Young women visited by many, attendants

of Persuasion in wealthy Corinth,

who burn the fresh, amber drops of frankincense

often fluttering in thought to the mother of loves,

Ouranian Aphrodite.

To you without blame she granted,

O children, on lovely beds

to have plucked the fruit of soft youth.

With necessity all is lovely

…

But I wonder what the masters of the Isthmos will say of me

finding such a beginning to a honey-minded skolion

a companion to shared women.

We reveal gold by a pure touchstone.

…

O Mistress of Cyprus, here to your grove

the hundred-limbed herd of grazing girls

Xenophon brought, delighting in his prayers fulfilled.

πολύξεναι νεάνιδες ἀμϕίπολοι

Πειθοῦς ἐν ἀϕνειῷ Κορίνθῳ,

αἵ τε τὰς χλωρᾶς λιβάνου ξανθὰ δάκρη

θυμιᾶτε, πολλάκι ματέρ´ Ἐρώτων

οὐρανίαν πτάμεναι

νόημα ποττὰν Ἀϕροδίταν·

ὑμῖν ἄνευθεν ἐπαγορίας ἔπορεν,

ὦ παῖδες, ἐρατειναῖς ἐν εὐναῖς

μαλθακᾶς ὥρας ἀπὸ καρπὸν δρέπεσθαι.

σὺν δ´ ἀνάγκᾳ πᾶν καλόν.

…

ἀλλὰ θαυμάζω τί με λεξοῦντι Ἰσθμοῦ

δεσπόται τοιάνδε μελίϕρονος ἀρχὰν εὑρόμενον σκολίου,

ξυνάορον ξυναῖς γυναιξί.

ἐδιδἐάξαμεν χρυσὸν καθαρᾷ βασσάνῳ.

…

ὦ Κύπρου δέσποινα, τεὸν δεῦτ´ ἐς ἄλσος

ϕορβάδων κορᾶν ἀγέλαν ἑκατόγγυιον Ξενοϕῶν τελέαις

ἐπήγαγ´ εὐΧωλαῖς ἰανθείς.

Even private citizens vow to the goddess that, if those things for which they make petition are fulfilled, they will even bring courtesans to Aphrodite. […]