This poem is hot off the press. I wrote it for my bodybuilding friend, Athena Siganakis.
The New Athena
That famed Athena known by all of old
(Who from the head of Zeus was birthed and hurled)
With Aphrodite, for an apple gold
Competed, and was sung by all the world.
The ancient world declared divine her sense.
In three dominions they affirmed her rule:
In wisdom, warfare, and intelligence,
And beauty was her fair monarchial jewel.
But now the Third Millennium has dawned.
An iron goddess springs from iron birth,
For whom the modern devotee has longed:
A new Athena strides upon the earth.
In beauty, she is worthy of her name,
With muscles far beyond the ancient norm.
Nor could that old world’s pantheon lay claim
To figures of such arch-majestic form.
But I desire to know her as a whole,
Not only for the glory of her frame:
The wisdom and the warfare of her soul
And all intelligences of the same.
I pray you, New Athena, take this verse
As token quite inadequate, but
true,
(Until such time as fate lets us converse)
Of my esteem and high regard for you.
-
© 2013,
Paul Erlandson
