Ivan Yefremov - Thais of Athens

In the back of the portico, behind the statue, a narrow passageway led into a small cell. It was well lit through a wide opening in the roof. A tile of fired clay was set into a niche in the eastern wall, above the black wood altar. The tile was covered with pronounced sculptural images. The nude goddess stood on legs which ended in tightly joined owl’s feet, and her hands were held at the level of her face, with palms turned outward. A rope knot was carved in detail, held in her left hand. Owl’s wings, pictured behind her back, hung to the middle of her hips, and feathers were also visible above her ankles.

The goddess stood on the back of a lion, with another lion lying behind, its head turned to the side. The lower corners of the tile were taken up by the images of huge owls, much larger than the lions. Scale-like protrusions at the lower edge symbolized a mountain range. The entire sculptural group was painted with bright colors, including red for the goddess’ body and black for the lions’ manes. Black and red feathers were in both her wings and those of the owls.

Something about the enthasis of the goddess’ perfectly straight posture, her menacing companions with their terrible paws and wings, frightened Thais. But her fear vanished before the delight of the statue’s physical beauty. The goddess’ strong. shapely legs and pert, semi-spherical breasts were similar to those Thais had seen on the Cretan and late Helenian sculptures. Her narrow torso and curvy hips, all combined to create a harmonious image of sensuous power. The goddess was the seductive Ashtoreth-Ishtar, aggressive in her feminine power over beasts and people, more terrible than Rhea-Kibela, more mysterious than Artemis and Aphrodite.

Thais bowed before the ancient sculpture and promised the goddess some flowers.

Later, the Athenian asked the high priestess about the strange winged goddess. She discovered that separate sanctuaries of Ishtar Kutitum, who was worshiped along with the queen of the night, goddess Lilith, have existed near the temples of the Mother of Gods since the times of the ancient kings of Mesopotamia, approximately fifteen hundred years ago. She was still considered to be one of the faces of the Great Mother: Lilith was a goddess of submission to male love, and the rope in her hand was a symbol of that duty. Thais remembered the story by Herodotus about the Babylonian tradition of service to the Great Goddess, when the most prominent women of the city went to the temples of Ashtoreth to offer themselves to strangers. As a sign of their service, they tied a thick rope around their heads. Ishtar Kutitum must have brought forth the Syrian and Finikian goddess Cotytto, who was worshiped as the mistress of uncontrolled passion.

Lilith did not come across as being particularly benevolent on this first meeting. Trying to push away a bad premonition, Thais sent the pacer down to the pine grove at a swift trot. Reveling in the speed, the warm wind and the freshness of her own clean body, Thais rode up to the temple of the Great Mother, handed the reins to Lykophon and thanked him. From the moment they had left the lake of the Waxing Moon, as Thais nicknamed it, the Thessalian kept mum as if he had given a vow of silence.

Za-Asht said that a messenger had come from the high priestess and left a bronze disk. Whenever the mistress was rested enough, she should strike it and the messenger would come to take her back to the temple. The hetaera winced. She really did not want to go back into the sanctuary of the powerful goddess. She sensed there were more trials ahead.

The light, beautiful and mischievous joy of gods and people serving Aphrodite was very different from the unflinching Mother of Gods. It was not entirely in contradiction with her, but not in agreement either. One was the depth of fruit-bearing Earth, the other like the flight of the wind in the clouds.

As usual, Thais had dinner with her slave girl. But the Finikian, who was generally fond of food, hardly touched her meal. Quiet and keeping her eyes down, she settled the hetaera down on the bed and started massaging her legs, which were tired from the ride.

Thais watched her slave girl quietly, then finally asked, “What is the matter with you, Za-Asht? You haven’t been yourself since last night. Did you have too much of the poison?”

Suddenly the Finikian threw herself onto the floor and whispered passionately, clutching her mistress’ knees. “Let me stay at the temple, Mistress. They say I may become a priestess after a year of trials and serve Ashtoreth-Kibela like they do.”

Thais sat up in surprise. “Did the priestesses tell you of the trials? They could be such that you won’t even think about the temple. It is possible that you would begin your service to Kibela from the lowest stage and offer yourself to every stranger that comes here.”

“I don’t care. I am not afraid of anything. If only I could stay here and serve her, whose power I experienced last night. Her power enslaved me.”

The Athenian studied her slave girl carefully, remembering how sarcastic, mean and skeptical she usually was. Now she had been consumed in the fire of faith, as if she were fourteen. Perhaps Moira, the goddess of fate, had brought the Finikian here to serve at the temple. If she actually discovered herself here, it was the same as falling in love. In cases such as this, Thais never objected. If she lost her beautiful servants she would simply finding new ones just as eager to serve her.

But Thais hesitated. She was always careful when deciding the fates of her people. Besides, Za-Asht was all she had at the moment. Would she be able to find her replacement in this secluded temple town? Thais shook her head, not refusing, but not agreeing either.

“Wait. First, I shall find out what they will do with you, then I will find a replacement.”

The girl’s moist eyes lit up. “But you do not refuse. Oh, thank you, Mistress.”

“Don’t celebrate just yet. Nothing has been decided,” Thais warned the Finikian, who had started massaging her with twice the energy. “Tell me, Za-Asht,” Thais asked thoughtfully, rolling over onto her back. “Do you not see any other path in life, save for the service to the Mother of Gods? You are intelligent and attractive, and while fate made you a slave, that can change. Slavery at the temple is worse, for Kibela’s power is limitless.”

“You don’t know, Mistress, how jealous Finikians, Syrians and other local people are. We women do not like to see beauty in other women. The Great Mother makes everyone equal with her mighty hand.”

“I think different people serve her in different ways,” Thais objected. “Do I understand you correctly? Do you not love me at all?”

“Yes, Mistress, but you are too beautiful. I have looked and could not find a flaw in you. You are as agile as our thirteen year old dancer girls, strong as a mare, your breasts are as firm as those of the Nubian women at the dawn of their youth …”

“It is a list worthy of a lover,” the hetaera said, then laughed. “But what is it that offends you so?”

“You are better than everyone around, including me.”

“And because of that you are ready to be a slave to the temple?”

“Yes, yes.”

Thais shrugged her shoulders, still not understanding her slave girl. After a long pause, Za-Asht said, “The blue stones are so beautiful against your copper skin, Mistress. They make your gray eyes look even deeper. Whoever gave you this necklace understands the beauty of things.”

“It was the high priestess of Kibela-Rhea, Ashtoreth, or Ishtar, the many-named Mother of Gods.”

“Are you going to wear your old necklace like a belt?”

“Yes, like Hippolita, the queen of the Amazons.” Thais inspected the golden chain and decided to take off all the stars, except one. Her first victories and successes had long since vanished into the past, and even the star that had been given to her by Ptolemy didn’t mean anything. Only the last one with the letter mu. The priestess had said it had been a female symbol since the ancient times.