There Are Rivers in the Sky

Content Warning: This section contains references to or descriptions of genocide, racism, sexual violence, enslavement, domestic and child abuse, addiction, a disease epidemic, death by suicide, and deaths of loved ones.

It is an early summer afternoon in the city of Nineveh in Mesopotamia in the 640s BCE. A single drop of water falls from a raincloud above onto the head of Mesopotamian King Ashurbanipal, who will come to be known as “The Librarian King” in the future (5). Ashurbanipal enters his library, which is flanked by sculptures of lamassu—protective spirits that are half human, half animal. 

In a private area within, Ashurbanipal studies a tablet made of lapis lazuli and inscribed with verses from The Epic of Gilgamesh. Ashurbanipal loves stories, and this poem is his favorite; however, he is disturbed by the note and the dedication at the end, inscribed by the scribe: “Now and always, Praise be to Nisaba” (12). Nisaba, once the goddess of storytelling, has been replaced by her masculine counterpart, Nabu. Ashurbanipal thus believes this dedication to be blasphemous and defiant and decides to hide the tablet from the public.

As Ashurbanipal studies the tablet, his military commander brings him the traitor whom they have been hunting down and finally captured: It is Ashurbanipal’s chief counselor, who was also his mentor and tutor.