How beautiful the Prince of Lilies and his consort on the Knossos fresco must have looked!
On the fresco:
In life, ready for marriage to the equally beautiful Princess of Knossos:
As she might have appeared on one of the Knossos frescoes:
And in life:
The Prince of Lilies (Sonnet)
(Knossos Fresco 1500 BCE)
yZn ,<V wanaka kirino #a&nac xri&nwn
Lilies at his feet, lilies in his hands,
the Prince of Lilies casts his sortilège.
proceeds with friends, with loved ones and his bands
of cuirassiers, and their white manège.
His loin cloth purled in alabaster folds,
a lily chaplet crowns his onyx hair,
a peacock feather glistening with golds
and azures in the fragrant air.
In sea green silk soigné for Royalty,
this way he casts and that his princely glance
the bridegroom incarnates for all to see,
before they commence the epipthalamic dance.
To come and wed his modest virgin bride,
her fine illumined grace he’ll take in stride.
Richard Vallance © 2015
Sonnet revised, previously published in
Sonnetto Poesia, ISSN 1705-4524, pg. 15. Vol. 6 No. 2, spring 2007
Canadian Zen Haiku canadien ISSN 1705-4508 
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