Weekly Geeks #17: Quote #6
Maybe I just like lapis lazuli? As Joanne observed on the first quote, it is a gorgeous gem.
Anyway. This is still from Checkmate by Dorothy Dunnett. Some names were omitted from the quote to protect the uninitiated etc. XD
The scent of the small room was pleasing. Moonlight limned in grey in the story of Psyche on the finely arched window, and alighting within, touched upon nymphs and garlands and roses, and upon lines of silver, glittering by the chimney-piece:
I will harness thee a chariot of lapis-lazuli and gold
Come into our dwelling, in the perfume of the cedars . . .Where are the links of the chain, glimmering there: joining us to the past? The perfume was pleasing because it was familiar to him. The other presences, in the silence, were older.
The two lines looks like they came from the Epic of Gilgamesh, particularly from Tablet VI. It’s what Ishtar, the goddess of love, is offering to Gilgamesh, but he rejects her. I think I am slightly agog at what’s implied behind these quotes.
Also, I like the line about the glimmering chains, joining us to the past. I think it’s fitting that “Where are the links of the chain . . . joining us to the past?” is what is written on Dorothy Dunnett’s memorial stone.
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