Wives Aboard Noah's Ark - Modern Popular Fiction

Modern Popular Fiction

In his opera Il diluvio universale ("The Great Flood", 1830), Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti named Japhet's wife Tesbite, Shem's wife Asfene, and Cham's wife Abra. These are of course fictional names.

Amélie Louise Rives wrote a short story in 1887 called "The Story of Arnon" told in the first person by "Arnon, the fourth son of Noah", who hid his beloved, Asenath daughter of Kemuel, aboard the Ark.

In Andre Obey's 1930 play Noah, Noah's wife is given no proper name, but is called simply "Mamma" by all, even Noah. Shem's intended bride is Sella, Ham's is Naomi (or, in one English translation, "Norma"), and Japheth's is Ada.

In Clifford Odets' 1954 play The Flowering Peach, Noah's wife is Esther, Shem's wife is Leah, and Ham's wife is Rachel (These traditional Jewish names are taken from other figures in the Old Testament). In the course of the play, Ham divorces Rachel and she marries Japheth, who has always loved her from afar. Ham takes Goldie, whom Noah had intended as Japheth's wife, as his new bride, and all ends happily. (Goldie is an outsider from another tribe, hence her unusual name.) These names are also used in the Broadway musical adaptation, Two by Two (1970).

In Madeleine L'Engle's novel Many Waters (1986), the wife of Shem is said to be Elisheba, that of Ham to be Anah, sister of Tiglah, and that of Japheth Oholibamah. Noah's wife is called Matred. These names were all taken from characters mentioned elsewhere in the Old Testament.

In Stephen Schwartz's 1991 musical Children of Eden, Noah's wife is given no name, but is called Mama Noah in the script or simply Mama by the characters. Ham's wife is called Aphra and is pregnant with their child at the time of the flood. The child is born after the flood and they name her Eve after the Eve in the first act. Shem's wife is called Aysha. Japheth, at the time of the flood, is in love with the family's servant, a young girl named Yonah who is a descendant of Cain. Since God has forbidden all concourse with those of the race of Cain, Noah forbids Japheth to take Yonah on the Ark. However, Japheth hides Yonah inside a covered hold on the Ark. She escapes the flood, to be later reconciled with both the family and God when Shem discovers her after Yonah releases the dove to find dry land. (In the Schwartz musical, with script by John Caird, it is significant that after the flood, two of the wives' names become the names of the continent to which that couple migrates: Ham and his wife set out for the land later known as Africa - Aphra = Africa; while Shem and his wife set out for the land later known as Asia - Aysha = Asia. Japheth and his wife Jonah merely say their descendants will cover the world in their search for a return to the lost Eden.)