Classic Poem

Once Eros, mid the roses,
A sleeping bee awakened,
Which on the finger stung him.
His heart was filled with sorrow.

Half-running and half-flying,
He sought his goddess mother,
The beautiful Kythera:
" Alas, O mother, " crying,

" Olola, I am dying!
A little winged serpent,
A bee, the shepherds name it,
Has stung me on my finger. "

His mother said: " If bee-stings
Are found to be so painful,
Thou seest how mortals suffer
When wounded by thy arrows! "