Esse Chua on Unsplash

SLEEP, ENLIL

(Ending the Chapter)

Find annotations about the names and references here.

My words are Athene’s talons
Baba Gurgur my will
Chiron gave my eyes
My smile to Ištar

There’s a universe in my head
You cannot fathom

Layla and Majnūn unleashed
Stars piercing Nyx’ fabric
With Éris’ flame
Dancing until Vamakali’s final step

My fingers were forged in Urim
Eleos is my skin
My voice as wild as Girra
Galbanum withholds me

There’s a bond in my heart
You must not shatter

For Neti’s realm is barred
Beatrice and Vergilio are lost to you
The lightbearer will wash
All of you away

My kiss like çam balı
Philomela weaved my touch
My embrace is Dumuzid
Hēdonē leads my hand

There’s a fervour in my soul
You will never recognise

Venus seduces Šulpae
Ninmah breathes her concession
Anar thrown to kallistēi
Iškur over the kanephoroi

The blood and the fire
The sceptre and the arms
Longing for each other
Holding each other

Being each other
Until Anu cedes.

Footnotes:

Enlil (old; newer name: Elil), Lord Wind, was barred from sleep by the loud people, unleashed a flood to silence the world.
“Your world is mine. Your burden is mine. Until I lay my head to rest.” ↩

Athene is beautiful but rarely dangerous, still she is a bird of prey.
Baba Gurgur is ever-burning under the surface, fires erupting randomly since ancient times.
Chiron’s wedding gift to Peleus was a spear: seldom seen, and piercing if directed.
Ištar (older name: Inanna), the goddess of love and war, tried to conquer the underworld.
“With radiating eyes that caught me in a beam.” ↩

Layla and Majnūn: the lovers, they dance,
and burn as hard as Éris’ flame of hate and contempt (not for each other),
like stars in the night sky until one stops the other lest they go too far
as Vamakali, unhinged Kali after destroying many demons: Shiva lay down in front of her so she would see him and stop, Vamakali only recognised him when she stepped one foot on him.
“This songless, sightless, silent giant” ↩

Like the Dagger of Ur, the fingers are delicate, unique and hurtful.
Eleos is merciful, sensitive and compassionate.
Girra is the god of fire and of light, both useful and destructive;
Galbanum soothes.
“We offer our admission and return home.” ↩

When Ištar tried to conquer the underworld, Neti took a token of her power from her at each seal, leaving her naked and powerless in the end.
Beatrice and Vergilio are reason and knowledge and thus lost to you.
Lack of depth in understanding and emotion, the same as death.
“From afar, just a light on the hill” ↩

Çam balı, pine honey: unusual, and it might make a heart skip a beat.
Philomela was raped and her tongue cut out; she weaved her story into a cloth. It may caress scars or tear open wounds.
Dumuzid (old; newer name: Tammuz), the consort of Ištar, “the shepherd”, was dragged into the underworld, blindfolded and forbidden from sleeping. (He dies yearly, thus the seasons.) His caress comes at a price.
Hēdonē just follows pleasure and delight and has no regard for consequences.
“Skin deep, we carve our immeasurable sorrow” ↩

Venus and Šulpae (“the brilliant youth”, a consort to the mother goddess, though tied to demons and the underworld): the images of beauty and youth.
Ninmah, “magnificent queen”, is the mother goddess, she breathes and thus allows things that usually are not granted.
Anar: dalim; kallistēi: Eris’ apple over which Hera, Athene and Aphrodite fought.
Iškur (old, new: Adad), the God of storms and rain; kanephoros: a honorific office for young unmarried women/girls carrying baskets of fruits (and a sacrifical knife), wearing necklaces of figs.
“This is all you; so this is all yours.” ↩

Blood and fire are intriguing and to be wielded cautiously. ↩

Anu (old: An) is the sky, created the universe itself.
“There is no road to redemption.” ↩