THE BUSH OF HELEN

[helenic]

Theocritus Idyll 18:

The poet describes how he and his mates run through the meadows gathering garlands of flowers in honour of Helen, whom they all fancy. The hang the flowers and wreaths of lotus-vine on a plane-tree as a sort of public ritual to commemorate how much they fancy her, even though she's married already. The poet worships her, and yearns in particular for her breasts, "as a new-born lamb yearns for the teats of the mother-ewe" (Hellenistic lyric poets: Dodgy Similes R Us). He anoints the soil below the tree with oil in some sort of symbolic love act, and then graffitis the bark of the tree in Dorian letters, which read:

(line 48) "WORSHIP ME, I AM THE BUSH OF HELEN."

Oh my god, I want that line tattooed in Greek above my pubic hair so very, very much.

Comments

[dreamfracture.livejournal.com]

You know that saying "Your body is a temple"? *grins*

[libellum.livejournal.com]

oh yes. the Greek, , just means "a plant", so is very easily translated bush.

actually the symbolism is quite interesting - according to my Middle Liddell means "that which has grown", "a creature", or "descendant, child". In the sexual context which my mind immediately leapt to, how Freudian.

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

I thought it was "My body is a temple... get on your knees."

[steeraway.livejournal.com]

Haha, me too ;-)

the bushes of Helens

[libellum.livejournal.com]

including glitzfrau and secutatrix, we can have a veritable shrubbery!

[dreamfracture.livejournal.com]

Hah, your l33t-ninja-stealth-edit hath not escaped my watchful eye!

[libellum.livejournal.com]

the first version failed to fully express the funny. also lang's translation was terrible.

[fiona-kitty.livejournal.com]

*giggles* :) That's funny. And cute fluffy lambs!

[libellum.livejournal.com]

cute fluffy lambs having sexual fantasies about their mothers' breasts. I fear you miss the point.

[vectorious.livejournal.com]

"WORSHIP ME, I AM THE BUSH OF HELEN."

Am I the only one who though that this was the thing that made Helen go to war with Iraq?

[libellum.livejournal.com]

*groans*

Except that surely if we were casting the US/Iraq as the Trojan War, Helen would be some English chick, married to one of Bush's high-ranking White House peeps, who ran off with an Iraqi? So the Bush wouldn't be "of Helen" at all, unless the reason Bush=Agamemnon was so keen to get her back was that he secretly fancied her himself...?

[the-lady-lily.livejournal.com]

*mild hysterics*

Huzzah for appalling and strangely naive 19th century translators!

(Shame it was just phuton for the Greek, although I'm quite glad you answered that before I had to ask the question.)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

actually bush is my translation; A. Lang translates it tree. But it could so mean bush. Totally.

I wish LJ supported SGreek or SuperGreek, damnit.

[yvesilena.livejournal.com]

DO IT! DO IT! There are so few people in the world who 1 - are called Helen; 2 - know that quote, let alone know the original Greek; 3 - would have it tattooed above their pubic hair; 4 - would actually look hot with said tattoo. YOU OWE IT TO THE WORLD. :D:D

[dreamfracture.livejournal.com]

I suspect our Libellum might be the only one, actually.

So, using the logic that someone has to do it, and it would be wasted on anyone else, I'm also in full support.

Well, not full support, because it's the kind of thing you'll eventually regret.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'm not sure how aesthetically pleasing it actually would look. I shall experiment with black rollerball and take photographs. Although it's remarkably hard to write graceful accented Greek upside down. Perhaps I should create some sort of ink transfer...

[oakwonder.livejournal.com]

Now, normally, I'm so against tattoos. But I have to admit, admiring erudition as I do...

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Why are you against tattoos? I can easily understand people not wanting them themselves, but I'd be surprised if you genuinely believed they were never beautiful on other people.

I am going to get a few lines of Greek or Latin erotic poetry on me at some point. I'm still trying to choose. Something clever with intertextual allusion and layers of irony, which is also beautiful poetry. Actually I discovered Plato's lyric poetry the other day. I'd never realised. It's glorious.

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

*collapses in helpless laughter*

[libellum.livejournal.com]

*grins*

[ifimust.livejournal.com]

The idea is wonderful. Whether you want to live with it forever is another matter, but the idea is wonderful.

Perhaps get it made into a stencil that could be used with henna, at least until/unless you decide to tattoo it? :)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

I can almost certainly say I'm not going to tattoo it. I'll paint a self-portrait of myself including it, instead ;) Instant immortalisation of an idea, without having to actually live with it on your body!

It won't be for a while though. I have an immense backlog of painting ideas.

[olithered.livejournal.com]

That is truly excellent.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

rah! glad you think so :)

ps. I was intending to give you or aiwendel clothes for her this evening, but it looks like I won't be able to make it. (I dramatically overslept, and am therefore several hours behind on revision). If either of you are able to stop by beforehand or afterwards I'll happily provide tea and chat and she can try them on without taking them away - otherwise, will you be at WUS tomorrow? I'm extremely tempted by the first set...

[isquiesque.livejournal.com]

In related body art, I vaguely considered getting this tattoo once:



Decide it's no longer cute and you don't like it anymore? No worries... just let the hair grow back over it. But my present partner, despite having a sense of humor, is against tattoos. And, um, if you shaved everything you would ruin the joke. So I'm not getting that one.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

That's adorable. Not particularly sexy, though. I think pubic tattoos should have an element of sexiness. The argument for the above idea is that Greek looks sexy, it's aesthetically pleasing even if you know what it means, and the whole "worship me" is cunnilingus-tastic. But I'm still thinking probably, on the whole, no.

Oh but that's so cute. If I went down on a girl and she had it I'd think she was the greatest thing ever. There would be much giggling and "awww!"s and probably tickling and "vvvmmmmmm" noises and play-fighting. But I agree, I wouldn't get it done myself.