General Poetry posted November 28, 2024


The conception and birth of the Cerberus ...

The Myth of Andrasta

by Patrick Bernardy

 
 
 
 
The waning moon beheld Andrasta's tear, 
for Damon's kiss, a year this day was lost. 
Their lovers' meadow now a swamp of fear 
where wicked wraiths embrace the wisps of fog 
that float forlorn tonight across the mere. 
 
O Mnemosyne, impale my memory
no more upon the brutal spikes of time! 
Her furtive steps exposed the elder tree 
that deigned to shade her lover's rigid claim 
with drooping boughs of noble pedigree. 
 
"O tree, my heart's a captive here encased," 
she spoke, "beside this mere of yesteryear!
Is life to be for me a wistful waste 
that mourns the scar of Cupid's mark, 
a fading flame of nubile youth, disgraced?" 
 
The wizened tree remarked with saddened peace, 
but answered not Andrasta's plea for aid. 
"No more!" she said. "This anguished heart must cease!" 
She spied a faded path in silver grass 
and trudged in regal trance to spawn release. 
 
A shroud of fog enclosed like tendril palms 
around her shoulders bare of cloak and shame
—a naked bid for Aphrodite's alms, 
to beg the goddess mercy from the fold 
of she who tends a heart with soothing balms. 
 
A dagger poised to stab this lasting pall 
—to pierce the breast that hides such wretched pain!
—invoked Andrasta's saddest wail of all, 
a cry that reached Olympus in the clouds 
and forced the Maid of Love to heed the call. 
 
Inhaling breath—a flash of silent light 
transformed the blade into a feather quill 
that tickled skin the point had aimed to bite. 
In swirls of fog, a woman's form matured
—this mythic beauty borne of earth and night. 
 
"Be still thy anguished hand," the goddess said. 
"Let not the loss of love reject the urge 
that stirs your womb to tie new binds of thread. 
Though nubile breasts will sag with milk and time, 
a child may fill the place inside that's dead." 
 
Andrasta, blessed to feel the goddess there, 
intoned: "Divine of beauty, Maid of Love, 
my Damon's death has paid my Charon's fare. 
The underworld must cleanse my heart of pain. 
In life, apart, but death unites the pair! 
 
"O Aphrodite, grant mercy on this soul 
and send me to my love, my cosmic twin! 
Why must the Moirai choose to split a whole 
adorning earth, a righteous jewel of love? 
A titan's strength could not my heart parole!" 
 
"Implore me with your logic all you will,"  
spoke Aphrodite. "Fate is not my realm. 
The wheel of Clotho spins with special skill; 
Lachesis measured Damon's hour late. 
My part is love, not Hades' realm to fill.  
 
"A meeting I shall grant, for passion's need. 
Your empty heart will flow anew with time. 
Your womb will grow; accept this union's seed. 
Another age will grasp your mortal breast 
in love and will upon your nipples feed." 
 
Andrasta slept, so full of questions still. 
Her mind was lost in fragments sharp and thin. 
And once again upon her skin the quill 
reclaimed her world of vital needs and wants 
and sat her down confused atop a hill. 
 
Then Damon—strong and proud, with fishes caught 
in netting hefted on his back—appeared.  
Her naked flesh invited playful thought, 
and swaying grasses fueled the fire lost. 
His loving gaze was more than death forgot. 
 
Enthralled, beside a languid stream they lay. 
For this, to sate Andrasta's endless prayers. 
A spell entranced her, mists concealed her way. 
His handsome smile that always pleased her sight 
was now a spread of fangs, a cruel bouquet. 
 
A brutal grip around her throat was placed; 
the fingertips were scratching claws instead! 
Saliva poured in streams—it licked to taste 
her wanton shock—a violent assault, 
this canine rape of carnal lust she faced! 
 
O goddess Aphrodite, what's my sin?
You stilled my hand to gift another chance
at love, yet tossed me to the hounds of men
like bloody meat upon the spit, betrayed! 
This faithless void, Andrasta fell within. 
 
In lacy mists, the goddess preened her mirth. 
"O child of love, do not forget yourself. 
The gift I swore remains intact and worth 
the villain's spite that pins you to the ground. 
A hundred thrusts will mold a hero's birth!" 
 
And so Andrasta bent before her fate, 
invaded by the hound's aggressive need 
to dominate and mount a weaker mate. 
The canine seed that burst into her womb 
would blossom with a life to love and hate. 
 
"Your grasp in life for one that death has earned 
must pay its balance due," the goddess held. 
"A guard of strength to prowl the passage burned, 
when once your child inhales its triple breath. 
The dead will keep, the living shall be spurned!" 
 
The goddess touched atop Andrasta's head; 
the painful weight that bowed her back was gone. 
"Arise, for now your life is fresh," she said, 
and walked Andrasta to the water's edge, 
the wispy wraiths denounced in fog, undead. 
 
The mere of Damon's youthful love serene,
remade by Aphrodite's clever whim. 
The rising sun rekindled all the green 
that whispers life and love and verdant spring, 
Apollo's sister in the growth, a queen! 
 
The Maid of Love intoned: "Do not forsake! 
Your role as chosen by my will must bind." 
The feather quill at once became a snake 
and bit Andrasta's wrist. "O tainted blood, 
around the child a cloak of serpents make!" 
 
And so Andrasta to her trial was bound—
a blessing and a curse of mortal love. 
This lovely child—a joy its mother found  
to nurse the weakling babe with eager breasts
—a year from birth became the Hades hound. 
 
Andrasta bared her blade again to spear. 
The Maid of Love, enticed by hurt so bold, 
employed Hephaestus make a crystal sphere 
to fill with scree, and fern, and tree, and bird, 
and Damon's virile guise beside the mere. 
 
When dagger's plunge bled out Andrasta's life, 
the Maid of Love, with quill upon her skin, 
entombed her in the sphere away from strife, 
to dwell with love denied her precious heart, 
to walk the mere with Damon as his wife. 
 
Andrasta's child—the Hades hound—lives on. 
Its heads are three upon its shoulders fierce. 
For Past, the love its mother felt is gone. 
The Present watches living mortals die, 
while Future looks for death to set upon. 
 
The breach is closed to all, alive or dead. 
The mortal realms must always stand this way. 
Behind, ahead, and now reveals a head 
that growls at those who wish to pass beyond 
the Cerberus to die or live instead.
 
 
 
 
 
______________________________
EPYLLION (Little Epic):
A brief narrative poem of ancient Greece, usually dealing with mythological and romantic themes. It is characterized by lively description, scholarly allusion, and an elevated tone similar to that of the elegy. Traditionally composed in dactylic hexameter, this example uses iambic pentameter instead. Such poems were especially popular during the Greek Alexandrian period (3rd to 2nd Century B.C.E.).
 

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ALLUSIONS AND GLOSSARY

Mere -- a lake that is broad in relation to its depth.

Mnemosyne -- the personification of memory in Greek mythology. She was the daughter of Uranus and Gaia, and the mother of the nine Muses by Zeus.

Cupid -- the Greek god of desire, erotic love, attraction, and affection.

Aphrodite -- the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation. Also known as the Maid of Love.

Mount Olympus -- In Greek mythology Olympus was the home of the Twelve Olympian gods.

Charon -- the ferryman of Hades who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead.

The Moirai -- In Greek mythology, the Moirai (often known in English as the Fates) were the white-robed incarnations of destiny. They controlled the metaphorical thread of life of every mortal from birth to death. They were independent, at the helm of necessity, directed fate, and watched that the fate assigned to every being by eternal laws might take its course without obstruction. The gods and men had to submit to them.

Clotho -- the youngest of the Three Fates. Clotho was responsible for spinning the thread of human life. She also made major decisions, such as when a person was born, thus in effect controlling people's lives.

Lachesis -- the second of the Three Fates. She is the measurer of the thread woven by Clotho's spindle. She was the apportioner, deciding how much time for life was to be allowed for each person or being. She measured the thread of life with her rod.

Hades -- the Greek god of the underworld.

Apollo's sister -- Artemis, the twin sister of Apollo, was the Greek goddess of the hunt, wild animals, wilderness, childbirth, virginity, protector of young girls, bringer and reliever of disease in women. She often was depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrows.

Hephaestus -- Greek god of blacksmiths and artisans, and husband to Aphrodite.


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