I R E N E©

A name sweet, pleasant-sounding; IRENE.

A vision divine: IRENE.

A statue carved, feminine: IRENE.

A life heavenly, guileless: IRENE.

Someone defined symmetry in your name,

someone gave form to the creature of his imagination

and Cephisodotus made you with his hands:

Angelic figure, trustworthy face,

the form of a woman who holds life in her embrace.

I came face to face with you!

My dreams, dreams prosaic, small, insignificant,

can be contained in the folds of your chiton!

I drew aside the marble fabric and out poured

the boundless canopies of heaven with suns and stars,

endless waving plains, colourfully embroidered,

vast foamy seas with fish and ship-masters.

And I, an insignificant anonymous dot in your vastness,

floated, carefree, between heaven and earth

experiencing the happiness of the world,

which I wanted to last forever.

Keep open your chiton,

never gather up your treasures.

Can you not see the joy and worth of people?

Can you not see how many are lying in

wait to make into ash the colours of your chiton?

                                             Vanda Papaioannou

                                                         Historian-Archaeologist

Irene and Plutus (=Peace and Wealth) by Cephisodotus, a statue of marble, 4^th century A.D. (Archaeological Museum of Athens)