an opened cell door. Inside the cell lay the headless body of Uriel. The guards picked it up and carried it out like a wounded soldier. It moved sluggishly. Though it could not die, it required the head for coordinated movement.

The guards exited the way they came. The cloaked figure turned to
glance behind them.

It was Neela. She knew Noah and his sons were nearby, but she did not know where. She could not hear anyone. So she hastened and left
.

Noah and his sons heard the prison hall door slam shut. They finished their prayer
. Shem and Japheth said in one accord, “In the name of Elohim, creator of heaven and earth, your will be done.”

An earthquake rocked their dungeon vigorously. Noah heard his iron cell door creak loudly
. The iron twisted, misshapen by the immeasurable tons of rock above them. It bent outward, leaving a gap large enough for Noah’s arm.

Noah thought that this
might be Elohim’s own hand twisting open the gates that held them. He smiled, reached out, and grabbed his misshapen doorway. He yanked. But it remained firmly in place, maybe even more so. He yanked again. He soon realized that it would not open. The iron had twisted but not enough to free him. They would not escape after all.
Elohim answers prayers, but not always the way we wish.
This was certainly not new to him or his sons
.

In the guarded halls of the temple complex, Lugalanu stood with his palace diviner before an altar. Upon it lay a slaughtered lamb, its blood dripping down the small drain channels of the altar. Lugalanu sought interpretation of omens through extispicy and hepatoscopy, the practice of examining an animal’s entrails and liver for divining the future. The diviner priest slit the belly of the unblemished lamb and reached in to pull out its guts. He placed them on another stone for examination. beside the liver, still hot from the slaughtered lamb. The smell of the organs repulsed Lugalanu and he stepped back to avoid the drifting odor.

The diviner looked for abnormalities or anomalies that would signify a negative answer to Lugalanu’s question
of whether Emzara would be his queen in his new seat of power. He poured water over the intestines and liver to clear the blood away and scrutinized them closely. Another diviner aided him, manning a cart with clay tablets of interpretation on them. All manner of irregularities had been recorded by scribes for archival reference. Some of the tablets were even in the shape of a liver with descriptions of interpretations pressed into the clay with cuneiform styluses. Though all the intestines were included in the divination process, the liver was among the most important because it was considered the source of blood and life.

Lugalanu fidgeted impatiently.

The diviner was perturbed. The priest-king always did this to him. He waited until the last moment to seek the ancient wisdom and then expected the diviner to make up for the lateness of his own irresponsibility by rushing the process. He decided to draw it out a little longer just to make his point.

Lugalanu paced.

The diviner finally looked up to give Lugalanu his answer.

“Yes.”

Lugalanu passed through the heavily guarded entrance of Emzara’s quarters. He found her seated on a couch
, staring into the flames of the fireplace. She did not move, she did not look up. She just continued to stare into the flames licking the brick flu.

Eventually,
she slowly stood to acknowledge his presence. But she kept gazing into the fire.

“On the morrow, you will be a queen,” said Lugalanu. “I expect you to act appropriately.”

Emzara had only one thought in her mind. “You knew all along who I was,” she said.

She looked at him and saw
it was true.

Lugalanu had sought all these years to win her love, but now that it would never be, it did not change his intent. “I gave you the choice. I offered you my very soul.” He paused dramatically. “The bearer of the Chosen Seed’s royal bloodline will bear my seed instead. Whether by free will or by force.”

Lugalanu turned and left Emzara staring into oblivion.

She stood
still for what felt like a lifetime. The sum of her days added up to this very moment, in captive quarters below a temple of idols in the dust of death.

She gathered herself together and marched into her bedchamber, shutting the door behind her. She walked over to the side of the bed and withdrew a dagger from hiding. She sat on the bed and pulled back her sleeve. The dagger trembled in her hand.

She wept uncontrollably.

The Akitu New Year Festival was a twelve-day celebration. The first day would involve the final arrival of the people into the temple district and city streets. The second day brought elaborate purification rituals and washings for both priests and temple. On the third day, statues of the gods were carved out of cedar and tamarisk wood. The fourth day was considered the true starting point, because it was the actual first day of the year. After recitations, prayers and rituals, the priests would recite their creation epic to the people. The story would connect their past with their future and reinforce the kingdom of the gods.

The fifth day was the zenith of the festival. After prayers, and exorcisms of evil spirits, the priest-king was ritually humiliated in private before the gods. He was stripped of his kingly symbols of crown, ring, scepter, and mace, and then slapped by a
sesgallu
priest. He was then re-established in his kingship by having the kingly elements returned to him by Anu himself. This enthronement ritual of reversion to chaos and renewal of order was then followed by the arrival of the other gods into the temple of Anu. A public sacrifice for the sins of the people came after that. Though the decreeing of the destinies and dazzling procession of the gods through the streets in bejeweled chariots would not happen until day eight, the gods began their council assembly on day five. After the procession on the eighth day, the priest-king would engage in
hieros gamos
, the Sacred Marriage rite of sex with his queen, in place of Inanna, to insure fertility in the coming year. Emzara dreaded the Sacred Marriage, for it was her decreed appointment with Lugalanu.

But this was day five.

The land around the city swarmed with the armies of the gods. An elaborate tent for the reigning deity and his king sat in the center of each army. Since Inanna had her residence at Erech, she did not have her own forces. The soldiers in the armies had remained relatively civil. Raping of women was held to a minimum, for it was considered somewhat vulgar when invited to a city’s festival as this. Under normal situations of course, it was perfectly fine, but not as guests of the high god Anu in his own city. They would soon enough find their outlet to loot and desecrate.

Inside the walls, the city overflowed with pilgrims and worshippers from leagues around. The marketplaces were full of vendors selling vegetables, fish, lizards, scorpions and other exotic desert delicacies.

The district around the temple complex resounded with bacchanalian celebration. Wine flowed, food was consumed in gluttonous amounts, resulting in much vomiting and diarrhea. The food was deliberately full of parasites enabling the digestive systems to respond by evacuating the contents soon after eaten, thus leaving room for continued consumption.

The temple prostitutes from Inanna’s district had come down to mingle in the streets, resulting in public copulations as some male citizens could not withhold their urges until they could find a tent. Spontaneous dancing broke out in the streets, led by the blue
dancers and their traveling minstrels. The human dancers jerked and spasmed as if taken over by spirits. Their eyes turned upward, showing only the whites, and they uttered strange guttural sounds as if performed by a distant ventriloquist.

T
here were other delights as well. Sorcerers lined the streets with potions and rituals, enabling the citizens to be possessed by a god, a great honor to plebeians who might otherwise never find themselves in the physical presence of deity. Of course, there were exorcists as well for those stubborn “deities” who would not find themselves ready to leave so soon after a possession. Astrological readings, magical potions of fertility and abortion, alchemy, spells, and enchantments—everything an idolater could desire in this panoply of paganism.

In the White Temple above, the day had already begun with Lugalanu’s private ritual enthronement. Then three entourages of deity climbed each of the three stairways and arrived at the top terrace. They were greeted by Anu and Inanna, dressed in elaborate finery of divinity for the day: customary horned diadems of deity, and gaudy jewelry beneath their vulture winged robes. It took exaggeration and ostentation to incite the veneration of humans, but it worked every time. She had redesigned her simple horned crown into an elaborate headdress of huge brightly colored horns the size of small goats themselves. Even Inanna’s unusually garish display did not stand out from the others as much as usual on this day. But her makeup did. Her exaggerated distortion of eyebrows, bright excessive eye shadow, overwrought angular lipstick made her look a bit like a serious clown to Lugalanu, but he would never dare to reveal such thoughts for fear of his certain death at her spiteful hands
.

The three arriving divinities were Enki from Eridu, Ninhursag from Kish, and Enlil from the holy city of Nippur. Along with Anu, these were the four high gods. They were visually as stunning as Anu and Inanna.
Each stood well over five cubits tall, with sparkling golden serpentine skin with serpentine eyes, oblong elongated skulls, and wearing royal vulture feathered robes and horned headdresses. The other minor gods had already arrived with less fanfare: Nanna the moon god from Ur and his son Utu the sun god from Larsa. Their status was significantly less than the other gods, and their armies as well, so they avoided drawing attention to themselves. Together these were the “Seven who decree the fates.”

An earthquake shook the temple and grounds.

The deities stumbled and regained their balance. Except Enki, who lost his footing and fell down, crushing to death a servant who had been behind him.

Below on the temple grounds, a large crack spread a hundred cubits from the base of the ziggurat. Dozens of
such openings were beginning to appear all over the city.

The black mass of impending storm had
ebbed to within leagues of the city.

“Today, this will all cease,” said Anu to his fellow divinities in the White Temple.

“Elohim is a jealous, senile old deity,” retorted Enki, “with a penchant for childish tantrums.”

Ninhursag got to the point
. “What is the sacrifice? I need blood.”

Anu and Inanna glanced at each other with a smile. Anu o
ffered, “Nothing less than the Chosen Seed himself.”

The other Watchers looked at them with surprise, eager to hear more.

“From the Revelation?” asked Enki.

Anu nodded.

Enlil jumped in, “How did you manage such privilege?”

Ninhursag added
quickly, “Why did you not tell us?”

Anu paused, then slyly
said, “I am the supreme god, am I not?”

Each of the Watchers received a chalice of blood from a servant. Anu raised his in toast to himself and merely nodded to his own glory. The others toasted and they drank their blood deeply. Ninhursag gulped it down in one motion.

An earthquake stopped them all again. Enki lost control of his cup and it shattered on the ground, splattering blood everywhere. “Blast this infernal turmoil!”

Ninhursag muttered under her breath sarcastically, “Is that how the Tablet of Destinies slipped through your fingers as well?” Enki gave her an angry look.

She turned to Anu. “Well, Supreme God, I suggest you sacrifice with haste or we may all lose our divine privilege.”

Anu clapped his hands. Within seconds, the sound of deep long horns bellowed from the heights of the temple, followed by a series of huge kettledrums at the base. He bade the gods follow him to the ledge overlooking the city.

Below them, they saw the masses assembling. The crowds looked up, and cheered their presence to the percussive beats of the kettledrums.

Anu reached in
to a sack tied to his waist. He pulled out the head of Uriel, holding it high to look out upon the land before them. Uriel’s silent eyes could only tear up with righteous anger.

Ninhursag muttered to Inanna, “I see
he has found a way to make a toy out of an archangel. Clever.”

Anu threw Uriel’s disembodied head behind him into the White Temple
.

I
t rolled up to his throne and thudded to a stop. Unknown to Anu, Uriel’s headless body lay right behind his throne, a few cubits away, hidden there by Neela. The archangel’s ram’s horn trumpet was tied to the belt on the beheaded form.

Outside,
Anu focused on speaking to the people below. His voice amplified thunderously throughout the city. It was one of the Watchers’ special gifts.

“People of the land! Behold the divine council of your gods!”

The people cheered.

Another earthquake occurred. Another crack in the earth, but this time, it opened as a crevice and water from below sprayed the crowd.

Anu took advantage of this coincident timing. “What you see before you is the might and power of the pantheon!”

The crowd cheered again.

Anu bid Enlil step forward and speak. His voice too carried with a powerful resonance. “I am Enlil, god of the air, and I bring you storm!”

Above, the sky flashed with lightning followed by a crack of thunder. The people roared.

Enlil glanced at Ninhursag with surprise. They could not have had better luck than this. Of course they had the power to manifest certain physical disruptions in nature, but not to this level of spectacle. Only Elohim had that kind of control.

Ninhursag stepped forward. She could feel the vibrations coming. She waited a moment, then shouted triumphantly, “I am Ninhursag, goddess of the earth, and I bring you quake!” Seconds later, the earth rumbled and the crevice below opened wider.

Enki saw he only had seconds. He jumped forward and shouted rapidly, “I am Enki, god of water, and I bring you the deep!”

He timed it well
, because the water already began pouring out of the crevice before he finished. It splashed up in a wave that pulled a cluster of people back into the crevice to drown. The crowd did not care; they went wild. These were the gods of the land, and they were showcasing their glorious power.

Inanna jested about the timing of these storm events, “Maybe Elohim is supporting us after all.” She knew it
was not true. Not in a thousand millennia would Elohim support their rebellion. He was a tyrant without an ounce of mercy. So if the old malcontent intended to crack apart the heavens and earth, they might as well use this opportunity to claim credit for it.

Inanna shouted to the people, “Behold, the Chosen Seed! A sacrifice to appease the gods!”

The crowd roared again as Inanna gestured below to a Stone Temple right next to the ziggurat, about fifteen cubits down. The Stone Temple stood right next to Eanna as a support structure that was used for the messy work of sacrifice so the White Temple could stay clean. On the Stone Temple stood a newly arranged sacrificial altar display consisting of Noah stretched out on frame made of angled and crossed wooden poles. Behind him, Shem and Japheth were tied back to back on a post, kindling around their feet. Across the way from them, Lugalanu stepped forward with a reluctant Emzara. She wore the regal Sumerian wedding dress of white linen robes with gold lined patterns, lapis beads, all scented with cedar oil. The night before, she had been shaven completely of all her hair as was the custom for a priestess, and for the wife of the king as well. On her head she wore a lapis-lazuli headdress with ostrich feathers and precious gems inlaid with gold.

Neela watched the pageantry from a small assembly structure at the back of the Stone Temple terrace. Ham stepped forward next to Lugalanu
. The king performed a prayer and incantation before the younger man to initiate him into the high priesthood. The crowd applauded. Then Lugalanu handed Ham the sacrificial dagger, a long sharpened slate blade.

The crowds below cheered for the sacrifice. Ham looked over at Noah, tied
to the frame.

Up above on the temple parapet, Inanna
fumed impatiently to the other gods. “All this pomp and ritual bores me. I wish they would just hurry up and kill them all.”

“Patience, my dear,”
said Anu. “We will be drinking Chosen blood soon enough.”

Ninhursag chimed in, “These humans are loathsome creatures.”

Inanna added, “I would just as soon see them all crushed to death as see them worship me.”

Enki wondered with genuine amazement, “And they worship us so freely instead of Elohim.” Inanna gave him a dirty look.

Anu spoke to the spectacle below them, “So begins a New Year of abundance and fertility! Of marriage and sacrifice!”

The crowds shouted in support. “Of gods and war!”
They went into a frenzy, shouting Anu’s name, which pleased him greatly in sight of all the others.

Inside,
Uriel’s head no longer sat on the floor near his throne.

Another seismic quake sent shock waves through the city.
It was the biggest one yet. A part of the ziggurat foundation crumbled. Several new crevices ripped open, gushing water. They sucked people into the depths. Some screamed for their loved ones who were taken. Others went back to their enraptured worship.

E
veryone heard the horn blast of Uriel coming from the White Temple area. It boomed out over the land to heaven itself.