Chapter 12

In the early evening the dugout arrived at the outskirts of Agysst. Directed by AtthYs Aegir navigated the dugout into a small channel branching off the southern arm of the Bredd-ström and to small port surrounded by comfortable looking houses. “That’s my aunt’s house.” AtthYs announced proudly, “She doesn’t know of my visit but I guess it will be alright because of you four far–travelled strangers! She is sweet but like all rich women she is kind of vain and likes nothing more as to outdo her neighbours.” Then he grinned, “Hosting strangers from another part of the world, oh gosh, that’s more than she expected in her wildest dreams! In no time she will proudly spread the news about your arrival all over the town.”

Agysst was the biggest accumulation of houses ever seen by our voyagers ever before. Aegir, the red-head from the north, was the most-travelled, not counting Buri’s journey as a toddler on his fathers back. But the places Aegir had visited so far were flyspeck compared to this city at the coast of the Black Sea. The city stretched along the beach from the mouth of the southern branch of the Bredd-ström in the north to the city to a swampy salt marsh at the foothills of the coastal mountain-range far in the south.

The commercial harbour of Agysst was at the mouth of the Bredd-ström, but of greater importance in respect to the festivity in honour of the Great Mother was the Holy Pier. This berth was set aside for the debarking of the Great Mother. It was about midway between the commercial harbour and the salt marsh. The pier was also the origin of the main street connecting the pier with the high rising sanctuary at the western end of the city in the Temple Town. This long street divided the town in two halves. The avenue crossed the village quarters with its low-build houses along narrow alleys, touched the town square with its shady arcades and then went on to the Temple Town.

The most important section of the town square, the agora, was the raised stage where the city council met for meetings and which was used for selling of prisoners and captives into slavery. During the festivity in honour of the Great Mother this stage was converted into seat of the Great Mother, her throne. All around the square the merchants and artisan had their shops. The houses with their arcades also housed guesthouses and taverns. The Temple Town itself was a town of its own, with a high wall separating the towering sanctuary and the low-build living quarters of the priests from rest of the town.

In the dead of this special night the place at the Holy Pier was illuminated by a half-circle of glowing torches while the landing stage reaching into the inhospitable Black Sea was not illuminated. The torchbearers were white-haired sibylline women on the wrong side of their mid years. Their task was to keep away the citizen and pilgrims from welcome ceremony at pier.

~.~.~

AtthYs’s aunt was really something special and the evening meal she prepared with the help of their daughters couldn’t be beaten! Full and drowsy the four travellers were hardly able to answer the volley of questions AtthYs’s aunt and her daughters were asking. When Laong fell asleep at the table she ordered “Now its time to catch a cap full of sleep, boys. Tomorrow you have to get up early. Remember, first you take a bath in the river for purgation and then put on your best cloth. It’s the most important day of the year! Aaaand” she emphasized and to show the importance of the words to follow, “This will be a great day of our family, one of the greatest days!”

Then she turned to AtthYs, “Haven’t you missed Maya, your cousin, my oldest daughter! Tomorrow she will be one of the girls honouring the Great Mother with her dance! She and her friends practiced the dances over and over again!”

Now AtthYs’s uncle chipped in, “For weeks and weeks now she was nerving the whole family with her preparations!” and AtthYs’s cousin Kiro added, “She was a pain in the neck and wasn’t of any help around the house! I hope she will find a husband with the help of the Great Mother and follows him to the end of the world!”

“You stupid boy!” his mother scolded him, “It’s an honour for the whole family that the priest have chosen her as one off the Daughters of Agdistis!”

~.~.~

They hardly had taken an eye full of sleep in the small back room of the house, when in AtthYs’s woke them up, “Hurry up, hurry up!” he hissed, “If you want watch the arrival of the Great Mother into Agysst, you have to come along!” when Laong moaned, “Hush Laong, you are making enough noise to wake the dead, I mean Aunty. Get on your legs. It’s time!”

With the help of AtthYs’ young cousin Kiro they found the way down to the Holy Pier without breaking a leg in the darkness. The six youngsters were not the only one trying to get a glimpse of arrival of the Great Mother. All the young men of the town and of the counties around seemed to have gathered at the beach. They all had to stay away of the half-circle of torches around the pier and as soon a cheeky boy came too close to the prohibited area one of the old hags shooed him back into the dark.

When AtthYs with his guest and Kiro arrived at the Holy Pier the younger priests and novices had gathered at the foot of the berth while the venerable Galli were waiting in the dark at its far end for boat of the Great Mother materialising out of the dark. When the boat had put in the most venerable priest lifted the carrying chair out of the boat and carried the sedan with the veiled Great Mother ashore out of the darkness into circle of light.

As soon the procession carrying the sedan chair with the veiled Great Mother entered the avenue the young men were allowed to follow in due distance.  The procession moved utterly quiet along the main street from the Holy Pier to the Temple Town. The gate closed of the sacred district closed behind the last of the priest and blocked out the curios youth.

“Where are the girls, the dancing girls, the Daughters of the Great Mother?” Buri asked AtthYs “Don´t they take part in the welcome ceremony?”

“No! You will see tem tomorrow! For more than a week they are already confined behind the insurmountable walls. They have been locked away in the Temple Town. Nobody knows what they are doing there. Men are not supposed to know.”

“Mother told me under the secret of secrecy, that they are taught all the virtues of a woman!” Kiro whispered to Aegir, “But wouldn’t tell me which! My sister Maya is among them and soon I will get a brother on law! The Great Mother will choose the groom for my sister. I hope she picks the right one!”

“Tomorrow you can lay eyes on the most beautiful flowers of the world! Their mere sight will make your heartbeat rise and you will fall in love with every single Daughter of one of Agdistis!” AtthYs told the sun seekers, then however AtthYs added like in trance, “Only the Great Mother is more beautiful than her daughters! Her beauty surpasses all imagination!”

“Don´t loose your head, my friend! Do you want to end up as a bloodless body washed ashore?” Buri grumbled.

“So what?!?” AtthYs asserted stamping his foot to the ground like a stubborn, brainless five year old boy! “I, I want to be the chosen one, the one and only chosen by the Great Mother to be her man! I want to become immortal!”

~.~.~