Apollo and Venus, United in Grief: a poem by Faustus Sabaeus

Name: Faustus Sabaeus Date: 16th century CE   Region:  Brixia [Brescia, modern Italy] Citation:   Illustrated Myths of Ovid

While Venus and Apollo were wandering through the blossoming fields on Cyprus,

They noticed that the soil had vibrant stars*.

And over here they ran into the Hyacinth flower,

And over there they spotted the red Adonis flower,

Each one beautiful even in death.

Apollo said, “Tell me, sister,  does this land

Gloat over the death of our boyfriends,

Or is the earth weeping alongside us in pain?

This star is my grief, and that star is yours;

This one was Hyacinth, the other was Adonis.”

 

* a metaphor for flower

Dum Venus in Cypro, & Phoebus per prata vagantes

F1orida: habere solum* sidera picta vident:

Dumque Hyacinthus ibi, atque rubens occurrit Adonis:

Pulcher uterque suo funere, Phoebus ait:

Dic soror, haec nostris num exultat amoribus istis?

An luctu & nostro terra dolore gemit?

Hic meus, iste tuus dolor, & gratissimus ignis:

Ille Hyacinthus erat: alter Adonis erat.

 

 Faustus Sabaeus [16th century, modern Italy] was a librarian of the Vatican library who composed numerous poems on mythology-based themes.

 

 

 

Twice A Man: The Story of Hippolytus and Virbius, Serv. In Aen. 7.761

Name: Servius Date: 4th – 5th century CE Region: [modern Italy] Citation:   Commentary on the Aeneid, 7.761

And Virbius, the beautiful child of Hippolytus, came for war:

When Hippolyte died, Theseus put his son Hippolytus in the care of [his new wife] Phaedra. When Hippolytus rejected Phaedra’s sexual advances, she lied and told Theseus that he had tried to rape her. Theseus sought vengeance from his father Aegeus. When Hippolytus was driving his chariot, Aegeus* sent a seal to spook the horses, and the chariot crashed. Then Diana, moved by Hippolytus’ chastity, brought him back to life through the work of Aesculapius. 

[Aesculapius was the child of Apollo and Coronis, who was cut from his dying mother’s womb. It happened when Apollo heard from the crow he’d sent to spy on Coronis that she had cheated on him. Angered, he killed the heavily pregnant Coronis with his arrows, changed the crow’s color from white to black, and cut Aesculapius from Coronis’ womb. Aesculapius grew up and  became skilled in medicine. Later on, Jupiter killed him because he’d restored Hippolytus to life. And because of that, Apollo got angry and killed Jupiter’s ironworking cyclopes with his arrows. And because of that, Jupiter stripped Apollo of his divine powers and made him a shepherd of King Admetus’ flocks for nine years.]

Once Hippolytus was restored to life, Diana entrusted him to the nymph Aricia, and ordered him to now be called Virbius [‘twice a man’]. Now his son, called the same name, comes to battle: but this is really unbelievable. For Hippolytus was chaste, and always lived alone, but somehow has a son? Actually, as I said previously, Virbius is the name of a divinity linked with Diana, just like Cybele is linked with Attis, Minerva is linked with Erichthonis, and Venus is linked with Adonis.

7.[761] IBAT ET HIPPOLYTI PROLES PULCHERRIMA BELLO VIRBIUS: Theseus mortua Hippolyte Phaedram, Minois et Pasiphaae filiam, superduxit Hippolyto. qui cum illam de stupro interpellantem contempsisset, falso delatus ad patrem est, quod ei vim voluisset inferre. ille Aegeum patrem rogavit ut se ulcisceretur. qui agitanti currus Hippolyto inmisit focam, qua equi territi eum traxerunt. tunc Diana eius castitate commota revocavit eum in vitam per Aesculapium, filium Apollinis et Coronidis, qui natus erat exsecto matris ventre, ideo quod, cum Apollo audisset a corvo, eius custode, eam adulterium committere, iratus Coronidem maturo iam partu confixit sagittis—corvum vero nigrum fecit ex albo—et exsecto ventre Coronidis produxit ita Aesculapium, qui factus est medicinae peritus. hunc postea Iuppiter propter revocatum Hippolytum interemit: unde Apollo iratus Cyclopas fabricatores fulminum confixit sagittis: ob quam rem a Iove iussus est Admeti regis novem annis apud Amphrysum armenta pascere divinitate deposita. sed Diana Hippolytum, revocatum ab inferis, in Aricia nymphae commendavit Egeriae et eum Virbium, quasi bis virum, iussit vocari. cuius nunc filium cognominem dicit in bellum venire: adeo omnia ista fabulosa sunt. nam cum castus ubique inductus sit et qui semper solus habitaverit, habuisse tamen fingitur filium. re vera autem, ut et supra diximus, Virbius est numen coniunctum Dianae, ut matri deum Attis, Minervae Erichthonius, Veneri Adonis.

Servius [Maurus Servius Honoratus; 4th – 5th century CE] Servius’ name is unfortunately the only thing we know of this author. Little is known about the author or manuscript tradition for the grammatical commentary of Vergil’s Aeneid.

In Praise of Sappho: Greek Anthology, VII.407

 O Sappho, sweetest support of young people in love,

Whom Pieria & ivy-covered Helicon revere alongside the Muses,

(you breathe* the same inspirational air)

O Muse of Aeolian Eresus.

O Sappho, you who stand beside Hymen & Hymenaeus,

Presiding over wedding ceremonies with a brilliantly shining pine torch**.

O Sappho, you who watch over the glade sacred to the gods

Grieving with Aphrodite as she mourns the Cinyras’ sprout,***

Hail, my Queen! Equal in every way to the gods,

We count your songs among the children of the Divine.

 

*  πνέω can refer to both inhaling and exhaling; this is a reference to the literal meaning of inspiration (in + spiro / ἐμ + πνέω)

** torches are symbols of wedding ceremonies, similar to modern bouquets

*** a reference to Venus' lover Adonis, whose death is recounted in Sappho's poetry

Dulcissimum amantibus iuvenibus levamentum amorum,

O Sappho, cum Musis sane te Pieria

aut Helicon hederosus, paria spirantem illis,

ornat, te Eresi Musam in Aeolide;

aut etiam Hymen Hymenaeus habens bene-fulgidam picam,

tecum sponsalibus stat super thalamis;

aut Cinyrae novum germen ploranti Veneri

congemens, caelicolarum sacrum lucum vides:

ubique, veneranda, salve aeque ac dii! tuas enim cautiones

immortalium ducimus nunc adhuc filias.

ἥδιστον φιλέουσι νέοις προσανάκλιμ᾽ ἐρώτων,

Σαπφώ, σὺν Μούσαις ἦ ῥά σε Πιερίη

ἢ Ἑλικὼν εὔκισσος, ἴσα πνείουσαν ἐκείναις,

κοσμεῖ, τὴν Ἐρέσῳ Μοῦσαν ἐν Αἰολίδι,

ἢ καὶ Ὑμὴν Ὑμέναιος ἔχων εὐφεγγέα πεύκην

σὺν σοὶ νυμφιδίων ἵσταθ᾽ ὑπὲρ θαλάμων

ἢ Κινύρεω νέον ἔρνος ὀδυρομένῃ Ἀφροδίτῃ

σύνθρηνος, μακάρων ἱερὸν ἄλσος ὁρῇς:

πάντῃ, πότνια, χαῖρε θεοῖς ἴσα: σὰς γὰρ ἀοιδὰς

ἀθανάτων ἄγομεν νῦν ἔτι θυγατέρας.

--Dioscorides, Greek Anthology VII.407; Translated into Latin by Hugo Grottius

The Greek Anthology is a modern collection of Greek lyric poetry compiled from various sources over the course of Greco-Roman literature. The current collection was created from two major sources, one from the 10^th century CE and one from the 14^th century CE. The anthology contains authors spanning the entirety of Greek literature, from archaic poets to Byzantine Christian poets.