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“Europa’s Rape” – Ovid
by richibi
____
though I’d heard, indeed, of the rape of
Europa, I wasn’t aware, I’d thought, of
the details, was loathe, therefore, to
read on, in the next segment of Ovid’s
put off by such incidents in that text
as it turned out, Europa isn’t raped,
but, rather, abducted, more or less
willingly, however innocently, by
later, consensually, bear his children
who will then migrate, from their base
in Crete, to populate, to people, the
continent which we’ll come to know
as Europe, after their mum
but that’s a whole other story
meanwhile
When now the God his fury had allay’d,
And taken vengeance of the stubborn maid,
From where the bright Athenian turrets rise
He mounts aloft, and re-ascends the skies.
remember, had just transformed
Aglauros, the stubborn maid, into a
statue for having been impudent
with him, and mounts aloft now,
re-ascends the skies over Athens,
where the damsel had lived
Jove saw him enter the sublime abodes,
the sublime abodes, Olympus,
home of the gods
And, as he mix’d among the crowd of Gods,
Beckon’d him out, and drew him from the rest,
And in soft whispers thus his will exprest.
“My trusty Hermes, by whose ready aid
Thy sire’s commands are through the world convey’d.
patron of travellers, heralds, newscasters,
those who convey information
through[out] the world
Resume thy wings, exert their utmost force,
And to the walls of Sidon speed thy course;
There find a herd of heifers wand’ring o’er
The neighb’ring hill, and drive ’em to the shore.”
Thus spoke the God, concealing his intent.
an ulterior motive, a conceal[ed] …
intent
The trusty Hermes, on his message went,
And found the herd of heifers wand’ring o’er
A neighb’ring hill, and drove ’em to the shore;
mission accomplished
Where the king’s daughter, with a lovely train
Of fellow-nymphs, was sporting on the plain.
the conceal[ed] …intent is exposed,
is on the prowl
The dignity of empire laid aside,
(For love but ill agrees with kingly pride)
power, empire, will not abide being
deprived, we’ve seen ample examples
of that in our, even most recent, past
The ruler of the skies, the thund’ring God,
Who shakes the world’s foundations with a nod,
of Thunder
Among a herd of lowing heifers ran,
Frisk’d in a bull, and bellow’d o’er the plain.
Frisk’d, accoutered, dressed up as,
in the guise of, a bull
Large rowles of fat about his shoulders clung,
rowles, rolls
And from his neck the double dewlap hung.
dewlap, a looseflap of skin hanging
from the throat of some animals, or
birds, cattle, for instance, turkeys,
a wattle
His skin was whiter than the snow
that lies
Unsully’d by the breath of southern skies;
a breath of southern skies would
melt away white snow, revealing,
fatefully, ignominiously, patches
of [ ]sully’d earth
Small shining horns on his curl’d forehead stand,
As turn’d and polish’d by the work-man’s hand;
His eye-balls rowl’d, not formidably bright,
rowl’d, rolled
But gaz’d and languish’d with a gentle light.
as in doe eyes
His ev’ry look was peaceful, and exprest
The softness of the lover in the beast.
a wolf, if here a bull, in
sheep’s clothing
stay tuned
R ! chard
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Filed Under: "Metamorphoses",
a poem to ponder,
in search of beauty,
in search of God/dess,
in search of truth,
literature to ponder,
mythology,
Ovid,
paintings to ponder,
parsing art,
poetry,
poetry to ponder,
up my idiosyncrasies,
walking in beauty
Tags: "Metamorphoses" - Ovid :
" Europa's Rape" - Ovid :
"Bulls" - Bertalan Por :
Aglauros / daughter of Cecrops :
Crete :
dewlap :
Europa :
Hermes / Mercury - messenger god :
Jove / Jupiter / Zeus :
Olympus :
Sidon / Lebanon
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