She Brought the Art of Women: A Song of Solomon, Nabonidus, and the Goddess

The Song sings with the most sophisticated and complex language but once the connection is made to Nabonidus, Babylon's last and most derided king (556-539 BCE), it suddenly reveals a riveting and sometimes shocking plot. It is a unified narrative relaying the events during Nabonidus's seven years in Tayma, Arabia, with his Egyptian princess-bride, Nitocris.

It is a dynamic, intense, unfettered assault on the senses and on the mind, echoing the woman's effect on the king; it lures us in, tricks us, and teaches us a lesson about ourselves. It is a document that has been denied its true nature because it was written by a women about women, at a time when the patriarchal influence was just beginning to flourish within Judaism. Its deepest truths have lain dormant, suppressed even, because they deal with female blood, dark magic, the weakness of rulers, and the secret, powerful Art of Women.

Though grounded in extensive academic research, the book is geared toward a broad audience of intellectually curious readers who enjoy following clues and patterns of evidence. A new paradigm is presented that challenges all conventional readings of the Song ... and all the legends of Solomon.

Janet Tyson has an MA in Biblical Studies and was a T&M Wagner Foundation Graduate Fellow (UBC, Canada)