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Greek Love
Greek Love
GREEK love
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Dwelt at Abydos; since him dwelt there none
For whom succeeding times make greater moan.
His dangling tresses, that were never shorn,
Had they been cut, and unto Colchos borne,
Would have allur'd the vent'rous youth of Greece
To hazard more than for the golden eece.
Fair Cynthia wish'd his arms might be her sphere;
Grief makes her pale, because she moves not there.
His body was as straight as Circe's wand;
Jove might have sipt out nectar from his hand.
Even as delicious meat is to the taste,
So was his neck in touching, and surpast
The white of Pelops' shoulder: I could tell ye,
How smooth his breast was, and how white his belly;
And whose immortal ngers did imprint
That heavenly path with many a curious dint
That runs along his back; but my rude pen
Can hardly blazon forth the loves of men,
Much less of powerful gods: let it suf ce
That my slack Muse sings of Leander's eyes;
Those orient cheeks and lips, exceeding his
That leapt into the water for a kiss
Of his own shadow, and, despising many,
Died ere he could enjoy the love of any.
Had wild Hippolytus Leander seen,
Enamour'd of his beauty had he been.
His presence made the rudest peasant melt,
That in the vast uplandish country dwelt;
The barbarous Thracian soldier, mov'd with nought,
Was mov'd with him, and for his favour sought.
Some swore he was a maid in man's attire,
For in his looks were all that men desire,—
A pleasant smiling cheek, a speaking eye,
A brow for love to banquet royally;
And such as knew he was a man, would say,
"Leander, thou art made for amorous play;
Why art thou not in love, and lov'd of all?
Though thou be fair, yet be not thine own thrall."
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Wretched Ixion's shaggy-footed race,
Incens'd with savage heat, gallop amain
From steep pine-bearing mountains to the plain,
So ran the people forth to gaze upon her,
And all that view'd her were enamour'd on her.
And as in fury of a dreadful ght,
Their fellows being slain or put to ight,
Poor soldiers stand with fear of death dead-strooken,
So at her presence all surpris'd and tooken,
Await the sentence of her scornful eyes;
He whom she favours lives; the other dies.
There might you see one sigh, another rage,
And some, their violent passions to assuage,
Compile sharp satires; but, alas, too late,
For faithful love will never turn to hate.
And many, seeing great princes were denied,
Pin'd as they went, and thinking on her, died.
On this feast-day—O cursed day and hour!—
Went Hero thorough Sestos, from her tower
To Venus' temple, where unhappily,
As after chanc'd, they did each other spy.
So fair a church as this had Venus none:
The walls were of discolour'd jasper-stone,
Wherein was Proteus carved; and over-head
A lively vine of green sea-agate spread,
Where by one hand light-headed Bacchus hung,
And with the other wine from grapes out-wrung.
Of crystal shining fair the pavement was;
The town of Sestos call'd it Venus' glass:
There might you see the gods in sundry shapes,
Committing heady riots, incest, rapes:
For know, that underneath this radiant ower
Was Danae's statue in a brazen tower,
Jove slyly stealing from his sister's bed,
To dally with Idalian Ganimed,
And for his love Europa bellowing loud,
And tumbling with the rainbow in a cloud;
Blood-quaf ng Mars heaving the iron net,
Which limping Vulcan and his Cyclops set;
Love kindling re, to burn such towns as Troy,
Sylvanus weeping for the lovely boy
That now is turn'd into a cypress tree,
Under whose shade the wood-gods love to be.
And in the midst a silver altar stood:
There Hero, sacri cing turtles' blood,
Vail'd to the ground, veiling her eyelids close;
And modestly they opened as she rose.
Thence ew Love's arrow with the golden head;
And thus Leander was enamoured.
Stone-still he stood, and evermore he gazed,
Till with the re that from his count'nance blazed
Relenting Hero's gentle heart was strook:
Such force and virtue hath an amorous look.
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Where both deliberate, the love is slight:
Hero and Leander is a poem by Christopher Marlowe based on the Greek myth of Hero and
Leander. The poem was rst published posthumously, ve years after Marlowe's death.
Marlowe was born in Canterbury, where his father was shoemaker, in 1564. He received
some of his early education at The King’s School, Canterbury, and an Archbishop Parker
scholarship took him from this school to Corpus Christi College in the University of
Cambridge.
The poem starts with a description of the eponymous young lovers. Hero is described as a
beautiful virgin, dedicated to serving Venus, the goddess of love. She is described as Venus’s
nun. Leander is described as being very handsome. Although both of them are physically
beautiful, it is also stated that they possess more than human beauty. Hero’s beauty is such
that the love god, Cupid, mistakes her for the most beautiful of goddesses, his mother,
Venus. Leander is described as being so handsome that even men nd him attractive in
spite of themselves. Marlowe insinuates that he is so handsome he is almost feminine. The
two lovers live on opposite sides of the Hellespont. Hero lives in Sestos, where she remains
a dutiful virgin to Venus, making sacri ces in honor of the goddess and maintaining her
sexual purity. She makes her rst appearance in the poem in a sacred grove, sacri cing
turtledoves to the goddess. In spite of her vow of chastity, her beauty incites the desires of
many men. Leander lives across the water in Abydos. The two lovers rst meet during the
annual festival of Zeus, who is one of Venus’s lovers. Marlowe’s description of their rst
encounter is a memorable one, sometimes extracted as a stand-alone love poem. It
suggests the idea of love at rst sight, something that is echoed in Shakespeare’s work later
on. Leander falls in love with Hero when he rst lays eyes on her, and soon after, she is shot
by Cupid’s arrow, causing her to fall in love with Leander in turn. The two speak of their
mutual attraction; however, Hero insists that she has made a promise to Venus to maintain
her virginity at all costs. Leander uses clever rhetoric to attempt to convince Hero that being
a virgin is no way to pay tribute to the goddess, but Hero, feeling that she must remain true
to Venus, returns to her tower. Leander returns home across the water to Abydos. His father
can tell simply by looking at him that he has fallen in love. Leander cannot stand the thought
of not being with Hero, and he goes to stand upon the rocks where he gazes across the
water at Hero’s tower. He feels that it is almost physically painful to be apart from her, and
when he can stand it no longer, he takes off his clothes and dives into the water, prepared to
swim to her. As Leander is swimming, Neptune sees him and mistakes him for another
handsome young man, Zeus's cupbearer Ganymede. Having longed to have this man for
himself, Neptune takes the opportunity to steal him from his brother-god. He catches
Leander and takes him into the depths of the sea to his palace. Marlowe describes the
surroundings of the palace, lled with sea nymphs and mermaids, sunken treasure. Once
Neptune realizes that Leander is almost drowned, and therefore cannot be Ganymede (who
was made immortal by Zeus), the god brings Leander back to the surface. Able to breathe
once again, Leander continues to swim towards Sestos. He tells Neptune he is no woman.
Neptune, at last, seeing that Leander will not give into him, sadly lets him go. When Leander
nally reaches Hero's tower, he knocks on her door, buzzing with anticipation. Hero is
surprised to nd Leander standing there, dripping wet. she brings him in and breaks her
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vows to venus. they were restricted to see each other so hero would light up a lamp every
night and leander would come see her through a boat. one night due to high tide he could
not reach cause he drowned, hero in anticipation jumped in the water. the people found their
bodies embracing each other on a coast.