Proserpina et Ceres.Bettina Joy de Guzman.Nikos Xanthoulis

Once, Spring was eternal, but Venus sends Cupid to make Dis fall in love with Proserpina, so the virgin goddess and the Underworld lord are in the thrall of Love, and Winter falls. Composed in dactylic hexameter by Bettina Joy de Guzman, on Luthieros phorminx. (Ovid, Metamorphoses 5.391-538) Performed with Nikos Xanthoulis, Museum of Byzantine Culture, Thessaloniki. October 6, 2018.

Proserpina et Ceres

perpetuum ver est. quo dum Proserpina luco
ludit et aut violas aut candida lilia carpit,
paene simul visa est dilectaque raptaque Diti:
usque adeo est properatus amor. dea territa maesto

sed regina tamen, sed opaci maxima mundi,
sed tamen inferni pollens matrona tyranni!'

Mater ad auditas stupuit ceu saxea voces
attonitaeque diu similis fuit, utque dolore
pulsa gravi gravis est amentia, curribus oras
exit in aetherias: …

'pro' que 'meo veni supplex tibi, Iuppiter,' inquit
'sanguine proque tuo: si nulla est gratia matris,

non ita fata sinunt, quoniam ieiunia virgo
solverat et, cultis dum simplex errat in hortis,
puniceum curva decerpserat arbore pomum
sumptaque pallenti septem de cortice grana
presserat ore suo…