Beauty's Marriage Bed entry

Author: * Beauty Solon - 2 Posts on this thread out of 914 Posts sitewide.
Date: Mar 18, 2007 - 10:43

The Marriage Bed
The gigunu walls and floors are covered with the sweet potpourri of fresh fruits and the fragrant flowers of spring. So thick is the adornment that one could scarcely know that it was inside the Esagila and not a lush forest hidden beyond the meadows. The smell of decaying leaves and dirt, mingled with the scent of fresh blooming roses and lilies left one's senses at tune with the musical notes of the earths changing season. Without being able to recognize her own desires, Ishtar was vaguely conscious of a spirit of stormy power which was there just under her surface and always carefully controlled.

As the ceremony tribe progressed through the gigunu, her confidence begins to rise. "My brother has shown great wisdom in his decision to entrust me to Marduke. From birth, his friendship with Marduke has been strong and competitive. This ceremony demonstrates my brothers' conviction to give nothing but his most treasured to his Highness. My brother understands my love for Marduke and what great wealth shall be received from such a union."

Her opportunistic response was intended to put to rest Marduk's persistent argument of her past relationship with her brother. Marduke raised one eyebrow and they continued through the ivy covered room stopping where a small pond and waterfall stood five feet high. Ishtar dropped to her knees in front of it, placing both of her hands in the waterfall until the cold water covered her wrists, and then closing her eyes made a wish. I wish for Marduke to fall in love with me, with all his heart and all his soul. For a moment she remained still concentrating intensely and then lifting her cupped hand, she drank the water.

Marduke reached out one hand and raised her to her feet. "I suppose you have wished for all the world" he said, "how long before you will get it?" She responded, "Tomorrow if I believe it, never if I don't." She began looking around then partly because she could no longer meet his eyes, but also to find a softer place to lay.

At the side of the esagila was a large bed made from an ancient olive tree. The headboard was from the thickest trunk portion, adorned with fragrant lilies and roses entwined in ivy. She removed her veil of marigolds and draped them over a corner of the headboard. Casting his eyes on the heavily flower adorned room and the dragonfly zooming low around the water in the pond. He said, "I had almost forgotten how beautiful Babylon is in the spring."

The ceremonial tribe ignited a huge pile of logs that filled the metal pit in the corner of the room and then left the two, confident of the forthcoming union. As the fire grew higher, the music from below the rising tower grew louder and seemed more intense.

The gigunu was still cool with the air's fragrant potpourri. The sheets had been soaked in lavender water for ten days and the scent was beckoning them into its softness. Her eyes looked into his. He was carefully watching her. Starring back at him, her heart was pounding making her feel weak, so consuming that her eyes felt heavy. Every part of her was tormented with longing for him. And yet she was half scared and filled with a sense of dread almost greater than her desire. At last his arm reached out and went around her waist drawing her slowly toward him. She moved her head to meet his mouth, slid both her arms around him. The restraint he had shown before now vanished and gave way to a passion that was savage, violent and selfish. She was inexperienced but not innocent and returned his kisses eagerly. Encouraged by the caressing of his mouth and hands, her desire mounted in tune with his and, though at first she had heard somewhere far back in her mind her brother calling out and warning her, the sound then grew fainter dissoved and was gone.

With slow reluctance she, once again, became conscious of the surrounding world and of both of them as separate individuals. She drew a deep luxurious sigh her eyes still closed, feeling that she could not have moved so much as a finger. It seemed that until this moment she had been only half alive.

As they rose and strolled along the edge of the room they looked down onto the ground floor of the city. They were cheered wildly. There were thousands within the walls. The sound of their approving gladness was passionately shared in the form of intense, beautiful music, exotic dancing coupled with delectable feasts that only a city in love could produce.