King Saul

King Saul is the first king of ancient Israel, a figure the children of Odyssey encounter through the Imagination Station and the Bible Room at Whit's End. As a young man he was hunting his father's lost donkeys when the prophet Samuel anointed him king. Frightened at first, he rose to the challenge, rallying three hundred thousand men to defeat the Ammonites and save the city of Jabesh. But victory changed him. He stole credit, disobeyed God, and built a monument to himself, until God rejected him as king and chose the shepherd David instead. When the crowds cheered David's triumphs louder than his own, Saul hurled spears at David and even at his own son Jonathan, and hunted as a traitor the hero he had once offered his armor. In Odyssey his story stands as a warning of how pride and jealousy can consume a king.