Lebor Clann Glas


iconGreat Age of the Sign [2700-2680 BCE]

1

1In the Great Age of the Hound and Young Bull,
2At one thousand, seven hundred and twenty cycles of AUN,
3Past the dawn of the Great Age (2700 BCE),
4Great prosperity had been made.
5Civilizations of all name,
6Honoring man and the gods.
7The Šumeru excelled in the building of cities,
8In the education of men.
9The good government of life,
10The people of the Indus (Harappa),
11Excelled in the crafts,
12Of intricate design.
13The people of Ebla,
14In the crafting of wood and smith of metal.
15The Aegyptus in the carving of stone.
16The songs (poems) of Kothar,
17Were sung in all the great halls,
18And chambers of man,
19The Bra(h)mān revered.

2

1But upon the season of the rain gods,
2Dagan (god of rain/fertility) did not come.
3The peoples of the river valleys did grow thirsty,
4The crops began to wither.
5The kings of man did consult,
6The Most high Bra(h)mān of the sacred isle.

3

1The King of the Aegyptus,
2Named Pharaoh Khasekhemwy,
3Did send his young son Djoser,
4To ERI(U), To plead with the head of the Holly.
5DON, the most senior of the Cuileann,
6Did first welcome the young prince.
7For the priests Aegyptus had spoken,
8Of the bright young prince.
9But Djoser did protest,
10Not to learn had he come,
11But to save his people.
12The high priests of the council,
13Did consult for five days,
14And then returned,
15Proclaiming that they shall prepare,
16The greatest of all songs,
17To help bring order.
18That such a poem,
19Would be prepared,
20Within ten cycles of YAH (the Gleaming One).

4

1Djoser did tear his clothes.
2For such delay,
3And more prose,
4Would not feed the bellies,
5Of his hungry land.
6He did depart the sacred isle,
7Vowing never to regard,
8Such men as gods again.

5

1Yet even a curse,
2Of good conscience,
3Does not pass unheard,
4By the gods.
5And upon his return journey,
6LIR did pound his boat,
7With fierce aggression,
8Till it broke in two,
9Upon the rocks Of the Latins coast.
10In the tempest,
11But two did live.
12The young prince Was saved by Cú,
13The tiller man Of the sacred boat.

6

1The old king,
2Of the Aegyptus,
3Upon hearing the news,
4From the other boats,
5Did give up the ghost,
6Believing his son doomed.
7Without an heir,
8It was Nimaethap,
9The wife of the King,
10And mother of the prince,
11Who ruled in his stead.
12Not first without fighting a brief rebellion,
13The second wife and sons scratched out,
14From the book of life.

7

1Upon their shipwreck,
2Cú implored the young prince,
3To remove his princely clothes,
4And dress in rags.
5In those days The Latins,
6Knew no civilized ways,
7And did treat all Strangers,
8As Meat for their dogs.
9But held special feast,
10Upon the bones of kings,
11And holy men.

8

1The Latins did bind and take them,
2To their Camp,
3And prepared to cleave them,
4As was their custom.
5Whereupon Cú did speak in their tongue,
6He did call them not to end them,
7But that they might serve as slaves.
8The Latins amazed this man could speak,
9Called if he might be a holy priest,
10For sweet the flesh of doomed poets.
11Cú did reply that he was no priest,
12But a mere slave of priests,
13Who happened to gain their favour,
14By serving them.
15Upon the sincerity of Cú,
16The Latins did bind them,
17And made them slaves.

9

1Away from the gaze,
2Of the uncivilized Latins,
3The young prince did ask,
4Knowing the ancient promise,
5Of the Holly since the beginning of time,
6To never utter an untruth,
7How then Cú knew such wisdom,
8If he indeed was not a priest?
9Cú replied that he once was a novice,
10Of the Holly and destined to shine,
11But did reject the singing of songs,
12Preferring to write using sign,
13To commit to memory the knowledge.
14The Cuilleain had rejected his ways,
15And condemned him to be a ferryman,
16Upon the seas.

10

1For five years the Latins kept them bound.
2For five years Cú and the prince did speak.
3And Cú did reveal the great wisdom,
4Of the most holy and ancient.
5The greatest of law of kings,
6The finest of science and custom.
7Then upon a night of great storm,
8The Latins fearful did run from their camp.
9Seizing the moment,
10Cú did find a strong young tree and rock,
11And released them from their bonds.
12At the coast,
13Cú and Djoser did lash a raft,
14And depart the shores of the Latins.
15First to Krētē,
16And then by boat and crew to his land Aegyptus.

11

1Upon Memphis, Queen Nimaethap,
2Wept for joy.
3For her son lost, had returned.
4Within one cycle of YAH,
5Djoser was crowned Pharaoh.
6His first act was to call Cú to his throne,
7Whereupon Djoser did proclaim,
8I name thee IM-HATAP (Imotep),
9Meaning the one who comes in peace,
10I shall make Chancellor of all Lower Egypt,
11First after the King,
12Administrator of the Great Palace,
13Hereditary nobleman,
14High priest,
15Builder, Chief Carpenter,
16Chief Sculptor and Maker of Vessels in Chief.
17To save our kingdom,
18You shall first make a language,
19That all men may read,
20And understand.
21That they may be literate,
22In the way,
23And knowledge of the gods.

12

1IM-HATAP (Imotep) rose and asked the Pharaoh,
2How can such things be done,
3When the most sacred and ancient of high priests forbid it.
4For all knowledge then was prose,
5Sung from ancient times.
6The Pharaoh did reply,
7That wisdom without purpose is nought.
8Men without culture are animals.
9No good priest may ransom his King or his people.

13

1And so, within less than one cycle of AUN,
2IM-HATAP (Imotep) did give his king and people,
3A language for all to read and understand.
4He did use the pressed reeds of the river,
5And the inks to make sign,
6And handsome in art.
7That by carved stone and paint,
8They might be the same.
9And within two cycles of the AUN,
10The kingdom of the Aegyptus,
11Did have knowledge for fields,
12For law and fair rights,
13For learning and for taxes,
14For trade and reason.

14

1The high priests of the sacred isle,
2Did hear word of what IM-HATAP had done.
3They summonsed him to return,
4On his priestly oaths.
5But Pharaoh refused to release him.
6Instead, Pharaoh Djoser sent word,
7To each and every great King,
8To meet at the sacred city of Memphis.
9Upon the question of the writing of signs (written language),
10Such was the question of many Kings,
11That they did agree,
12An event to rival the gods of the heavens.

15

1For the first time,
2So grave the threat,
3To their sacred wisdom,
4The High Priests of the Cuilleain,
5The High Council of priests,
6Did leave ERI(U),
7And to the court of Pharaoh.
8There Pharaoh erected thrones equal in stature,
9For the great council of the most ancient priests,
10And a throne equal to each King.
11Never before had such a scene come,
12The great and noble King Ebrium (Abrum) of Ebla,
13The great and noble King Emmaberagesi of Kish,
14And even the great and noble King GILGAMESH of Uruk.
15Did all attend.
16The King of Mari of the Amurru (Amorites),
17Was not invited,
18On account of their wicked,
19And dark acts,
20Worse than even the most ancient MOT and MAB.

16

1Upon the arrival of the Holly Ones,
2DON, the most senior priest,
3Did speak first,
4As was most ancient custom.
5He did remind Pharaoh,
6That all knowledge was from the gods,
7And it was the priests who represented them.
8That by the priests and the Holly ones alone,
9Did such knowledge reside.
10Only to noble men worthy should it be spoken In prose,
11And only spoken and sung, never written.
12For written signs,
13Such as Pharaoh had designed.
14Was blasphemy to the gods.

17

1Pharaoh remained as cold a stone.
2While the words of DON,
3Did boil his blood.
4He stood up from his throne,
5And stepped down to the throng.
6Attendants scattered from his path,
7Men and noble gasped in horror,
8That Pharaoh may lower himself,
9In view of great kings and ancient priests.
10The wise king did let the throng subside,
11And spoke with purpose.
12Nearly twelve cycles ago of the great Gods,
13I did stand before you as a man.
14For my people starving,
15And throughout your lands,
16Fields and plough,
17And all manner of science employed.
18But in your wisdom you saw fit to offer me but song,
19Now that my people can feed themselves,
20Can divine science and learn,
21You threaten all men Great culture,
22You threaten all men,
23That such rights are not ours.

18

1Upon hearing the Pharaoh’s speech,
2Don did rise from his chair and did yell,
3Blapshemy!
4You shall have no more priests,
5Nor divination of the gods.
6You shall be cut off,
7And food for the wolves.

19

1Upon this burst,
2The Pharaoh did proclaim,
3Let it be known,
4As my word bonded,
5From this day forth,
6No priest of the Holly,
7Shall step foot in my lands.
8No song of the Bra(h)mān shall be sung,
9No gods of the ancient names be honored.
10For upon your ways,
11We shall write our own wisdom,
12We shall sing our own songs,
13We shall worship our own Gods.

20

1The old priest and the High Council did cry in horror.
2DON did rend his sacred robes,
3Smashing his sacred staff upon the floor,
4Of the Pharaohs hall.
5He did cry out,
6I curse thee,
7The highest curse,
8And all men who follow thee.
9For fickle will be your wisdom,
10Shallow and without unity.
11You shall be damned to war,
12You shall be beguiled by darkness,
13And this shall be your doom.

21

1Upon hearing the High Curse uttered,
2Against humanity,
3By such a powerful and ancient priest,
4IM-HATAP did speak weeping.
5In cursing man,
6You have cursed our kind.
7Within a Great Age,
8We will be ghosts.
9No more of the history of man,
10Doomed as the unremembered.

22

1Thus the priests departed back to ERI(U).
2And the great kings each did commission their own writing signs.
3And each did create their own gods.
4And each did create their own songs and wisdom.
5And true to the words of IM-HATAP,
6Before the end of the next Great Age,
7The most sacred and ancient of all priests,
8Were long forgotten.