Babylonian Woman # 3 (illustrated by Max Rugers)

As Tiffany and Ishtar arrive to work, at a strip club called Suffragette City, Nancy tells them about the Babylonian women she learned about in a class.

Every Babylonian woman went into the Temple Of Ishtar and waited for a man to come to them. They would give them a coin and the women would go into one of the temple rooms and make love to them. Once they had made love, they were free to leave the temple and begin their lives.

Ishtar commented that that after awhile this ritual began to decay and fall to the wayside. She considered this ritual to be one of the most important and terrifying rituals of the civilization for both men and women because they were to give themselves up to lust and previously unknown pleasures.

This woman is one of the Babylonian women waiting in the temple courtyard.

This Babylonian Woman appears in Sandman # 44, page 12, panel 6.

I like this portrait from Max. The colors used in this portrait are interesting and I really like the emotions that resonate from this portrait. It’s obvious from the position of her head that there is a bit of sadness in this woman. Perhaps she is afraid of the ritual for one reason or another or is sad because she is still waiting outside the temple to be picked.

This is a gorgeous portrait of one of the Babylonian Women.