Mathayus and his brother Jesup find themselves associated with a
nomadic desert tribe of Akkadians ruled by King Telent. Apparently
Mathayus had killed the previous king, Trion, and allowed his
brother, Telent, to rise to the throne.
This story introduces King Memnon, who has recently seized control
of Gomorrah.
The villainous character of Memnon does not appear to have
been based on an actual historical figure.
Gomorrah was a city of sin mentioned in the Bible and which
was later
judged and consumed by fire and brimstone sent by God as punishment.
King Telent tasks Mathayus and Amnakh with finding the Book of
Tehuti, which he believes will give him knowledge of the
future. "Tehuti" is known as another name for Thoth, the god of
knowledge and writing (and also judgment of the dead) in the
Egyptian pantheon. Some sources suggest the Book of Tehuti as the
Book of the Dead. However the Book of Tehuti as
seen in this story does not look like the Book of the Dead seen
in Battle for Redemption and later stories (not to mention
bound books did not exist back then, just scrolls written out on
papyrus).
On page 13, there is, oddly, the skeleton of what appears to be a
predatory sea creature (such as a shark) in the desert near the cave
in which Hro abides.
On page 13, panel 4, a human skull
seen among many strewn in the cave
of Hro has an unknown symbol carved
into the forehead. Hro's dialog on
page 15 suggests that the beast
scratches upon the skull of every
defeated warrior a letter from an
alphabet no man can read. |
 |
Hro appears to be a multi-headed beast with the heads of a jackal,
snake, panther, crocodile, falcon, and human upon its body.

On the last page of this issue, Cassandra, Memnon's sorceress and
Mathayus' future queen, makes her first appearance. She seems to
suggest here that the
Book of Tehuti is more powerful in prophecy than even
she herself and that the book was the gods' own tool of divination.
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