Chapter 619 Swimsuit Girl – Summer Special
This is ancient historical material: This story depicts how the ancient Greeks conquered Asia. It explains how they brought the worship of the fire god to Asia Minor, and that this worship of the fire god was the primitive religion of Assyria. This story is full of myths, adventures, love, and suspense, and the protagonist’s character is also full of dramatic conflict. In writing this story, Dr. Mitchell drew from ancient Greek historical records and consulted much scholarly material. He was very meticulous, handling every detail from a historian’s perspective. Therefore, “Worship of the Fire God” not only brings readers a tense, exciting, and brilliant story but also provides them with a foundation for deeply understanding ancient Greek civilization.
Now, let’s shift our focus to a town in Asia Minor in the 15th century BC.
Dr. Mitchell
Dr. Mitchell ascended to the throne of American bestseller author with his novel “Worship of the Fire God.” Within six weeks of its publication, this novel set a sales record of one million copies. His other works are also regulars on the American bestseller lists. Dr. Mitchell’s academic background is equally impressive. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned a Ph.D. in History from the University of Southern California. He is also a professor of History and Philosophy at Clement MacCormick University in California. When writing “Worship of the Fire God,” Dr. Mitchell dedicated considerable effort to researching the histories of Greece, Assyria, and Babylon, all to ensure the story was supported by a faithful and reliable historical background. Dr. Mitchell currently lives with his wife in Claremont, Southern California.
Translator’s Preface
Story Background
The story originates in the 15th century BC. The Greek city-states along the western coast of Asia Minor were under pressure from the powerful empire of western Asia, the Hittite Empire. The Hittite Empire was constantly expanding its territory, and Greek city-states were being conquered one by one, even razed to the ground. However, at the southern end of the Greek city-states, there was the city of Troy, which had maintained its autonomy and freedom. Troy was also an ancient Greek trade center, and many Greek colonies needed to pass through Troy to reach mainland Greece. The Greeks exerted a considerable degree of influence over Troy. Within Troy, there was a temple to the fire god built by the Greeks. Within the temple, the “seed of fire” brought by the Greeks from mainland Greece was enshrined. The Greeks believed that the smoke rising from the temple of the fire god represented the fire god’s blessings upon the Greeks. In the hearts of the Greeks, the extinguishing of the fire represented the fire god’s wrath and divine punishment upon them.
However, under the rule of the Hittite Empire, Troy also suffered a significant impact. The Hittite Empire believed that the Assyrian gods they worshipped were the sole, supreme gods on Earth. The Hittite royal family’s faith had become the state religion of the Hittites. The Hittites refused to accept the Greek faith. Yet, there was also a degree of overlap between the Hittite and Greek worship of the fire god. Because in the Greek “Worship of the Fire God,” there was a religious ritual where human sacrifice was an indispensable part of this worship. Among the ancestors of the Hittites, there were stories passed down: because the Hittite king had defied the Assyrian gods, the Assyrian gods brought down punishment; and to appease the Assyrian gods, the Hittites offered their own sons as human sacrifices to the Assyrian gods. The Hittite king believed that these human sacrifices could ensure the prosperity of the Hittite royal family for generations and the flourishing of the nation. For the Hittites, human sacrifice was an indispensable part of this Assyrian religion. The story thus begins with the conflict between these two faiths: “Worship of the Fire God” and “Assyrian God Sacrifice.”
The Story
The first chapter of this novel depicts the annual “Worship of the Fire God” festival held in Troy. Everyone in the city took pride in participating in this grand ceremony. They believed that if the fire god was pleased and accepted their human sacrifice, Troy would be blessed with peace and prosperity. The old king of Troy, old Creon, had been lying and cheating his entire life to allow his son, Haeres, to escape the fate of being a human sacrifice. Everything had gone as he wished, with his elder sons always being sent to the altar of the fire god, while Haeres had always fortunately escaped this misfortune. But his lies had always remained hidden.
However, the Hittite army was already approaching Troy, and war could break out at any moment. Under the threat of the Hittite army at their gates, the Greeks placed all their hopes for peace on the annual “Worship of the Fire God.” They hoped that the fire god would protect them from being ruled by the Hittites. But when the high priest began the “Worship of the Fire God,” he told the old king that he had observed the stars the previous night and discovered that this year’s young sacrifice did not seem to be the same as in previous years. The high priest also said that if the fire god was displeased and the flame extinguished, the fire god would punish the Greeks and have Troy razed to the ground by the Hittites. These words made the old king uneasy, thinking that his long-held lies were about to be exposed.
Then came the moment to draw lots to decide who would be this year’s human sacrifice. It was the old king’s son, Prince Haeres, who was the main officiant. Under the instructions of the priest, he had to take a clay pot containing the lots from the sacrificial offerings and let everyone draw. This young prince was unaware that this drawing of lots was his father’s deception. He had always believed that his elder brother would be the human sacrifice in his place. When he took the clay pot, the high priest asked him to open the pot and take out all the lots so everyone could see clearly and know that the old king had not cheated or lied.
When the young prince opened the clay pot, he found there was only one lot inside. The young prince also became anxious and uneasy at this unexpected situation. Then, as he walked onto the altar and opened the lot, it read “I”! The young prince immediately knew that he was the “human sacrifice.” This news instantly spread throughout the city. As the young prince was being sacrificed on the altar, the Hittite legions had already broken into Troy. The entire city descended into chaos.
While the Greeks and Hittites were engaged in fierce battle, the young prince was rescued from the altar. As he was being rescued, the flame on the altar immediately extinguished. The story seemed to come to a halt here, but this was also an important message that Dr. Mitchell wanted to convey to the readers through this story. The extinguishing of the flame signified the fire god’s displeasure, and therefore, he was punishing the Greeks.
At this point in the story, Dr. Mitchell shifted to another thread. The young prince was saved amidst the city-wide battle by a mysterious veiled woman. This veiled woman claimed to be the wife of Haeres’ brother, named Eva. Eva was veiled to conceal her Hittite blood from the Greeks. Eva told Haeres, the younger brother of the old prince, that his father, the old king, had already made peace with the Hittites, and the condition for this peace was to offer him, the young prince, as a “human sacrifice” for the Assyrian religion.
Haeres found this news unbearable. He felt that his entire life had been spent in his father’s lies. Just as he was about to turn and leave Troy, he heard another piece of unfortunate news: after the Hittites captured Troy, they set fire to and destroyed the temple of the fire god in Troy. Haeres was enraged by this! He decided that he would fulfill his father’s wish and become his father’s “human sacrifice.” Thus, he decided to go alone to seek revenge against the Hittites.
Eva also confessed to Haeres that she was actually sent from the Hittite kingdom to be offered as a “human sacrifice” to the old king. In other words, the old king had known about the Hittite custom of “Assyrian God Sacrifice” and the requirement to offer a person as a “human sacrifice”; and the old king intended to use Eva as a substitute for his son as a “human sacrifice.” To escape the fate of being a human sacrifice, Eva married the old king’s son. After hearing Eva’s story, Haeres was filled with resentment towards his father. He decided to seek revenge against the Hittites by becoming a “human sacrifice.”
He, bringing Eva and his brother’s son, traveled eastward, preparing to appease the Hittite Assyrian gods by offering himself as a “human sacrifice.” They traveled eastward and arrived in the inland of Asia Minor, ruled by the Hittites. The young prince was also imprisoned by the Hittites in an underground palace. In the palace, the young prince discovered that the Assyrian gods worshipped by the Hittites had the same sacrificial ritual as the fire god worshipped by the Greeks, which was human sacrifice.
The young prince discovered that the Hittite king also used human sacrifice to beg the Assyrian gods for blessings of perpetual royal succession and national prosperity. The young prince also discovered that his father’s lies were not only related to his brother but also to the disappearance of his mother. The young prince knew that his father had made a deal with the Hittites for his sake, using his mother as a substitute for a “human sacrifice” and giving her to the Hittites. His mother had become a slave to the Hittite queen. When the young prince saw his mother, she no longer recognized her son, whom she had been separated from since he was a child.
In the underground palace, the young prince witnessed another scene that filled him with rage: his mother was being offered as a “human sacrifice” by the Hittite king. In his rage, the young prince killed the Hittite king. Ultimately, the young prince himself was also offered as a “human sacrifice” by the Hittites. However, he saw his mother standing guard beside his altar. The young prince knew that his mother had recovered her memory and recognized him.
Following this, his wife Eva and son also came to the altar to bid him a final farewell. To save his wife Eva and son from the fate of being “human sacrifices,” the young prince fabricated another lie. He told Eva and his son that he was not the son of the old king, and therefore, the Hittite king’s “human sacrifice” would not apply to them, thus sparing them from being “human sacrifices.” He told his wife Eva that his biological father was a coppersmith living on an island in the Mediterranean Sea.
The novel concludes with Haeres and his mother simultaneously being offered as “human sacrifices” to the Assyrian gods by the Hittites. However, before being offered as a “human sacrifice,” Haeres secretly inscribed the secret of the Hittite “Assyrian God Sacrifice,” which he had discovered in the underground palace, onto a bronze key. He instructed his son to take the secret he had inscribed back to the Greek city-states so that the Greeks could understand the secret of the Hittite “Assyrian God Sacrifice.” This bronze key also became the secret that Dr. Mitchell intended to reveal to readers in this novel—how the ancient Greeks built their civilization from the Middle East.
This bronze key carries the love that Haeres had for his wife Eva and son; he wanted to save them from being “human sacrifices” to the Hittite king. And Haeres, by being a “human sacrifice” himself, took revenge on the Hittites because he had learned their true secret. The final ending is that Eva, with her son and the bronze key, along with Haeres’ secret, returned to the Greek city-states.
The ending of the novel is written very poignantly. It describes Haeres’ love for Eva and his son, his anger towards his father, and fully exposes the unknown dark secret of the Hittites.
Translator’s Postscript
In his novel “Worship of the Fire God,” Dr. Mitchell used a story recorded in an ancient Greek historical record as the background for his narrative. According to Dr. Mitchell, this ancient Greek historical record described how, in the 15th century BC, the Greeks used a ritual of “Worship of the Fire God” to achieve their liberation from Asia Minor, which was under the rule of the Hittite Kingdom. In this story of “Worship of the Fire God,” the Greeks also came to understand the secret of the Hittite Kingdom’s “Assyrian God Sacrifice.” Dr. Mitchell also incorporated the research data from his academic reports at university regarding the relationship between the ancient Greeks, Hittites, and Babylonians into this novel. Dr. Mitchell approached every detail of the novel from the perspective of a historian. In his novel, his story also allows readers to deeply understand why the ancient Greeks established their civilization through the method of “Worship of the Fire God.” The story of this novel also allows readers to understand that ancient Greek civilization did not only develop in mainland Greece but also began to sprout and grow on the coast of Asia Minor, on the land ruled by the Hittites.
The translator is very pleased to have translated Dr. Mitchell’s “Worship of the Fire God.” This is not just a story about the ancient Greeks; it also embodies Dr. Mitchell’s passion for literature. In writing this story, Dr. Mitchell drew from ancient Greek historical records and consulted much scholarly material. He was very meticulous, handling every detail from a historian’s perspective. While translating this novel, I often felt that Dr. Mitchell was not writing a novel but a historical report on how the ancient Greeks gained liberation from the rule of the Hittites. I believe this story, in addition to bringing readers a tense, exciting, and brilliant narrative, also provides them with a foundation for deeply understanding ancient Greek civilization. I recommend this novel to everyone and hope readers can derive the same reading pleasure from it as I have. Thank you!
Written by the Translator in California, USA
December 10, 2006
