January 20, 2013. Salon-de-Provence, France.
Just behind the floor inscription, the stony passage went back another twenty feet. There was a glow of light near the end of the passage. As they got closer, Morse could see that someone had brought down a battery-powered flood light, which was resting on yellow legs. Just past the floodlight, the passage opened somewhat and was taller. In the middle of the passage was a high, narrow table similar to a podium, but with a flat top. On the table was an astrological instrument of some kind and a man’s gold ring. Ten feet behind the podium was a huge floor-to-ceiling oak vault door. The edges of the vault were embedded in the stone walls of the underground chamber. On the right was a large copper vault handle. Across the top of the door was an inscription in French:
SEULS PEUVENT ENTRER CEUX QUI ONT LE COEUR PLEIN D’AMOUR
“What does the thing on the top say, Pops?” asked Zach.
“It says ‘Only those with love in their hearts may enter,’” his father said. As Morse studied the door, it looked clear to him that it was going to take a lot more than love to figure out how to open the door.
Beneath the inscription on the top was a series of ten top-to-bottom brass dials, like an ancient version of a slot machine. The door dials spelled out “BMRDAAATMD.” Beneath the ten dials there was writing carved into the stone. The door looked like this:
Professor John Morse picked up the astrolabe on the table and studied it in wonder. He turned to the priest.
“I realize you must have brought the light down here.”
“Of course.”
“But other than that, is this exactly how you found this vault a few days ago?”
“Yes, Professor Morse. Absolutely. I mean, I tried to open the door, of course, with no luck.”
“Other than that, nothing has been moved from how you found it?”
“No, it has not.”
Morse shined his flashlight in the corners of the stone passage.
“Father, I don’t know what kind of game you are playing here, but you are not telling me the truth.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“This podium is tall and narrow. This astrolabe and ring are sitting on top of the podium. If, as you say, there was an earthquake in 1909 violent enough to damage the room where we were earlier standing, this podium would have most certainly tipped over, and the astrolabe and ring would have fallen to the floor. So if this podium and other articles were not planted by someone, then they most certainly would have been found on the floor, not up here nice and neat where they stand today. And I notice that the wood on the podium near the top is slightly damaged on the left side, which would probably have occurred if it had fallen.”
“Ahh, Professor, you are quite the detective. Of course, when I came in, they were on the floor, as you correctly note. And I found the astrolabe and the ring over there in the corner on the floor by the bottom of the door. They got a little wet and I wiped off the water with my robe. But when you asked if I had changed anything, I thought you meant had I altered the writing on the door or altered the astrolabe or something like that. I merely picked the podium up and placed the items back on it where we assumed they had previously rested.”
“Father du Bois, your explanation, of course, makes sense, but you must know that I am a man of science, and not of faith. I have only met you ten minutes ago. I have no idea if this stone which says the vault will be opened by ‘I.M.’ was planted here a month ago by someone attempting to play some kind of practical joke on me. I am not prone to accept on faith that a man over 500 years ago was able to predict who would open this vault and when. Frankly, to tell you the truth, it seems very far-fetched to me. But like any scientist, I will keep an open mind.”
“I assure you, Professor,” said the priest. “This is no joke. When I read the inscription I thought there could only be one man who was a famous doubter of Nostradamus whose initials—at least in Latin-- were ‘I.M.’ So I contacted you immediately. But as a scientist, Professor, answer me this. Does it seem unusual to you that someone would call a person half way around the globe, whom he has never met, just to play a joke on him? What would our religious order gain by, as you say, ‘being the wolf in the sheep’s wool?’ And I suppose there is a way to carbon date the stone monument or the door or the astrolabe, correct? That way we could determine scientifically how old it is.”
“Yes, we have ways in which to verify these things. But it will take some time and additional equipment which I do not have with me here.”
“Well, Professor, you have examined ancient artifacts before. Is there anything about what you have seen here which tells you this was fabricated in some way?”
“No,” admitted the Professor, looking around and studying the astrolabe further. “This is most certainly a medieval astrolabe. Whether it is Cesar’s astrolabe I cannot say at this point.”
“Julius Caesar?” asked Zach.
“No, Cesar de Nostradame, Nostradamus’ son. Cesar was named after Nostradamus’ long time friend and mentor, Julius Caesar Scalinger, a scholar and doctor who lived in the town of Agen in southern France. About a week before Nostradamus died, he prepared a codicil to his will, which we still have today, which made rather sudden bequests to his eldest daughter Madeleine and his son Cesar. Madeleine received two walnut chests and Cesar received his father’s astrolabe and a special ring.”
“What’s an Astrolabe?” asked Zoey, giggling. “It sounds like a Space Dog, like Buzz Lightyear’s dog or something.”
“No, it is not a space dog, Zoey, but you are correct that it has to do with outer space. An astrolabe is an old fashioned instrument used by astrologers to measure and observe the stars. It has been used by people for hundreds and maybe thousands of years. In fact, some say that the three wise men—Balthazar, Gaspar and Abednego--used an astrolabe to find the Star of Bethlehem and Jesus’ birthplace.”
“Ah, yes,” said Father du Bois. “We just celebrated the Epiphany two weeks ago. I had not heard about the astrolabe.”
“In any event,” continued Morse, “Nostradamus was very interested in astrology. His astrolabe was one of his prized possessions.” Morse looked at the engravings on the side of the astrolabe. “I would have to study this further to see if this came from the seventeenth century, when Nostradamus lived, but it certainly looks that old.” Morse turned to Father du Bois and they examined the artifact together.
Zach went over to the oak vault door. He tried with all his might to open the door. When it did not budge, he tried kicking it.
“Zach, stop that!” warned Morse.
“Pops, this is an Epic Fail. That door is not opening. Maybe we should get dynamite or something.”
Morse had no idea what an “epic fail” was. “No, we cannot use dynamite, because we could damage forever whatever lies on the other side of that door. And, Zach, do me a favor, don’t touch the ancient artifacts, OK? You don’t want to break something. We have to be very delicate with everything here.”
Morse went over to the door and gently placed his hand over the inscriptions. Which were carved into the stone. He placed his hand on the first metal dial and it turned in his hand like a wheel. As he did so, the letters began to read “BCD” then “CDE” then “DEF.” He gradually turned the wheel and saw that it contained all the letters of the alphabet. After the letter “Z,” there was a cross symbol, and then the letter A again. He and Father du Bois checked all the other dials, and they were the same.
Father du Bois spoke. “It appears clear that in order to access the vault, we need to spell some kind of word with the dials. And these verses below give us the clues to the word.”
“Yes, I believe you are correct,” said Morse, studying the inscriptions. Morse took out a field notebook, and began sketching the door. He took out a tape measure, and took measurements of the door, the inscriptions, the vault handle, and the verses etched into the stone. After he completed the sketch, he wrote out the verses in French, and then in English. The English translation of the verses in Morse’s notebook read:
She regrets her foolish boasts, and almost loses her daughter.
Once a terror of the sea, now only a statue.
He tries to kill his mother, then tries to save her.
Hatched from eggs, guardians of sailors.
He was sent by Mother Earth to save the wild beasts.
Tricked by the king and punished by the queen.
His father appears as a shower of gold.
A pitiful distraction, it harbors bees.
He weeps a river for his foolish friend.
He hunts the greatest game and is slain by the least.
Four slayers, four slain.
Two mothers, two monsters.
The father of the gods
And four of his sons.
“Some of this I think I understand,” said Father du Bois. “The father of the gods—since god is plural—must mean Zeus, the Greek father of the gods. But frankly, most of the other verses sound like gibberish to me.”
“I think I have a good idea on the answer for many of these,” said Morse, putting his hands again gently over the script.
“The first one that hit me was the father appearing as a ‘shower of gold.’ That can only mean Zeus. In Greek mythology, Zeus seduced Danae by appearing to her as a shimmering shower of gold, and the result was a son named Perseus. So I think we have nailed down one of the four sons.”
Zach was now finding the puzzle interesting. Zoey, on the other hand, was bored to death and was sitting cross-legged in a corner, rolling her yes, strumming her acoustic guitar, and waiting for this ordeal to be over. She softly sung a Demi Lavado song.
“So you’re saying this Zeus guy is hitting on a woman by dressin’ up like a gold shower? That is whack. Why would a girl want to do it with a shower? That don’t make no sense.”
Morse stood there in puzzlement, more in awe that this was his offspring than that a seer from 500 years ago was giving him riddles to solve.
“Zach, if you would read a book every once in a while, you might learn that this Zeus was quite the ladies’ man. In fact, he cheated on his wife Hera dozens of times. He had dozens of illegitimate children. And he frequently liked to dress up as other things to fool the young maidens he was about to seduce. One time, he dressed up as a white bull and hid among the cattle. The woman he was attempting to seduce thought a white bull was rather odd and quite beautiful, so she put a garland of flowers around the bull and rode on his back down to the sea, where Zeus, dressed as the bull, promptly kidnapped her across the ocean to Crete, where he turned back into a man and raped her. As a result, the townspeople of Crete began to worship the bull, and the bull became sacred on the island. In fact, they liked bulls so much that the king’s wife actually mated with a bull.”
Zoey stopped playing her guitar. “Oooooh! Dad, you are so gross! Talk about something else!”
Zach started laughing. “Wait, wait, wait, wait. A lady and a bull? That’s hilarious! I have never heard that in school before.”
“Sure you have,” said Morse. “Their offspring was called the Minotaur, half-man and half-bull, who was kept in a maze until Theseus killed it. And if you look out into the night sky you can still see Zeus dressed up as the white bull. That’s the constellation Taurus, one of the twelve zodiac signs.”
“OK,” said the priest. “So we have nailed down that the father of the gods is Zeus, and this gold shower is Zeus. Could the word be Zeus or the Roman name for Zeus--Jupiter?” The priest counted out the letters in Jupiter. Seven letters, too short.
Morse was not listening to Father du Bois. When he mentioned Taurus, he began scratching his head, realizing something.
“Of course,” he said. “Perseus is a constellation. These clues have something to do with the constellations. That is why the astrolabe is here. We are obviously supposed to use the clues to find constellations, and then use the astrolabe somehow to get our word.” He began studying the script again, sure he was right.
He put his hand on the first line of script. “This first line, I think that must be Cassiopeia. She regrets her foolish boasts, and almost loses her daughter. Cassiopeia was a queen of Ethiopia who boasted that her daughter Andromeda was more beautiful than the Nereids, the beautiful sea nymphs who were daughters of the sea god Nereus, who was often seen accompanying Poseidon. This angered Poseidon and as punishment, Poseidon sent a great sea monster called Cetus, whose name means whale, to destroy the town. The King, Cepheus, consulted the Oracle of Zeus, who said that the only way for the kingdom to avoid disaster was to sacrifice the life of their daughter Andromeda. Forced with losing his kingdom or his daughter, the king chose to sacrifice his daughter. He chained her to a rock for the sea monster to eat her.”
Zoey looked up from the corner where she was sitting, and came over and grabbed her dad’s arm, looking at him fondly. “What a jerk! Daddy, would you ever chain me to a rock and let a monster eat me?”
“Of course not,” said Morse. “I would not let you get eaten by a sea monster.”
“So did the sea monster eat her?” asked Zach.
“No, luckily for the king and queen, our hero Perseus was on his way back from chopping off the head of the gorgon Medusa. Medusa had a head of snakes and the sight of her could turn anything into stone. Flying on his winged horse Pegasus, Perseus flew up to the monster, unveiled Medusa’s severed head, and the monster turned to stone. In their gratitude, the king and queen allowed Perseus to marry their daughter Andromeda, who was saved. So the person making the foolish boasts who almost lost her daughter must be Cassiopeia, which is also a constellation.”
Father du Bois quickly read the next line. “Professor, you have also solved the next line. Once a terror of the sea, and now only a statue. That can only mean the sea monster Cetus! Is Cetus a constellation as well?”
“Yes it is,” said Morse, now having a lot of fun. “It looks like a giant whale.”
“’He tries to kill his mother, then tries to save her.’ What does that mean?” asked the priest.
“Hmm,” said Morse. “I cannot think of anyone offhand who tried to murder their mother. Let’s go on to the next one.
Father du Bois read the text aloud. “Hatched from eggs, guardians of sailors.”
Morse looked at the text. “Hmmm. I can think of a woman who was hatched from an egg.”
“Like Horton Hatches an Egg?” giggled Zoey.
“Yes, sort of. Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in all of Greece, the woman who ‘launched a thousand ships’ and was responsible for the famous Trojan War, was said to have hatched from an egg.”
“I had never heard that,” confessed Father du Bois. “Why did she hatch from an egg?”
“Well, this is another wonderful tale of Zeus’ infidelity and bestiality. Zeus decided that he wanted to sleep with a woman. I cannot remember her name, I think it was Lena or Lydia or something. Anyway, he disguised himself as a swan, and when she went to embrace the swan, he mated with her.”
“Ooooh! Yuck! Stop talking about this! It is gross!” said Zoey. “These Greek guys are all perverts.”
“Woa. Woa. Woa. Pops, you’re saying this same guy who was doin’ ho’s in a gold shower and raping women dressed as a bull is now getting’ together with a lady dressed as a duck? Why would any woman want to be with a duck?”
“It was a swan, and yes, I have no idea why a woman would want to have sex with a swan, but she did, and as a result, her daughter hatched out of an egg.” Zach thought of his next rap.
Zeus, on the loose, he can’t keep it in his pants.
He likes to dress up and put shorties in a trance.
First, he’s disguised as a shiny, golden shower.
Just like George Clooney, getting’ ladies every hour.
His wife gets mad and Zeus she’s water-boardin’
So he changes to a bull, and I don’t mean Michael Jordan.
Then he hooks up with ladies while he’s dressed like a swan.
This Zeus is a perv and he likes to get it on.
Oonce, baby, oonce, baby, oonce.
“ ZACH!” yelled his father. “Stop it! Right now! No more rap songs until we are back at the hotel, understand?”
The priest patted Morse on the back. “These young kids today, they are a handful, non?”
“Yes, I agree. They are quite a handful.”
“Is their mother here to help you?” the priest asked.
“No, my wife died about eleven years ago, Father. She was one of the victims of
9-11.” Zach and Zoey suddenly got very quiet and serious.
“Oh, pardonnez-mois, Professor. That is quite tragic. These terrorists, they are truly evil people. I did not mean to upset you. Perhaps we should return to our puzzle. You were speaking about Helen of Troy, who hatched from an egg.”
“I have a Helen in my class. Did Helen have like feathers or anything?” asked Zoey.
“No, Zoey, she was quite beautiful. In fact, she was so beautiful that two countries went to war over her. Each country had a leader who wanted to marry her. That was the famous Trojan War.”
“Like the one with the Trojan Horse?” asked Zach.
“One and the same.”
“So is there a constellation for Helen of Troy?” asked Father du Bois.
“No, but there is one for the swan. It is called Cygnus, and it looks like a cross in the night sky.”
Father du Bois seemed skeptical. “But that doesn’t fit, Professor Morse. As far as I know, Zeus was not the guardian of sailors. That was his brother Poseidon, god of the oceans. I do not think anyone would call Zeus a guardian of sailors.”
“Hmm,” thought Morse. “You are correct. That does not seem to fit. But I know Helen came from an egg, so that seems right. I don’t know.” Morse turned to Zach. “Zach, can you get a signal on that iPhone of yours?”
Zach flicked on the phone. “No bars down here. Must be all this rock.”
“Zach, can you try and go back into the wine cellar where we just were and see if you can reach the Internet from your iPhone. Try putting in ‘hatched egg Greek mythology constellation’ into Google and see what you get. Then come back here and let us know if you find anything.” Morse then went over to Zach and huddled with him for a moment, whispering in his ear.
“OK, sure.”
“Can I go with Zachster?” asked Zoey.
“Sure,” said Morse. “Zach, watch your sister.”
Morse studied the door once more. “Also, put in ‘Orion constellation Greek mythology’ into Google and see if you can figure out how the great hunter Orion died. I have a feeling Orion might be the hunter referenced in the last line.”
Morse looked at the last line. He did not know who was sent by Mother Earth to save the wild beasts. The next line was also drawing a blank. “Tricked by the king and punished by the queen” could mean a lot of people. That was obviously a reference to Zeus, who was always tricking women into sleeping with him, and the queen of the gods, Hera, who wrought her vengeance any time she learned of Zeus’ infidelity.
“A pitiful distraction, it harbors bees.” Morse did not know of any bees constellation. “He weeps a river for his foolish friend.” That was not ringing a bell, either.
Morse looked at the last four lines. Four slayers and four slain. The four slayers they had so far were Perseus (who slew Cetus), whoever the hunter was in the last line…the identity of the other two he could not fathom. The four slain included Cetus (slain by Perseus). He did not know who the other three were.
The next line talked about two mothers. Cassiopeia, mother of Andromeda, was one. Who was the other one?
The priest pointed toward the wall. “It says here there are two monsters. One of the monsters was Cetus, the sea monster. Are there any other monsters which are constellations?”
“Yes,” said Morse. “There is Draco, the dragon, who guarded the golden apples in the garden of Hesperides, which were given to Hera as a wedding gift. One of Heracles’ twelve labors was to steal the apples. He asked Atlas to help him fetch the apples. Atlas said he would help, but he was busy holding up the whole earth, and plus there was the matter of the dragon. Heracles killed the dragon, temporarily relieved Atlas by holding up the earth, and then when Atlas had found the apples, Heracles gave the earth back to Atlas to hold. Draco is at the very top of the northern sky.”
“Are there any others?”
“Leo was a big lion but I do not think that would qualify as a monster. Hydra is the longest and biggest constellation. That was a multi-headed beast fought by Heracles, who finally killed it by burning the stumps of the severed heads with a torch. Ummm, let me think. The only other one I can think of is Cancer, the giant crab, who was sent by the gods to hassle Heracles when he was fighting the Hydra. Heracles killed the crab pretty easily, too.”
“He killed it easily, heh?” asked Father du Bois. “So then you would say it was almost a ‘pitiful distraction?’” “Yes, that fits,” admitted Morse. “But what about the part about harboring bees?”
“The only story I am aware of about a monster harboring bees is Samson, who killed the lion with his bare hands and then the honeybees built a hive in the lion’s body. Do you think that could be it?”
“Possibly,” said Morse. “But most of our other hits have been Greek myths. It would seem weird to suddenly jump out and look at a Bible story. Also, I would not describe a lion as a pitiful distraction.”
Just then, Zach and Zoey came running back down the tunnel, with Zach holding his iPhone up in triumph.
“Dad, we’ve got it! I put in the search you told me, and it came back with that story about Zeus being a swan.”
“Yes, we know that already,” said Morse.
“But then it said that after the lady fooled around with the swan, she had three kids, not just Helen. Her other two kids were Castor and Pollux, who also hatched from eggs. Castor and Pollux are known as The Twins. Dad, the clue means Gemini!”
“Ahh, of course. And by any chance did it say that they are guardians of sailors?”
“Yep. In fact, it said that when you use the phrase, ‘By jiminy,’ whatever that is, you are repeating an old sailor’s prayer to the Gemini.”
“Let me see that, if you don’t mind,” said the professor, viewing the iPhone screen. He paged down on the webpage with his finger, until he found something else interesting. “It says here that Castor and Pollux later got into a dispute with their cousins over who were the rightful owners of certain cattle. One of the cousins, Idas, hurled a spear at Castor, killing him. Pollux later was so upset that he asked to be killed so he did not have to be without his brother. So Castor and Pollux were both sons of Zeus and one of them was slain. Looking at our count on the bottom of the door, the four sons of Zeus are Perseus, Castor, Pollux, and we need one more. The four slain are Cetus, Castor, and we need two more.”
“What did your iPhone say about Orion?” asked Father du Bois.
“It said that Orion was a great hunter, and that he wanted to hook up with these seven hot sisters. He started bragging that he was going to bust a cap in all the animals on earth, and then Mother Earth came along and sent a scorpion to kill him. It said because the two were such enemies, Scorpio and Orion could never be seen in the sky at the same time.”
“What does ‘bust a cap’ mean?” asked Father du Bois.
“It means kill,” said Zach.
“Of course,” said Father du Bois. “Zach, you have solved another one.
He was sent by Mother Earth to save the wild beasts. That has to be Scorpio. Because Mother Earth sent the scorpion, all the wild beasts of Earth were protected.”
“He has solved two of them,” said Morse. “He hunts the greatest game and is slain by the least. The least game is the scorpion. That has to refer to the constellation Orion. That brings our count of the slain to Cetus, Castor, and Orion. We only need one more. And Orion, as a hunter, is also a slayer. Since Scorpio killed Orion, that makes it a slayer. So that means our four slayers are Perseus, Scorpio, Orion, and we only need one more.”
“Hey Pops,” said Zach. “One other thing. I put in ‘swan’ and ‘Greek mythology’ ‘cause I wanted to read more about that dude who hooked up with the duck, and there was this other story about this guy Phaethon. Apparently, the other kids in school were hatin’ on him that he really wasn’t the son of Apollo, the sun god, so he took his dad’s ride out for a spin. His dad had this like Sun chariot or somethin’, and Phaethon ended up crashing the car and burning up deserts and leaving polar icecaps everywhere and stuff. And Zeus was annoyed and hit him with a thunderbolt and killed him.”
“That’s all very interesting,” said Morse, not following how the story was relevant. “What does that have to do with this?”
“Well, it turns out that Phaethon had this crybaby friend of his who was so bummed that his friend died that he starts crying into this river and he dives into the river flailing around for his buddy, and he looked like this swan flappin’ around. So the gods took pity on the loser and put him in the sky as a constellation. His name was Cycnus. The name of the constellation was Cygnus, the swan.”
“Of course! You’ve got it, Zach. Good work. He weeps a river for his foolish friend. That is Cygnus. Some of these constellations have more than one story associated with them. So here, Nostradamus was referring to Cygnus both with the story of the seduction of Leda—Leda, that was her name!—and the story of weeping Cygnus. Fantastic!”
“So what other constellations are there?” asked Father du Bois. “What are we forgetting?”
“Let’s see, there’s Aquarius, the water bearer. Capricorn, the goat. Centaurus, the centaur. There is Canus Minor and Canus Major, the two hunting dogs. There’s Cepheus, the father of Andromeda. What else…..”
“The only stars I know of are the Big Dipper,” said Zach.
Morse thought for a moment. The Big Dipper. Of course, that was it. The other mother….Morse excitedly re-read the text on the door again.
“I’ve got another one! You’ve nailed it again, Zach. The Big Dipper is called that because it looks like a giant ladle. And then there is the Little Dipper, which looks the same, and at the end of its handle has the star Polaris, the North Star. But those constellations are known by a different name, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the Big Bear and the Little Bear. According to Greek mythology, Zeus was interested in sleeping with a woman named Callisto, who was very beautiful. Callisto was a follower of the goddess Artemis. So Zeus dressed up as the goddess Artemis herself….”
“Woa! He is a cross-dresser, too! This guy is like King of the Pervs,” said Zach.
“Anyway,” continued Morse, “He dressed up as Artemis, and Callisto….uh, as you would say ‘hooked up’ with him.”
“Dad, stop talking about gross stuff!” screamed Zoey, throwing her hands up.
“After they finished…” Morse continued, but hesitated, as he saw his daughter glaring at him, “Anyway, then Callisto had a son named Arcas, who became head of the Arcadians. Zeus’ wife Hera was so mad at Zeus that she turned Callisto into a bear. Now, it turned out that Arcas was a herdsman and a hunter himself—hey, there’s our fourth slayer!—and as he walked through the woods, he came upon his mother as the bear. The mother was overjoyed to see him so she stood up on all four legs. Arcas thought his mother was an attacking bear, so he prepared to kill her. At the last second, Zeus saved the day, turned Arcas into a little bear, grabbed him by the tail as hard as he could, stretching it out. Zeus yanked Callisto up as well, throwing both mother and son into the night sky. However, Hera was still mad, so she made it so that the constellations were so high in the sky that they could never have rest or peace. And that’s why the Big Bear and the Little Bear can be seen in the northern sky all year round.
He tries to kill his mother, then tries to save her. That has to be Arcas, the Little Bear.
Tricked by the king and punished by the queen. That has to be Callisto, the Big Bear.”
“And Arcas,” said the priest, ?