Parthenos poems on Hello Poetry

Claire Smith Apr 2016

The Heroes of Olympus: The Mark of Athena

Amid the Romans the seven arrive,
To work something out to stop the impending war,
To everyone it seemed like things were going fine,
Until Leo was possessed and attacks the Roman camp,
Aboard the ship they fly away,
But they have no idea what will happen to them,
Throughout their journey they find many clues,
Except they don’t always know what to do,
Till Annabeth discovers that she needs to leave the group,
Against her will Annabeth heads out on her solo quest,
Throughout her journey she faces many hardships,
Over Tartarus is where she ends up,
After Annabeth is finally found by the rest of the seven,
Inside Arachne’s web-filled cave,
Upon the long lost Athena Parthenos,
Above Annabeth is the Argo II,
Against their luck the ground is questionably stable,
Toward Tartarus Percy and Annabeth fall,
Down they fall for what seems like days,
Into the place where the monsters lay.

This is just a little prepositional poem I wrote. :)

Pyrrha Dec 2023

III. Parthenos; the unbreakable

I am a woman– forced to say it like a curse
Because the moment we are discovered
Evil eyes of all sorts gaze upon us,
Questioning and curious.
        “Is her skin like porcelain?”
They refer to us as pithos, jars
Containers of the worst combinations
Of what Pandora released
Transporters of life and miasma
The toxic pollutant that comes
With giving and taking life.
        “Her virtue above all else– is she pure?”
We are *parthenos, with our coveted virginity
But once we are women we are spoiled
Once a jar has been opened and shattered
It can never become pristine and new again
Only lay in wait to crumble and expire.
        “Her hair, is it soft like satin?”
They who clamber out from our wombs,
Refer to us as stains of shame and burden
They call us impure and unclean when we bleed
A pollutant when we birth new life
Yet they are praised when they forsake ours.
        “Do her eyes shine like gems?”
We are like treasure, like silk and gold
When we are not yet broken, we are something desired
They say we are like pearls and gems; silk and gold
But these comparisons are not compliments– they are currencies
The closest they can get to shelving us, marketed to be sold
        “Is she beautiful?”
Be lovely like Aphrodite with unparalleled beauty
Be chaste as Athena and Artemis, a monarch like Hestia and Hera
Be obedient or become like Pandora and bring us to ruin
We are told to be and not be pieces of so many others,
That we can’t remember how to simply be ourselves.
        “Become unbreakable.”

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Part of a three part series.

Caitlin Sep 2018

Ye who enter here

The ash and brimstone might have tasted sweet
Amid the harsher fragrances of hope
That bloom like lilies, lucent on faint slopes,
And root themselves in sinless psyches deep.
I heard those vile unchaste murmurs slide
In through the gate, where purer flowers hung,
Enwrought with ancient banes in ancient tongues:
The doors to Hell remain secured with pride.
      As Parthenos in Athens she was known,
      So oathless Devil shall in Hades reign.
      Beyond the depths that man can fathom rests
      The starkest palace, laid with mica stone;
      Yet in his kingdom lies a fertile plain,
      And in its soil faith may effloresce.

— The End —