Erotica Romana

<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0014" id="link2H_4_0014"></SPAN></p> <h2> XIV </h2> <p>Can't you hear voices, beloved, out on the Via Flamina?<br/> <br/> Reapers are now going home, back from harvesting grain.<br/> <br/> They had journeyed to Rome from afar, and here plaited for Ceres<br/> <br/> Wreaths which the Romans today scorn to make for themselves.<br/> <br/> Festivals no longer celebrate Ceres, the nourishing goddess<br/> <br/> Who replaced acorns of old, giving man golden wheat.<br/> <br/> Let us commemorate her then ourselves in festival private<br/> <br/> (Two constitute a whole tribe, when they are two in love).<br/> <br/> Have you by any chance heard how that mystical, strange celebration<br/> <br/> Followed victorious troops back from Eleusis to Rome?<br/> <br/> Greeks were the ones who began it, and only to Greeks they proclaimed it<br/> <br/> Even within Roman walls: "Come to the sanctified night."<br/> <br/> Those who were not of the cult kept their distance; neophytes trembled,<br/> <br/> Waiting in garments of white, symbol of all that is pure.<br/> <br/> Then the initiates must aimlessly wander about through the eerie<br/> <br/> Circles of figures as if pilgriming through their own dreams.<br/> <br/> Snakes on the ground were writhing about. Now virgins came bearing<br/> <br/> Caskets securely locked, richly wreath�d with grain.<br/> <br/> Surely the gestures of murmuring priests must contain some deep meaning&mdash;<br/> <br/> Impatient acolytes wait, anxiously hoping for light.<br/> <br/> Not until after many a testing and trial did they discover<br/> <br/> What, within sacred ring, secretive image concealed.<br/> <br/> What was this mystery other than this: that Demeter, goddess,<br/> <br/> Once upon a time had to a hero been kind.<br/> <br/> It was to Jason, powerful king of the Cretans, she granted<br/> <br/> Of her immortal self hidden sweet parts to explore.<br/> <br/> That made the fortune of Crete! The marital bed of the goddess<br/> <br/> Soon grew pregnant with grain, heavy her bounteous fields.<br/> <br/> As for the rest of the world, it languished away, while Ceres,<br/> <br/> Derelict of her true task, dalliance offered in love.<br/> <br/> &mdash;Now the initiate youths, having followed this tale, all astonished,<br/> <br/> Turned and beckoned their loves&mdash;love, do you comprehend?<br/> <br/> See there the sacred shade beneath that bushy-boughed myrtle?<br/> <br/> Our satisfaction will there scarcely endanger a world.<br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />