Although Hiram, who has become the most powerful king in Canaan, inherited his role, he does not rule despotically but presides over the suffetes, who approve his decisions. He has had Tyre (Sor, "Rocks") built on skerries opposite the original city, Usu.
Two centuries before, the Sea Peoples, from Europe and Crete, raided Egypt and became the Philistines. A few entered Lebanon and Syria to become the Phoenicians whose aristocrats, including Hiram, still resemble their ancestors. The king is tall with light complexion, red hair and beard, gray eyes and straight nose.
Phoenicians build Solomon's Temple and that king's palace "...of which the Bible was to boast, would when finished be a cut-rate imitation of the house in which Hiram already dwelt." -Time Patrol, p. 285.
Hiram dresses simply in a white kaftan, his royalty signified by a massive ruby ring. All this information and more is condensed in Poul Anderson's text where we appreciate it, then forget it, as we hasten on to find out what happens next.
No comments:
Post a Comment