Absalom and Achitophel advice of the double agent Hushai over the good advice of Achitophel. Achitophel, realising that the rebellion is doomed to failure, goes home and hangs himself. Absalom is killed (against David's explicit commands) after getting caught by his hair in the thick branches of a great oak tree: "His head caught fast in the oak, and he was left hanging between heaven and earth, while the mule that was under him went on" (NRSV 2 Sam. 18:9). The death of his son, Absalom, causes David enormous personal grief. A second allegory in the poem, beginning on line 425, is the
Christen Mule Christen Mule Christian or Christen Mule (died 1589) was a merchant and Mayor of Oslo, Norway. He was probably a member of the family Mule from Denmark. Mule's parents have not been identified, but claims that he was the illegitimate son of the unpopular Hans Kristensson Mule were disputed by Edvard Bull the elder. Christian was the father of Thomas, Severin (Soren), Kristen, Bertel, and possibly Niels Mule. The first mention of Mule is in 1555, when he is already a central figure in Oslo. He was an advocate for Oslo to the King in connection with the equipment of