The Cretan Dance

The Poems of Sappho, by John Myers O'Hara, [1910], at sacred-texts.com

p. 59

THE CRETAN DANCE

As the moon in all her splendor
Slowly rose above the forest,
Silent stood the Cretan women
          Round the altar.

Girdled close their clinging tunics,
Made of some transparent fabric,
Traced the every curve and lissome
          Of their bodies.

With revering eyes uplifted
To the round and rising planet,
Soon its drifting beams of silver
          Lit their faces.

Soft and clear its sphere effulgent,
Full defined above the treetops,
Steeped in pale unearthly glamor
          All the landscape.

When the argent glimmer rested
On the altar piled with garlands,
And its glow unveiled the marble
          Aphrodite;

Linking hands, the Cretan women
Moving gracefully with metric
Steps began to dance a measure
          To the Goddess.

All so light their feet unsandalled
Pressed the velvet grass in treading,
That they scarcely bruised its tender
          Blooming verdure.

Slowly turning in a circle
To the east, their voices chanted
In a plaintive note the sacred
          Ithyphallics;

p. 60

Then they paused, their steps retracing
Toward the west, and answered strophe
By antistrophe with choric
          Tones accordant;

With the aftersong epodic,
Standing all before the altar,
Lo! the hymn in praise of Paphos
          Was completed.