“I dreamt I saw great Venus”

Bion of Smyrna (fl. c. 100 B.C.)

From the Greek by Leigh Hunt

I DREAMT I saw great Venus by me stand,

Leading a nodding infant by the hand;

And that she said to me familiarly—

“Take Love, and teach him how to play to me.”

She vanished then. And I, poor fool, must turn

To teach the boy, as if he wished to learn.

I taught him all the pastoral songs I knew

And used to sing; and I informed him too,

How Pan found out the pipe, Pallas the flute,

Phœbus the lyre, and Mercury the lute.

But not a jot for all my words cared he,

But lo! fell singing his love-songs to me;

And told me of the loves of gods and men,

And of his mother’s doings; and so then

I forgot all I taught him for my part,

But what he taught me, I learnt all by heart.