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Mackail + +First Published 1890 by Longmans, Green, and Co. + +Etext prepared by John Bickers, jbickers@ihug.co.nz +and Dagny, dagnyj@hotmail.com + + + + SELECT EPIGRAMS FROM THE GREEK ANTHOLOGY + EDITED WITH A REVISED TEXT, TRANSLATION, AND NOTES + + BY + + J. W. MACKAIL + + Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. + + + + PREPARER'S NOTE + + This book was published in 1890 by Longmans, Green, and Co., + London; and New York: 15 East 16th Street. + + The epigrams in the book are given both in Greek and in English. + This text includes only the English. Where Greek is present in + short citations, it has been given here in transliterated form and + marked with brackets. A chapter of Notes on the translations has + also been omitted. + + + + {eti pou proima leuxoia} + Meleager in /Anth. Pal./ iv. 1. + + Dim now and soil'd, + Like the soil'd tissue of white violets + Left, freshly gather'd, on their native bank. + M. Arnold, /Sohrab and Rustum/. + + + + PREFACE + +The purpose of this book is to present a complete collection, subject +to certain definitions and exceptions which will be mentioned later, +of all the best extant Greek Epigrams. Although many epigrams not +given here have in different ways a special interest of their own, +none, it is hoped, have been excluded which are of the first +excellence in any style. But, while it would be easy to agree on +three-fourths of the matter to be included in such a scope, perhaps +hardly any two persons would be in exact accordance with regard to the +rest; with many pieces which lie on the border line of excellence, the +decision must be made on a balance of very slight considerations, and +becomes in the end one rather of personal taste than of any fixed +principle. + +For the Greek Anthology proper, use has chiefly been made of the two +great works of Jacobs, which have not yet been superseded by any more +definitive edition: /Anthologia Graeca sive Poetarum Graecorum lusus +ex recensione Brunckii; indices et commentarium adiecit Friedericus +Iacobs/ (Leipzig, 1794-1814: four volumes of text and nine of indices, +prolegomena, commentary, and appendices), and /Anthologia Graeca ad +fidem codicis olim Palatini nunc Parisini ex apographo Gothano edita; +curavit epigrammata in Codice Palatino desiderata et annotationem +criticam adiecit Fridericus Jacobs/ (Leipzig, 1813-1817: two volumes +of text and two of critical notes). An appendix to the latter contains +Paulssen's fresh collation of the Palatine MS. The small Tauchnitz +text is a very careless and inaccurate reprint of this edition. The +most convenient edition of the Anthology for ordinary reference is +that of F. Dübner in Didot's /Bibliothèque Grecque/ (Paris, 1864), in +two volumes, with a revised text, a Latin translation, and additional +notes by various hands. The epigrams recovered from inscriptions have +been collected and edited by G. Kaibel in his /Epigrammata Graeca ex +labidibus conlecta/ (Berlin, 1878). As this book was going through the +press, a third volume of the Didot Anthology has appeared, edited by +M. Ed. Cougny, under the title of /Appendix nova epigrammatum veterum +ex libris at marmoribus ductorum/, containing what purports to be a +complete collection, now made for the first time, of all extant +epigrams not in the Anthology. + +In the notes, I have not thought it necessary to acknowledge, except +here once for all, my continual obligations to that superb monument of +scholarship, the commentary of Jacobs; but where a note or a reading +is borrowed from a later critic, his name is mentioned. All important +deviations from the received text of the Anthology are noted, and +referred to their author in each case; but, as this is not a critical +edition, the received text, when retained, is as a rule printed +without comment where it differs from that of the MSS. or other +originals. + +The references in the notes to Bergk's /Lyrici Graeci/ give the pages +of the fourth edition. Epigrams from the Anthology are quoted by the +sections of the Palatine collection (/Anth. Pal./) and the appendices +to it (sections xiii-xv). After these appendices follows in modern +editions a collection (/App. Plan./) of all the epigrams in the +Planudean Anthology which are not found in the Palatine MS. + +I have to thank Mr. P. E. Matheson, Fellow of New College, for his +kindness in looking over the proofsheets of this book. + + + + INTRODUCTION + + + I + +The Greek word "epigram" in its original meaning is precisely +equivalent to the Latin word "inscription"; and it probably came into +use in this sense at a very early period of Greek history, anterior +even to the invention of prose. Inscriptions at that time, if they +went beyond a mere name or set of names, or perhaps the bare statement +of a single fact, were necessarily in verse, then the single vehicle +of organised expression. Even after prose was in use, an obvious +propriety remained in the metrical form as being at once more striking +and more easily retained in the memory; while in the case of epitaphs +and dedications--for the earlier epigram falls almost entirely under +these two heads--religious feeling and a sense of what was due to +ancient custom aided the continuance of the old tradition. Herodotus +in the course of his History quotes epigrams of both kinds; and with +him the word {epigramma} is just on the point of acquiring its +literary sense, though this is not yet fixed definitely. In his +account of the three ancient tripods dedicated in the temple of Apollo +at Thebes,[1] he says of one of them, {o men de eis ton tripodon +epigramma ekhei}, and then quotes the single hexameter line engraved +upon it. Of the other two he says simply, "they say in hexameter," +{legei en exametro tono}. Again, where he describes the funeral +monuments at Thermopylae,[2] he uses the words {gramma} and +{epigramma} almost in the sense of sepulchural epigrams; {epigegrammai +grammata legonta tade}, and a little further on, {epixosmesantes +epigrammasi xai stelesi}, "epitaphs and monuments". Among these +epitaphs is the celebrated couplet of Simonides[3] which has found a +place in all subsequent Anthologies. + +In the Anthology itself the word does not however in fact occur till a +late period. The proem of Meleager to his collection uses the words +{soide}, {umnos}, {melisma}, {elegos}, all vaguely, but has no term +which corresponds in any degree to our epigram. That of Philippus has +one word which describes the epigram by a single quality; he calls his +work an {oligostikhia} or collection of poems not exceeding a few +lines in length. In an epitaph by Diodorus, a poet of the Augustan +age, occurs the phrase {gramma legei},[4] in imitation of the phrase +of Herodotus just quoted. This is, no doubt, an intentional archaism; +but the word {epigramma} itself does not occur in the collection until +the Roman period. Two epigrams on the epigram,[5] one Roman, the other +Roman or Byzantine, are preserved, both dealing with the question of +the proper length. The former, by Parmenio, merely says that an +epigram of many lines is bad--{phemi polustikhien epigrammatos ou xata +Mousas einai}. The other is more definite, but unfortunately ambiguous +in expression. It runs thus: + + {Pagxalon eot epigramma to distikhon en de parelthes + tous treis rapsodeis xoux epigramma legeis} + +The meaning of the first part is plain; an epigram may be complete +within the limits of a single couplet. But do "the three" mean three +lines or three couplets? "Exceeding three" would, in the one case, +mean an epigram of four lines, in the other of eight. As there cannot +properly be an epigram of three lines, it would seem rather to mean +the latter. Even so the statement is an exaggeration; many of the best +epigrams are in six and eight lines. But it is true that the epigram +may "have its nature", in the phrase of Aristotle,[6] in a single +couplet; and we shall generally find that in those of eight lines, as +always without exception in those of more than eight, there is either +some repetition of idea not necessary to the full expression of the +thought, or some redundance of epithet or detail too florid for the +best taste, or, as in most of the Byzantine epigrams, a natural +verbosity which affects the style throughout and weakens the force and +directness of the epigram. + +The notorious difficulty of giving any satisfactory definition of +poetry is almost equalled by the difficulty of defining with precision +any one of its kinds; and the epigram in Greek, while it always +remained conditioned by being in its essence and origin an +inscriptional poem, took in the later periods so wide a range of +subject and treatment that it can perhaps only be limited by certain +abstract conventions of length and metre. Sometimes it becomes in all +but metrical form a lyric; sometimes it hardly rises beyond the +versified statement of a fact or an idea; sometimes it is barely +distinguishable from a snatch of pastoral. The shorter pieces of the +elegiac poets might very often well be classed as epigrams but for the +uncertainty, due to the form in which their text has come down to us, +whether they are not in all cases, as they undoubtedly are in some, +portions of longer poems. Many couplets and quatrains of Theognis fall +under this head; and an excellent instance on a larger scale is the +fragment of fourteen lines by Simonides of Amorgos,[7] which is the +exact type on which many of the later epigrams of life are moulded. In +such cases /respice auctoris animum/ is a safe rule; what was not +written as an epigram is not an epigram. Yet it has seemed worth while +to illustrate this rule by its exceptions; and there will be found in +this collection fragments of Mimnermus and Theognis[8] which in +everything but the actual circumstance of their origin satisfy any +requirement which can be made. In the Palatine Anthology itself, +indeed, there are a few instances[9] where this very thing is done. As +a rule, however, these short passages belong to the class of {gromai} +or moral sentences, which, even when expressed in elegiac verse, is +sufficiently distinct from the true epigram. One instance will +suffice. In the Anthology there occurs this couplet:[10] + + {Pan to peritton axaipon epei logos esti palaios + os xai tou melitos to pleon esti khole} + +This is a sentence merely; an abstract moral idea, with an +illustration attached to it. Compare with it another couplet[11] in +the Anthology: + + {Aion panta pserei dolikhos khronos oioen ameibein + ounoma xai morpsen xai psuain ede tukhen} + +Here too there is a moral idea; but in the expression, abstract as it +is, there is just that high note, that imaginative touch, which gives +it at once the gravity of an inscription and the quality of a poem. + +Again, many of the so-called epideictic epigrams are little more than +stories told shortly in elegiac verse, much like the stories in Ovid's +Fasti. Here the inscriptional quality is the surest test. It is this +quality, perhaps in many instances due to the verses having been +actually written for paintings or sculptures, that just makes an +epigram of the sea-story told by Antipater of Thessalonica, and of the +legend of Eunomus the harp-player[12]; while other stories, such as +those told of Pittacus, of Euctemon, of Serapis and the murderer,[13] +both tend to exceed the reasonable limit of length, and have in no +degree either the lapidary precision of the half lyrical passion which +would be necessary to make them more than tales in verse. Once more, +the fragments of idyllic poetry which by chance have come down to us +incorporated in the Anthology,[14] beautiful as they are, are in no +sense epigrams any more than the lyrics ascribed to Anacreon which +form an appendix to the Palatine collection, or the quotations from +the dramatists, Euripides, Menander, or Diphilus,[15] which have also +at one time or another become incorporated with it. + +In brief then, the epigram in its first intention may be described as +a very short poem summing up as though in a memorial inscription what +it is desired to make permanently memorable in any action or +situation. It must have the compression and conciseness of a real +inscription, and in proportion to the smallness of its bulk must be +highly finished, evenly balanced, simple, and lucid. In literature it +holds something of the same place as is held in art by an engraved +gem. But if the definition of the epigram is only fixed thus, it is +difficult to exclude almost any very short poem that conforms +externally to this standard; while on the other hand the chance of +language has restricted the word in its modern use to a sense which it +never bore in Greek at all, defined in the line of Boileau, /un bon +mot de deux rimes orné/. This sense was made current more especially +by the epigrams of Martial, which as a rule lead up to a pointed end, +sometimes a witticism, sometimes a verbal fancy, and are quite apart +from the higher imaginative qualities. From looking too exclusively at +the Latin epigrammatists, who all belonged to a debased period in +literature, some persons have been led to speak of the Latin as +distinct from the Greek sense of the word "epigram". But in the Greek +Anthology the epigrams of contemporary writers have the same quality. +The fault was that of the age, not of the language. No good epigram +sacrifices its finer poetical qualities to the desire of making a +point; and none of the best depend on having a point at all. + ---------- + +[1] Hdt. v. 59. + +[2] Hdt. vii. 228. + +[3] III. 4 in this collection. + +[4] Anth. Pal. vi. 348. + +[5] Ibid. ix. 342, 369. + +[6] Poet. 1449 a. 14. + +[7] Simon. fr. 85 Bergk. + +[8] Infra, XII. 6, 17, 37. + +[9] App. Plan. 16. + +[10] Anth. Pal. ix. 50, 118, x. 113. + +[11] Anth. Pal. ix. 51. + +[12] Infra, IX. 14, II. 14. + +[13] Anth. Pal. vii. 89, ix. 367, 378. + +[14] Anth. Pal. ix. 136, 362, 363. + +[15] Ibid. x. 107, xi. 438, 439. + + + II + +While the epigram is thus somewhat incapable of strict formal +definition, for all practical purposes it may be confined in Greek +poetry to pieces written in a single metre, the elegiac couplet, the +metre appropriated to inscriptions from the earliest recorded +period.[1] Traditionally ascribed to the invention of Archilochus or +Callinus, this form of verse, like the epic hexameter itself, first +meets us full grown.[2] The date of Archilochus of Paros may be fixed +pretty nearly at 700 B.C. That of Callinus of Ephesus is perhaps +earlier. It may be assumed with probability that elegy was an +invention of the same early civilisation among the Greek colonists of +the eastern coast of the Aegean in which the Homeric poems flowered +out into their splendid perfection. From the first the elegiac metre +was instinctively recognised as one of the best suited for +inscriptional poems. Originally indeed it had a much wider area, as it +afterwards had again with the Alexandrian poets; it seems to have been +the common metre for every kind of poetry which was neither purely +lyrical on the one hand, nor on the other included in the definite +scope of the heroic hexameter. The name {elegos}, "wailing", is +probably as late as Simonides, when from the frequency of its use for +funeral inscriptions the metre had acquired a mournful connotation, +and become the /tristis elegeïa/ of the Latin poets. But the war- +chants of Callinus and Tyrtaeus, and the political poems of the +latter, are at least fifty years earlier in date than the elegies of +Mimnermus, the first of which we have certain knowledge: and in +Theognis, a hundred years later than Mimnermus, elegiac verse becomes +a vehicle for the utmost diversity of subject, and a vehicle so facile +and flexible that it never seems unsuitable or inadequate. For at +least eighteen hundred years it remained a living metre, through all +that time never undergoing any serious modification.[3] Almost up to +the end of the Greek Empire of the East it continued to be written, in +imitation it is true of the old poets, but still with the freedom of a +language in common and uninterrupted use. As in the heroic hexameter +the Asiatic colonies of Greece invented the most fluent, stately, and +harmonious metre for continuous narrative poetry which has yet been +invented by man, so in the elegiac couplet they solved the problem, +hardly a less difficult one, of a metre which would refuse nothing, +which could rise to the occasion and sink with it, and be equally +suited to the epitaph of a hero or the verses accompanying a birthday +present, a light jest or a great moral idea, the sigh of a lover or +the lament over a perished Empire.[4] + +The Palatine Anthology as it has come down to us includes a small +proportion, less than one in ten, of poems in other metres than the +elegiac. Some do not properly belong to the collection, as for +instance the three lines of iambics heading the Erotic section and the +two hendecasyllabics at the end of it, or the two hexameters at the +beginning of the Dedicatory section. These are hardly so much +insertions as accretions. Apart from them there are only four non- +elegiac pieces among the three hundred and eight amatory epigrams. The +three hundred and fifty-eight dedicatory epigrams include sixteen in +hexameter and iambic, and one in hendecasyllabic; and among the seven +hundred and fifty sepulchral epigrams are forty-two in hexameter, +iambic, and other mixed metres. The Epideictic section, as one would +expect from the more miscellaneous nature of its contents, has a +larger proportion of non-elegiac pieces. Of the eight hundred and +twenty-seven epigrams no less than a hundred and twenty-nine are in +hexameter (they include a large number of single lines), twenty-seven +in iambic, and six others in various unusual metres, besides one (No. +703) which comes in strangely enough: it is in prose: and is the +inscription in commendation of the water of the Thracian river Tearos, +engraved on a pillar by Darius, transcribed from Herodotus, iv. 91. +The odd thing is that the collector of the Anthology appears to have +thought it was in verse. The Hortatory section includes a score of +hexameter and iambic fragments, some of them proverbial lines, others +extracts from the tragedians. The Convivial section has five-and- +twenty in hexameter, iambic, and hemiambic, out of four hundred and +forty-two. The Musa Stratonis, in which the hand of the Byzantine +editor has had a less free play, is entirely in elegiac. But the short +appendix next following it in the Palatine MS. consists entirely of +epigrams in various metres, chiefly composite. Of the two thousand +eight hundred and thirteen epigrams which constitute the Palatine +Anthology proper, (sections V., VI., VII., IX., X., and XI.), there +are in all a hundred and seventy-five in hexameter, seventy-seven in +iambic, and twenty-two in various other metres. In practise, when one +comes to make a selection, the exclusion of all non-elegiac pieces +leads to no difficulty. + +Nothing illustrates more vividly the essential unity and continuous +life of Greek literature than this line of poetry, reaching from the +period of the earliest certain historical records down to a time when +modern poetry in the West of Europe had already established itself; +nothing could supply a better and simpler corrective to the fallacy, +still too common, that Greek history ends with the conquests of +Alexander. It is on some such golden bridge that we must cross the +profound gulf which separates, to the popular view, the sunset of the +Western Empire of Rome from the dawn of the Italian republics and the +kingdoms of France and England. That gulf to most persons seems +impassable, and it is another world which lies across it. But here one +sees how that distant and strange world stretches out its hands to +touch our own. The great burst of epigrammatic poetry under Justinian +took place when the Consulate of Rome, after more than a thousand +years' currency, at last ceased to mark the Western year. While +Constantinus Cephalas was compiling his Anthology, adding to the +treasures of past times much recent and even contemporary work, +Athelstan of England inflicted the great defeat on the Danes at +Brunanburh, the song of which is one of the noblest records of our own +early literature; and before Planudes made the last additions the +Divine Comedy was written, and our English poetry had broken out into +the full sweetness of its flower: + + Bytuene Mershe ant Averil + When spray beginneth to springe, + The lutel foul hath hire wyl + On hyre lud to synge.[5] + +It is startling to think that so far as the date goes this might have +been included in the Planudean Anthology. + +Yet this must not be pressed too far. Greek literature at the later +Byzantine Court, like the polity and religion of the Empire, was a +matter of rigid formalism; and so an epigram by Cometas Chartularius +differs no more in style and spirit from an epigram by Agathias than +two mosaics of the same dates. The later is a copy of the earlier, +executed in a somewhat inferior manner. Even in the revival of poetry +under Justinian it is difficult to be sure how far the poetry was in +any real sense original, and how far it is parallel to the Latin +verses of Renaissance scholars. The vocabulary of these poets is +practically the same as that of Callimachus; but the vocabulary of +Callimachus too is practically the same as that of Simonides. + ---------- + +[1] The first inscriptions of all were probably in hexameter: cf. Hdt. + v. 59. + +[2] Horace, A. P., ll. 75-8, leaves the origin of elegiac verse in + obscurity. When he says it was first used for laments, he probably + follows the Alexandrian derivation of the word {elegos} from {e + legein}. The /voti sententia compos/ to which he says it became + extended is interpreted by the commentators as meaning amatory + poetry. If this was Horace's meaning he chose a most singular way + of expressing it. + +[3] Mr. F. D. Allen's treatise /On Greek Versification in + Inscriptions/ (Boston, 1888) gives an account of the slight + changes in structure (caesura, etc.) between earlier and later + periods. + +[4] Cf. infra, III. 2, VII., 4, X. 45, XII. 18, I. 30, IX. 23. + +[5] From the Leominster MS. circ. A.D. 1307 (Percy Society, 1842). + + + III + +The material out of which this selection has been made is principally +that immense mass of epigrams known as the Greek Anthology. An account +of this celebrated collection and the way in which it was formed will +be given presently; here it will be sufficient to say that, in +addition to about four hundred Christian epigrams of the Byzantine +period, it contains some three thousand seven hundred epigrams of all +dates from 700 B.C. to 1000 or even 1200 A.D., preserved in two +Byzantine collections, the one probably of the tenth, the other of the +fourteenth century, named respectively the Palatine and Planudean +Anthologies. The great mass of the contents of both is the same; but +the former contains a large amount of material not found in the +latter, and the latter a small amount not found in the former. + +For much the greatest number of these epigrams the Anthology is the +only source. But many are also found cited by various authors or +contained among their other works. It is not necessary to pursue this +subject into detail. A few typical instances are the citations of the +epitaph by Simonides on the three hundred Spartans who fell at +Thermopylae, not only by Herodotus[1] but by Diodorus Siculus and +Strabo, the former in a historical, the latter in a geographical, +work: of the epigram by Plato on the Eretrian exiles[2] by +Philostratus in his Life of Apollonius: of many epigrams purporting to +be written by philosophers, or actually written upon them and their +works, by Diogenes Laërtius in his Lives of the Philosophers. Plutarch +among the vast mass of his historical and ethical writings quotes +incidentally a considerable number of epigrams. A very large number +are quoted by Athenaeus in that treasury of odds and ends, the +Deipnosophistae. A great many too are cited in the lexicon which goes +under the name of Suidas, and which, beginning at an unknown date, +continued to receive additional entries certainly up to the eleventh +century. + +These same sources supply us with a considerable gleaning of epigrams +which either were omitted by the collectors of the Anthology or have +disappeared from our copies. The present selection for example +includes epigrams found in an anonymous Life of Aeschylus: in the +Onamasticon of Julius Pollux, a grammarian of the early part of the +third century, who cites from many lost writings for peculiar words or +constructions: and from the works of Athenaeus , Diogenes Laërtius, +Plutarch, and Suidas mentioned above. The more famous the author of an +epigram was, the more likely does it become that his work should be +preserved in more than one way. Thus, of the thirty-one epigrams +ascribed to Plato, while all but one are found in the Anthology, only +seventeen are found in the Anthology alone. Eleven are quoted by +Diogenes Laërtius; and thirteen wholly or partially by Athenaeus, +Suidas, Apuleius, Philostratus, Gellius, Macrobius, Olympiodorus, +Apostolius, and Thomas Magister. On the other hand the one hundred and +thirty-four epigrams of Meleager, representing a peculiar side of +Greek poetry in a perfection not elsewhere attainable, exist in the +Anthology alone. + +Beyond these sources, which may be called literary, there is another +class of great importance: the monumental. An epigram purports to be +an inscription actually carved or written upon some monument or +memorial. Since archaeology became systematically studied, original +inscriptions, chiefly on marble, are from time to time brought to +light, many of which are in elegiac verse. The admirable work of +Kaibel[3] has made it superfluous to traverse the vast folios of the +Corpus Inscriptionum in search of what may still be hidden there. It +supplies us with several epigrams of real literary value; while the +best of those discovered before this century are included in +appendices to the great works of Brunck and Jacobs. Most of these +monumental inscriptions are naturally sepulchral. They are of all ages +and countries within the compass of Graeco-Roman civilisation, from +the epitaph, magnificent in its simplicity, sculptured on the grave of +Cleoetes the Athenian when Athens was still a small and insignificant +town, to the last outpourings of the ancient spirit on the tombs +reared, among strange gods and barbarous faces, over Paulina of +Ravenna or Vibius Licinianus of Nîmes.[4] + +It has already been pointed out by how slight a boundary the epigram +is kept distinct from other forms of poetry, and how in extreme cases +its essence may remain undefinable. The two fragments of Theognis and +one of Mimnermus included here[5] illustrate this. They are examples +of a large number like them, which are not, strictly speaking, +epigrams; being probably passages from continuous poems, selected, at +least in the case of Theognis, for an Anthology of his works. + +The epigrams extant in literature which are not in the Anthology are, +with a few exceptions, collected in the appendix to the edition of +Jacobs, and are reprinted from it in modern texts. They are about four +hundred in number, and raise the total number of epigrams in the +Anthology to about four thousand five hundred; to these must be added +at least a thousand inscriptional epigrams, which increase year by +year as new explorations are carried on. It is, of course, but seldom +that these last have distinct value as poetry. Those of the best +period, indeed, and here the best period is the sixth century B.C., +have always a certain accent, even when simplest and most matter of +fact, which reminds us of the palace whence they came. Their +simplicity is more thrilling than any eloquence. From the exotic and +elaborate word-embroidery of the poets of the decadence, we turn with +relief and delight to work like this, by a father over his son: + + {Sema pater Kleoboulos apepsthimeno Xenopsanto + thexe tod ant aretes ede saopsrosunes}[6] + +(This monument to dead Xenophantus his father Cleobulus set up, for +his valour and wisdom); + +or this, on an unmarried girl: + + {Sema PHrasixleias xoure xexlesomai aiei + anti gamou para theon touto lakhous onoma}[7] + +(The monument of Phrasicleia; I shall for ever be called maiden, +having got this name from the gods instead of marriage.) + +So touching in their stately reserve, so piercing in their delicate +austerity, these epitaphs are in a sense the perfection of literature, +and yet in another sense almost lie outside its limits. For the +workmanship here, we feel, is unconscious; and without conscious +workmanship there is not art. In Homer, in Sophocles, in all the best +Greek work, there is this divine simplicity; but beyond it, or rather +beneath it and sustaining it, there is purpose. + ---------- + +[1] Anth. Pal. vii. 249; Hdt. vii. 228. + +[2] Ibid. vii. 256. + +[3] Epigrammata Graeca ex lapidibus conlecta. Berlin, 1878. + +[4] Infra, III. 35, 47; XI. 48. + +[5] Infra, XII. 6, 17, 37. + +[6] Corp. Inscr. Att. 477 B. + +[7] Ibid. 469. + + + IV + +From the invention of writing onwards, the inscriptions on monuments +and dedicated offerings supplied one of the chief materials of +historical record. Their testimony was used by the earliest historians +to supplement and reinforce the oral traditions which they embodied in +their works. Herodotus and Thucydides quote early epigrams as +authority for the history of past times;[1] and when in the latter +part of the fourth century B.C. history became a serious study +throughout Greece, collections of inscribed records, whether in prose +or verse, began to be formed as historical material. The earliest +collection of which anything is certainly known was a work by +Philochorus,[2] a distinguished Athenian antiquary who flourished +about 300 B.C., entitled Epigramma Attica. It appears to have been a +transcript of all the ancient Attic inscriptions dealing with Athenian +history, and would include the verses engraved on the tombs of +celebrated citizens, or on objects dedicated in the temples on public +occasions. A century later, we hear of a work by Polemo, called +Periegetes, or the "Guidebook-maker," entitled {peri ton xata poleis +epigrammaton}.[3] This was an attempt to make a similar collection of +inscriptions throughout the cities of Greece. Athenaeus also speaks of +authors otherwise unknown, Alcetas and Menetor,[4] as having written +treatises {peri anathematon}, which would be collections of the same +nature confined to dedicatory inscriptions; and, these being as a rule +in verse, the books in question were perhaps the earliest collections +of monumental poetry. Even less is known with regard to a book "on +epigrams" by Neoptolemus of Paris.[5] The history of Anthologies +proper begins for us with Meleager of Gadara. + +The collection called the Garland of Meleager, which is the basis of +the Greek Anthology as we possess it, was formed by him in the early +part of the first century B.C. The scholiast on the Palatine MS. says +that Meleager flourished in the reign of the last Seleucus ({ekhmasen +epi Seleukou tou eskhatou}). This is Seleucus VI. Epiphanes, the last +king of the name, who reigned B.C. 95-93; for it is not probable that +the reference is to the last Seleucid, Antiochus XIII., who acceded +B.C. 69, and was deposed by Pompey when he made Syria a Roman province +in B.C. 65. The date thus fixed is confirmed by the fact that the +collection included an epigram on the tomb of Antipater of Sidon,[6] +who, from the terms in which Cicero alludes to him, must have lived +till 110 or even 100 B.C., and that it did not include any of the +epigrams of Meleager's townsman Philodemus of Gadara, the friend of L. +Calpurnius Piso, consul in B.C. 58. + +This Garland or Anthology has only come down to us as forming the +basis of later collections. But the prefatory poem which Meleager +wrote for it has fortunately been preserved, and gives us valuable +information as to the contents of the Garland. This poem,[7] in which +he dedicates his work to his friend or patron Diocles, gives the names +of forty-seven poets included by him besides many others of recent +times whom he does not specifically enumerate. It runs as follows: + +"Dear Muse, for whom bringest thou this gardenful of song, or who is +he that fashioned the garland of poets? Meleager made it, and wrought +out this gift as a remembrance for noble Diocles, inweaving many +lilies of Anyte, and many martagons of Moero, and of Sappho little, +but all roses, and the narcissus of Melanippides budding into clear +hymns, and the fresh shoot of the vine-blossom of Simonides; twining +to mingle therewith the spice-scented flowering iris of Nossis, on +whose tablets love melted the wax, and with her, margerain from sweet- +breathed Rhianus, and the delicious maiden-fleshed crocus of Erinna, +and the hyacinth of Alcaeus, vocal among the poets, and the dark- +leaved laurel-spray of Samius, and withal the rich ivy-clusters of +Leonidas, and the tresses of Mnasalcas' sharp pine; and he plucked the +spreading plane of the song of Pamphilus, woven together with the +walnut shoots of Pancrates and the fair-foliaged white poplar of +Tymnes, and the green mint of Nicias, and the horn-poppy of Euphemus +growing on these sands; and with these Damagetas, a dark violet, and +the sweet myrtle-berry of Callimachus, ever full of pungent honey, and +the rose-campion of Euphorion, and the cyclamen of the Muses, him who +had his surname from the Dioscori. And with him he inwove Hegesippus, +a riotous grape-cluster, and mowed down the scented rush of Perses; +and withal the quince from the branches of Diotimus, and the first +pomegranate flowers of Menecrates, and the myrrh-twigs of Nicaenetus, +and the terebinth of Phaennus, and the tall wild pear of Simmias, and +among them also a few flowers of Parthenis, plucked from the blameless +parsley-meadow, and fruitful remnants from the honey-dropping Muses, +yellow ears from the corn-blade of Bacchylides; and withal Anacreon, +both that sweet song of his and his nectarous elegies, unsown honey- +suckle; and withal the thorn-blossom of Archilochus from a tangled +brake, little drops from the ocean; and with them the young olive- +shoots of Alexander, and the dark-blue cornflower of Polycleitus; and +among them he laid amaracus, Polystratus the flower of songs, and the +young Phoenician cypress of Antipater, and also set therein spiked +Syrian nard, the poet who sang of himself as Hermes' gift; and withal +Posidippus and Hedylus together, wild blossoms of the country, and the +blowing windflowers of the son of Sicelides; yea, and set therein the +golden bough of the ever divine Plato, shining everywhere in +excellence, and beside him Aratus the knower of the stars, cutting the +first-born spires of that heaven-high palm, and the fair-tressed lotus +of Chaeremon mixed with the gilliflower of Phaedimus, and the round +ox-eye of Antagoras, and the wine-loving fresh-blown wild thyme of +Theodorides, and the bean-blossoms of Phanias, and many newly- +scriptured shoots of others; and with them also even from his own Muse +some early white violets. But to my friends I give thanks; and the +sweet-languaged garland of the Muses is common to all initiate." + +In this list three poets are not spoken of directly by name, but, from +metrical or other reasons, are alluded to paraphrastically. "He who +had his surname from the Dioscori" is Dioscorides; "the poet who sang +of himself as Hermes' gifts" is Hermodorus; and "the son of Sicelides" +is Asclepiades, referred to under the same name by his great pupil +Theocritus. The names of these forty-eight poets (including Meleager +himself) show that the collection embraced epigrams of all periods +from the earliest times up to his own day. Six belong to the early +period of the lyric poets, ending with the Persian wars; Archilochus, +who flourished about 700 B.C., Sappho and Erinna a century afterwards, +Simonides and Anacreon about 500 B.C., and a little later, +Bacchylides. Five more belong to the fourth century B.C., the period +which begins with the destruction of the Athenian empire and ends with +the establishment of the Macedonian kingdoms of the Diadochi. Of +these, Plato is still within the Athenian period; Hegesippus, Simmias, +Anyte, and Phaedimus, all towards the end of the century, mark the +beginning of the Alexandrian period. Four have completely disappeared +out of the Anthology as we possess it; Melanippides, a celebrated +writer of dithyrambic poetry in the latter half of the fifth century +B.C., of which a few fragments survive, and Euphemus, Parthenis, and +Polycleitus, of whom nothing whatever is known. The remaining thirty- +three poets in Meleager's list all belong to the Alexandrian period, +and bring the series down continuously to Meleager himself. + +One of the epigrams in the Anthology of Strato[8] professes to be the +colophon {xoronis} to Meleager's collection; but it is a stupid and +clumsy forgery of an obviously later date, probably by Strato himself, +or some contemporary, and is not worth quoting. The proem to the +Garland is a work of great ingenuity, and contains in single words and +phrases many exquisite criticisms. The phrase used of Sappho has +become proverbial; hardly less true and pointed are those on Erinna, +Callimachus, and Plato. All the flowers are carefully and +appropriately chosen with reference to their poets, and the whole is +done with the light and sure touch of a critic who is also a poet +himself. + +A scholiast on the Palatine MS. says that Meleager's Anthology was +arranged in alphabetical order {xata stoikheion}. This seems to mean +alphabetical order of epigrams, not of authors; and the statement is +borne out by some parts of the Palatine and even of the Planudean +Anthologies, where, in spite of the rearrangement under subjects, +traces of alphabetical arrangement among the older epigrams are still +visible. The words of the scholiast imply that there was no further +arrangement by subject. It seems most reasonable to suppose that the +epigrams of each author were placed together; but of this there is no +direct evidence, nor can any such arrangement be certainly inferred +from the state of the existing Anthologies. + +The Scholiast, in this same passage, speaks of Meleager's collection +as an {epigrammaton stephanos}, and obviously it consisted in the main +of epigrams according to the ordinary definition. But it is curious +that Meleager himself nowhere uses the word; and from some phrases in +the proem it is difficult to avoid the inference that he included +other kinds of minor poetry as well. Too much stress need not be laid +on the words {umnos} and {aoide}, which in one form or another are +repeatedly used by him; though it is difficult to suppose that "the +hymns of Melanippides", who is known to have been a dithyrambic poet, +can mean not hymns but epigrams.[9] But where Anacreon is mentioned, +his {melisma} and his elegiac pieces are unmistakably distinguished +from each other, and are said to be both included; and this {melisma} +must mean lyric poetry of some kind, probably the very hemiambics +under the name of Anacreon which are extant as an appendix to the +Palatine MS. Meleager's Anthology also pretty certainly included his +own Song of Spring,[10] which is a hexameter poem, though but for the +form of verse it might just come within a loose definition of an +epigram. Whether it included idyllic poems like the Amor Fugitivus of +Moschus[11] it is not possible to determine. + +Besides his great Anthology, another, of the same class of contents as +that subsequently made by Strato, is often ascribed to Meleager, an +epigram in Strato's Anthology[12] being regarded as the proem to this +supposed collection. But there is no external authority whatever for +this hypothesis; nor is it necessary to regard this epigram as +anything more than a poem commemorating the boys mentioned in it. +Eros, not Meleager, is in this case the weaver of the garland. + +The next compiler of an Anthology, more than a century after Meleager, +was Philippus of Thessalonica. Of this also the proem is +preserved.[13] It purports to be a collection of the epigrammatists +since Meleager, and is dedicated to the Roman patron of the author, +one Camillus. The proem runs thus: + +"Having plucked for thee Heliconian flowers, and cut the first-blown +blossoms of famous-forested Pieria, and reaped the ears from modern +pages, I wove a rival garland, to be like those of Meleager; but do +thou, noble Cantillus, who knowest the fame of the older poets, know +likewise the short pieces of the younger. Antipater's corn-ear shall +grace our garland, and Crinagoras like an ivy-cluster; Antiphilus +shall glow like a grape-bunch, Tullius like melilote, Philodemus like +marjoram: and Parmenio myrtle-berries: Antiphanes as a rose: Automedon +ivy, Zonas lilies, Bianor oak, Antigonus olive, and Diodorus violet. +Liken thou Euenus to laurel, and the multitude woven in with these to +what fresh-blown flowers thou wilt." + +One sees here the decline of the art from its first exquisiteness. +There is no selection or appropriateness in the names of the flowers +chosen, and the verse is managed baldly and clumsily. Philippus' own +epigrams, of which over seventy are extant, are generally rather dull, +chiefly school exercises, and, in the phrase of Jacobs, /imitatione +magis quam inventione conspicua/. But we owe to him the preservation +of a large mass of work belonging to the Roman period. The date of +Philippus cannot be fixed very precisely. His own epigrams contain no +certain allusion to any date other than the reign of Augustus. Of the +poets named in his proem, Antiphanes, Euenus, Parmenio, and Tullius +have no date determinable from internal evidence. Antigonus has been +sometimes identified with Antigonus of Carystus, the author of the +{Paradokon Sunagoge}, who lived in the third century B.C. under +Ptolemy Philadelphus or Ptolemy Euergetes; but as this Anthology +distinctly professes to be of poets since Meleager, he must be another +author of the same name. Antipater of Thessalonica, Bianor, and +Diodorus are of the Augustan period; Philodemus, Zonas, and probably +Automedon, of the period immediately preceding it. The latest certain +allusion in the poems of Antiphilus is to the enfranchisement of +Rhodes by Nero in A.D. 53.[14] One of the epigrams under the name of +Automedon in the Anthology[15] is on the rhetorician Nicetas, the +teacher of the younger Pliny. But there are at least two poets of the +name, Automedon of Aetolia and Automedon of Cyzicus, and the former, +who is pre-Roman, may be the one included by Philippus. If so, we need +not, with Jacobs, date this collection in the reign of Trajan, at the +beginning of the second century, but may place it with greater +probability half a century earlier, under Nero. + +In the reign of Hadrian the grammarian Diogenianus of Heraclea edited +an Anthology of epigrams,[16] but nothing is known of it beyond the +name. The Anthology contains a good deal of work which may be referred +to this period. + +The first of the appendices to the Palatine Anthology is the {Paidike +Mousa} of Strato of Sardis. The compiler apologises in a prefatory +note for including it, excusing himself with the line of +Euripides,[17] {e ge sopsron ou diapstharesetai}. It was a new +Anthology of epigrams dealing with this special subject from the +earliest period downwards. As we possess it, Strato's collection +includes thirteen of the poets named in the Garland of Meleager +(including Meleager himself), two of those named in the Garland of +Philippus, and ten other poets, none of them of much mark, and most of +unknown date; the most interesting being Alpheus of Mitylene, who from +the style and contents of his epigrams seems to have lived about the +time of Hadrian, but may possibly be an Augustan poet. Strato is +mentioned by Diogenes Laërtius,[18] who wrote at the beginning of the +third century; and his own epigram on the physician Artemidorus +Capito,[19] who was a contemporary of Hadrian, fixes his approximate +date. + +How far we possess Strato's collection in its original form it is +impossible to decide. Jacobs says he cannot attempt to determine +whether Cephalas took it in a lump or made a selection from it, or +whether he kept the order of the epigrams. As they stand they have no +ascertainable principle of arrangement, alphabetical or of author or +of subject. The collection consists of two hundred and fifty-nine +epigrams, of which ninety-four are by Strato himself and sixty by +Meleager. It has either been carelessly formed, or suffered from +interpolation afterwards. Some of the epigrams are foreign to the +subject of the collection. Six are on women;[20] and four of these are +on women whose names end in the diminutive form, Phanion, Callistion, +etc., which suggests the inference that they were inserted at a late +date and by an ignorant transcriber who confused these with masculine +forms. For all the epigrams of Strato's collection the Anthology is +the only source. + +In the three hundred years between Strato and Agathias no new +Anthology is known to have been made. + +The celebrated Byzantine poet and historian Agathias, son of Mamnonius +of Myrina, came to Constantinople as a young man to study law in the +year 554. In the preface to his History he tells us that he formed a +new collection of recent and contemporary epigrams previously +unpublished,[21] in seven books, entitled {Kuklos}. His proem to the +Cyclus is extant.[22] It consists of forty-six iambics followed by +eighty-seven hexameters, and describes the collection under the +symbolism no longer of a flower-garden, but of a feast to which +different persons bring contributions ({ou stepsanos alla sunagoge}), +a metaphor which is followed out with unrelenting tediousness. The +piece is not worth transcription here. He says he includes his own +epigrams. After a panegyric on the greatness of the empire of +Justinian, and the foreign and domestic peace of his reign, he ends by +describing the contents of the collection. Book I. contains +dedications in the ancient manner, {os proterois makaressin aneimena}: +for Agathias was himself a Christian, and indeed the old religion had +completely died out even before Justinian closed the schools of +Athens. Book II. contains epigrams on statues, pictures, and other +works of art; Book III., sepulchral epigrams; Book IV., epigrams "on +the manifold paths of life, and the unstable scales of fortune," +corresponding to the section of {Protreptika} in the Palatine +Anthology; Book V., irrisory epigrams; Book VI. amatory epigrams; and +Book VII., convivial epigrams. Agathias, so far as we know, was the +first who made this sort of arrangement under subjects, which, with +modifications, has generally been followed afterwards. His Anthology +is lost; and probably perished soon after that of Cephalas was made. + +Constantinus Cephalas, a grammarian unknown except from the Palatine +MS., began again from the beginning. The scholiast to the Garland of +Meleager in that MS., after saying that Meleager's Anthology was +arranged in alphabetical order, goes on as follows:--"but +Constantinus, called Cephalas, broke it up, and distributed it under +different heads, viz., the love-poems separately, and the dedications +and epitaphs, and epideictic pieces, as they are now arranged below in +this book."[23] We must assume that with this rearranged Anthology he +incorporated those of Philippus and Agathias, unless, which is not +probable, we suppose that the Palatine Anthology is one enlarged from +that of Cephalas by some one else completely unknown. + +As to the date of Cephalas there is no certain indication. Suidas +apparently quotes from his Anthology; but even were we certain that +these quotations are not made from original sources, his lexicon +contains entries made at different times over a space of several +centuries. A scholium to one of the epigrams[24] of Alcaeus of Messene +speaks of a discussion on it by Cephalas which took place in the +School of the New Church at Constantinople. This New Church was built +by the Emperor Basil I. (reigned 867-876). Probably Cephalas lived in +the reign of Constantine VII. Porphyrogenitus (911-959), who had a +passion for art and literature, and is known to have ordered the +compilation of books of excerpts. Gibbon gives an account of the +revival of learning which took place under his influence, and of the +relations of his Court with that of the Western Empire of Otto the +Great. + +The arrangement in the Anthology of Cephalas is founded on that of +Agathias. But alongside of the arrangement under subjects we +frequently find strings of epigrams by the same author with no +particular connection in subject, which are obviously transcribed +directly from a collected edition of his poems. + +Maximus Planudes, theologian, grammarian, and rhetorician, lived in +the early part of the fourteenth century; in 1327 he was appointed +ambassador to the Venetian Republic by Andronicus II. Among his works +were translations into Greek of Augustine's City of God and Caesar's +Gallic War. The restored Greek Empire of the Palaeologi was then fast +dropping to pieces. The Genoese colony of Pera usurped the trade of +Constantinople and acted as an independent state; and it brings us +very near the modern world to remember that while Planudes was the +contemporary of Petrarch and Doria, Andronicus III., the grandson and +successor of Andronicus II., was married, as a suitable match, to +Agnes of Brunswick, and again after her death to Anne of Savoy. + +Planudes made a new Anthology in seven books, founded on that of +Cephalas, but with many alterations and omissions. Each book is +divided into chapters which are arranged alphabetically by subject, +with the exception of the seventh book, consisting of amatory +epigrams, which is not subdivided. In a prefatory note to this book he +says he has omitted all indecent or unseemly epigrams, {polla en to +antigrapso onta}. This {antograpso} was the Anthology of Cephalas. The +contents of the different books are as follows: + +Book I.--{Epideiktika}, in ninety-one chapters; from the {Epideiktika} +of Cephalas, with additions from his {Anathematika} and {Protreptika}, +and twelve new epigrams on statues. + +Book II.--{Skoptika}, in fifty-three chapters; from the {Sumpotika kai +Skoptika} and the {Mousa Stratonos} of Cephalas, with six new +epigrams. + +Book III.--{Epitumbia}, in thirty-two chapters; from the {Epitumbia} +of Cephalas, which are often transcribed in the original order, with +thirteen new epigrams. + +Book IV.--Epigrams on monuments, statues, animals, and places, in +thirty-three chapters; some from the {Epideiktika} of Cephalas, but +for the greater part new. + +Book V.--Christodorus' description of the statues in the gymnasium +called Zeuxippus, and a collection of epigrams in the Hippodrome at +Constantinople; from appendices to the Anthology of Cephalas. + +Book VI.--{Anathematika}, in twenty-seven chapters; from the +{Anathematika} of Cephalas, with four new epigrams. + +Book VII.--{Erotika}; from the {Erotika} of Cephalas, with twenty-six +new epigrams. + +Obviously then the Anthology of Planudes was almost wholly taken from +that of Cephalas, with the exception of epigrams on works of art, +which are conspicuously absent from the earlier collection as we +possess it. As to these there is only one conclusion. It is impossible +to account for Cephalas having deliberately omitted this class of +epigrams; it is impossible to account for their re-appearance in +Planudes, except on the supposition that we have lost a section of the +earlier Anthology which included them. The Planudean Anthology +contains in all three hundred and ninety-seven epigrams, which are not +in the Palatine MS. of Cephalas. It is in these that its principal +value lies. The vitiated taste of the period selected later and worse +in preference to earlier and better epigrams; the compilation was made +carelessly and, it would seem, hurriedly, the earlier part of the +sections of Cephalas being largely transcribed and the latter part +much less fully, as though the editor had been pressed for time or +lost interest in the work as he went on. Not only so, but he mutilated +the text freely, and made sweeping conjectural restorations where it +was imperfect. The discrepancies too in the authorship assigned to +epigrams are so frequent and so striking that they can only be +explained by great carelessness in transcription; especially as +internal evidence where it can be applied almost uniformly supports +the headings of the Palatine Anthology. + +Such as it was, however, the Anthology of Planudes displaced that of +Cephalas almost at once, and remained the only MS. source of the +anthology until the seventeenth century. The other entirely +disappeared, unless a copy of it was the manuscript belonging to +Angelo Colloti, seen and mentioned by the Roman scholar and +antiquarian Fulvio Orsini (b. 1529, d. 1600) about the middle of the +sixteenth century, and then again lost to view. The Planudean +Anthology was first printed at Florence in 1484 by the Greek scholar, +Janus Lascaris, from a good MS. It continued to be reprinted from time +to time, the last edition being the five sumptuous quarto volumes +issued from the press of Wild and Altheer at Utrecht, 1795-1822. + +In the winter of 1606-7, Salmasius, then a boy of eighteen but already +an accomplished scholar, discovered a manuscript of the Anthology of +Cephalas in the library of the Counts Palatine at Heidelberg. He +copied from it the epigrams hitherto unknown, and these began to be +circulated in manuscript under the name of the Anthologia Inedita. The +intention he repeatedly expressed of editing the whole work was never +carried into effect. In 1623, on the capture of Heidelberg by the +Archduke Maximilian of Bavaria in the Thirty Years' War, this with +many other MSS. and books was sent by him to Rome as a present to Pope +Gregory XV., and was placed in the Vatican Library. It remained there +till it was taken to Paris by order of the French Directory in 1797, +and was restored to the Palatine Library after the end of the war. + +The description of this celebrated manuscript, the Codex Palatinus or +Vaticanus, as it has been named from the different places of its +abode, is as follows: it is a long quarto, on parchment, of 710 pages, +together with a page of contents and three other pages glued on at the +beginning. There are three hands in it. The table of contents and +pages 1-452 and 645-704 in the body of the MS. are in a hand of the +eleventh century; the middle of the MS., pages 453-644, is in a later +hand; and a third, later than both, has written the last six pages and +the three odd pages at the beginning, has added a few epigrams in +blank spaces, and has made corrections throughout the MS. + +The index, which is of great importance towards the history not only +of the MS. but of the Anthology generally, runs as follows:-- + + {Tade enestin en tede te biblo ton epigrammaton + +A. Nonnou poirtou Panopolitou ekphrasis tou kata Ioannen agiou + euaggeliou. +B. Paulou poirtou selantiariou (sic) uiou Kurou ekphrasis eis ten + megalen ekklesian ete ten agian Sophian. +G. Sullogai epigrammaton Khristianikon eis te naous kai eikonas kai + eis diaphora anathemata. +D. Khristodorou poietou Thebaiou ekphrasis ton agalmaton ton eis to + demosion gumnasion tou epikaloumenou Zeuxippou. +E. Meleagou poietou Palaistinou stephanos diaphoron epigrammaton. +S. Philippou poietou Thessalonikeos stephanos omoios diaphoron + epigrammaton. +Z. Agathiou skholastikou Asianou Murenaiou sulloge neon epigrammaton + ektethenton en Konstantinoupolei pros Theodoron Dekouriona. esti + de e taxis ton epigrammaton egoun diairesis outos. + a. prote men e ton Khristianon. + b. deutera de e ta Khristodorou periekhousa tou Thebaiou. + g. trete (sic) de arkhen men ekhousa ten ton erotikon epigrammaton + upothesin. + d. e ton anathematikon. + e. pempte e ton epitumbion. + s. e ton epideiktikon. + z. ebdome e ton pretreptikon. + e. e ton skoptikon. + th. ebdome e ton protreptikon. + i. diaphoron metron diaphora epigrammata. + ia. arithmetika kai grepha summikta. + ib. Ioannou grammatikou Gazes ekphrasis tou kosmikou pinakos tou en + kheimerio loutro. + ig. Surigx Theokritou kai pteruges Simmiou Dosiada bomos Besantinou + oon kai pelekus. + id. Anakreontos Teiou Sumposiaka emiambia kai Anakreontia kai + trimetra. + ie. Tou agiou Gregoriou tou theologou ek ton epon eklogai diaphorai + en ois kai ta Arethou kai Anastasiou kai Ignatiou kai + Konstantinou kai Theophanous keintai epigrammata.} + +This index must have been transcribed from the index of an earlier MS. +It differs from the actual contents of the MS. in the following +respects:-- + +The hexameter paraphrase of S. John's Gospel by Nonnus is not in the +MS., having perhaps been torn off from the beginning of it. + +After the description of S. Sophia by Paulus Silentiarius, follow in +the MS. select poems of S. Gregorius. + +After the description by Christodorus of the statues in the gymnasium +of Zeuxippus follows a collection of nineteen epigrams inscribed below +carved reliefs in the temple of Apollonis, mother of Attalus and +Eumenes kings of Pergamus, at Cyzicus. + +After the proem to the Anthology of Agathias follows another epigram +of his, apparently the colophon to his collection. + +The book of Christian epigrams and that of poems by Christodorus of +Thebes are wanting in the MS. + +Between the /Sepulcralia/ and /Epideictica/ is inserted a collection +of 254 epigrams by S. Gregorius. + +John of Gaza's description of the Mappa Mundi in the winter baths is +wanting in the MS. + +After the miscellaneous Byzantine epigrams, which form the last entry +in the index, is a collection of epigrams in the Hippodrome at +Constantinople. + +The Palatine MS. then is a copy from another lost MS. And the lost MS. +itself was not the archetype of Cephalas. From a prefatory note to the +/Dedicatoria/, taken in connection with the three iambic lines +prefixed to the /Amatoria/, it is obvious that the /Amatoria/ formed +the first section of the Anthology of Cephalas, preceded, no doubt, by +the three proems of Meleager, Philippus, and Agathias as prefatory +matter. The first four headings in the index, therefore, represent +matter subsequently added. Whether all the small appendices at the end +of the MS. were added to the Anthology by Cephalas or by a later hand +it is not possible to determine. With or without these appendices, the +work of Cephalas consisted of six sections of {Erotika}, +{Anathematika}, {Epitumbia}, {Epideiktica}, {Protreptika} and +{Eumpotika kai Skoptika}, with the {Mousa Stratonos}, and probably, as +we have already seen, a lost section containing epigrams on works of +art. At the beginning of the sepulchral epigrams there is a marginal +note in the MS., in the corrector's hand, speaking of Cephalas as then +dead.[25] Another note, added by the same hand on the margin of vii. +432, says that our MS. had been collated with another belonging to one +Michael Magister, which was copied by him with his own hand from the +book of Cephalas. + +The extracts made by Salmasius remained for long the only source +accessible to scholars for the contents of the Palatine Anthology. +Jacobs, when re-editing Brunck's /Analecta/, obtained a copy of the +MS., then in the Vatican library, from Uhden, the Prussian ambassador +at Rome; and from another copy, afterwards made at his instance by +Spaletti, he at last edited the Anthology in its complete form. + ---------- + +[1] Cf. especially Hdt. v. 59, 60, 77; Thuc. i. 132, vi. 54, 59. + +[2] Suid. s.v. {PHilokhoros}. + +[3] Athen. x. 436 D., 442 E. + +[4] Athen. xiii. 591 C, 594 D. + +[5] Ibid. x. 454 F. The date of Neoptolemus is uncertain; he probably + lived in the second century B.C. + +[6] Anth. Pol. vii. 428; Cic. Or. iii. 194, Pis. 68-70. + +[7] Ibid. iv. 1. + +[8] Anth. Pal. xii. 257. + +[9] Melanippides, however, also wrote epigrams according to Suidas, + s.v., and the phrase of Meleager may mean "the epigrams of this + poet who was celebrated as a hymn-writer". + +[10] Anth. Pal. ix. 363. + +[11] Ibid. ix. 440. + +[12] Ibid. xii. 256. + +[13] Anth. Pal. iv. 2. + +[14] Anth. Pal. ix. 178. + +[15] Ibid. x. 23. + +[16] Suidas s.v. {Diogenianos}. + +[17] Bacch. 318. + +[18] v. 61. + +[19] Anth. Pal. xi. 117. + +[20] Anth. Pal. xvi. 53, 82, 114, 131, 147, 173. + +[21] Agathias, Hist. i. 1: {ton epigrammaton ta artigene kai neotera + oialanthanonti eti kai khuden outosi par eniois + upophithurizomena}. Cf. also Suidas, s.v. {Agathias}. + +[22] Anth. Pal. iv. 3. + +[23] Schol. on Anth. Pal. iv. 1. + +[24] Anth. Pal. vii. 429. + +[25] {Konstantinos o Kephalas o makarios kai aeimnestos kai + tripothetos anthrepos}. + + + V + +When any selection of minor poetry is made, the principle of +arrangement is one of the first difficulties. In dealing with the +Greek epigram, the matter before us, as has been said already, +consists of between five and six thousand pieces, all in the same +metre, and varying in length from two to twenty-eight lines,[1] but +rarely exceeding twelve. No principle of arrangement can therefore be +based on the form of the poems. There are three other plans possible; +a simply arbitrary order, an arrangement by authorship, or an +arrangement by subject. The first, if we believe the note in the +Palatine MS. already quoted, was adopted by Meleager in the +alphabetical arrangement of his Garland; but beyond the uncommon +variety it must give to the reader, it seems to have little to +recommend it. The Anthologies of Cephalas and Planudes are both +arranged by subject, but with considerable differences. The former, if +we omit the unimportant sections and the Christian epigrams, consists +of seven large sections in the following order: + +(1) {Erotika}, amatory pieces. This heading requires no comment. + +(2) {Anathematika}, dedicatory pieces, consisting of votive prayers +and dedications proper. + +(3) {Epitumbia}, sepulchral pieces: consisting partly of epitaphs real +or imaginary, partly of epigrams on death or on dead persons in a +larger scope. Thus it includes the epigram on the Lacedaemonian mother +who killed her son for returning alive from an unsuccessful battle;[2] +that celebrating the magnificence of the tomb of Semiramis;[3] that +questioning the story as to the leap of Empedocles into Etna;[4] and a +large number which might equally well come under the next head, being +eulogies on celebrated authors and artists. + +(4) {Epideiktika}, epigrams written as {epideixeis}, poetical +exercises or show-pieces. This section is naturally the longest and +much the most miscellaneous. There is indeed hardly any epigram which +could not be included in it. Remarkable objects in nature or art, +striking events, actual or imaginary, of present and past times, moral +sentences, and criticisms on particular persons and things or on life +generally; descriptive pieces; stories told in verse; imaginary +speeches of celebrated persons on different occasions, with such +titles as "what Philomela would say to Procne," "what Ulysses would +say when he landed in Ithaca"; inscriptions for houses, baths, +gardens, temples, pictures, statues, gems, clocks, cups: such are +among the contents, though not exhausting them. + +(5) {Protreptika}, hortatory pieces; the "criticism of life" in the +direct sense. + +(6) {Sumpotika kai Skoptika}, convivial and humorous epigrams. + +(7) The {Mousa paidike Stratonos} already spoken of. Along with these, +as we have seen, there was in all probability an eighth section now +lost, containing epigrams on works of art. + +Within each of these sections, the principle of arrangement, where it +exists at all, is very loose; and either the compilation was +carelessly made at first, or it has been considerably disordered in +transcription. Sometimes a number of epigrams by the same author +succeed one another, as though copied directly from a collection where +each author's work was placed separately; sometimes, on the other +hand, a number on the same subject by authors of different periods +come together.[5] Epigrams occasionally are put under wrong headings. +For example, a dedication by Leonidas of Alexandria is followed in the +/Dedicatoria/ by another epigram of his on Oedipus;[6] an imaginary +epitaph on Hesiod in the /Sepulcralia/ by one on the legendary contest +between Hesiod and Homer;[7] and the lovely fragment of pastoral on +Love keeping Thyrsis' sheep[8] comes oddly in among epitaphs. The +epideictic section contains a number of epigrams which would be more +properly placed in one or another of all the rest of the sections; and +the /Musa Stratonis/ has several which happily in no way belong to it. +There is no doubt a certain charm to the very confusion of the order, +which gives great variety and unexpectedness; but for practical +purposes a more accurate classification is desirable. + +The Anthology of Planudes attempts, in a somewhat crude form, to +supply this. Each of the six books, with the exception of the +{Erotika}, which remain as is in the Palatine Anthology, is subdivided +into chapters according to subject, the chapters being arranged +alphabetically by headings. Thus the list of chapters in Book I. +begins, {eis agonas}, {eis ampelon}, {eis anathemata}, {eis +anaperous}, and ends {eis phronesin}, {eis phrontidas}, {eis khronon}, +{eis oras}. + +On the other hand, Brunck, in his /Analecta/, the arrangement of which +is followed by Jacobs in the earlier of his two great works, recast +the whole scheme, placing all epigrams by the same author together, +with those of unknown authorship at the end. This method presents +definite advantages when the matter in hand is a complete collection +of the works of the epigrammatists. With these smaller, as with the +more important works of literature, it is still true that a poet is +his own best commentator, and that by a complete single view of all +his pieces we are able to understand each one of them better. A +counter-argument is the large mass of {adespota} thus left in a heap +at the end. In Jacobs there are upwards of 750 of these, most of them +not assignable to any certain date; and they have to be arranged +roughly by subject. Another is the fact that a difficulty still +remains as to the arrangement of the authors. Of many of the minor +epigrammatists we know absolutely nothing from external sources; and +it is often impossible to determine from internal evidence the period, +even within several centuries, at which an epigram was written, so +little did the style and diction alter between the early Alexandrian +and the late Byzantine period. Still the advantages are too great to +be outweighed by these considerations. + +But in a selection, an Anthology of the Anthology, the reasons for +such an arrangement no longer exist, and some sort of arrangement by +subject is plainly demanded. It would be possible to follow the old +divisions of the Palatine Anthology with little change but for the +epideictic section. This is not a natural division, and is not +satisfactory in its results. It did not therefore seem worthwhile to +adhere in other respects to the old classification except where it was +convenient; and by a new and somewhat more detailed division, it has +been attempted to give a closer unity to each section, and to make the +whole of them illustrate progressively the aspect of the ancient +world. Sections I., II., and VI. of the Palatine arrangement just +given are retained, under the headings of Love, Prayers and +Dedications, and the Human Comedy. It proved convenient to break up +Section III., that of sepulchral epigrams, which would otherwise have +been much the largest of the divisions, into two sections, one of +epitaphs proper, the other dealing with death more generally. A +limited selection from Section VII. has been retained under a separate +heading, Beauty. Section V., with additions from many other sources, +was the basis of a division dealing with the Criticism of Life; while +Section IV., together with what was not already classed, fell +conveniently under five heads: Nature, and in antithesis to it, Art +and Literature; Family Life; and the ethical view of things under the +double aspect of Religion on the one hand, and on the other, the blind +and vast forces of Fate and Change. + ---------- + +[1] Single lines are excluded by the definition; Anth. Pal. ix. 482 + appears to be the longest piece in the Anthology which can + properly be called an epigram. + +[2] Anth. Pal. vii. 433. + +[3] Ibid. vii. 748. + +[4] Ibid. vii. 124. + +[5] Cf. especially Anth. Pal. vi. 179-187; ix. 713-742. + +[6] Anth. Pal. vi. 322, 323. + +[7] Ibid. vii. 52, 53. + +[8] Ibid. vii. 703. + + + VI + +The literary treatment of the passion of love is one of the matters in +which the ancient stands furthest apart from the modern world. Perhaps +the result of love in human lives differs but little from one age to +another; but the form in which it is expressed (which is all that +literature has to do with) was altered in Western Europe in the middle +ages, and ever since then we have spoken a different language. And the +subject is one in which the feeling is so inextricably mixed up with +the expression that a new language practically means a new actual +world of things. Of nothing is it so true that emotion is created by +expression. The enormous volume of expression developed in modern +times by a few great poets and a countless number of prose writers has +reacted upon men and women; so certain is it that thought follows +language, and life copies art. And so here more than elsewhere, though +the rule applies to the whole sphere of human thought and action, we +have to expect in Greek literature to find much latent and implicit +which since then has become patent and prominent; much intricate +psychology not yet evolved; much--as is the truth of everything Greek +--stated so simply and directly, that we, accustomed as we are to more +complex and highly organised methods of expression, cannot without +some difficulty connect it with actual life, or see its permanent +truth. Yet to do so is just the value of studying Greek; for the more +simple the forms or ideas of life are, the better are we able to put +them in relation with one another, and so to unify life. And this +unity is the end which all human thought pursues. + +Greek literature itself however may in this matter be historically +subdivided. In its course we can fix landmarks, and trace the entrance +and working of one and another fresh element. The Homeric world, the +noblest and the simplest ever conceived on earth; the period of the +great lyric poets; that of the dramatists, philosophers and +historians, which may be called the Athenian period; the hardly less +extraordinary ages that followed, when Greek life and language +overspread and absorbed the whole Mediterranean world, mingling with +East and West alike, making a common meeting-place for the Jew and the +Celt, the Arab and the Roman; these four periods, though they have a +unity in the fact that they are all Greek, are yet separated in other +ways by intervals as great as those which divide Virgil from Dante, or +Chaucer from Milton. + +In the Iliad and Odyssey little is said about love directly; and yet +it is not to be forgotten that the moving force of the Trojan war was +the beauty of Helen, and the central interest of the return of +Odysseus is the passionate fidelity of Penelope.[1] Yet more than +this; when the poet has to speak of the matter, he never fails to rise +to the occasion in a way that even now we can see to be unsurpassable. +The Achilles of the Iliad may speak scornfully of Briseïs, as +insufficient cause to quarrel on;[2] the silver-footed goddess, set +above all human longings, regards the love of men and women from her +icy heights with a light passionless contempt.[3] But in the very +culminating point of the death-struggle between Achilles and Hector, +it is from the whispered talk of lovers that the poet fetches the +utmost touch of beauty and terror;[4] and it is in speaking to the +sweetest and noblest of all the women of poetry that Odysseus says the +final word that has yet been said of married happiness.[5] + +In this heroic period love is only spoken of incidentally and +allusively. The direct poetry of passion belongs to the next period, +only known to us now by scanty fragments, "the spring-time of +song,"[6] the period of the great lyric poets of the sixth and seventh +centuries B.C. There human passion and emotion had direct expression, +and that, we can judge from what is left to us, the fullest and most +delicate possible. Greek life then must have been more beautiful than +at any other time; and the Greek language, much as it afterwards +gained in depth and capacity of expressing abstract thought, has never +again the same freshness, as though steeped in dew and morning +sunlight. Sappho alone, that unique instance of literature where from +a few hundred fragmentary lines we know certainly that we are in face +of one of the great poets of the world, expressed the passion of love +in a way which makes the language of all other poets grow pallid: /ad +quod cum iungerent purpuras suas, cineris specie decolorari videbantur +ceterae divini comparatione fulgoris/.[7] + + {eraman men ego sethen, Atthi, palai pota--}[8] + +such simple words that have all sadness in their lingering cadences; + + {Oion to glukumalon ereuthetai-- + Er eti parthenias epiballomai; + Ou gar en atera pais, o gambre, toiauta--}[9] + +the poetry of pure passion has never reached further than this. + +But with the vast development of Greek thought and art in the fifth +century B.C., there seems to have come somehow a stiffening of Greek +life; the one overwhelming interest of the City absorbing individual +passion and emotion, as the interest of logic and metaphysics absorbed +history and poetry. The age of Thucydides and Antipho is not one in +which the emotions have a change; and at Athens especially--of other +cities we can only speak from exceedingly imperfect knowledge, but +just at this period Athens means Greece--the relations between men and +women are even under Pericles beginning to be vulgarised. In the great +dramatic poets love enters either as a subsidiary motive somewhat +severely and conventionally treated, as in the Antigone of Sophocles, +or, as in the Phaedra and Medea of Euripides, as part of a general +study of psychology. It would be foolish to attempt to defend the +address of the chorus in the Antigone to Eros,[10] if regarded as the +language of passion; and even if regarded as the language of +criticism, it is undeniably frigid. Contrasted with the great chorus +in the same play,[11] where Sophocles is dealing with a subject that +he really cares about, it sounds almost artificial. And in Euripides, +psychology occupies the whole of the interest that is not already +preoccupied by logic and rhetoric; these were the arts of life, and +with these serious writing dealt; with the heroism of Macaria, even +with the devotion of Alcestis, personal passion has but little to do. + +With the immense expansion of the Greek world that followed the +political extinction of Greece Proper, there came a relaxation of this +tension. Feeling grew humaner; social and family life reassumed their +real importance; and gradually there grew up a thing till then unknown +in the world, and one the history of which yet remains to be written, +the romantic spirit. Pastoral poetry, with its passionate sense of +beauty in nature, reacted on the sense of beauty in simple human life. +The Idyls of Theocritus are full of a new freshness of feeling: {epei +k esores tas parthenos oia gelanti}[12]--this is as alien from the +Athenian spirit as it approaches the feeling of a medieval romance- +writer: and in the Pharmaceutriae pure passion, but passion softened +into exquisite forms, is once more predominant.[13] It is in this age +then that we naturally find the most perfect examples of the epigram +of love. In the lyric period the epigram was still mainly confined to +its stricter sphere, that of inscriptions for tombs and dedicated +offerings: in the great Athenian age the direct treatment of love was +almost in abeyance. Just on the edge of this last period, as is usual +in a time of transition, there are exquisite premonitions of the new +art. The lovely hexameter fragment[14] preserved in the Anthology +under the name of Plato, and not unworthy of so great a parentage, +anticipates the manner and the cadences of Theocritus; and one or two +of the amatory epigrams that are probably Plato's might be Meleager's, +but for the severe perfection of language that died with Greek +freedom. But it is in the Alexandrian period that the epigram of love +flowers out; and it is at the end of that period, where the Greek +spirit was touched by Oriental passion, that it culminates in +Meleager. + +We possess about a hundred amatory epigrams by this poet. Inferior +perhaps in clearness of outline and depth of insight to those of the +Alexandrian poet Asclepiades, they are unequalled in the width of +range, the profusion of imagination, the subtlety of emotion with +which they sound the whole lyre of passion. Meleager was born in a +Syrian town and educated at Tyre in the last age of the Seleucid +empire; and though he writes Greek with perfect mastery, it becomes in +his hands almost a new language, full of dreams, at once more languid +and more passionate. It was the fashion among Alexandrian poets to +experiment in language; and Callimachus had in this way brought the +epigram to the most elaborate jewel-finish; but in the work of +Callimachus and his contemporaries the pure Greek tradition still +survives. In Meleager, the touch of Asiatic blood creates a new type, +delicate, exotic, fantastic. Art is no longer restrained and severe. +The exquisite austerity of Greek poetry did not outlive the greatness +of Athens; its perfect clearness of outline still survived in +Theocritus; here both are gone. The atmosphere is loaded with a steam +of perfumes, and with still unimpaired ease and perfection of hand +there has come in a strain of the quality which of all qualities is +the most remote from the Greek spirit, mysticism. Some of Meleager's +epigrams are direct and simple, even to coarseness; but in all the +best and most characteristic there is this vital difference from +purely Greek art, that love has become a religion; the spirit of the +East has touched them. It is this that makes Meleager so curiously +akin to the medieval poets. Many of his turns of thought, many even of +his actual expressions, have the closest parallel in poets of the +fourteenth century who had never read a line of his work nor heard of +his name. As in them, the religion of love is reduced to a theology; +no subtlety, no fluctuation of fancy or passion is left unregistered, +alike in their lighter and their graver moods. Sometimes the feeling +is buried in masses of conceits, sometimes it is eagerly passionate, +but even then always with an imaginative and florid passion, never +directly as Sappho or Catullus is direct. Love appears in a hundred +shapes amidst a shower of fantastic titles and attributes. Out of all +the epithets that Meleager coins for him, one, set in a line of +hauntingly liquid and languid rhythm, "delicate-sandalled,"[15] gives +the key-note to the rest. Or again, he often calls him {glukupikros}, +"bittersweet";[16] at first he is like wine mingled with honey for +sweetness, but as he grows and becomes more tyrannous, his honey +scorches and stings; and the lover, "set on fire and drenched to +swooning with his ointments," drinks from a deeper cup and mingles his +wine with burning tears.[17] Love the Reveller goes masking with the +lover through stormy winter nights;[18] Love the Ball-player tosses +hearts for balls in his hands;[19] Love the Runaway lies hidden in a +lady's eyes;[20] Love the Healer soothes with a touch the wound that +his own dart has made;[21] Love the Artist sets his signature beneath +the soul which he has created;[22] Love the Helmsman steers the soul, +like a winged boat, over the perilous seas of desire;[23] Love the +Child, playing idly with his dice at sundawn, throws lightly for human +lives.[24] Now he is a winged boy with childish bow and quiver, swift +of laughter and speech and tears;[25] now a fierce god with flaming +arrows, before whom life wastes away like wax in the fire, Love the +terrible, Love the slayer of men.[26] The air all round him is heavy +with the scent of flowers and ointments; violets and myrtle, narcissus +and lilies, are woven into his garlands, and the rose, "lover-loving" +as Meleager repeatedly calls it in one of his curious new compound +epithets,[27] is perpetually about him, and rains its petals over the +banqueting-table and the myrrh-drenched doorway.[28] For a moment +Meleager can be piercingly simple; and then the fantastic mood comes +over him again, and emotion dissolves in a mist of metaphors. But even +when he is most fantastic the unfailing beauty of his rhythms and +grace of his language remind us that we are still in the presence of a +real art. + +The pattern set by Meleager was followed by later poets; and little +more would remain to say were it not necessary to notice the brief +renascence of amatory poetry in the sixth century. The poets of that +period take a high place in the second rank; and one, Paulus +Silentiarius, has a special interest among them as being at once the +most antique in his workmanship and the most modern in his sentiment. +One of his epigrams is like an early poem of Shakespeare's;[29] +another has in a singular degree the manner and movement of a sonnet +by Rossetti.[30] This group of epigrammatists brought back a phantom +of freshness into the old forms; once more the epigram becomes full of +pretty rhythms and fancies, but they are now more artificial; set +beside work of the best period they come out clumsy and heavy. +Language is no longer vivid and natural; the colour is a little +dimmed, the tone a little forced. As the painter's art had disappeared +into that of the worker in mosaic, so the language of poetry was no +longer a living stream, but a treasury of glittering words. Verse- +writers studied it carefully and used it cleverly, but never could +make up for the want of free movement of hand by any laborious +minuteness of tessellation. Yet if removed from the side of their +great models they are graceful enough, with a prettiness that recalls +and probably in many cases is copied from the novelists of the fourth +century; and sometimes it is only a touch of the diffuseness +inseparable from all Byzantine writing that separates their work in +quality from that of an earlier period. + +After Justinian the art practically died out. The pedantic rigour of +Byzantine scholarship was little favourable to the poetry of emotion, +and the spoken language had now fallen so far apart from the literary +idiom that only scholars were capable of writing in the old classical +forms. The popular love-poetry, if it existed, has perished and left +no traces; henceforth, for the five centuries that elapsed till the +birth of Provençal and Italian poetry, love lay voiceless, as though +entranced and entombed. + ---------- + +[1] Cf. Il. iii. 156; Anth. Pal. ix. 166. + +[2] Il. i. 298. + +[3] Il. xxiv. 130. + +[4] Il. xxii. 126-8. + +[5] Od. vi. 185. + +[6] {ear umnon}, Anth. Pal. vii. 12. + +[7] Vopisc. Aurel. c. 29. + +[8] Frag. 33 Bergk. + +[9] Fragg. 93, 102, 106 Bergk. + +[10] ll. 781, foll. + +[11] ll. 332, foll. + +[12] Theocr. i. 85. + +[13] ll. 105-110 of this poem set beside Sappho, Fr. ii. ll. 9-16, + Bergk, are a perfect example of the pastoral in contrast with the + lyrical treatment. + +[14] App. Plan. 210. + +[15] Anth. Pal. xii. 158, {soi me, Theokleis, abropedilos Eros gumnon + upestoresen}. + +[16] Ibid. xii. 109; cf. v. 163, 172; xii. 154. + +[17] Ibid. xii. 132, 164. + +[18] Ibid. xii. 167. + +[19] Ibid. v. 214. + +[20] Ibid. v. 177. + +[21] Ibid. v. 225. + +[22] Ibid. v. 155. + +[23] Ibid. xii. 157. + +[24] Anth. Pal. xii. 47. + +[25] Ibid. v. 177. + +[26] Ibid. v. 176, 180; xii. 72. + +[27] Ibid. v. 136, 147. + +[28] Ibid. v. 147, 198. + +[29] Ibid. v. 241; cf. Passionate Pilgrim, xiv., xv. + +[30] App. Plan. 278. + + + VII + +Closely connected with the passion of love as conceived by Greek +writers is a subject which continually meets us in Greek literature, +and which fills so large a part of the Anthology that it can hardly be +passed over without notice. The few epigrams selected from the +Anthology of Strato and included in this collection under the heading +of Beauty are not of course a representative selection. Of the great +mass of those epigrams no selection is possible or desirable. They +belong to that side of Greek life which is akin to the Oriental world, +and remote and even revolting to the western mind. And on this subject +the common moral sense of civilised mankind has pronounced a judgment +which requires no justification as it allows of no appeal. + +But indeed the whole conception of Eros the boy, familiar as it sounds +to us from the long continued convention of literature, is, if we +think of its origin or meaning, quite alien from our own habit of life +and thought. Even in the middle ages it cohered but ill with the +literary view of the relations between men and women in poetry and +romance; hardly, except where it is raised into a higher sphere by the +associations of religion, as in the friezes of Donatello, is it quite +natural, and now, apart from what remains of these same associations, +the natural basis of the conception is wholly obsolete. Since the +fashion of squires and pages, inherited from the feudal system, ceased +with the decay of the Renaissance, there has been nothing in modern +life which even remotely suggests it. We still--such is the strength +of tradition in art--speak of Love under the old types, and represent +him under the image of a winged boy; but the whole condition of +society in which this type grew up has disappeared and left the +symbolism all but meaningless to the ordinary mind. In Greece it was +otherwise. Side by side with the unchanging passions and affections of +all mankind there was then a feeling, half conventional, and yet none +the less of vital importance to thought and conduct, which elevated +the mere physical charm of human youth into an object of almost divine +worship. Beauty was the special gift of the gods, perhaps their +choicest one; and not only so, but it was a passport to their favour. +Common life in the open air, and above all the importance of the +gymnasia, developed great perfection of bodily form and kept it +constantly before all men's eyes. Art lavished all it knew on the +reproduction of the forms of youthful beauty. Apart from the real +feeling, the worship of this beauty became an overpowering fashion. To +all this there must be added a fact of no less importance in +historical Greece, the seclusion of women. Not that this ever existed +in the Oriental sense; but, with much freedom and simplicity of +relations inside the family, the share which women had in the public +and external life of the city, at a time when the city meant so much, +was comparatively slight. The greater freedom of women in Homer makes +the world of the Iliad and Odyssey really more modern, more akin to +our own, than that of the later poets. The girl in Theocritus, "with +spring in her eyes,"[1] comes upon us as we read the Idyls almost like +a modernism. It is in the fair shepherd boy, Daphnis or Thyrsis, that +Greek pastoral finds its most obvious, one might almost say its most +natural inspiration. + +Much of what is most perplexing in the difference in this respect +between Greek and western art has light thrown on it, if we think of +the importance which angels have in medieval painting. Their +invention, if one may call it so, was one of the very highest moment +in art. Those lovely creations, so precisely drawn up to a certain +point, so elusive beyond it, raised the feeling for pure beauty into a +wholly ideal plane. The deepest longings of men were satisfied by the +contemplation of a paradise in which we should be even as they. In +that mystical portraiture of the invisible world an answer--perhaps +the only answer--was found to the demand for an ideal of beauty. That +remarkable saying preserved by S. Clement, of a kingdom in which "the +two shall be one, and the male with the female neither male nor +female,"[2] might form the text for a chapter of no small importance +in human history. The Greek lucidity, which made all mysticism +impossible in their art as it was alien from their life, did not do +away with this imperious demand; and their cult of beauty was the +issue of their attempt, imperfect indeed at best and at worst +disastrous, to reunite the fragments of the human ideal.[3] + +In much of this poetry too we are in the conventional world of +pastoral; and pastoral, it must be repeated, does not concern itself +with real life. The amount of latitude in literary expression varies +no doubt with the prevalent popular morality of the period. But it +would lead to infinite confusion to think of the poetry as a +translation of conduct. A truer picture of Greek life is happily given +us in those epigrams which deal with the material that history passes +over and ideal poetry, at least in Greek literature, barely touches +upon, the life of simple human relations from day to day within the +circle of the family. + ---------- + +[1] {ear oroosa Nukheia}, Theocr. xiii. 42. + +[2] Clem. Rom. II. 12: {eperotetheis autos o Kurios upo tinos pote + exei autou e basileia, eipen, otan estai ta duo en kai to exo os + to eso kai to arsen meta tes theleias oute arsen oute thelu}. It + is also quoted in almost the same words by Clem. Alex., Strom. + xiii. 92, as from "the Gospel according to the Egyptians." + +[3] Cf. Plato, Sympos. 191, 192. + + + VIII + +Scattered over the sections of the Anthology are a number of epigrams +touching on this life, which are the more valuable to us, because it +is just this side of the ancient world of which the mass of Greek +literature affords a very imperfect view. In Homer indeed this is not +the case; but in the Athenian period the dramatists and historians +give little information, if we accept the highly idealised burlesque +of the Aristophanic Comedy. Of the New Comedy too little is preserved +to be of much use, and even in it the whole atmosphere was very +conventional. The Greek novel did not come into existence till too +late; and, when it came, it took the form of romance, concerning +itself more with the elaboration of sentiment and the excitement of +adventure than with the portraiture of real manners and actual +surroundings. For any detailed picture of common life, like that which +would be given of our own day to future periods by the domestic novel, +we look to ancient literature in vain. Thus, when we are admitted by a +fortunate chance into the intimacy of private life, as we are by some +of the works of Xenophon and Plutarch or by the letters of the younger +Pliny, the charm of the picture is all the greater: and so it is with +the epigrams that record birthdays and bridals, the toys of children, +the concord of quiet homes. We see the house of the good man,[1] an +abiding rest from the labours of a busy life, bountiful to all, +masters and servants, who dwell under its shelter, and extending a +large hospitality to the friend and the stranger. One generation after +another grows up in it under all good and gracious influences; a +special providence, under the symbolic forms of Cypris Urania or +Artemis the Giver of Light, holds the house in keeping, and each new +year brings increased blessing from the gods of the household in +recompense of piety and duty.[2] Many dedications bring vividly before +us the humbler life of the country cottager, no man's servant or +master, happy in the daily labour over his little plot of land, his +corn-field and vineyard and coppice; of the fowler with his boys in +the woods, the forester and the beekeeper, and the fisherman in his +thatched hut on the beach.[3] And in these contrasted pictures the +"wealth that makes men kind" seems not to jar with the "poverty that +lives with freedom."[4] Modern poetry dwells with more elaboration, +but not with the truer or more delicate feeling than those ancient +epigrams, on the pretty ways of children, the freshness of school- +days, the infinite beauty of the girl as she passes into the woman; or +even such slight things as the school-prize for the best copy-book, +and the child's doll in the well.[5] A shadow passes over the picture +in the complaint of a girl sitting indoors, full of dim thoughts, +while the boys go out to their games and enjoy unhindered the colour +and movement of the streets.[6] But this is the melancholy of youth, +the shadow of the brightness that passes before the maiden's eyes as +she sits, sunk in day-dreams, over her loom;[7] it passes away again +in the portrait of the girl growing up with the sweet eyes of her +mother, the budding rose that will soon unfold its heart of flame;[8] +and once more the bride renders thanks for perfect felicity to the +gods who have given her "a stainless youth and the lover whom she +desired."[9] Many of the most beautiful of the dedicatory epigrams are +thanksgivings after the birth of children; in one a wife says that she +is satisfied with the harmonious life that she and her husband live +together, and asks no further good.[10] Even death coming at the end +of such a life is disarmed of terror. In one of the most graceful +epitaphs of the Roman period[11] the dead man sums up the happiness of +his long life by saying that he never had to weep for any of his +children, and that their tears over him had no bitterness. The +inscription placed by Androtion over the yet empty tomb, which he has +built for himself and his wife and children, expresses that placid +acceptance which finds no cause of complaint with life.[12] Family +affection in an unbroken home; long and happy life of the individual, +and still longer, that of the race which remains; the calm +acquiescence in the law of life which is also the law of death, and +the desire that life and death alike may have their ordinary place and +period, not breaking use and wont; all this is implied here rather +than expressed, in words so simple and straightforward that they seem +to have fallen by accident, as it were, into verse. Thus too in +another epigram the dying wife's last words are praise to the gods of +marriage that she has had even such a husband, and to the gods of +death that he and their children survive her.[13] Or again, where +there is a cry of pain over severance, it is the sweetness of the past +life that makes parting so bitter; "what is there but sorrow," says +Marathonis over the tomb of Nicopolis,[14] "for a man alone upon earth +when his wife is gone?" + ---------- + +[1] Anth. Pal. ix. 649. + +[2] Ibid. vi. 267, 280, 340. + +[3] Ibid. vi. 226, vii. 156. + +[4] {Dunatai to ploutein kai philanthropous poiein}, Menand., {Alieis} + fr. 7; Anth. Pal. ix. 172. + +[5] Anth. Pal. vi. 308, ix. 326. + +[6] Ibid. v. 297. + +[7] Ibid. vi. 266. + +[8] Ibid. vi. 353, v. 124. + +[9] Ibid. vi. 59. + +[10] Ibid. vi. 209. + +[11] Ibid. vii. 260. + +[12] Ibid. vii. 228. + +[13] Anth. Pal. vii. 555. + +[14] Ibid. vii. 340. + + + IX + + +"Even this stranger, I suppose, prays to the immortals," says Nestor +in the Odyssey,[1] "since all men have need of gods." When the Homeric +poems were written the Greek temper had already formed and ripened; +and so long as it survived, this recognition of religious duty +remained part of it. The deeper and more violent forms of religious +feeling were indeed always alien, and even to a certain degree +repugnant, to the Greek peoples. Mysticism, as has already been +observed, had no place with them; demons and monsters were rejected +from their humane and rationalised mythology, and no superstitious +terrors forced them into elaboration of ritual. There was no priestly +caste; each city and each citizen approached the gods directly at any +time and place. The religious life, as a life distinct from that of an +ordinary citizen, was unknown in Greece. Even at Rome the perpetual +maidenhood of the Vestals was a unique observance; and they were the +keepers of the hearth-fire of the city, not the intermediaries between +it and its gods. But the Vestals have no parallel in Greek life. +Asiatic rites and devotions, it is true, from an early period obtained +a foothold among the populace; but they were either discountenanced, +or by being made part of the civic ritual were disarmed of their +mystic or monastic elements. An epitaph in the Anthology commemorates +two aged priestesses as having been happy in their love for their +husbands and children;[2] nothing could be further from the Eastern or +the medieval sentiment of a consecrated life. Thus, if Greek religion +did not strike deep, it spread wide; and any one, as he thought fit, +might treat his whole life, or any part of it, as a religious act. And +there was a strong feeling that the observance of such duties in a +reasonable manner was proper in itself, besides being probably useful +in its results; no gentleman, if we may so translate the idea into +modern terms, would fail in due courtesy to the gods. That piety +sometimes met with strange returns was an undoubted fact, but that it +should be so inexplicable and indeed shocking even to the least +superstitious and most dispassionate minds.[3] + +With the diffusion of a popularised philosophy religious feeling +became fainter among the educated classes, and correspondingly more +uncontrolled in the lower orders. The immense mass of dedicatory +epigrams written in the Alexandrian and Roman periods are in the main +literary exercises, though they were also the supply of a real and +living demand. The fashion outlived the belief; even after the +suppression of pagan worship scholars continued to turn out imitations +of the old models. One book of the Anthology of Agathias[4] consisted +entirely of contemporary epigrams of this sort, "as though dedicated +to former gods." But of epigrams dealing with religion in its more +intimate sense there are, as one would expect, very few in the +Anthology until we come to collections of Christian poetry. This light +form of verse was not suited to the treatment of the deepest subjects. +For the religious poetry of Greece one must go to Pindar and +Sophocles. + +But the small selection given here throws some interesting light on +Greek thought with regard to sacred matters. Each business of life, +each change of circumstance, calls for worship and offering. The +sailor, putting to sea with spring, is to pay his sacrifice to the +harbour-god, a simple offering of cakes or fish.[5] The seafarer +should not pass near a great shine without turning aside to pay it +reverence.[6] The traveller, as he crosses a hill-pass or rests by the +wayside fountain, is to give the accustomed honour to the god of the +ground, Pan or Hermes, or whoever holds the spot in special +protection.[7] Each shaded well in the forest, each jut of cliff on +the shore, has its tutelar deity, if only under the form of the +rudely-carved stake set in a garden or on a lonely beach where the +sea-gulls hover; and with their more sumptuous worship the houses of +great gods, all marble and gold, stand overlooking the broad valley or +the shining spaces of sea.[8] Even the wild thicket has its rustic +Pan, to whom the hunter and fowler pray for success in their day's +work, and the image of Demeter stands by the farmer's threshing- +floor.[9] And yet close as the gods come in their daily dealings with +men, scorning no offering, however small, that is made with clean +hands, finding no occasion too trifling for their aid, there is a yet +more homely worship of "little gods"[10] who take the most +insignificant matters in their charge. These are not mere +abstractions, like the lesser deities of the Latin religion, Bonus +Eventus, Tutilina, Iterduca and Domiduca, but they occupy much the +same place in worship. By their side are the heroes, the saints of the +ancient world, who from their graves have some power of hearing and +answering. Like the saints, they belong to all times, from the most +remote to the most recent. The mythical Philopregmon, a shadowy being +dating back to times of primitive worship, gives luck from his +monument on the roadside by the gate of Potidaea.[11] But the +traveller who had prayed to him in the morning as he left the town +might pay the same duty next evening by the tomb of Brasidas in the +market-place of Amphipolis.[12] + +But alongside of the traditional worship of these multitudinous and +multiform deities, a grave and deep religious sense laid stress on the +single quality of goodness as being essentially akin to divinity, and +spoke with aversion of complicated ritual and extravagant sacrifice. A +little water purifies the good man; the whole ocean is not sufficient +to wash away the guilt of the sinner.[13] "Holiness is a pure mind," +said the inscription over the doorway of a great Greek temple.[14] The +sanctions of religion were not indeed independent of rewards and +punishments, in this or in a future state. But the highest Greek +teachings never laid great stress on these; and even where they are +adduced as a motive for good living, they are always made secondary to +the excellence of piety here and in itself. Through the whole course +of Greek thought the belief in a future state runs in an undercurrent. +A striking fragment of Sophocles[15] speaks of the initiated alone as +being happy, since their state after death is secure. Plato, while he +reprobates the teaching which would make men good in view of the other +world, and insists on the natural excellence of goodness for its own +sake, himself falls back on the life after death, as affected for good +or evil by our acts here, in the visions, "no fairy-tales,"[16] which +seem to collect and reinforce the arguments of the /Phaedo/ and the +/Republic/. But the ordinary thought and practice ignored what might +happen after death. Life was what concerned men and absorbed them; it +seemed sufficient for them to think about what they knew of.[17] The +revolution which Christianity brought into men's way of thinking as +regards life and death was that it made them know more certainly, or +so it seemed, about the latter than about the former. Who knows, +Euripides had long ago asked, if life be not death, and death life? +and the new religion answered his question with an emphatic +affirmation that it was so; that this life was momentary and shadowy, +was but a death, in comparison of the life unchangeable and eternal. + +The dedicatory epigram was one of the earliest forms of Greek poetry. +Herodotus quotes verses inscribed on offerings at Thebes, written in +"Cadmean letters," and dating back to a mythical antiquity;[18] and +actual dedications are extant which are at least as early as 600 +B.C.[19] In this earlier period the verses generally contained nothing +more than a bare record of the act. Even at a later date, the +anathematic epigrams of Simonides are for the most part rather stiff +and formal when set beside his epitaphs. His nephew Bacchylides +brought the art to perfection, if it is safe to judge from a single +flawless specimen.[20] But it is hardly till the Alexandrian period +that the dedication has elaborate pains bestowed upon it simply for +the feeling and expression as a form of poetry; and it is to this +period that the mass of the best prayers and dedications belong. + +Ranging as they do over the whole variety of human action, these +epigrams show us the ancient world in its simplest and most pleasant +aspect. Family life has its offerings for the birth of a child, for +return from travel, for recovery from sickness. The eager and curious +spirit of youth, and old age to which nothing but rest seems good, +each offer prayer to the guardians of the traveller or of the +home.[21] The most numerous and the most beautiful are those where, +towards the end of life, dedications are made with thanksgiving for +the past and prayer for what remains. The Mediterranean merchantman +retires to his native town and offers prayer to the protector of the +city to grant him a quiet age there, or dedicates his ship, to dance +no more "like a feather on the sea," now that its master has set his +weary feet on land.[22] The fisherman, ceasing his labours, hangs up +his fish-spear to Poseidon, saying, "Thou knowest I am tired." The old +hunter, whose hand has lost its suppleness, dedicates his nets to the +Nymphs, as all that he has to give. The market-gardener, when he has +saved a competence, lays his worn tools before Priapus the Garden- +Keeper. Heracles and Artemis receive the aged soldier's shield into +their temples, that it may grow old there amid the sound of hymns and +the dances of maidens.[23] Quiet peace, as of the greyness of a summer +evening, is the desired end. + +The diffusion of Greece under Alexander and his successors, as at a +later period the diffusion of Rome under the Empire, brought with the +decay of civic spirit a great increase of humanity. The dedication +written by Theocritus for his friend Nicias of Miletus[24] gives a +vivid picture of the gracious atmosphere of a rich and cultured Greek +home, of the happy union of science and art with harmonious family +life and kindly helpfulness and hospitality. Care for others was a +more controlling motive in life than before. The feeling grew that we +are all one family, and owe each other the service and thoughtfulness +due to kinsfolk, till Menander could say that true life was living for +others.[25] In this spirit the sailor, come safe ashore, offers prayer +to Poseidon that others who cross the sea may be as fortunate; so too, +from the other side of the matter, Pan of the sea-cliff promises a +favourable wind to all strangers who sail by him, in remembrance of +the pious fisherman who set his statue there, as guardian of their +trawling-nets and eel-baskets.[26] + +In revulsion from the immense accumulation of material wealth in this +period, a certain refined simplicity was then the ideal of the best +minds, as it was afterwards in the early Roman Empire, as it is in our +own day. The charm of the country was, perhaps for the first time, +fully realised; the life of gardens became a passion, and hardly less +so the life of the opener air, of the hill and meadow, of the shepherd +and hunter, the farmer and fisherman. The rules of art, like the +demands of heaven, were best satisfied with small and simple +offerings. "The least of a little"[27] was sufficient to lay before +gods who had no need of riches; and as the art of the epigrammatist +grew more refined, the poet took pride in working with the slightest +materials. The husbandman lays a handful of corn-ears before Demeter, +the gardener a basket of ripe fruit at the feet of Priapus; the +implements of their craft are dedicated by the carpenter and the +goldsmith; the young girl and the aged woman offer their even slighter +gift, the spindle and distaff, the reel of wool, and the rush-woven +basket.[28] A staff of wild-olive cut in the coppice is accepted by +the lord of the myriad-boughed forest; the Muses are pleased with +their bunch of roses wet with morning dew.[29] The boy Daphnis offers +his fawnskin and scrip of apples to the great divinity of Pan;[30] the +young herdsman and his newly-married wife, still with the rose-garland +on her hair, make prayer and thanksgiving with a cream cheese and a +piece of honeycomb to the mistress of a hundred cities, Aphrodite with +her house of gold.[31] The hard and laborious life of the small farmer +was touched with something of the natural magic that saturates the +Georgics; "rich with fair fleeces, and fair wine, and fair fruit of +corn," and blessed by the gracious Seasons whose feet pass over the +furrows.[32] On the green slope Pan himself makes solitary music to +the shepherd in the divine silence of the hills.[33] The fancy of +three brothers, a hunter, a fowler, and a fisherman, meeting to make +dedication of the spoils of their crafts to the country-god, was one +which had a special charm for epigrammatists; it is treated by no less +than nine poets, whose dates stretch over as many centuries.[34] Sick +of cities, the imagination turned to an Arcadia that thenceforth was +to fill all poetry with the music of its names and the fresh chill of +its pastoral air; the lilied banks of Ladon, the Erymanthian water, +the deep woodland of Pholoë and the grey steep of Cyllene.[35] Nature +grew full of a fresh and lovely divinity. A spirit dwells under the +sea, and looks with kind eyes on the creatures that go up and down in +its depths; Artemis flashes by in the rustle of the windswept oakwood, +and the sombre shade of the pines makes a roof for Pan; the wild hill +becomes a sanctuary, for ever unsown and unmown, where the Spirit of +Nature, remote and invisible, feeds his immortal flock and fulfils his +desire.[36] + ---------- + +[1] Od. iii. 47. + +[2] Anth. Pal. vii. 733; cf. also v. 14 in this selection. + +[3] Cf. Thuc. vii. 86. + +[4] Anth. Pal. iv. 3, ll. 113-116. + +[5] Ibid. vi. 105; x. 14. + +[6] Ibid. vi. 251; cf. v. 3 in this selection. + +[7] App. Plan. 227; Anth. Pal. x. 12. + +[8] App. Plan. 291; Anth. Pal. vi. 22, 119, ix. 144, x. 8, 10. + +[9] Anth. Pal. x. 11, vi. 98. + +[10] Ibid. ix. 334. + +[11] Ibid. vii. 694. + +[12] Thuc. v. 11; Arist. Eth. v. 7. + +[13] Anth. Pal. xiv. 71. + +[14] v. 15 in this selection. + +[15] Fr. anon. 719. + +[16] {ou mentoi soi Alkinou ge apologon ero}, Plato, Rep. 614 B. + +[17] {To zen gar ismen tou thanein d apeiria + Pas tis phobeitai phos lipein tod eliou}--Eurip. Phoenix, fr. 9. + +[18] Hdt. v. 60, 61. + +[19] See Kaibel, Epigr. Gr. 738-742. + +[20] Anth. Pal. vi. 53. + +[21] Anth. Pal. x. 6, vi. 70. + +[22] Ibid. ix. 7, vi. 70. + +[23] Ibid. vi. 30, 25, 21, 178, 127. + +[24] Ibid. vi. 337; cf. Theocr. Idyl xxii. + +[25] Frag. incert. 257, {tout esti to zen oukh eauto zen monon}. + +[26] Anth. Pal. x. 10, 24. + +[27] Ibid. vi. 98, {ek mikron oligista}. + +[28] Ibid. vi. 98, 102; 103, 92; 174, 247. + +[29] Ibid. vi. 3, 336. + +[30] Ibid. vi. 177. + +[31] Ibid. vi. 55; cf. vi. 119, xii. 131. + +[32] Anth. Pal. vi. 31, 98. + +[33] App. Plan. 17; cf. Lucret. v. 1387. + +[34] Anth. Pal. vi. 11-16, and 179-187. The poets are Leonidas of + Tarentum, Alcaeus of Messene, Antipater of Sidon, Alexander, + Julius Diocles, Satyrus, Archias, Zosimus and Julianus Aegyptius. + +[35] Anth. Pal. vi. 111, App. Plan. 188: compare Song iii. in Milton's + /Arcades/. + +[36] Anth. Pal. x. 8; vi. 253, 268; vi. 79. + + + X + +Though the section of the Palatine Anthology dealing with works of +art, if it ever existed, is now completely lost, we have still left a +considerable number of epigrams which come under this head. Many are +preserved in the Planudean Anthology. Many more, on account of the +cross-division of subjects that cannot be avoided in arranging any +collection of poetry, are found in other sections of the Palatine +Anthology. It was a favourite device, for example, to cast a criticism +or eulogy of an author or artist into the form of an imaginary +epitaph; and this was often actually inscribed on a monument, or +beneath a bust, in the galleries or gardens of a wealthy /virtuoso/. +Thus the sepulchral epigrams include inscriptions of this sort of many +of the most distinguished names of Greek literature. They are mainly +on poets and philosophers; Homer and Hesiod, the great tragedians and +comedians, the long roll of the lyric poets, most frequently among +them Sappho, Alcman, Erinna, Archilochus, Pindar, and the whole line +of philosophers from Thales and Anaxagoras down to the latest teachers +in the schools of Athens. Often in those epigrams some vivid epithet +or fine touch of criticism gives a real value to them even now; the +"frowning towers" of the Aeschylean tragedy, the trumpet-note of +Pindar, the wealth of lovely flower and leaf, crisp Archanian ivy, +rose and vine, that clusters round the tomb of Sophocles.[1] Those on +the philosophers are, as one would expect, generally of inferior +quality. + +Many again are to be found among the miscellaneous section of +epideictic epigrams. Instances which deal with literature directly are +the noble lines of Alpheus on Homer, the interesting epigram on the +authorship of the /Phaedo/, the lovely couplet on the bucolic +poets.[2] Some are inscriptions for libraries or collections;[3] +others are on particular works of art. Among these last, epigrams on +statues or pictures dealing with the power of music are specially +notable; the conjunction, in this way, of the three arts seems to have +given peculiar pleasure to the refined and eclectic culture of the +Graeco-Roman period. The contest of Apollo and Marsyas, the piping of +Pan to Echo, and the celebrated subject of the Faun listening for the +sound of his own flute,[4] are among the most favourite and the most +gracefully treated of this class. Even more beautiful, however, than +these, and worthy to take rank with the finest "sonnets on pictures" +of modern poets, is the epigram ascribed to Theocritus, and almost +certainly written for a picture,[5] which seems to place the whole +world of ancient pastoral before our eyes. The grouping of the figures +is like that in the famous Venetian Pastoral of Giorgione; in both +alike are the shadowed grass, the slim pipes, the hand trailing upon +the viol-string. But the execution has the matchless simplicity, the +incredible purity of outline, that distinguishes Greek work from that +of all other races. + +A different view of art and literature, and one which adds +considerably to our knowledge of the ancient feeling about them, is +given by another class of pieces, the irrisory epigrams of the +Anthology. Then, as now, people were amused by bad and bored by +successful artists, and delighted to laugh at both; then, as now, the +life of the scholar or the artist had its meaner side, and lent itself +easily to ridicule from without, to jealousy and discontent from +within. The air rang with jeers at the portrait-painter who never got +a likeness, the too facile composer whose body was to be burned on a +pile of five-and-twenty chests all filled with his own scores, the bad +grammar of the grammarian, the supersubtle logic and the cumbrous +technical language of the metaphysician, the disastrous fertility of +the authors of machine-made epics.[6] The poor scholar had become +proverbial; living in a garret where the very mice were starved, +teaching the children of the middle classes for an uncertain pittance, +glad to buy a dinner with a dedication, and gradually petrifying in +the monotony of a thousand repetitions of stock passages and lectures +to empty benches.[7] Land and sea swarmed with penniless +grammarians.[8] The epigrams of Palladas of Alexandria bring before us +vividly the miseries of a schoolmaster. Those of Callimachus shew with +as painful clearness how the hatred of what was bad in literature +might end in embittering the whole nature.[9] Many epigrams are extant +which indicate that much of a scholar's life, even when he had not to +earn bitter bread on the stairs of patrons, was wasted in laborious +pedantry or in personal jealousies and recriminations.[10] + +Of epigrams on individual works of art it is not necessary to say +much. Their numbers must have been enormous. The painted halls and +colonnades, common in all Greek towns, had their stories told in verse +below; there was hardly a statue or picture of any note that was not +the subject of a short poem. A collected series of works of art had +its corresponding series of epigrams. The Anthology includes, among +other lists, a description of nineteen subjects carved in relief on +the pedestals of the columns in a temple at Cyzicus, and another of +seventy-three bronze statues which stood in the great hall of a +gymnasium at Constantinople.[11] Any celebrated work like the Niobe of +Praxiteles, or the bronze heifer of Myron, was the practising-ground +for every tried or untried poet, seeking new praise for some clever +conceit or neater turn of language than had yet been invented. +Especially was this so with the trifling art of the decadence and its +perpetual round of childish Loves: Love ploughing, Love holding a fish +and a flower as symbols of his sovereignty over sea and land, Love +asleep on a pepper-castor, Love blowing a torch, Love grasping or +breaking the thunderbolt, Love with a helmet, a shield, a quiver, a +trident, a club, a drum.[12] Enough of this class of epigrams are +extant to be perfectly wearisome, were it not that, like the engraved +gems from which their subjects are principally taken, they are all, +however trite in subject or commonplace in workmanship, wrought in the +same beautiful material, in that language which is to all other +languages as a gem to an ordinary pebble. + +From these sources we are able to collect a body of epigrams which in +a way cover the field of ancient art and literature. Sometimes they +preserve fragments of direct criticism, verbal or real. We have +epigrams on fashions in prose style, on conventional graces of +rhetoric, on the final disappearance of ancient music in the sixth +century.[13] Of art-criticism in the modern sense there is but little. +The striking epigram of Parrhasius, on the perfection attainable in +painting,[14] is almost a solitary instance. Pictures and statues are +generally praised for their actual or imagined realism. Silly stories +like those of the birds pecking at the grapes of Zeuxis, or the calf +who went up to suck the bronze cow of Myron, represent the general +level of the critical faculty. Even Aristotle, it must be remembered, +who represents the most finished Greek criticism, places the pleasure +given by works of art in the recognition by the spectator of things +which he has already seen. "The reason why people enjoy seeing +pictures is that the spectators learn and infer what each object is; +/this/, they say, /is so and so/; while if one has not seen the thing +before, the pleasure is produced not by the imitation,"--or by the +art, for he uses the two terms convertibly--"but by the execution, the +colour, or some such cause."[15] And Plato (though on this subject one +can never be quite sure that Plato is serious) talks of the graphic +art as three times removed from realities, being only employed to make +copies of semblances of the external objects which are themselves the +copies or shadows of the ideal truth of things.[16] So far does Greek +thought seem to be from the conception of an ideal art which is nearer +truth than nature is, which nature itself indeed tries with perpetual +striving, and ever incomplete success, to copy, which, as Aristotle +does in one often quoted passage admit with regard to poetry, has a +higher truth and a deeper seriousness than that of actual things. + +But this must not be pressed too far. The critical faculty, even where +fully present, may be overpowered by the rhetorical impulse; and of +all forms of poetry the epigram has the greatest right to be fanciful. +"This is the Satyr of Diodorus; if you touch it, it will awake; the +silver is asleep,"[17]--obviously this play of fancy has nothing to do +with serious criticism. And of a really serious feeling about art +there is sufficient evidence, as in the pathos of the sculptured +Ariadne, happy in sleeping and being stone, and even more strongly in +the lines on the picture of the Faun, which have the very tone and +spirit of the /Ode on a Grecian Urn/.[18] + +Two epigrams above all deserve special notice; one almost universally +known, that written by Callimachus on his dead friend, the poet +Heraclitus of Halicarnassus; the other, no less noble, though it has +not the piercing tenderness of the first, by Claudius Ptolemaeus, the +great astronomer, upon his own science, a science then not yet +divorced from art and letters. The picture touched by Callimachus of +that ancient and brilliant life, where two friends, each an +accomplished scholar, each a poet, saw the summer sun set in their +eager talk, and listened through the dusk to the singing nightingales, +is a more exquisite tribute than all other ancient writings have given +to the imperishable delight of literature, the mingled charm of youth +and friendship, and the first stirring of the blood by poetry, and the +first lifting of the soul by philosophy.[19] And on yet a further +height, above the nightingales, under the solitary stars alone, +Ptolemy as he traces the celestial orbits is lifted above the touch of +earth, and recognises in man's mortal and ephemeral substance a +kinship with the eternal. /Man did eat angels' food: he opened the +doors of heaven./[20] + ---------- + +[1] Anth. Pal. vii. 39, 34, 21, 22. + +[2] Ibid. ix. 97, 358, 205. + +[3] Cf. iv. 1 in this selection. + +[4] Anth. Pal. vii. 696, App. Plan. 8, 225, 226, 244. + +[5] Anth. Pal. ix. 433. On this epigram Jacobs says, /Frigide hoc + carmen interpretantur qui illud tabulae pictae adscriptum fuisse + existimant/. But the art of poems on pictures, which flourished to + an immense degree in the Alexandrian and later periods, had not + then been revived. One can fancy the same note being made hundreds + of years hence on some of Rossetti's sonnets. + +[6] Anth. Pal. xi. 215, 133, 143, 354, 136. + +[7] Ibid. vi. 303, ix. 174, vi. 310; cf. also x. 35 in this selection. + +[8] Ibid. xi. 400. + +[9] Compare Anth. Pal. xii. 43 with ix. 565. + +[10] Ibid. xi. 140, 142, 275. + +[11] Anth. Pal. ii., iii. + +[12] App. Plan. 200, 207, 208, 209, 214, 215, 250. + +[13] Anth. Pal. xi. 141, 142, 144, 157; vii. 571. + +[14] iv. 46 in this selection. + +[15] Poet. 1448 b. 15-20. + +[16] Republic, x. 597. + +[17] App. Plan. 248. + +[18] App. Plan. 146, 244. + +[19] Anth. Pal. vii. 80. Cf. In Memoriam, xxiii. + +[20] Anth. Pal. ix. 577; notice especially {theies pimplamai + ambrosies}. + + + XI + +That the feeling for Nature is one of the new developments of the +modern spirit, is one of those commonplaces of criticism which express +vaguely and loosely a general impression gathered from the comparison +of ancient with modern poetry. Like most of such generalisations it is +not of much value unless defined more closely; and as the definition +of the rule becomes more accurate, the exceptions and limitations to +be made grow correspondingly numerous. The section which is here +placed under this heading is obviously different from any collection +which could be made of modern poems, professing to deal with Nature +and not imitated from the Greek. But when we try to analyse the +difference, we find that the word Nature is one of the most ambiguous +possible. Man's relation to Nature is variable not only from age to +age, and from race to race, but from individual to individual, and +from moment to moment. And the feeling for Nature, as expressed in +literature, varies not only with all these variations but with other +factors as well, notably with the prevalent mode of poetical +expression, and with the condition of the other arts. The outer world +lies before us all alike, with its visible facts, its demonstrable +laws, /Natura daedala rerum/; but with each of us the /species +ratioque naturae/, the picture presented by the outer world and the +meaning that underlies it, are created in our own minds, the one by +the apprehensions of our senses (and the eye sees what it brings the +power to see), the other by our emotions, our imagination, our +intellectual and moral qualities, as all these are affected by the +pageant of things, and affect it in turn. And in no case can we +express in words the total impression made upon us, but only that +amount of it for which we possess a language of sufficient range and +power and flexibility. For an impression has permanence and value-- +indeed one may go further and say has reality--only in so far as it is +fixed and recorded in language, whether in the language of words or +that of colours, forms, and sounds. + +First in the natural order comes that simply sensuous view of the +outer world, where combination and selection have as yet little or no +part. Objects are distinct from one another, each creates a single +impression, and the effect of each is summed up in a single phrase. +The "constant epithet" of early poetry is a survival of this stage of +thought; nature is a series of things, every one of which has its +special note; "green grass," "wet water." Here the feeling for Nature +likewise is simple and sensuous; the pleasure of shade and cool water +in summer, of soft grass to lie on, of the flowers and warm sunshine +of spring. + +Then out of this infancy of feeling rises the curiosity of childhood; +no longer content with noting and recording the obvious aspects of +Nature, man observes and inquires and pays attention. The more +attention is paid, the more is seen: and an immense growth follows in +the language of poetry. To express the feeling for nature description +becomes necessary, and this again involves, in order that the work may +not be endless, selection and composition. + +Again, upon this comes the sentimental feeling for Nature, a sort of +sympathy created by interest and imagination. Among early races this, +like other feelings, expresses itself in the forms of mythology, and +half personifies the outer world, giving the tree her Dryad and the +fountain her Nymph, making Pan and Echo meet in the forest glade. When +the mythological instinct has ceased to be active, it results in +sentimental description, sometimes realistic in detail, sometimes +largely or even wholly conventional. It has always in it something of +a reaction, real or affected, from crowds and the life of cities, an +attempt to regain simplicity by isolation from the complex fabric of +society. + +Once more, the feeling for Nature may go deeper than the senses and +the imagination, and become moral. The outer world is then no more a +spectacle only, but the symbol of a meaning, the embodiment of a soul. +Earth, the mother and fostress, receives our sympathy and gives us her +own. The human spirit turns away from itself to seek sustenance from +the mountains and the stars. The whole outer universe becomes the +visible and sensible language of an ideal essence; and dawn or sunset, +winter or summer, is of the nature of a sacrament. + +There is over and above all these another sense in which we may speak +of the feeling for Nature; and in regard to poetry it is perhaps the +most important of all. But it no longer follows, like the rest, a sort +of law of development in human nature generally; it is confined to +art, and among the arts is eminent in poetry beyond the rest. This is +the romantic or magical note. It cannot be analysed, perhaps it cannot +be defined; the insufficiency of all attempted definitions of poetry +is in great part due to the impossibility of their including this +final quality, which, like some volatile essence, escapes the moment +the phial is touched. In the poetry of all ages, even in the periods +where it has been most intellectual and least imaginative, come sudden +lines like the /Cette obscure clarté qui tombe des étoiles/ of +Corneille, like the /Placed far amid the melancholy main/ of Thomson, +where the feeling for Nature cannot be called moral, and yet stirs us +like the deepest moral criticism upon life, rising as far beyond the +mere idealism of sentiment as it does beyond the utmost refinement of +realistic art. + +In all these different forms the feeling for Nature may be illustrated +from Greek poetry; but the broad fact remains that Nature on the whole +has a smaller part than it has with modern poets. Descriptive pieces +are executed in a slighter manner, and on the whole with a more +conventional treatment. Landscapes, for example, are always a +background, never (or hardly ever) the picture itself. The influence +of mythology on art was so overwhelming that, down to the last, it +determined the treatment of many subjects where we should now go +directly to the things themselves. Especially is this so with what has +been described as the moral feeling for nature. Among "the +unenlightened swains of Pagan Greece," as Wordsworth says, the deep +effect of natural beauty on the mind was expressed under the forms of +a concrete symbolism, a language to which literature had grown so +accustomed that they had neither the power nor the wish to break free +from it. The appeal indeed from man to Nature, and especially the +appeal to Nature as knowing more about man's destiny than he knows +himself, was unknown to the Greek poets. But this feeling is +sentimental, not moral; and with them too "something far more deeply +interfused" stirred the deepest sources of emotion. The music of Pan, +at which the rustle of the oakwood ceases and the waterfall from the +cliff is silent and the faint bleating of the sheep dies away,[1] is +the expression in an ancient language of the spirit of Nature, fixed +and embodied by the enchanting touch of art. + +Of the epigrams which deal primarily with the sensuous feeling for +Nature, the most common are those on the delight of summer, rustling +breezes and cold springs and rest under the shadow of trees. In the +ardours of midday the traveller is guided from the road over a grassy +brow to an ice-cold spring that gushes out of the rock under a pine; +or lying idly on the soft meadow in the cool shade of the plane, is +lulled by the whispering west wind through the branches, the monotone +of the cicalas, the faint sound of a far-off shepherd's pipe floating +down the hills; or looking up into the heart of the oak, sees the dim +green roof, layer upon layer, mount and spread and shut out the +sky.[2] Or the citizen, leaving the glare of town, spends a country +holiday on strewn willow-boughs with wine and music,[3] as in that +most perfect example of the poetry of a summer day, the /Thalysia/ of +Theocritus. Down to a late Byzantine period this form of poetry, the +nearest approach to pure description of nature in the old world, +remained alive; as in the picture drawn by Arabius of the view from a +villa on the shore of the Propontis, with its gardens set between wood +and sea, where the warbling of birds mingled with the distant songs of +the ferrymen.[4] Other landscape poems, as they may be called, +remarkable for their clear and vivid portraiture, are that of +Mnasalcas,[5] the low shore with its bright surf, and the temple with +its poplars round which the sea-fowl hover and cry, and that of +Anyte,[6] the windy orchard-close near the grey colourless coast, with +the well and the Hermes standing over it at the crossways. But such +epigrams always stop short of the description of natural objects for +their own sake, for the mere delight in observing and speaking about +them. Perhaps the nearest approach that Greek poetry makes to this is +in a remarkable fragment of Sophocles,[7] describing the shiver that +runs through the leaves of a poplar when all the other trees stand +silent and motionless. + +The descriptions of Nature too are, as a rule, not only slightly +sketched, but kept subordinate to a human relation. The brilliance and +loveliness of spring is the background for the picture of the sailor +again putting to sea, or the husbandman setting his plough at work in +the furrow; the summer woods are a resting-place for the hot and +thirsty traveller; the golden leaves of autumn thinning in the frosty +night, making haste to be gone before the storms of rough November, +are a frame for the boy beneath them.[8] The life of earth is rarely +thought of as distinct from the life of man. It is so in a few late +epigrams. The complaint of the cicala, torn away by shepherds from its +harmless green life of song and dew among the leaves, and the poem +bidding the blackbird leave the dangerous oak, where, with its breast +against a spray, it pours out its clear music,[9] are probably of +Roman date; another of uncertain period but of great beauty, an +epitaph on an old bee-keeper who lived alone on the hills with the +high woods and pastures for his only neighbours, contrasts with a +strangely modern feeling the perpetuity of nature and the return of +the works of spring with the brief life of man that ends once for all +on a cold winter night.[10] + +Between the simply sensuous and the deep moral feeling for nature lies +the broad field of pastoral. This is not the place to enter into the +discussion of pastoral poetry; but it must be noted in passing that it +does not imply of necessity any deep love, and still less any close +observation, of nature. It looks on nature, as it looks on human life, +through a medium of art and sentiment; and its treatment of nature +depends less on the actual world around it than on the prevalent art +of the time. Greek art concentrated its efforts on the representation +of the human figure, and even there preferred the abstract form and +the rigid limitations of sculpture; and the poetry that saw, as it +were, through the eyes of art sought above all things simplicity of +composition and clearness of outline. The scanty vocabulary of colour +in Greek poetry, so often noticed, is a special and patent example of +this difference in the spirit with which Nature was regarded. As the +poetry of Chaucer corresponds, in its wealth and intimacy of +decoration, to the illuminations and tapestries of the middle ages, so +the epigrams given under this section constantly recall the sculptured +reliefs and the engraved gems of Greek art. + +But any such general rules must be taken with their exceptions. As +there is a risk of reading modern sentiment into ancient work, and +even of fixing on the startling modernisms that occur in Greek +poetry,[11] and dwelling on them till they assume an exaggerated +importance, so there is a risk perhaps as great of slurring over the +inmost quality, the poetry of the poetry, where it has that touch of +romance or magic that sets it beyond all our generalisations. The +magical charm is just what cannot be brought under any rules; it is +the result less of art than of instinct, and is almost independent of +time and place. The lament of the swallow in an Alexandrian poet[12] +touches the same note of beauty and longing that Keats drew from the +song of the nightingale; the couplet of Satyrus, where echo repeats +the lonely cry of the birds,[13] is, however different in tone, as +purely romantic as the opening lines of /Christabel/. + ---------- + +[1] Anth. Pal. ix. 823. + +[2] App. Plan. 230, 227; Anth. Pal. ix. 71. + +[3] vi. 28 in this selection. + +[4] Anth. Pal. ix. 667. + +[5] Ibid. ix. 333. + +[6] Ibid. ix. 314. + +[7] Aegeus, fr. 24; cf. the celebrated simile in /Hyperion/, + beginning, /As when upon a tranced summer night/. + +[8] Anth. Pal. xii. 138. + +[9] Ibid. ix. 373, 87. + +[10] Ibid. vii. 717. + +[11] A curious instance is in an epigram by Mnasalcas (Anth. Pal. vii. + 194), where he speaks of the evening hymn ({panesperon umnon}) of + the grasshopper. This, it must be remembered, was written in the + third century B.C. + +[12] Pamphilus in Anth. Pal. ix. 57. + +[13] App. Plan. 153. + + + XII + +Though fate and death make a dark background against which the +brilliant colouring of Greek life glitters out with heightened +magnificence, the comedy of men and manners occupies an important part +of their literature, and Aristophanes and Menander are as intimately +Greek as Sophocles. It is needless to speak of what we gain in our +knowledge of Greece from the preserved comedies of Aristophanes; and +if we follow the best ancient criticism, we must conclude that in +Menander we have lost a treasury of Greek life that cannot be +replaced. Quintilian, speaking at a distance from any national or +contemporary prejudice, uses terms of him such as we should not think +unworthy of Shakespeare.[1] These Attic comedians were the field out +of which epigrammatists, from that time down to the final decay of +literature, drew some of their graver and very many of their lighter +epigrams. Of the convivial epigrams in the Anthology a number are +imitated from extant fragments of the New Comedy; one at least[2] +transfers a line of Menander's unaltered; and short fragments of both +Menander and Diphilus are included in the Anthology as though not +materially differing from epigrams themselves.[3] + +Part of this section might be classed with the criticism of life from +the Epicurean point of view. Some of the convivial epigrams are purely +unreflective; they speak only of the pleasure of the moment, the frank +joy in songs and wine and roses, at a vintage-revel, or in the +chartered licence of a public festival, or simply without any excuse +but the fire in the blood, and without any conclusion but the emptied +jar.[4] Some bring in a flash of more vivid colour where Eros mingles +with Bromius, and, on a bright spring day, Rose-flower crosses the +path, carrying her fresh-blown roses.[5] Others, through their light +surface, show a deeper feeling, a claim half jestingly but half +seriously made for dances and lyres and garlands as things deeply +ordained in the system of nature, a call on the disconsolate lover to +be up and drink, and rear his drooping head, and not lie down in the +dust while he is yet alive.[6] Some in complete seriousness put the +argument for happiness with the full force of logic and sarcasm. "All +the ways of life are pleasant," cries Julianus in reply to the +weariness expressed by an earlier poet;[7] "in country or town, alone +or among fellow-men, dowered with the graciousness of wife and +children, or living on in the free and careless life of youth; all is +well, live!" And the answer to melancholy has never been put in a +concrete form with finer and more penetrating wit than in the couplet +of Lucian on the man who must needs be sober when all were drinking, +and so appeared in respect of his company to be the one drunk man +there.[8] + +It is here that the epigrams of comedy reach their high-water mark; in +contrast to them is another class in which the lightness is a little +forced and the humour touches cynicism. In these the natural brutality +of the Roman mind makes the Latin epigram heavier and keener-pointed; +the greater number indeed of the Greek epigrams of this complexion are +of the Roman period; and many of them appear to be directly imitated +from Martial and Juvenal, though possibly in some cases it is the +Latin poet who is the copyist. + +Though they are not actually kept separate--nor indeed would a +complete separation be possible--the heading of this section of the +Palatine Anthology distinguishes the {sumpotika}, the epigrams of +youth and pleasure, from the {skoptika}, the witty or humorous verses +which have accidentally in modern English come almost to absorb the +full signification of the word epigram. The latter come principally +under two heads: one, where the point of the epigram depends on an +unexpected verbal turn, the other, where the humour lies in some gross +exaggeration of statement. Or these may be combined; in some of the +best there is an accumulation of wit, a second and a third point +coming suddenly on the top of the first.[9] + +Perhaps the saying, so often repeated, that ancient humour was simpler +than modern, rests on a more sufficient basis than most similar +generalisations; and indeed there is no single criterion of the +difference between one age and another more easy and certain of +application, where the materials for applying it exist, than to +compare the things that seem amusing to them. A certain foundation of +humour seems to be the common inheritance of mankind, but on it +different periods build differently. The structure of a Greek joke is +generally very simple; more obvious and less highly elliptical in +thought than the modern type, but, on the other hand, considerably +more subtle than the wit of the middle ages. There was a store of +traditional jests on the learned professions, law, astrology, medicine +--the last especially; and the schools of rhetoric and philosophy +were, from their first beginning, the subject of much pleasantry. Any +popular reputation, in painting, music, literature, gave material for +facetious attack; and so did any bodily defect, even those, it must be +added, which we think of now as exciting pity or as to be passed over +in silence.[10] Many of these jokes, which even then may have been of +immemorial antiquity, are still current. The serpent that bit a +Cappadocian and died of it, the fashionable lady whose hair is all her +own, and paid for,[11] are instances of this simple form of humour +that has no beginning nor end. Some Greek jests have an Irish +inconsequence, some the grave and logical monstrosity of American +humour. + +Naïve, crude, often vulgar; such is the general impression produced by +the mass of these lighter epigrams. The bulk of them are of late date; +and the culture of the ancient world was running low when its /vers de +société/ reached no higher level than this. Of course they can only be +called poetry by a large stretch of courtesy. In a few instances the +work is raised to the level of art by a curious Dutch fidelity and +minute detail. In one given in this selection,[12] a great poet has +bent to this light and trivial style. The high note of Simonides is as +clear and certain here as in his lines on the Spartans at Thermopylae +or in the cry of grief over the young man dead in the snow-clogged +surf of the Saronic sea. With such exceptions, the only touch of +poetry is where a graver note underlies their light insolence. "Drink +with me," runs the Greek song, "be young with me; love with me, wear +garlands with me; be mad with me in my madness; I will be serious with +you in your seriousness."[13] And so behind the flutes and flowers +change comes and the shadow of fate stands waiting, and through the +tinkling of the rose-hung river is heard in undertone the grave murmur +of the sea. + ---------- + +[1] /Omnem vitae imaginem expressit . . . omnibus rebus, personis, + adfectibus accomodatus/: see the whole passage, Inst. Rhet. x. i. + 69-72. + +[2] Anth. Pal. xi. 286. + +[3] Ibid. xi. 438, 439. + +[4] Ibid. v. 134, 135; xi. 1. + +[5] Ibid. v. 81; xi. 64. + +[6] Anth. Pal. ix. 270; xii. 50. + +[7] Ibid. ix. 446. + +[8] Ibid. xi. 429. + +[9] Cf. ibid. xi. 85, 143. + +[10] Cf. Anth. Pal. xi. 342, 404. + +[11] Ibid. xi. 68, 237. + +[12] Infra, x. 5. + +[13] Athenaeus, 695, d. + + + XIII + +For over all Greek life there lay a shadow. Man, a weak and pitiable +creature, lay exposed to the shafts of a grim and ironic power that +went its own way careless of him, or only interfered to avenge its own +slighted majesty. "God is always jealous and troublesome"; such is the +reflection which Herodotus, the pious historian of a pious age, puts +in the mouth of the wisest of the Greeks.[1] Punishment will sooner or +later follow sin; that is certain; but it is by no means so certain +that the innocent will not be involved with the guilty, or that +offence will not be taken where none was meant. The law of /laesa +majestas/ was executed by the ruling powers of the universe with +unrelenting and undiscriminating severity. Fate seemed to take a +sardonic pleasure in confounding expectation, making destruction +spring out of apparent safety, and filling life with dramatic and +memorable reversals of fortune. + +And besides the bolts launched by fate, life was as surely if more +slowly weighed down by the silent and ceaseless tide of change against +which nothing stood fixed or permanent, and which swept the finest and +most beautiful things away the soonest. The garland that blooms at +night withers by morning; and the strength of man and the beauty of +women are no longer-lived than the frail anemone, the lily and violet +that flower and fall.[2] Sweetness is changed to bitterness; where the +rose has spread her cup, one goes by and the brief beauty passes; +returning, the seeker finds no rose, but a thorn. Swifter than the +flight of a bird through the air the light-footed Hours pass by, +leaving nothing but scattered petals and the remembrance of youth and +spring.[3] The exhortation to use the brief space of life, to realise, +and, so far as that may be, to perpetuate in action the whole of the +overwhelming possibilities crowded into a minute's space[4] comes with +a passion like that of Shakespeare's sonnets. "On this short day of +frost and sun to sleep before evening" is the one intolerable misuse +of life.[5] Sometimes the feeling is expressed with the vivid passion +of a lyric:--"To what profit? for thou wilt not find a lover among the +dead, O girl";[6] sometimes with the curiously impersonal and +incomparably direct touch that is peculiar to Greek, as in the verses +by Antipater of Sidon,[7] that by some delicate magic crowd into a few +words the fugitive splendour of the waning year, the warm lingering +days and sharp nights of autumn, and the brooding pause before the +rigours of winter, and make the whole masque of the seasons a pageant +and metaphor of the lapse of life itself. Or a later art finds in the +harsh moralisation of ancient legends the substance of sermons on the +emptiness of pleasure and the fragility of loveliness; and the bitter +laugh over the empty casket of Pandora[8] comes from a heart wrung +with the sorrow that beauty is less strong than time. Nor is the +burden of these poems only that pleasant things decay; rather that in +nothing good or bad, rich or mean, is there permanence or certitude, +but everywhere and without selection Time feeds oblivion with decay of +things. All things flow and nothing abides; shape and name, nature and +fortune yield to the dissolving touch of time.[9] + +Even then the world was old. The lamentations over decayed towns and +perished empires remind us that the distance which separates the age +of the Caesars from our own is in relation to human history merely a +chapter somewhere in the middle of a great volume. Then, no less than +now, men trod daily over the ruins of old civilisations and the +monuments of lost races. One of the most striking groups of poems in +the Anthology is the long roll of the burdens of dead cities; Troy, +Delos, Mycenae, Argos, Amphipolis, Corinth, Sparta.[10] The +depopulation of Greece brought with it a foreshadowing of the wreck of +the whole ancient world. With the very framework of human life giving +way daily before their eyes, men grew apt to give up the game. The +very instability of all things, once established as a law, brought a +sort of rest and permanence with it; "there is nothing strictly +immutable," they might have said, "but mutability." Thus the law of +change became a permanent thread in mortal affairs, and, with the +knowledge that all the old round would be gone over again by others, +grew the sense that in the acceptance of this law of nature there was +involved a conquest of nature, an overcoming of the world. + +For the strength of Fate was not otherwise to be contended with, and +its grim irony went deeper than human reach. Nemesis was merciless; an +error was punished like a crime, and the more confident you had been +that you were right, the most severe was the probable penalty. But it +was part of Fate's malignity that, though the offender was punished, +though Justice took care that her own interests were not neglected nor +her own majesty slighted, even where a humane judge would have shrunk +from inflicting a disproportionate penalty,[11] yet for the wronged +one himself she provided no remedy; he suffered at his own risk. For +falseness in friendship, for scorn of poverty, for wanton cruelty and +torture, the wheel of fortune brought round some form of retribution, +but the sufferers were like pieces swept off the board, once and for +all. + +And Fate seemed to take a positive pleasure in eluding anticipation +and constructing dramatic surprises. Through all Greek literature this +feeling shows itself; and later epigrams are full of incidents of this +sort, recounted and moralised over with the wearisomeness of a tract, +stories sometimes obviously invented with an eye to the moral, +sometimes merely silly, sometimes, though rarely, becoming +imaginative. The contrast of a youth without means to indulge its +appetites and an age without appetites to exhaust its means; the story +of the poor man who found treasure and the rich man who hanged +himself; the fable of the vine's revenge upon the goat, are typical +instances of the prosaic epigram.[12] The noble lines inscribed upon +the statue of Memnon at Thebes[13] are an example of the vivid +imaginative touch lighting up a sufficiently obvious theme for the +rhetorician. Under the walls of Troy, long ages past, the son of Dawn +had fallen under Achilles' terrible spear; yet now morning by morning +the goddess salutes her son and he makes answer, while Thetis is +childless in her sea-halls, and the dust of Achilles moulders silently +in the Trojan plain. The Horatian maxim of /nulli satis cautum/ recurs +in the story of the ship, that had survived its sea-perils, burnt at +last as it lay on shore near its native forest, and finding the ocean +less faithless than the land.[14] In a different vein is the sarcastic +praise of Fortune for her exaltation of a worthless man to high +honour, "that she might shew her omnipotence."[15] At the root of all +there is the sense, born of considering the flux of things and the +tyranny of time, that man plays a losing game, and that his only +success is in refusing to play. For the busy and idle, for the +fortunate and unhappy alike, the sun rises one morning for the last +time;[16] he only is to be congratulated who is done with hope and +fear;[17] how short-lived soever he be in comparison with the world +through which he passes, yet no less through time Fate dries up the +holy springs, and the mighty cities of old days are undecipherable +under the green turf;[18] it is the only wisdom to acquiesce in the +forces, however ignorant or malign in their working, that listen to no +protest and admit no appeal, that no force can affect, no subtlety +elude, no calculation predetermine. + ---------- + +[1] {to theion pan phthoneron te kai tarakhodes}, Hdt. i. 32. + +[2] Anth. Pal. v. 74, 118. + +[3] Ibid. xi. 53; xii. 32, 234. + +[4] Anth. Pal. vii. 472. + +[5] Ibid. xi. 25; xii. 50. + +[6] Ibid. v. 85. + +[7] Ibid. xi. 37. + +[8] Ibid. x. 71. + +[9] Ibid. ix. 51. + +[10] Ibid. vii. 705, 723; ix. 28, 101-4, 151-6, 408. + +[11] Anth. Pal. ix. 269. + +[12] Ibid. ix. 138, 44, 75. + +[13] ix. 19 in this selection. + +[14] Anth. Pal. ix. 106. + +[15] Ibid. ix. 530. + +[16] Ibid. ix. 8. + +[17] Ibid. ix. 172; xi. 282. + +[18] Ibid. ix. 101, 257. + + + XIV + +Of these prodigious natural forces the strongest and the most imposing +is Death. Here, if anywhere, the Greek genius had its fullest scope +and most decisive triumph; and here it is that we come upon the +epigram in its inmost essence and utmost perfection. "Waiting to see +the end" as it always did, the Greek spirit pronounced upon the end +when it came with a swiftness, a tact, a certitude that leave all +other language behind. For although Latin and not Greek is +pre-eminently and without rival the proper and, one might almost say, +the native language of monumental inscription, yet the little +difference that fills inscriptions with imagination and beauty, and +will not be content short of poetry, is in the Greek temper alone. The +Roman sarcophagus, square hewn of rock, and bearing on it, incised for +immortality, the haughty lines of rolling Republican names, represents +to us with unequalled power the abstract majesty of human States and +the glory of law and government; and the momentary pause in the steady +current of the life of Rome, when one citizen dropped out of rank and +another succeeded him, brings home to us with crushing effect, like +some great sentence of Tacitus, the brief and transitory worth of a +single life. /Qui apicem gessisti, mors perfecit tua ut essent omnia +brevia, honos fama virtusque, gloria atque ingenium/[1]--words like +these have a melancholy majesty that no other human speech has known; +nor can any greater depth of pathos be reached than is in the two +simple words /Bene merenti/ on a hundred Roman tombs. But the Greek +mind here as elsewhere came more directly than any other face to face +with the truth of things, and the Greek genius kindled before the +vision of life and death into a clearer flame. The sepulchural reliefs +show us many aspects of death; in all of the best period there is a +common note, mingled of a grave tenderness, simplicity, and reserve. +The quiet figures there take leave of one another with the same grace +that their life had shown. There is none of the horror of darkness, +none of the ugliness of dying; with calm faces and undisordered +raiment they rise from their seats and take the last farewell. But the +sepulchural verses show us more clearly how deep the grief was that +lay beneath the quiet lines of the marble and the smooth cadence of +the couplets. They cover and fill the whole range of emotion: +household grief, and pain for the dead baby or the drowned lover, and +the bitter parting of wife and husband, and the chill of distance and +the doubt of the unknown nether world; and the thoughts of the bright +and brief space of life, and the merciless continuity of nature, and +the resolution of body and soul into the elements from which they +came; and the uselessness of Death's impatience, and the bitter cry of +a life gone like spilt water; and again, comfort out of the grave, +perpetual placidity, "holy sleep," and earth's gratitude to her +children, and beyond all, dimly and lightly drawn, the flowery meadows +of Persephone, the great simplicity and rest of the other world, and +far away a shadowy and beautiful country to which later men were to +give the name of Heaven. + +The famous sepulchral epigrams of Simonides deserve a word to +themselves; for in them, among the most finished achievements of the +greatest period of Greece, the art not only touches its highest +recorded point, but a point beyond which it seems inconceivable that +art should go. They stand with the odes of Pindar and the tragedies of +Sophocles as the symbols of perfection in literature; not only from +the faultlessness of their form, but from their greatness of spirit, +the noble and simple thought that had then newly found itself so +perfect a language to commemorate the great deeds which it inspired. +Foremost among them are those on the men whose fame they can hardly +exalt beyond the place given them by history; on the three hundred of +Thermopylae, the Athenian dead at Marathon, the Athenian and +Lacedaemonian dead at Plataea.[2] "O stranger, tell the Lacedaemonians +that we lie here obeying their orders"--the words have grown so famous +that it is only by sudden flashes that we can appreciate their +greatness. No less noble are others somewhat less widely known: on the +monument erected by the city of Corinth to the men who, when all +Greece stood as near destruction as a knife's edge, helped to win her +freedom at Salamis; on the Athenians, slain under the skirts of the +Euboean hills, who lavished their young and beautiful lives for +Athens; on the soldiers who fell, in the full tide of the Greek glory, +at the great victory of the Eurymedon.[3] In all the epitaphs of this +class the thought of the city swallows up individual feeling; for the +city's sake, that she may be free and great, men offer their death as +freely as their life; and the noblest end for a life spent in her +service is to die in the moment of her victory. The funeral speech of +Pericles dwells with all the amplitude of rhetoric on the glory of +such a death; "having died they are not dead" are the simpler words of +Simonides.[4] + +Not less striking than these in their high simplicity are his epitaphs +on private persons: that which preserves the fame of the great lady +who was not lifted up to pride, Archedice daughter of Hippias; that on +Theognis of Sinope, so piercing and yet so consoling in its quiet +pathos, or that on Brotachus of Gortyn, the trader who came after +merchandise and found death; the dying words of Timomachus and the +eternal memory left to his father day by day of the goodness and +wisdom of his dead child; the noble apostrophe to mount Gerania, where +the drowned and nameless sailor met his doom, the first and one of the +most magnificent of the long roll of poems on seafarers lost at +sea.[5] In all of them the foremost quality is their simplicity of +statement. There are no superlatives. The emotion is kept strictly in +the background, neither expressed nor denied. Great minds of later +ages sought a justification of the ways of death in denying that it +brought any reasonable grief. To the cold and profound thought of +Marcus Aurelius death is "a natural thing, like roses in spring or +harvest in autumn."[6] But these are the words of a strange language. +The feeling of Simonides is not, like theirs, abstract and remote; he +offers no justification, because none is felt to be needed where the +pain of death is absorbed in the ardour of life. + +That great period passed away; and in those which follow it, the +sepulchural inscription, while it retains the old simplicity, descends +from those heights into more common feelings, lets loose emotion, even +dallies with the ornaments of grief. The sorrow of death is spoken of +freely; nor is there any poetry more pathetic than those epitaphs +which, lovely in their sadness, commemorate the lost child, the +sundered lovers, the disunited life. Among the most beautiful are +those on children: on the baby that just lived, and, liking it not, +went away again before it had known good or evil;[7] on the children +of a house all struck down in one day and buried in one grave;[8] on +the boy whom his parents could not keep, though they held both his +little hands in theirs, led downward by the Angel of Death to the +unsmiling land.[9] Then follows the keener sadness of the young life, +spared till it opened into flower only to be cut down before noon; the +girl who, sickening for her baby-brother, lost care for her playmates, +and found no peace till she went to rejoin him;[10] the boy of twelve, +with whom his father, adding no words of lamentation, lays his whole +hope in the grave;[11] the cry of the mourning mother over her son, +Bianor or Anticles, an only child laid on the funeral pyre before an +only parent's eyes, leaving dawn thenceforth disadorned of her +sweetness, and no comfort in the sun.[12] More piercing still in their +sad sweetness are the epitaphs on young wives; on Anastasia, dead at +sixteen, in the first year of her marriage, over whom the ferryman of +the dead must needs mingle his own with her father's and her husband's +tears; on Atthis of Cnidos, the wife who had never left her husband +till this the first and last sundering came; on Paulina of Ravenna, +holy of life and blameless, the young bride of the physician whose +skill could not save her, but whose last testimony to her virtues has +survived the wreck of the centuries that have made the city crumble +and the very sea retire.[13] The tender feeling for children mingles +with the bitter grief at their loss, a touch of fancy, as though they +were flowers plucked by Persephone to be worn by her and light up the +greyness of the underworld. Cleodicus, dead before the festival of +this third birthday, when the child's hair was cut and he became a +boy, lies in his little coffin; but somewhere by unknown Acheron a +shadow of him grows fair and strong in youth, though he never may +return to earth again.[14] + +With the grief for loss comes the piercing cry over crushed beauty. +One of the early epitaphs, written before the period of the Persian +wars, is nothing but this cry: "pity him who was so beautiful and is +dead."[15] In the same spirit is the fruitless appeal so often made +over the haste of Death; /mais que te nuysoit elle en vie, mort?/ Was +he not thine, even had he died an old man? says the mourner over +Attalus.[16] A subject whose strange fascination drew artist after +artist to repeat it, and covered the dreariness of death as with a +glimmer of white blossoms, was Death the Bridegroom, the maiden taken +away from life just as it was about to be made complete. Again and +again the motive is treated with delicate profusion of detail, and +lingering fancy draws out the sad likeness between the two torches +that should hold such a space of lovely life between them,[17] now +crushed violently together and mingling their fires. Already the +bride-bed was spread with saffron in the gilded chamber; already the +flutes were shrill by the doorway, and the bridal torches were lit, +when Death entered, masked as a reveller, and the hymeneal song +suddenly changed into the death-dirge; and while the kinsfolk were +busy about another fire, Persephone lighted her own torch out of their +hands; with hardly an outward change--as in a processional relief on a +sarcophagus--the bridal train turns and moves to the grave with +funeral lights flaring through the darkness and sobbing voices and +wailing flutes.[18] + +As tender in their fancy and with a higher note of sincerity in their +grief are the epitaphs on young mothers, dead in childbirth: Athenaïs +of Lesbos, the swift-footed, whose cry Artemis was too busy with her +woodland hounds to hear; Polyxena, wife of Archelus, not a year's wife +nor a month's mother, so short was all her time; Prexo, wife of +Theocritus, who takes her baby with her, content with this, and gives +blessings from her grave to all who will pray with her that the boy +she leaves on earth may live into a great old age.[19] Here tenderness +outweighs sorrow; in others a bitterer grief is uttered, the grief of +one left alone, forsaken and cast off by all that had made life sweet; +where the mother left childless among women has but the one prayer +left, that she too may quickly go whence she came, or where the morbid +imagination of a mourner over many deaths invents new forms of self- +torture in the idea that her very touch is mortal to those whom she +loves, and that fate has made her the instrument of its cruelty; or +where Theano, dying alone in Phocaea, sends a last cry over the great +gulfs of sea that divide her from her husband, and goes down into the +night with the one passionate wish that she might have but died with +her hand clasped in his hand.[20] + +Into darkness, into silence: the magnificent brilliance of that +ancient world, its fulness of speech and action, its copiousness of +life, made the contrast more sudden and appalling; and it seems to be +only at a later period, when the brightness was a little dimmed and +the tide of life did not run so full, that the feeling grew up which +regarded death as the giver of rest. With a last word of greeting to +the bright earth the dying man departs, as into a mist.[21] In the +cold shadows underground the ghost will not be comforted by ointments +and garlands lavished on the tomb; though the clay covering be +drenched with wine, the dead man will not drink.[22] On an island of +the Aegean, set like a gem in the splendid sea, the boy lying under +earth, far away from the sweet sun, asks a word of pity from those who +go up and down, busy in the daylight, past his grave. Paula of +Tarentum, the brief-fated, cries out passionately of the stone +chambers of her night, the night that has hidden her. Samian girls set +up a monument over their playfellow Crethis, the chatterer, the story- +teller, whose lips will never open in speech again. Musa, the singing- +girl, blue-eyed and sweet-voiced, suddenly lies voiceless, like a +stone.[23] With a jarring shock, as of closed gates, the grave closes +over sound and colour; /moved round in Earth's diurnal course with +rocks, and stones, and trees./ + +Even thus there is some little comfort in lying under known earth; and +the strangeness of a foreign grave adds a last touch to the pathos of +exile. The Eretrians, captured by the Persian general Datis, and sent +from their island home by endless marches into the heart of Asia, pine +in the hot Cassian plains, and with their last voice from the tomb +send out a greeting to the dear and distant sea.[24] The Athenian laid +in earth by the far reaches of Nile, and the Egyptian whose tomb +stands by a village of Crete, though from all places the descent to +the house of Hades is one, yet grieve and fret at their strange +resting-places.[25] No bitterer pang can be added to death than for +the white bones of the dead to lie far away, washed by chill rains, or +mouldering on a strange beach with the screaming seagulls above +them.[26] + +This last aspect of death was the one upon which the art of the +epigrammatist lavished its utmost resources. From first to last the +Greeks were a seafaring people, and death at sea was always present to +them as a common occurrence. The Mediterranean was the great highway +of the world's journeying and traffic. All winter through, travel +almost ceased on it except for those who could not avoid it, and whom +desire or gain or urgence of business drove forth across stormy and +perilous waters; with spring there came, year by year, a sort of +breaking-up of the frost, and the seas were all at once covered with a +swarm of shipping. From Egypt and Syria fleets bore the produce of the +East westward; from the pillars of Hercules galleys came laden with +the precious ores of Spain and Britain; through the Propontis streamed +the long convoys of corn-ships from the Euxine with their loads of +wheat. Across the Aegean from island to island, along its shores from +port to port, ran continually the tide of local commerce, the crowds +of tourists and emigrants, the masses of people and merchandise drawn +hither and thither in the track of armies, or bound to and from shows +and festivals and markets. The fishing industry, at least in the later +Greek period, employed the whole population of small islands and +seaside towns. Among those thousands of vessels many must, every year, +have come to harm in those difficult channels and treacherous seas. +And death at sea had a great horror and anguish attached to it; the +engulfing in darkness, the vain struggles for life, the loss of burial +rites and all the last offices that can be paid to death, made it none +the less terrible that it was so common. From the Odyssey downward +tales of sea-peril and shipwreck had the most powerful fascination. +Yet to that race of sailors the sea always remained in a manner +hateful; "as much as a mother is sweeter than a stepmother," says +Antipater,[27] "so much is earth dearer than the dark sea." The +fisherman tossing on the waves looked back with envy to the shepherd, +who, though his life was no less hard, could sit in quiet piping to +his flock on the green hillside; the great merchantman who crossed the +whole length of the Mediterranean on his traffic, or even ventured out +beyond Calpe into the unknown ocean, hungered for the peace of broad +lands, the lowing of herds.[28] /Cedet et ipse mari vector, nec +nautica pinus mutabit merces/: all dreams of a golden age, or of an +ideal life in an actual world, included in them the release from this +weary and faithless element. Even in death it would not allow its +victims rest; the cry of the drowned man is that though kind hands +have given him burial on the beach, even there the ceaseless thunder +of the surge is in his ears, and the roar of the surf under the broken +reef will not let him be quiet; "keep back but twelve feet from me," +is his last prayer, "and there billow and roar as much as thou +wilt."[29] But even the grace of a tomb was often denied. In the +desolation of unknown distances the sailor sank into the gulfs or was +flung on a desert beach. Erasippus, perished with his ship, has all +the ocean for his grave; somewhere far away his white bones moulder on +a spot that the seagulls alone can tell. Thymodes rears a cenotaph to +his son, who on some Bithynian beach or island of the Pontic lies a +naked corpse on an inhospitable shore. Young Seleucus, wrecked in the +distant Atlantic, has long been dead on the trackless Spanish coasts, +while yet at home in Lesbos they praise him and look forward to his +return. On the thirsty uplands of Dryopia the empty earth is heaped up +that does not cover Polymedes, tossed up and down far from stony +Trachis on the surge of the Icarian sea. "Also thee, O Cleanoridas," +one abruptly opens, the thought of all those many others whom the sea +had swallowed down overwhelming him as he tells the fate of the +drowned man.[30] The ocean never forgot its cruelty. {Pasa thalassa +thalassa}, "everywhere the sea is the sea," wails Aristagoras,[31] +past the perilous Cyclades and the foaming narrows of the Hellespont +only to be drowned in a little Locrian harbour; the very sound of the +words echoes the heavy wash of blind waves and the hissing of eternal +foam. Already in sight of home, like Odysseus on his voyage from +Aeolia, the sailor says to himself, "to-morrow the long battle against +contrary winds will be over," when the storm gathers as the words +leave his lips, and he is swept back to death.[32] The rash mariner +who trusts the gale of winter draws fate on himself with his own +hands; Cleonicus, hastening home to Thasos with his merchandise from +Hollow Syria at the setting of the Pleiad, sinks with the sinking +star.[33] But even in the days of the halcyons, when the sea should +stand like a sheet of molten glass, the terrible straits swallow +Aristomenes, with ship and crew; and Nicophemus perishes, not in +wintry waves, but of thirst in a calm on the smooth and merciless +Lybian sea.[34] By harbours and headlands stood the graves of drowned +men with pathetic words of warning or counsel. "I am the tomb of one +shipwrecked"; in these words again and again the verses begin. What +follows is sometimes an appeal to others to take example: "let him +have only his own hardihood to blame, who looses moorings from my +grave"; sometimes it is a call to courage: "I perished; yet even then +other ships sailed safely on." Another, in words incomparable for +their perfect pathos and utter simplicity, neither counsels nor warns: +"O mariners, well be with you at sea and on land; but know that you +pass the tomb of a shipwrecked man." And in the same spirit another +sends a blessing out of his nameless tomb: "O sailor, ask not whose +grave I am, but be thine own fortune a kinder sea."[35] + +Beyond this simplicity and pathos cannot reach. But there is a group +of three epigrams yet unmentioned[36] which, in their union of these +qualities with the most severe magnificence of language and with the +poignant and vivid emotion of a tragical Border ballad, reach an even +more amazing height: that where Ariston of Cyrene, lying dead by the +Icarian rocks, cries out in passionate urgency on mariners who go +sailing by to tell Meno how his son perished; that where the tomb of +Biton in the morning sun, under the walls of Torone, sends a like +message by the traveller to the childless father, Nicagoras of +Amphipolis; and most piercing of all in their sorrow and most splendid +in their cadences, the stately lines that tell the passer-by of +Polyanthus, sunk off Sciathus in the stormy Aegean, and laid in his +grave by the young wife to whom only a dead body was brought home by +the fishermen as they sailed into harbour under a flaring and windy +dawn. + +Less numerous than these poems of sea-sorrow, but with the same +trouble of darkness, the same haunting chill, are others where death +comes through the gloom of wet nights, in the snowstorm or the +thunderstorm or the autumn rains that drown the meadow and swell the +ford. The contrast of long golden summer days may perhaps make the +tidings of death more pathetic, and wake a more delicate pity; but the +physical horror, as in the sea-pieces, is keener at the thought of +lonely darkness, and storm in the night. Few pictures can be more +vivid than that of the oxen coming unherded down the hill through the +heavy snow at dusk, while high on the mountain side their master lies +dead, struck by lightning; or of Ion, who slipped overboard, unnoticed +in the darkness, while the sailors drank late into night at their +anchorage; or of the strayed revellers, Orthon and Polyxenus, who, +bewildered in the rainy night, with the lights of the banquet still +flaring in their eyes, stumbled on the slippery hill-path and lay dead +at the foot of the cliff.[37] + +/O Charides, what is there beneath?/ cries a passer-by over the grave +of one who had in life nursed his hopes on the doctrine of Pythagoras; +and out of the grave comes the sombre answer, /Great darkness/.[38] It +is in this feeling that the brooding over death in later Greek +literature issues; under the Roman empire we feel that we have left +the ancient world and are on the brink of the Middle Ages with their +half hysterical feeling about death, the piteous and ineffectual +revolt against it, and the malign fascination with which it preys on +men's minds and paralyses their action. To the sombre imagination of +an exhausted race the generations of mankind were like bands of +victims dragged one after another to the slaughter-house; in Palladas +and his contemporaries the medieval dance of death is begun.[39] The +great and simple view of death is wholly broken up, with the usual +loss and gain that comes of analysis. On the one hand is developed +this tremulous and cowardly shrinking from the law of nature. But on +the other there arises in compensation the view of death as final +peace, the release from trouble, the end of wandering, the resolution +of the feverous life of man into the placid and continuous life of +nature. With a great loss of strength and directness comes an +increased measure of gentleness and humanity. Poetry loves to linger +over the thought of peaceful graves. The dead boy's resting-place by +the spring under the poplars bids the weary wayfarer turn aside and +drink in the shade, and remember the quiet place when he is far +away.[40] The aged gardener lies at peace under the land that he had +laboured for many a year, and in recompence of his fruitful toil over +vine and olive, corn-field and orchard-plot, grateful earth lies +lightly over his grey temples, and the earliest flowers of spring +blossom above his dust.[41] The lovely lines of Leonidas,[42] in which +Clitagoras asks that when he is dead the sheep may bleat over him, and +the shepherd pipe from the rock as they graze softly along the valley, +and that the countryman in spring may pluck a posy of meadow flowers +and lay it on his grave, have all the tenderness of an English +pastoral in a land of soft outlines and silvery tones. An intenser +feeling for nature and a more consoling peace is in the nameless poem +that bids the hill-brooks and the cool upland pastures tell the bees, +when they go forth anew on their flowery way, that their old keeper +fell asleep on a winter night, and will not come back with spring.[43] +The lines call to mind that magnificent passage of the /Adonais/ where +the thought of earth's annual resurrection calms by its glory and +beauty the very sorrow which it rekindles; as those others, where, +since the Malian fowler is gone, the sweet plane again offers her +branches "for the holy bird to rest his swift wings,"[44] are echoed +in the famous Ode where the note of the immortal bird sets the +listener in the darkness at peace with Death. The dying man leaves +earth with a last kind word. At rest from long wanderings, the woman, +whose early memory went back to the storming of Athens by Roman +legionaries, and whose later life had passed from Italy to Asia, +unites the lands of her birth and adoption and decease in her +farewell.[45] For all ranks and ages--the baby gone to be a flower in +Persephone's crowned hair, the young scholar, dear to men and dearer +to the Muses, the great sage who, from the seclusion of his +Alexandrian library, has seen three kings succeed to the throne[46]-- +the recompense of life is peace. Peace is on the graves of the good +servant, the faithful nurse, the slave who does not even in the tomb +forget his master's kindness or cease to help him at need.[47] Even +the pets of the household, the dog or the singing-bird, or the caged +cricket shouting through the warm day, have their reward in death, +their slight memorial and their lasting rest. The shrill cicala, +silent and no more looked on by the sun, finds a place in the meadows +whose flowers the Queen of the Dead herself keeps bright with dew.[48] +The sweet-throated song-bird, the faithful watch-dog who kept the +house from harm, the speckled partridge in the coppice,[49] go at the +appointed time upon their silent way--/ipsas angusti terminus aevi +excipit/--and come into human sympathy because their bright life is +taken to its rest like man's own in so brief a term. + +Before this gentler view of death grief itself becomes softened. "Fare +thou well even in the house of Hades," says the friend over the grave +of the friend: the words are the same as those of Achilles over +Patroclus, but all the wild anguish has gone out of them.[50] Over the +ashes of Theognis of Sinope, without a word of sorrow, with hardly a +pang of pain, Glaucus sets a stone in memory of the companionship of +many years. And in the tenderest and most placid of epitaphs on dead +friends doubt vanishes with grief and acquiescence passes into hope, +as the survivor of that union "which conquers Time indeed, and is +eternal, separate from fears," prays Sabinus, if it be permitted, not +even among the dead to let the severing water of Lethe pass his +lips.[51] + +Out of peace comes the fruit of blessing. The drowned sailor rests the +easier in his grave that the lines written over it bid better fortune +to others who adventure the sea. "Go thou upon thy business and obtain +thy desire,"[52] says the dead man to the passer-by, and the kind word +makes the weight of his own darkness less to bear. Amazonia of +Thessalonica from her tomb bids husband and children cease their +lamentations and be only glad while they remember her.[53] Such +recompence is in death that the dead sailor or shepherd becomes +thenceforth the genius of the shore or the hillside.[54] The sacred +sleep under earth sends forth a vague and dim effluence; in a sort of +trance between life and death the good still are good and do not +wholly cease out of being.[55] + +For the doctrine of immortality did not dawn upon the world at any +single time or from any single quarter. We are accustomed, perhaps, to +think of it as though it came like sunrise out of the dark, /lux +sedentibus in tenebris/, giving a new sense to mankind and throwing +over the whole breadth of life a vivid severance of light from shadow, +putting colour and sharp form into what had till then all lain dim in +the dusk, like Virgil's woodland path under the glimpses of a fitful +moon. Rather it may be compared to those scattered lights that +watchers from Mount Ida were said to discern moving hither and thither +in the darkness, and at last slowly gathering and kindling into the +clear pallor of dawn.[56] So it is that those half-formed beliefs, +those hints and longings, still touch us with the freshness of our own +experience. For the ages of faith, if such there be, have not yet +come; still in the mysterious glimmer of a doubtful light men wait for +the coming of the unrisen sun. During a brief and brilliant period the +splendour of corporate life had absorbed the life of the citizen; an +Athenian of the age of Pericles may have, for the moment, found Athens +all-sufficient to his needs. With the decay of that glory it became +plain that this single life was insufficient, that it failed in +permanence and simplicity. We all dwell in a single native country, +the universe, said Meleager,[57] expressing a feeling that had become +the common heritage of his race. But that country, as men saw it, was +but ill governed; and in nothing more so than in the rewards and +punishments it gave to its citizens. To regard it as the vestibule +only of another country where life should have its intricacies +simplified, its injustices remedied, its evanescent beauty fixed, and +its brief joy made full, became an imperious instinct that claimed +satisfaction, through definite religious teaching or the dreams of +philosophy or the visions of poetry. And so the last words of Greek +sepulchral poetry express, through questions and doubts, in metaphor +and allegory, the final belief in some blessedness beyond death. Who +knows whether to live be not death, and to be dead life? so the +haunting hope begins. The Master of the Portico died young; does he +sleep in the quiet embrace of earth, or live in the joy of the other +world?[58] "Even in life what makes each one of us to be what we are +is only the soul; and when we are dead, the bodies of the dead are +rightly said to be our shades or images; for the true and immortal +being of each one of us, which is called the soul, goes on her way to +other gods, that before them she may give an account."[59] These are +the final words left to men by that superb and profound genius the +dream of whose youth had ended in the flawless lines[60] whose music +Shelley's own could scarcely render: + + Thou wert the Morning Star among the living + Ere thy fair light was fled; + Now, having died, thou art as Hesperus, giving + New splendour to the dead. + +And at last, not from the pen of Plato nor written in lines of gold, +but set by a half-forgotten friend over an obscure grave,[61] comes +the certitude of that long hope. Heliodorus and Diogeneia died on the +same day and are buried under the same stone: but love admits no such +bar to its continuance, and the tomb is as a bridal chamber for their +triumphant life. + ---------- + +[1] From the inscription on the tomb of Publius Cornelius Scipio + Africanus, Augur and Flamen Dialis, son of the conqueror of + Hannibal. + +[2] Anth. Pal. vii. 249, 251, 253; Aristides, ii. 511. + +[3] Aristides, ii. 512; App. Plan. 26; Anth. Pal. vii. 258. + +[4] Anth. Pal. vii. 251; Thuc. ii. 41-43. + +[5] Thuc. vi. 59; Anth. Pal. vii. 509, 254, 513, 496. + +[6] Marc. Aur. iv. 44. + +[7] Kaibel, 576. + +[8] Anth. Pal. vii. 474. + +[9] iii. 33 in this selection. + +[10] Anth. Pal. vii. 662. + +[11] Ibid. vii. 453. + +[12] Ibid. vii. 261, 466. + +[13] Ibid. vii. 600; Kaibel, 204 B, 596. + +[14] Anth. Pal. vii. 482, 483. + +[15] Kaibel, 1 A. + +[16] Anth. Pal. vii. 671. + +[17] Propertius, IV. xii. 46. + +[18] Anth. Pal. vii. 182, 185, 711, 712. + +[19] Ibid. vi. 438, vii. 167, 163. + +[20] Ibid. vii. 466, ix. 254, vii. 735. + +[21] Anth. Pal. vii. 566. + +[22] Ibid. xi. 8. + +[23] Kaibel, 190; Anth. Pal. vii. 700, 459; C. I. G., 6261. + +[24] Anth. Pal. vii. 256, 259. + +[25] Ibid. vii. 477, x. 3. + +[26] Ibid. vii. 225, 285. + +[27] Anth. Pal. ix. 23. + +[28] Anth. Pal. vii. 636, ix. 7; cf. Virgil, Georg. ii. 468-70. + +[29] Ibid. vii. 284. + +[30] Ibid. vii. 285, 497, 376, 651, 263. + +[31] Ibid. vii. 639. + +[32] Ibid. vii. 630. + +[33] Anth. Pal. vii. 263, 534. + +[34] Ibid. ix. 271, vii. 293. + +[35] Ibid. vii. 264, 282, 675; 269, 350. + +[36] Ibid. vii. 499, 502, 739. + +[37] Anth. Pal. vii. 173, ix. 82, vii. 398, 660. + +[38] Ibid. vii. 524. + +[39] Cf. Ibid. x. 78, 85, 88, xi. 300. + +[40] Anth. Pal. ix. 315. + +[41] Ibid. vii. 321. + +[42] Ibid. vii. 657. The spirit, and much of the language, of these + epigrams is very like that of Gray's /Elegy/. + +[43] Ibid. vii. 717. + +[44] Ibid. vii. 171. + +[45] Ibid. vii. 368. + +[46] Anth. Pal. 78, 483; Diog. Laert. iv. 25. + +[47] Ibid. vii. 178, 179; Kaibel, 47. + +[48] Ibid. vii. 189. + +[49] Ibid. vii. 199, 211, 203. + +[50] Il. xxiii. 19; Anth. Pal. vii. 41. + +[51] Ibid. vii. 509, 346. + +[52] Kaibel, 190. + +[53] Anth. Pal. vii. 667. + +[54] Ibid. vii. 269, 657. + +[55] Ibid. vii. 451. + +[56] Lucr. v. 663. + +[57] Anth. Pal. vii. 417. + +[58] Infra, xi. 7. + +[59] Plato, /Laws/, 959. + +[60] Anth. Pal. vii. 670. + +[61] Ibid. vii. 378, {agallomenoi kai taphon os thalamon}. + + + XV + +Criticism, to be made effectively, must be made from beyond and +outside the thing criticised. But as regards life itself, such an +effort of abstraction is more than human. For the most part poetry +looks on life from a point inside it, and the total view differs, or +may even be reversed, with the position of the observer. The shifting +of perspective makes things appear variously both in themselves and in +their proportion to other things. What lies behind one person is +before another; the less object, if nearer, may eclipse the greater; +where there is no fixed standard of reference, how can it be +determined what is real and what apparent, or whether there be any +absolute fact at all? To some few among men it has been granted to +look on life as it were from without, with vision unaffected by the +limit of view and the rapid shifting of place. These, the poets who +see life steadily and whole, in Matthew Arnold's celebrated phrase, +are for the rest of mankind almost divine. We recognise them as such +through a sort of instinct awakened by theirs and responding to it, +through the inarticulate divinity of which we are all in some degree +partakers. + +These are the great poets; and we do not look, in any Anthology of +slight and fugitive pieces, for so broad and sustained a view of life. +But what we do find in the Anthology is the reflection in many +epigrams of many partial criticisms from within; the expression, in +the most brief and pointed form, of the total effect that life had on +one man or another at certain moments, whether in the heat of blood, +or the first melancholy of youth, or the graver regard of mature +years. In nearly all the same sad note recurs, of the shortness of +life, of the inevitableness of death. Now death is the shadow at the +feast, bidding men make haste to drink before the cup is snatched from +their lips with its sweetness yet undrained; again it is the +bitterness within the cup itself, the lump of salt dissolving in the +honeyed wine and spoiling the drink. Then comes the revolt against the +cruel law of Nature in the crude thought of undisciplined minds. +Sometimes this results in hard cynicism, sometimes in the relaxation +of all effort; now and then the bitterness grows so deep that it +almost takes the quality of a real philosophy, a nihilism, to use the +barbarous term of our own day, that declares itself as a positive +solution of the whole problem. "Little is the life of our rejoicing," +cries Rufinus,[1] in the very words of an English ballad of the +fifteenth century; "old age comes quickly, and death ends all." In +many epigrams this burden is repeated. The philosophy is that of +Ecclesiastes: "Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine +with a merry heart, let thy garments be always white, and let thy head +lack no ointment; see life with the wife whom thou lovest all the days +of the life of thy vanity; for that is thy portion in life, and in thy +labour which thou takest under the sun." If the irony here is +unintentional it is all the bitterer; such consolation leads surely to +a more profound gloom. With a selfish nature this view of life becomes +degraded into cynical effrontery; under the Roman empire the lowest +corruption of "good manners" took for its motto the famous words, +repeated in an anonymous epigram,[2] Let us eat and drink, for +to-morrow we die. In finer tempers it issues in a mood strangely +mingled of weakness of will and lucidity of intelligence, like that of +Omar Khayyam. Many of the stanzas of the Persian poet have a close +parallel, not only in thought but in actual turn of phrase, in verses +of the later epigrammatists.[3] The briefness of life when first +realised makes youth feverish and self-absorbed. "Other men perhaps +will be, but /I/ shall be dead and turned into black earth"--as though +that were the one thing of importance.[4] Or again, the beauty of +returning spring is felt in the blood as an imperious call to renew +the delight in the simplest physical pleasures, food and scent of +flowers and walks in the fresh country air, and to thrust away the +wintry thought of dead friends who cannot share those delights now.[5] +The earliest form taken by the instinct of self-preservation and the +revolt against death can hardly be called by a milder name than +swaggering. "I don't care," the young man cries,[6] with a sort of +faltering bravado. Snatch the pleasure of the moment, such is the +selfish instinct of man before his first imagination of life, and +then, and then let fate do its will upon you.[7] Thereafter, as the +first turbulence of youth passes, its first sadness succeeds, with the +thought of all who have gone before and all who are to follow, and of +the long night of silence under the ground. Touches of tenderness +break in upon the reveller; thoughts of the kinship of earth, as the +drinker lifts the sweet cup wrought of the same clay as he; submission +to the lot of mortality; counsels to be generous while life lasts, "to +give and to share"; the renunciation of gross ambitions such as wealth +and power, with some likeness or shadow in it of the crowning virtue +of humility.[8] + +It is here that the change begins. To renounce something for the first +time wittingly and spontaneously is an action of supreme importance, +and its consequences reach over the whole of life. Not only is it that +he who has renounced one thing has shown himself implicitly capable of +renouncing all things: he has shown much more; reflection, choice, +will. Thenceforth he is able to see part of life at all events from +outside, the part which he has put away from himself; for the first +time his criticism of life begins to be real. He has no longer a mere +feeling with regard to the laws of nature, whether eager haste or +sullen submission or blind revolt; behind the feeling there is now +thought, the power which makes and unmakes all things. + +And so in mature age Greek thought began to make criticisms on life; +and of these the Anthology preserves and crystallises many brilliant +fragments. Perhaps there is no thought among them which was even then +original; certainly there is none which is not now more or less +familiar. But the perfected expression without which thought remains +obscure and ineffectual gives some of them a value as enduring as +their charm. A few of them are here set side by side without comment, +for no comment is needed to make their sense clear, nor to give weight +to their grave and penetrating reality.[9] + +"Those who have left the sweet light I mourn no longer, but those who +live in perpetual expectation of death." + +"What belongs to mortals is mortal, and all things pass by us; and if +not, yet we pass by them." + +"Now we flourish, as others did before, and others will presently, +whose children we shall not see." + +"I weep not for thee, dearest friend; for thou knewest much good; and +likewise God dealt thee thy share of ill." + +These epigrams in their clear and unimpassioned brevity are a type of +the Greek temper in the age of reflection. Many others, less simple in +their language, less crystalline in their structure, have the same +quiet sadness in their tone. As it is said in the solemn and +monumental line of Menander, sorrow and life are too surely akin.[10] +The vanity of earthly labour; the deep sorrow over the passing of +youth; the utter loss and annihilation of past time with all that it +held of action and suffering; the bitterness of the fear of death, and +the weariness of the clutch at life; such are among the thoughts of +most frequent recurrence. In one view these are the commonplaces of +literature; yet they are none the less the expression of the +profoundest thought of mankind. + +In Greek literature from first to last the view of life taken by the +most serious thinkers was grave and sad. Not in one age or in one form +of poetry alone, but in most that are of great import, the feeling +that death was better than life is no mere caprice of melancholy, but +a settled conviction. The terrible words of Zeus in the Iliad to the +horses of Achilles,[11] "for there is nothing more pitiable than man, +of all things that breathe and move on earth," represent the Greek +criticism of life already mature and consummate. "Best of all is it +for men not to be born," says Theognis in lines whose calm perfection +has no trace of passion or resentment,[12] "and if born, to pass +inside Hades-gates as quickly as may be." Echoing these lines of the +Megarian poet, Sophocles at eighty, the most fortunate in his long and +brilliant life of all his contemporaries in an age the most splendid +that the world has ever witnessed, utters with the weight of a +testamentory declaration the words that thrill us even now by their +faultless cadence and majestic music;[13] "Not to be born excels on +the whole account; and for him who has seen the light to go whence he +came as soon as may be is next best by far." And in another line,[14] +whose rhythm is the sighing of all the world made audible, "For there +is no such pain," he says, "as length of life." So too the humane and +accomplished Menander, in the most striking of all the fragments +preserved from his world of comedies,[15] weighs and puts aside all +the attractions that life can offer: "Him I call most happy who, +having gazed without grief on these august things, the common sun, the +stars, water, clouds, fire, goes quickly back whence he came." With so +clear-sighted and so sombre a view of this life and with no certainty +of another, it was only the inspiration of great thought and action, +and the gladness of yet unexhausted youth, that sustained the ancient +world so long. And this gladness of youth faded away. Throughout all +the writing of the later classical period we feel one thing +constantly; that life was without joy. Alike in history and poetry, +alike in the Eastern and Western worlds, a settled gloom deepens into +night. The one desire left is for rest. Life is brief, as men of old +time said; but now there is scarcely a wish that it should be longer. +"Little is thy life and afflicted," says Leonidas,[16] "and not even +so is it sweet, but more bitter than loathed death." "Weeping I was +born, and when I have done my weeping I die," another poet wails,[17] +"and all my life is among many tears." Aesopus is in a strait betwixt +two; if one might but escape from life without the horror of dying! +for now it is only the revolt from death that keeps him in the anguish +of life.[18] To Palladas of Alexandria the world is but a slaughter- +house, and death is its blind and irresponsible lord.[19] + +From the name of Palladas is inseparable the name of the famous +Hypatia, and the strange history of the Neo-Platonic school. The last +glimmer of light in the ancient world was from the embers of their +philosophy. A few late epigrams preserve a record of their mystical +doctrines, and speak in half-unintelligible language of "the one hope" +that went among them, a veiled and crowned phantom, under the name of +Wisdom. But, apart from those lingering relics of a faith among men +half dreamers and half charlatans, patience and silence were the only +two counsels left for the dying ancient world; patience, in which we +imitate God himself; silence, in which all our words must soon +end.[20] The Roman empire perished, it has been said, for want of men; +Greek literature perished for want of anything to say; or rather, +because it found nothing in the end worth saying. Its end was like +that recorded of the noblest of the Roman emperors;[21] the last word +uttered with its dying breath was the counsel of equanimity. Men had +once been comforted for their own life and death in the thought of +deathless memorials; now they had lost hope, and declared that no +words and no gods could give immortality.[22] Resignation[23] was the +one lesson left to ancient literature, and, this lesson once fully +learned, it naturally and silently died. All know how the ages that +followed were too preoccupied to think of writings its epitaph. For +century after century Goth and Hun, Lombard and Frank, Bulgarian and +Avar, Norman and Saracen, Catalan and Turk rolled on in a ceaseless +storm of slaughter and rapine without; for century after century +within raged no less fiercely the unending fury of the new theology. +Filtered down through Byzantine epitomes, through Arabic translations, +through every sort of strange and tortuous channel, a vague and +distorted tradition of this great literature just survived long enough +to kindle the imagination of the fifteenth century. The chance of +history, fortunate perhaps for the whole world, swept the last Greek +scholars away from Constantinople to the living soil of Italy, +carrying with them the priceless relics of forgotten splendours. To +some broken stones, and to the chance which saved a few hundred +manuscripts from destruction, is due such knowledge as we have to-day +of that Greek thought and life which still remains to us in many ways +an unapproached ideal. + ---------- + +[1] Anth. Pal. v. 12; cf. the beautiful lyric with the refrain /Lytyll + ioye is son done/ (Percy Society, 1847). + +[2] Anth. Pal. xi. 56. + +[3] Cf. Ibid. xi. 25, 43; xii. 50. + +[4] Theognis, 877, Bergk. + +[5] Anth. Pal. ix. 412. + +[6] Ibid. xi. 23. + +[7] Archestr. ap. Athenaeum, vii. 286 a; {kan apothneskein melles, + arpason, . . kata usteron eoe o ti soi pepromenon estin}. + +[8] Anth. Pal. xi. 3, 43, 56. + +[9] Infra, xii. 19, 31, 24, 21. + +[10] Citharist. Fr. 1, {ar esti suggenes to lupe kai bios}. + +[11] Il. xvii. 443-447. + +[12] Theognis, 425-8, Bergk. + +[13] Oed. Col. 1225-8. + +[14] Fr. Scyr. 500. + +[15] Hypobolimaeus, Fr. 2. + +[16] Anth. Pal. vii. 472. + +[17] Ibid. x. 84. + +[18] Ibid. x. 123. + +[19] Ibid. x. 85. + +[20] Ibid. x. 94, xi. 300. + +[21] /Signum/ Aequanimitatis /dedit atque ita conversus quasi dormiret + spiritum reddidit./ Jul. Capitol., /Antoninus Pius/, c. xii. + +[22] Anth. Pal. vii. 300, 362. + +[23] {Esukhien agapan}, Ibid. x. 77. + + + XVI + +That ancient world perished; and all the while, side by side with it, +a new world was growing up with which it had so little in common that +hitherto it would only have been confusing to take the latter much +into account. This review of the older civilisation has, so far as may +be, been kept apart from all that is implied by the introduction of +Christianity; it has even spoken of the decay and death of literature, +though literature and thought in another field were never more active +than in the early centuries of the Church. Of the immense gain that +came then to the world it is not necessary to speak; we all know it. +For the latter half of the period of human history over which the +Greek Anthology stretches, this new world was in truth the more +important of the two. While to the ageing Greek mind life had already +lost its joy, and thought begun to sicken, we hear the first notes of +a new glory and passion; + + {Egeire o katheudon + Kai anasta ek ton vekron + Kai epiphausei soi o KHristos}[1]-- + +in this broken fragment of shapeless and barbaric verse, not in the +smooth and delicate couplets of contemporary poets, Polyaenus or +Antiphilus, lay the germ of the music which was to charm the centuries +that followed. Even through the long swoon of art which is usually +thought of as following the darkness of the third century, the truth +was that art was transforming itself into new shapes and learning a +new language. The last words of the Neo-Platonic philosophy with its +mystical wisdom were barely said when the Church of the Holy Wisdom +rose in Constantinople, the most perfect work of art that has yet been +known in organic beauty of design and splendour of ornament; and when +Justinian by his closure of the schools of Athens marked off, as by a +precise line, the end of the ancient world, in the Greek monasteries +of Athos new types of beauty were being slowly wrought out which +passed outward from land to land, transfiguring the face of the world +as they went, kindling new life wherever they fell, miraculously +transformed by the separate genius of every country from Norway to +India, creating in Italy the whole of the great medieval art that +stretches from Duccio and Giotto to Signorelli, and leaving to us +here, as our most precious inheritances, such mere blurred and broken +fragments of their glories as the cathedral churches of Salisbury and +Winchester. + +It is only in the growth and life of that new world that the decay and +death of the old can be regarded with equanimity, or can in a certain +sense be historically justified: for Greek civilisation was and still +is so incomparable and so precious that its loss might otherwise fill +the mind with despair, and seem to be the last irony cast by fate +against the idea of human progress. But it is the law of all Nature, +from her highest works to her lowest, that life only comes by death; +"she replenishes one thing out of another," in the words of the Roman +poet, "and does not suffer anything to be begotten before she has been +recruited by the death of something else." To all things born she +comes one day with her imperious message: /materies opus est ut +crescant postera secla/.[2] With the infinite patience of one who has +inexhaustible time and imperishable material at her absolute command, +slowly, vacillatingly, not hesitating at any waste or any cruelty, +Nature works out some form till it approaches perfection; then finds +it flawed, finds it is not the thing she meant, and with the same +strong, unscrupulous and passionless action breaks it up and begins +anew. As in our own lives we sometimes feel that the slow progress of +years, the structure built up cell by cell through pain and patience +and weariness at lavish cost seems one day, when some great new force +enters our life, to begin to crumble and fall away from us, and leave +us strangers in a new world, so it is with the greater types of life, +with peoples and civilisations; some secret inherent flaw was in their +structure; they meet a trial for which they were not prepared, and +fail; once more they must be passed into the crucible and melted down +to their primitive matter. Yet Nature does not repeat herself; in some +way the experience of all past generations enters into those which +succeed them, and of a million of her works that have perished not one +has perished wholly without account. That Greece and Rome, though they +passed away, still influence us daily is indeed obvious; but it is as +certain that the great races before them, of which Babylonia, +Phoenicia, Egypt are only a few out of many, still live in the gradual +evolution of the purpose of history. They live in us indeed as blind +inherited forces, apart from our knowledge of them; yet if we can at +all realise any of them to ourselves, at all enter into their spirit, +our gain is great; for through time and distance they have become +simple and almost abstract; only what was most living in them +survives; and the loss of the vivid multiplicity and colour of a +fuller knowledge makes it easier to discriminate what was important in +them. Lapse of time has done for us with some portions of the past +what is so difficult or even impossible for us to do for ourselves +with the life actually round us, projected them upon an ideal plane: +how ideal, in the case of Greek history, is obvious if we consider for +a moment how nearly Homer and Herodotus are read alike by us. For +Homer's world was from the first imagined, not actual; yet the actual +world of the fifth century B.C. has become for us now no less an +ideal, perhaps one which is even more stimulating and more +fascinating. How far this may be due to any inherent excellence of its +own, how far to the subtle enchantment of association, does not affect +this argument. Of histories no less than of poems is it true that the +best are but shadows, and that, for the highest purposes which history +serves, the idea is the fact; the impression produced on us, the +heightening and ennobling influence of a life, ideal or actual, akin +to and yet different from ours, is the one thing which primarily +matters. And so it may be questioned whether so far as this, the vital +part of human culture, is concerned, modern scholarship has helped men +beyond the point already reached by the more imperfect knowledge and +more vivid intuitions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; for if +the effect produced on them, in the way of heightening and ennobling +life, was more than the effect now and here produced on us, we have, +so far as the Greek world is concerned, lost and not gained. +Compensations indeed there are; a vast experience has enlarged our +horizon and deepened our emotion, and it would be absurd to say now, +as was once truly and plausibly said, that Greek means culture. Yet +even now we could ill do without it; nor does there seem any reason +beyond the dulness of our imagination and the imperfection of our +teaching why it should not be as true and as living a help as ever in +our lives. + +At the present day the risk is not of Greek art and literature being +too little studied, but of their being studied in too contracted and +formal a spirit. Less time is spent on the corruptions of medieval +texts, and on the imbecilities of the decadence; but all the more is +labour wasted and insight obscured by the new pedantry; the research +into unimportant origins which the Greeks themselves wisely left +covered in a mist of mythology. The destruction dealt on the Athenian +acropolis, under the name of scholarship, is a type of modern +practice. The history of two thousand years has so far as possible +been swept carelessly away in the futile attempt to lay bare an +isolated picture of the age of Pericles; now archaeologists find that +they cannot stop there, and fix their interest on the shapeless +fragments of barbaric art beneath. But the Greek spirit and temper is +perhaps less known than it once was; there appears to be a real danger +that the influence upon men, the surprise of joy once given them by +the work of Sophocles or Pheidias or Plato, dwindles with the +accumulation of importance given to the barbarous antecedents and +surroundings from which that great art sprang. The highest office of +history is to preserve ideals; and where the ideal is saved its +substructure may well be allowed to perish, as perish in the main it +must, in spite of all that we can recover from the slight and +ambiguous records which it leaves. The value of this selection of +minor poetry--if one can speak of a value in poetry beyond itself--is +that, however imperfectly, it draws for us in little a picture of the +Greek ideal with all its virtues and its failings: it may be taken as +an epitome, slightly sketched with a facile hand, of the book of Greek +life. How slight the material is in which this picture is drawn +becomes plain the moment we turn from these epigrams, however delicate +and graceful, to the great writers. Yet the very study of the lesser +and the appreciation that comes of study may quicken our understanding +of the greater; and there is something more moving and pathetic in +their survival, as of flowers from a strange land: white violets +gathered in the morning, to recur to Meleager's exquisite metaphor, +yielding still a faint and fugitive fragrance here in the never-ending +afternoon. + ---------- + +[1] Quoted by S. Paul, Eph. v. 14. + +[2] Lucr. i. 263, iii. 967. + + + + + + ANTHOLOGY + + TEXT AND TRANSLATIONS + + + + CHAPTER I + + LOVE + + + I + PRELUDE + POSIDIPPUS + +Jar of Athens, drip the dewy juice of wine, drip, let the feast to +which all bring their share be wetted as with dew; be silenced the +swan, sage Zeno, and the Muse of Cleanthes, and let bitter-sweet Love +be our concern. + + + II + LAUS VENERIS + ASCLEPIADES + +Sweet is snow in summer for the thirsty to drink, and sweet for +sailors after winter to see the garland of spring; but most sweet when +one cloak shelters two lovers, and the tale of love is told by both. + + + III + LOVE'S SWEETNESS + NOSSIS + +Nothing is sweeter than love, and all delicious things are second to +it; yes, even honey I spit out of my mouth. Thus saith Nossis; but he +whom the Cyprian loves not, knows not what roses her flowers are. + + + IV + LOVE AND THE SCHOLAR + MARCUS ARGENTARIUS + +Once when turning over the Book of Hesiod in my hands, suddenly I saw +Pyrrha coming in; and casting the book to the ground from my hand, I +cried out, Why bring your works to me, old Hesiod? + + + V + LOVERS' LIPS + PLATO + +Kissing Agathon, I had my soul upon my lips; for it rose, poor wretch, +as though to cross over. + + + VI + THE FIRST KISS + STRATO + +At evening, at the hour when we say good-night, Moeris kissed me, I +know not whether really or in a dream; for very clearly I now have the +rest in mind, all she said to me, and all that she asked me of; but +whether she kissed me too, I doubt and guess; for if it is true, how, +after being set in heaven, do I go to and fro upon earth? + + + VII + THE REVELLER + MELEAGER + +Let the die be thrown; light up! I will on my way; see, courage!-- +Heavy with wine, what is thy purpose?--I will revel.--I will revel? +whither wanderest, O heart?--And what is Reason to Love? light up, +quick!--And where is thy old study of philosophy?--Away with the long +toil of wisdom; this one thing only I know, that Love took captive +even the mind of Zeus. + + + VIII + LOVE AND WINE + RUFINUS + +I am armed against Love with a breastplate of Reason, neither shall he +conquer me, one against one; yes, I a mortal will contend with him the +immortal: but if he have Bacchus to second him, what can I do alone +against the two? + + + IX + LOVE IN THE STORM + ASCLEPIADES + +Snow, hail, darken, blaze, thunder, shake forth all thy glooming +clouds upon the earth; for if thou slay me, then will I cease, but +while thou lettest me live, though thou handle me worse than this, I +will revel. For the god draws me who is thy master too, at whose +persuasion, Zeus, thou didst once pierce in gold to that brazen +bridal-chamber. + + + X + A KISS WITHIN THE CUP + AGATHIAS + +I am no wine-bibber; but if thou wilt make me drunk, taste thou first +and bring it me, and I take it. For if thou wilt touch it with thy +lips, no longer is it easy to keep sober or to escape the sweet cup- +bearer; for the cup ferries me over a kiss from thee, and tells me of +the grace that it had. + + + XI + LOVE'S MARTYR + MELEAGER + +Evermore in my ears eddies the sound of Love, and my eye silently +carries sweet tears for the Desires; nor does night nor light let me +rest, but already my enchanted heart bears the well-known imprint. Ah +winged Loves, surely you know how to fly towards me, but have no whit +of strength to fly away. + + + XII + LOVE'S DRINK + MELEAGER + +The cup is glad for sweetness, and says that it touches the sweet- +voiced mouth of love's darling, Zenophile. Happy! would that now, +bringing up her lips to my lips, she would drink at one draught the +very soul in me. + + + XIII + LOVE THE RUNAWAY + MELEAGER + +I make hue and cry after wild Love; for now, even now in the morning +dusk, he flew away from his bed and was gone. This boy is full of +sweet tears, ever talking, swift, fearless, sly-laughing, winged on +the back, and carries a quiver. But whose son he is I may not say, for +Heaven denies having borne this ruffler, and so Earth and so Sea. +Everywhere and by all he is hated; but look you to it lest haply even +now he is laying more springes for souls. Yet--there he is, see! about +his lurking-place; I see thee well, my archer, ambushed in Zenophile's +eyes. + + + XIV + LOVE'S SYMPATHY + CALLIMACHUS + +Our friend was wounded, and we knew it not; how bitter a sigh, mark +you? he drew all up his breast. Lo, he was drinking the third time, +and shedding their petals from the fellow's garlands the roses all +poured to the ground. He is well in the fire, surely; no, by the gods, +I guess not at random; a thief myself, I know a thief's footprints. + + + XV + THE MAD LOVER + PAULUS SILENTIARIUS + +A man wounded by a rabid dog's venom sees, they say, the beast's image +in all water. Surely mad Love has fixed his bitter tooth in me, and +made my soul the prey of his frenzies; for both the sea and the eddies +of rivers and the wine-carrying cup show me thy image, beloved. + + + XVI + LOVE AT THE VINTAGE + AGATHIAS + +We, as we trod the infinite fruit of Iacchus, mingled and wound in the +rhythm of the revel, and now the fathomless flood flowed down, and +like boats our cups of ivy-wood swam on the sweet surges; dipping +wherewith, we drank just as it lay at our hand, nor missed the warm +water-nymphs overmuch. But beautiful Rhodanthe leant over the +winepress, and with the splendours of her beauty lit up the welling +stream; and swiftly all our hearts were fluttered, nor was there one +of us but was overcome by Bacchus and the Paphian. Alas for us! he ran +plenteous at our feet, but for her, hope played with us, and no more. + + + XVII + LOVE'S GARLAND + MELEAGER + +I will twine the white violet and I will twine the delicate narcissus +with myrtle buds, and I will twine laughing lilies, and I will twine +the sweet crocus, and I will twine therewithal the crimson hyacinth, +and I will twine lovers' roses, that on balsam-curled Heliodora's +temples my garland may shed its petals over the lovelocks of her hair. + + + XVIII + LOVER'S FRIGHT + MELEAGER + +She is carried off! What savage could do so cruel a deed? Who so high +as to raise battle against very Love? Light torches, quick! and yet--a +footfall; Heliodora's; go back into my breast, O my heart. + + + XIX + LOVE IN SPRING + MELEAGER + +Now the white violet blooms, and blooms the moist narcissus, and bloom +the mountain-wandering lilies; and now, dear to her lovers, spring +flower among the flowers, Zenophile, the sweet rose of Persuasion, has +burst into bloom. Meadows, why idly laugh in the brightness of your +tresses? for my girl is better than garlands sweet to smell. + + + XX + SUMMER NIGHT + MELEAGER + +Shrill-crying gnats, shameless suckers of the blood of men, two-winged +monsters of the night, for a little, I beseech you, leave Zenophile to +sleep a quiet sleep, and see, make your feast of flesh from my limbs. +Yet to what end do I talk in vain? even relentless wild beasts take +delight in nestling on her delicate skin. But once more now I proclaim +it, O evil brood, cease your boldness or you shall know the force of +jealous hands. + + + XXI + PARTING AT DAWN + MELEAGER + +Farewell, Morning Star, herald of dawn, and quickly come again as the +Evening Star, bringing secretly her whom thou takest away. + + + XXII + DEARER THAN DAY + PAULUS SILENTIARIUS + +"Fare thou well," I would say to thee; and again I check my voice and +rein it backward, and again I stay beside thee; for I shrink from the +terrible separation from thee as from the bitter night of Acheron; for +the light of thee is like the day. Yet that, I think, is voiceless, +but thou bringest me also that murmuring talk of thine, sweeter than +the Sirens', whereon all my soul's hopes are hung. + + + XXIII + THE MORNING STAR + MACEDONIUS + +Morning Star, do not Love violence, neither learn, neighbour as thou +art to Mars, to have a heart that pities not; but as once before, +seeing Phaethon in Clymene's chamber, thou heldest not on thy fleet- +foot course from the east, even so on the skirts of night, the night +that so hardly has lightened on my desire, come lingering as though +among the Cimmerians. + + + XXIV + AT COCKCROWING + ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA + +Grey dawn is over, Chrysilla, and ere now the morning cock clarisoning +leads on the envious Lady of Morn. Be thou accursed, most envious of +birds, who drivest me from my home to the endless chattering of the +young men. Thou growest old, Tithonus; else why dost thou chase Dawn +thy bedfellow out of her couch while yet morning is so young? + + + XXV + DAWN'S HASTE + MELEAGER + +Grey dawn, why, O unloving, risest thou so swift round my bed, where +but now I nestled close to dear Demo? Would God thou wouldst turn thy +fleet course backward and be evening, thou shedder of the sweet light +that is so bitter to me. For once before, for Zeus and his Alcmena, +thou wentest contrary; thou art not unlessoned in running backward. + + + XXVI + DAWN'S DELAY + MELEAGER + +Grey dawn, why, O unloving, rollest thou now so slow round the world, +since another is shrouded and warm by Demo? but when I held her +delicate form to my breast, swift thou wert upon us, shedding on me a +light that seemed to rejoice in my grief. + + + XXVII + WAITING + PAULUS SILENTIARIUS + +Cleophantis lingers long; and the third lamp now begins to give a +broken glimmer as it silently wastes away. And would that the +firebrand in my heart too were quenched with the lamp, and did not +burn me long in wakeful desires. Ah how often she swore by the +Cytherean that she would be here at evenfall; but she recks not of +either men or gods. + + + XXVIII + WAITING IN VAIN + ASCLEPIADES + +Nico the renowned consented to come to me at nightfall and swore by +the holy Lady of Laws; and she is not come, and the watch is gone by; +did she mean to forswear herself? Servants, put out the lamp. + + + XXIX + THE SCORNED LOVER + ASCLEPIADES + +O Night, thee and none other I take to witness, how Nico's Pythias +flouts me, traitress as she is; asked, not unasked am I come; may she +yet blame thee in the selfsame plight standing by my doors! + + + XXX + SLEEPLESS NIGHT + AGATHIAS + +All night long I sob; and when grey dawn rises and grants me a little +grace of rest, the swallows cry around and about me, and bring me back +to tears, thrusting sweet slumber away: and my unclosing eyes keep +vigil, and the thought of Rhodanthe returns again in my bosom. O +envious chatterers, be still; it was not I who shore away Philomela's +tongue; but weep for Itylus on the mountains, and sit wailing by the +hoopoe's court, that we may sleep a little; and perchance a dream will +come and clasp me round with Rhodanthe's arms. + + + XXXI + THE LOVE LETTER + RUFINUS + +Rufinus to Elpis, my most sweet: well and very well be with her, if +she can be well away from me. No longer can I bear, no, by thine eyes, +my solitary and unmated severance from thee, but evermore blotted with +tears I go to Coressus or to the temple of the great Artemis; but +tomorrow my home shall receive me, and I will fly to thy face and bid +thee a thousand greetings. + + + XXXII + LOVE AND REASON + PHILODEMUS + +My soul forewarns me to flee the desire of Heliodora, knowing well the +tears and jealousies of old. She talks; but I have no strength to +flee, for, shameless that she is, she forewarns, and while she +forewarns, she loves. + + + XXXIII + ODI ET AMO + MELEAGER + +Take this message, Dorcas; lo again a second and a third time, Dorcas, +take her all my message; run; delay no longer; fly. Wait a little, +Dorcas, prithee a little; Dorcas, whither so fast before learning all +I would say? And add to what I have just said--but no, I go on like a +fool; say nothing at all--only that--say everything; spare not to say +everything. Yet why do I send thee out, Dorcas, when myself, see, I go +forth with thee? + + + XXXIV + LOOKING AND LIKING + PAULUS SILENTIARIUS + +Eyes, how long are you draining the nectar of the Loves, rash drinkers +of the strong unmixed wine of beauty? let us run far away, as far as +we have strength to go, and in calm I will pour sober offerings to +Cypris the Placable. But if haply there likewise I be caught by the +sting, be you wet with chill tears and doomed for ever to bear +deserved pain; since from you, alas! it was that we fell into all this +labour of fire. + + + XXXV + FORGET-ME-NOT + AGATHIAS + +Dost thou then also, Philinna, carry longing in thee, dost thou +thyself also sicken and waste away with tearless eyes? or is thy sleep +most sweet to thee, while of our care thou makest neither count nor +reckoning? Thou wilt find thy fate likewise, and thy haughty cheek I +shall see wetted with fast-falling tears. For the Cyprian in all else +is malign, but one virtue is in her lot, hatred of proud beauties. + + + XXXVI + AMANTIUM IRAE + PAULUS SILENTIARIUS + +At evening Galatea slammed-to the doors in my face, flinging at me a +speech of scorn. "Scorn breaks love"; idly wanders this proverb; her +scorn inflames my love-madness the more. For I swore I would stay a +year away from her; out and alas! but with break of day I went to make +supplication. + + + XXXVII + INCONSTANCY + MACEDONIUS + +Constantia, nay verily! I heard the name and thought it beautiful, but +thou art to me more bitter than death. And thou fliest him who loves +thee, and him who loves thee not thou pursuest, that he may love thee +and thou mayest fly him once again. + + + XXXVIII + TIME'S REVENGE + CALLIMACHUS + +So mayest thou slumber, Conopion, as thou makest me sleep here in the +chill doorway; so mayest thou slumber, most cruel, as thou lullest thy +lover asleep; but not even in a dream hast thou known compassion. The +neighbours pity me, but thou not even in a dream; but the silver hair +will remind thee of all this by and by. + + + XXXIX + FLOWN LOVE + MARCUS ARGENTARIUS + +Golden-horned Moon, thou seest this, and you fiery-shining Stars whom +Ocean takes into his breast, how perfume-breathing Ariste has gone and +left me alone, and this is the sixth day I cannot find the witch. But +we will seek her notwithstanding; surely I will send the silver +sleuth-hounds of the Cyprian on her track. + + + XL + MOONLIGHT + PHILODEMUS + +Lady of Night, twy-horned, lover of nightlong revels, shine, O Moon, +shine, darting through the latticed windows; shed thy splendour on +golden Callistion; thine immortality may look down unchidden on the +deeds of lovers; thou dost bless both her and me, I know, O Moon; for +thy soul too was fired by Endymion. + + + XLI + LOVE AND THE STARS + PLATO + +On the stars thou gazest, my Star; would I were heaven, that I might +look on thee with many eyes. + + + XLII + ROSE + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Would I were a pink rose, that fastening me with thine hands thou +mightest grant me grace of thy snowy breast. + + + XLIII + LILY + THEOPHANES + +Would I were a white lily, that fastening me with thine hands thou +mightest satisfy me with the nearness of thy body. + + + XLIV + LOVE AND SLEEP + MELEAGER + +Thou sleepest, Zenophile, dainty girl; would that I had come to thee +now, a wingless sleep, upon thine eyelids, that not even he, even he +who charms the eyes of Zeus, might come nigh thee, but myself had held +thee, I thee alone. + + + XLV + SLAYER AND HEALER + MACEDONIUS + +I have a wound of love, and from my wound flows ichor of tears, and +the gash is never staunched; for I am at my wits' end for misery, and +no Machaon sprinkles soothing drugs on me in my need. I am Telephus, O +maiden, but be thou my true Achilles; with thy beauty allay the +longing as thou didst kindle it. + + + XLVI + LOVE THE GAMBLER + MELEAGER + +Still in his mother's lap, a child playing with dice in the morning, +Love played my life away. + + + XLVII + DRIFTING + MELEAGER + +Bitter wave of Love, and restless gusty Jealousies and wintry sea of +revellings, whither am I borne? and the rudders of my spirit are quite +cast loose; shall we sight delicate Scylla once again? + + + XLVIII + LOVE'S RELAPSES + MELEAGER + +Soul that weepest sore, how is Love's wound that was allayed in thee +inflaming through thy heart again! nay, nay, for God's sake, nay for +God's sake, O infatuate, stir not the fire that flickers low among the +ashes. For soon, O oblivious of thy pains, so sure as Love catches +thee in flight, again he will torture his found runaway. + + + XLIX + LOVE THE BALL-PLAYER + MELEAGER + +Love who feeds on me is a ball-player, and throws to thee, Heliodora, +the heart that throbs in me. Come then, take thou Love-longing for his +playmate; but if thou cast me away from thee, I will not bear such +wanton false play. + + + L + LOVE'S ARROWS + MELEAGER + +Nay by Demo's tresses, nay by Heliodora's sandal, nay by Timarion's +scent-dripping doorway, nay by great-eyed Anticleia's dainty smile, +nay by Dorothea's fresh-blossomed garlands, no longer, Love, does thy +quiver hide its bitter winged arrows, for thy shafts are all fixed in +me. + + + LI + LOVE'S EXCESS + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Arm thyself, Cypris, with thy bow, and go at thy leisure to some other +mark; for I have not even room left for a wound. + + + LII + MOTH AND CANDLE + MELEAGER + +If thou scorch so often the soul that flutters round thee, O Love, she +will flee away from thee; she too, O cruel, has wings. + + + LIII + LOVE AT AUCTION + MELEAGER + +Let him be sold, even while he is yet asleep on his mother's bosom, +let him be sold; why should I have the rearing of this impudent thing? +For it is snub-nosed and winged, and scratches with its nail-tips, and +weeping laughs often between; and furthermore it is unabashed, ever- +talking, sharp-glancing, wild and not gentle even to its very own +mother, every way a monster; so it shall be sold; if any outward-bound +merchant will buy a boy, let him come hither. And yet he beseeches, +see, all in tears. I sell thee no more; be comforted; stay here and +live with Zenophile. + + + LIV + INTER MINORA SIDERA + MARCUS ARGENTARIUS + +Pour ten cups for Lysidice, and for beloved Euphrante, slave, give me +one cup. Thou wilt say I love Lysidice more? No, by sweet Bacchus, +whom I drink deep in this bowl; Euphrante for me, one against ten; for +the one splendour of the moon also outshines the innumerable stars. + + + LV + ROSA TRIPLEX + MELEAGER + +Pour for Heliodora as Persuasion, and as the Cyprian, and once more +for her again as the sweet-speeched Grace; for she is enrolled as my +one goddess, whose beloved name I will mix and drink in unmixed wine. + + + LVI + LOVE IN ABSENCE + MELEAGER + +Pour, and again say, again, again, "Heliodora"; say it and mingle the +sweet name with the unmixed wine; and wreath me with that garland of +yesterday drenched with ointments, for remembrance of her. Lo, the +lovers' rose sheds tears to see her away, and not on my bosom. + + + LVII + LOVE'S PORTRAITURE + MELEAGER + +Who of my friends has imaged me sweet-voiced Zenophile? who has +brought me one Grace of the three? Surely the man did a gracious deed +who gave this gift, and in his grace gave Grace herself to me. + + + LVIII + THE SEA'S WOOING + MELEAGER + +Fond Asclepias with her sparkling eyes as of Calm woos all to make the +voyage of love. + + + LIX + THE LIGHT OF TROY + DIOSCORIDES + +Athenion sang of that fatal horse to me; all Troy was in fire, and I +kindled along with it, not fearing the ten years' toil of Greece; and +in that single blaze Trojans and I perished together then. + + + LX + LOVE AND MUSIC + MELEAGER + +Sweet is the tune, by Pan of Arcady, that thou playest on the harp, +Zenophile, oversweet are the notes of the tune. Whither shall I fly +from thee? on all hands the Loves encompass me, and let me not take +breath for ever so little space; for either thy form shoots longing +into me, or again thy music or thy graciousness, or--what shall I say? +all of thee; I kindle in the fire. + + + LXI + HONEY AND STING + MELEAGER + +Flower-fed bee, why touchest thou my Heliodora's skin, leaving +outright the flower-bells of spring? Meanest thou that even the +unendurable sting of Love, ever bitter to the heart, has a sweetness +too? Yes, I think, this thou sayest; ah, fond one, go back again; we +knew thy news long ago. + + + LXII + LOVE'S MESSENGER + MELEAGER + +Fly for me, O gnat, a swift messenger, and touch Zenophile, and +whisper lightly into her ears: "one awaits thee waking; and thou +sleepest, O oblivious of thy lovers." Up, fly, yes fly, O musical one; +but speak quietly, lest arousing her bedfellow too thou stir pangs of +jealousy against me; and if thou bring my girl, I will adorn thee with +a lion-skin, O gnat, and give thee a club to carry in thine hand. + + + LXIII + LOVE THE SLAYER + MELEAGER + +I beseech thee, Love, charm asleep the wakeful longing in me for +Heliodora, pitying my suppliant verse; for, by thy bow that never has +learned to strike another, but always upon me pours its winged shafts, +even though thou slay me I will leave letters uttering this voice, +"Look, stranger, on Love's murdered man." + + + LXIV + FORSAKEN + MAECIUS + +Why so woe-begone? and why, Philaenis, these reckless tearings of +hair, and suffusion of sorrowful eyes? hast thou seen thy lover with +another on his bosom? tell me; we know charms for grief. Thou weepest +and sayest no: vainly dost thou essay to deny; the eyes are more +trustworthy than the tongue. + + + LXV + THE SLEEPLESS LOVER + MELEAGER + +Grasshopper, beguilement of my longings, luller asleep, grasshopper, +muse of the cornfield, shrill-winged, natural mimic of the lyre, harp +to me some tune of longing, striking thy vocal wings with thy dear +feet, that so thou mayest rescue me from the all-wakeful trouble of my +pains, grasshopper, as thou makest thy love-luring voice tremble on +the string; and I will give thee gifts at dawn, ever-fresh groundsel +and dewy drops sprayed from the mouths of the watering-can. + + + LXVI + REST AT NOON + MELEAGER + +Voiceful cricket, drunken with drops of dew thou playest thy rustic +music that murmurs in the solitude, and perched on the leaf-edges +shrillest thy lyre-tune with serrated legs and swart skin. But my +dear, utter a new song for the tree-nymphs' delight, and make thy +harp-notes echo to Pan's, that escaping Love I may seek out sleep at +noon here lying under the shady plane. + + + LXVII + THE BURDEN OF YOUTH + ASCLEPIADES + +I am not two and twenty yet, and I am weary of living; O Loves, why +misuse me so? why set me on fire; for when I am gone, what will you +do? Doubtless, O Loves, as before you will play with your dice, +unheeding. + + + LXVIII + BROKEN VOWS + MELEAGER + +Holy night, and thou, O lamp, you and none other we took to witness of +our vows; and we swore, he that he would love me, and I that I would +never leave him, and you kept witness between us. And now he says that +these vows are written in running water, O lamp, and thou seest him on +the bosom of another. + + + LXIX + DOUBTFUL DAWN + MELEAGER + +O night, O wakeful longing in me for Heliodora, and eyes that sting +with tears in the creeping grey of dawn, do some remnants of affection +yet remain mine, and is her memorial kiss warm upon my cold picture? +has she tears for bedfellows, and does she clasp to her bosom and kiss +a deluding dream of me? or has she some other new love, a new +plaything? Never, O lamp, look thou on that, but be guardian of her +whom I gave to thy keeping. + + + LXX + THE DEW OF TEARS + ASCLEPIADES + +Stay there, my garlands, hanging by these doors, nor hastily +scattering your petals, you whom I have wetted with tears (for lovers' +eyes are rainy); but when you see him as the door opens, drip my rain +over his head, that so at least that golden hair may drink my tears. + + + LXXI + LOVE'S GRAVE + MELEAGER + +When I am gone, Cleobulus--for what avails? cast among the fire of +young loves, I lie a brand in the ashes--I pray thee make the burial- +urn drunk with wine ere thou lay it under earth, and write thereon, +"Love's gift to Death." + + + LXXII + LOVE'S MASTERDOM + MELEAGER + +Terrible is Love, terrible; and what avails it if again I say and +again, with many a moan, Terrible is Love? for surely the boy laughs +at this, and is pleased with manifold reproaches; and if I say bitter +things, they are meat and drink to him. And I wonder how thou, O +Cyprian, who didst arise through the green waves, out of water hast +borne a fire. + + + LXXIII + LOVE THE CONQUEROR + MELEAGER + +I am down: tread with thy foot on my neck, cruel divinity; I know +thee, by the gods, heavy as thou art to bear: I know too thy fiery +arrows: but hurling thy brands at my soul thou wilt no longer kindle +it, for it is all ashes. + + + LXXIV + LOVE'S PRISONER + MELEAGER + +Did I not cry aloud to thee, O soul, "Yes, by the Cyprian, thou wilt +be caught, poor lover, if thou flutterest so often near the lime- +twigs"? did I not cry aloud? and the snare has taken thee. Why dost +thou gasp vainly in the toils? Love himself has bound thy wings and +set thee on the fire, and sprinkled thee to swooning with perfumes, +and given thee in thy thirst hot tears to drink. + + + LXXV + FROST AND FIRE + MELEAGER + +Ah suffering soul, now thou burnest in the fire, and now thou +revivest, and fetchest breath again: why weepest thou? when thou didst +feed pitiless Love in thy bosom, knewest thou not that he was being +fed for thy woe? knewest thou not? Know now his repayment, a fair +foster-hire! take it, fire and cold snow together. Thou wouldst have +it so; bear the pain; thou sufferest the wages of thy work, scorched +with his burning honey. + + + LXXVI + THE SCULPTOR OF SOULS + MELEAGER + +Within my heart Love himself has moulded Heliodora with her lovely +voice, the soul of my soul. + + + LXXVII + LOVE'S IMMORTALITY + STRATO + +Who may know if a loved one passes the prime, while ever with him and +never left alone? who may not satisfy to-day who satisfied yesterday? +and if he did satisfy, what should befall him not to satisfy +to-morrow? + + + + CHAPTER II + + PRAYERS AND DEDICATIONS + + + I + TO ZEUS OF SCHERIA + JULIUS POLYAENUS + +Though the terror of those who pray, and the thanks of those who have +prayed, ever fill thine ears with myriad voice, O Zeus, who abidest in +the holy plain of Scheria, yet hearken to us also, and bow down with a +promise that lies not, that my exile now may have an end, and I may +live in my native land at rest from labour of long journeys. + + + II + TO THE GOD OF THE SEA + CRINAGORAS + +Holy Spirit of the great Shaker of Earth, be thou gracious to others +also who ply across the Aegean brine; since even to me, chased by the +Thracian hurricane, thou didst open out the calm haven of my desire. + + + III + TO THE GODS OF HARBOUR AND HEADLAND + ANTIPHILUS + +Harbour-god, do thou, O blessed one, send with a gentle breeze the +outward-bound sail of Archelaus down smooth water even to the sea; and +thou who hast the point of the shore in ward, keep the convoy that is +bound for the Pythian shrine; and thenceforward, if all we singers are +in Phoebus' care, I will sail cheerily on with a fair-flowing west +wind. + + + IV + TO POSEIDON OF AEGAE + ALPHEUS + +Thou who holdest sovereignty of swift-sailing ships, steed-loving god, +and the great overhanging cliff of Euboea, give to thy worshippers a +favourable voyage even to the City of Ares, who loosed moorings from +Syria. + + + V + TO THE LORD OF SEA AND LAND + MACEDONIUS + +This ship to thee, O king of sea and sovereign of land, I Crantas +dedicate, this ship wet no longer, a feather tossed by the wandering +winds, whereon many a time I deemed in my terror that I drove to +death; now renouncing all, fear and hope, sea and storms, I have +planted my foot securely upon earth. + + + VI + TO THE GODS OF SEA AND WEATHER + PHILODEMUS + +O Melicerta son of Ino, and thou, sea-green Leucothea, mistress of +Ocean, deity that shieldest from harm, and choirs of the Nereïds, and +waves, and thou Poseidon, and Thracian Zephyrus, gentlest of the +winds, carry me propitiously, sped through the broad wave, safe to the +sweet shore of the Peiraeus. + + + VII + TO POSEIDON, BY A FISHERMAN + MACEDONIUS + +Old Amyntichus tied his plummeted fishing-net round his fish-spear, +ceasing from his sea-toil, and spake towards Poseidon and the salt +surge of the sea, letting a tear fall from his eyelids; Thou knowest, +blessed one, I am weary; and in an evil old age clinging Poverty keeps +her youth and wastes my limbs: give sustenance to a poor old man while +he yet draws breath, but from the land as he desires, O ruler of both +earth and sea. + + + VIII + TO PALAEMON AND INO + ANTIPATER OF SIDON + +This shattered fragment of a sea-wandering scolopendra, lying on the +sandy shore, twice four fathom long, all befouled with froth, much +torn under the sea-washed rock, Hermonax chanced upon when he was +hauling a draught of fishes out of the sea as he plied his fisher's +craft; and having found it, he hung it up to the boy Palaemon and Ino, +giving the sea-marvel to the sea-deities. + + + IX + TO ARTEMIS OF THE FISHING-NETS + APOLLONIDES + +A red mullet and a hake from the embers to thee, Artemis of the Haven, +I Menis, the caster of nets, offer, and a brimming cup of wine mixed +strong, and a broken crust of dry bread, a poor man's sacrifice; in +recompence whereof give thou nets ever filled with prey; to thee, O +blessed one, all meshes have been given. + + + X + TO PRIAPUS OF THE SHORE + MAECIUS + +Priapus of the seashore, the trawlers lay before thee these gifts by +the grace of thine aid from the promontory, having imprisoned a tunny +shoal in their nets of spun hemp in the green sea-entrances: a beechen +cup and a rude stool of heath and a glass cup holding wine, that thou +mayest rest thy foot weary and cramped with dancing while thou chasest +away the dry thirst. + + + XI + TO APOLLO OF LEUCAS + PHILIPPUS + +Phoebus who holdest the sheer steep of Leucas, far seen of mariners +and washed by the Ionian sea, receive of sailors this mess of hand- +kneaded barley bread and a libation mingled in a little cup, and the +gleam of a brief-shining lamp that drinks with half-saturate mouth +from a sparing oil-flask; in recompence whereof be gracious, and send +on their sails a favourable wind to run with them to the harbours of +Actium. + + + XII + TO ARTEMIS OF THE WAYS + ANTIPHILUS + +Thou of the Ways, to thee Antiphilus dedicates this hat from his own +head, a voucher of his wayfaring; for thou wast gracious to his +prayers, wast favouring to his paths; and his thank-offering is small +indeed but sacred. Let not any greedy traveller's hand snatch our +gift; sacrilege is not safe even in little things. + + + XIII + TO THE TWIN BRETHREN + CALLIMACHUS + +He who set me here, Euaenetus, says (for of myself I know not) that I +am dedicated in recompence of his single-handed victory, I the cock of +brass, to the Twin Brethren; I believe the son of Phaedrus the +Philoxenid. + + + XIV + TO THE DELPHIAN APOLLO + PAULUS SILENTIARIUS + +Eunomus the Locrian hangs up this brazen grasshopper to the Lycorean +god, a memorial of the contest for the crown. The strife was of the +Lyre, and Parthis stood up against me: but when the Locrian shell +sounded under the plectrum, a lyre-string rang and snapped jarringly; +but ere ever the tune halted in its fair harmonies, a delicate- +trilling grasshopper seated itself on the lyre and took up the note of +the lost string, and turned the rustic sound that till then was vocal +in the groves to the strain of our touch upon the lyre; and therefore, +blessed son of Leto, he does honour to thy grasshopper, seating the +singer in brass upon his harp. + + + XV + TO ARTEMIS THE HEALER + PHILIPPUS + +Huntress and archer, maiden daughter of Zeus and Leto, Artemis to whom +are given the recesses of the mountains, this very day send away +beyond the North Wind this hateful sickness from the best of kings; +for so above thine altars will Philippus offer vapour of frankincense, +doing goodly sacrifice of a hill-pasturing boar. + + + XVI + TO ASCLEPIUS + THEOCRITUS + +Even to Miletus came the son of the Healer to succour the physician of +diseases Nicias, who ever day by day draws near him with offerings, +and had this image carved of fragrant cedar, promising high recompence +to Eetion for his cunning of hand; and he put all his art into the +work. + + + XVII + TO THE NYMPHS OF ANIGRUS + MOERO + +Nymphs of Anigrus, maidens of the river, who evermore tread with rosy +feet these divine depths, hail and save Cleonymus who set these fair +images to you, goddesses, beneath the pines. + + + XVIII + TO PAN PAEAN + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +This for thee, O pipe-player, minstrel, gracious god, holy lord of the +Naiads who pour their urns, Hyginus made as a gift, whom thou, O king, +didst draw nigh and make whole of his hard sickness; for among all my +children thou didst stand by me visibly, not in a dream of night, but +about the mid-circle of the day. + + + XIX + TO HERACLES OF OETA + DIONYSIUS + +Heracles who goest on stony Trachis and on Oeta and the deep brow of +tree-clad Pholoe, to thee Dionysius offers this green staff of wild +olive, cut off by him with his billhook. + + + XX + TO APOLLO AND THE MUSES + THEOCRITUS + +These dewy roses and yonder close-curled wild thyme are laid before +the maidens of Helicon, and the dark-leaved laurels before thee, +Pythian Healer, since the Delphic rock made this thine ornament; and +this white-horned he-goat shall stain your altar, who nibbles the tip +of the terebinth shoot. + + + XXI + TO APHRODITE OF THE GOLDEN HOUSE + MOERO + +Thou liest in the golden portico of Aphrodite, O grape-cluster filled +full of Dionysus' juice, nor ever more shall thy mother twine round +thee her lovely tendril or above thine head put forth her honeyed +leaf. + + + XXII + TO APHRODITE, BY CALLISTION + POSIDIPPUS + +Thou who inhabitest Cyprus and Cythera and Miletus and the fair plain +of horse-trampled Syria, come graciously to Callistion, who never +thrust her lover away from her house's doors. + + + XXIII + TO APHRODITE, BY LAÏS + PLATO + +I Laïs who laughed exultant over Greece, I who held that swarm of +young lovers in my porches, give my mirror to the Paphian; since such +as I am I will not see myself, and such as I was I cannot. + + + XXIV + TO APHRODITE, WITH A TALISMAN + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Nico's wryneck, that knows how to draw a man even from overseas, and +girls out of their wedding-chambers, chased with gold, carven out of +translucent amethyst, lies before thee, Cyprian, for thine own +possession, tied across the middle with a soft lock of purple lamb's +wool, the gift of the sorceress of Larissa. + + + XXV + TO APHRODITE EUPLOIA + GAETULICUS + +Guardian of the seabeach, to thee I send these cakes, and the gifts of +a scanty sacrifice; for to-morrow I shall cross the broad wave of the +Ionian sea, hastening to our Eidothea's arms. But shine thou +favourably on my love as on my mast, O Cyprian, mistress of the bride- +chamber and the beach. + + + XXVI + TO THE GOD OF CANOPUS + CALLIMACHUS + +To the god of Canopus Callistion, wife of Critias, dedicated me, a +lamp enriched with twenty wicks, when her prayer for her child Apellis +was heard; and regarding my splendours thou wilt say, How art thou +fallen, O Evening Star! + + + XXVII + TO HERACLES, WITH A SHIELD + HEGESIPPUS + +Receive me, O Heracles, the consecrated shield of Archestratus, that +leaning against thy polished portico, I may grow old in hearing of +dances and hymns; let the War-God's hateful strife be satisfied. + + + XXVIII + TO THE MILESIAN ARTEMIS + NICIAS + +So I was destined, I also, once to abandon the hateful strife of Ares +and hear the maiden choirs around Artemis' temple, where Epixenus +placed me when white old age began to waste his limbs. + + + XXIX + TO ATHENE ERGANE + ANTIPATER OF SIDON + +The shuttle that sang at morning with the earliest swallows' cry, +kingfisher of Pallas in the loom, and the heavy-headed twirling +spindle, light-running spinner of the twisted yarn, and the bobbins, +and this basket, friend to the distaff, keeper of the spun warp-thread +and the reel, Telesilla, the industrious daughter of good Diocles, +dedicates to the Maiden, mistress of wool-dressers. + + + XXX + TO THE ORCHARD GOD + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +This fresh-cloven pomegranate and fresh-downed quince, and the +wrinkled navel-like fig, and the purple grape-bunch spirting wine, +thick-clustered, and the nut fresh-stripped of its green husk, to this +rustic staked Priapus the keeper of the fruit dedicates, an offering +from his orchard trees. + + + XXXI + TO DEMETER AND THE SEASONS + ZONAS + +To Demeter of the winnowing-fan and the Seasons whose feet are in the +furrows Heronax lays here from the poverty of a small tilth their +share of ears from the threshing-floor, and these mixed seeds of pulse +on a slabbed table, the least of a little; for no great inheritance is +this he has gotten him, here on the barren hill. + + + XXXII + TO THE CORN GODDESS + PHILIPPUS + +Those handfuls of corn from the furrows of a tiny field, Demeter lover +of wheat, Sosicles the tiller dedicates to thee, having reaped now an +abundant harvest; but again likewise may he carry back his sickle +blunted from shearing of the straw. + + + XXXIII + TO THE GODS OF THE FARM + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +To Pan of the goats and fruitful Dionysus and Demeter Lady of Earth I +dedicate a common offering, and beseech of them fair fleeces and fair +wine and fair fruit of the corn-ears in my reaping. + + + XXXIV + TO THE WEST WIND + BACCHYLIDES + +Eudemus dedicates this shrine in the fields to Zephyrus, most +bountiful of the winds, who came to aid him at his prayer, that he +might right quickly winnow the grain from the ripe ears. + + + XXXV + TO PAN OF THE FOUNTAIN + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +We supplicate Pan, the goer on the cliffs, twy-horned leader of the +Nymphs, who abides in this house of rock, to be gracious to us, +whosoever come to this spring of ever-flowing drink to rid us of our +thirst. + + + XXXVI + TO PAN AND THE NYMPHS + ANYTE + +To Pan the bristly-haired, and the Nymphs of the farm-yard, Theodotus +the shepherd laid this gift under the crag, because they stayed him +when very weary under the parching summer, stretching out to him +honey-sweet water in their hands. + + + XXXVII + TO THE SHEPHERD-GOD + THEOCRITUS + +White-skinned Daphnis, the player of pastoral hymns on his fair pipe, +offers these to Pan, the pierced reeds, the stick for throwing at +hares, a sharp javelin and a fawn-skin, and the scrip wherein once he +carried apples. + + + XXXVIII + TO PAN, BY A HUNTER, A FOWLER, AND A FISHER + ARCHIAS + +To thee, Pan of the cliff, three brethren dedicate these various gifts +of their threefold ensnaring; Damis toils for wild beasts, and Pigres +springes for birds, and Cleitor nets that swim in the sea; whereof do +thou yet again make the one fortunate in the air, and the one in the +sea and the one among the oakwoods. + + + XXXIX + TO ARTEMIS OF THE OAKWOOD + MNASALCAS + +This to thee, Artemis the bright, this statue Cleonymus set up; do +thou overshadow this oakwood rich in game, where thou goest afoot, our +lady, over the mountain tossing with foliage as thou hastest with thy +terrible and eager hounds. + + + XL + TO THE GODS OF THE CHASE + CRINAGORAS + +Fountained caverns of the Nymphs that drip so much water down this +jagged headland, and echoing hut of pine-coronalled Pan, wherein he +dwells under the feet of the rock of Bassae, and stumps of aged +juniper sacred among hunters, and stone-heaped seat of Hermes, be +gracious and receive the spoils of the swift stag-chase from Sosander +prosperous in hunting. + + + XLI + TO ARCADIAN ARTEMIS + ANTIPATER OF SIDON + +This deer that fed about Ladon and the Erymanthian water and the +ridges of Pholoe haunted by wild beasts, Lycormas son of Thearidas of +Lasion got, striking her with the diamond-shaped butt of his spear, +and, drawing off the skin and the double-pointed antlers on her +forehead, laid them before the Maiden of the country. + + + XLII + TO APOLLO, WITH A HUNTER'S BOW + PAULUS SILENTIARIUS + +Androclus, O Apollo, gives this bow to thee, wherewith in the chase +striking many a beast he had luck in his aim: since never did the +arrow leap wandering from the curved horn or speed vainly from his +hand; for as often as the inevitable bowstring rang, so often he +brought down his prey in air or thicket; wherefore to thee, O Phoebus, +he brings this Lyctian weapon as an offering, having wound it round +with rings of gold. + + + XLIII + TO PAN OF THE SHEPHERDS + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +O Pan, utter thy holy voice to the feeding flocks, running thy curved +lip over the golden reeds, that so they may often bring gifts of white +milk in heavy udders to Clymenus' home, and for thee the lord of the +she-goats, standing fairly by thy altars, may spirt the red blood from +his shaggy breast. + + + XLIV + TO THE GOD OF ARCADY + AGATHIAS + +These unsown domains, O Pan of the hill, Stratonicus the ploughman +dedicated to thee in return of thy good deeds, saying, Feed in joy +thine own flocks and look on thine own land, never more to be shorn +with brass; thou wilt find the resting-place a gracious one; for even +here charmed Echo will fulfil her marriage with thee. + + + + CHAPTER III + + EPITAPHS + + + I + OF THE ATHENIAN DEAD AT PLATAEA + SIMONIDES + +If to die nobly is the chief part of excellence, to us out of all men +Fortune gave this lot; for hastening to set a crown of freedom on +Greece we lie possessed of praise that grows not old. + + + II + ON THE LACEDAEMONIAN DEAD AT PLATAEA + SIMONIDES + +These men having set a crown of imperishable glory on their own land +were folded in the dark cloud of death; yet being dead they have not +died, since from on high their excellence raises them gloriously out +of the house of Hades. + + + III + ON THE SPARTANS AT THERMOPYLAE + PARMENIO + +Him, who over changed paths of earth and sea sailed on the mainland +and went afoot upon the deep, Spartan valour held back on three +hundred spears; be ashamed, O mountains and seas. + + + IV + ON THE SAME + SIMONIDES + +O passer by, tell the Lacedaemonians that we lie here obeying their +orders. + + + V + ON THE DEAD IN AN UNKNOWN BATTLE + MNASALCAS + +These men, in saving their native land that lay with tearful fetters +on her neck, clad themselves in the dust of darkness; and they win +great praise of excellence; but looking on them let a citizen dare to +die for his country. + + + VI + ON THE DEAD IN A BATTLE IN BOEOTIA + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +O Time, all-surveying deity of the manifold things wrought among +mortals, carry to all men the message of our fate, that striving to +save the holy soil of Greece we die on the renowned Boeotian plains. + + + VII + ON A SLAIN WARRIOR + ANACREON + +Valiant in war was Timocritus, whose monument this is; but Ares spares +the bad, not the good. + + + VIII + ON THE SLAIN IN A BATTLE IN THESSALY + AESCHYLUS + +These men also, the steadfast among spears, dark Fate destroyed as +they defended their native land rich in sheep; but they being dead +their glory is alive, who woefully clad their limbs in the dust of +Ossa. + + + IX + ON THE ATHENIAN DEAD AT THE BATTLE OF CHALCIS + SIMONIDES + +We fell under the fold of Dirphys, and a memorial is reared over us by +our country near the Euripus, not unjustly; for we lost lovely youth +facing the rough cloud of war. + + + X + ON THE ERETRIAN EXILES IN PERSIA + PLATO + +We who of old left the booming surge of the Aegean lie here in the +mid-plain of Ecbatana: fare thou well, renowned Eretria once our +country, farewell Athens nigh to Euboea, farewell dear sea. + + + XI + ON THE SAME + PLATO + +We are Eretrians of Euboea by blood, but we lie near Susa, alas! how +far from our own land. + + + XII + ON AESCHYLUS + AESCHYLUS + +Aeschylus son of Euphorion the Athenian this monument hides, who died +in wheat-bearing Gela; but of his approved valour the Marathonian +grove may tell, and the deep-haired Mede who knew it. + + + XIII + ON AN EMPTY TOMB IN TRACHIS + EUPHORION + +Not rocky Trachis covers over thy white bones, nor this stone with her +dark-blue lettering; but them the Icarian wave dashes about the +shingle of Doliche and steep Dracanon; and I, this empty earth, for +old friendship with Polymedes, am heaped among the thirsty herbage of +Dryopis. + + + XIV + ON THE GRAVE OF AN ATHENIAN AT MEROË + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Straight is the descent to Hades, whether thou wert to go from Athens +or takest thy journey from Meroë; let it not vex thee to have died so +far away from home; from all lands the wind that blows to Hades is but +one. + + + XV + ON THE GRAVE OF AN ATHENIAN WOMAN AT CYZICUS + ERYCIUS + +I am an Athenian woman; for that was my city; but from Athens the +wasting war-god of the Italians plundered me long ago and made a Roman +citizen; and now that I am dead, seagirt Cyzicus wraps my bones. Fare +thou well, O land that nurturedst me, and thou that thereafter didst +hold me, and thou that at last hast taken me to thy breast. + + + XVI + ON A SHIPWRECKED SAILOR + PLATO + +I am the tomb of one shipwrecked; and that opposite me, of a +husbandman; for a common Hades lies beneath sea and earth. + + + XVII + ON THE SAME + PLATO + +Well be with you, O mariners, both at sea and on land; but know that +you pass by the grave of a shipwrecked man. + + + XVIII + ON THE SAME + THEODORIDES + +I am the tomb of one shipwrecked; but sail thou; for when we were +perishing, the other ships sailed on over the sea. + + + XIX + ON THE SAME + LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM + +May the seafarer have a prosperous voyage; but if, like me, the gale +drive him into the harbour of Hades, let him blame not the +inhospitable sea-gulf, but his own foolhardiness that loosed moorings +from our tomb. + + + XX + ON THE SAME + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Mariner, ask not whose tomb I am here, but be thine own fortune a +kinder sea. + + + XXI + ON THE SAME + CALLIMACHUS + +What stranger, O shipwrecked man? Leontichus found me here a corpse on +the shore, and heaped this tomb over me, with tears for his own +calamitous life: for neither is he at peace, but flits like a gull +over the sea. + + + XXII + ON THE EMPTY TOMB OF ONE LOST AT SEA + GLAUCUS + +Not dust nor the light weight of a stone, but all this sea that thou +beholdest is the tomb of Erasippus; for he perished with his ship, and +in some unknown place his bones moulder, and the sea-gulls alone know +them to tell. + + + XXIII + ON THE SAME + SIMONIDES + +Cloudcapt Geraneia, cruel steep, would thou hadst looked on far Ister +and long Scythian Tanaïs, and not lain nigh the surge of the Scironian +sea by the ravines of the snowy Meluriad rock: but now he is a chill +corpse in ocean, and the empty tomb here cries aloud of his heavy +voyage. + + + XXIV + ON THE SAME + DAMAGETUS + +Thymodes also, weeping over unlooked-for woes, reared this empty tomb +to Lycus his son; for not even in a strange land did he get a grave, +but some Thynian beach or Pontic island holds him, where, forlorn of +all funeral rites, his shining bones lie naked on an inhospitable +shore. + + + XXV + ON A SAILOR DROWNED IN HARBOUR + ANTIPATER OF SIDON + +Everywhere the sea is the sea; why idly blame we the Cyclades or the +narrow wave of Helle and the Needles? in vain have they their fame; or +why when I had escaped them did the harbour of Scarphe cover me? Pray +whoso will for a fair passage home; that the sea's way is the sea, +Aristagoras knows who is buried here. + + + XXVI + ON ARISTON OF CYRENE, LOST AT SEA + THEAETETUS + +O sailing mariners, Ariston of Cyrene prays you all for the sake of +Zeus the Protector, to tell his father Meno that he lies by the +Icarian rocks, having given up the ghost in the Aegean sea. + + + XXVII + ON BITON OF AMPHIPOLIS, LOST AT SEA + NICAENETUS + +I am the grave of Biton, O wayfarer; and if leaving Torone thou goest +even to Amphipolis, tell Nicagoras that Strymonias at the setting of +the Kids lost him his only son. + + + XXVIII + ON POLYANTHUS OF TORONE, LOST AT SEA + PHAEDIMUS + +I bewail Polyanthus, O thou who passest by, whom Aristagore his wife +laid newly-wedded in the grave, having received dust and bones (but +him the ill-blown Aegean wave cast away off Sciathus), when at early +dawn the fishermen drew his luckless corpse, O stranger, into the +harbour of Torone. + + + XXIX + ON A WAYSIDE TOMB + NICIAS + +Sit beneath the poplars here, traveller, when thou art weary, and +drawing nigh drink of our spring; and even far away remember the +fountain that Simus sets by the side of Gillus his dead child. + + + XXX + ON THE CHILDREN OF NICANDER AND LYSIDICE + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +This is the single tomb of Nicander's children; the light of a single +morning ended the sacred offspring of Lysidice. + + + XXXI + ON A BABY + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Me a baby that was just tasting life heaven snatched away, I know not +whether for good or for evil; insatiable Death, why hast thou snatched +me cruelly in infancy? why hurriest thou? Are we not all thine in the +end? + + + XXXII + ON A CHILD OF FIVE + LUCIAN + +Me Callimachus, a five-years-old child whose spirit knew not grief, +pitiless Death snatched away; but weep thou not for me; for little was +my share in life, and little in life's ills. + + + XXXIII + ON A CHILD OF SEVEN + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Hermes messenger of Persephone, whom usherest thou thus to the +laughterless abyss of Death? what hard fate snatched Ariston from the +fresh air at seven years old? and the child stands between his +parents. Pluto delighting in tears, are not all mortal spirits +allotted to thee? why gatherest thou the unripe grapes of youth? + + + XXXIV + ON A BOY OF TWELVE + CALLIMACHUS + +Philip the father laid here the twelve-years-old child, his high hope, +Nicoteles. + + + XXXV + ON CLEOETES + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Looking on the monument of a dead boy, Cleoetes son of Menesaechmus, +pity him who was beautiful and died. + + + XXXVI + ON A BEAUTIFUL BOY + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Not death is bitter, since that is the fate of all, but to die ere the +time and before our parents: I having seen not marriage nor wedding- +chant nor bridal bed, lie here the love of many, and to be the love of +more. + + + XXXVII + ON A BOY OF NINETEEN + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Bidding hail to me, Diogenes beneath the earth, go about thy business +and obtain thy desire; for at nineteen years old I was laid low by +cruel sickness and leave the sweet sun. + + + XXXVIII + ON A SON, BY HIS MOTHER + DIOTIMUS + +What profits it to labour in childbirth? what to bear children? let +not her bear who must see her child's death: for to stripling Bianor +his mother reared the tomb; but it was fitting that the mother should +obtain this service of the son. + + + XXXIX + ON A GIRL + CALLIMACHUS + +The daughters of the Samians often require Crethis the teller of +tales, who knew pretty games, sweetest of workfellows, ever talking; +but she sleeps here the sleep to which they all must come. + + + XL + ON A BETROTHED GIRL + ERINNA + +I am of Baucis the bride; and passing by my oft-wept pillar thou +mayest say this to Death that dwells under ground, "Thou art envious, +O Death"; and the coloured monument tells to him who sees it the most +bitter fortune of Bauco, how her father-in-law burned the girl on the +funeral pyre with those torches by whose light the marriage train was +to be led home; and thou, O Hymenaeus, didst change the tuneable +bridal song into a voice of wailing dirges. + + + XLI + ON THE SAME + ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA + +Ausonian earth holds me a woman of Libya, and I lie a maiden here by +the sea-sand near Rome; and Pompeia, who nurtured me like a daughter, +wept over me and laid me in a free tomb, while hastening on that other +torch-fire for me; but this one came first, and contrary to our +prayers Persephone lit the lamp. + + + XLII + ON A SINGING-GIRL + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Blue-eyed Musa, the sweet-voiced nightingale, suddenly this little +grave holds voiceless, and she lies like a stone who was so +accomplished and so famous; fair Musa, be this dust light over thee. + + + XLIII + ON CLAUDIA HOMONOEA + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +I Homonoea, who was far clearer-voiced than the Sirens, I who was more +golden than the Cyprian herself at revellings and feasts, I the +chattering bright swallow lie here, leaving tears to Atimetus, to whom +I was dear from girlhood; but unforeseen fate scattered all that great +affection. + + + XLIV + ON PAULA OF TARENTUM + DIODORUS OF SARDIS + +Bear witness this my stone house of night that has hidden me, and the +wail-circled water of Cocytus, my husband did not, as men say, kill +me, looking eagerly to marriage with another; why should Rufinius have +an ill name idly? but my predestined Fates lead me away; not surely is +Paula of Tarentum the only one who has died before her day. + + + XLV + ON A MOTHER, DEAD IN CHILDBIRTH + DIODORUS OF SARDIS + +These woeful letters of Diodorus' wisdom tell that I was engraven for +one early dead in child-birth, since she perished in bearing a boy; +and I weep to hold Athenaïs the comely daughter of Melo, who left +grief to the women of Lesbos and her father Jason; but thou, O +Artemis, wert busy with thy beast-slaying hounds. + + + XLVI + ON A MOTHER OF EIGHTEEN, AND HER BABY + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Name me Polyxena wife of Archelaus, child of Theodectes and hapless +Demarete, and a mother as far as the birth-pangs; but fate overtook +the child before full twenty suns, and myself died at eighteen years, +just a mother and just a bride, so brief was all my day. + + + XLVII + ON A YOUNG WIFE + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +To his wife Paulina, holy of life and blameless, who died at nineteen +years, Andronicus the physician paying memorial placed this witness +the last of all. + + + XLVIII + ON ATTHIS OF CNIDOS + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Atthis who didst live for me and breathe thy last toward me, source of +joyfulness formerly as now of tears, holy, much lamented, how sleepest +thou the mournful sleep, thou whose head was never laid away from thy +husband's breast, leaving Theius alone as one who is no more; for with +thee the hopes of our life went to darkness. + + + XLIX + ON PREXO, WIFE OF THEOCRITUS OF SAMOS + LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM + +Who and of whom art thou, O woman, that liest under the Parian column? +Prexo, daughter of Calliteles. And of what country? Of Samos. And also +who buried thee? Theocritus, to whom my parents gave me in marriage. +And of what diedst thou? Of child-birth. How old? Two-and-twenty. And +childless? Nay, but I left a three-year-old Calliteles. May he live at +least and come to great old age. And to thee, O stranger, may Fortune +give all prosperity. + + + L + ON AMAZONIA OF THESSALONICA + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Why idly bemoaning linger you by my tomb? nothing worthy of +lamentation is mine among the dead. Cease from plaints and be at rest, +O husband, and you my children fare well, and keep the memory of +Amazonia. + + + LI + ON A LACEDAEMONIAN NURSE + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Here earth holds the Peloponnesian woman who was the most faithful +nurse of the children of Diogeitus. + + + LII + ON A LYDIAN SLAVE + DIOSCORIDES + +A Lydian am I, yes a Lydian, but in a free tomb, O my master, thou +didst lay thy fosterer Timanthes; prosperously mayest thou lengthen +out an unharmed life, and if under the hand of old age thou shalt come +to me, I am thine, O master, even in the grave. + + + LIII + ON A PERSIAN SLAVE + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Even now beneath the earth I abide faithful to thee, yes my master, as +before, forgetting not thy kindness, in that then thou broughtest me +thrice out of sickness to safe foothold, and now didst lay me here +beneath sufficient shelter, calling me by name, Manes the Persian; and +for thy good deeds to me thou shalt have servants readier at need. + + + LIV + ON A FAVOURITE DOG + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Thou who passest on the path, if haply thou dost mark this monument, +laugh not, I pray thee, though it is a dog's grave; tears fell for me, +and the dust was heaped above me by a master's hands, who likewise +engraved these words on my tomb. + + + LV + ON A MALTESE WATCH-DOG + TYMNES + +Here the stone says it holds the white dog from Melita, the most +faithful guardian of Eumelus; Bull they called him while he was yet +alive; but now his voice is prisoned in the silent pathways of night. + + + LVI + ON A TAME PARTRIDGE + AGATHIAS + +No longer, poor partridge migrated from the rocks, does thy woven +house hold thee in its thin withies, nor under the sparkle of fresh- +faced Dawn dost thou ruffle up the edges of thy basking wings; the cat +bit off thy head, but the rest of thee I snatched away, and she did +not fill her greedy jaw; and now may the earth cover thee not lightly +but heavily, lest she drag out thy remains. + + + LVII + ON A THESSALIAN HOUND + SIMONIDES + +Surely even as thou liest dead in this tomb I deem the wild beasts yet +fear thy white bones, huntress Lycas; and thy valour great Pelion +knows, and splendid Ossa and the lonely peaks of Cithaeron. + + + LVIII + ON CHARIDAS OF CYRENE + CALLIMACHUS + +Does Charidas in truth sleep beneath thee? If thou meanest the son of +Arimmas of Cyrene, beneath me. O Charidas, what of the under world? +Great darkness. And what of the resurrection? A lie. And Pluto? A +fable; we perish utterly. This my tale to you is true; but if thou +wilt have the pleasant one of the Samian, I am a large ox in Hades. + + + LIX + ON THEOGNIS OF SINOPE + SIMONIDES + +I am the monument of Theognis of Sinope, over whom Glaucus set me in +guerdon of their long fellowship. + + + LX + ON A DEAD FRIEND + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +This little stone, good Sabinus, is the record of our great +friendship; ever will I require thee; and thou, if it is permitted, +drink not among the dead of the water of Lethe for me. + + + LXI + ON AN UNHAPPY MAN + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +I Dionysius of Tarsus lie here at sixty, having never married; and +would that my father had not. + + + LXII + ON A CRETAN MERCHANT + SIMONIDES + +I Brotachus of Gortyna, a Cretan, lie here, not having come hither for +this, but for traffic. + + + LXIII + ON SAON OF ACANTHUS + CALLIMACHUS + +Here Saon, son of Dicon of Acanthus, rests in a holy sleep; say not +that the good die. + + + + CHAPTER IV + + LITERATURE AND ART + + + I + THE GROVE OF THE MUSES + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Say thou that this grave is consecrate to the Muses, pointing to the +books by the plane-trees, and that we guard it; and if a true lover of +ours come hither, we crown him with our ivy. + + + II + THE VOICE OF THE WORLD + ANTIPATER OF SIDON + +The herald of the prowess of heroes and the interpreter of the +immortals, a second sun on the life of Greece, Homer, the light of the +Muses, the ageless mouth of all the world, lies hid, O stranger, under +the sea-washed sand. + + + III + THE TALE OF TROY + ALPHEUS + +Still we hear the wail of Andromache, still we see all Troy toppling +from her foundations, and the battling of Ajax, and Hector, bound to +the horses, dragged under the city's crown of towers, through the Muse +of Maeonides, the poet with whom no one country adorns herself as her +own, but the zones of both worlds. + + + IV + ORPHEUS + ANTIPATER OF SIDON + +No longer, Orpheus, wilt thou lead the charmed oaks, no longer the +rocks nor the lordless herds of the wild beasts; no longer wilt thou +lull the roaring of the winds, nor hail and sweep of snowstorms nor +dashing sea; for thou perishedst; and the daughters of Mnemosyne wept +sore for thee, and thy mother Calliope above all. Why do we mourn over +dead sons, when not even gods avail to ward off Hades from their +children? + + + V + SAPPHO + POSIDIPPUS + +Doricha, long ago thy bones are dust, and the ribbon of thy hair and +the raiment scented with unguents, wherein once wrapping lovely +Charaxus round thou didst cling to him carousing into dawn; but the +white leaves of the dear ode of Sappho remain yet and shall remain +speaking thy blessed name, which Naucratis shall keep here so long as +a sea-going ship shall come to the lagoons of Nile. + + + VI + ERINNA (1) + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Thee, as thou wert just giving birth to a springtide of honeyed songs +and just finding thy swan-voice, Fate, mistress of the threaded +spindle, drove to Acheron across the wide water of the dead; but the +fair labour of thy verses, Erinna, cries that thou art not perished, +but keepest mingled choir with the Maidens of Pieria. + + + VII + ERINNA (2) + LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM + +The young maiden singer Erinna, the bee among poets, who sipped the +flowers of the Muses, Hades snatched away to be his bride; truly +indeed said the girl in her wisdom, "Thou art envious, O Death." + + + VIII + ANACREON'S GRAVE (1) + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +O stranger who passest this the tomb of Anacreon, pour libation over +me in going by; for I am a drinker of wine. + + + IX + ANACREON'S GRAVE (2) + ANTIPATER OF SIDON + +O stranger who passest by the humble tomb of Anacreon, if thou hast +had aught of good from my books pour libation on my ashes, pour +libation of the jocund grape, that my bones may rejoice wetted with +wine; so I, who was ever deep in the wine-steeped revels of Dionysus, +I who was bred among drinking tunes, shall not even when dead endure +without Bacchus this place to which the generation of mortals must +come. + + + X + PINDAR + ANTIPATER OF SIDON + +As high as the trumpet's blast outsounds the thin flute, so high above +all others did thy lyre ring; nor idly did the tawny swarm mould their +waxen-celled honey, O Pindar, about thy tender lips: witness the +horned god of Maenalus when he sang thy hymn and forgot his own +pastoral reeds. + + + XI + THESPIS + DIOSCORIDES + +I am Thespis who first shaped the strain of tragedy, making new +partition of fresh graces among the masquers when Bacchus would lead +home the wine-stained chorus, for whom a goat and a basket of Attic +figs was as yet the prize in contests. A younger race reshape all +this; and infinite time will make many more inventions yet; but mine +are mine. + + + XII + SOPHOCLES + SIMMIAS + +Gently over the tomb of Sophocles, gently creep, O ivy, flinging forth +thy pale tresses, and all about let the rose-petal blow, and the +clustered vine shed her soft tendrils round, for the sake of the wise- +hearted eloquence mingled of the Muses and Graces that lived on his +honeyed tongue. + + + XIII + ARISTOPHANES + PLATO + +The Graces, seeking to take a sanctuary that will not fall, found the +soul of Aristophanes. + + + XIV + RHINTHO + NOSSIS + +With a ringing laugh, and a friendly word over me do thou pass by; I +am Rhintho of Syracuse, a small nightingale of the Muses; but from our +tragical mirth we plucked an ivy of our own. + + + XV + MELEAGER (1) + MELEAGER + +Tread softly, O stranger; for here an old man sleeps among the holy +dead, lulled in the slumber due to all, Meleager son of Eucrates, who +united Love of the sweet tears and the Muses with the joyous Graces; +whom God-begotten Tyre brought to manhood, and the sacred land of +Gadara, but lovely Cos nursed in old age among the Meropes. But if +thou art a Syrian, say /Salam/, and if a Phoenician, /Naidios/, and if +a Greek, Hail; they are the same. + + + XVI + MELEAGER (2) + MELEAGER + +Island Tyre was my nurse; and the Attic land that lies in Syrian +Gadara is the country of my birth; and I sprang of Eucrates, I +Meleager, the companion of the Muses, first of all who have run side +by side with the Graces of Menippus. And if I am a Syrian, what +wonder? We all dwell in one country, O stranger, the world; one Chaos +brought all mortals to birth. And when stricken in years, I inscribed +this on my tablets before burial, since old age is death's near +neighbour; but do thou, bidding hail to me, the aged talker, thyself +reach a talking old age. + + + XVII + PYLADES THE HARP-PLAYER + ALCAEUS OF MESSENE + +All Greece bewails thee departed, Pylades, and cuts short her undone +hair; even Phoebus himself laid aside the laurels from his unshorn +tresses, honouring his own minstrel as was meet, and the Muses wept, +and Asopus stayed his stream, hearing the cry from their wailing lips; +and Dionysus' halls ceased from dancing when thou didst pass down the +iron path of Death. + + + XVIII + THE DEATH OF MUSIC + LEONTIUS + +When Orpheus was gone, a Muse was yet haply left, but when thou didst +perish, Plato, the harp likewise ceased; for till then there yet lived +some little fragment of the old melodies, saved in thy soul and hands. + + + XIX + APOLLO AND MARSYAS (1) + ALCAEUS OF MESSENE + +No more through pine-clad Phrygia, as of old, shalt thou make melody, +uttering thy notes through the pierced reeds, nor in thy hands as +before shall the workmanship of Tritonian Athena flower forth, +nymph-born Satyr; for thy hands are bound tight in gyves, since being +mortal thou didst join immortal strife with Phoebus; and the flutes, +that cried as honey-sweet as his harp, gained thee from the contest no +crown but death. + + + XX + APOLLO AND MARSYAS (2) + ARCHIAS + +Thou hangest high where the winds lash thy wild body, O wretched one, +swinging from a shaggy pine; thou hangest high, for thou didst stand +up to strife against Phoebus, O Satyr, dweller on the cliff of +Celaenae; and we nymphs shall no longer as before hear the honey- +sounding cry of thy flute on the Phrygian hills. + + + XXI + GLAPHYRUS THE FLUTE-PLAYER + ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA + +Phoebus said over clear-voiced Glaphyrus as he breathed desire through +the pierced lotus-pipes, "O Marsyas, thou didst tell false of thy +discovery, for this is he who carried off Athena's flutes out of +Phrygia; and if thou hadst blown then in such as his, Hyagnis would +not have wept that disastrous flute-strife by Maeander." + + + XXII + VIOL AND FLUTE + THEOCRITUS + +Wilt thou for the Muses' sake play me somewhat of sweet on thy twin +flutes? and I lifting the harp will begin to make music on the +strings; and Daphnis the neatherd will mingle enchantment with +tuneable breath of the wax-bound pipe; and thus standing nigh within +the fringed cavern mouth, let us rob sleep from Pan the lord of the +goats. + + + XXIII + POPULAR SONGS + LUCILIUS + +Eutychides, the writer of songs, is dead; flee, O you under earth! +Eutychides is coming with his odes; he left instructions to burn along +with him twelve lyres and twenty-five boxes of airs. Now Charon has +come upon you; whither may one retreat in future, since Eutychides +fills Hades too? + + + XXIV + GRAMMAR, MUSIC, RHETORIC + LUCILIUS + +Pluto turns away the dead rhetorician Marcus, saying, "Let the dog +Cerberus suffice us here; yet if thou needs must, declaim to Ixion and +Melito the song-writer, and Tityus; for I have no worse evil than +thee, till Rufus the critic comes to murder the language here." + + + XXV + CALAMUS + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +I the reed was a useless plant; for out of me grew not figs nor apple +nor grape-cluster; but man consecrated me a daughter of Helicon, +piercing my delicate lips and making me the channel of a narrow +stream; and thenceforth, whenever I sip black drink, like one inspired +I speak all words with this voiceless mouth. + + + XXVI + IN THE CLASSROOM + CALLIMACHUS + +Simus son of Miccus, giving me to the Muses, asked for himself +learning, and they, like Glaucus, gave a great gift for a little one; +and I lean gaping up against this double letter of the Samian, a +tragic Dionysus, listening to the little boys; and they repeat /Holy +is the hair/, telling me my own dream. + + + XXVII + THE POOR SCHOLAR + ARISTON + +O mice, if you are come after bread, go to another cupboard (for we +live in a tiny cottage) where you will feed daintily on rich cheese +and dried raisins, and make an abundant supper off the scraps; but if +you sharpen your teeth again on my books and come in with your +graceless rioting, you shall howl for it. + + + XXVIII + THE HIGHER METAPHYSIC + AGATHIAS + +That second Aristotle, Nicostratus, Plato's peer, splitter of the +straws of the sublimest philosophy, was asked about the soul as +follows: How may one rightly describe the soul, as mortal, or, on the +contrary, immortal? and should we speak of it as a body or +incorporeal? and is it to be placed among intelligible or sensible +objects, or compounded of both? So he read through the treatises of +the transcendentalists, and Aristotle's /de Anima/, and explored the +Platonic heights of the /Phaedo/, and wove into a single fabric the +whole exact truth on all its sides. Then wrapping his threadbare cloak +about him, and stroking down the end of his beard, he proffered the +solution:--If there exists at all a nature of the soul--for of this I +am not sure--it is certainly either mortal or immortal, of solid +nature or immaterial; however, when you cross Acheron, there you shall +know the certainty like Plato. And if you will, imitate young +Cleombrotus of Ambracia, and let your body drop from the roof; and you +may at once recognise your self apart from the body by merely getting +rid of the subject of your inquiry. + + + XXIX + THE PHAEDO OF PLATO + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +If Plato did not write me, there were two Platos; I carry in me all +the flowers of Socratic talk. But Panaetius concluded me to be +spurious; yes, he who concluded that the soul was mortal, would +conclude me spurious as well. + + + XXX + CLEOMBROTUS OF AMBRACIA + CALLIMACHUS + +Saying, "Farewell, O Sun," Cleombrotus of Ambracia leaped off a high +wall to Hades, having seen no evil worthy of death, but only having +read that one writing of Plato's on the soul. + + + XXXI + THE DEAD SCHOLAR + CALLIMACHUS + +One told me of thy fate, Heraclitus, and wrung me to tears, and I +remembered how often both of us let the sun sink as we talked; but +thou, methinks, O friend from Halicarnassus, art ashes long and long +ago; yet thy nightingale-notes live, whereon Hades the ravisher of all +things shall not lay his hand. + + + XXXII + ALEXANDRIANISM + CALLIMACHUS + +I hate the cyclic poem, nor do I delight in a road that carries many +hither and thither; I detest, too, one who ever goes girt with lovers, +and I drink not from the fountain; I loathe everything popular. + + + XXXIII + SPECIES AETERNITATIS + PTOLEMAEUS + +I know that I am mortal, and ephemeral; but when I scan the +multitudinous circling spirals of the stars, no longer do I touch +earth with my feet, but sit with Zeus himself, and take my fill of the +ambrosial food of gods. + + + XXXIV + THE PASTORAL POETS + ARTEMIDORUS + +The pastoral Muses, once scattered, now are all a single flock in a +single fold. + + + XXXV + ON A RELIEF OF EROS AND ANTEROS + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Nemesis fashioned a winged Love contrary to winged Love, warding off +bow with bow, that he may be done by as he did; and, bold and fearless +before, he sheds tears, having tasted of the bitter arrows, and spits +thrice into his low-girt bosom. Ah, most wonderful! one will burn with +fire: Love has set Love aflame. + + + XXXVI + ON A LOVE BREAKING THE THUNDERBOLT + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Lo, how winged Love breaks the winged thunderbolt, showing that he is +a fire more potent than fire. + + + XXXVII + ON A LOVE PLOUGHING + MOSCHUS + +Laying down his torch and bow, soft Love took the rod of an ox-driver, +and wore a wallet over his shoulder; and coupling patient-necked bulls +under his yoke, sowed the wheat-bearing furrow of Demeter; and spoke, +looking up, to Zeus himself, "Fill thou the corn-lands, lest I put +thee, bull of Europa, under my plough." + + + XXXVIII + ON A PAN PIPING + ARABIUS + +One might surely have clearly heard Pan piping, so did the sculptor +mingle breath with the form; but in despair at the sight of flying, +unstaying Echo, he renounced the pipe's unavailing sound. + + + XXXIX + ON A STATUE OF THE ARMED VENUS + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Pallas said, seeing Cytherea armed, "O Cyprian, wilt thou that we go +so to judgment?" and she, laughing softly, "why should I lift a shield +in contest? if I conquer when naked, how will it be when I take arms?" + + + XL + ON THE CNIDIAN VENUS OF PRAXITELES + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +The Cyprian said when she saw the Cyprian of Cnidus, "Alas where did +Praxiteles see me naked?" + + + XLI + ON A SLEEPING ARIADNE + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Strangers, touch not the marble Ariadne, lest she even start up on the +quest of Theseus. + + + XLII + ON A NIOBE BY PRAXITELES + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +From life the gods made me a stone; and from stone again Praxiteles +wrought me into life. + + + XLIII + ON A PICTURE OF A FAUN + AGATHIAS + +Untouched, O young Satyr, does thy reed utter a sound, or why leaning +sideways dost thou put thine ear to the pipe? He laughs and is silent; +yet haply had he spoken a word, but was held in forgetfulness by +delight? for the wax did not hinder, but of his own will he welcomed +silence, with his whole mind turned intent on the pipe. + + + XLIV + ON THE HEIFER OF MYRON + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Ah thou wert not quick enough, Myron, in thy casting; but the bronze +grew solid before thou hadst cast in a soul. + + + XLV + ON A SLEEPING SATYR + PLATO + +This Satyr Diodorus engraved not, but laid to rest; your touch will +wake him; the silver is asleep. + + + XLVI + THE LIMIT OF ART + PARRHASIUS + +Even though incredible to the hearer, I say this; for I affirm that +the clear limits of this art have been found under my hand, and the +mark is fixed fast that cannot be exceeded. But nothing among mortals +is faultless. + + + + CHAPTER V + + RELIGION + + + I + WORSHIP IN SPRING (1) + THEAETETUS + +Now at her fruitful birth-tide the fair green field flowers out in +blowing roses; now on the boughs of the colonnaded cypresses the +cicala, mad with music, lulls the binder of sheaves; and the careful +mother-swallow, having fashioned houses under the eaves, gives +harbourage to her brood in the mud-plastered cells: and the sea +slumbers, with zephyr-wooing calm spread clear over the broad ship- +tracks, not breaking in squalls on the stern-posts, not vomiting foam +upon the beaches. O sailor, burn by the altars the glittering round of +a mullet or a cuttle-fish, or a vocal scarus, to Priapus, ruler of +ocean and giver of anchorage; and so go fearlessly on thy seafaring to +the bounds of the Ionian Sea. + + + II + WORSHIP IN SPRING (2) + AGATHIAS + +Ocean lies purple in calm; for no gale whitens the fretted waves with +its ruffling breath, and no longer is the sea shattered round the +rocks and sucked back again down towards the deep. West winds breathe, +and the swallow titters over the straw-glued chamber that she has +built. Be of good cheer, O skilled in seafaring, whether thou sail to +the Syrtis or the Sicilian shingle: only by the altars of Priapus of +the Anchorage burn a scarus or ruddy wrasse. + + + III + ZEUS OF THE FAIR WIND + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Let one call from the stern on Zeus the Fair Wind for guide on his +road, shaking out sail against the forestays; whether he runs to the +Dark Eddies, where Poseidon rolls his curling wave along the sands, or +whether he searches the backward passage down the Aegean sea-plain, +let him lay honey-cakes by this image, and so go his way; here Philon, +son of Antipater, set up the ever-gracious god for pledge of fair and +fortunate voyaging. + + + IV + THE SACRED CITY + MACEDONIUS + +Beneath flowering Tmolus, by the stream of Maeonian Hermus, am I, +Sardis, capital city of the Lydians. I was the first who bore witness +for Zeus; for I would not betray the hidden child of our Rhea. I too +was nurse of Bromius, and saw him amid the thunder-flash shining with +broader radiance; and first on our slopes the golden-haired god +pressed the harvest of wine out of the breasts of the grape. All grace +has been given me, and many a time has many an age found me envied by +the happiest cities. + + + V + HERMES OF THE WAYS + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Go and rest your limbs here for a little under the juniper, O +wayfarers, by Hermes, Guardian of the Way, not in crowds, but those of +you whose knees are tired with heavy toil and thirst after traversing +a long road; for there a breeze and a shady seat and the fountain +under the rock will lull your toil-wearied limbs; and having so +escaped the midday breath of the autumnal dogstar, as is right, honour +Hermes of the Ways. + + + VI + BELOW CYLLENE + NICIAS + +I who inherit the tossing mountain-forests of steep Cyllene, stand +here guarding the pleasant playing fields, Hermes, to whom boys often +offer marjoram and hyacinth and fresh garlands of violets. + + + VII + PAN OF THE SEA-CLIFF + ARCHIAS + +Me, Pan, the fishermen placed upon this holy cliff, Pan of the +seashore, the watcher here over the fair anchorages of the harbour; +and I take care now of the baskets and again of the trawlers off this +shore. But sail thou by, O stranger, and in requital of this good +service of theirs I will send behind thee a gentle south wind. + + + VIII + THE SPIRIT OF THE SEA + ARCHIAS + +Small to see, I, Priapus, inhabit this spit of shore, not much bigger +than a sea-gull, sharp-headed, footless, such an one as upon lonely +beaches might be carved by the sons of toiling fishermen. But if any +basket-finder or angler call me to succour, I rush fleeter than the +blast: likewise I see the creatures that run under water; and truly +the form of godhead is known from deeds, not from shape. + + + IX + THE GUARDIAN OF THE CHASE + SATYRUS + +Whether thou goest on the hill with lime smeared over thy fowler's +reed, or whether thou killest hares, call on Pan; Pan shows the dog +the prints of the furry foot, Pan raises the stiff-jointed lime-twigs. + + + X + THE HUNTER GOD + LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM + +Fair fall thy chase, O hunter of hares, and thou fowler who comest +pursuing the winged people beneath this double hill; and cry thou to +me, Pan, the guardian of the wood from my cliff; I join the chase with +both dogs and reeds. + + + XI + FORTUNA PARVULORUM + PERSES + +Even me the little god of small things if thou call upon in due season +thou shalt find; but ask not for great things; since whatsoever a god +of the commons can give to a labouring man, of this I, Tycho, have +control. + + + XII + THE PRAYERS OF THE SAINTS + ADDAEUS + +If thou pass by the hero (and he is called Philopregmon) who lies by +the cross-roads in front of Potidaea, tell him to what work thou +leadest thy feet; straightway will he, being by thee, make thy +business easy. + + + XIII + SAVED BY FAITH + LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM + +They call me the little one, and say I cannot go straight and fearless +on a prosperous voyage like ships that sail out to sea; and I deny it +not; I am a little boat, but to the sea all is equal; fortune, not +size, makes the difference. Let another have the advantage in rudders; +for some put their confidence in this and some in that, but may my +salvation be of God. + + + XIV + THE SERVICE OF GOD + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Me Chelidon, priestess of Zeus, who knew well in old age how to make +offering on the altars of the immortals, happy in my children, free +from grief, the tomb holds; for with no shadow in their eyes the gods +saw my piety. + + + XV + BEATI MUNDO CORDE + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +He who enters the incense-filled temple must be holy; and holiness is +to have a pure mind. + + + XVI + THE WATER OF PURITY + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Hallowed in soul, O stranger, come even into the precinct of a pure +god, touching thyself with the virgin water; for the good a few drops +are set; but a wicked man the whole ocean cannot wash in its waters. + + + XVII + THE GREAT MYSTERIES + CRINAGORAS + +Though thy life be fixed in one seat, and thou sailest not the sea nor +treadest the roads on dry land, yet by all means go to Attica that +thou mayest see those great nights of the worship of Demeter; whereby +thou shalt possess thy soul without care among the living, and lighter +when thou must go to the place that awaiteth all. + + + + CHAPTER VI + + NATURE + + + I + THE GARDEN GOD + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Call me not him who comes from Libanus, O stranger, who delights in +the talk of young men love-making by night; I am small and a rustic, +born of a neighbour nymph, and all my business is labour of the +garden; whence four garlands at the hands of the four Seasons crown me +from the beloved fruitful threshing-floor. + + + II + PAN'S PIPING + ALCAEUS OF MESSENE + +Breathe music, O Pan that goest on the mountains, with thy sweet lips, +breathe delight into thy pastoral reed, pouring song from the musical +pipe, and make the melody sound in tune with the choral words; and +about thee to the pulse of the rhythm let the inspired foot of these +water-nymphs keep falling free. + + + III + THE ROADSIDE POOL + LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM + +Drink not here, traveller, from this warm pool in the brook, full of +mud stirred by the sheep at pasture; but go a very little way over the +ridge where the heifers are grazing; for there by yonder pastoral +stone-pine thou wilt find bubbling through the fountained rock a +spring colder than northern snow. + + + IV + THE MEADOW AT NOON + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Here fling thyself down on the grassy meadow, O traveller, and rest +thy relaxed limbs from painful weariness; since here also, as thou +listenest to the cicalas' tune, the stone-pine trembling in the wafts +of west wind will lull thee, and the shepherd on the mountains piping +at noon nigh the spring under a copse of leafy plane: so escaping the +ardours of the autumnal dogstar thou wilt cross the height to-morrow; +trust this good counsel that Pan gives thee. + + + V + BENEATH THE PINE + PLATO + +Sit down by this high-foliaged voiceful pine that rustles her branches +beneath the western breezes, and beside my chattering waters Pan's +pipe shall bring drowsiness down on thy enchanted eyelids. + + + VI + WOOD-MUSIC + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Come and sit under my stone-pine that murmurs so honey-sweet as it +bends to the soft western breeze; and lo this honey-dropping fountain, +where I bring sweet sleep playing on my lonely reeds. + + + VII + THE PLANE-TREE ON HYMETTUS + HERMOCREON + +Sit down, stranger, as thou passest by, under this shady plane, whose +leaves flutter in the soft breath of the west wind, where Nicagoras +consecrated me, the renowned Hermes son of Maia, protector of his +orchard-close and cattle. + + + VIII + THE GARDEN OF PAN + PLATO + +Let the shaggy cliff of the Dryads be silent, and the springs welling +from the rock, and the many-mingled bleating of the ewes; for Pan +himself makes music on his melodious pipe, running his supple lip over +the jointed reeds; and around him stand up to dance with glad feet the +water-nymphs and the nymphs of the oakwood. + + + IX + THE FOUNTAIN OF LOVE + MARIANUS + +Here beneath the plane-trees, overborne by soft sleep, Love slumbered, +giving his torch to the Nymphs' keeping; and the Nymphs said one to +another, "Why do we delay? and would that with this we might have +quenched the fire in the heart of mortals." But now, the torch having +kindled even the waters, the amorous Nymphs pour hot water thence into +the bathing pool. + + + X + ON THE LAWN + COMETAS + +Dear Pan, abide here, drawing the pipe over thy lips, for thou wilt +find Echo on these sunny greens. + + + XI + THE SINGING STONE + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Remember me the singing stone, thou who passest by Nisaea; for when +Alcathous was building his bastions, then Phoebus lifted on his +shoulder a stone for the house, and laid down on me his Delphic harp; +thenceforth I am lyre-voiced; strike me lightly with a little pebble, +and carry away witness of my boast. + + + XII + THE WOODLAND WELL + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +I the ever-flowing Clear Fount gush forth for by-passing wayfarers +from the neighbouring dell; and everywhere I am bordered well with +planes and soft-bloomed laurels, and make coolness and shade to lie +in. Therefore pass me not by in summer; rest by me in quiet, ridding +thee of thirst and weariness. + + + XIII + ASLEEP IN THE WOOD + THEOCRITUS + +Thou sleepest on the leaf-strewn floor, Daphnis, resting thy weary +body; and the hunting-snakes are freshly set on the hills; and Pan +pursues thee, and Priapus who binds the yellow ivy on his lovely head, +passing side by side into the cave; but flee thou, flee, shaking off +the dropping drowsiness of slumber. + + + XIV + THE ORCHARD-CORNER + ANYTE + +I, Hermes, stand here by the windy orchard in the cross-ways nigh the +grey sea-shore, giving rest on the way to wearied men; and the +fountain wells forth cold stainless water. + + + XV + PASTORAL SOLITUDE + SATYRUS + +Tongueless Echo along this pastoral slope makes answering music to the +birds with repeating voice. + + + XVI + TO A BLACKBIRD SINGING + MARCUS ARGENTARIUS + +No longer now warble on the oak, no longer sing, O blackbird, sitting +on the topmost spray; this tree is thine enemy; hasten where the vine +rises in clustering shade of silvered leaves; on her bough rest the +sole of thy foot, around her sing and pour the shrill music of thy +mouth; for the oak carries mistletoe baleful to birds, and she the +grape-cluster; and the Wine-god cherishes singers. + + + XVII + UNDER THE OAK + ANTIPHILUS + +Lofty-hung boughs of the tall oak, a shadowy height over men that take +shelter from the fierce heat, fair-foliaged, closer-roofing than +tiles, houses of wood-pigeons, houses of crickets, O noontide +branches, protect me likewise who lie beneath your tresses, fleeing +from the sun's rays. + + + XVIII + THE RELEASE OF THE OX + ADDAEUS + +The labouring ox, outworn with old age and labour of the furrow, Alcon +did not lead to the butchering knife, reverencing it for its works; +and astray in the deep meadow grass it rejoices with lowings over +freedom from the plough. + + + XIX + THE SWALLOW AND THE GRASSHOPPER + EVENUS + +Attic maid, honey-fed, chatterer, snatchest thou and bearest the +chattering cricket for feast to thy unfledged young, thou chatterer +the chatterer, thou winged the winged, thou summer guest the summer +guest, and wilt not quickly throw it away? for it is not right nor +just that singers should perish by singers' mouths. + + + XX + THE COMPLAINT OF THE CICALA + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Why in merciless chase, shepherds, do you tear me the solitude- +haunting cricket from the dewy sprays, me the roadside nightingale of +the Nymphs, who at midday talk shrilly in the hills and the shady +dells? Lo, here is the thrust and the blackbird, lo here such flocks +of starlings, plunderers of the cornfield's riches; it is allowed to +seize the ravagers of your fruits: destroy them: why grudge me my +leaves and fresh dew? + + + XXI + THE LAMENT OF THE SWALLOW + PAMPHILUS + +Why all day long, hapless maiden daughter of Pandion, soundest thou +wailingly through thy twittering mouth? has longing come on thee for +thy maidenhead, that Tereus of Thrace ravished from thee by dreadful +violence? + + + XXII + THE SHEPHERD OF THE NYMPHS + MYRINUS + +Thyrsis the reveller, the shepherd of the Nymphs' sheep, Thyrsis who +pipes on the reed like Pan, having drunk at noon, sleeps under the +shady pine, and Love himself has taken his crook and watches the +flocks. + + + XXIII + THE SHRINE BY THE SEA (1) + MNASALCAS + +Let us stand by the low shore of the spray-scattering deep, looking on +the precinct of Cypris of the Sea, and the fountain overshadowed with +poplars, from which the shrill kingfishers draw water with their +bills. + + + XXIV + THE SHRINE BY THE SEA (2) + ANYTE + +This is the Cyprians ground, since it was her pleasure ever to look +from land on the shining sea, that she may give fulfilment of their +voyage to sailors; and around the deep trembles, gazing on her bright +image. + + + XXV + THE LIGHTHOUSE + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +No longer dreading the rayless night-mist, sail towards me +confidently, O seafarers; for all wanderers I light my far-shining +torch, memorial of the labours of the Asclepiadae. + + + XXVI + SPRING ON THE COAST (1) + LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM + +Now is the season of sailing; for already the chattering swallow is +come, and the gracious west wind; the meadows flower, and the sea, +tossed up with waves and rough blasts, has sunk to silence. Weigh +thine anchors and unloose thine hawsers, O mariner, and sail with all +thy canvas set: this I Priapus of the harbour bid thee, O man, that +thou mayest sail forth to all thy trafficking. + + + XXVII + SPRING ON THE COAST (2) + ANTIPATER OF SIDON + +Now is the season for a ship to run through the gurgling water, and no +longer does the sea gloom, fretted with gusty squalls, and now the +swallow plasters her round houses under the eaves, and the soft +leafage laughs in the meadows. Therefore wind up your soaked cables, O +sailors, and weight your hidden anchors from the harbours, and stretch +the forestays to carry your well-woven sails. This I the son of +Bromius bid you, Priapus of the anchorage. + + + XXVIII + GREEN SUMMER + NICAENETUS + +I do not wish to feast down in the city, Philotherus, but in the +country, delighting myself with the breath of the west wind; +sufficient couch for me is a strewing of boughs under my side, for at +hand is a bed of native willow and osier, the ancient garland of the +Carians; but let wine be brought, and the delightful lyre of the +Muses, that drinking at our will we may sing the renowned bride of +Zeus, lady of our island. + + + XXIX + PALACE GARDENS + ARABIUS + +I am filled with waters and gardens and groves and vineyards, and the +joyousness of the bordering sea; and fisherman and farmer from +different sides stretch forth to me the pleasant gifts of sea and +land: and them who abide in me either a bird singing or the sweet cry +of the ferrymen lulls to rest. + + + + CHAPTER VII + + THE FAMILY + + + I + THE HOUSE OF THE RIGHTEOUS + MACEDONIUS + +Righteousness has raised this house from the first foundation even to +the lofty roof; for Macedonius fashioned not his wealth by heaping up +from the possessions of others with plundering sword, nor has any poor +man here wept over his vain and profitless toil, being robbed of his +most just hire; and as rest from labour is kept inviolate by the just +man, so let the works of pious mortals endure. + + + II + THE GIRL'S CUP + PAULUS SILENTIARIUS + +Aniceteia wets her golden lip in me; but may I give her also the +draught of bridal. + + + III + THE FLOWER UNBLOWN + PHILODEMUS + +Not yet is thy summer unfolded from the bud, nor does the purple come +upon thy grape that throws out the first shoots of its maiden graces; +but already the young Loves are whetting their fleet arrows, Lysidice, +and the hidden fire is smouldering. Flee we, wretched lovers, ere yet +the shaft is on the string; I prophesy a mighty burning soon. + + + IV + A ROSE IN WINTER + CRINAGORAS + +Roses were now bloomed in spring, but now in midwinter we have opened +our crimson cups, smiling in delight on this thy birthday morning, +that brings thee so nigh the bridal bed: better for us to be wreathed +on the brows of so fair a woman than wait for the spring sun. + + + V + GOODBYE TO CHILDHOOD + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Her tambourines and pretty ball, and the net that confined her hair, +and her dolls and dolls' dresses, Timareta dedicates before her +marriage to Artemis of Limnae, a maiden to a maiden, as is fit; do +thou, daughter of Leto, laying thine hand over the girl Timareta, +preserve her purely in her purity. + + + VI + THE WIFE'S PRAYER + ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA + +Cythera of Bithynia dedicated me, the marble image of thy form, O +Cyprian, having vowed it: but do thou impart in return thy great grace +for this little one, as is thy wont; and concord with her husband +satisfies her. + + + VII + BRIDEGROOM AND BRIDE + JOANNES BARBUCALLUS + +To Persuasion and the Paphian, Hermophiles the neatherd, bridegroom of +flower-chapleted Eurynome, dedicates a cream-cheese and combs from his +hives; but accept for her the cheese, for me the honey. + + + VIII + THE BRIDE'S VIGIL + AGATHIAS + +Never grow mould, O lamp, nor call up the rain, lest thou stop my +bridegroom in his coming; always thou art jealous of the Cyprian; yes +and when she betrothed Hero to Leander--O my heart, leave the rest +alone. Thou art the Fire-God's, and I believe that by vexing the +Cyprian thou flatterest thy master's pangs. + + + IX + HEAVEN ON EARTH + THEOCRITUS + +This is not the common Cyprian; revere the goddess, and name her the +Heavenly, the dedication of holy Chrysogone in the house of Amphicles, +with whom she had children and life together; and ever it was better +with them year by year, who began with thy worship, O mistress; for +mortals who serve the gods are the better off themselves. + + + X + WEARY PARTING + MELEAGER + +Fair-freighted sea-faring ships that sail the Strait of Helle, taking +the good north wind in your sails, if haply on the island shores of +Cos you see Phanion gazing on the sparkling sea, carry this message: +Fair bride, thy desire beings me, not a sailor but a wayfarer on my +feet. For if you say this, carrying good news, straitway will Zeus of +the Fair Weather likewise breathe into your canvas. + + + XI + MOTHERHOOD + CALLIMACHUS + +Again, O Ilithyia, come thou at Lycaenis' call, Lady of Birth, even +thus with happy issue of travail; whose offering now this is for a +girl; but afterwards may thy fragrant temple hold another for a boy. + + + XII + PAST PERIL + CALLIMACHUS + +Thou knowest, Asclepius, that thou hast received payment of the debt +that Aceson owed, having vowed it for his wife Demodice; yet if it be +forgotten, and thou demand thy wages, this tablet says it will give +testimony. + + + XIII + FATHER AND MOTHER + PHAEDIMUS + +Artemis, to thee the son of Cichesias dedicates his shoes, and +Themostodice the strait folds of her gown, because thou didst +graciously hold thy two hands over her in childbed, coming, O our +Lady, without thy bow. And do thou, O Artemis, grant yet to Leon to +see his infant child a sturdy-limbed boy. + + + XIV + HOUSEHOLD HAPPINESS + AGATHIAS + +Callirhoë dedicates to the Paphian garlands, to Pallas a tress of +hair, to Artemis her girdle; for she found a wooer to her heart, and +was given a stainless prime, and bore male children. + + + XV + GRACIOUS CHILDREN + THEAETETUS + +Be happy, children; whose family are you? and what gracious name is +given to so pretty things as you?--I am Nicanor, and my father is +Aepioretus, and my mother Hegeso, and I am a Macedonian born.--And I +am Phila, and this is my brother; and we both stand here fulfilling a +vow of our parents. + + + XVI + THE UNBROKEN HOME + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Androtion built me, a burying-place for himself and his children and +wife, but as yet I am the tomb of no one; so likewise may I remain for +a long time; and if it must be, let me take to myself the eldest +first. + + + XVII + THE BROKEN HOME + BIANOR + +I wept the doom of my Theionoë, but borne up by hopes of her child I +wailed in lighter grief; and now a jealous fate has bereft me of the +child also; alas, babe, I am cozened even of thee, all that was left +me. Persephone, hear thou this at a father's lamentation; lay the babe +on the bosom of its mother who is gone. + + + XVIII + SUNDERING + ANTIPATER OF SIDON + +Surely, methinks, when thou hadst set thy footprint, Aretemias, from +the boat upon Cocytus' shore, carrying in thy young hand thy baby just +dead, the fair Dorian women had compassion in Hades, inquiring of thy +fate; and thou, fretting thy cheeks with tears, didst utter that woful +word: O friends, having travailed of two children, I left one for my +husband Euphron, and the other I bring to the dead. + + + XIX + NUNC DIMITTIS + JOANNES BARBUCALLUS + +Gazing upon my husband as my last thread was spun, I praised the gods +of death, and I praised the gods of marriage, those that I left my +husband alive, and these that he was even such an one; but may he +remain, a father for our children. + + + XX + LEFT ALONE + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Marathonis laid Nicopolis in this stone, wetting the marble coffin +with tears, but all to no avail; for what is there more than sorrow +for a man alone upon earth when his wife is gone? + + + XXI + EARTH'S FELICITY + CARPHYLLIDES + +Find no fault as thou passest by my monument, O wayfarer; not even in +death have I aught worthy of lamentation. I have left children's +children; I had joy of one wife, who grew old along with me; I made +marriage for three sons whose sons I often lulled asleep on my breast, +and never moaned over the sickness or the death of any: who, shedding +tears without sorrow over me, sent me to slumber the sweet sleep in +the country of the holy. + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + BEAUTY + + + I + SUMMER NOON + MELEAGER + +I saw Alexis at noon walking on the way, when summer was just cutting +the tresses of the cornfields; and double rays burned me; these of +Love from the boy's eyes, and those from the sun. But those night +allayed again, while these in dreams the phantom of a form kindled yet +higher; and Sleep, the releaser of toil for others, brought toil upon +me, fashioning the image of beauty in my soul, a breathing fire. + + + II + IN THE FIELD-PATH + RHIANUS + +Surely, O Cleonicus, the lovely Graces met thee going along the narrow +field-path, and clasped thee close with their rose-like hands, O boy, +and thou wert made all grace. Hail to thee from afar; but it is not +safe, O my dear, for the dry asphodel stalk to move too near the fire. + + + III + THE NEW LOVE + MELEAGER + +The Cyprian denies that she bore Love, seeing Antiochus among the +youths, another Desire; but O you who are young, cherish the new +Longing; for assuredly this boy is found a Love stronger than Love. + + + IV + CONTRA MUNDUM + CALLIMACHUS + +Pour in and say again, "Diocles"; nor does Acheloüs touch the cups +consecrated to him; fair is the boy, O Acheloüs, exceeding fair; and +if any one says no, let me be alone in my judgment of beauty. + + + V + THE FLOWER OF COS + MELEAGER + +Praxiteles the sculptor made a Parian image of Love, moulding the +Cyprian's son; but now Love, the most beautiful of all the gods, +imaging himself, has fashioned a breathing statue, Praxiteles, that +the one among mortals and the other in heaven may have all love-charms +in control, and at once on earth and among the immortals they may bear +the sceptres of Desire. Most happy the sacred city of the Meropes, +which nurtured as prince of her youth the god-born new Love. + + + VI + THE SUN OF TYRE + MELEAGER + +Delicate, so help me Love, are the fosterlings of Tyre; but Myïscus +blazes out and quenches them all as the sun the stars. + + + VII + THE LOADSTAR + MELEAGER + +On thee, Myïscus, the cables of my life are fastened; in thee is the +very breath of my soul, what is left of it; for by thine eyes, O boy, +that speak even to the deaf, and by thy shining brow, if thou ever +dost cast a clouded glance on me, I gaze on winter, and if thou +lookest joyously, sweet spring bursts into bloom. + + + VIII + LAUREL AND HYACINTH + MELEAGER + +O pastoral pipes, no longer sing of Daphnis on the mountains, to +pleasure Pan the lord of the goats; neither do you, O lyre +interpretess of Phoebus, any more chant Hyacinthus chapleted with +maiden laurel; for time was when Daphnis was delightful to the +mountain-nymphs, and Hyacinthus to thee; but now let Dion hold the +sceptre of Desire. + + + IX + THE QUEST OF PAN + GLAUCUS + +Nymphs, tell me true when I inquire if Daphnis passing by rested his +white kids here.--Yes, yes, piping Pan, and carved in the bark of +yonder poplar a letter to say to thee, "Pan, Pan, come to Malea, to +the Psophidian mount; I will be there."--Farewell, Nymphs, I go. + + + X + THE AUTUMN BOWER + MNASALCAS + +Vine, that hastenest so to drop thy leaves to earth, fearest thou then +the evening setting of the Pleiad? abide for sweet sleep to fall on +Antileon beneath thee, giving all grace to beauty till then. + + + XI + AN ASH IN THE FIRE + MELEAGER + +Now grey dawn is sweet; but sleepless in the doorway Damis swoons out +all that is left of his breath, unhappy, having but seen Heraclitus; +for he stood under the beams of his eyes as wax cast among the embers: +but arise, I pray thee, luckless Damis; even myself I wear Love's +wound and shed tears over thy tears. + + + + CHAPTER IX + + FATE AND CHANGE + + + I + THE FLOWER OF YOUTH + MARCUS ARGENTARIUS + +Sweet-breathed Isias, though thy sleep be tenfold spice, awake and +take this garland in thy dear hands, which, blooming now, thou wilt +see withering at daybreak, the likeness of a maiden's prime. + + + II + THE MAIDEN'S POSY + RUFINUS + +I send thee, Rhodocleia, this garland, which myself have twined of +fair flowers beneath my hands; here is lily and rose-chalice and moist +anemone, and soft narcissus and dark-glowing violet; garlanding +thyself with these, cease to be high-minded; even as the garland thou +also dost flower and fall. + + + III + WITHERED BLOSSOMS + STRATO + +If thou boast in thy beauty, know that the rose too blooms, but +quickly being withered, is cast on the dunghill; for blossom and +beauty have the same time allotted to them, and both together envious +time withers away. + + + IV + ROSE AND THORN + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +The rose is at her prime a little while; which once past, thou wilt +find when thou seekest no rose, but a thorn. + + + V + THE BIRD OF TIME + THYMOCLES + +Thou remembered haply, thou rememberest when I said to thee that holy +word, "Opportunity is the fairest, opportunity the lightest-footed of +things; opportunity may not be overtaken by the swiftest bird in air." +Now lo! all thy flowers are shed on the ground. + + + VI + THE END OF DESIRE + SECUNDUS + +I who once was Laïs, an arrow in all men's hearts, no longer Laïs, am +plainly to all the Nemesis of years. Ay, by the Cyprian (and what is +the Cyprian now to me but an oath to swear by?) not Laïs herself knows +Laïs now. + + + VII + HOARDED BEAUTY + STRATO + +If beauty grows old, impart thou of it before it be gone; and if it +abides, why fear to give away what thou dost keep? + + + VIII + DUST AND ASHES + ASCLEPIADES + +Thou hoardest thy maidenhood; and to what profit? for when thou art +gone to Hades thou wilt not find a lover, O girl. Among the living are +the Cyprian's pleasures; but in Acheron, O maiden, we shall lie bones +and dust. + + + IX + TO-MORROW + MACEDONIUS + +"To-morrow I will look on thee"--but that never comes for us, while +the accustomed putting-off ever grows and grows. This is all thy grace +to my longing; and to others thou bearest other gifts, despising my +faithful service. "I will see thee at evening." And what is the +evening of a woman's life? old age, full of a million wrinkles. + + + X + THE CASKET OF PANDORA + MACEDONIUS + +I laugh as I look on the jar of Pandora, nor do I blame the woman, but +the wings of the Blessings themselves; for they flutter through the +sky over the abodes of all the earth, while they ought to have +descended on the ground. But the woman behind the lid, with cheeks +grown pallid, has lost the splendour of the beauties that she had, and +now our life has missed both ways, because she grows old in it, and +the jar is empty. + + + XI + COMING WINTER + ANTIPATER OF SIDON + +Now is autumn, Epicles, and out of the belt of Bootes the clear +splendour of Arcturus has risen; now the grape-clusters take thought +of the sickle, and men thatch their cottages against winter; but thou +hast neither warm fleecy cloak nor garment indoors, and thou wilt be +shrivelled up with cold and curse the star. + + + XII + NEMESIS + MELEAGER + +Thou saidst, by the Cyprian, what not even a god might, O greatly- +daring spirit; Theron did not appear fair to thee; to thee Theron did +not appear fair; nay, thou wouldst have it so: and thou wilt not quake +even before the flaming thunderbolt of Zeus. Wherefore lo! indignant +Nemesis hath set thee forth to see, who wert once so voluble, for an +example of rashness of tongue. + + + XIII + THE BLOODY WELL + APOLLONIDES + +I the Clear Fount (for the Nymphs gave this surname to me beyond all +other springs) since a robber slew men who were resting beside me and +washed his bloodstained hand in my holy waters, have turned that sweet +flow backward, and no longer gush out for wayfarers; for who any more +will call me the Clear? + + + XIV + A STORY OF THE SEA + ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA + +Once on a time when a ship was shattered at sea, two men fell at +strife fighting for one plank. Antagoras struck away Pisistratus; one +could not blame him, for it was for his life; but Justice took +cognisance. The other swam ashore; but him a dog-fish seized; surely +the Avenger of the Fates rests not even in the watery deep. + + + XV + EMPTY HANDS + CALLIMACHUS + +I know that my hands are empty of wealth; but by the Graces, O +Menippus, tell me not my own dream; it hurts me to hear evermore this +bitter word: yes, my dear, this is the most unloving thing of all I +have borne from thee. + + + XVI + LIGHT LOVE + MARCUS ARGENTARIUS + +Thou wert loved when rich, Sosicrates, but being poor thou art loved +no longer; what magic has hunger! And she who before called thee spice +and darling Adonis, Menophila, now inquires thy name. Who and whence +of men art thou? where is thy city? Surely thou art dull in learning +this saying, that none is friend to him who has nothing. + + + XVII + FORTUNE'S PLAYTHING + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Not of good-will has Fortune advanced thee; but that she may show her +omnipotence, even down to thee. + + + XVIII + TIME THE CONQUEROR + PLATO + +Time carries all things; length of days knows how to change name and +shape and nature and fortune. + + + XIX + MEMNON AND ACHILLES + ASCLEPIODOTUS + +Know, O Thetis of the sea, that Memnon yet lives and cries aloud, +warmed by his mother's torch, in Egypt beneath Libyan brows, where the +running Nile severs fair-portalled Thebes; but Achilles, the insatiate +of battle, utters no voice either on the Trojan plain or in Thessaly. + + + XX + CORINTH + ANTIPATER OF SIDON + +Where is thine admired beauty, Dorian Corinth, where thy crown of +towers? where thy treasures of old, where the temples of the +immortals, where the halls and where the wives of the Sisyphids, and +the tens of thousands of thy people that were? for not even a trace, O +most distressful one, is left of thee, and war has swept up together +and clean devoured all; only we, the unravaged sea-nymphs, maidens of +Ocean, abide, halcyons wailing for thy woes. + + + XXI + DELOS + ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA + +Would I were yet blown about by ever-shifting gales, rather than fixed +for wandering Leto's childbed; I had not so bemoaned my desolation. Ah +miserable me, how many Greek ships sail by me, desert Delos, once so +worshipful: late, but terrible, is Hera's vengeance laid on me thus +for Leto's sake. + + + XXII + TROY + AGATHIAS + +If thou art a Spartan born, O stranger, deride me not, for not to me +only has Fortune accomplished this; and if of Asia, mourn not, for +every city has bowed to the Dardanian sceptre of the Aeneadae. And +though the jealous sword of enemies has emptied out Gods' precincts +and walls and inhabitants, I am queen again; but do thou, O my child, +fearless Rome, lay the yoke of thy law over Greece. + + + XXIII + MYCENAE (1) + ALPHEUS + +Few of the native places of the heroes are in our eyes, and those yet +left rise little above the plain; and such art thou, O hapless +Mycenae, as I marked thee in passing by, more desolate than any hill- +pasture, a thing that goatherds point at; and an old man said, "Here +stood the Cyclopean city rich in gold." + + + XXIV + MYCENAE (2) + POMPEIUS + +Though I am but drifted desolate dust where once was Mycenae, though I +am more obscure to see than any chance rock, he who looks on the famed +city of Ilus, whose walls I trod down and emptied all the house of +Priam, will know thence how great my former strength was; and if old +age has done me outrage, I am content with Homer's testimony. + + + XXV + AMPHIPOLIS + ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA + +City built upon Strymon and the broad Hellespont, grave of Edonian +Phyllis, Amphipolis, yet there remain left to thee the traces of the +temple of her of Aethopion and Brauron, and the water of the river so +often fought around; but thee, once the high strife of the sons of +Aegeus, we see like a torn rag of sea-purple on either shore. + + + XXVI + SPARTA + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +O Lacedaemon, once unsubdued and untrodden, thou seest shadeless the +smoke of Olenian camp-fires on the Eurotas, and the birds building +their nests on the ground wail for thee, and the wolves to do not hear +any sheep. + + + XXVII + BERYTUS + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Formerly the dead left their city living; but we living hold the +city's funeral. + + + XXVIII + SED TERRAE GRAVIORA + LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM + +Me, a hull that had measured such spaces of sea, fire consumed on the +land that cut her pines to make me. Ocean brought me safe to shore; +but I found her who bore me more treacherous than the sea. + + + XXIX + YOUTH AND RICHES + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +I was young, but poor; now in old age I am rich, alas, alone of all +men pitiable in both, who then could enjoy when I had nothing, and now +have when I cannot enjoy. + + + XXX + THE VINE'S REVENGE + EVENUS + +Though thou devour me down to the root, yet still will I bear so much +fruit as will serve to pour libation on thee, O goat, when thou art +sacrificed. + + + XXXI + REVERSAL + PLATO + +A man finding gold left a halter; but he who had left the gold, not +finding it, knotted the halter he found. + + + XXXII + TENANTS AT WILL + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +I was once the field of Achaemenides, now I am Menippus', and again I +shall pass from another to another; for the former thought once that +he owned me, and the latter thinks so now in his turn; and I belong to +no man at all, but to Fortune. + + + XXXIII + PARTING COMPANY + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Hope, and thou Fortune, a long farewell; I have found the haven; there +is nothing more between me and you; make your sport of those who come +after me. + + + XXXIV + FORTUNE'S MASTER + PALLADAS + +No more is Hope or Fortune my concern, nor for what remains do I reck +of your deceit; I have reached harbour. I am a poor man, but living in +Freedom's company I turn my face away from wealth the scorner of +poverty. + + + XXXV + BREAK OF DAY + JULIUS POLYAENUS + +Hope evermore steals away life's period, till the last morning cuts +short all those many businesses. + + + + CHAPTER X + + THE HUMAN COMEDY + + + I + PROLOGUE + STRATO + +Seek not on my pages Priam at the altars nor Medea's and Niobe's woes, +nor Itys in the hidden chambers, and the nightingales among the +leaves; for of all these things former poets wrote abundantly; but +mingling with the blithe Graces, sweet Love and the Wine-god; and +grave looks become not them. + + + II + FLOWER O' THE ROSE + DIONYSIUS + +You with the roses, you are fair as a rose; but what sell you? +yourself, or your roses, or both together? + + + III + LOST DRINK + NICARCHUS + +At the Hermaea, Aphrodisius, while lifting six gallons of wine for us, +stumbled and dealt us great woe. "From wine also perished the +Centaur," and ah that we had too! but now it perished from us. + + + IV + THE VINTAGE-REVEL + LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM + +To the must-drinking Satyrs and to Bacchus, planter of the vine, +Heronax consecrated the first handfuls of his plantation, these three +casks from three vineyards, filled with the first flow of the wine; +from which we, having poured such libation as is meet to crimson +Bacchus and the Satyrs, will drink deeper than they. + + + V + SNOW IN SUMMER + SIMONIDES + +With this once the sharp North Wind rushing from Thrace covered the +flanks of Olympus, and nipped the spirits of thinly-clad men; then it +was buried alive, clad in Pierian earth. Let a share of it be mingled +for me; for it is not seemly to bear a tepid draught to a friend. + + + VI + A JUG OF WINE + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Round-bellied, deftly-turned, one eared, long-throated, straight- +necked, bubbling in thy narrow mouth, blithe handmaiden of Bacchus and +the Muses and Cytherea, sweet of laughter, delightful ministress of +social banquets, why when I am sober art thou in liquor, and when I am +drunk, art sober again? Thou wrongest the good-fellowship of drinking. + + + VII + THE EMPTY JAR + ERATOSTHENES + +Xenophon the wine-bibber dedicates an empty jar to thee, Bacchus; +receive it graciously, for it is all he has. + + + VIII + ANGELORUM CHORI + MARCUS ARGENTARIUS + +I hold revel, regarding the golden choir of the stars at evening, nor +do I spurn the dances of others; but garlanding my hair with flowers +that drop their petals over me, I waken the melodious harp into +passion with musical hands; and doing thus I lead a well-ordered life, +for the order of the heavens too has its Lyre and Crown. + + + IX + SUMMER SAILING + ANTIPHILUS + +Mine be a mattress on the poop, and the awnings over it surrounding +with the blows of the spray, and the fire forcing its way out of the +hearth-stones, and a pot upon them with empty turmoil of bubbles; and +let me see the boy dressing the meat, and my table be a ship's plank +covered with a cloth; and a game of pitch and toss, and the +boatswain's whistle: the other day I had such fortune, for I love +common life. + + + X + L'ALLEGRO + JULIANUS AEGYPTIUS + +All the ways of life are pleasant; in the market-place are goodly +companionships, and at home griefs are hidden; the country brings +pleasure, seafaring wealth, foreign lands knowledge. Marriages make a +united house, and the unmarried life is never anxious; a child is a +bulwark to his father; the childless are far from fears; youth knows +the gift of courage, white hairs of wisdom: therefore, taking courage, +live, and beget a family. + + + XI + DUM VIVIMUS VIVAMUS + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Six hours fit labour best: and those that follow, shown forth in +letters, say to mortals, "Live." + + + XII + HOPE AND EXPERIENCE + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Whoso has married once and again seeks a second wedding, is a +shipwrecked man who sails twice through a difficult gulf. + + + XIII + THE MARRIED MAN + PALLADAS + +If you boast high that you are not obedient to your wife's commands, +you talk idly, for you are not sprung of oak or rock, as the saying +is; and, as is the hard case with most or all of us, you too are in +woman's rule. But if you say, "I am not struck with a slipper, nor my +wife being unchaste have I to bear it and shut my eyes," I reply that +your bondage is lighter, in that you have sold yourself to a +reasonable and not to too hard a mistress. + + + XIV + AN UNGROUNDED SCANDAL + LUCILIUS + +Some say, Nicylla, that you dye your hair; which is as black as can be +bought in the market. + + + XV + THE POPULAR SINGER + NICARCHUS + +The night-raven's song is deadly; but when Demophilus sings, the very +night-raven dies. + + + XVI + THE FAULTLESS DANCER + PALLADAS + +Snub-nosed Memphis danced Daphnis and Niobe; Daphne like a stock, +Niobe like a stone. + + + XVII + THE FORTUNATE PAINTER + LUCILIUS + +Eutychus the portrait-painter got twenty sons, and never got one +likeness, even among his children. + + + XVIII + SLOW AND SURE + NICARCHUS + +Charmus ran for the three miles in Arcadia with five others; +surprising to say, he actually came in seventh. When there were only +six, perhaps you will say, how seventh? A friend of his went along in +his great-coat crying, "Keep it up, Charmus!" and so he arrives +seventh; and if only he had had five more friends, Zoïlus, he would +have come in twelfth. + + + XIX + MARCUS THE RUNNER + LUCILIUS + +Marcus once saw midnight out in the armed men's race, so that the +race-course was all locked up, as the police all thought that he was +one of the stone men in armour who stand there in honour of victors. +Very well, it was opened next day, and then Marcus turned up, still +short of the goal by the whole course. + + + XX + HERMOGENES + LUCILIUS + +Little Hermogenes, when he lets anything fall on the ground, has to +drag it down to him with a hook at the end of a pole. + + + XXI + PHANTASMS OF THE LIVING + LUCILIUS + +Lean Gaius yesterday breathed his very last breath, and left nothing +at all for burial, but having passed down into Hades just as he was in +life, flutters there the thinnest of the anatomies under earth; and +his kinsfolk lifted an empty bier on their shoulders, inscribing above +it, "This is Gaius' funeral." + + + XXII + A LABOUR OF HERCULES + LUCILIUS + +Tiny Macron was found asleep one summer day by a mouse, who pulled him +by his tiny foot into its hole; but in the hole he strangled the mouse +with his naked hands and cried, "Father Zeus, thou hast a second +Heracles." + + + XXIII + EROTION + LUCILIUS + +Small Erotion while playing was carried aloft by a gnat, and cried, +"What can I do, Father Zeus, if thou dost claim me?" + + + XXIV + ARTEMIDORA + LUCILIUS + +Fanning thin Artemidora in her sleep, Demetrius blew her clean out of +the house. + + + XXV + THE ATOMIC THEORY + LUCILIUS + +Epicurus wrote that the whole universe consisted of atoms, thinking, +Alcimus, that the atom was the least of things. But if Diophantus had +lived then, he would have written, "consisted of Diophantus," who is +much more minute than even the atoms, or would have written that all +other things indeed consist of atoms, but the atoms themselves of him. + + + XXVI + CHAEREMON + LUCILIUS + +Borne up by a slight breeze, Chaeremon floated through the clear air, +far lighter than chaff, and probably would have gone spinning off +through ether, but that he caught his feet in a spider's web, and +dangled there on his back; there he hung five nights and days, and on +the sixth came down by a strand of the web. + + + XXVII + GOD AND THE DOCTOR + NICARCHUS + +Marcus the doctor called yesterday on the marble Zeus; though marble, +and though Zeus, his funeral is to-day. + + + XXVIII + THE PHYSICIAN AND THE ASTROLOGER + NICARCHUS + +Diophantus the asrologer said that Hermogenes the physician had only +nine months to live; and he laughing replied, "what Cronus may do in +nine months, do you consider; but I can make short work with you." He +spoke, and reaching out, just touched him, and Diophantus, while +forbidding another to hope, gasped out his own life. + + + XXIX + A DEADLY DREAM + LUCILIUS + +Diophantus, having seen Hermogenes the physician in sleep, never awoke +again, though he wore an amulet. + + + XXX + SIMON THE OCULIST + NICARCHUS + +If you have an enemy, Dionysius, call not down upon him Isis nor +Harpocrates, nor whatever god strikes men blind, but Simon; and you +will know what God and what Simon can do. + + + XXXI + SCIENTIFIC SURGERY + NICARCHUS + +Agclaus killed Acestorides while operating; for, "Poor man," he said, +"he would have been lame for life." + + + XXXII + THE WISE PROPHET + LUCILIUS + +All the astrologers as from one mouth prophesied to my father that his +brother would reach a great old age; Hermocleides alone said he was +fated to die early; and he said so, when we were mourning over his +corpse in-doors. + + + XXXIII + SOOTHSAYING + NICARCHUS + +Some one came inquiring of the prophet Olympicus whether he should +sail to Rhodes, and how he should have a safe voyage; and the prophet +replied, "First have a new ship, and set sail not in winter but in +summer; for if you do this you will travel there and back safely, +unless a pirate captures you at sea." + + + XXXIV + THE ASTROLOGER'S FORECAST + AGATHIAS + +Calligenes the farmer, when he had cast his seed into the land, came +to the house of Aristophenes the astrologer, and asked him to tell +whether he would have a prosperous summer and abundant plenty of corn. +And he, taking the counters and ranging them closely on the board, and +crooking his fingers, uttered his reply to Calligenes: "If the +cornfield gets sufficient rain, and does not breed a crop of flowering +weeds, and frost does not crack the furrows, nor hail flay the heads +of the springing blades, and the pricket does not devour the crop, and +it sees no other injury of weather or soil, I prophesy you a capital +summer, and you will cut the ears successfully: only fear the +locusts." + + + XXXV + A SCHOOL OF RHETORIC + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +All hail, seven pupils of Aristides the rhetorician, four walls and +three benches. + + + XXXVI + CROSS PURPOSES + NICARCHUS + +A deaf man went to law with a deaf man, and the judge was a long way +deafer than both. The one claimed that the other owed him five months' +rent; and he replied that he had ground his corn by night; then the +judge, looking down on them, said, "Why quarrel? she is your mother; +keep her between you." + + + XXXVII + THE PATENT STOVE + NICARCHUS + +You have bought a brass hot-water urn, Heliodorus, that is chillier +than the north wind about Thrace; do not blow, do not labour, you but +raise smoke in vain; it is a brass wine-cooler you have bought against +summer. + + + XXXVIII + THE WOODEN HORSE + LUCILIUS + +You have a Thessalian horse, Erasistratus, but the drugs of all +Thessaly cannot make him go; the real wooden horse, that if Trojans +and Greeks had all pulled together, would never have entered at the +Scaean gate; set it up as an offering to some god, if you take my +advice, and make gruel for your little children with its barley. + + + XXXIX + A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE + LUCILIUS + +Antiochus once set eyes on Lysimachus' cushion, and Lysimachus never +set eyes on his cushion again. + + + XL + CINYRAS THE CILICIAN + DEMODOCUS + +All Cilicians are bad men; among the Cilicians there is one good man, +Cinyras, and Cinyras is a Cilician. + + + XLI + A GENERATION OF VIPERS + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Keep clear of a cobra, a toad, a viper, and the Laodiceans; also of a +mad dog, and of the Laodiceans once again. + + + XLII + THE LIFEBOAT + NICARCHUS + +Philo had a boat, the Salvation, but not Zeus himself, I believe, can +be safe in her; for she was salvation in name only, and those who got +on board her used either to go aground or to go underground. + + + XLIII + THE MISER AND THE MOUSE + LUCILIUS + +Asclepiades the miser saw a mouse in his house, and said, "What do you +want with me, my very dear mouse?" and the mouse, smiling sweetly, +replied, "Do not be afraid, my friend; we do not ask board from you, +only lodging." + + + XLIV + THE FRUITS OF PHILOSOPHY + LUCIAN + +We saw at dinner the great wisdom of that sturdy beggar the Cynic with +the long beard; for at first he abstained from lupines and radishes, +saying that Virtue ought not to be a slave to the belly; but when he +saw a snowy womb dressed with sharp sauce before his eyes, which at +once stole away his sagacious intellect, he unexpectedly asked for it, +and ate of it heartily, observing that an entrée could not harm +Virtue. + + + XLV + VEGETARIANISM + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +You were not alone in keeping your hands off live things; we do so +too; who touches live food, Pythagoras? but we eat what has been +boiled and roasted and pickled, and there is no life in it then. + + + XLVI + NICON'S NOSE + NICARCHUS + +I see Nicon's hooked nose, Menippus; it is evident he is not far off +now; oh, he will be here, let us just wait; for at the most his nose +is not, I fancy, five stadia off him. Nay, here it is, you see, +stepping forward; if we stand on a high mound we shall catch sight of +him in person. + + + XLVII + WHO SO PALE AND WAN, FOND LOVER + ASCLEPIADES + +Drink, Asclepiades; why these tears? what ails thee? not of thee only +has the cruel Cyprian made her prey, nor for thee only bitter Love +whetted the arrows of his bow; why while yet alive liest thou in the +dust? + + + XLVIII + THE WORLD'S REVENGE + LUCIAN + +In a company where all were drunk, Acindynus must needs be sober; and +so he seemed himself the one drunk man there. + + + XLIX + EPILOGUE + PHILODEMUS + +I was in love once; who has not been? I have revelled; who is +uninitiated in revels? nay, I was mad; at whose prompting but a god's? +Let them go; for now the silver hair is fast replacing the black, a +messenger of wisdom that comes with age. We too played when the time +of playing was; and now that it is no longer, we will turn to worthier +thoughts. + + + + CHAPTER XI + + DEATH + + + I + THE SPAN OF LIFE + MACEDONIUS + +Earth and Birth-Goddess, thou who didst bear me and thou who coverest, +farewell; I have accomplished the course between you, and I go, not +discerning whither I shall travel; for I know not either whose or who +I am, or whence I came to you. + + + II + DUSTY DEATH + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Pay no offering of ointments or garlands on my stony tomb, nor make +the fire blaze up; the expense is in vain. While I live be kind to me +if thou wilt; but drenching my ashes with wine thou wilt make mire, +and the dead man will not drink. + + + III + A CITIZEN OF THE REPUBLIC + LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM + +A little dust of earth suffices me; let another lie richly, weighed +down by his extravagant tombstone, that grim weight over the dead, who +will know me here in death as Alcander son of Calliteles. + + + IV + BENE MERENTI + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Dear Earth, take old Amyntichus to thy bosom, remembering his many +labours on thee; for ever he planted in thee the olive-stock, and +often made thee fair with vine-cuttings, and filled thee full of corn, +and, drawing channels of water along, made thee rich with herbs and +plenteous in fruit: do thou in return lie softly over his grey temples +and flower into tresses of spring herbage. + + + V + PEACE IN THE END + DIONYSIUS + +A gentler old age and no dulling disease quenched thee, and thou didst +fall asleep in the slumber to which all must come, O Eratosthenes, +after pondering over high matters; nor did Cyrene where thou sawest +the light receive thee within the tomb of thy fathers, O son of +Aglaus; yet dear even in a foreign land art thou buried here, by the +edge of the beach of Proteus. + + + VI + THE WITHERED VINE + LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM + +Even as a vine on her dry pole I support myself now on a staff, and +death calls me to Hades. Be not obstinately deaf, O Gorgus; what is it +the sweeter for thee if for three or four summers yet thou shalt warm +thyself beneath the sun? So saying the aged man quietly put his life +aside, and removed his house to the greater company. + + + VII + ACCOMPLISHMENT + THEAETETUS + +Crantor was delightful to men and yet more delightful to the Muses, +and did not live far into age: O earth, didst thou enfold the sacred +man in death, or does he still live in gladness there? + + + VIII + LOCA PASTORUM DESERTA + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Naiads and chill cattle-pastures, tell to the bees when they come on +their springtide way, that old Leucippus perished on a winter's night, +setting snares for scampering hares, and no longer is the tending of +the hives dear to him; but the pastoral dells mourn sore for him who +dwelt with the mountain peak for neighbour. + + + IX + THE OLD SHEPHERD + LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM + +Shepherds who pass over this ridge of hill pasturing your goats and +fleecy sheep, pay to Clitagoras, in Earth's name, a small but kindly +grace, for the sake of Persephone under ground; let sheep bleat by me, +and the shepherd on an unhewn stone pipe softly to them as they feed, +and in early spring let the countryman pluck the meadow flower to +engarland my tomb with a garland, and let one make milk drip from a +fruitful ewe, holding up her milking-udder, to wet the base of my +tomb: there are returns for favours to dead men, there are, even among +the departed. + + + X + THE DEAD FOWLER + MNASALCAS + +Even here shall the holy bird rest his swift wing, sitting on this +murmuring plane, since Poemander the Malian is dead and comes no more +with birdlime smeared on his fowling reeds. + + + XI + THE ANT BY THE THRESHING FLOOR + ANTIPATER OF SIDON + +Here to thee by the threshing floor, O toiling worker ant, I rear a +memorial to thee of a thirsty clod, that even in death the ear- +nurturing furrow of Demeter may lull thee as thou liest in thy rustic +cell. + + + XII + THE TAME PARTRIDGE + SIMMIAS + +No more along the shady woodland copse, O hunter partridge, dost thou +send thy clear cry from thy mouth as thou decoyest thy speckled +kinsfolk in their forest feeding-ground; for thou art gone on the +final road of Acheron. + + + XIII + THE SILENT SINGING-BIRD + TYMNES + +O bird beloved of the Graces, O rivalling the halcyons in likeness of +thy note, thou art snatched away, dear warbler, and thy ways and thy +sweet breath are held in the silent paths of night. + + + XIV + THE FIELDS OF PERSEPHONE + ARISTODICUS + +No longer in the wealthy house of Alcis, O shrill grasshopper, shall +the sun behold thee singing; for now thou art flown to the meadows of +Clymenus and the dewy flowers of golden Persephone. + + + XV + THE DISCONSOLATE SHEPHERD + THEOCRITUS + +Ah thou poor Thyrsis, what profit is it if thou shalt waste away the +apples of thy two eyes with tears in thy mourning? the kid is gone, +the pretty young thing, is gone to Hades; for a savage wolf crunched +her in his jaws; and the dogs bay; what profit is it, when of that +lost one not a bone nor a cinder is left? + + + XVI + LAMPO THE HOUND + ANTIPATER OF SIDON + +Thirst slew hunter Lampo, Midas' dog, though he toiled hard for his +life; for he dug with his paws in the moist flat, but the slow water +made no haste out of her blind spring, and he fell in despair; then +the water gushed out. Ah surely, Nymphs, you laid on Lampo your wrath +for the slain deer. + + + XVII + STORM ON THE HILLS + DIOTIMUS + +Unherded at evenfall the oxen came to the farmyard from the hill, +snowed on with heavy snow; alas, and Therimachus sleeps the long sleep +beside an oak, stretched there by fire from heaven. + + + XVIII + A WET NIGHT + ANTIPATER OF SIDON + +I know not whether I shall complain of Dionysus or blame the rain of +Zeus, but both are treacherous for feet. For the tomb holds Polyxenus, +who returning once to the country from a feast, tumbled over the +slippery slopes, and lies far from Aeolic Smyrna: but let one full of +wine fear a rainy footpath in the dark. + + + XIX + FAR FROM HOME + TYMNES + +Let not this be of too much moment to thee, O Philaenis, that thou +hast not found thine allotted earth by the Nile, but this tomb holds +thee in Eleutherne; for to comers from all places there is an equal +way to Hades. + + + XX + DEATH AT SEA + SIMONIDES + +Strange dust covers thy body, and the lot of death took thee, O +Cleisthenes, wandering in the Euxine sea; and thou didst fail of sweet +and dear home-coming, nor ever didst reach sea-girt Chios. + + + XXI + AT THE WORLD'S END + CRINAGORAS + +Alas, why wander we, trusting in vain hopes and forgetting baneful +death? this Seleucus was perfect in his words and ways, but, having +enjoyed his youth but a little, among the utmost Iberians, so far away +from Lesbos, he lies a stranger on unmapped shores. + + + XXII + IN LIMINE PORTUS + ANTIPHILUS + +Already almost in touch of my native land, "To-morrow," I said, "the +wind that has set so long against me will abate"; not yet had the +speech died on my lip, and the sea was even as Hades, and that light +word broke me down. Beware of every speech with to-morrow in it; not +even small things escape the Nemesis that avenges the tongue. + + + XXIII + DROWNED IN HARBOUR + ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA + +Not even when at anchor trust the baleful sea, O sailor, nor even if +dry land hold thy cables; for Ion fell into the harbour, and at the +plunge wine tied his quick sailor's hands. Beware of revelling on +ship-board; the sea is enemy to Iacchus; this law the Tyrrhenians +ordained. + + + XXIV + IN SOUND OF THE SEA + ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA + +Even in death shall the implacable sea vex me, Lysis hidden beneath a +lonely rock, ever sounding harshly by my ear and alongside of my deaf +tomb. Why, O fellow-men, have you made my dwelling by this that reft +me of breath, me whom not trading in my merchant-ship but sailing in a +little rowing-boat, it brought to shipwreck? and I who sought my +living out of the sea, out of the sea likewise drew my death. + + + XXV + THE EMPTY HOUSE + ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA + +Hapless Nicanor, doomed by the grey sea, thou liest then naked on a +strange beach, or haply by the rocks, and those wealthy halls are +perished from thee, and lost is the hope of all Tyre; nor did aught of +thy treasures save thee; alas, pitiable one! thou didst perish, and +all thy labour was for the fishes and the sea. + + + XXVI + THE SINKING OF THE PLEIAD + AUTOMEDON + +O man, be sparing of life, neither go on sea-faring beyond the time; +even so the life of man is not long. Miserable Cleonicus, yet thou +didst hasten to come to fair Thasos, a merchantman out of hollow +Syria, O merchant Cleonicus; but hard on the sinking of the Pleiad as +thou journeyedst over the sea, as the Pleiad sank, so didst thou. + + + XXVII + A RESTLESS GRAVE + ARCHIAS + +Not even in death shall I Theris, tossed shipwrecked upon land by the +waves, forget the sleepless shores; for beneath the spray-beaten +reefs, nigh the disastrous main, I found a grave at the hands of +strangers, and for ever do I wretchedly hear roaring even among the +dead the hated thunder of the sea. + + + XXVIII + TELLURIS AMOR + CRINAGORAS + +O happy shepherd, would that even I had shepherded on the mountain +along this white grassy hill, making the bleating folk move after the +leader rams, rather than have dipped a ship's steering-rudders in the +bitter brine: so I sank under the depths, and the east wind that +swallowed me down cast me up again on this shore. + + + XXIX + A GRAVE BY THE SEA + ASCLEPIADES + +Keep eight cubits away from me, O rough sea, and billow and roar with +all thy might; but if thou pullest down the grave of Eumares, thou +wilt find nothing of value, but only bones and dust. + + + XXX + AN EMPTY TOMB + CALLIMACHUS + +Would that swift ships had never been, for we should not have bewailed +Sopolis son of Diocleides; but now somewhere in the sea he drifts +dead, and instead of him we pass by a name on an empty tomb. + + + XXXI + THE DAYS OF THE HALCYONS + APOLLONIDES + +And when shall thy swirling passage be free from fear, say, O sea, if +even in the days of the halcyons we must weep, of the halcyons for +whom Ocean evermore stills his windless wave, that one might think dry +land less trustworthy? but even when thou callest thyself a gentle +nurse and harmless to women in labour, thou didst drown Aristomenes +with his freight. + + + XXXII + A WINTER VOYAGE + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Thee too, son of Cleanor, desire after thy native land destroyed, +trusting to the wintry gust of the South; for the unsecured season +entangled thee, and the wet waves washed away thy lovely youth. + + + XXXIII + THE DEAD CHILD + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Not yet were thy tresses cut, nor had the monthly courses of the moon +driven a three years' space, O poor Cleodicus, when thy mother +Nicasis, clasping thy coffin, wailed long over thy lamented grave, and +thy father Pericleitus; but an unknown Acheron thou shalt flower out +the youth that never, never returns. + + + XXXIV + THE LITTLE SISTER + LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM + +This girl passed to Hades untimely, in her seventh year, before her +many playmates, poor thing, pining for her baby brother, who at twenty +months old tasted of loveless Death. Alas, ill-fated Peristeris, how +near at hand God has set the sorest griefs to men. + + + XXXV + PERSEPHONE'S PLAYTHING + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Hades inexorable and inflexible, why hast thou thus reft infant +Callaeschrus of life? Surely the child will be a plaything in the +palace of Persephone, but at home he has left bitter sorrows. + + + XXXVI + CHILDLESS AMONG WOMEN + LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM + +Ah wretched Anticles, and wretched I who have laid on the pyre in the +flower of youth my only son, thee, child, who didst perish at eighteen +years; and I weep, bewailing an orphaned old age: fain would I go to +the shadowy house of Hades; neither is morn sweet to me, nor the beam +of the swift sun. Ah wretched Anticles, struck down by fate, be thou +healer of my sorrow, taking me with thee out of life. + + + XXXVII + FATE'S PERSISTENCY + PHILIPPUS + +I Philaenion who gave birth but for the pyre, I the woeful mother, I +who had seen the threefold grave of my children, anchored my trust on +another's pangs; for I surely hoped that he at least would live, whom +I had not borne. So I, who once had fair children, brought up an +adopted son; but God would not let me have even a second mother's +grace; for being called ours he perished, and now I am become a woe to +the rest of mothers too. + + + XXXVIII + ANTE DIEM + BIANOR + +Ever insatiate Charon, why hast thou wantonly taken young Attalus? was +he not thine, even if he had died old? + + + XXXIX + UNFORGOTTEN + SIMONIDES + +Protomachus said, as his father held him in his hands when he was +breathing away his lovely youth, "O son of Timenor, thou wilt never +forget thy dear son, nor cease to long for his valour and his wisdom." + + + XL + THE BRIDECHAMBER + ANTIPATER OF SIDON + +Already the saffron-strewn bride-bed was spread within the golden +wedding-chamber for the bride of Pitane, Cleinareta, and her guardians +Demo and Nicippus hoped to light the torch-flame held at stretch of +arm and lifted in both hands, when sickness snatched her away yet a +maiden, and drew her to the sea of Lethe; and her sorrowing companions +knocked not on the bridal doors, but on their own smitten breasts in +the clamour of death. + + + XLI + BRIDEGROOM DEATH + MELEAGER + +Not marriage but Death for bridegroom did Clearista receive when she +loosed the knot of her maidenhood: for but now at even the flutes +sounded at the bride's portal, and the doors of the wedding-chamber +were clashed; and at morn they cried the wail, and Hymenaeus put to +silence changed into a voice of lamentation; and the same pine-brands +flashed their torchlight before the bride-bed, and lit the dead on her +downward way. + + + XLII + THE YOUNG WIFE + JULIANUS AEGYTPIUS + +In season the bride-chamber held thee, out of season the grave took +thee, O Anastasia, flower of the blithe Graces; for thee a father, for +thee a husband pours bitter tears; for thee haply even the ferryman of +the dead weeps; for not a whole year didst thou accomplish beside +thine husband, but at sixteen years old, alas! the tomb holds thee. + + + XLIII + SANCTISSIMA CONIUNX + CRINAGORAS + +Unhappy, by what first word, by what second shall I name thee? +unhappy! this word is true in every ill. Thou art gone, O gracious +wife, who didst carry off the palm in bloom of beauty and in bearing +of soul; Prote wert thou truly called, for all else comes second to +those inimitable graces of thine. + + + XLIV + SUNDERED HANDS + DAMAGETUS + +This last word, O famous city of Phocaea, Theano spoke as she went +down into the unharvested night: "Woe's me unhappy; Apellichus, +husband, what length, what length of sea dost thou cross on thine own +ship! but nigh me stands my doom; would God I had but died with my +hand clasped in thy dear hand." + + + XLV + UNDIVIDED + APOLLONIDES + +Heliodorus went first, and Diogeneia the wife, not an hour's space +after, followed her dear husband; and both, even as they dwelt +together, are buried under this slab, rejoicing in their common tomb +even as in a bride-chamber. + + + XLVI + FIRST LOVE + MELEAGER + +Tears I give to thee even below with earth between us, Heliodora, such +relic of love as may pass to Hades, tears sorely wept; and on thy +much-wailed tomb I pour the libation of my longing, the memorial of my +affection. Piteously, piteously, I Meleager make lamentation for thee, +my dear, even among the dead, an idle gift to Acheron. Woe's me, where +is my cherished flower? Hades plucked her, plucked her and marred the +freshly-blown blossom with his dust. But I beseech thee, Earth, that +nurturest all, gently to clasp her, the all-lamented, O mother, to thy +breast. + + + XLVII + FIRST FRIENDSHIP + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Ah blessed one, dearest companion of the immortal Muses, fare thou +well even in the house of Hades, Callimachus. + + + XLVIII + STREWINGS FOR GRAVES + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +May flowers grow thick on thy newly-built tomb, not the dry bramble, +not the evil weed, but violets and margerain and wet narcissus, +Vibius, and around thee may all be roses. + + + XLIX + DIMITTE MORTUOS + PAULUS SILENTIARIUS + +My name--Why this?--and my country--And to what end this?--and I am of +illustrious race--Yea, if thou hadst been of the obscurest?--Having +lived nobly I left life--If ignobly?--and I lie here now--Who art thou +that sayest this, and to whom? + + + L + MORS IMMORTALIS + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +I died, but I await thee; and thou too shalt await some one else: one +Death receives all mortals alike. + + + LI + THE LIGHT OF THE DEAD + PLATO + +Morning Star that once didst shine among the living, now deceased thou +shinest the Evening Star among the dead. + + + + CHAPTER XII + + LIFE + + + I + THE JOY OF YOUTH + RUFINUS + +Let us bathe, Prodice, and garland ourselves, and drain unmixed wine, +lifting larger cups; little is our life of gladness, then old age will +stop the rest, and death is the end. + + + II + THE USE OF LIFE + NICARCHUS + +Must I not die? what matters it to me whether I depart to Hades gouty +or fleet of foot? for many will carry me; let me become lame, for +hardly on their account need I ever cease from revelling. + + + III + VAIN RICHES + ANTIPHANES + +Thou reckonest, poor wretch; but advancing time breeds white old age +even as it does interest; and neither having drunk, nor bound a flower +on thy brows, nor ever known myrrh nor a delicate darling, thou shalt +be dead, leaving thy great treasury in its wealth, out of those many +coins carrying with thee but the one. + + + IV + MINIMUM CREDULA POSTERO + PALLADAS + +All human must pay the debt of death, nor is there any mortal who +knows whether he shall be alive to-morrow; learning this clearly, O +man, make thee merry, keeping the wine-god close by thee for oblivion +of death, and take thy pleasure with the Paphian while thou drawest +thy ephemeral life; but all else give to Fortune's control. + + + V + DONEC HODIE + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Drink and be merry; for what is to-morrow or what the future? no man +knows. Run not, labour not; as thou canst, give, share, consume, be +mortal-minded; to be alive and not to be alive are no way at all +apart. All life is such, only the turn of the scale; if thou art +beforehand, it is thine; and if thou diest, all is another's, and thou +hast nothing. + + + VI + REQUIESCE ANIMA + MIMNERMUS + +Be young, dear my soul: soon will others be men, and I being dead +shall be dark earth. + + + VII + ONE EVENT + MARCUS ARGENTARIUS + +Five feet shalt thou possess as thou liest dead, nor shalt see the +pleasant things of life nor the beams of the sun; then joyfully lift +and drain the unmixed cup of wine, O Cincius, holding a lovely wife in +thine arms; and if philosophy say that thy mind is immortal, know that +Cleanthes and Zeno went down to deep Hades. + + + VIII + THE PASSING OF YOUTH + APOLLONIDES + +Thou slumberest, O comrade; but the cup itself cries to thee, "Awake; +do not make thy pleasure in the rehearsal of death." Spare not, +Diodorus, slipping greedily into wine, drink deep, even to the +tottering of the knee. Time shall be when we shall not drink, long and +long; nay come, make haste; prudence already lays her hand on our +temples. + + + IX + THE HIGHWAY TO DEATH + ANTIPATER OF SIDON + +Men skilled in the stars call me brief-fated; I am, but I care not, O +Seleucus. There is one descent for all to Hades; and if ours comes +quicker, the sooner shall we look on Minos. Let us drink; for surely +wine is a horse for the high-road, when foot-passengers take a by-path +to Death. + + + X + BEFORE THE DELUGE + STRATO + +Drink now and love, Damocrates, since not for ever shall we drink nor +for ever hold fast our delight; let us crown our heads with garlands +and perfume ourselves, before others bring these offerings to our +graves. Now rather let my bones drink wine inside me; when they are +dead, let Deucalion's deluge sweep them away. + + + XI + FLEETING DAWN + ASCLEPIADES + +Let us drink an unmixed draught of wine; dawn is an hand-breadth; are +we waiting to see the bed-time lamp once again? Let us drink merrily; +after no long time yet, O luckless one, we shall sleep through the +long night. + + + XII + OUTRE-TOMBE + JULIANUS AEGYPTUS + +Often I sang this, and even out of the grave will I cry it: "Drink, +before you put on this raiment of dust." + + + XIII + EARTH TO EARTH + ZONAS + +Give me the sweet cup wrought of the earth from which I was born, and +under which I shall lie dead. + + + XIV + THE COFFIN-MAKER + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +I would have liked to be rich as Croesus of old was rich, and to be +king of great Asia; but when I look on Nicanor the coffin-maker, and +know for what he is making these flute-cases of his, sprinkling my +flour and wetting it with my jug of wine, I sell all Asia for +ointments and garlands. + + + XV + RETURNING SPRING + PHILODEMUS + +Now is rose-time and peas are in season, and the heads of early +cabbage, O Sosylus, and the milky maena, and fresh-curdled cheese, and +the soft-springing leaves of curled lettuces; and do we neither pace +the foreland nor climb to the outlook, as always, O Sosylus, we did +before? for Antagoras and Bacchius too frolicked yesterday, and now +to-day we bear them forth for burial. + + + XVI + A LIFE'S WANDERING + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Know ye the flowery fields of the Cappadocian nation? thence I was +born of good parents: since I left them I have wandered to the sunset +and the dawn; my name was Glaphyrus, and like my mind. I lived out my +sixtieth year in perfect freedom; I know both the favour of Fortune +and the bitterness of life. + + + XVII + ECCE MYSTERIUM + BIANOR + +This man, inconsiderable, mean, yes, a slave, this man is loved, and +is lord of another's soul. + + + XVIII + THE SHADOW OF LIFE + THEOGNIS + +Fools and children are mankind to weep the dead, and not the flower of +youth perishing. + + + XIX + THE SHADOW OF DEATH + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Those who have left the sweet light I bewail no longer, but those who +live ever in expectation of death. + + + XX + PARTA QUIES + PALLADAS + +Expectation of death is woful grief, and this is the gain of a mortal +when he perishes; weep not then for him who departs from life, for +after death there is no other accident. + + + XXI + THE CLOSED ACCOUNT + PHILETAS + +I weep not for thee, O dearest of friends; for thou knewest many fair +things; and again God dealt thee thy lot of ill. + + + XXII + THE VOYAGE OF LIFE + PALLADAS + +Life is a dangerous voyage; for tempest-tossed in it we often strike +rocks more pitiably than shipwrecked men; and having Chance as pilot +of life, we sail doubtfully as on the sea, some on a fair voyage, and +others contrariwise; yet all alike we put into the one anchorage under +earth. + + + XXIII + DAILY BIRTH + PALLADAS + +Day by day we are born as night retires, no more possessing aught of +our former life, estranged from our course of yesterday, and beginning +to-day the life that remains. Do not then call thyself, old man, +abundant in years; for to-day thou hast no share in what is gone. + + + XXIV + THE LIMIT OF VISION + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +Now we flourish as before others did, and soon others will, whose +children we shall never see. + + + XXV + THE BREATH OF LIFE + PALLADAS + +Breathing thin air into our nostrils we live and look on the torch of +the sun, all we who live what is called life; and are as organs, +receiving our spirits from quickening airs. If one then chokes that +little breath with his hand, he robs us of life, and brings us down to +Hades. Thus being nothing we wax high in hardihood, feeding on air +from a little breath. + + + XXVI + TWO ETERNITIES + LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM + +Infinite, O man, was the foretime until thou camest to thy dawn, and +what remains is infinite on through Hades: what share is left for life +but the bigness of a pinprick, and tinier than a pinprick if such +there be? Little is thy life and afflicted; for not even so it is +sweet, but more loathed than hateful death. + + + XXVII + THE LORD OF LANDS + AMMIANUS + +Though thou pass beyond thy landmarks even to the pillars of Heracles, +the share of earth that is equal to all men awaits thee, and thou +shalt lie even as Irus, having nothing more than thine obolus, +mouldering into a land that at last is not thine. + + + XXVIII + THE PRICE OF RICHES + PALLADAS + +Thou art rich, and what of it in the end? as thou departest, dost thou +drag thy riches with thee, pulling them into the coffin? Thou +gatherest riches at expense of time, and thou canst not heap up more +exceeding measures of life. + + + XXIX + THE DARKNESS OF DAWN + AMMIANUS + +Morning by morning passes; then, while we heed not, suddenly the Dark +One will be come, and, some by decaying, and some by parching, and +some by swelling, will lead us all to the one pit. + + + XXX + NIL EXPEDIT + PALLADAS + +Naked I came on earth, and naked I depart under earth, and why do I +vainly labour, seeing the naked end? + + + XXXI + THE WAY OF THE WORLD + LUCIAN + +Mortal is what belongs to mortals, and all things pass by us; and if +not, yet we pass by them. + + + XXXII + THE SUM OF KNOWLEDGE + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +I was not, I came to be; I was, I am not: that is all; and who shall +say more, will lie: I shall not be. + + + XXXIII + NIHILISM + GLYCON + +All is laughter, and all is dust, and all is nothing; for out of +unreason is all that is. + + + XXXIV + NEPENTHE + AUTHOR UNKNOWN + +How was I born? whence am I? why did I come? to go again: how can I +learn anything, knowing nothing? Being nothing, I was born; again I +shall be as I was before; nothing and nothing-worth is the human race. +But come, serve to me the joyous fountain of Bacchus; for this is the +drug counter-charming ills. + + + XXXV + THE SLAUGHTER-HOUSE + PALLADAS + +We all are watched and fed for Death as a herd of swine butchered +wantonly. + + + XXXVI + LACRIMAE RERUM + PALLADAS + +Weeping I was born and having wept I die, and I found all my living +amid many tears. O tearful, weak, pitiable race of men, dragged under +earth and mouldering away! + + + XXXVII + THE WORLD'S WORTH + AESOPUS + +How might one escape thee, O life, without dying? for thy sorrows are +numberless, and neither escape nor endurance is easy. For sweet indeed +are thy beautiful things of nature, earth, sea, stars, the orbs of +moon and sun; but all else is fears and pains, and though one have a +good thing befal him, there succeeds it an answering Nemesis. + + + XXXVIII + PIS-ALLER + THEOGNIS + +Of all things not to be born into the world is best, nor to see the +beams of the keen sun; but being born, as swiftly as may be to pass +the gates of Hades, and lie under a heavy heap of earth. + + + XXXIX + THE SORROW OF LIFE + POSIDIPPUS + +What path of life may one hold? In the market-place are strifes and +hard dealings, in the house cares; in the country labour enough, and +at sea terror; and abroad, if thou hast aught, fear, and if thou art +in poverty, vexation. Art married? thou wilt not be without anxieties; +unmarried? thy life is yet lonelier. Children are troubles; a +childless life is a crippled one. Youth is foolish, and grey hairs +again feeble. In the end then the choice is of one of these two, +either never to be born, or, as soon as born, to die. + + + XL + THE JOY OF LIFE + METRODORUS + +Hold every path of life. In the market-place are honours and prudent +dealings, in the house rest; in the country the charm of nature, and +at sea gain; and abroad, if thou hast aught, glory, and if thou art in +poverty, thou alone knowest it. Art married? so will thine household +be best; unmarried? thy life is yet lighter. Children are darlings; a +childless life is an unanxious one: youth is strong, and grey hairs +again reverend. The choice is not then of one of the two, either never +to be born or to die; for all things are good in life. + + + XLI + QUIETISM + PALLADAS + +Why vainly, O man, dost thou labour and disturb everything when thou +art slave to the lot of thy birth? Yield thyself to it, strive not +with Heaven, and, accepting thy fortune, be content with rest. + + + XLII + EQUANIMITY + PALLADAS + +If that which bears all things bears thee, bear thou and be borne; and +if thou art indignant and vexest thyself, even so that which bears all +things bears thee. + + + XLIII + THE RULES OF THE GAME + PALLADAS + +All life is a stage and a game: either learn to play it, laying by +seriousness, or bear its pains. + + + XLIV + THE ONE HOPE + PAULUS SILENTIARIUS + +It is not living that has essential delight, but throwing away out of +the breast cares that silver the temples. I would have wealth +sufficient for me, and the excess of maddening care for gold ever eats +away the spirit; thus among men thou wilt find often death better than +life, as poverty than wealth. Knowing this, do thou make straight the +paths of thine heart, looking to our one hope, Wisdom. + + + XLV + AMOR MYSTICUS + MARIANUS + +Where is that backward-bent bow of thine, and the reeds that leap from +thy hand and stick fast in mid-heart? where are thy wings? where they +grievous torch? and why carriest thou three crowns in thy hands, and +wearest another on thy head? I spring not from the common Cyprian, O +stranger, I am not from earth, the offspring of wild joy; but I light +the torch of learning in pure human minds, and lead the soul upwards +into heaven. And I twine crowns of the four virtues; whereof carrying +these, one from each, I crown myself with the first, the crown of +Wisdom. + + + XLVI + THE LAST WORD + PALLADAS + +Thou talkest much, O man, and thou art laid in earth after a little: +keep silence, and while thou yet livest, meditate on death. + + + + BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF EPIGRAMMATISTS + +Greek literature from its earliest historical beginnings to its final +extinction in the Middle Ages falls naturally under five periods. +These are:--(1) Greece before the Persian warbs; (2) the ascendancy of +Athens; (3) the Alexandrian monarchies; (4) Greece under Rome; (5) the +Byzantine empire of the East. The authors of epigrams included in this +selection are spread over all these periods through a space of about +fifteen centuries. + + +I. Period of the lyric poets and of the complete political + development of Greece, from the earliest time to the repulse of + the Persian invasion, B.C. 480. + +MIMNERMUS of Smyrna fl. B.C. 634-600, and was the contemporary of +Solon. He is spoken of as the "inventor of elegy", and was apparently +the first to employ the elegiac metre in threnes and love-poems. Only +a few fragments, about eighty lines in all, of his poetry survive. + +ERINNA of Rhodes, the contemporary of Sappho according to ancient +tradition, fl. 600 B.C., and died very young. There are three epigrams +in the Palatine Anthology under her name, probably genuine: see Bergk, +/Lyr. Gr./ iii. p. 141. Besides the fragments given by Bergk, detached +phrases of hers are probably preserved in /Anth. Pal./ vii. 12 and 13, +and in the description by Christodorus of her statue in the gymnasium +at Constantinople, /Anth. Pal./ ii. 108-110. She was included in the +/Garland/ of Meleager, who speaks, l. 12, of the "sweet maiden-fleshed +crocus of Erinna." + +THEOGNIS of Megara, the celebrated elegiac and gnomic poet, fl. B.C. +548, and was still alive at the beginning of the Persian wars. The +fragments we possess are from an Anthology of his works, and amount to +about 1400 lines in all. He employed elegiac verse as a vehicle for +every kind of political and social poetry; some of the poems were sung +to the flute at banquets and are more akin to lyric poetry; others, +described as {gnomai di elegeias}, elegiac sentences, can hardly be +distinguished in essence from "hortatory" epigrams, and two of them +have accordingly been included as epigrams of Life in this selection. + +ANACREON of Teos in Ionia, B.C. 563-478, migrated with his countrymen +to Abdera on the capture of Teos by the Persians, B.C. 540. He then +lived for some years at the court of Polycrates of Samos (who died +B.C. 522), and afterwards, like Simonides, at that of Hipparchus of +Athens, finally returning to Teos, where he died at the age of eighty- +five. Of his genuine poetry only a few inconsiderable fragments are +left; and his wide fame rests chiefly on the /pseudo-Anacreontea/, a +collection of songs chiefly of a convivial and amatory nature, written +at different times but all of a late date, which have come down to us +in the form of an appendix to the Palatine MS. of the Anthology, and +from being used as a school-book have obtained a circulation far +beyond their intrinsic merit. The /Garland/ of Meleager, l. 35, speaks +of "the unsown honey-suckle of Anacreon," including both lyrical +poetry ({melisma}) and epigrams ({elegoi}) as distinct from one +another. The Palatine Anthology contains twenty-one epigrams under his +name, a group of twelve together (vi. 134-145) transferred bodily, it +would seem, from some collection of his works, and the rest scattered; +and there is one other in Planudes. Most are plainly spurious, and +none certainly authentic; but one of the two given here (iii. 7) has +the note of style of this period, and is probably genuine. The other +(xi. 32) is obviously of Alexandrian date, and is probably by Leonidas +of Tarentum. + +SIMONIDES of Ceos, B.C. 556-467, the most eminent of the lyric poets, +lived for some years at the court of Hipparchus of Athens (B.C. 528- +514), afterwards among the feudal nobility of Thessaly, and was again +living at Athens during the Persian wars. The later years of his life +were spent with Pindar and Aeschylus at the court of Hiero of +Syracuse. He was included in the /Garland/ of Meleager (l. 8, "the +fresh shoot of the vine-blossom of Simonides"); fifty-nine epigrams +are under his name in the Palatine MS., and eighteen more in Planudes, +besides nine others doubtfully ascribed to him. Several of his +epigrams are quoted by Herodotus; others are preserved by Strabo, +Plutarch, Athenaeus, etc. In all, according to Bergk, we have ninety +authentic epigrams from his hand. There were two later poets of the +same name, Simonides of Magnesia, who lived under Antiochus the Great +about 200 B.C., and Simonides of Carystus, of whom nothing definite is +known; some of the spurious epigrams may be by one or other of them. + +Beyond the point to which Simonides brought it the epigram never rose. +In him there is complete ease of workmanship and mastery of form +together with the noble and severe simplicity which later poetry lost. +His dedications retain something of the antique stiffness; but his +magnificent epitaphs are among our most precious inheritances from the +greatest thought and art of Greece. + +BACCHYLIDES of Iulis in Ceos flourished B.C. 470. He was the nephew of +Simonides, and lived with him at the court of Hiero. There are only +two epigrams in the Anthology under his name. The /Garland/ of +Meleager, l. 34, speaks of "the yellow ears from the blade of +Bacchylides." This phrase may contain an allusion to his dedicatory +epigram to the West Wind, ii. 34 in this selection. + +Finally, forming the transition between this and the great Athenian +period, comes AESCHYLUS, B.C. 525-456. That Aeschylus wrote elegiac +verse, including a poem on the dead at Marathon, is certain; fragments +are preserved by Plutarch and Theophrastus, and there is a well- +supported tradition that he competed with Simonides on that occasion. +As to the authorship of the two epigrams extant under his name there +is much difference of opinion. Bergk does not come to any definite +conclusion. Perhaps all that can be said is that they do not seem +unworthy of him, and that they certainly have the style and tone of +the best period. It was not till the decline of literature that the +epoch of forgeries began. It is, however, suspicious that a poet of +his great eminence should not be mentioned in the /Garland/ of +Meleager; for we can hardly suppose these epigrams, if genuine, either +unknown to Meleager or intentionally omitted by him. + + +II. Period of the ascendancy of Athens, and of the great dramatists + and historians; from the repulse of the Persian invasion to the + extinction of Greek freedom at the battle of Chaeronea, B.C. 480- + 338. + +In this period the epigram almost disappears, overwhelmed apparently +by the greater forms of poetry which were then in their perfection. +Between Simonides and Plato there is not a single name on our list; +and it is not till the period of the transition, the first half of the +fourth century B.C., that the epigram begins to reappear. About 400 +B.C. a new grace and delicacy is added to it by PLATO (B.C. 428-347; +the tradition, in itself probable, is that he wrote poetry when a very +young man). Thirty-two epigrams in the Anthology are ascribed, some +doubtfully, to one Plato or another; a few of obviously late date to a +somewhat mythical PLATO JUNIOR ({o Neoteros}), and one to PLATO THE +COMEDIAN (fl. 428-389), the contemporary and rival of Aristophanes. In +a note to i. 5 in this selection something is said as to the +authenticity of the epigrams ascribed to the great Plato [omitted in +this text--JB.] He was included in the /Garland/ of Meleager, who +speaks, ll. 47-8, of "the golden bough of the ever- divine Plato, +shining everywhere in excellence"--one of the finest criticisms ever +made by a single phrase, and the more remarkable that it anticipates, +and may even in some degree have suggested, the mystical golden bough +of Virgil. + +To the same period belongs PARRHASIUS of Ephesus, who fl. 400 B.C., +the most eminent painter of his time, in whose work the rendering of +the ideal human form was considered to have reached its highest +perfection. Two epigrams and part of a third ascribed to him are +preserved in Athenaeus. + +DEMODOCUS of Leros, a small island in the Sporades, is probably to be +placed here. Nothing is known as to his life, nor as to his date +beyond the one fact that an epigram of his is quoted by Aristotle, +/Eth. N./ vii. 9. Four epigrams of his, all couplets containing a +sarcastic point of the same kind, are preserved in the Palatine +Anthology. + + +III. Period of the great Alexandrian monarchies; from the accession of + Alexander the Great to the annexation of Syria by the Roman + Republic, B.C. 336-65. + +Throughout these three centuries epigrammatists flourished in great +abundance, so much so that the epigram ranked as one of the important +forms of poetry. After the first fifty years of the period there is no +appreciable change in the manner and style of the epigram; and so, in +many cases where direct evidence fails, dates can only be ascribed +vaguely. The history of the Alexandrian epigram begins with two groups +of poets, none of them quite of the first importance, but all of great +literary interest, who lived just before what is known as the +Alexandrian style became pronounced; the first group continuing the +tradition of pure Greece, the second founding the new style. After +them the most important names, in chronological order, are Callimachus +of Alexandria, Leonidas of Tarentum, Theocritus of Syracuse, Antipater +of Sidon, and Meleager of Gadara. These names show how Greek +literature had now become diffused with Greek civilisation through the +countries bordering the eastern half of the Mediterranean. + +The period may then be conveniently subdivided under five heads-- + + (1) Poets of Greece Proper and Macedonia, continuing the purely + Greek tradition in literature. + (2) Founds of the Alexandrian School. + (3) The earlier Alexandrians of the third century B.C. + (4) The later Alexandrians of the second century B.C. + (5) Just on the edge of this period, Meleager and his + contemporaries: transition to the Roman period. + +(1) ADAEUS or ADDAEUS, called "the Macedonian" in the title of one of +his epigrams, was a contemporary of Alexander the Great. Among his +epigrams are epitaphs on Alexander and on Philip; his date is further +fixed by the mention of Potidaea in another epigram, as Cassander, who +died B.C. 296, changed the name of the city into Cassandrea. Eleven +epigrams are extant under his name, but one is headed "Adaeus of +Mitylene" and may be by a different hand, as Adaeus was a common +Macedonian name. They are chiefly poems of country life, prayers to +Demeter and Artemis, and hunting scenes, full of fresh air and +simplicity out of doors, with a serious sense of religion and +something of Macedonian gravity. The picture they give of the simple +and refined life of the Greek country gentleman, like Xenophon in his +old age at Scillus, is one of the most charming and intimate glimpses +we have of the ancient world, carried on quietly among the drums and +tramplings of Alexander's conquests, of which we are faintly reminded +by another epigram on an engraved Indian beryl. + +ANYTE of Tegea is one of the foremost names among the epigrammatists, +and it is somewhat surprising that we know all but nothing of her from +external sources. "The lilies of Anyte" stand at the head of the list +of poets in the /Garland/ of Meleager; and Antipater of Thessalonica +in a catalogue of poetesses (/Anth. Pal./ ix. 26) speaks of {Anutes +stoma thelun Omeron}. The only epigram which gives any clue to her +date is one on the death of three Milesian girls in a Gaulish +invasion, probably that of B.C. 279; but this is headed "Anyte of +Mitylene," and is very possibly by another hand. A late tradition says +that her statue was made by the sculptors Cephisodotus and +Euthycrates, whose date is about 300 B.C., but we are not told whether +they were her contemporaries. Twenty-four epigrams are ascribed to +her, twenty of which seem genuine. They are so fine that some critics +have wished to place her in the great lyric period; but their deep and +most refined feeling for nature rather belongs to this age. They are +principally dedications and epitaphs, written with great simplicity of +description and much of the grand style of the older poets, and +showing (if the common theory as to her date be true) a deep and +sympathetic study of Simonides. + +Probably to this group belong also the following poets: + +HEGESIPPUS, the author of eight epigrams in the Palatine Anthology, +three dedications and five epitaphs, in a simple and severe style. The +reference in the /Garland/ of Meleager, l. 25, to "the maenad grape- +cluster of Hegesippus" is so wholly inapplicable to these that we must +suppose it to refer to a body of epigrams now lost, unless this be the +same Hegesippus with the poet of the New Comedy who flourished at +Athens about 300 B.C., and the reference be to him as a comedian +rather than an epigrammatist. + +PERSES, called "the Theban" in the heading of one epigram, "the +Macedonian" in that of another (no difference of style can be traced +between them), a poet of the same type as Addaeus, with equal +simplicity and good taste, but inferior power. The /Garland/ of +Meleager, l. 26, speaks of "the scented reed of Perses." There are +nine epigrams of his in the Palatine Anthology, including some +beautiful epitaphs. + +PHAEDIMUS of Bisanthe in Macedonia, author of an epic called the +/Heracleia/ according to Athenaeus. "The yellow iris of Phaedimus" is +mentioned in the /Garland/ of Meleager, l. 51. Two of the four +epigrams under his name, a beautiful dedication, and a very noble +epitaph, are in this selection; the other two, which are in the +appendix of epigrams in mixed metres at the end of the Palatine +Anthology (Section xiii.) are very inferior and seem to be by another +hand. + +(2) Under this head is a group of three distinguished poets and +critics: + +PHILETAS of Cos, a contemporary of Alexander, and tutor to the +children of Ptolemy I. He was chiefly distinguished as an elegiac +poet. Theocritus (vii. 39) names him along with Asclepiades as his +master in style, and Propertius repeatedly couples him in the same way +with Callimachus. If one may judge from the few fragments extant, +chiefly in Stobaeus, his poetry was simpler and more dignified than +that of the Alexandrian school, of which he may be called the founder. +He was also one of the earliest commentators on Homer, the celebrated +Zenodotus being his pupil. + +SIMMIAS of Rhodes, who fl. rather before 300 B.C., and was the author +of four books of miscellaneous poems including an epic history of +Apollo. "The tall wild-pear of Simmias" is in the /Garland/ of +Meleager, l. 30. Two of the seven epigrams under his name in the +Palatine Anthology are headed "Simmias of Thebes." This would be the +disciple of Socrates, best known as one of the interlocutors in the +/Phaedo/. But these epigrams are undoubtedly of the Alexandrian type, +and quite in the same style as the rest; and the title is probably a +mistake. Simmias is also the reputed author of several of the +{griphoi} or pattern-poems at the end of the Palatine MS. + +ASCLEPIADES, son of Sicelides of Samos, who flourished B.C. 290, one +of the most brilliant authors of the period. Theocritus (l.c. supra) +couples him with Philetas as a model of excellence in poetry. This +passage fixes his date towards the end of the reign of Ptolemy I., to +whose wife Berenice and daughter Cleopatra there are references in his +epigrams. There are forty-three epigrams of his in the Anthology; +nearly all of them amatory, with much wider range and finer feeling +that most of the erotic epigrams, and all with the firm clear touch of +the best period. There are also one or two fine epitaphs. The +reference in the /Garland/ of Meleager, l. 46, to "the wind-flower of +the son of Sicelides" is another of Meleager's exquisite criticisms. + +(3) LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM is the reputed author of one hundred and +eleven epigrams in the Anthology, chiefly dedicatory and sepulchural. +In the case of some of these, however, there is confusion between him +and his namesake, Leonidas of Alexandria, the author of about forty +epigrams in the Anthology who flourished in the reign of Nero. In two +epigrams Leonidas speaks of himself as a poor man, and in another, an +epitaph written for himself, says that he led a wandering life and +died far from his native Tarentum. His date is most nearly fixed by +the inscription (/Anth. Pal./ vi. 130, attributed to him on the +authority of Planudes) for a dedication by Pyrrhus of Epirus after a +victory over Antigonus and his Gaulish mercenaries, probably that +recorded under B.C. 274. Tarentum, with the other cities of Magna +Graecia, was about this time in the last straits of the struggle +against the Italian confederacy; this or private reasons may account +for the tone of melancholy in the poetry of Leonidas. He invented a +particular style of dedicatory epigram, in which the implements of +some trade or profession are enumerated in ingenious circumlocutions; +these have been singled out for special praise by Sainte-Beuve, but +will hardly be interesting to many readers. The /Garland/ of Meleager, +l. 15, mentions "the rich ivy-clusters of Leonidas," and the phrase +well describes the diffuseness and slight want of firmness and colour +in his otherwise graceful style. + +NOSSIS of Locri, in Magna Graecia, is the contemporary of Leonidas; +her date being approximately fixed by an epitaph on Rhinthon of +Syracuse, who flourished 300 B.C. We know a good many details about +her from her eleven epigrams in the Anthology, some of which are only +inferior to those of Anyte. The /Garland/ of Meleager, l. 10, speaks +of "the scented fair-flowering iris of Nissus, on whose tablets Love +himself melted the wax"; and, like Anyte, she is mentioned, with the +characteristic epithet "woman-tongued," by Antipater of Thessalonica +in his list of poetesses. She herself claims (/Anth. Pal./ vii. 718) +to be a rival of Sappho. + +THEOCRITUS of Syracuse lived for some time at Alexandria under Ptolemy +II., about 280 B.C., and afterwards at Syracuse under Hiero II. From +some allusions to the latter in the Idyls, it seems that he lived into +the first Punic war, which broke out B.C. 264. Twenty-nine epigrams +are ascribed to him on some authority or other in the Anthology; of +these Ahrens allows only nine as genuine. + +NICIAS of Miletus, physician, scholar, and poet, was the contemporary +and close friend of Theocritus. Idyl xi. is addressed to him, and the +scholiast says he wrote an idyl in reply to it; idyl xxii was sent +with the gift of an ivory spindle to his wife, Theugenis; and one of +Theocritus' epigrams (/Anth. Pal./ vi. 337) was written for him as a +dedication. There are eight epigrams of his in the Anthology (/Anth. +Pal./ xi. 398 is wrongly attributed to him, and should be referred to +Nicarchus), chiefly dedications and inscriptions for rural places in +the idyllic manner. "The green mint of Nicias" is mentioned, probably +with an allusion to his profession, in the /Garland/ of Meleager, l. +19. + +CALLIMACHUS of Alexandria, the most celebrated and the most wide in +his influence of Alexandrian scholars and poets, was descended from +the noble family of the Battiadae of Cyrene. He studied at Alexandria, +and was appointed principal keeper of the Alexandrian library by +Ptolemy II., about the year 260 B.C. This position he held till his +death, about B.C. 240. He was a prolific author in both prose and +verse. Sixty-three epigrams of his are preserved in the Palatine +Anthology, and two more by Strabo and Athenaeus; five others in the +Anthology are ascribed to him on more or less doubtful authority. He +brought to the epigram the utmost finish of which it is capable. Many +of his epigrams are spoiled by over-elaboration and affected +daintiness of style; but when he writes simply his execution is +incomparable. The /Garland/ of Meleager, l. 21, speaks of "the sweet +myrtle-berry of Callimachus, ever full of acid honey"; and there is in +all his work a pungent flavour which is sometimes bitter and sometimes +exquisite. + +POSIDIPPUS, the author of twenty-five extant epigrams, of which twenty +are in the Anthology, is more than once referred to as "the +epigrammatist," and so is probably a different person from the +comedian, the last distinguished name of the New Comedy, who began to +exhibit after the death of Menander in B.C. 291. He probably lived +somewhat later; the /Garland/ of Meleager, l. 45, couples "the wild +corn-flowers of Posidippus and Hedylus," and Hedylus was the +contemporary of Callimachus. One of his epigrams refers to the Stoic +Cleanthes, who became head of the school B.C. 263 and died about B.C. +220, as though already an old master. + +With Posidippus may be placed METRODORUS, the author of an epigram in +reply to one by Posidippus (xii. 39, 40 in this selection). Whether +this be contemporary or not, it can hardly be by the same Metrodorus +as the forty arithmetical problems which are given in an appendix to +the Palatine Anthology (Section xiv.), or the epigram on a Byzantine +lawyer, /Anth. Pal./ ix. 712. These may be all by a geometrician of +the name who is mentioned as having lived in the age of Constantine. + +MOERO or MYRO of Byzantium, daughter of the tragedian Homerus, +flourished towards the end of the reign of Ptolemy II., about 250 B.C. +She wrote epic and lyric poetry as well as epigrams; a fragment of her +epic called /Mnemosyne/ is preserved in Athenaeus. Antipater of +Thessalonica mentions her in his list of famous poetesses. Of the +"many martagon-lilies of Moero" in the Anthology of Meleager +(/Garland/, l. 5) only two are extant, both dedications. + +NICAENETUS of Samos flourished about the same time. There are four +epigrams of his in the Anthology, and another is quoted by Athenaeus, +who, in connexion with a Samian custom, adduces him as "a poet of the +country." He also wrote epic poems. The /Garland/ of Meleager, l. 29, +speaks of "the myrrh-twigs of Nicaenetus." + +EUPHORION of Chalcis in Euboea, grammarian and poet, was born B.C. +274, and in later life was chief librarian at the court of Antiochus +the Great, who reigned B.C. 224-187. His most famous work was his five +books of {KHiliades}, translated into Latin by C. Cornelius Gallus +(Virgil, /Ecl./ vi. 64-73) and of immense reputation. His influence on +Latin poetry provoked the well-known sneer of Cicero (/Tusc./ iii. 19) +at the /cantores Euphorionis/; cf. also Cic. /de Div./ ii. 64, and +Suetonius, /Tiberius/, c. 70. Only two epigrams of his are extant in +the Palatine Anthology. The /Garland/ of Meleager, l. 23, speaks of +"the rose-campion of Euphorion." + +RHIANUS of Crete flourished about 200 B.C., and was chiefly celebrated +as an epic poet. Besides mythological epics, he wrote metrical +histories of Thessaly, Elis, Achaea, and Messene; Pausinias quotes +verses from the last of these, /Messen./ i. 6, xvii. 11. Seutonius, +/Tiberius/, c. 70, mentions him along with Euphorion as having been +greatly admired by Tiberius. There are nine epigrams by him, erotic +and dedicatory, in the Palatine Anthology, and another is quoted by +Athenaeus. The /Garland/ of Meleager, l. 11, couples him with the +marjoram-blossom. + +THEODORIDES of Syracuse, the author of nineteen epigrams in the +Anthology, flourished towards the close of the third century B.C., one +of his epigrams being an epitaph on Euphorion. He also wrote lyric +poetry; Athenaeus mentions a dithyrambic poem of his called the +/Centaurs/, and a /Hymn to Love/. The /Garland/ of Meleager, l. 53, +speaks of "the fresh-blooming festal wild-thyme of Theodorides." + +A little earlier in date is MNASALCAS of Plataeae, near Sicyon, on +whom Theodorides wrote an epitaph (/Anth. Pal./ xiii. 21), which +speaks of him as imitating Simonides, and criticises his style as +turgid. This criticism is not born out by his eighteen extant epigrams +in the Palatine Anthology, which are in the best manner, with +something of the simplicity of his great model, and even a slight +austerity of style which takes us back to Greece Proper. The /Garland/ +of Meleager seizes this quality when it speaks, l. 16, of "the tresses +of the sharp pine of Mnasalcas." + +MOSCHUS of Syracuse, the last of the pastoral poets, flourished +towards the end of the third century B.C., perhaps as late as B.C. 200 +if he was the friend of the grammarian Aristarchus. A single epigram +of his is extant in Planudes. The Palatine Anthology includes his +idyll of /Love the Runaway/ (ix. 440), and the lovely hexameter +fragment by Cyrus (ix. 136), which has without authority been +attributed to him and is generally included among his poems. + +To this period may belong DIOTIMUS, whose name is at the head of +eleven epigrams in the Anthology. One of these is headed "Diotimus of +Athens," one "Diotimus of Miletus," the rest have the name simply. +Nothing is known from other sources of any one of them. An Athenion +Diotimus was one of the orators surrendered to Antipater B.C. 322, and +some of the epigrams might be of that period. A grammarian Diotimus of +Adramyttium is mentioned in an epigram by Aratus of Soli (who fl. 270 +B.C.); perhaps he was the poet of the /Garland/ of Meleager, who +speaks, l. 27, of "the quince from the boughs of Diotimus." + +AUTOMEDON of Aetolia is the author of an epigram in the Palatine +Anthology, of which the first two lines are in Planudes under the name +of Theocritus; it is in his manner, and in the best style of this +period. There are twelve other epigrams by an Automedon of the Roman +period in the Anthology, one of them headed "Automedon of Cyzicus." +From internal evidence these belong to the reign of Nerva or Trajan. +An Automedon was probably one of the poets in the Anthology of +Philippus (/Garland/, l. 11), but is most probably different from both +of these, as that collection cannot well be put later than the reign +of Nero, and purports to include only poets subsequent to Meleager: +cf. supra p. 17. + +THEAETETUS is only known as the author of three epigrams in the +Palatine Anthology (a fourth usually ascribed to him, /Anth. Pal./ +vii. 444, should be referred to Theaetetus Scholasticus, a Byzantine +epigrammatist of the period of Justinian) and two more in Diogenes +Laërtius. One of these last is an epitaph on the philosopher Crantor, +who flourished about 300 B.C., but is not necessarily contemporaneous. + +(4) ALCAEUS of Messene, who flourished 200 B.C., represents the +literary and political energy still surviving in Greece under the +Achaean League. Many of his epigrams touch on the history of the +period; several are directed against Philip III. of Macedonia. The +earliest to which a date can be fixed is on the destruction of Macynus +in Aetolia by Philip, B.C. 218 or 219 (Polyb. iv. 65), and the latest +on the dead at the battle of Cynoscephalae, B.C. 197, written before +their bones were collected and buried by order of Antiochus B.C. 191. +This epigram is mentioned by Plutarch as having given offence to the +Roman general Flaminius, on account of its giving the Aetolians an +equal share with the Romans in the honour of the victory. Another is +on the freedom of Flaminius, proclaimed at the Isthmia B.C. 196. An +Alcaeus was one of the Epicurean philosophers expelled from Rome by +decree of the Senate in B.C. 173, and may be the same. Others of his +epigrams are on literary subjects. All are written in a hard style. +There are twenty-two in all in the Anthology. Some of them are headed +"Alcaeus of Mitylene," but there is no doubt as to the authorship; the +confusion of this Alcaeus with the lyric poet of Mitylene could only +be made by one very ignorant of Greek literature. + +Of the same period is DAMAGETUS, the author of twelve epigrams in the +Anthology, and included as "a dark violet" in the /Garland/ of +Meleager, l. 21. They are chiefly epitaphs, and are in the best style +of the period. + +DIONYSIUS of Cyzicus must have flourished soon after 200 B.C. from his +epitaph on Eratosthenes, who died B.C. 196. Eight other epigrams in +the Palatine Anthology, and four more in Planudes, are attributed to a +Dionysius. One is headed "Dionysius of Andros," one "Dionysius of +Rhodes" (it is an epitaph on a Rhodian), one "Dionysius the Sophist," +the others "Dionysius" simply. There were certainly several authors of +the name, which was one of the commonest in Greece; but no distinction +in style can be traced among these epigrams, and there is little +against the theory that most if not all are by the same author, +Dionysius of Cyzicus. + +DIOSCORIDES, the author of forty-one epigrams in the Palatine +Anthology, lived at Alexandria early in the second century B.C. An +epitaph of his on the comedian Machon is quoted by Athenaeus, who says +that Machon was master to Aristophanes of Byzantium, who flourished +200 B.C. His style shows imitation of Callimachus; the /Garland/ of +Meleager, l. 23, speaks of him as "the cyclamen of Muses." + +ARTEMIDORUS, a grammarian, pupil of Aristophanes of Byzantium and +contemporary of Aristarchus, flourished about 180 B.C., and is the +author of two epigrams in the Palatine Anthology, both mottoes, the +one for a Theocritus, the other for a collection of the bucolic poets. +The former is attributed in the Palatine MS. to Theocritus himself, +but is assigned to Artemidorus on the authority of a MS. of +Theocritus. + +PAMPHILUS, also a grammarian, and pupil to Aristarchus, was one of the +poets in the /Garland/ of Meleager (l. 17, "the spreading plane of the +song of Pamphilus"). Only two epigrams of his are extant in the +Anthology. + +ANTIPATER OF SIDON is one of the most interesting figures of the close +of this century, when Greek education began to permeate the Roman +upper classes. Little is known about his life; part of it was spent at +Rome in the society of the most cultured of the nobility. Cicero, +/Or./ iii. 194, makes Crassus and Catulus speak of him as familiarly +known to them, but then dead; the scene of the dialogue is laid in +B.C. 91. Cicero and Pliny also mention the curious fact that he had an +attack of fever on his birthday every winter. "The young Phoenician +cypress of Antipater," in the /Garland/ of Meleager, l. 42, refers to +him as one of the more modern poets in that collection. + +There is much confusion in the Anthology between him and his equally +prolific namesake of the next century, Antipater of Thessalonica. The +matter would take long to disentangle completely. In brief the facts +are these. In the Palatine Anthology there are one hundred and +seventy-eight epigrams, of which forty-six are ascribed to Antipater +of Sidon and thirty-six to Antipater of Thessalonica, the remaining +ninety-six being headed "Antipater" merely. Twenty-eight other +epigrams are given as by one or other in Planudes and Diogenes +Laërtius. Jacobs assigns ninety epigrams in all to the Sidonian poet. +Most of them are epideictic; a good many are on works of art and +literature; there are some very beautiful epitaphs. There is in his +work a tendency towards diffuseness which goes with his talent in +improvisation mentioned by Cicero. + +To this period seem to belong the following poets, of whom little or +nothing is known: ARISTODICUS of Rhodes, author of two epigrams in the +Palatine Anthology: ARISTON, author of three or four epigrams in the +style of Leonidas of Tarentum: HERMOCREON, author of one dedication in +the Palatine Anthology and another in Planudes: and TYMNES, author of +seven epigrams in the Anthology, and included in the /Garland/ of +Meleager, l. 19, with "the fair-foliaged white poplar" for his +cognisance. + +(5) MELEAGER son of Eucrates was born at the partially Hellenised town +of Gadara in northern Palestine (the Ramoth-Gilead of the Old +Testament), and educated at Tyre. His later life was spent in the +island of Cos, where he died at an advanced age. The scholiast to the +Palatine MS. says he flourished in the reign of the last Seleucus; +this was Seleucus VI. Epiphanes, who reigned B.C. 95-93. The date of +his celebrated Anthology cannot be much later, as it did not include +the poems of his fellow-townsman Philodemus, who flourished about B.C. +60 or a little earlier. Like his contemporary Menippus, also a +Gadarene, he wrote what were known as {spoudogeloia}, miscellaneous +prose essays putting philosophy in popular form with humorous +illustrations. These are completely lost, but we have fragments of the +/Saturae Menippeae/ of Varro written in imitation of them, and they +seem to have had a reputation like that of Addison and the English +essayists of the eighteenth century. Meleager's fame however is +securely founded on the one hundred and thirty-four epigrams of his +own which he included in his Anthology. Some further account of the +erotic epigrams, which are about four-fifths of the whole number, is +given above. For all of these the MSS. of the Anthology are the sole +source. + +DIODORUS of Sardis, commonly called ZONAS, is spoken of by Strabo, who +was a friend of his kinsman Diodorus the younger, as having flourished +at the time of the invasion of Asia by Mithridates B.C. 88. He was a +distinguished orator. Both of these poets were included in the +Anthology of Philippus, and in the case of some of the epigrams it is +not quite certain to which of the two they should be referred. Eight +are usually ascribed to Zonas: they are chiefly dedicatory and +pastoral, with great beauty of style and feeling for nature. + +ERYCIUS of Cyzicus flourished about the middle of the first century +B.C. One of his epigrams is on an Athenian woman who had in early life +been captured at the sack of Athens by Sulla B.C. 80; another is +against a grammarian Parthenius of Phocaea, possibly the same who was +the master of Virgil. Of the fourteen epigrams in the Anthology under +the name of Erycius one is headed "Erycius the Macedonian" and may be +by a different author. + +PHILODEMUS of Gadara was a distinguished Epicurean philosopher who +lived at Rome in the best society of the Ciceronian age. He was an +intimate friend of Piso, the Consul of B.C. 58, to whom two of his +epigrams are addressed. Cicero, /in Pis./ § 68 foll., where he attacks +Piso for consorting with /Graeculi/, almost goes out of his way to +compliment Philodemus on his poetical genius and the unusual literary +culture which he combined with the profession of philosophy: and again +in the /de Finibus/ speaks of him as "a most worthy and learned man." +He is also referred to by Horace, 1 /Sat./ ii. 121. Thirty-two of his +epigrams, chiefly amatory, are in the Anthology, and five more are +ascribed to him on doubtful authenticity. + + +IV. Roman period; from the establishment of the Empire to the decay of + art and letters after the death of Marcus Aurelius, B.C. 30-A.D. + 180. + +This period falls into three subdivisions; (1) poets of the Augustan +age; (2) those of what may roughly be called the Neronian age, about +the middle of the first century; and (3) those of the brief and +partial renascence of art and letters under Hadrian, which, before the +accession of Commodus, had again sunk away, leaving a period of some +centuries almost wholly without either, but for the beginnings of +Christian art and the writings of the earlier Fathers of the Church. +Even from the outset of this period the epigram begins to fall off. +There is a tendency to choose trifling subjects, and treat them either +sentimentally or cynically. The heaviness of Roman workmanship affects +all but a few of the best epigrams, and there is a loss of simplicity +and clearness of outline. Many of the poets of this period, if not +most, lived as dependants in wealthy Roman families and wrote to +order: and we see in their work the bad results of an excessive taste +for rhetoric and the practice of fluent but empty improvisation. + +(1) ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA, the author of upwards of a hundred +epigrams in the Anthology, is the most copious and perhaps the most +interesting of the Augustan epigrammatists. There are many allusions +in his work to contemporary history. He lived under the patronage of +L. Calpurnius Piso, consul in B.C. 15, and afterwards proconsul of +Macedonia for several years, and was appointed by him governor of +Thessalonica. One of his epigrams celebrates the foundation of +Nicopolis by Octavianus, after the battle of Actium; another +anticipates his victory over the Parthians in the expedition of B.C. +20; another is addressed to Caius Caesar, who died in A.D. 4. None can +be ascribed certainly to a later date than this. + +ANTIPHANES the Macedonian is the author of ten epigrams in the +Palatine Anthology; one of these, however, is headed "Antiphanes of +Megalopolis" and may be by a different author. There is no precise +indication of time in his poems. + +BIANOR of Bithynia is the author of twenty-two epigrams in the +Anthology. One of them is on the destruction of Sardis by an +earthquake in A.D. 17. He is fond of sentimental treatment, which +sometimes touches pathos but often becomes trifling. + +CRINAGORAS of Mitylene lived at Rome as a sort of court poet during +the latter part of the reign of Augustus. He is mentioned by Strabo as +a contemporary of some distinction. In one of his epigrams he blames +himself for hanging on to wealthy patrons; several others are +complimentary verses sent with small presents to the children of his +aristocratic friends: one is addressed to young Marcellus with a copy +of the poems of Callimachus. Others are on the return of Marcellus +from the Cantabrian war, B.C. 25; on the victories of Tiberius in +Armenia and Germany; and on Antonia, daughter of the triumvir and wife +of Drusus. Another, written in the spirit of that age of tourists, +speaks of undertaking a voyage from Asia to Italy, visiting the +Cyclades and Corcyra on the way. Fifty-one epigrams are attributed to +him in the Anthology; one of these, however (/Anth. Pal./ ix. 235), is +on the marriage of Berenice of Cyrene to Ptolemy III. Euergetes, and +must be referred to Callimachus or one of his contemporaries. + +DIODORUS, son of Diopeithes of Sardis, also called Diodorus the +Younger, in distinction to Diodorus Zonas, is mentioned as a friend of +his own by Strabo, and was a historian and melic poet besides being an +epigrammatist. Seventeen of the epigrams in the Anthology under the +name of Diodorus are usually ascribed to him, and include a few fine +epitaphs. + +EVENUS of Ascalon is probably the author of eight epigrams in the +Anthology; but some of these may belong to other epigrammatists of the +same name, Evenus of Athens, Evenus of Sicily, and Evenus Grammaticus, +unless the last two of these are the same person. Evenus of Athens has +been doubtfully identified with Evenus of Paros, and elegiac poet of +some note contemporary with Socrates, mentioned in the /Phaedo/ and +quoted by Aristotle: and it is just possible that some of the best of +the epigrams, most of which are on works of art, may be his. + +PARMENIO the Macedonian is the author of sixteen epigrams in the +Anthology, most of which have little quality beyond commonplace +rhetoric. + +These seven poets were included in the Anthology of Philippus; of the +same period, but not mentioned by name in the proem to that +collection, are the following:-- + +APOLLONIDES, author of thirty-one epigrams in the Anthology, perhaps +the same with an Apollonides of Nicaea mentioned by Diogenes Laërtius +as having lived in the reign of Tiberius. One of his epigrams refers +to the retirement of Tiberius at Rhodes from B.C. 6 to A.D. 2, and +another mentions D. Laelius Balbus, who was consul in B.C. 6, as +travelling in Greece. + +GAETULICUS, the author of eight epigrams in the Palatine Anthology +(vi. 154 and vii. 245 are wrongly ascribed to him), is usually +identified with Gn. Lentulus Gaetulicus, legate of Upper Germany, +executed on suspicion of conspiracy by Caligula, A.D. 39, and +mentioned as a writer of amatory poetry by Martial and Pliny. But the +identification is very doubtful, and perhaps he rather belongs to the +second century A.D. No precise date is indicated in any of the +epigrams. + +POMPEIUS, author of two or three epigrams in the Palatine Anthology, +also called Pompeius the Younger, is generally identified with M. +Pompeius Theophanes, son of Theophanes of Mitylene, the friend of +Pompey the Great, and himself a friend of Tiberius, according to +Strabo. + +To the same period probably belong QUINTUS MAECIUS or MACCIUS, author +of twelve epigrams in the Anthology, and MARCUS ARGENTARIUS, perhaps +the same with a rhetorician Argentarius mentioned by the elder Seneca, +author of thirty-seven epigrams, chiefly amatory and convivial, some +of which have much grace and fancy. Others place him in the age of +Hadrian. + +(2) PHILIPPUS of Thessalonica was the compiler of an Anthology of +epigrammatists subsequent to Meleager and is himself the author of +seventy-four extant epigrams in the Anthology besides six more +dubiously ascribed to him. He wrote epigrams of all sorts, mainly +imitated from older writers and showing but little original power or +imagination. The latest certain historical allusion in his own work is +one to Agrippa's mole at Puteoli, but Antiphilus, who was included in +his collection, certainly wrote in the reign of Nero, and probably +Philippus was of about the same date. Most of his epigrams being +merely rhetorical exercises on stock themes give no clue to his +precise period. + +ANTIPHILUS of Byzantium, whose date is fixed by his epigram on the +restoration of liberty to Rhodes by the emperor Nero, A.D. 53 (Tac. +/Ann./ xii. 58), is the author of forty-nine epigrams in the +Anthology, besides three doubtful. Among them are some graceful +dedications, pastoral epigrams, and sea-pieces. The pretty epitaph on +Agricola (/Anth. Pal./ ix. 549) gives no clue to his date, as it +certainly is not on the father-in-law of Tacitus, and no other person +of the name appears to be mentioned in history. + +JULIUS POLYAENUS is the author of a group of three epigrams (/Anth. +Pal./ ix. 7-9), which have a high seriousness rare in the work of this +period. He has been probably identified with a C. Julius Polyaenus who +is known from coins to have been a duumvir of Corinth (Colonia Julia) +under Nero. He was a native of Corcyra, to which he retired after a +life of much toil and travel, apparently as a merchant. The epigram by +Polyaenus of Sardis (/Anth. Pal./ ix. 1), usually referred to the same +author, is in a completely different manner. + +LUCILIUS, the author of one hundred and twenty-three epigrams in the +Palatine Anthology (twenty others are of doubtful authorship) was, as +we learn from himself, a grammarian at Rome and a pensioner of Nero. +He published two volumes of epigrams, somewhat like those of Martial, +in a satiric and hyperbolical style.[1] + +NICARCHUS is the author of forty-two epigrams of the same kind as +those of Lucilius. Another given under his name (/Anth. Pal./ vii. +159) is of the early Alexandrian period, perhaps by Nicias of Miletus, +as the converse mistake is made in the Palatine MS. with regard to xi. +398. A large proportion of his epigrams are directed against doctors. +There is nothing to fix the precise part of the century in which he +lived. + +To some part of this century also belong SECUNDUS of Tarentum and +MYRINUS, each the other of four epigrams in the Anthology. Nothing +further is known of either. + +(3) STRATO of Sardis, the collector of the Anthology called {Mousa +Paidike Stratonos} and extant, apparently in an imperfect and +mutilated form, as the twelfth section or first appendix of the +Palatine Anthology may be placed with tolerable certainty in the reign +of Hadrian. Besides his ninety-four epigrams preserved in his own +Anthology, five others are attributed to him in the Palatine +Anthology, and one more in Planudes. + +AMMIANUS is the author of twenty-nine epigrams in the Anthology, all +irrisory. One of them (/Anth. Pal./ xi. 226) is imitated from Martial, +ix. 30. Another sneers at the neo-Atticism which had become the +fashion in Greek prose writing. His date is fixed by an attack on +Antonius Polemo, a well-known sophist of the age of Hadrian. + +THYMOCLES is only known from his single epigram in Strato's Anthology. +It is in the manner of Callimachus and may perhaps be of the +Alexandrian period. + +To this or an earlier date belongs ARCHIAS of Mitylene, the author of +a number of miscellaneous epigrams, chiefly imitated from older +writers such as Antipater and Leonidas. Forty-one epigrams in all are +attributed on some authority to one Archias or another; most have the +name simply; some are headed "Archias the Grammarian," "Archias the +Younger," "Archias the Macedonian," "Archias of Byzantium." All are +sufficiently like each other in style to be by the same hand. Some +have been attributed to Cicero's client, Archias of Antioch, but they +seem to be of a later period. + +To the age of Hadrian also belongs the epigram inscribed on the Memnon +statue at Thebes with the name of its author, ASCLEPIODOTUS, ix. 19 in +this selection. + +CLAUDIUS PTOLEMAEUS of Alexandria, mathematician, astronomer, and +geographer, who gave his name to the Ptolemaïc system of the heavens, +flourished in the latter half of the second century. His chief works +are the {Megale Suntaxis tes Astronomias} in thirteen books, known to +the Middle Ages in its Arabian translation under the title of the +/Almagest/, and the {Geographike Uphegesis} in eight books. He also +wrote on astrology, chronology, and music. A single epigram of his on +his favourite science is preserved in the Anthology. Another +commonplace couplet under the name of Ptolemaeus is probably by some +different author. + +LUCIAN of Samosata in Commagene, perhaps the most important figure in +the literature of this period, was born about A.D. 120. He practised +as an advocate at Antioch, and travelled very extensively throughout +the empire. He was appointed procurator of a district of Egypt by the +emperor Commodus (reigned A.D. 180-192) and probably died about A.D. +200. Besides his voluminous prose works he is the author of forty +epigrams in the Anthology, and fourteen more are ascribed to him on +doubtful or insufficient authority. + +To some part of this period appear to belong ALPHEUS of Mitylene, +author of twelve epigrams, some school-exercises, others on ancient +towns, Mycenae, Argos, Tegea, and Troy, which he appears to have +visited as a tourist; CARPYLLIDES or CARPHYLLIDES, author of one fine +epitaph and another dull epigram in the moralising vein of this age: +GLAUCUS of Nicopolis, author of six epigrams (one is headed "Glaucus +of Athens," but is in the same late imperial style; and in this period +the citizenship of Athens was sold for a trifle by the authorities to +any one who cared for it: cf. the epigram of Automedon (/Anth. Pal./ +xi. 319)); and SATYRUS (whose name is also given as Satyrius, Thyïlus, +Thyïllus, and Satyrus Thyïllus), author of nine epigrams, chiefly +dedications and pastoral pieces, some of them of great delicacy and +beauty. + +[1] The spelling /Lucillius/ is a mere barbarism, the /l/ being + doubled to indicate the long vowel: so we find {Statullios}, etc. + + +V. Byzantine period; from the transference of the seat of empire to + Constantinople, A.D. 330, to the formation of the Palatine + Anthology in the reign of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, about the + middle of the tenth century. + +For the first two centuries of this period hardly any names have to be +chronicled. Literature had almost ceased to exist except among +lexicographers and grammarians; and though epigrams, Christian and +pagan, continued to be written, they are for the most part of no +literary account whatever. One name only of importance meets us before +the reign of Justinian. + +PALLADAS of Alexandria is the author of one hundred and fifty-one +epigrams (besides twenty-three more doubtful) in the Anthology. His +somber and melancholy figure is one of the last of the purely pagan +world in its losing battle against Christianity. One of the epigrams +attributed to him on the authority of Planudes is an eulogy on the +celebrated Hypatia, daughter of Theon of Alexandria, whose tragic +death took place A.D. 415 in the reign of Theodosius the Second. +Another was, according to a scholium in the Palatine MS., written in +the reign of Valentinian and Valens, joint-emperors, 364-375 A.D. The +epigram on the destruction of Berytus, ix. 27 in this selection, gives +no certain argument of date. Palladas was a grammarian by profession. +An anonymous epigram (/Anth. Pal./ ix. 380) speaks of him as of high +poetical reputation; and, indeed, in those dark ages the harsh and +bitter force that underlies his crude thought and half-barbarous +language is enough to give him a place of note. Casaubon dismisses him +in two contemptuous words as "versificator insulsissimus"; this is +true of a great part of his work, and would perhaps be true of it all +but for the /saeva indignatio/ which kindles the verse, not into the +flame of poetry, but as it were to a dull red heat. There is little +direct allusion in his epigrams to the struggle against the new +religion. One epigram speaks obscurely of the destruction of the idols +of Alexandria by the Christian populace in the archiepiscopate of +Theophilus, A.D. 389; another in even more enigmatic language (/Anth. +Pal./ x. 90) seems to be a bitter attack on the doctrine of the +Resurrection; and a scornful couplet against the swarms of Egyptian +monks might have been written by a Reformer of the sixteenth century. +For the most part his sympathy with the losing side is only betrayed +in his despondency over all things. But it is in his criticism of life +that the power of Palladas lies; with a remorselessness like that of +Swift he tears the coverings from human frailty and holds it up in its +meanness and misery. The lines on the Descent of Man (/Anth. Pal./ x. +45), which unfortunately cannot be included in this selection, fall as +heavily on the Neo-Platonic martyr as on the Christian persecutor, and +remain even now among the most mordant and crushing sarcasms ever +passed upon mankind. + +To the same period in thought--beyond this there is no clue to their +date--belong AESOPUS and GLYCON, each the author of a single epigram +in the Palatine Anthology. They belong to the age of the Byzantine +metaphrasts, when infinite pains were taken to rewrite well-known +poems or passages in different metres, by turning Homer into elegiacs +or iambics, and recasting pieces of Euripides or Menander as epigrams. + +A century later comes the Byzantine lawyer, MARIANUS, mentioned by +Suidas as having flourished in the reign of Anastasius I., A.D. 491- +518. He turned Theocritus and Apollonius Rhodius into iambics. There +are six epigrams of his in the Anthology, all descriptive, on places +in the neighbourhood of Constantinople. + +At the court of Justinian, A.D. 527-565, Greek poetry made its last +serious effort; and together with the imposing victories of Belisarius +and the final codification of Roman law carried out by the genius of +Tribonian, his reign is signalised by a group of poets who still after +three hundred years of barbarism handled the old language with +remarkable grace and skill, and who, though much of their work is but +clever imitation of the antique, and though the verbosity and vague +conventionalism of all Byzantine writing keeps them out of the first +rank of epigrammatists, are nevertheless not unworthy successors of +the Alexandrians, and represent a culture which died hard. Eight +considerable names come under this period, five of them officials of +high place in the civil service or the imperial household, two more, +and probably the third also, practising lawyers at Constantinople. + +AGATHIAS son of Mamnonius, poet and historian, was born at Myrina in +Mysia about the year 536 A.D. He received his early education in +Alexandria, and at eighteen went to Constantinople to study law. Soon +afterwards he published a volume of poems called /Daphniaca/ in nine +books. The preface to it (/Anth. Pal./ vi. 80) is still extant, and +many of his epigrams were no doubt included in it. His History, which +breaks off abruptly in the fifth book, covers the years 553-558 A.D.; +in the preface to it he speaks of his own early works, including his +Anthology of recent and contemporary epigrams. One of the most +pleasant of his poems is an epistle to his friend Paulus Silentiarius, +written from a country house on the opposite coast of the Bosporus, +where he had retired to pursue his legal studies away from the +temptations of the city. He tells us himself that law was distasteful +to him, and that his time was chiefly spent in the study of ancient +poetry and history. In later life he seems to have returned to Myrina, +where he carried out improvements in the town and was regarded as the +most distinguished of the citizens (/Anth. Pal./ ix. 662). He is +believed to have died about 582 A.D. Agathias is the author of ninety- +seven epigrams in the Anthology, in a facile and diffuse style; often +they are exorbitantly long, some running to twenty-four and even +twenty-eight lines. + +ARABIUS, author of seven epigrams in the Anthology, is called +{skholastikos} or lawyer. Four of his epigrams are on works of art, +one is a description of an imperial villa on the coast near +Constantinople, and the other two are in praise of Longinus, prefect +of Constantinople under Justinian. One of the last is referred to in +an epigram by Macedonius (/Anth. Pal./ x. 380). + +JOANNES BARBUCALLUS, also called JOANNES GRAMMATICUS, is the author of +eleven epigrams in the Anthology. Three of them are on the destruction +of Berytus by earthquake in A.D. 551: from these it may be conjectured +that he had studied at the great school of civil law there. As to his +name a scholiast in MS. Pal. says, {ethnikon estin enoma. Barboukale +gar polis en tois [entos] Iberos tou potamou}. But this seems to be an +incorrect reminiscence of the name {Arboukale}, a town in Hispania +Tarraconensis, in the lexicon of Stephanus Byzantinus. + +JULIANUS, commonly called JULIANUS AEGYPTIUS, is the author of seventy +epigrams (and two more doubtful) in the Anthology. His full title is +{apo uparkhon Aiguptou}, or ex-prefect of a division of Egypt, the +same office which Lucian had held under Commodus. His date is fixed by +two epitaphs on Hypatius, brother of the Emperor Anastasius, who was +put to death by Justinian in A.D. 532. + +LEONTIUS, called Scholasticus, author of twenty-four epigrams in the +Anthology, is generally identified with a Leontius Referendarius, +mentioned by Procopius under this reign. The Referendarii were a board +of high officials, who, according to the commentator on the /Notitia +imperii/, transmitted petitions and cases referred from the lower +courts to the Emperor, and issued his decisions upon them. Under +Justinian they were eighteen in number, and were /spectabiles/, their +president being a /comes/. One of the epigrams of Leontius is on +Gabriel, prefect of Constantinople under Justinian; another is on the +famous charioteer Porphyrius. Most of them are on works of art. + +MACEDONIUS of Thessalonica, mentioned by Suidas s.v. {Agathias} as +consul in the reign of Justinian, is the author of forty-four epigrams +in the Anthology, the best of which are some delicate and fanciful +amatory pieces. + +PAULUS, always spoken of with his official title of SILENTIARIUS, +author of seventy-nine epigrams (and six others doubtful) in the +Anthology, is the most distinguished poet of this period. Our +knowledge of him is chiefly derived from Agathias, /Hist./ v. 9, who +says he was of high birth and great wealth, and head of the thirty +Silentiarii, or Gentlemen of the Bedchamber, who were among the +highest functionaries of the Byzantine court. Two of his epigrams are +replies to two others by Agathias (/Anth. Pal./ v. 292, 293; 299, +300); another is on the death of Damocharis of Cos, Agathias' +favourite pupil, lamenting with almost literal truth that the harp of +the Muses would thenceforth be silent. Besides the epigrams, we +possess a long description of the church of Saint Sophia by him, +partly in iambics and partly in hexameters, and a poem in dimeter +iambics on the hot springs of Pythia. The "grace and genius beyond his +age," which Jacobs justly attributes to him, reach their highest point +in his amatory epigrams, forty in number, some of which are not +inferior to those of Meleager. + +RUFINUS, author of thirty-nine (and three more doubtful) amatory +epigrams in the Palatine Anthology, is no doubt of the same period. In +the heading of one of the epigrams he is called Rufinus Domesticus. +The exact nature of his public office cannot be determined from this +title. A Domestic was at the head of each of the chief departments of +the imperial service, and was a high official. But the name was also +given to the Emperor's Horse and Foot Guards, and to the bodyguards of +the prefects in charge of provinces, cities, or armies. + +ERATOSTHENES, called Scholasticus, is the author of five epigrams in +the Palatine Anthology. Epigrams by Julianus, Macedonius, and Paulus +Silentiarius, are ascribed to him in other MSS., and from this fact, +as well as from the evidence of the style, he may be confidently +placed under the same date. Nothing further is known of him. Probably +to the same period belongs THEOPHANES, author of two epigrams in the +miscellaneous appendix (xv.) to the Palatine Anthology, one of them in +answer to an epigram by Constantinus Siculus, as to whose date there +is the same uncertainty. Two epitaphs in the Anthology are also +ascribed to Theophanes in Planudes. + +With this brief latter summer the history of Greek poetry practically +ends. The epigrams of Damocharis, the pupil of Agathias, seem already +to show the decomposition of the art. The imposing fabric of empire +reconstructed by the genius of Justinian and his ministers had no +solidity, and was crumbling away even before the death of its founder: +while the great plague, beginning in the fifteenth year of Justinian, +continued for no less than fifty-two years to ravage every province of +the empire and depopulate whole cities and provinces. In such a period +as this the fragile and exotic poetry of the Byzantine Renaissance +could not sustain itself. Political and theological epigrams continued +to be written in profusion; but the collections may be searched +through in vain for a single touch of imagination or beauty. Under +Constantine VII. (reigned A.D. 911-959) comes the last shadowy name in +the Anthology. + +COMETAS, called Chartularius or Keeper of the Records, is the author +of six epigrams in the Palatine Anthology, besides a poem in +hexameters on the Raising of Lazarus. From some marginal notes in the +MS. it appears that he was a contemporary of Constantinus Cephalas. +Three of the epigrams are on a revised text of Homer which he edited. +None are of any literary value, except one beautiful pastoral couplet, +vi. 10 in this selection, which seems to be the very voice of ancient +poetry bidding the world a lingering and reluctant farewell. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext Select Epigrams from the Greek by Machail + diff --git a/2378.zip b/2378.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6cea475 --- /dev/null +++ b/2378.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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