Minotaur

When the men came to shut me in the dark

I saw myself reflected in their shields,

The loathed and loathsome

emblem of the sea-god's curse:

A monster; neither beast nor man.

My eyes have withered in the endless dark.

I know the maze by touch; I count the walls,

Feel around the corners, tap the stones.

I cannot find a door. A grave-mound needs no door. 

Yet the tormentors come, I know not how.

I feel the air stir round me, hear their running feet.

Their screams ravage my ears

Until I still them with my horns; until the walls

Are reeking with their blood. 

I bring them death and yet I cannot die.

I long for death, and yet I do not die.

Hades, accept my sacrifices, hear my prayer!

Bless me, dread lord, as I would bless

A thousand times

The man who brought me death.

This poem was first published in BBC Active's The Big Picture: Ancient Greece

(E Big Book with Teachers' Activity Book)by Brenda Casey and Jayne Woodhouse; Educational Publishers LLP 2006

Echo  and Narcissus 

Echo

He was leaning over a forest pool

and so beautiful, I could hardly breathe.

He didn't notice me, and so

I waited while he gazed

Into the water, ran his fingers through his hair

And smiled at his reflection.

I thought, "he'll never stop, he'll never look at me,"

So I picked up a hazel twig

And tossed it in the pool.

The ripples reached his mirrored face

And crumpled it.  At last he looked away

And saw me. He was weeping like a child.

I ran to him, thinking to stem his tears

With kisses, but he held me off.

"Don't touch me, I am newly bathed

and perfumed," my love said.                                 perfumed

"Oh, but I saw my face with wrinkles,

stealing my beauty and my youth."                         youth

I smiled at him.  He said, "Who are you?"              you

Then, "Well? Tell me who you are!"                      are

"R? What do you mean?" he said.                         mean

With my eyes, I tried to tell him of my love,

He said, "Nymph, you plead in vain.                       vain

It is impossible!                                                     impossible

I could not love one far less beautiful than I."          I

In that same moment, I began to die.                      die

Kore

Goddess, may the pig Narcissus

Who broke my heart

Know what it is to love, to yearn, to plead

And never to be answered!

Smite him, goddess! May he gaze

Upon his dearest liking without hope,

Day after weary day!

Goddess, receive my gift and hear my prayer!

Nemesis

Nymph, I accept your gift and hear your prayer:

I found Narcissus, wrapt in his reflection in a pool,

Smirking and fondling his hair;

And so the wind of vengeance caught him unaware,

Shrivelling his milk-white skin,

Snatching his golden tresses, twisting his lithe limbs,

Distilling all his loveliness

Into a yellow bloom.

Day after weary day he'll see it

Mirrored in the pool.

Day after weary day he'll watch it watching him;

Unblinking, silent, pitiless.