eager citizens of Babylon.
“A funny thought came to me as the boat moved up the river. There were crowds on all sides. And I thought, ‘He thinks this is all for him, Cyrus. And it’s really just Babylon. Babylon having a big party or festival like it does so often, but he’s never seen the city going crazy with dance and drink, and so he is very impressed. Well, let him enjoy it.’ Only dimly did I realize, I had not seen my family. They had been there, I was sure, but I had not seen them.
“The House of the Ordeal was splendidly plastered in silver and emerald and rubies. The pillars were gold and made to look like great lotus blossoms at the top. The middle of the roof was wide open, and all around us were crowded hundreds upon hundreds of noble Babylonians, the rich, great officials from other cities, priests who had come with their gods to Babylon for safety, and also hundreds upon hundreds of Cyrus’s court, so like us, yet so different. Taller, leaner, more trim, and more sharp of eye.
“Suddenly I stood alone in the midst of the open court. Everyone had backed away. Remath stood beside me, and on the other side, the young compassionate priest.
“ ‘Lift your arms,’ said the priest. Take your sword from the scabbard.’
“ ‘Sword, I didn’t know I had one.’
“ ‘You do,’ said the young priest eagerly. ‘Ah, yes, raise it high.’
“I scarcely knew whether I obeyed. The world was swimming before me. The nobles were chanting and harps were playing, and then I heard a sound I knew, knew from many spectacles of the past, and from the hunts with my father and brother. I heard the roar of lions, caged lions.
“ ‘Don’t fear,’ said Remath. ‘These animals are satiated and filled with potions that make them sluggish and they will come one by one as they are released, and they will rise as they have been trained to lick the honey from your lips, which I will put there now, honey and blood, and when they do, you will drive your sword into them.’
“I laughed. ‘And you, where are you going to be?’ I asked.
“ ‘Right here, beside you,’ said the young priest. ‘This is nothing, Lord God Marduk, these lions want to die for you.’
“He lifted a chalice to my lips. ‘Drink the honey and the blood,’ he said.
“I did, barely able to feel myself swallowing. I realized suddenly that almost all sensation had left my skin, I was as one in bitter cold night desert wind. But I swallowed and he gave me more until my tongue and lips were coated with blood and honey.
“A terrible excitement ran through the crowd. I could see the fear. The first lion had been released and came towards me. The Persians were backing up against the walls, I think. I could feel the fear, smell it. And I laughed again. ‘This is so funny,’ I said. ‘I’m half-dead and this lion is staggering towards me.’
“Suddenly, the lion sprang, and the two priests had to hold me so that the lion’s weight didn’t throw me backwards. I lifted the sword. I called on the gold enamel to give me strength and I drove the sword into the lion’s heart. His hot foul breath blew into my nostrils and his tongue touched my lips, and then he fell over, awkward, dead, and the crowd sang and sang and sang of courage.
“Now the King came to my side, and he too had his sword, and I saw that as the second lion and third lion were released that we were to kill them together. The King’s face was as rigid as mine, and he narrowed his eyes at the beast. ‘They have plenty of life in them, it seems to me,’ he said.
“ ‘Ah, but you’re a King and I’m a god, so let’s kill them.’
“Behind them the priest cracked the whip which made one lion jump for Cyrus first and he staggered back as he drove the sword and then kicked the animal away from him. The lion rolled on its back roaring, dying. The second beast was in my face. I felt the priest lift my wrist. ‘Thrust now!’ I did. I thrust more than once wanting the thing dead and off me.
“And once again, all sang, and cheered, and I could hear the crowds outside singing and cheering. I saw the lions lifted and carried out. I heard the song of the priest of the slaying by Marduk of the evil Tiamat.
“ ‘And from her hide he made the heavens and the earth and the seas…’ the words rang out in the old Sumerian. And then in Akkadian, and then in Hebrew, and it was like overlapping waves of sound, and I swam in them.
“I stood alone in the court. The priests were painting me with the blood and honey. ‘They cannot hurt you,’ said Remath.
“ ‘What?’ I asked. But I knew. I could hear them as distinctly as the beasts. It was the bees. And now as a great silken dragon proceeded towards me, tightly sewn with spindly gold ribs and controlled by those who worked it on sticks, I saw it was full of bees. The dragon was wrapped around me, and I was enclosed in a silken tent. Its tail even covered my head. I heard the sound of ripping fabric. The bees were loosed on me and covered my body over. I was filled with loathing. But my feet were frozen in place. And the stings of the bees did not penetrate the gold, and when they came near my eyes I only closed my eyes, and gradually I realized the bees were dying. They were dying from their own sting and from the poison perhaps in the gold. I heaved a great sigh.
“ ‘Keep your eyes open,’ cried Remath.
“And when all the bees had fallen, and the great silken dragon, now collapsed, had been offered to me to rip with my sword there came the cries again.
“I was being carried up the stairs, to the roof. I could see out over the open fields. I could see the crowds going on and on forever. I lifted my arm with my sword, I lifted it again and again, turning to the east, and the west, and the north, and the south, and lifting it and smiling, and the crowds sang back to me. All the earth sang back to me.
“ ‘It is so very beautiful,’ I said, ‘so indescribably beautiful.’ But there was no one to hear me. The fresh air waked me a little, touching my nostrils and my throat, and cooling my eyes. The priestesses of the temple surrounded me, throwing flowers in the air, and then I knew I was being led away to the royal couch.
“ ‘You can have as many as you want, but I advise you to sleep,’ said Remath.
“ ‘Yes, good idea. And how do you keep me from dying?’
“ ‘I can hear your heart. You will live long enough to make the journey home. You are stronger than anyone imagined.’
“ ‘Then give me a harlot,’ I said.
“Everyone was upset. ‘Well?’ I said.
“The harlots screamed with delight. I beckoned for them to come. But I couldn’t do it with them. I could only take each one in my arms and plant a poison kiss on her grateful upturned sweet little mouth and send her away in swoons, to wipe off the kiss, I hoped, as soon as she could. I laughed deep in my chest with my lips closed.
“Other things were done that night, but I slept. Fire, poetry, dances, things I never saw.
“I slept. I stood, resting back at a tight angle so that I seemed to be supporting myself, and with my eyes open, painted open now with fresh gold, so that I could not close them, but I slept.
“The world seemed a pit of madness. Now and then I woke to see the flames and the dancing figures. Now and then I heard some whisper or sound. Or heard running feet and felt human hands clasp me.
“Once I think I saw the King dancing below. I saw the King dancing with the women in a great strange slow dance, figures turning ceremoniously and then the King threw up his arms and bowed down to me. But nothing was required of me. The smile was fixed on my face now by the hardened gold. And only when I laughed did I feel the flesh tingle.
“At noon, the following day, as we began the procession back into the court of Esagila, I knew for sure I was dying. I could scarcely move at all. The attendants, under the cover of silk scarves and robes, fiercely painted the gold fluid on my knees to keep them flexible, but they didn’t want the people to see. And I was not tired so much as stunned, staring at those before me.
“We came now to the gates…we went into the courtyard, where the great poem ‘In the Beginning’ would be read, and the actors would begin their pageant. I felt a sadness suddenly, a terrible sadness and confusion. Something was wrong.
“But all of a sudden as if it were the answer to a prayer, the thing was made right. I heard my father singing. I heard him and my brothers:
