Array Anacreon - The Greatest Classics of Ancient Greece

Till I yield on maddening heights the very

Breath of my body.

MUSAGETES

Come with Musagetes, ye Hours and Graces,

Dance around the team of swans that attend him

Up Parnassian heights, to his holy temple

High on the hill-top;

Come, ye Muses, too, from the shades of Pindus,

Let your songs, that echo on winds of rapture,

Wake the lyre he tunes to the sweet inspiring

Sound of your voices.

LOVE'S BANQUET

If Panormus, Cyprus or Paphos hold thee,

Either home of Gods or the island temple,

Hark again and come at my invocation,

Goddess benefic;

Come thou, foam-born Kypris, and pour in dainty

Cups of amber gold thy delicate nectar,

Subtly mixed with fire that will swiftly kindle

Love in our bosoms;

Thus the bowl ambrosial was stirred in Paphos

For the feast, and taking the burnished ladle,

Hermes poured the wine for the Gods who lifted

Reverent beakers;

High they held their goblets and made libation,

Spilling wine as pledge to the Fates and Hades

Quaffing deep and binding their hearts to Eros,

Lauding thy servant.

So to me and my Lesbians round me gathered,

Each made mine, an amphor of love long tasted,

Bid us drink, who sigh for thy thrill ecstatic,

Passion's full goblet;

Grant me this, O Kypris, and on thy altar

Dawn will see a goat of the breed of Naxos,

Snowy doves from Cos and the drip of rarest

Lesbian vintage;

For a regal taste is mine and the glowing

Zenith-lure and beauty of suns must brighten

Love for me, that ever upon perfection

Trembles elusive.

MOON AND STARS

When the moon at full on the sill of heaven

Lights her beacon, flooding the earth with silver,

All the shining stars that about her cluster

Hide their fair faces;

So when Anactoria's beauty dazzles

Sight of mine, grown dim with the joy it gives me,

Gorgo, Atthis, Gyrinno, all the others

Fade from my vision.

ODE TO ANACTORIA

Peer of Gods to me is the man thy presence

Crowns with joy; who hears, as he sits beside thee,

Accents sweet of thy lips the silence breaking,

With lovely laughter;

Tones that make the heart in my bosom flutter,

For if I, the space of a moment even,

Near to thee come, any word I would utter

Instantly fails me;

Vain my stricken tongue would a whisper fashion,

Subtly under my skin runs fire ecstatic;

Straightway mists surge dim to my eyes and leave them

Reft of their vision;

Echoes ring in my ears; a trembling seizes

All my body bathed in soft perspiration;

Pale as grass I grow in my passion's madness,

Like one insensate;

But must I dare all, since to me unworthy,

Bliss thy beauty brings that a God might envy;

Never yet was fervid woman a fairer

Image of Kypris.

Ah! undying Daughter of God, befriend me!

Calm my blood that thrills with impending transport;

Feed my lips the murmur of words to stir her

Bosom to pity;

Overcome with kisses her faintest protest,

Melt her mood to mine with amorous touches,

Till her low assent and her sigh's abandon

Lure me to rapture.

THE ROSE

If it pleased the whim of Zeus in an idle

Hour to choose a king for the flowers, he surely

Would have crowned the rose for its regal beauty,

Deeming it peerless;

By its grace is valley and hill embellished,

Earth is made a shrine for the lover's ardor;

Dear it is to flowers as the charm of lovely

Eyes are to mortals;

Joy and pride of plants, and the garden's glory,

Beauty's blush it brings to the cheek of meadows;

Draining fire and dew from the dawn for rarest

Color and odor;

Softly breathed, its scent is a plea for passion,

When it blooms to welcome the kiss of Kypris;

Sheathed in fragrant leaves its tremulous petals

Laugh in the zephyr.

ODE TO APHRODITE

Aphrodite, subtle of soul and deathless,

Daughter of God, weaver of wiles, I pray thee

Neither with care, dread Mistress, nor with anguish,

Slay thou my spirit!

But in pity hasten, come now if ever

From afar of old when my voice implored thee,

Thou hast deigned to listen, leaving the golden

House of thy father

With thy chariot yoked; and with doves that drew thee,

Fair and fleet around the dark earth from heaven,

Dipping vibrant wings down the azure distance,

Through the mid-ether;

Very swift they came; and thou, gracious Vision,

Leaned with face that smiled in immortal beauty,

Leaned to me and asked, "What misfortune threatened?

Why I had called thee?"

"What my frenzied heart craved in utter yearning,

Whom its wild desire would persuade to passion?

What disdainful charms, madly worshipped, slight thee?

Who wrongs thee, Sappho?"

"She that fain would fly, she shall quickly follow,

She that now rejects, yet with gifts shall woo thee,

She that heeds thee not, soon shall love to madness,

Love thee, the loth one!"

Come to me now thus, Goddess, and release me

From distress and pain; and all my distracted

Heart would seek, do thou, once again fulfilling,

Still be my ally!

SUMMER

Slumber streams from quivering leaves that listless

Bask in heat and stillness of Lesbian summer;

Breathless swoons the air with the apple-blossoms'

Delicate odor;

From the shade of branches that droop and cover

Shallow trenches winding about the orchard,

Restful comes, and cool to the sense, the flowing

Murmur of water.

THE GARDEN OF THE NYMPHS

All around through the apple boughs in blossom

Murmur cool the breezes of early summer,

And from leaves that quiver above me gently

Slumber is shaken;

Glades of poppies swoon in the drowsy languor,

Dreaming roses bend, and the oleanders

Bask and nod to drone of bees in the silent

Fervor of noontide;

Myrtle coverts hedging the open vista,

Dear to nightly frolic of Nymph and Satyr,

Yield a mossy bed for the brown and weary

Limbs of the shepherd.

Echo ever wafts through the drooping frondage,

Ceaseless silver murmur of water falling

In the grotto cool of the Nymphs, the sacred

Haunt of Immortals;

Down the sides of rocks that are gray and lichened

Trickle tiny rills, whose expectant tinkle

Drips with gurgle hushed in the clear glimmering

Depths of the basin.

Fair on royal couches of leaves recumbent,

Interspersed with languor of waxen lilies,

Lotus flowers empurple the pool whose edge is

Cushioned with mosses;

Here recline the Nymphs at the hour of twilight,

Back in shadows dim of the cave, their golden

Sea-green eyes half lidded, up to their supple

Waists in the water.

Sheltered once by ferns I espied them binding

Tresses long, the tint of lilac and orange;

Just beyond the shimmer of light their bodies

Roseate glistened;

Deftly, then, they girdled their loins with garlands,

Linked with leaves luxuriant limb and shoulder;

On their breasts they bruised the red blood of roses

Fresh from the garden.

She of orange hair was the Nymph Euxanthis,

And the lilac-tressed were Iphis and Io;

How they laughed, relating at length their ease in

Evading the Satyr.

APHRODITE'S DOVES

When the drifting gray of the vesper shadow

Dimmed their upward path through the midmost azure,

And the length of night overtook them distant

Far from Olympus;

Far away from splendor and joy of Paphos,

From the voice and smile of their peerless Mistress,