Poetry is the language of love, and no poets approached their subject with more passion, power, and unfettered abandon than the poets of ancient Greece. There is a wonderful freshness to their vision, for they were the first in the western world to make the great leap from epic verse, written to honor gods and great heroes, to a more personal lyric poetry, written to woo the beloved and unlock the mysteries of Love itself. Their love poetry—selected and presented here in new, accessible English translations—has a raw sensuality mixed with tender subtlety that reflects a land where gods and goddesses lusted and loved with the same wild abandon as did the humans who worshipped them. This is love without judgment, love without rules. This is love because love and only love can sustain the lover’s life.