shurbanipal, King of Assyria circa 668 BCE, was a fierce and powerful protector of his people. As a method of terrifying adversaries, so the legend goes, Ashur and his queen, Ashursharrat, hung newly severed heads of enemies on trees in a garden where visitors were provided locusts dipped in honey to munch on. Ashur also was a gender variant. He wore women's clothes, used make up, and talked in a higher range to simulate the voice of a female. Historians, with no evidence other than their own aversion have assumed that Queen Ashur found this practice disgusting. History is too often little more than a reflection of the jaded perspectives of those who write it. In actuality, Queen Ashur, appears to have been madly in love with her gender variant husband. Some historians, in the presence of direct evidence that the King had mastered mathematics and scribal skills with extreme ease and was held to be a different category of human being, dispute the claim on the basis that tales of great leaders are often exaggerated. Perhaps, but sometimes tales are exaggerated and sometimes they are not. If Ashur wasn't a bit on the brilliant side and academically inclined, what possessed him to create the first systematically gathered and organized library, a collection of 30,000 clay tablets? If his perceptions of a connectedness to the future are mere myth then why the inscription on the library, "For the sake of distant days."?

The library, the royal palace, and other government and religious buildings displayed extraordinary statuary, fine metalwork, and exquisite ivories, by order of the King. In the buildings and outside were also immense stone reliefs carved with scenes of warfare, court life, royal hunts, and mythological beings. Many were sexually explicit, suggesting a much different view of sex then that of today. Today these artworks, those that weren't destroyed outright, are kept under wraps as being improper for the general populace to see. Some depict same sex love making, while others depict delicate and beautiful women with male penises.

The various objects and treasures are in many styles including those of Babylon, Sumeria, Egypt, Phoenicia, and Syria, as well as a few native Assyrian pieces. King Ashurbanipal, was an avid collector of aesthetics and knowledge. The last and greatest of Assyrian monarchs, he built roads linking the cities of his empire together. These roads not only increased trade and commerce, but provided his troops quick access to distant parts of the empire to subdue and quash rebel uprisings. He also put in place a highly organized mail service, carrying messages back and forth between him and his governors. In addition to his inclination toward academics and the arts he was a brilliant strategist and a ferocious conqueror. The Assyrians achieved their greatest territorial expansion under his command. Babylonia, Persia, Syria, and Egypt were part of his domain.

When the sculptures, reliefs, and tablets were discovered by Austen Henry Layard, a British adventurer and archeologist, they generated enormous excitement. Here was a sophisticated material culture predating classical Greece by centuries, tucked safely away and waiting to be discovered. What is overlooked is that this massive collection was not preserved by chance alone, but because of the vision of Ashurbanipal and he spelled it out, "For the sake of distant days." All this and pretty dresses too. There is a message here for those with open minds and hearts to see.

A legend of the great king, his queen, and of his final days:

"My Love," whispered the Great King of Assyria, his long hair blowing against his beardless face, ruby painted lips full and sensuous in the moon glow of an early morning. Standing on a small vessel with a single sail, Ashur's ancient eyes turned toward the heavens "You need not take this voyage with me. It's not your strength that wanes."

"I have been with you from the beginning, my heart, I could not bear to part from you at the end," answered Queen Ashursharrat, "besides, your hands tremble with age. Who would do your makeup in the after life if I remained behind?"

"You have been the light of my life, more fundamental to me than the lands I have conquered and the cities I have built. Even my libraries and my museums have little meaning now. Only our love endures, our monument to an unknown time that is yet to come," softly spoke Ashur, his words a caress.

"You are like no other that has ever lived. Our people call you a god, a god woman, he who walks in two worlds. You have offered us art and music from distant lands and taught us to appreciate knowledge. It wasn't always so! Remember the early days? Newly severed heads hanging in our garden lest our people think us spineless? I remember and there were much worse things. Cities sacked, woman and children put to the sword, and all who remained relocated into other regions of the empire. How the soldiers cheered you. Ashur the Irresistible, they called you in those days. We went forth and we conquered. We took the spoils and built a kingdom unlike any other that has ever been or ever will be."

"Hmmmm," mumbled the aging monarch, "not true, my pretty queen. We are but the beginning. I have had dreams of worlds to come. Strange places with extraordinary people coming and going, doing things that baffle and confuse me even in my slumber. Still, they are a comfort. In my heart I know that life goes on. We leave a legacy like none before have left."

"Your dreams have always frightened me," replied the Queen, her eyes wide and tinged with apprehension. Drawing her robes around her she starts to climb on board the funeral barge. "I have never understood the things you speak of when you tell me of times to come."

"They don't matter now. My time for dreams has ended and my time for life. My mind dims with age and my limbs no longer course with strength. I would not have my people see me become feeble minded and weak of limb. Come with me, then, if that is your desire. Let us begin our last voyage together," announced Ashur, stretching out an aged yet still firm hand for the Queen. Reaching out for his offered hand, she grasped it and almost effortlessly he drew her into the craft.

Drawing anchor the King turned to a few trusted confidantes and servants on the shore, brought to witness his departure. His other wives were also there. They too had wished to come with him. Providing each with a modest endowment to provide for their survival, he denied them. Moist eyes from all present watched as the ship began to move away into the light from a dawning sun.

He called to them one last time, "My friends, my wives, my servants. We have done well. Remember this ... we have passed on a legacy for distant days. The world is a better place for what we have wrought. Hold your heads high and when your time comes, as it has for me and my queen, die with dignity." Then, laying down with his Queen on their death bed they drifted further and further from the coast. A few minutes passed, the ship becoming no more than a small black object on the horizon. Suddenly it began to twinkle and sparkle, appearing much like sunlight hitting a diamond. The sparkling quickly turned to flames and the flames begin to reach into the sky. Slowly, ever so slowly, the small craft was consumed and when the flames died down, nothing remained. King Ashurbanipal and Queen Ashursharrat passed from the land of the living into the night of the dead. But they did not die in vain, for a part of them, whether known or acknowledged, continues on in these, those distant days.