Prayer to Aphrodite and Eros
Aphrodite · ErosA modern text from the LABRYS manual (see greek-agathodaimon-001), written for a wedding rite.
It is composed by a method worth naming exactly: it is an assembly of Homeric formulae. "Golden-crowned", the "skilfully wrought crown of gold" on the "immortal head" — that is the sixth Homeric hymn to Aphrodite, where the Horae put her ornaments on her (homeric-aphrodite-002); "Cyprus-born, bringing gentle gifts to mortals" is the tenth (homeric-aphrodite-003); "rouses sweet longing in gods and men alike" is the opening of the fifth (homeric-aphrodite-001). Three hymns taken apart and reassembled.
It is worth noting that the ancients did exactly the same. Rhapsodes kept a stock of ready openings and attached their own endings; the short hymn to Demeter consists entirely of the opening of the long one plus a single line (homeric-demeter-002). The method here is genuine even though the product is new, and that is the best thing to be said for such work.
"Sharp key-holder of all" — Eros with a key; compare Prothyraea the key-holder at the door of birth (orphic-prothyraea-001). In Greek prayer a key signifies not power but access: the god unlocks what without him stays shut.