Seven Women from Ancient Time



she was seen by a temple in moonlit Crete

a sacred harlot called Neith

she draws a double bow

said "do not mistake my elegance

for weakness - I birthed all you see

oldest moon goddess

bring me lotus flowers

snakes, cow-horns for my head"

others saw her on the steppe-lands of Russia

called Zarina - one of the horse-faced

Scythian women some call Amazon

she rides bare-breasted dancing

robed in panther skin

shield of bronze ivy-entwined

in her right hand a battle-axe

"war is my game" she says....."men ?

why - they're for tending hearth fires"

grief turned Niobe to stone

she sits, a weeping mountain

grieving her unburied love

her fourteen slain children

and speaks " never forget

I am Ma

old as the human race"

on an island of light and apple trees

she lives in a crystal tower

a temple of silence

where rainbow waves weave and merge

her name is Grianne

"I am the sun" she says

our Lady of the Night

comes to us in dream

immeasurable wild sow

wallowing in her mire

with her memories

of the time she was divine

free with sexuality

"no binding belt for me" she said

"no fear of women then"

we were there when Velleda rebelled

a Gaul, against Rome's vengeance

so splendid in her chariot, so tall

wearing daggers and eagle feathers

gold bracelets and a fighting torque

how we wept at her execution

few saw her emerge vast and green

Danu great mother earth goddess

leader of the Celtic tribes

from an island in the western sea

where three dark nights of ritual begin

when the sun dies to be with the moon




Pamela Sidney 1998