Chapter 35 -Two Sangas
City of Anna. SW Asia
The fine citizens of Anna enjoy feasting as much as my own savage kind of a faraway world. Today the citizens dine in their holy sanctuary of the E-anna. Šamkat is dressed in her amazing attire of soft, patterned textiles, her copper coloured hair tightly plaited, her face painted with colourful cosmetics. She escorts Ittidu to spaces reserved on the head bench. There they’re met by a sanga-priest with child-like skin, and beads of a jet black stone around his chubby neck.
This man stands up to greet Ittidu, ‘Ittidu, the princess of our gardens, daughter of En Arrapu, the martyred champion of Eden, servant of Nammu, heroine of the guruš of Anna. Welcome to our joyful celebrations’.
Rightly, she senses this elaborate address hasn’t been made as genuine homage, but to impress others here. Ittidu knows it's this priest of Inanna who is promoting her legend in Anna.
Šamkat formally introduces the sanga to Ittidu, ‘Merkar, sanga of Inanna, defender of her eš, seeker of the Me, Ally of Gishirgal, and the rightful En to all of this City and its plain’.
Ittidu reacts, ‘I feel great honour to sit at the table of such an esteemed holyman, and I take pleasure in sharing this commonwealth with you’
‘It’s I who are truly blessed by your presence,’ insists Merkar, ‘and to enjoy your support in our struggle against Engur and its tyrant’.
Despite the grooming of both her Mistress Šamkat, and the Moon High Priestess training her to fight, Ittidu remains unsure of war. The latter as chieftain of Gishirgal, has been pressured into seeking alliance. Their shrines and communes are vulnerable to attack by Uguli’s guruš army.
Yet it's no more than greedy ambition that motivates Šamkat. She desires Merkar’s elevation to the high office of En of Anna. A successful war will give this to him. Any last doubts are now disturbed, when the sanga Merkar rises to speak,
‘Anna and its caravans have suffered from Engur’s arrogance. The soils and waters of Gishirgal are threatened, and the gods desire our armies to go to their aid. We shall march onto that vile supporter of Uguli. Tomorrow with the support of an army raised by NinEreš, we attack the devilish feinds of Babba.’
Ittidu is confused. She'd been under the impression that the war would be fought against Engur, not the closer and smaller settlement of Babba, home to the Sun-god, and to her former fiancé. When Merkar finishes his speech, Ittidu solicits his attention,
‘Why do we wish to war with Babba, rather than rally against Engur? I thought it was Uguli who is threatening the interests of both Anna and Gishirgal?’
‘Dear Child, this war will be won through strategy. The priests of the Sun-god are treacherous servants and spies of Engur. Whilst Engur threatens our allies on one side, Babba stabs them in the back from behind. We must first crush the dog, before we march on its master’.
Ittidu remembers the innocent faces of children on its riverside, and the compassion of Dugala’s mother. Her father would wish no harm to come to any holy house. She petitions Merkar with a condition of her support for this war,
‘Will our own guruš be merciful to the innocent citizens of Babba’s township?’
Merkar gives a benevolent smile and answers, ‘Inanna is the merciful maiden. She fights like a lioness, but always she spares the righteous and the innocent. We must free the poor citizens of Babba from the tyrannical rule of its priests, for they serve not any god, but Uguli of Engur. We will enter not as barbarian conquerors, but as divinely appointed liberators’.
Perhaps naively, Ittidu surrenders to his will.
Revelation
It’s sunset when Ittidu retires to her cot in the House of Šamkat. She’s barely nested, when rest is disturbed by Sagmi appearing in her doorway. With a hush, the serving girl makes a personal appeal,
‘Miss Ittidu, I know you harbour doubts about Merkar and his ambitions. Tonight Mistress Šamkat is away visiting him in his bedchamber. I wish to share secrets with you. Please, come with me now to the sanctuary’.
Ittidu is unsure of such subterfuge behind her benefactor’s back. Neither does she wish to wander Anna’s streets at night. Yet she has come to trust Sagmi.
She wiggles her head, and Sagmi beckons, ‘Please Miss Ittidu, we must leave now’.
Ittidu throws a sheepskin over her shoulders, and joins Sagmi in the corridor. They sneak through the compound to reach the darkened street. The night air is fresh as hand in hand they guardedly creep along the street towards the sanctuary. They pass by volumes of nocturnal citizens who haunt Anna. Giggling couples fondle and thrust in darkened niches. Noisy beggars awaken to loudly demand their bread. Drunks stumble and fall. Sagmi pulls Ittidu away from each of these confused tipplers. Ittidu discovers the night is a busy time in a City of Pleasure. She garbles a question to her companion,
‘Sagmi, is this not disloyal to our Mistress? Doesn't Šamkat provide us with food on our plates, and a comfortable cot under her roof?’
The serving girl’s answers are short, because she refuses to slow down, ‘Ittidu, you've been too trusting of Mistress Šamkat. You don’t know her as I do.’. Her voice drops to a hateful hiss, ‘She steals wealth from her porters and weavers. Šamkat cares only for her riches’. ‘Hasn't Šamkat been a kind and generous mistress to us both?’.
‘Kind? Šamkat fawns over her fat priest. Together they break girls then cast them out into these streets as wretches or into the sanctuary as harimtus.
Ittidu is shocked by this revelation. She knows by the tone of voice Sagmi is telling the truth.
Sagmi doesn’t lead Ittidu to the great House of Inanna. She takes her by the hand to the small, decaying chapel of the pig-mother once worshipped as Urush-Unug. Lights of a few burning torches flicker within. The two girls enter a spooky building, where flamelight dances across the cracked and crumbling plaster of its walls. Ittidu senses the presence of ghosts within this chapel. Nervously she follows Sagmi to the altar where the goggle-eyes of a forgotten pig-mother stare down in judgement. A blood stained altar, flanked by the sculptures of two leopards, there is someone here with us.
An animated figure stands within the shadows of the old idol,
‘Who’s there? Who are you?’ Ittidu nervously calls out to the hooded figure. Robed in a travel cloak similar to which her father would wear out on the wild Eden. A thought enters her frightened mind, could this be my Father returned from the dead?
In answer to that thought, this figure raises its arms, faces her, and with long wrinkled fingers, pulls back the hood of the cloak. The thin, shorn features of a holy man emerges in the light of the torches. It isn't the face of her late father, but of a stranger. Ittidu releases her breath to steady her fast heart beat. Next to her, Sagmi smiles gladly, and then bows down to introduce this mysterious priest,
‘My true master. Sanga to Urush Unug, champion of ceremony, presenter of tradition. Rightful En of Anna. Ittidu, please meet my lord Agga’.
Agga steps closer into a better light. Ittidu was warned by her Mistress that this sanga is a captain of spies. She hadn’t guessed Sagmi could be one of those. A thin lipped smile creeps across a grey, gaunt face.
He opens his mouth and releases a sweet quivering voice, ‘Hello Ittidu. Šamkat’s famous lion-slayer. In this poor light, I recognise you've the eyes of Sidura. Your mother was so beautiful, and from what I have heard, you've inherited Arrapu’s stern strength and resolve’.
Bowled over both by Sagmi’s exposure as a spy, and by his familial recognition, Ittidu is left stunned.
Agga fills the silence, ‘My daughter Sagmi tells me you think us spies for Uguli of Engur?’ He sounds bemused by this suggestion.
Ittidu’s own silence breaks, ‘Are you not a spy, and a traitor to Anna?’
He answers with a genuity, ‘NinShudapa was a dear old friend but sadly she has lost her mind. This permitted the usurper Uguli to seize the reins of Engur’s power. No, I’m no supporter of his regency. I was horrified to hear of your father’s murder by that tyrant’.
‘Why does my mistress distrust you?’
‘Merkar desires supreme power. He’s no different to Uguli other than he wears the wool of a temple. He would equally be a tyrant to rule over Anna and beyond. Šamkat wishes to influence him so she may control Anna’s caravans, and profit from their wealth’.
‘Have I been summoned to this temple to betray Anna in war?’
‘Ittidu, although war is the most terrible thing, I’ve no yearning for you to abandon the battle. I only ask you to fight justly and well, open your eyes to see Merkar’s true nature for yourself. I will be there to support you’.
‘What of his ally, NinEreš? Should I be wary of Nanna’s bride?’
‘Gishirgal fights because it has to. Their shrines are under siege by the joint forces of Babba and Engur. NinEreš’s own loyalty to Merkar is one of convenience. I was glad to hear that the high priestess trained you in the arts of war. Should Anna be victorious against Engur, Merkar will next wish to possess her lands’.
Sagmi places a reassuring arm around Ittidu’s waist, telling her, ‘Miss Ittidu, we wish to protect you. We believe the gods reserve some great destiny for yourself’.
They must return to the House of Šamkat before their mistress returns. Ittidu leaves Agga feeling confused. It seems to her that nothing in civilisation is what it appears to be. A world of mirrors and lies.