"Here we may reign secure, and in my choyce
To reign is worth ambition though in H*ll:
Better to reign in H*ll, then serve in Heav'n."--John Milton, Paradise Lost Book I: Inferno, lines 240-242
Oh no ... I've transmigrated into the Abyss. The Babylonian Underworld known as Kur or Irkalla. It looks a lot less friendly than Hades' Underworld.
I'm in a dark barge, reminding me of the Klingon Barge of the Dead in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager where B'Elanna Torres, the half-Klingon half-human, literally visits the Klingon Underworld, Gre'thor, where the dishonored dead go. A river flows around me. It makes the River Styx look like the Rio Grande.
Lamashtu sits in the middle of the barge on an ebony throne, and I'm sitting beside her while we take this nightmare river cruise. From what I remember of the mythology surrounding Lamashtu, she likes to take frequent boat trips, surveying her dark domain.
