Essential McLuhan 206 The SEMITIC VORTEX was the lust of war. The men of Elam, of Assur, of Bebel and the Kheta, the men of Armenia and those of Canaan had to slay each other cruelly for the possession of fertile valleys. Their gods sent them the vertical direction, the earth, the SPHERE. They elevated the sphere in a splendid squatness and created the HORIZONTAL. From Sargon to Amir-nasir-pal men built man-headed bulls in horizontal flight-wald. Men flayed their captives alive and erected howling lions: THE ELONGATED SPHERE BUTTRESSED ON FOUR COLUMNS, and their kingdoms disappeared.