XVIII. The Armed Goddess




I dreamed that I sat reading in my study, with books lying about
all round me. Suddenly a voice, marvellously clear and silvery,
called me by name. Starting up and turning, I saw behind me a long
vista of white marble columns, Greek in architecture, flanking on
either side a gallery of white marble. At the end of this gallery
stood a shape of exceeding brilliancy, the shape of a woman above
mortal height, clad from head to foot in shining mail armour. In
her right hand was a spear, on her left arm a shield. Her brow
was hidden by a helmet, and the aspect of her face was stern,--
severe even, I thought. I approached her, and as I went, my body
was lifted up from the earth, and I was aware of that strange
sensation of floating above the surface of the ground, which is so
common with me in sleep that at times I can scarce persuade myself
after waking that it has not been a real experience. When I alighted
at the end of the long gallery before the armed woman, she said to me:

"Take off the night-dress thou wearest."

I looked at my attire and was about to answer-- "This is not a
night-dress," when she added, as though perceiving my thought:--

"The woman's garb is a night-dress; it is a garment made to sleep in.
The man's garb is the dress for the day. Look eastward!"