Games of Venus: An Anthology of Greek and Roman Erotic Verse from Sappho to Ovid

by Peter Bing

This is the only poem we have been able to find in which it is fairly certain that the eromenos addresses the erastes. One might, however, also consider Anacreon Elegy 2 (West).

Boys, you have charm and noble fathers, don't refuse to give good men a share of your youth. For limb-melting Love blossoms with manliness in the town of the Chalcideans.

I wish I were a lovely ivory harp and lovely boys would wear me to the Dionysian dance.

Inscription in Attica (480–450?) It's lovely to look at Antinoos, a thrill to talk with him.

Callignotus swore to Ionis that he'd never love a boy or a girl more than her. He swore. But they're right, who say that lovers’ oaths do not reach the ears of the gods. For now he's flaming with homoerotic fire, while of poor Ionis there is, as of the Megarians, no account or reckoning.2

I detest trite epic poems, I don't like a road that carries crowds this way and that. I despise a roaming lover, don't drink from the fountain.3 I loathe everything vulgar. But you, Lysanias,—oh, brother!—you're handsome, handsome— but before the words are out, an echo says “Another has his hands on him.”

Fill ‘em up and say again “to Diocles.” Water doesn't mix with this sacred toast. The boy is gorgeous, all too gorgeous, by the river god!4 And if anyone says no—then only I know gorgeousness.

Cleonicus of Thessaly, poor poor fellow, by the scorching sun, I didn't know it was you. Poor guy, where have you been? You're merely skin and bones. Did that demon of mine get you, have you suffered a hard fate? I know—Euxitheus has snared you too, you too, poor suffering fool, got an eyeful—two eyesful—of his good looks.

know that my hands are empty of cash. But, Menippus,

41 Pf. sb G-P 4

Death has grabbed it—only it's gone. Did it go back to one of the boys? I often warned them “Boys, don't take in the runaway.” Go look for Theutimos! The lovelorn hoodlum's headed somewhere—I know it—in that direction.

42 Pf. = G-P 8

I meant to sing at your door, Archinus, gripe all you want, but if I came unwilling, l...

We didn't notice that the stranger has a wound. What a painful sigh he heaved (did you see?) when he drank his

Pf. = G-P 9

some fire beneath the ash.

a tranquil river undermines a wall.

Menexenus, that this...... will slip into me and hurl me into love.

“You'll be caught, just try and run, Menecrates,” I said on the 20th of June, and on July the—what?—the 10th the ox came willing to the plow.

Pf. = G-P 3

But hunger's potent too, I think,—though only for those pains. It cuts away the boy-loving disease.

Yes, by fair haired Ganymede,6 O Zeus of the skies, you too once loved—‘nough said, I think.

Theocritus portrayed the cyclops Polyphemus as alleviating his love with song in Id.11, and it may be that our present epigram alludes appreciatively to his poem. If so, Callimachus also tops it by adding the motif of “hunger” as a cure for love. 6. For Zeus and Ganymede cf. Theognis

221 Where's my bay leaf? Get it, Thestylis. And where are my magic herbs? Wreathe the cauldron

But whether he's longing for woman or man, she didn't know for sure, she said, but just that Desire's unmixed cup

that bumble bee and could flit into your cave, slipping through the ivy and fern that hides you.42 Now I understand desire. A backbreaking god.

He must have sucked on a lion's tit, and his mother reared him out in the

he knows how Aratus burns with boy love beneath the bone.

Pan, possessor of Homole's lovely plain,73 propel the boy uncalled into his loving arms, whether it's soft Philinos, or someone else. And if you do, dear Pan, may Arcadian boys not whip you then with squills beneath your ribs and shoulders when there's scarcity of meat.74

There is no other cure for love, Nikias, not balm nor plaster, but the Muses of Pieria: this is something light and sweet for men—though not easy to find.

The god, Priapos, was guardian of crops, fruits, and gardens. In art he is typically represented with an enormous erect phallus. For more about Priapos, see Tibullus 1.4 where the god is addressed and speaks at length.

Hekate is a goddess especially associated with the moon and with magic. Active especially at night, she is usually thought of as accompanied by dogs and present at the crossroads, cf. vv.31–32.

We have rendered the Greek iunx with “jinx” since the English word may actually derive from it. The iunx was a bird, the wryneck, which was used in love-spells: it was tied to a wheel which was then spun around so as to draw a lover towards a particular place.

This is quite a boast, since Philinos, son of Hegepolis, was a famous athlete from the island of Kos, who won victories at all the panhellenic games. We know in particular that he was victorious at the Olympics of 264 and 260 B.C.

Dionysus is said to have invented apple-growing. Apples are especially appropriate to erotic contexts (cf. Sappho 105a L-P, with note) and were often given as love-gifts (cf. Theocritus 3.10 and 11.10).

Delphis says that he would have come to her door as part of a komos, a characteristic feature of the ancient erotic scenario: typically, after a drinking party (symposium)one or more revelers would come, attended by slaves, to the door of a beloved and attempt to gain entrance by persuasion, serenades, threats, force, etc. For other variations on the komos cf. e.g. Theocritus 3; Asclepiades G-P 11 = AP 5.64, G-P 12 = AP 5.145, G-P 13 = AP 5.164; Callimachus 42 Pf. = G-P 8.

The twitching of the right eye was considered a good omen.

Maecenas, right-hand man of Octavian (later the emperor Augustus) became his patron and made sure that he was not distracted from this task.

His extant works, ten Eclogues, the four Georgia, and the epic Aeneid, produced over a period of more than twenty years, have marked the European poetic tradition about as strongly as anything (including Homer and Dante, between whom he mediates).

The shepherd Corydon was burning for pretty Alexis,1 his master's darling,2 and so had nothing to hope for.

Thestylis crushes garlic and thyme, fragrant grasses.

dark hyacinths are gathered.

No, fresh milk I don't lack, summer or winter.

I saw myself just now on the shore when the sea was calm, without a breeze.

Together with me you'll take after Pan by singing in the woods. Pan first taught how varied reeds are joined by wax; the sheep and their shepherd mean everything to Pan.

Don't be ashamed to rub your lip on the reed.

Come on over here, pretty boy. Look, the nymphs are bringing you baskets full of lilies; a gorgeous Naiad,

so put together you'll suavely mingle fragrances.

Our utmost pleasure shall be the woods.

The lioness goes grimly for the wolf; the wolf, for the young she-goat; and it's the clover in flower the lusty little she-goat goes for; Corydon goes for you, Alexis. Our own desire drags each along.