Diana
Delos will bear witness
To the fact that your existence,
Is a sempiternal ode to her,
Is it not, Diana?
Tell me it was not the libel of her name that parted
The caliginous clouds of your quiver
And coaxed from it a plethoric shower
Of silver-tipped vengeance.
But you are a moiety and the blame is split;
Sun and Moon united to strew
The metallic petrichor of young life lost
Over the lap of Niobe.
Diana, my enigma,
That red elixir streams in your wake,
And in it you sign your name,
And amour-propre flushes through you,
For blood drips from the apex of your pride
And not the apex of your legs.
Yet if lust is so abhorrent to you,
What name do you give to
That thirst for blood that drowned a myriad of lives?
A stag wails when you eclipse your eyes,
For Actaeon's anguish is amaranthine in your grove.
Your stream is effervescent,
No one can deny,
But see, what aberrant water caresses your limbs,
Scarlet in colour,
Your sole lover
Is the blood you abate.
You know not of Poe,
But he too spoke
Of a tell-tale heart.
It was nothing more than a guileless gaffe
That next unravelled your wrath.
On whose lips now would your name not chime?
After that pastiche of a boar
You unleashed upon
Calydon.
But what serendipity that there we would find
Atalanta,
Modelled in your image.
Oh, what tenacity of womanhood!
But oh, what calamity she brought.
From the lips of a doleful Romeo,
An ephemeral love once slipped.
'She hath Dian's wit.'
Does it abet surprise
That of all those youths,
Rosaline survived?
But beware, Diana,
Of the wily chicaneries of humans,
For mortals intend to capture the heart of Diana.
Just listen,
To the tintinnabulation of your praise,
And the susurrus prayers to your supernal globe
That litter the night,
And bring hope where hope is lost.
Your beauty is both panacean
And pernicious
But Latona exalts.
Beleaguered for the right to your life,
Your mother smiles,
Appeased at last,
(At peace at last),
And says,
Aut vincere
Aut mori
☁☁☁
a/n: i'm not entirely sure why these are being read but i love you all for reading them
(also, only one more on artemis, i swear)
(also also, for julia, who loves mythology almost as much as i do)
