piled his wealth into a mountain , climbed atop it with his eunuchs and concubines , and torched it all with a fire that burned his palace to the ground . Readers also added detail to Jonah ’ s vague depiction of Nineveh . The 1589 morality play by Thomas Lodge and Robert Greene , A Looking Glass for London and England , retells the book of Jonah with a lengthy description of Nineveh ’ s sinfulness , complete with evil kings , usurers , demons , murderers , and forced incest .
Nineveh is a metaphor for the ambiguity of all cities . It is a screen onto which readers project their own values in order to reaffirm them . It is a mirror that reflects back readers ’ faults and offers them a moral lesson .
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