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XX Nenbroto is one of the few Sola-Busca images that is recognizable from more standard tarot
decks. It depicts Nimrod and the destruction of the Tower of Babel. The source usually cited for
this imagery is the biblical account of the Tower' of Babel found in Genesis; however, the
relevant passage does not describe the destruction of the tower, it merely describes the dispersal
of its builders as the result of a god-induced confusion of languages. Beyond this passage, no
other Biblical reference exists concerning the tower or its fate. From where, then, did the story of
The third to fourth century CE Bishop of Caesarea, Eusebius Pamphili, in his ‘Preparation for the
Gospel’ recorded, and so preserved for posterity, quotations from many historians and
philosophers whose writings are now lost. Amongst them we find the following passage
attributable to a second century BCE Hellenistic, and possibly Jewish, historian known as the
Pseudo-Eupolemus,
“Eupolemus, in his work, “On the Jews,” states that the Assyrian city of Babylon was first
founded by those who escaped the flood. When the tower was destroyed by God’s power, these
The passage not only introduces the theme of the destruction of the tower by god but also alludes
to the fact that its builders, under the rulership of Nimrod, were ‘giants’. These references
confirm that the card’s imagery was derived from an extra canonical tradition (we will return
later to search for traces of this tradition) and that the image is, indeed, a depiction of Nimrod
In Dante’s ‘Inferno’ Nimrod appears in the ninth circle of hell amongst the giants. He shouts
garbled words,
reference to the goetia, to the tradition of magical incantations and spell casting that evolved
from and incorporates the traces of several pagan traditions with Christianity; utilising the
intermingled names of pagan deities, angels and daimones. Nimrod is also described in Pseudo-
Philo as being a black giant and as essentially evil. All of these obscure references, along with
those suggested by pseudo-Eupolemus and Dante, point us towards identifying Nimrod as one of
the Nephilim or ‘giants’ described in Genesis; which brings us to one of the defining cosmo-
Excerpted from
The Game of Saturn: Decoding the Sola-Busca Tarot by Peter Mark Adams