Sargon
Son of the Waters
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About the Book
Sargon, Son of the Waters, has won critical acclaim from judges as an epic work of fiction and from scholars and educators for its historical accuracy and attention to detail.
The novel of ancient Iraq was the recipient of an honorable mention in the Writer’s Digest 12th Annual International Self-Published Book Awards.
The judges commented: “This was an epic tale, told on an epic scale, with plenty of verisimilitude. Like many of the classic it was about prophecy, vision, love, hate, war, rebirth and redemption. Once I started reading, I read it straight through until the end. This author has done her research and created something very special. The writing is superb. Every character was fully drawn and dynamic. The cover design was striking and provocative. This is a terrific book that I thoroughly enjoyed.”
In a private communication, Eugen Weber, Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles and host of the PBSU series, “The Western Tradition,” has said, “Your book brought to mind Mary Renault. It breathes life into people and places, with details that must have taken years to harvest. God is in the details. You come close to God—and certainly to Inanna.”
Colleen McCullough wrote: "You have my warmest congratulations for actually doing what many would-be writers never do- you have written your book, not just talked about writing it. I agree that these most ancient of all known civilizations are fascinating and deserve more books."
It is the dawn of recorded history in the cradle of civilization, present day Iraq. It will be more than a thousand years before Homer´s heroes lay siege to Troy or the biblical Moses is found in a basket sealed with pitch, in the bulrushes of the Nile. Over two thousand years must elapse before Caesar rules Rome. It is 2360 BC. Capricious gods and goddesses have created the world. Weary of labor, they create mankind to work for them. People are destined to toil in the fields of the gods until death, when they will descend to wander in the dust of the underworld for all eternity. Humankind must also contend with the priests who mediate between man and deity, and often enrich themselves in the process.
In the city of Sippar a young woman named Nita is dedicated to the service of the Goddess Inanna. Brave and headstrong, Nita learns to make and write cuneiform tablets, though that skill is usually restricted to males. Later chosen to be the incarnation of Inanna at the New Year´s Festival, she unites with the king in the Sacred Marriage.
It is a temple precept that no child may be born of this union, but an old priest reads omens predicting that Nita is destined to bear a son who will change the world. When she finds herself with child, she conceals her pregnancy and, with great strength and determination, gives birth in secret. Nita names the infant Sargon, meaning true king, carves the name on a cylinder seal and places it on a thong around his neck. She conceals the child in a reed basket, seals it with pitch, and casts it adrift on the Puratu (now called Euphrates) River.
The basket is borne downstream to the city of Kish, where it is retrieved from the water by Akki, gardener and irrigator in the service of King Ur-Zababa of Kish. Akki and his wife, Siduri, childless, rear the child as their own, calling him Sargon, from the seal about his neck.
Meanwhile, Nita has been captured and tortured by a jealous priest, but refuses to reveal the whereabouts of the child. She contrives to escape, and goes down-river to Kish to find Sargon, with the help of a merchant, who later becomes her lover. She remains in the background, watc
About the Author
M. Eileen Eisemann was born in New York City. She holds degrees from Adelphi and Stony Brook Universities. A registered nurse and school nurse-teacher, she has written health articles, and curriculum guides, while at the same time tracking down clues about Sargon. Eisemann lives in a log cabin on a wooded mountainside in New York’s Catskill Mountains with her husband, Ray, a science fiction writer.