ANCIENT HYMNS AND POETRY FOR APHRODITE

Alexandrian hymn to Aphrodite

"Queen, who lov'st Golgi and the Sicel hill and Ida; Aphroditè radiant-eyed; the stealthy-footed Hours from Acheron's rill brought once again Adonis to thy side How changed in twelve short months! They travel slow, those precious Hours: we hail their advent still, for blessings do they bring to all below. O Sea-born! thou didst erst, or legend lies, shed on a woman's soul thy grace benign, and Berenicè's dust immortalize. O called by many names, at many a shrine! For thy sweet sake doth Berenicè's child (Herself a second Helen) deck with all that's fair, Adonis. On his right are piled ripe apples fallen from the oak-tree tall; and silver caskets at his left support Toy-gardens, Syrian scents enshrined in gold and alabaster, cakes of every sort that in their ovens the pastrywomen mould, when with white meal they mix all flowers that bloom, oil-cakes and honey-cakes. There stand portrayed each bird, each butterfly; and in the gloom of foliage climbing high, and downward weighed by graceful blossoms, do the young Loves play like nightingales, and perch on every tree, and flit, to try their wings, from spray to spray. Then see the gold, the ebony! Only see the ivory-carven eagles, bearing up to Zeus the boy who fills his royal cup! Soft as a dream, such tapestry gleams o'erhead as the Milesian's self would gaze on, charmed. But sweet Adonis hath his own sweet bed: next Aphroditè sleeps the roseate-armed, a bridegroom of eighteen or nineteen years. Kiss the smooth boyish lip—there's no sting there! The bride hath found her own: all bliss be hers! And him at dewy dawn we'll troop to bear Down where the breakers hiss against the shore: there, with dishevelled dress and unbound hair, bare-bosomed all, our descant wild we'll pour: "Thou haunt'st, Adonis, earth and heaven in turn, alone of heroes. Agamemnon ne'er could compass this, nor Aias stout and stern: not Hector, eldest-born of her who bare ten sons, not Patrocles, nor safe-returned from Ilion Pyrrhus, such distinction earned: nor, elder yet, the Lapithæ, the sons of Pelops and Deucalion; or the crown of Greece, Pelasgians. Gracious may'st thou be, Adonis, now: pour new-year's blessings down! Right welcome dost thou come, Adonis dear: Come when thou wilt, thou'lt find a welcome here." - Theocritos Idyll 15

Sappho's Hymn to Aphrodite

Iridescent-throned Aphrodite, deathless
Child of Zeus, wile-weaver, I now implore you,
Don't--I beg you, Lady--with pains and torments
Crush down my spirit,
But before if ever you've heard my pleadings
Then return, as once when you left your father's
Golden house; you yoked to your shining car your
Wing-whirring sparrows;
Skimming down the paths of the sky's bright ether
On they brought you over the earth's black bosom,
Swiftly--then you stood with a sudden brilliance,
Goddess, before me;
Deathless face alight with your smile, you asked me
What I suffered, who was my cause of anguish,
What would ease the pain of my frantic mind, and
Why had I called you
To my side: "And whom should Persuasion summon
Here, to soothe the sting of your passion this time?
Who is now abusing you, Sappho? Who is
Treating you cruelly?
Now she runs away, but she'll soon pursue you;
Gifts she now rejects--soon enough she'll give them;
Now she doesn't love you, but soon her heart will
Burn, though unwilling."
Come to me once more, and abate my torment;
Take the bitter care from my mind, and give me
All I long for; Lady, in all my battles
Fight as my comrade.

Orphic Hymn 55 to Aphrodite

"To Aphrodite. Ourania (Heavenly), illustrious, laughter-loving (philommeideia) queen, sea-born (pontogenes), night-loving (philopannyx), of awful mien; crafty, from whom Ananke (Necessity) first came, producing, nightly, all-connecting dame. ‘Tis thine the world with harmony to join, for all things spring from thee, O power divine. The triple Moirai (Fates) are ruled by thy decree, and all productions yield alike to thee: whatever the heavens, encircling all, contain, earth fruit-producing, and the stormy main, thy sway confesses, and obeys thy nod, awful attendant of Bakkhos [Dionysos] God. Goddess of marriage, charming to the sight, mother of the Erotes (Loves), whom banquetings delight; source of Peitho (Persuasion), secret, favouring queen, illustrious born, apparent and unseen; spousal Lukaina, and to men inclined, prolific, most-desired, life-giving, kind. Great sceptre-bearer of the Gods, ‘tis thine mortals in necessary bands to join; and every tribe of savage monsters dire in magic chains to bind through mad desire. Come, Kyprogenes (Cyprus-Born), and to my prayer incline, whether exalted in the heavens you shine, or pleased in odorous Syria to preside, or over the Aigyptian plains they care to guide, fashioned of gold; and near its sacred flood, fertile and famed, to fix they blest abode; or if rejoicing in the azure shores, near where the sea with foaming billows roars, the circling choirs of mortals thy delight, or beauteous Nymphai with eyes cerulean bright, pleased by the sandy banks renowned of old, to drive thy rapid two-yoked car of gold; or if in Kypros thy famed mother fair, where Nymphai unmarried praise thee every year, the loveliest Nymphai, who in the chorus join, Adonis pure to sing, and thee divine. Come, all-attractive, to my prayer inclined, for thee I call, with holy, reverent mind."