Le Temps De L'olympe. (Translation) . Poem by Michael Walker

Le Temps De L'olympe. (Translation) .

On entendit une fois par hasard Zeus qui s'ecria a Hera:
'Tu le hais, n'est-ce pas? Bien, je le hais plus-
Le vent de l'est en mai, le siroco tout l'Ete.
Que i'Infernal prenne tout cet univers Impossible! '


Un scoliaste explique sa repartie chaude,
Qui semble trop masculin pour l'usage Olympique,
En notant que les vents a queue de serpent Chthoniens
Etaient responsables au Sort seul, non pas a Zeus.

- 'The Weather of Olympus'. Robert Graves. 'Robert Graves: The Complete Poems', p.146.

Friday, April 21, 2017
Topic(s) of this poem: weather
POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
Zeus was the supreme god in Greek mythology: Hera, his wife, was the goddess of marriage and the family, a symbol of the ideal woman. Hera hates the easterly wind in May, and the hot dry wind (sirocco) which blew all summer. Zeus hates these winds even more. A scholiast (medieval annotator and student of ancient scripts) explains Zeus's heated reply to Hera by writing that the Chthonian winds were answerable to Fate alone, not Zeus. Fate is stronger than Zeus.
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