ISTAR: _The archetype of womanhood, made mortal as a punishment for
having doubted the mercy of God. She became incarnate in Babylon,
and was worshipped there as the famous Babylonian goddess "Istar,"
though her archetypal name was "Narahmouna."_
NABONIDUS: _Or "Nabu-Nahîd," last native king of Babylon, through his
mother a grandson of Nebuchadrezzar. He reigned from B.C. 555-538,
when Babylon fell to Cyrus the Great._
BELSHAZZAR: _Or Belti-shar-uzzur, son of Nabonidus, and governor of
Babylon. He was never proclaimed king of Babylon._
BELITSUM: _The second queen of Nabonidus; a woman of plebeian origin._
CYRUS: _The Great, conqueror of Media, Persia, and Elam, to whom
Babylon fell by treachery._
CAMBYSES: _The elder son of Cyrus, who, after him, became king of
Babylon. He afterwards committed suicide in Egypt, on being
accused of the murder of his brother._
BARDIYA: _The younger son of Cyrus, afterwards murdered by his
brother, Cambyses._
GOBRYAS: _Cyrus' general: the conqueror of Sippar; once governor of
Gutium under the king of Babylon._
LORD RIBÂTA BIT-SHUMUKIN: _A royal councillor of Nabonidus, a member
of the prince's suite, and the intimate companion of Belshazzar:
also landlord of the tenement of Ut._
DANIEL: _The Hebrew prophet, also called Beltishazzar, who, after the
death of Nebuchadrezzar, lost his position at court, and at the
time of the fall of Babylon was living in a small house in the
Jewish quarter._
AMRAPHEL: _The high-priest of Babylon, and priest of Bel; a traitor to
the crown._
VUL-RAMÂN OF BIT-YAKIN: _Priest of Nebo and Nergal, and second in
power to Amraphel._
LUDAR: _President of the college of priests at Sippar, and high-priest
of the temple of Shamash. A traitor to the crown._
NÂNÂ-BABILÛ: _Governor of Sippar. Loyal to Nabonidus._
BUNANITÛ: _A Jewess, the head of the historic banking-firm of
"Êgibi."_
KALNEA: _A Jew, the son of Bunanitû._
KABTIYA: _The son of Kalnea, a Jewish boy._
BELTANI: _A Babylonish widow of the lower class, living in the
tenement of Ut. The mother of Ramûa and Baba._
RAMÛA: _A flower-girl, the daughter of Beltani, afterwards married to
Charmides._
BABA: _Younger daughter of Beltani, afterwards the slave of Lord
Ribâta._
BAZUZU: _Beltani's negro slave._
ZOR: _Baba's pet goat._
HODO: _The Babylonish trader._
CHARMIDES: _The Greek rhapsode._
ALLARAINE: _The archetype of song._
PROLOGUE
THE INCARNATION
Thronged in Uranian mists, all the archtype spirits of heaven,
Gathered in slow-firing wrath against one of their natural number,
Watched her who, first of them all since Jehovah created their order,
Daring the Almighty ire, did forget her transcendence for man.
Wonder divine o'er the sorrow and sin of the earth-condemned races
Dwelt in the heart of the moon-daughter, now beyond ken of her
kindred.
They who, betwixt the one Godhead, His logos, creation, and man,
Infinite, soulless, essential, divine, were highest ideas,
Perfect observance forever had kept of their order, till now,
Seemingly fearless in great disobedience, Istar, the moon-child,
Caught and had struck to her heart a great earth-flown vibration:
so learned
All that her high-worshipped fellows knew not of mankind and of woe.
Fleeing the loud-rolling world with her new apperception, she sped
Far to the heart of the moon, where her father, the moon-god,
received her.
Then, on her silence of wisdom and grief, rose a fast-winging
plaint
Carried across vasty deeps by the loud-surging breath of the wind.
Host upon host, then, the infinite tide, the reflectors of being
Swept towards the refuge of Istar. Their voices, in anger uplifted,
Crashed in a thunderous whirlwind through space; and their
far-flowing light
Gleaming and streaming in chaos of bright iridescence, in flames
Violet, yellow and green, silver, crimson, and shimmering gold,
Glorified space and struck down the world-dwellers to terrified
prayer.
Sin, the great moon-god, the father of her who sought refuge alone,
Mourned in his mystical home; cried aloud through the uprising
clamor,
Asking indulgence for Istar the woman. Him answered but one:
Allaraine, son of the stars, the bard of Æolian songs,
Lord of white clouds, who, begot of a sunset, went winging his way
Far through the star-vault at midnight, full-sprung, with his
heavenly path
Marked by mellifluous song--'twas he who to Sin made reply.
He, who alone, from the earth's evening glow had beheld earthly
passion,
Tranced by the high, fearless wrong of incarnate humanity's power,
Fearlessly now, before all the tumultuous host, voiced his pity.
Vain were his words, though they fell into space like the pearls
of the sea,
Melting round God's very throne, with melodious ecstasy fraught.
Silent the archtypes heard, and in silence of trembling delight
Istar, the lover of souls, concealed in the moon's dim retreat,
Heard him. And silent the earth-world revolved and Time's pulses
were stilled.
Finally, out of the deep, where space is not and time cannot be,
God, the Almighty Jehovah, made answer to Allaraine's plea:
"Istar, who knowledge of incarnate souls was forbidden to hold,
Thou, who unknowing, daredst pity men's sorrows and sins manifold.
Go to the earth-world as one among men, and there shalt thou behold
Life, and its correlate, Death. Sentient there thou shalt live,
but shalt be
Heaven-born still, and thus worshipped on earth, though thou mayst
not be free
Till, 'neath the sorrows of flesh, _thou shalt find man's relation
to me_."
* * * * *
Out of the mists of the moon floated Istar the daughter of Sin.
Out of the mists and the fog came she forth, and Æolian choirs,
Winds of the evening, sang low of her going. Upborne by her tresses
Floating above and about her, she sank; and the dawn was not yet.
Istar, the daughter of Sin, in her vestment of tissue of silver,
Under which glowed the deep purple proclaiming her godhead,
and there,
Full on her breast, the bright flush of the crimson that told
of her passion,
Laughed to herself and the winds, as she came forth from out
of her refuge.
Down, far adown the dark, mystical depths of the chasm of chaos
Floated the mystical maiden; a voice like a clarion echo
Calling from out of the mist she had left: "O Istar, beloved,
Hear and return unto me, father, archtype, soul of the sphere!"
Istar, the daughter of Sin, obeying the word of the Lord,
Heard but not heeded the voice. Only pausing a thought in her course,
Flinging her head to the stars, laughed aloud with her lips
that were scarlet.
Then, with a shake and a shrug of her bare, cloud-born shoulders,
she sent
Clashing and ringing below into space a bright silvery shower
Flashing and pringling with light; which earth-men calléd shower
of stars.
Istar continued her flight and went swaying her tortuous way
Down and adown past all planets and suns in their horror of heat,
Till, in the end, the great fall was accomplished, and Istar was born,
Soulless and pure in the city called "Gateway of God."