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- 12/07/2021
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The Great Mirror of Same-Sex Love - Poetry - 36. …your image lit in me…
.
Three Epigrams from Meleager
i.
It is Aphrodite, a woman,who tosses at us
the desire for women.
But Eros rules over
our passion for men.
Whither shall I incline,
to the youth or to his mother?
I tell you for sure, even
Aphrodite herself admits:
“The bold brat ever carries the day.”[i]
ii.
Why do you, Morning Star,
the foe of love, look down on
my bed so early, just as I lie
warm in dear Demo's arms?
Would that you could
reverse your swift course
and be the Star of Eve again,
you whose sweet rays fall
on me most bitter.
Once of old, when he lay with Alcmene,
you turned back in the sight of Zeus;
you are not unpracticed
in retracing your tracks.[ii]
[after W. R. Paton]
iii.
At 12 o'clock in the afternoon
In the middle of the street –
Alexis.
Summer has all but brought
the fruit to its perilous end:
but the summer light & that boy's look
did their work on me.
Night hides the sun;
your face consumes my dreams.
Others feel sleep as feathered rest;
mine but in flame refigures
your image lit in me. [iii]
—Meleager,
circa 80 BC
[after Peter Whigham]
[i] “It is Aphrodite, a woman” Meleager Greek Anthology 12.86
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Anth.+Gr.+12.86&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0475
[ii] “Why do you, Morning Star” Meleager Greek Anthology 5.172
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Anth.+Gr.+5.172&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0472
“Morning Star” refers to Aphrodite once again, or the planet Venus, as we call it. This point of light in the sky, usually very near the moon, is both the morning and evening stars.
[iii] “At 12 o'clock in the afternoon” Meleager Greek Anthology 12.127
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Anth.+Gr.+12.127&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0475
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