The Lesson of Humanity The Phoenician Girl

                The Lesson of Humanity

                The Phoenician Girl


(Naram-Sin's tent in the mountains of Lebanon. Bronze armor thrown across the rugs. A jug of wine. In the corner, huddled against the cold, sits Elissa — her clothes in rags, but her gaze filled with glacial contempt. Naram-Sin eats in silence, trying to suppress an inner trembling. Finally — he gestures sharply toward the table.)


NARAM-SIN.

 Come closer.
(Elissa takes a few slow steps. He holds out a cup.)
Drink.
(Elissa takes the cup and tastes the wine with such innate grace that Naram-Sin, driven by the dark conquering blood of Sargon, hurls her violently onto the bed — trying to break this unbearable majesty.)


NARAM-SIN.


 (stepping back, his voice broken)
 O gods... These tears...
(Aside, clutching his head.)
They were exactly the same tears
 as Enheduanna's
 at the top of the Ziggurat...
 That taste of salty grief
 that remained on my lips forever.
 What kind of man am I...
(He covers her with unexpected tenderness.)
Don't be afraid.
 I will not harm you.
 And no one in this entire camp
 will dare to touch you again.
(Elissa bursts into bitter, uncontrollable sobs of relief. Naram-Sin stands beside her — afraid to touch her with hands accustomed to the sword.)
Forgive me.
 I didn't even ask your name.


ELISSA.


 (wiping her tears)
 Tanit-Elissa.
 Tanit is the goddess of the Moon.


NARAM-SIN.


 The Moon...
 Like Enheduanna.
 She too serves the Moon — in Ur.


ELISSA.


 En... he... du... anna...
(A long pause. She shows him a thin copper bracelet on her wrist.)
Look.
 In your camp, the scribes struggle with clay,
 carving heavy, gigantic signs.
 With us — it is different.
 Here it is engraved: Tanit.
 Three signs only.


NARAM-SIN.


 (narrowing his eyes)
 Three signs —
 to name the name of an entire goddess?


ELISSA.


 Only three.
 Our sailors invented twenty-two — twenty-two letters.
 Look: T-N-T.
(Pause.)
The entire vast world
 can fit
 in a handful of signs this light.
(She looks at him. He looks at the bracelet. Then — at his own hands.)


NARAM-SIN.


 (quietly, almost to himself)
 You speak like her...
 With that low, frightening voice...
 Like Enheduanna.
(A long pause. He does not move.)


(SLOW BLACKOUT.)


T.D.