CANTO XXXIX

I admit there are a couple of Greek quotes, one along in 39 that can’t be understood without Greek, but if I can drive the reader to learning at least that much Greek, she or he will indubitably be filled with a durable gratitude. And if not, what harm? I can’t conceal the fact that the Greek language existed.

Ezra Pound, Selected Letters 251.

Sacrum, sacrum, inluminatio coitu.

Ezra Pound. Canto XXXVI l.96.

RELATED CANTOS

CANTO I [Odysseus and Circe’s advice; theophany of Aphrodite]

CANTO II [myth, sex and the classical pastoral] 

CANTO IV [the sacred wedding]

CANTO XVII [sleep; sex and nature]

CANTO XX [lotus eaters versus swine in Circe’s pigtsy]

CANTO XXIII [Greek language and writing as mystery; Aphrodite; sex as illumination]

CANTO XXIX [sex and modernity]

CANTO XXXVI [Definition of love in Cavalcanti's Donna mi prega]

CANTO XXXVII [scientific, vegetative magic in lines 144-147]

CANTO XLVII [Circe and Odysseus; the divine mystery of sex]