Charaxis and Larichos

To refresh my memory and to make sure I didn't overlook anyone, I did a Google search for 'Female poets' and the first suggestion was Sappho who was probably born about 620 BC and lived on the Greek island of Lesbos.  She was hailed in antiquity as 'The Poetess' and was regarded as highly as Homer.  This was the first poem of hers that I read and I am very impressed.  There's nothing antique about this girl!


Say what you like about Charaxos,
that’s a fellow with a fat-bellied ship
always in some port or other.
What does Zeus care, or the rest of his gang?

Now you’d like me on my knees,
crying out to Hera, “Blah, blah, blah,
bring him home safe and free of warts,”
or blubbering, “Wah, wah, wah, thank you,

thank you, for curing my liver condition.”
Good grief, gods do what they like.
They call down hurricanes with a whisper
or send off a tsunami the way you would a love letter.

If they have a whim, they make some henchmen
fix it up, like those idiots in the Iliad.
A puff of smoke, a little fog, away goes the hero,
it’s happily ever after. As for Larichos,

that lay-a-bed lives for the pillow. If for once
he’d get off his ass, he might make something of himself.
Then from that reeking sewer of my life
I might haul up a bucket of spring water.

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