The shah of the serpents, who dwells in the caves beneath Tarsus. She does not give Aybars the secret of the stone's four colors; she tells it.
- Home
- A turquoise-lit underground lake beneath Tarsus
- Appearance
- Above the waist a wise woman, below the waist an emerald serpent
- Gift
- Four spheres carrying the waking sounds of the four colors
- Wish
- "Let there be a place for everyone at your table."
- In the palace
- A golden serpent curled into a ring among the roots of the walnut tree
- Mythological roots
- The Anatolian legend of the shah of the serpents, told above all in Tarsus and Mardin
I cannot give you the secret. But I can tell it to you. If you understand what I tell, the secret is yours.
In the Legend
According to one of Anatolia's best-known legends, Şahmeran is a wise queen who lives beneath the earth, a woman above the waist and a serpent below. She knows the secret of every herb and every remedy. One day she trusts a human and shares her secret; and that human betrays her to a king. That is why Şahmeran's story is always a story of trust and betrayal. In Tarsus, even today, there is a place known as the "Şahmeran Bath," and pictures of Şahmeran hang on the walls of homes.
In Our Story
Aybars goes down to her from beneath the basin of an old bathhouse, by a stair of three hundred steps. Şahmeran is waiting for him; on the night the Iron Stake wept, her serpents brought her the news. She has wondered who would find the stone: a king, perhaps, or a warrior? When an orphan comes, she says, "Good. One who knows what loneliness is also knows what companionship is."
She does not give her secret. She tells it. In the waters of the lake she shows him four visions:
- Red, od, fire: a family laughing around the hearth of a village house. To warm.
- Blue, water: a woman in the desert drawing water from a well for everyone. To share.
- Black, earth: a field plowed, sown and reaped in turn. To wait one's turn.
- Yellow, gün, the sun: a morning that dawns for everyone at once. To hope.
At last Aybars understands: "These are the four sides of a table." Şahmeran gives him the four spheres; as the stone is carved, each color that wakes will hear its own sound and return to its place.
In return she asks one thing: "If one day a stranger comes and asks you for a place, make room for them without asking their name. Once, long ago, no one made room for me."
In the Palace
The four colors of the okey tiles are her four colors. On the night of the coronation, a tiny golden serpent slips down among the roots of the walnut tree in the courtyard, bites its own tail, and becomes a ring. The promise made to Şahmeran has been kept: as deep as the roots, yet still at the foot of a table, there is a place for her too.
