Slender Aphrodite has overcome me with longing for a girl!
Plump Aphrodite has overcome me with longing for a guy!
Meanwhile owl-carrying Athena is propping open the enticing door of the library,
Hermes, kindest of the gods, is sending me delightful mail,
And Apollo insists I make these thoughts into a poem
Right now
Even though both Aphrodites are tapping their feet impatiently
And the Pleiades are about to set,
While I writhe proudly, torn between deity and possibility.
(So the context for this is a friend posted this photo of the mug, which led to a discussion of how the word translated “girl” means “youth” and is gender neutral, and then “slender Aphrodite” made me think “fat Aphrodite” and then of course the discussion of the earthly and the heavenly Aphrodite in the Symposium. And also this is a fragment, a line without context, and the translation is slightly awkward in that particular way — meanwhile everyone else was sensibly discussing the font choice and the colours.)
