ses me reproach ...
It is riches
Ye love, it is not men:
In the time when _we_ lived
It was men we loved ...
My arms when they are seen
Are bony and thin:
Once they would fondle,
They would be round glorious kings ...
I must take my garment even in the sun:
The time is at hand that shall renew me.[133]

Freyja, the Germanic mother goddess, whose car was drawn by cats, had
similarly many lovers. In the Icelandic poem "Lokasenna", Loki taunts
her, saying:

Silence, Freyja! Full well I know thee,
And faultless art thou not found;
Of the gods and elves who here are gathered
Each one hast thou made thy mate.

Idun, the keeper of the apples of immortal youth, which prevent the
gods growing old, is similarly addressed:

Silence, Idun! I swear, of all women
Thou the most wanton art;
Who couldst fling those fair-washed arms of thine
About thy brother's slayer.

Frigg, wife of Odin, is satirized as well:

Silence, Frigg! Earth's spouse for a husband,
And hast ever yearned after men![134]

The goddesses of classic mythology had similar reputations. Aphrodite
(Venus) had many divine and mortal lovers. She links closely with
Astarte and Ashtoreth (Ishtar), and reference has already been made to
her relations with Adonis (Tammuz). These love deities were all as
cruel as they were wayward. When Ishtar wooed the Babylonian hero,
Gilgamesh, he spurned her advances, as has been indicated, saying:

On Tammuz, the spouse of thy youth,
Thou didst lay affliction every year.
Thou didst love the brilliant Allalu bird
But thou didst smite him and break his wing;
He stands in the woods and cries "O my wing".

He likewise charged her with deceiving the lion and the horse, making
reference to obscure myths:

Thou didst also love a shepherd of the flock,
Who continually poured out for thee the libation,
And daily slaughtered kids for thee;
But thou didst smite him and didst change him into a leopard,
So that his own sheep boy hunted him,
And his own hounds tore him to pieces.[135]

These goddesses were ever prone to afflict human beings who might
offend them or of whom they wearied. Demeter (Ceres) changed
Ascalaphus into an owl and Stellio into a lizard. Rhea (Ops) resembled

The tow'red Cybele,
Mother of a hundred gods,

the wanton who loved Attis (Adonis). Artemis (Diana) sle