216. Apollo and Aphrodite
There was a scandal at Olympus
as there suddenly arose a rumour
that Apollo, of all gods! had fallen flat
for Aphrodite, of all goddesses!
And Dionysus laughed his sides off,
Zeus and Poseidon shook their heads,
Artemis just went off out hunting
and would hear no more about it,
Hera smiled benevolently,
knowing well the weaknesses of gods and men,
Athena just could not believe it,
she was shocked, the only one to be so,
while Apollo's brother Hermes as the only one
decided to find out the truth about it.
So he went to old Hephaistus and asked
if his notorious wife had actually deceived him.
"Do you find that strange?" Hephaistus asked.
"Do you not know that she keeps sleeping with just anyone?"
"But even with Apollo?" asked bewildered Hermes.
"Ask Apollo," answered the old limping smith,
"I have not had anything to do with it."
So Hermes went to seek Apollo out,
whom he found sleeping with the lovely goddess Aphrodite,
both entangled in each other's masses of blonde hair
and all too evidently more than decently enjoying it.
"What is this?" asked the frowning Hermes,
folding up his arms, "have we not had enough of scandals
here on Mount Olympus? And of all gods, you, Apollo,
and with Aphrodite!" Apollo turned to him with calmness,
looked at him carefully and asked: "And would you, Hermes,
miss an opportunity with Aphrodite, if you got one?
Who are you to envy me, a god yourself, my beauty and my love,
and would you really dare denying me or anyone the privilege
of loving beauty just for beauty's sake,
even if she is a whore and Aphrodite and another's wife?
Good Hermes, leave me to my love and seek your own,
for you shall know, that even if I am the chastest of the gods,
enjoy the highest reputation of morale, integrity, idealism and virtue,
even I am subject to and must subordinate myself to love,
the weakest of the goddesses but all the same
the only omnipotent one, the power of whom everyone must bow to,
even Zeus, which his wife can bear you testimony of;
and even Artemis, my sister, although she remains a virgin
must accept that love alone rules all the universe,
all life, the destiny of man and even of the gods,
which you shall understand, if not before,
when we, the gods, are gone, but love continues still."
So quoth Apollo and turned back to Aphrodite's silent charm
to lose himself completely in her beauty
while his brother Hermes went away in brooding worries,
for the first time contemplating the impending possibility
of even the mortality of all the gods,
but finally arrived at a conclusion: "Yes, by golly, he is right!
We must be mortal, yes, of course, unless,
how wise my brother is! we give ourselves to love,
since only love in this world must of course,
according to the most and only natural of laws,
rule life and be the only immortality!"
And he turned back to Mount Olympus
and told all the other gods, that there was nothing wrong,
and that Apollo only knew the real way for them all
to spite all history, survive their own mortality
and ultimately end up defeating even time.
Poetry by Christian Lanciai
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Written on 2006-09-24 at 11:13
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