The curtains would open and it would be just her standing in some ludicrous pose, like Aphrodite.

quote by Lesley-Anne Down
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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It's no use

It's no use
Mother dear, I
can't finish my
weaving
You may
blame Aphrodite

soft as she is

she has almost
killed me with
love for that boy

poem by Sappho
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Helen of Troy

A mythological beauty, she had been;
A legendary beauty, she had grown.
Who is it other than Helen of Troy,
The epitome of seductive beauty?

A symbol of man’s erotic desires,
From the other women, Helen differs
In that she never employed her charms
To gain power of self-aggrandizement.

Her era dates back to fifth century B.C.
The fairest of women had been the one
Whom all women should hate and yet envy,
And all men should fear and yet desire.

No wonder, men were captive of her charm,
But not was she captive of any man..
She had admirers; none did she admire.
Her fairness deserved more than what she got.

[...] Read more

poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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A Calendar of Sonnets: April

No days such honored days as these! While yet
Fair Aphrodite reigned, men seeking wide
For some fair thing which should forever bide
On earth, her beauteous memory to set
In fitting frame that no age could forget,
Her name in lovely April's name did hide,
And leave it there, eternally allied
To all the fairest flowers Spring did beget.
And when fair Aphrodite passed from earth,
Her shrines forgotten and her feasts of mirth,
A holier symbol still in seal and sign,
Sweet April took, of kingdom most divine,
When Christ ascended, in the time of birth
Of spring anemones, in Palestine.

poem by Helen Hunt Jackson
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Love

Sweet mother, at the idle loom I lean,
Weary with longing for the boy that still
Remains a dream of loveliness--to fill
My soul, my life, at Aphrodite's will.

poem by Sappho
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The Death of Adonis

Cythera saw Adonis
And knew that he was dead;
She marked the brow, all grisly now,
The cheek no longer red;
And 'Bring the boar before me'
Unto her Loves she said.

Forthwith her winged attendants
Ranged all the woodland o'er,
And found and bound in fetters
Threefold the grisly boar:
One dragged him at a rope's end
E'en as a vanquished foe;
One went behind and drave him
And smote him with his bow:
On paced the creature feebly;
He feared Cythera so.

To him said Aphrodite:
'So, worst of beasts, 'twas you

[...] Read more

poem by Theocritus
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Blame Aphrodite

It's no use
Mother dear, I
can't finish my
weaving
You may
blame Aphrodite

soft as she is

she has almost
killed me with
love for that boy

Sappho
tr. Barnard

poem by Sappho
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Girls who Die

Once upon a time there was a fly
A girl who in disguise always lay
None did know who she was
Her shape and identity she never dispose

While she flies cheerfully
To her misery begins her mystery
She encountered cupid and Aphrodite
And was shocked by love without treaty

She got one ray from cupid
Another from Aphrodite tossed
Her disguise she would unfold
She now loves without a sword

She gave him all her swords
Willing to hear and keep his sweet words
But what will words do
If his love did subdue

[...] Read more

poem by Sara Here
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hero And Leander

** HERO AND LEANDER

The Dardanelles is a narrow strait which links, -
The strait of Bosporus with the Aegean Sea;
And also separates the European from the Asian
side of Turkey!
In the ancient days this strait was better known
as Hellespont,
With its narrowest stretch between Sestos and
Abydos!
Hero, the beautiful virgin priestess of Aphrodite*, -
Lived in Sestos on the European side!
Leander a fiery youth from Abydos, lived on
the opposite side of Sestos!
Leander saw Hero at a religious festival at Sestos,
And it was love at first sight we are assured!
Leander wooed Hero with many soft words of
entreaty;
How could Aphrodite the Goddess of Love and

[...] Read more

poem by Raj Nandy
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Transit of the Gods

Strange that the self’s continuum should outlast
The Virgin, Aphrodite, and the Mourning Mother,
All loves and griefs, successive deities
That hold their kingdom in the human breast.
Abandoned by the gods, woman with an ageing body
That half remembers the Annunciation
The passion and the travail and the grief
That wore the mask of my humanity,
I marvel at the soul’s indifference.
For in her theatre the play is done,
The tears are shed; the actors, the immortals
In their ceaseless manifestation, elsewhere gone,
And I who have been Virgin and Aphrodite,
The mourning Isis and the queen of corn
Wait for the last mummer, dread Persephone
To dance my dust at last into the tomb.

poem by Kathleen Jessie Raine
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Thy Form Is Lovely

Thy form is lovely and thine eyes are honeyed,
O'er thy face the pale
Clear light of love lies like a veil.
Bidding thee rise,
With outstretched hands,
Before thee Aphrodite stands.

poem by Sappho
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Birthday

I have a sister whom God gave to me;
He formed her out of trouble and the mists of the sea.
Like Aphrodite, she came to me full-grown.
Oh, I am blest forever with a sister of my own.

poem by Lesbia Harford
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Sapphics

All the night sleep came not upon my eyelids,
Shed not dew, nor shook nor unclosed a feather,
Yet with lips shut close and with eyes of iron
Stood and beheld me.

Then to me so lying awake a vision
Came without sleep over the seas and touched me,
Softly touched mine eyelids and lips; and I too,
Full of the vision,

Saw the white implacable Aphrodite,
Saw the hair unbound and the feet unsandalled
Shine as fire of sunset on western waters;
Saw the reluctant

Feet, the straining plumes of the doves that drew her,
Looking always, looking with necks reverted,

[...] Read more

poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne
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Artemis and Aphrodite

Women of Victoria Era
Had more of Artemis, the Goddess of chastity
Than of Aphrodite, the Goddess of love and fertility.
Men of Victoria Era
Must, therefore, have been blessed in that
They were, unlike us, worriless
Of their spouses’ fidelity towards them.
10.03.2008

poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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The First Winter Snow

Oh, pretty girl, you have trapped
yourself in the wrong body.Twenty
extra pounds hang like a lumpy
tapestry on your perfect mammal nature.

Three months ago you were like a
deer staring at the first winter snow.

Now Aphrodite thumbs her nose at you
and tells stories behind your back.

poem by Richard Brautigan
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Libera Me

Goddess the laughter-loving, Aphrodite, befriend!
Long have I served thine altars, serve me now at the end,
Let me have peace of thee, truce of thee, golden one, send.

Heart of my heart have I offered thee, pain of my pain,
Yielding my life for the love of thee into thy chain;
Lady and goddess be merciful, loose me again.

All things I had that were fairest, my dearest and best,
Fed the fierce flames on thine altar: ah, surely, my breast
Shrined thee alone among goddesses, spurning the rest.

Blossom of youth thou hast plucked of me, flower of my days;
Stinted I nought in thine honouring, walked in thy ways,
Song of my soul pouring out to thee, all in thy praise.

Fierce was the flame while it lasted, and strong was thy wine,
Meet for immortals that die not, for throats such as thine,
Too fierce for bodies of mortals, too potent for mine.

[...] Read more

poem by Ernest Christopher Dowson
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Hera

I am Hera,
And you may know me
As the queen of the gods,
And as Zeus's wife.

Despite what they say about me,
I do not really like my husband,
For he is a real jerk.
I mean, he gives all this
Attention to other women,
And never gives any attention
To me.

It makes me mad,
And, of course, jealous,
Because I only have two children,
And one is a spoiled brat,
And the other walks with a freaking limp!

I mean, maybe I give

[...] Read more

poem by James Roberts
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Bank Of The Seine In The Northwestern Suburbs Of An Imaginary City

On the edge of a hill
You get a smile of an angel

Under a oak
Your wicker basket
A green canteen for sparkling water

You ride a paper pony
My cute panda of Cythera
And I can not forget the sword of truth

Liquid
Open-mid
Alphabet day
Nasal labio-velar

On the way home
I hear Aphrodite's voice through your tears

poem by Nicolas Grenier
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Colour of Happiness

The colour of anger is Red
Frustration connubial to Dread
The colour of love is Purple
Sanguine to Aphrodite's myrtle
The colour of life is green
Freshly mixed with infused submarine
But the colour of happiness is transparent
A viscous antonym of denotation

and I am the colours Souvenir
Cheap, artefact of a personas facsimile

poem by Kevin Patrick
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The Death of Daphnis

THYRSIS.
Sweet are the whispers of yon pine that makes
Low music o'er the spring, and, Goatherd, sweet
Thy piping; second thou to Pan alone.
Is his the horned ram? then thine the goat.
Is his the goat? to thee shall fall the kid;
And toothsome is the flesh of unmilked kids.

GOATHERD.
Shepherd, thy lay is as the noise of streams
Falling and falling aye from yon tall crag.
If for their meed the Muses claim the ewe,
Be thine the stall-fed lamb; or if they choose
The lamb, take thou the scarce less-valued ewe.

THYRSIS.
Pray, by the Nymphs, pray, Goatherd, seat thee here
Against this hill-slope in the tamarisk shade,
And pipe me somewhat, while I guard thy goats.

[...] Read more

poem by Theocritus
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