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A lost myth?
I just read Stephen Mitchell’s translation of the Virgilessrímur, an Icelandic poem written around 1300–1450 e.v. about the legendary exploits of Virgiles, the far-famed Italian magician and author of...
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show yourself to us
I call upon the Dionysos who shines out of the vast gloom of the underworld, torch-bearing, flame-haired wild redeemer who wears the fawnskin spangled with stars, dancing through the long Night until...
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they abandon themselves to the dance with the greatest delight
Nicola Caputo of Lecce, De Tarantulae anatomie et morsu pg. 201 They customarily adorn the bedroom dedicated to the dance of the tarantati with verdant branches outfitted with numerous ribbons and...
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The maiden lingers
The maiden lingers at the boundary stone, glancing wistfully behind her at the home she is leaving. Her hair is artfully arranged, her pale cheeks reddened like the summer roses, and a dress fit for a...
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A Hidden Mythology
“Will you come to Tech Noir with me?” Here is my other Óðr playlist. Yes, it’s just nine GUNSHIP songs but they’ve been carefully chosen. Drink some honey whiskey and smoke some good weed then have...
View ArticleHymn to Aphrodite Rhodophoros
To you we give these hallowed offerings, a token of our immense affection O kind-hearted Aphrodite, loveliest of all the Goddesses when you emerge from the pure waters of the rushing river renewed in...
View ArticleHymn to Arsinoë-Aphrodite Zephyritis
Three in number were the Graces, those beautiful Goddesses of blooming flowers and soft gowns handmaidens of the Paphian Queen who adorned her at her birth when she rose lovely-shaped from the waters...
View ArticleImmortalis amor
Whatever the Gods touch becomes a myth, immortal. A rock on the wave-swept beach, a bird high up in a tree, and yes, even the human heart. All these the Gods can cause to exist for all time in the...
View ArticleOn the Festival of the Charites
Let the sweet voices of the maiden-choir rise up like the fragrance of rose petals on the fair altar of Kypris, singing the praises of the Charites, the dance-loving daughters of Dionysos, who bring...
View ArticleTo Aphrodite of surpassing beauty
Aphrodite of surpassing beauty, golden lady of love and joy, please share your blessings with me. Kindle the flames of passion within my breast, fill me with an aching longing for others, delight my...
View ArticleTo Aphrodite Bakcheios
Raise a glass in honor of the mistress of the feast wine-loving and frenzied Goddess of wet grace who revels with Nymphs in river-fed grottoes whose dancing feet excite the pulse of life in all...
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Fragments of Sappho
Shimmering, iridescent, deathless Aphrodite, child of Zeus, weaver of wiles, I beg you, do not crush my spirit with anguish, Lady, but come to me now… Nor was I so foolish as to scorn pleasant toys....
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The Sceptered She-Wolf
I was reading Orphic Hymn 55. To Aphrodite when one of her titles caught my eye: Heavenly, smiling Aphrodite, praised in many hymns, sea-born, revered Goddess of generation, you like the night-long...
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My, what big eyes you’ve got
I noticed an important detail that didn’t make it into my previous post. The Orphic Hymn containing the Λύκαινα epithet is part of a collection composed in Roman Anatolia which often incorporate local...
View ArticleAphrodite the She-Wolf
Oh shit. I’ve been making a fairly large assumption with this Αφροδίτη Λύκαινα business. Namely that she’s an indigenous, localized Anatolian Goddess. But what if she’s not? What if the She-Wolf is...
View ArticleVíðarr the anti-Aineías
There’s an interesting epilogue to my previous post: Aineías shows up in Norse mythology as a cognate of Víðarr. And Víðarr, of course, battles the wolf Fenrir (the slayer of his father Óðinn) either...
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