My lost and dazzled eyes saw only
night, capricious burnings flickered through my
bleak abandoned flesh. I could not breathe or
speak. I faced my flaming executioner, 
Aphrodite, my mother’s murderer! 
[A curse by Poseidon, enforced by Aphrodite, the goddess of
love, lust and beauty, upon Pasiphaë, Phaedra’s
mother, caused her to mate with a sacred bull
and give birth to the Minotaur, which was slain
by Theseus.] 
I tried to calm her wrath by flowers
and praise, I built her a temple, fretted months
and days on decoration. Alas, my hungry open
mouth, thirsting with adoration, tasted drouth
— Venus resigned her altar to my new lord.