Canto VI: The Bull, the Seven, the Hired Man, and Aritimi

Canto VI
The Bull, the Seven, the Hired Man, and Aritimi

[An ensemble of Charis (soprano), Ovis (mezzo) and Columba (alto) began to sing.]

And since the wilderness had been made clear
Of Demons, then the Shepherd and the Old,
The Ancient Man did give the Pillar to
The Bull of Heaven, He who takes the turn
That followeth the Mighty Twins, and near
Two thousand years the Bull of Heaven reigned.

Succeeding Him there came the Seven Gods,
The Children of the Goddess Turan,* Queen       [*Venus, Aphrodite]
Of Twilight and the Queen of Dawn, who held
The Watch four hundred years until it could
Be taken by Our Teacher, whom we call
The Hired Man. A penetrating blast
Upon a hollow ram-horn heralds His
Arrival; He's the one we see with horns
Upon His head. He taught us much, to fire
The clay to make our beads and pendants, so
We could adorn ourselves, and guard ourselves
From danger. Yet, the skill to use the clay
for pots, this He declined to teach to us,
And many lifetimes passed before we learned
To make clay pots. Another gift He gave
Was making marks in bones to keep account
Of things, no matter whether counting our
Possessions meagre or our years.   His reign
Would be two thousand years, except it fell
Two hundred short; such was the Hired Man.

    [Aquila (soprano) and Lupa (mezzo) sang.]

Now hear our song! The Watch that's next belongs
To Aritimi,* Childbirth's Goddess, She        [*Artemis, Diana]
Who is the Patroness of Pregnancy.
She showed our people how to dance, to make
Both drum and flute from bones of animals
And skin, and how to mark them, even make
Them fair to see. Another gift of Her,
Of Aritimi, was the needle, bored
To pull the thread to knit together skins.
She also taught our people how to make
Her pregnant image out of clay, with long
And swollen breasts and ample buttocks. When
Her Watch was almost done, She sent to us
The Swallow of Her Love, and It appeared
To us at just the time before when stood
The Pillar in the place where it is now,
An Epoch when the year's first Sun arose
Along the path it now repeats.* So She

[*Since the Janid was performed in 1990 and a complete cycle of the precession of the equinoxes takes 25,780.783 years, this event can be dated to about 23,800 BCE.]

Announced the changing of the Watch, Her Reign
Had lasted then two thousand years, and so
She heralded the Great One's* swift approach,        [*Magnus]
As She does now, in this our time, for yet
Again the Great One comes. The Time is nigh!

[continue to Canto VII]

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Last updated: Sat April 21, 2012