‘And I suppose she bonded them back together?’ suggested Brandon.
‘Not at first as though the mother figure was revered in most civilisations she was still a woman and any self respecting male leader couldn’t allow any woman to just walk in and take control. He would simply challenge her to a duel and take her role no matter how wise she may be.’
‘So what happened?’
‘Well, that’s where her genius shines through. There was no way she could win a fight so she had to win the people’s support by other means. In addition there was another problem, she was pregnant so needed an ally, someone who would demand instant respect from all the warring tribes and she knew exactly who to call on.’
‘Who?’
‘Assur.’
‘But he was dead.’
‘That’s right, and by now he was known as a God amongst the peoples of the basin but she needed his influence and the respect that the people held for him so what she did was she made an astonishing claim. She claimed that she had searched the land, found the individual parts of his body and resurrected him. Not only this, she also claimed she was still a Virgin and that the God Assur had fathered her baby.’
‘And they bought it?’
‘Well, let’s not forget this was a mystical time when people believed in gods, demons and magic, all that sort of mumbo jumbo.’
‘It seems some things never change,’ he murmured.
‘Anyway,’ she continued, ‘Whatever the reason the people believed her and she became the epitome of the mother figure and the good times returned once more to the area. She gave birth to Horus, a son and he was proclaimed a saviour who would save the world. Her name was revered across the area and the population flourished.’
‘Wait a minute,’ said Brandon, ‘This is an awful lot of information for something that has no evidence.’
‘Oh the evidence is there if you look hard enough,’ she said, ‘In the legends and the stories that abound throughout the world. Just take the story of Assur. The whole area of the Middle East is touched by his legacy. Modern day Syria is named after him. The lands centred on Iraq were once called Mesopotamia which in itself covered the area once known as Assyria, a derivation of Assur. There were cities called Assur, Gods named Assur, everywhere you turn the name is riddled throughout ancient history but I accept that rumour and hearsay alone not enough. However, when you apply the same rational to Isis, there is evidence aplenty.’
‘Where?’
‘Written on in the tombs, temples and pyramids of Egypt for a start,’ she said. ‘Her name and symbols are referred to throughout the Egyptian Empire from its earliest days to modern day Pagan cults. She had temples built to her throughout history including Rome, Greece, Turkey, you name a place and she has probably been worshipped there in some way shape or form. Even Christianity has been touched by her.’
‘How?’
‘The Virgin Mary.’
‘Oh for heaven’s sake,’ he said.
‘You can believe me or not, the choice is yours but if you look at the image of Isis nursing her infant, she usually has the orb of the sun depicted behind her. Look at the famous pictures of the Madonna and child and she has a radiant halo behind her head. Put them together and they are almost exactly the same, yet Isis lived thousands of years before Mary of Nazareth. I’m not saying that Mary never existed, just that those who chronicled the events hundreds of years later may have been influenced by the stories of Isis. Remember, this was the era in which they were living their everyday lives. Paganism was everywhere and every role in life had a different God to pray to. Is it any wonder that they were influenced by what they knew, but that’s not all, think about it, Virgin birth, fathered by a God, or in Mary’s case, God. Gives birth to a saviour who will save the Earth, Who am I talking about, Mary, Isis, both, or are the stories basically based on the same versions of history altered by peoples perception over hundreds of years. Even the bad guy Set has a modern day equivalent in Satan!’
‘Fascinating,’ said Brandon, ‘But I’m not sure I buy it.’
‘No matter,’ said India, ‘We're getting ahead of ourselves, let’s go back a few steps. Forget about the Christianity similarities; let’s go back to the times of Isis and Assur. At least you can accept there is reasonable evidence that they existed, yes?’
‘Okay I’ll run with it.’
‘Good, as I said Isis was very successful and the area flourished. She became bigger than Assur ever was and over the centuries was deified as the Goddess of purity and fertility, a reference to the success of the harvest and the Virgin conception of her child. But as great as she was, her name was known only to those in the valley of the Black Sea.’
‘But you said the cult was huge.’
‘It was, but to these people the Black Sea basin was the centre of their universe. Let’s not forget this area was more than twice the size of modern day Britain and proportionately was probably the most advanced and populated areas of that time. There would have been hundreds of thousands of people living around the lake. Remember, this was before the pyramids of Egypt were built, before Rome existed and even the islands of Greece were still inhabited by hunter gatherers. The Mediterranean Sea was much lower, as indeed were all the sea levels as a lot of water was being held encapsulated in the ice caps of the north. The people of Isis were probably one of the most advanced peoples of the world at this time and had things worked out differently would have become the epicentre of a great civilisation.’
‘Would have? Why what happened, a war of some sort?’
‘No on the contrary, though there was a disaster, the majority would have survived but they just moved out of the area.’
‘Why?’
‘The great flood.’
A silence fell in the darkened room before Brandon finally spoke.
‘Please don’t tell me you mean Noah’s flood.’
‘I do!’
‘Oh this is getting ridiculous,’ he said and stood up, switching on his torch.
‘What are you doing?’ she asked.
‘Getting out of here,’ he said, ‘Before these torches run out.’
‘I thought we had agreed we would wait for the manager.’ she said.
‘It’s been over an hour,’ he said, ‘If anyone was coming they would be here by now.’
‘Surely he wouldn’t just leave us down here, that would be stupid.’
‘Unless he was the one who locked us in!’
‘What?’
‘Think about it,’ he said, ‘There’s only one way into these tunnels and that’s through his office. Only he knows we are here so who else can it be?’
‘What are you going to do,’ she asked picking up her own torch.
‘Those cables,’ he said, pointing at the old electricity supplies piercing the walls, ‘They must lead somewhere, pass me that crowbar.’ He climbed on a chair and started to hit at the rotten wood with the tool. The sixty year old wooden panel broke easily and within a few minutes he had made a hole wide enough for him to peer through. ‘There’s another panel a few yards along,’ he said and made the hole in the panel as wide as he could. Eventually it was big enough to crawl through and he jumped down off the chair. ‘Come on,’ he said, ‘I’ll help you up.’
‘I’m not going in there,’ she said.
‘You have to,’ he replied, ‘You are smaller than me, I’ll never fit through.’
‘I can’t’ she said, ‘I suffer from claustrophobia. This room is bad enough but at least I had you here with me. It looks like that hole is barely big enough for me to crawl through. I can’t do it.’
‘It’s only a few yards, India,’ he said, ‘Drop into the next room and come and open the door from the outside. It’s probably our only chance.’