Love poets have a love-hate relationship with their patron goddess, just as they tend to with the objects of their affection. And none more so than Sappho. One of the longest pieces of her poetry to survive to us is addressed to poikilophrōn athanat’ – cunning immortal – Aphrodite.10 Poikilophrōn is usually translated as ‘sly’ or ‘wily’, but it literally means to have a mind that is multicoloured or spotted, which I think suggests beautifully the somewhat arbitrary nature of Aphrodite’s favours.
