The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (Homeric Hymn 6)

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To Aphrodite

I will sing of honoured Aphrodite, noble and gold-crowned,
Who claims as her own the veiled battlements of all sea-girt Cyprus,
Where the rainy might of blowing Zephyr
Bore her in fresh-ploughed foam across the swells
Of the loud-resounding sea: there the Hours, with their fillets of gold,
Received her in glad welcome, and settled god-befitting garments round her,
And on her immortal head they placed a well-wrought
Noble golden crown: and on her pierced ears,
Flowers of orichalcum and of costly gold,
And her tender throat and silver-shining breasts
They adorned with golden chains, the ones with which
The gold-filleted Hours adorn themselves, when they go
To the gods’ passionate dance, and to the halls of their father.

And when they’d set every adornment close about her,
They guided her to the undying ones, and [the gods], when they saw her, saluted her
With their hands, and they paid honour to her, and each of them prayed,
Marvelling at the form of violet-crowned Kythereia,
That she would be their lawful bed-partner, and that they might carry her away to their households.

Hail, swift-eyed one, sweetly kind: grant victory in the contests
To this one here who is borne away by you, and urge on my song.
And I will recall you, and another also, in song.