Hillalum

Hillalum is the protagonist of the novelette and the character through which the reader experiences the events of the narrative. He is a miner from Elam who had never visited Babylon prior to being selected to work on the tower. Unlike most fictional protagonists, Hillalum does not have distinctive physical or personality traits that set him aside from the other characters. Functionally, he is the point-of-view character for the reader, since the story is told using third-person limited narration, but there is little time devoted to developing his particular dreams or aspirations. This is not unusual given the allegorical overtones of Tower of Babylon; Hillalum is intended to be a representative of humankind rather than his own divergent individual.

Thus, it is interesting to examine the etymology of Hillalum’s unique name. A possible inspiration for Hillalum could have been the Ancient Greek noun ὁ ἥλιος (helios, from which we derive words like “helium” and “heliocentric”). This would be in line with the galactic scope of Tower of Babylon. The sun also holds connotations of mortal hubris in Greek mythology through myths such as those of Phaethon, Bellerophon, and Icarus. Also in keeping with Greek mythology, “Hillalum” could be interpreted as incorporating the English word “hill,” perhaps in reference to Sisyphus, a mortal who was punished for his hubris in the afterlife by being tasked with rolling a boulder up an endless hill for all eternity. While the sun is a common element in myths about hubris due to the symbolism of humanity literally reaching too high (interestingly, in Tower of Babylon, the eponymous tower soars past even the sun itself), the imagery of Sisyphus could represent humankind’s unending quest for knowledge that will always remain slightly out of their grasp.

Nevertheless, Hillalum is an effective synecdoche for humankind within the world of the novelette. His journey up the tower can be viewed as a symbolic one, as Hillalum is slowly corrupted by the hubristic nature of the enterprise. When he first arrives in Babylon and stands at the base of the tower, his “senses rebelled, insisting that nothing should stand so high,” indicating a proper response to the Babylonians’ inhuman endeavour. However, by the time Hillalum reaches the top of the tower and has spent years mining through the vault of heaven, he succumbs to hubris in his final desire to “die closer to heaven than any man ever had before.” In becoming corrupted by the tower, Hillalum is forced to confront the powerlessness of mortals in the face of the divine and recognize the futility of any human effort toward progress. He manages to survive through his trip into the vault of heaven, but the text implies that this survival is in and of itself a kind of divine punishment, for Hillalum will now have to live burdened with this new knowledge.

Nanni

Nanni is a fellow miner from Elam and is insinuated to be a close personal friend of Hillalum’s. Etymologically, the name is derived from Hebrew and can be roughly translated as “favored by God,” which further emphasizes the religious undertones of the story. Within the novelette, he is portrayed as inquisitive, if slightly daft at times, and his role within the narrative is often to draw exposition out of other characters. His role is perhaps too small to consider him as a proper character foil for Hillalum, and he disappears from the story entirely once the Elamites reach the top of the tower.

Lugatum

Lugatum is a Babylonian wagon-puller who has been working on the tower for his entire life,...