Daughter of Heaven and Of the Deep

Around this time seems to have been the festival of Venus, during which women of all ages venerated the goddess of love by bathing and scenting themselves with myrtle (her sacred plant). They asked for blessings of course, on their marriages and partnerships, but her influence was originally far more extensive than that.

Because this is her feast day, I am tempted to fill my LJ with various hymns, prose and poems, but it's probably more constructive to further understanding of this goddess by listing some of her epithets. They are by no means all fluffy, and include such gems as shrieker, raven, strangler, and holy cow. She is very old, and while she is still definitely the Golden Girl of Olympus, that's not all there is to her. Some of her titles are listed here:

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OK, I can't stop myself adding one of the orphic (not homeric - damn I must be tired) hymns. But I will stop after this!

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It's hopeless. I copy in one poem and my mind instantly flies to the thousands of wonderful pieces written in her honour. How can I leave out the Orphic hymns? Or Sappho? But I must stop somewhere.

Happy Lurve day one and all. May those who seek it find it, and in doing so hold beeeg parties for the rest of us.

Kiss, kiss, kiss!

OK, one more orphic doodad

Because self indulgence is my thing.

Child of Ocean,
amazing beauty,
we honor you.

You rule deep earth,
encircling heaven,
the stormy seas
and everything in them.

Mother of sweet marriage
you join the world together
with laughter and harmony,
even the Moirai obey you.

Every eye seeks you.
Give us beauty and love.

Delighted by secrets
and lavish feasts
you are concord
and persuasion.

You are beautiful necessity
even in the frenzy of the shark.
Delicate as sea foam of Kypros,
fragrant as Syrion oils,

bright as golden chariots
on Aigyption plains
by the sandy bank
of the turquoise Nile,

a choir of the loveliest Nymphai
sings a hymn to your beauty.

With reverence we ask
for the gift of grace.