The name I am thinking about is "Sargon" AKA Sargon the Great or Sargon of Akkard. He may well have been the first man to have ruled an empire but what caught my attention was words from his own mouth recorded on a clay tablet...
"My mother was a high priestess, my father I knew not. The brothers of my father loved the hills. My city is Azupiranu, which is situated on the banks of the Euphrates. My high priestess mother conceived me, in secret she bore me. She set me in a basket of rushes, with bitumen she sealed my lid. She cast me into the river which rose over me. The river bore me up and carried me to Akki, the drawer of water. Akki, the drawer of water, took me as his son and reared me."....And so seems Sargon was the first to offer the " Birth Legend" which is found with and including Moses, Karna, and Oedipus, but I like the idea that a little basket protected an unwanted infant in these stories in a little vessel in a river and each of whom went on to much greater things....but their basket not only saved then but was part of who they became. But certainly a popular story or we witness a few
co incidences.
But his " Birth legend" came at a time when kings would claim they had far from humble births claiming perhaps important folk as parents or even a god or two in the family so his claim to a humble start set him apart right there.
Anyways Sargon is a huge figure in history well worth study and certainly worth having my little boat named after him...and hopefully it will protect it passenger and he can go on to greater things...ie me
alex