I think that perhaps the Shemites are merely one of
the supposed ancestors of the peoples of Ancient Near
East, not directly the ancestors of any specific
people. I now see that Howard in the "Hyborian Age"
essay states:
" The ancient Sumerians had no connection with the
western race. They were a mixed people, of Hyrkanian
and Shemitish bloods, who were not taken with the
conquerors in their reatreat.[ NB. Hyrkania being the
most recent oppressor of Shem as a nation] Many
tribes of Shem escaped that captivity, and from
pure-blooded Shemites, or Shemites mixed with Hyborian
or Nordic blood, were descended the Arabs, Isrealites,
and other straighter-featured Semites. The
Canaanites, or Alpine Semites, traced their descent
from Shemitish ancestors mixed with the Kushites
settled among them by their Hyrkanian masters; the
Elamites were a typical race of this type."
Tracing the usage of Ancient Near eastern names in
the Hyborian mythology perhaps may also lend some
insight. Starting with Belit, I believe the name was
perhaps inspired from the name of the historic
Assyrian princess, Muballit, who was married to
Karaindash, son of the Babylonian king Burnaburiash
II. Assyria was in the Jezireh region of what is Iraq
today.
Then there is Bit Yakin from "Jewels of Gwahlur"
The setting of the story is Keshan, and later the
deserted Alkmeenon. Howard tells that "...the
mysterious Bit Yakin, had come from afar with his
servants, and entered the valley of Alkmeenon." So we
are certain that he is not native to Keshan. I am not
sure where Bit Yakin was supposed to have travelled
from, but his personal name is directly taken from one
of the Chaldean tribes of Babylonia (specifically the
Sealand area, ie. those people who fought the
Assyrians and harried the Egyptians in the New Kingdom
period). This tribe was called Bit-Yakin, and it was
one of the many Chaldean tribes with similar names:
Bit-Adini, Bit-Agusi are examples. The question is
where he was supposedly from before Alkmeenon.
Finally there is Nabonidus the Red Priest from
"Rogues in the House". Howard in the letter to
P.S.Miller writes:" I am not sure that the adventure
chronicled in "Rogues in the House" occurred in
Zamora...I am of the opinion that the city was one of
the small city-states lying just west of Zamora." I
think that De Camp placed the story in Corinthia, but
this is not to be trusted entirely. Regardless, the
name Nabonidus is also directly taken from Babylonian
history. Nabonidus (called occasionally Nabu-na'id)
was the king of Babylon from 555-539. His history has
no other similarities with the "Rogues in the House"
Nabonidus.
My musing centres around the basic realization that
each of these three characters are all perhaps based
on historical figures from the locale the Greeks
called Mesopotamia, yet they seem to be each from
potentially three separate locales in Hyboria. The
exact home country of two of these three might be
forever uncertain, as Howard (to my knowledge) never
indicated in the case of Nabonidus and Bit Yakin from
where they exactly came.
Because Howard seemed to know that the area that
was Mesopotamia was a melting pot of a variety of
Ancient Near Eastern people, I think that we might be
able to say that the Shemites were one of the main
roots of the people from the Middle East.
Bibliography
Rashid, S.A. (1979) 'The Babylonian King Nabonidus in
Tema', Sumer 35:1172-4.
Gadd, C. (1926) 'Clay Cones of Utu-Hegal, King of
Erech', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society:648-88.
Leick, G. (1999) 'Who's Who in the Ancient Near East',
Routledge
Wagner, K.E.(1998) Howard, R.E. 'The Essential Conan',
Henry Morrison, Inc.
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