By the Waters of Babylon

Stephen Vincent Benét lived from 1898 to 1943. Much of his writing examines subjects from American history, including his highly acclaimed narrative poem John Brown’s Body. Benét won four Pulitzer Prizes, including one for “By the Waters of Babylon.” First published in 1937 in The Saturday Evening Post as “The Place of the Gods,” the postapocalyptic story follows a young man’s journey for truth and explores the themes of The Destruction of War, Coming of Age, and The Pursuit of Knowledge.

This guide refers to the e-book edition released by Hythloday Press in 2014.

“By the Waters of Babylon” begins in a postapocalyptic land where a community called the Hill People have strict rules about where it is safe to hunt and live and where it is forbidden. The opening paragraph lists the forbidden areas as the Dead Places, the great river, and, most significantly, the Place of the Gods. The Hill People tell legends of how the Place of the Gods was destroyed in something called the Great Burning, when fire and chemicals rained down to demolish the land and kill the people living on it. People are prohibited from going to these areas because they believe “it is there that spirits live, and demons” (1).

A young man named John narrates the story. Because his father is a priest and because he intends to also become one when he is an adult, John is able to go to the Dead Places with his father in search of metal to bring back to their community. Though these Dead Places inspire fear in John, as they often contain bones and decomposing bodies, he refrains from showing his anxiety, as it is inappropriate for a priest’s son to be afraid.

Once, on a trip to search for metal in the Dead Places, John is able to hold a piece of metal without dying, thus proving his destiny to be a priest. After this rite of passage, the child receives further freedom and responsibility, such as stricter punishments for his poor behavior and the ability to go inside the houses of the dead to find metal by himself. As he grows up, John learns other secrets of priesthood, such as “the chants and the spells” (1), healing practices, the history of the gods and the Old Days, and how to read and write the old language.

Eventually, John becomes a man and asks his father to give him permission to go on his journey. Before he can leave, he must go through the purification ritual. During this time, John looks into the smoke of a fire and tells his father about his dreams and visions. He describes seeing “a river, and, beyond it, a great Dead Place and in it the gods walking” (2). His father acknowledges that this is a strong dream and warns that the dream may overcome him. However, John reaffirms that he is not fearful, so his father gives him a bow and three arrows for his journey. Finally, before he leaves, his father reminds him again that it is against their laws to travel east, cross the river, or go to the Place of the Gods.

John fasts as he sets out on his journey, and he believes it is a sign when he sees an eagle fly east. He continues to wait, worrying that the sign could have been sent by evil forces, but he realizes that he must travel east when he sees three deer and a white fawn all going east as well. Following them from a distance, he saves the white fawn from a panther by killing the panther with a single arrow. John knows, with this third sign, that it is his destiny to travel east to the forbidden land.

For eight days, John travels east and avoids his community’s enemies, the Forest People, by sleeping in the homes of the dead. On the eighth evening, he comes across the bank of the great river, which his people call the Ou-dis-sun, and he looks south to see the Place of the Gods. Throughout the night, John wrestles with his journey, knowing that he is meant to cross the river into the Place of the Gods but also desiring to return home. In the morning, he cries as he constructs a raft to cross the river and prepares his body and spirit to die by singing a “death song” (4).

John travels down the river on his raft with great fear, but he eventually opens his eyes to see the crumbled god-roads—bridges—that had been built over the river as well as the tall ruins of the city itself. The raft gets caught on something in the river and capsizes, and John swims to the shore. As John walks through the Place of the Gods, he sees the crumbled ruins of what was once a great city, including towers, statues, and luxurious homes. Eventually, as he goes looking for food, he wanders into what he believes was a “great temple” because the “roof [is] painted like the sky at night with its stars” (6). He sleeps there.

When John wakes up, he sees an enormous wild dog watching him. The dog follows John toward the decimated homes deeper in the city. More dogs join in the hunt, but John enters one of the homes and slams a door in their faces. He explores this home, which appears to have belonged to someone wealthy, as it is filled with beautiful paintings, sculptures, and books. He also finds a kitchen, bathroom, and living room with a fireplace, although these are all foreign ideas to him.

When John falls asleep in the house, he has a vision of the city as it was when the gods lived there. He sees bustling streets, bright lights, and the loud roar of the metropolis. He recognizes that while they accomplished great and mighty things and possessed incredible knowledge and wisdom, they were also flawed. Finally, John envisions the Great Burning, during which he sees towers falling, fire raining down from the sky, and poisonous chemicals filling the air. When he comes back to the present, John sees the decaying body of a man sitting in a chair by a window in the home. Upon seeing the body, John realizes that it wasn’t gods that occupied the city but humans just like him.

When John returns home, he recounts to his father everything he saw. He wants to tell everyone the truth about the gods, but his father warns him that it may not be wise to tell the whole truth too quickly, instead telling him to let the truth come “little by little” (9). John plans to make a new beginning and help the Hill People slowly explore the Place of the Gods, which he now knows to be New York. He ends his narration calling for his people to “build again” (10).