Polychrome love

Hopeless net of Love

Yet again will Love eye me tenderly from beneath dark brows and cast me with manifold magic into the hopeless net of the Love-Goddess.
i

Achilles and Patroclus

He bravely chose to go and rescue his lover Patroclus, avenged him, and sought death not merely in his behalf but in haste to be joined with him whom death had taken. For this the gods so highly admired him that they gave him distinguished honor, since he set so great a value on his lover.
i

Orpheus and Eurydice

She, so belov’d that from a single lyre more mourning rose than from all women-mourners, - that a whole world of mourning rose, wherin all things were once more present: wood and vale and road and hamlet, field and stream and beast, - and that around this world of mourning turned, even as around the other earth, a sun and a whole silent heaven full of stars, a heaven of mourning with disfigured stars: - she, so beloved.
i

Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep

That they may be buried in the necropolis, after they have become very beautifully old as two lords honoured by the great god.
i

Your hand in my hand

A lovely place to wander in,
Your hand in my hand.
My body thrives, my heart exults
At our walking together.
i

Philemon and Baucis

We ask that we may be your priests, and guard your temple; and, since we have spent our lives in constant company, we pray that the same hour may bring death to both of us – that I may never see my wife’s tomb, nor be buried by her.
i

Wrapped in one cloak

Lo now! Golden-haired Love hits me with his purple ball and calls me forth to play with a motley-slippered maid.
i

Hylas and Heracles

The Dryad nymphs are excited by his whiteness, they break off their usual chorus and stare. Lightly, they draw him, slipping, into the gentle water. Then, his body caught, Hylas raises a shout. Far off, Hercules sends a response, but the breeze returns the name from distant mountains.
i

Hermaphroditus

As when one grafts a twig on some tree, he sees the branches grow one, and with common life come to maturity, so were these two bodies knit in close embrace: they were no longer two, nor such as to be called one, woman, and one, man. They seemed neither, and yet both.
i

Hopeless net of Love

Yet again will Love eye me tenderly from beneath dark brows and cast me with manifold magic into the hopeless net of the Love-Goddess.
i

Achilles and Patroclus

He bravely chose to go and rescue his lover Patroclus, avenged him, and sought death not merely in his behalf but in haste to be joined with him whom death had taken. For this the gods so highly admired him that they gave him distinguished honor, since he set so great a value on his lover.
i

Orpheus and Eurydice

She, so belov’d that from a single lyre more mourning rose than from all women-mourners, - that a whole world of mourning rose, wherin all things were once more present: wood and vale and road and hamlet, field and stream and beast, - and that around this world of mourning turned, even as around the other earth, a sun and a whole silent heaven full of stars, a heaven of mourning with disfigured stars: - she, so beloved.
i

Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep

That they may be buried in the necropolis, after they have become very beautifully old as two lords honoured by the great god.
i

Your hand in my hand

A lovely place to wander in,
Your hand in my hand.
My body thrives, my heart exults
At our walking together.
i

Philemon and Baucis

We ask that we may be your priests, and guard your temple; and, since we have spent our lives in constant company, we pray that the same hour may bring death to both of us – that I may never see my wife’s tomb, nor be buried by her.
i

Wrapped in one cloak

Lo now! Golden-haired Love hits me with his purple ball and calls me forth to play with a motley-slippered maid.
i

Hylas and Heracles

The Dryad nymphs are excited by his whiteness, they break off their usual chorus and stare. Lightly, they draw him, slipping, into the gentle water. Then, his body caught, Hylas raises a shout. Far off, Hercules sends a response, but the breeze returns the name from distant mountains.
i

Hermaphroditus

As when one grafts a twig on some tree, he sees the branches grow one, and with common life come to maturity, so were these two bodies knit in close embrace: they were no longer two, nor such as to be called one, woman, and one, man. They seemed neither, and yet both.
i

Hopeless net of Love

Yet again will Love eye me tenderly from beneath dark brows and cast me with manifold magic into the hopeless net of the Love-Goddess.
i

Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep

That they may be buried in the necropolis, after they have become very beautifully old as two lords honoured by the great god.
i

Wrapped in one cloak

Lo now! Golden-haired Love hits me with his purple ball and calls me forth to play with a motley-slippered maid.
i

Achilles and Patroclus

He bravely chose to go and rescue his lover Patroclus, avenged him, and sought death not merely in his behalf but in haste to be joined with him whom death had taken. For this the gods so highly admired him that they gave him distinguished honor, since he set so great a value on his lover.
i

Your hand in my hand

A lovely place to wander in,
Your hand in my hand.
My body thrives, my heart exults
At our walking together.
i

Hylas and Heracles

The Dryad nymphs are excited by his whiteness, they break off their usual chorus and stare. Lightly, they draw him, slipping, into the gentle water. Then, his body caught, Hylas raises a shout. Far off, Hercules sends a response, but the breeze returns the name from distant mountains.
i

Orpheus and Eurydice

She, so belov’d that from a single lyre more mourning rose than from all women-mourners, - that a whole world of mourning rose, wherin all things were once more present: wood and vale and road and hamlet, field and stream and beast, - and that around this world of mourning turned, even as around the other earth, a sun and a whole silent heaven full of stars, a heaven of mourning with disfigured stars: - she, so beloved.
i

Philemon and Baucis

We ask that we may be your priests, and guard your temple; and, since we have spent our lives in constant company, we pray that the same hour may bring death to both of us – that I may never see my wife’s tomb, nor be buried by her.
i

Hermaphroditus

As when one grafts a twig on some tree, he sees the branches grow one, and with common life come to maturity, so were these two bodies knit in close embrace: they were no longer two, nor such as to be called one, woman, and one, man. They seemed neither, and yet both.
i

Sources

1. Ibycus, fragment. Translated by John Maxwell Edmonds
Athenian red-figure kylix with a banquet scene, ca. 480 BC. Hieron (potter) – Makron (painter). This detail shows a hetaira and a banqueter in embrace. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 20.246 / Public Domain.

2. Excerpt from an offering prayer from the tomb of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep in Saqqara. Translated by Jon Hirst
Relief from the tomb of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep. Egypt, Saqqara, ca. 2400 BC. The two men were royal manicurists. The gesture of embrace symbolises a close connection: we do not know if they were brothers (perhaps twins), or lovers. For a 3D model of their tomb, click HERE.

3. Anacreon, fragment (excerpt). Translated by John Maxwell Edmonds
Athenian black-figure lekythos: two women wrapped in one cloak, ca. 550 BC, Pharos Painter. This motif is used to represent amorous involvement in Greek art. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 75.2.10 / Public Domain.

4. Plato: Symposium, 179e–180a. Translated by Harold N. Fowler.
Athenian red-figure drinking cup: Achilles dresses the wounds of Patroclus, ca. 500 BC. Sosias (potter) – Sosias Painter. Berlin, Antikensammlung der Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, F 2278 © Antikensammlung der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, source: wikipedia, Bibi Saint-Pol 2008.

5. Beginning of the songs of delight (excerpt). P. Harris 500, II.c. Translated by Miriam Lichtheim
Pair of clasped hands (Akhenaten and Nefertiti?), Egypt, Tell el-Amarna, ca. 1350 BC, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, ÄM 20494 (source)

6. Propertius I. 20. 45–50, translated by Vincent Katz
Heracles joined the Argonauts in the company of the young Hylas. But somewhere along the Marble Sea the water nymphs abducted the handsome youth. Heracles searched for his beloved companion for a long time, but never found him.
Detail of the so-called Ficoroni cista showing the Argonauts: Hylas and Heracles (?), 340–330 BC. © Rome, Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia, source: flickr, Egisto Sani 2015.

7. Rainer Maria Rilke: Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes. (excerpt), translated by Stephen Mitchell
Roman marble relief: Hermes, Eurydice and Orpheus, 1st century BC (after a Greek relief made around 420–410 BC). The relief captures the moment when Orpheus turns back towards his dead wife on their way out of the Underworld. Hermes, the guide of souls will lead Eurydice back to the realm of the dead – he is already holding her arm. Paris, Musée du Louvre, Ma 854 © 2006 Musée du Louvre / Daniel Lebée / Carine Deambrosis.

8. Ovidius: Metamorphoses, VIII. 709–712, translated by Frank Justus Miller
The poor, elderly couple, Philemon and Baucis generously welcomed the gods disguised as ordinary people into their homes. In return, the gods granted their wish to die together and when their time came, transformed them into trees, one oak and one linden.
Terracotta urn showing an Etruscan couple. From Caere, ca. 530–520. Rome, Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia, 6646, source: wikipedia, Sailko 2017.

9. Ovidius: Metamorphoses, IV. 375–379, translated by Frank Justus Miller
Hermaphroditus was the child of Hermes and Aphrodite. A nymph fell in love with him, but he rejected her. When she embraced the beautiful youth, the gods granted her wish to unite their bodies forever.
Sleeping Hermaphroditus, 100–150 AD. Paris, Musée du Louvre, Ma 231 © 2011 Musée du Louvre / Thierry Ollivier.

Featured image: Rainbow above a village garden. Hungary, 2021.

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