Cypris

Use in the book

In B73 Cypris moistens earth with rain, works at the forms, and gives them to fire for hardening. The practical sequence resembles shaping and firing a material, but the fragment does not name a potter's workshop. B75 and B95 place bodily growth and texture in her palms. B98 changes the craft image to a nautical one: earth and the other constituents meet in near-equal measure, anchored in Cypris' perfect harbours, producing blood and flesh. Hands and harbours alike evoke a place in which combination can be held securely.

B1282 gives Cypris a different scale of agency. She is queen among people who do not have Ares, Battle-Din, Zeus as king, Cronos, or Poseidon. Their offerings include images, perfumes, incense, and honey, and their altar is not soaked with slaughter-blood. Cypris' reign accordingly gathers the power of joining into an ethical and ritual picture of a nonviolent community.

The same name across these settings makes an important connection: the power that constructs bodily life also presides over a form of worship that does not tear such life apart. The poem does not, however, identify a specific historical kingdom or date this scene relative to every phase of the cosmic cycle. Calling it a golden age is a useful interpretive label, not a phrase in the Greek.

Places to read

1. B 73Cypris moistens earth, works at forms, and gives them to fire to harden.
2. B 75Different bodily density is associated with dampness in her palms.
3. B 95First growing-together occurs in Cypris’s palms.
4. B 98.1–5The constituents of blood and flesh are anchored in her harbours.
5. B 128.1–102Cypris alone is queen over the community described as practising bloodless worship.

Translation in this edition

“Cypris” and “Aphrodite” are retained as different names in the English. Their interchangeability as divine designations should not obscure the different actions and metaphors attached to each occurrence.