Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HOMERIC HYMN: APHRODITE ON IDA, by                    
First Line: "then aphrodite, the lover of laughter, was clad"
Last Line: Over her breasts -- a marvellous thing to behold


THEN Aphrodite, the lover of laughter, was clad
richly and decked with gold. She left all the scent
of Cypros Isle, and Troyward swiftly she went,
hurrying through gliding clouds high overhead.
To many-fountained Ida, mother of beasts, she sped,
straight to the homestead on the mountain-side.
Fawning came grey wolves and lions grimly-eyed,
bears and quick leopards ravenous for deer.
She rejoiced to see them coming from far and near,
and cast desire in their hearts, and at once they lay
coupling along the shadowy valley-way.
She came to the shelters, neatly built out of wood,
where, formed like a god, the hero Anchises stood.
No one else had stayed in the mountain-home;
over the pasture the others had gone to roam
with the hungry herds, and alone in the steading he stayed,
stroking a lyre till it thrilled with the music he made.

Then Aphrodite, the daughter of Zeus, came in sight.
Like a maiden she seemed in her gracious ways and her height,
having no wish to scare him with what he saw.
Anchises beheld her and marked with wondering awe
her gracious ways and her height and her dress that seemed
a haze of fire as it warmly rippled and gleamed,
an embroidered robe that shimmered a moon of gold
over her breasts -- a marvellous thing to behold.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net