Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Mankey's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full
Speaker 1: of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. When the world makes one weary, it's not
Speaker 1: uncommon for that person to imagine something better world where
Speaker 1: there is no war or famine or homelessness, where people
Speaker 1: take care of one another and live in harmony. It's
Speaker 1: a lovely sentiment, but while it may work in theory,
Speaker 1: it almost always falls apart in practice. Communes and organizations
Speaker 1: led by one person, often a man, end up the
Speaker 1: same way. They turn into cults. That wasn't the goal
Speaker 1: for religious philosopher and preacher John Humphrey Nous, but even
Speaker 1: his idealistic troop wound up with that notorious label. However,
Speaker 1: unlike other cults, his didn't end with mass death or suicide.
Speaker 1: It ended with spooning. John was born in eighteen eleven
Speaker 1: in Brattleboro, Vermont. His father had been a teacher, a minister,
Speaker 1: and had even served with the U. S House of Representatives,
Speaker 1: while his mother happened to be the aunt of the
Speaker 1: nineteenth U S President Rutherford B. Hayes. John was religious
Speaker 1: like his father, but even more so. After witnessing a
Speaker 1: revival in eighteen thirty one, he went through a conversion
Speaker 1: and abandoned his law degree at Dartmouth in favor of
Speaker 1: the seminary. Instead, he studied the Bible well religiously and
Speaker 1: learned how to preach before diving into the world of
Speaker 1: antislavery activism. However, the more he studied, the more obsessive
Speaker 1: he grew. His beliefs shifted. For example, while enrolled at
Speaker 1: the Yale Theological Seminary, John had tried to pin down
Speaker 1: the date of Christ's second coming, which, too many was
Speaker 1: meant to be a date set far into the future,
Speaker 1: but not to John, he believed that it had already
Speaker 1: happened in seventy a d. And that humans were on
Speaker 1: a downward spiral towards sin and degradation. He preached perfectionism,
Speaker 1: that those who had converted could be free of all sin.
Speaker 1: He also believed in keeping multiple wives, known as complex marriage.
Speaker 1: His views got him expelled from Yale, with his professors
Speaker 1: labeling him as a heretic, but that didn't deter him
Speaker 1: from exploring them further. He believed that his faith had
Speaker 1: given him carte blanche to ignore the traditional moral values
Speaker 1: of the time, and that he could do as he pleased.
Speaker 1: His family encouraged him to return home and find a
Speaker 1: new path, but John refused. He instead traveled around preaching
Speaker 1: to anyone who would listen and picking up strays in
Speaker 1: a way. One of those strays happened to be a
Speaker 1: woman named Abigail Merwin, who was already married when she
Speaker 1: started following John's teachings. John, however, developed feelings for his
Speaker 1: students and wouldn't let a trivial thing such as marriage
Speaker 1: getting his way. In eighteen thirty seven, he created the
Speaker 1: idea of a spiritual spouse, which flew in the face
Speaker 1: of traditional monogamy. To John, relationships were meant to be shared,
Speaker 1: and the more wives a man had, the marrier. In fact,
Speaker 1: the term free love, which picked up steam during the
Speaker 1: late nineteen sixties, was originally coined by John. As he
Speaker 1: continued to preach, he gained more followers, leading to the
Speaker 1: creation of the Society of Inquiry around eighteen forty five,
Speaker 1: with almost thirty six members under its wing. The society
Speaker 1: became the start of John's grand utopian vision. Unfortunately, John's
Speaker 1: unorthodox beliefs, especially those concerning his nine wives, were not
Speaker 1: shared by the Vermont legislature. The spiritual leader was arrested
Speaker 1: and charged with adultery. However, he was released before the
Speaker 1: start of his trial in April and used that time
Speaker 1: to organize his followers and leave Vermont entirely. So they
Speaker 1: moved to New York, where they settled in a small
Speaker 1: city in the middle of the state. John happened to
Speaker 1: know some of the fellow perfect Actionists there, who were
Speaker 1: able to share a portion of their land and help
Speaker 1: his people get established. He even renamed the group after
Speaker 1: their new home. What had started as a modest commune
Speaker 1: eventually grew into a palatial state that they called the
Speaker 1: Mansion House, completed in eighteen sixty two. And how did
Speaker 1: they get the money to build such a house. Well,
Speaker 1: they sold all manner of goods, such as canned fruits
Speaker 1: and vegetables, thread leather bags, and hats. But it was
Speaker 1: the production and sale of something even more desirable that
Speaker 1: put their commune on the map, and even after their
Speaker 1: community fell apart in the early eighties, that business continued
Speaker 1: to thrive. Look in most kitchens today and you're likely
Speaker 1: to find something from the company, some product of the
Speaker 1: lucrative business they began almost two hundred years ago. Forks, knives,
Speaker 1: and spoons, all made and sold by a utopian community
Speaker 1: at the New York town of Oneida. Read any book,
Speaker 1: watch any movie or TV show, or see any play,
Speaker 1: and you probably don't realize that they all have one
Speaker 1: thing in common William Shakespeare. Even though the play right
Speaker 1: behind Othello, Hamlets and King Lear may not have written
Speaker 1: the works being produced today, his tropes and his words
Speaker 1: are all over them. Stories about deceitful family members, star
Speaker 1: crossed lovers, and enemies who become lovers can all chart
Speaker 1: their origins back to Shakespeare. So can words like lonely,
Speaker 1: swagger and zany. Shakespeare was responsible for more than seventeen
Speaker 1: hundred words in the English language that we still used today,
Speaker 1: but he was far from the only writer of his time.
Speaker 1: Many had come before him and had also contributed significantly
Speaker 1: to the written word. However, one stands above them all.
Speaker 1: Before Romeo and Juliet, before Plato and Aristotle, there was
Speaker 1: an ad Wuanna and Aduana was the daughter of Sargon
Speaker 1: of a Cad, founder of the Achadian Empire in ancient Mesopotamia.
Speaker 1: She lived during the twenty third century BC, but almost
Speaker 1: nothing was known about her until nineteen seven. That year,
Speaker 1: a British archaeologist named Sir Leonard Woolley found several ancient
Speaker 1: relics in his travels that carried her name. One was
Speaker 1: a disc made of alabaster that had broken apart into
Speaker 1: several pieces. The artifact was eventually reconstructed, which allowed scholars
Speaker 1: to read its contents. The back of the disc mentioned
Speaker 1: Sargon of a cod and Aduana and her husband Nana Suan.
Speaker 1: Sargon had been a ruthless conqueror who had laid waste
Speaker 1: to dozens of cities and city states across the region
Speaker 1: with his massive army. One of those city states was
Speaker 1: a place called Er located in present day Iraq, R
Speaker 1: had been home to a Sumerian cult built around Nena Suan.
Speaker 1: Sargon knew the importance of bridging the gaps between the
Speaker 1: Acadian and Sumerian empires, and Nana Suan was at the
Speaker 1: center of each, so he appointed and Aduana to the
Speaker 1: role of High priestess handled the job, but Nana Suan
Speaker 1: wasn't a human like an Aduana or even Sargon. He
Speaker 1: was a god, specifically the moon God, and an Aduana
Speaker 1: worshiped him. As high priestess. She came to embody Nana
Speaker 1: Suan's actual wife, the goddess Ningle, hence her being listed
Speaker 1: on the disc as the moon God's spouse. The other
Speaker 1: side of the disc bore a relief of an Aduana
Speaker 1: standing before a nude figure pouring some kind of drink.
Speaker 1: It was possible that the figure was Nana Suan. Soon after,
Speaker 1: other objects were excavated and reassembled, shedding more light on
Speaker 1: the identity of the elusive daughter of Sargon the Great
Speaker 1: and Aduana's Sumerian name translated to ornament of Heaven, and
Speaker 1: she had a great political sway among her people. Her
Speaker 1: parentage and her high ranking status made her a leader,
Speaker 1: and with the help of her writings, she was able
Speaker 1: to unify Mesopotamia. Poems, religious hymns, and other works that
Speaker 1: have been lost for thousands of years. Now being dug
Speaker 1: up and analyzed, they gave deeper insight into a woman
Speaker 1: who didn't know her true place in history, and a
Speaker 1: Duana was the world's first named author. She composed odes
Speaker 1: to the Sumerian goddess Nana and the Akkadian goddess Ishtar,
Speaker 1: odes that exalted the deities of both cultures and brought
Speaker 1: them together. Her work was instrumental in building one central
Speaker 1: belief system for the people of Mesopotamia. She did this
Speaker 1: through her poems, which she wrote for forty two southern temples,
Speaker 1: expounding on the individual qualities that she admired in each
Speaker 1: of them, all of which had been chiseled into clay tablets.
Speaker 1: Many of the tablets recovered by Wooly and other archaeologists
Speaker 1: were only fragments, with large chunks of her writing broken
Speaker 1: off and missing, But what was there was still enlightening.
Speaker 1: In a hymn titled the Exaltation of Nana, and Aduana
Speaker 1: wrote of the goddess's pensiont for violence, The author prayed
Speaker 1: to her for help with a Sumerian rebel named google Anna,
Speaker 1: who had knocked her from her purchase high priestess. She
Speaker 1: begged for revenge against the rebel and to have her
Speaker 1: title restored. In the end, her prayers were answered, and
Speaker 1: an Aduana was once again made high priestess to her people.
Speaker 1: Another hymn, which was told from the goddess and Nana's perspective,
Speaker 1: spoke of revenge against the mountains of Eba because they
Speaker 1: would not bow down to her. After being turned down
Speaker 1: for help from the other gods, she destroyed the mountains herself.
Speaker 1: According to some experts, this hymn was an Aduanna's way
Speaker 1: of telling a fictional story about a very real ecological
Speaker 1: disaster that had occurred. Anna Duanna was a person unlike
Speaker 1: any other. She didn't just pray to her gods. She
Speaker 1: wrote poetic narratives about them. They became like characters to her,
Speaker 1: with lives and wills of their own. Not many people
Speaker 1: know who Anadu Wanna is today, and that's a shame,
Speaker 1: because there is still so much she can teach us.
Speaker 1: She wasn't just the first named author. She was among
Speaker 1: the very best whoever lived. I hope you've enjoyed today's
Speaker 1: guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
Speaker 1: me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
Speaker 1: Make Another Award winning show called Lore which is a podcast,
Speaker 1: book series, and television show and you can learn all
Speaker 1: about it over at the world of Lore dot com.
Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.