Bion of Smyrna

Greece

Love Resistless

Bright Cypris! Goddess ever meek and mild,
Of mightiest Zeus and loveliest sea-nymph child,
Why with Immortals and our mortal kind
Art thou so wroth? What stung thy gentle mind
To bring forth Love? Who wills at all to strike,
His cruel heart his person how unlike!
Winged and far-darter why didst make him, why,
That we the cruel one can never fly?

translated by M. J. Chapman
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