Artemis
Had you not been so fortuitous, Artemis,
As to be born divine,
Or had the Fates not bequeathed upon you
Veneration due by right,
Your comely locks,
So loosely bound,
Would find themselves imprisoned;
And the furtive filaments of your dress,
Guardians of your knees,
Would have scorned all etiquette,
And be stationed at your feet;
And the blood you preserve with prestige,
Would merely be a diaphanous attempt
At dignity.
You would not hunt Arcadian deer on caprice,
That much I can assure.
For the avoirdupois of womanly duty
Would all your time deplete;
Nor would you have reign to be ensorcelled
By ardent hunters with refulgent belts
That adorn the skies.
I beseech you count your blessings, Artemis,
That you exist to be revered;
For while ambrosial,
In every sense of the word,
You have many a life ensnared.
Sworn paladin of that fateful city,
With your brother you embellished
The heart of Pompeii,
But who is to say that your tumultuous wrath did not play
A hand in its conflagrant decay?
(Tityus will attest,
With no want of speed,
To the infernal nature of your acrimony).
O, Artemis, if you would believe it,
They write essays on you now.
But what are words born of metal but feathers
To the lithic odes
Of Ovidius and Homer,
Who spoke of Diana in her dander and Artemis in her coups?
My Love, they try to tell me
That you were never real,
And of all those savants in their scholarly pursuits
Not one could not reveal
The substance behind
A belief in you.
Tell me that you were not reflected in
The lunar-pallid face
Of each and every wife who spent her days
No more than her husband's slave;
Tell me that your ebullience did not dissipate from
The crystalline tears of
Every maiden, who, at your altar,
Waived her innocence.
But you were not born a mortal, Artemis,
And it is so by the Fates' design;
Let your hair cascade,
No cause to hide.
Your arrows are yours,
Shoot them far and wide!
Retain your honour
And defend your pride!
Prowl the earth,
As is your God-given right.
Oh, my huntress by day
Guards lovers and thieves by night.
➳ ➳ ➳
a/n: not as pleased with this as the other two so it'll probably undergo major editing at some point, but drop me a line and let me know what you thought x
(and please excuse the atrocious attempt at rhyming i don't know what i was thinking)
for lucy bc she's my artemis (that's a lie she's just hella chill and i absolutely adore her)
