An Unholy Trio

by Brett Rutherford

     Adapted from Asclepiades, The Greek Anthology, v, 161

Euphro, Thais
and Boidion, three hags
who once were courtesans
at Diomede’s tavern,
who formerly took on,
like a twenty-oared transport,
the desperate arriving captains,
have cast ashore now
three ruined men, stripped
to their sandals and worse off
than shipwrecked sailors.

Poor Agis,
poor Cleophon,
poor Antagoras:
the rocks of divorce
await them, and all
because those creatures
posed as respectable
women and lured them
to home and hearth.

Back at their old trade,
corsairs of Aphrodite,
they shriek like Sirens.