Songs of Bilitis

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Posted by Catherine Cartwright Jones on November 24, 1999 at 02:34:14:

From "The Songs of Bilitis" translated from Greek by Pierre Louys,
William Godwin Inc, N.Y., 1933

Bilitis was a poetess, lover of Sappho, writing in the early 6th
century B.C. She was ethnically Syrian, and lived in Greece and
Cyprus.


Quote from this book:

"The Priestesses of Astarte"

"The Priestesses of Astarte make love at the rising of the moon. Then
they return and bathe themselvesin an enormous basin with silver
margins. They comb their hair with their curving fingers, and their
red-tinted (hennaed) hands mingle in their black curls like branches
of coral in a dark and floating sea. They never pluck themselves, to
leave the triangle of the goddess to mark their bodies as temples.
But they tint themselves with the brush and plunge themselves in
perfume. The priestesses of Astarte make love at the rising of the
moon, and then slppe haphazardlyin a carpeted hall where burns a high
golden lap. "

I've found several Astarte figures that have hennaed hands.....and
several faces have harquus patterns.....

Boy am I glad I picked that dusty second hand book up off the shelf!
I LOVE the description of hennaed hands from 2600 years ago....like
coral in a dark sea!!!

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