Deisis-Collector

texts

NOAH

curriculum vitae

(1056 – 2006th year after the Creation)

Noah, Heb. noah, ‘rest’, ‘tranquillity’. Progenitor of postdiluvian mankind in Abrahamic religions, patriarch, chosen to be saved from world catastrophe. Corresponds to Ziusudra and Utnapishtim in Sumerian-Akkadian myths, to Deucalion in Greek mythology. Probably the creator of the caste system; inventor of winemaking. Belonged to the race of Sethites, ‘sons of God’ from the tribe of Enoch. Born on the antediluvian mainland to Betenos, daugher of Barakiil, descendant of Enosh and the Sethite patriarch Lamech, son of Methuselah. Among close relatives we know Noah had brothers and sisters, the children of Lamech (Ner and others). Tall, athletic build. Very well-developed hands. In traditional iconography Noah has long white hair and a pointed beard. The oldest precisely attributable representation is on coins from the Phrygian town of Apamea, minted during the rule of Emperor Septimius Severus (193-211). Married to Naamah, daughter of the Cainite Lamech and Zillah. Children: Japheth, Shem and Ham; some sources state that a 4th son by the name of Munt was born after the Flood. Professed monotheism according to the rites of Enoch; after the Flood he founded the religion of the Covenant. As patriarch of the Sethites he had supreme power and fullness of knowledge. A divine revelation prompted him to build the Ark and gather his family and specimens of all fauna and flora inside the vessel. After he began constructing the Ark and spreading the word about the imminent Flood he was ostracized by world society and isolated for the entire 120 years that preceded the Flood. During the catastrophe he sailed on the Ark and settled in a land that provided mankind with a new place of habitation. It is assumed that Noah died in the settlement of Arguri (Armenian ‘planted a vineyard’) in the Ararat Valley. Buried in Nakhichevani (Arm. ‘first exodus’), in modern Azerbaijan.

Collector
(Noah)

[…] Nikolai Vasiliades, author of the latest correlation between archaeological statistics and the traditional Orthodox reading of the Bible, counts 9 similarities and 4 differences between the Babylonian myth and the story of Noah. Let us add the most important factor: while Noah called on the Cainites and Sethites to repent for 120 years, from the very outset Utnapishtim hid the reason for his shipbuilding hobby from his contemporaries.

'I know, Enlil hates me -
No longer shall I live in your city,
I shall wend my way from the soil of Enlil.
I shall descend to the ocean, to the kingdom of Ea!
And above you the rain shall pour in torrents,
You shall know the secret of the birds, the refuges of the fish,
A rich harvest shall extend over the earth,
In the morning the rain shall pour down, and at night
You shall see with your own eyes the grain-producing rain...'

Behind these promises hides an ominous ambiguity, but Utnapishtim was cunning and refrained from lies. Quite simply, he already knew the 'secret of the fishes' today, and those that turned away from Ea were invited to conceptualise it After Tomorrow.

An original feature in Russian depictions of Noah is the wooden semantron to summon the animals before the departure of the Ark. 'The Angel of the Lord brought him a semantron and said to him: 'strike the semantron'. And he stood before the ark and did as the Angel of the Lord had commanded.' A similar contraption is used to this day in Eastern Christian monasteries instead of a bell, and as recently as the 1970s shepherds herded straying animals in the north of Russia by beating a breastplate with a clapper. The shape of the semantron in miniatures illustrating the Palaea and the Topography of Cosmas Indicopleustes defines the pitch of the ringing tone. This is the auditory analogue of Linne's binominal system. Adam named the animals, and Noah was obliged to remember the names. In A.S. Uvarov's illuminated Bible, a miniature illustrating the assembly of the animals bears the inscription: 'Noah... standing by the Ark he winnows the winnower...' Why?

The winnower is a scoop or trough for winnowing grain, a sieve, sometimes a fan or vane. This leads us neatly to the ancient Russian depiction of the Ark itself. Miniatures from the Indicopleustes Topography in the Barsov Collection, St Petersburg, and the Kiev Theological Academy interpret the Ark as a fisherman's creel raised in the Creator's left hand above the raging waves. The life-preserving vessel is reminiscent of an openwork lath basket containing selected pairs in each cell. It is similar to the honeycomb design of a granary in Tel-Availi or the glazed painted design of an ornamental ceramic basket dated 4th century BC, also to the zohar, a dangerous hatch to admit light, the Ark's ventilation grille through which the sun shone at the end of their voyage. Noah observed the zohar from inside and assumed the diffraction of light was a sign that God's anger was abating. […]



Collector (Noah)
* A complete version of this essay will appear in the album to be published September 2004