Greek Anthology Books 1-6

ToposText · Greek Anthology · 820 sections

urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.249
§ 5.249 IRENAEUS REFERENDARIUS O haughty Rhodope, now yielding to the arrows of Cypris, and forswearing thy insufferable pride, you hold me in your arms by your bed, and I lie, it seems, in chains with no desire for liberty. Thus do souls and languid bodies meet, mingled by the streams of love.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.250
§ 5.250 PAULUS SJLENTIARIUS Sweet, my friends, is Lais' smile, and sweet again the tears she sheds from her gently waving eyes. Yesterday, after long resting her head on my shoulder, she sighed without a cause. She wept as I kissed her, and the tears flowing as from a cool fountain fell on our united lips. When I questioned her, “Why are you crying? ” She said, “I am afraid of your leaving me, for all you men are forsworn.”
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.251
§ 5.251 IRENAEUS REFERENDARIUS You roll your eyes to express hidden fires and you grimace, twisting and protruding your reddened lips; you giggle constantly and shake the glory of your curls, and your haughty hands, I see, are stretched out in despair. But your disdainful heart is not bent, and even in your decline you are not softened.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.252
§ 5.252 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS Let us throw off these cloaks, my pretty one, and lie naked, knotted in each other's embrace. Let nothing be between us; even that thin tissue you wear seems thick to me as the wall of Babylon. Let our breasts and our lips be linked; the rest must be veiled in silence. I hate a babbling tongue.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.253
§ 5.253 IRENAEUS REFERENDARIUS Why, Chrysilla, do you bend your head and gaze at the floor, and why do your fingers trifle with your girdle's knot? Shame mates not with Cypris, and if you must be silent, by some sign at least tell me that you submit to the Paphian goddess.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.254
§ 5.254 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS Ye gods! I swore to stay away from thee, bright maiden, till the twelfth day dawned, but I, the longenduring, could not endure it. Yea, by thyself I swear, the morrow seemed more than a twelvemonth. But pray to the gods, dear, not to engrave this oath of mine on the surface of the page that records my sins, and comfort my heart, too, with thy charm. Let not thy burning scourge, gracious lady, as well as the immortals' flay me.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.255
§ 5.255 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS I saw the lovers. In the ungovernable fury of their passion they glued their lips together in a long kiss; but that did not sate the infinite thirst of love. Longing, if it could be, to enter into each other's hearts, they sought to appease to a little extent the torment of the impossible by interchanging their soft raiment. Then he was just like Achilles among the daughters of Lycomedes, and she, her tunic girt up to her silver knee, counterfeited the form of Artemis. Again their lips met close, for the inappeasable hunger of passion yet devoured them.'Twere easier to tear apart two vine stems that have grown round each other for years than to separate them as they kiss and with their opposed arms knot their pliant limbs in a close embrace. Thrice blessed he, my love, who is entwined by such fetters, thrice blessed! but we must burn far from each other.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.256
§ 5.256 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS Galatea last evening slammed her door in my face, and added this insulting phrase; " Scorn breaks up love." A foolish phrase that idly goes from mouth to mouth! Scorn but inflames my passion all the more. I swore to remain a year away from her, but ye gods! in the. morning I went straightway to supplicate at her door.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.257
§ 5.257 PALLADAS Now I condemn Zeus as a tepid lover, since he did not transform himself for this haughty fair's sake. She is not second in beauty to Europa or Danae or tender Leda. But perhaps he disdains courtesans, for I know they were maiden princesses he used to seduce.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.258
§ 5.258 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS Your wrinkles, Philinna, are preferable to the juice of all youthful prime, and I desire more to clasp in my hands your apples nodding with the weight of their clusters, than the firm breasts of a young girl. Your autumn excels another's spring, and your winter is warmer than another's summer
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.259
§ 5.259 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS Thy eyes, Chariclo, that breathe love, are heavy, as if thou hadst just risen from bed, thy hair is dishevelled, thy cheeks, wont to be so bright and rosy, are pale, and thy whole body is relaxed. If all this is a sign of thy having spent the night in Love's arena, then the bliss of him who held thee clasped in his arms transcends all other, but if it is burning love that wastes thee, may thy wasting be for me.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.260
§ 5.260 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS Does a caul confine your hair, I waste away with passion, as I look on the image of turreted Cybele. Do you wear nothing on your head, its flaxen locks make me scare my mind from its throne in my bosom. Is your hair let down and covered by a white kerchief, the fire burns just as fierce in my heart. The three Graces dwell in the three aspects of your beauty, and each aspect sheds for me its particular flame.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.261
§ 5.261 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS I care not for wine, but if thou wouldst make me drunk, taste the cup first and I will receive it when thou offerest it. For, once thou wilt touch it with thy lips, it is no longer easy to abstain or to fly from the sweet cup-bearer. The cup ferries thy kiss to me, and tells me what joy it tasted.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.262
§ 5.262 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS Alack, alack! envy forbids even thy sweet speech and the secret language of thy eyes. I am in dread of the eye of thy old nurse, who stands close to thee like the many-eyed herdsman of the Argive maiden. “Stand there and keep watch; but you gnaw your heart in vain, for your eye cannot reach to the soul.”
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.263
§ 5.263 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS Never, my lamp, mayest thou wear a snuff or arouse the rain, lest thou hold my bridegroom from coming. Ever dost thou grudge Cypris; for when Hero was plighted to Leander — no more, my heart, no more! Thou art Hephaestus's, and I believe that, by vexing Cypris, thou fawnest on her suffering lord.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.264
§ 5.264 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS Why find fault with my locks grown grey so early and my eyes wet with tears? These are the pranks my love for thee plays; these are the care-marks of unfulfilled desire; these are the traces the arrows left; these are the work of many sleepless nights. Yes, and my sides are already wrinkled all before their time, and the skin hangs loose upon my neck. The more fresh and young the flame is, the older grows my body devoured by care. But take pity on me, and grant me thy favour, and at once it will recover its freshness and my locks their raven tint.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.265
§ 5.265 COMETAS CHARTULARIUS Phyllis sent her eyes to sea to seek Demophoon, but his oath he had flung to the winds and he was false to her. Now, dear, I thy Demophoon keep my tryst to thee on the sea-shore; but how is it, Phyllis, that thou are false?
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.266
§ 5.266 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS They say a man bitten by a mad dog sees the brute's image in the water. I ask myself, “Did Love go rabid, and fix his bitter fangs in me, and lay my heart waste with madness? For thy beloved image meets my eyes in the sea and in the eddying stream and in the wine-cup.”
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.267
§ 5.267 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS A. Why do you sigh? B. I am in love. A. With whom? B. A girl. A. Is she pretty? B. In my eyes. A. Where did you notice her? B. There, where I went to dinner, I saw her reclining with the rest. A. Do you hope to succeed? B. Yes, yes, my friend, but I want a secret affair and not an open one. A. You are averse then from lawful wedlock? B. I learnt for certain that she is very poorly off. A. You learnt! you lie, you are not in love; how can a heart that reckons correctly be touched with love's madness?
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.268
§ 5.268 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS Let none fear any more the darts of desire; for raging Love has emptied his whole quiver on me. Let none dread the coming of his wings; for ever since he hath set his cruel feet on me, trampling on my heart, there he remains unmoved and unshaken and departs not, for on me he hath shed the feathers of his two wings
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.269
§ 5.269 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS I once sat between two ladies, of one of whom I was fond, while to the other I did it as a favour. She who loved me drew me towards her but I, like a thief, kissed the other, with lips that seemed to grudge the kisses, thus deceiving the jealous fears of the first one, whose reproach, and the reports she might make to sever us, I dreaded. Sighing I said, “It seems that I suffer double pain, in that both loving and being loved are a torture to me.”
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.270
§ 5.270 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS A rose requires no wreath, and thou, my lady, no robes, nor hair-cauls set with gems. Pearls yield in beauty to thy skin, and gold has not the glory of thy uncombed hair. Indian jacynth has the charm of sparkling splendour, but far surpassed by that of thy eyes. Thy dewy lips and the honeyed harmony of thy breasts are the magic cestus of Venus itself. By all those I am utterly vanquished, and am comforted only by thy eyes which kind hope makes his home.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.271
§ 5.271 MACEDONIUS THE CONSUL She who once frolicked among the fairest of her sex, dancing with her golden castanettes and displaying her finery, is now worn by old age and pitiless disease. Her lovers, who once ran to welcome her, the eagerly desired, now shudder at her, and that waxing moon has waned away, since it never comes into conjunction.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.272
§ 5.272 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS I press her breasts, our mouths are joined, and I feed in unrestrained fury round her silver neck, but not yet is my conquest complete; I still toil wooing a maiden who refuses me her bed. Half of herself she has given to Aphrodite and half to Pallas, and I waste away between the two.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.273
§ 5.273 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS She who once held herself so high in her beauty, and used to shake her plaited tresses in her pride, she who used to vaunt herself proof against my doleful passion, is now old and wrinkled and her charm is gone. Her breasts are pendent and her eyebrows are fallen, the fire of her eyes is dead and her speech is trembling and senile. I call grey hairs the Nemesis of Love, because they judge justly, coming soonest to those who are proudest.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.274
§ 5.274 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS The image of me that Love stamped in the hot depths of thy heart, thou dost now, alas! as I never dreamt, disown; but I have the picture of thy beauty engraved on my soul. That, O cruel one, I will show to the Sun, and show to the Lord of Hell, that the judgement of Minos may fall quicker on thy head.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.275
§ 5.275 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS One afternoon pretty Menecratis lay outstretched in sleep with her arm twined round her head. Boldly I entered her bed and had to my delight accomplished half the journey of love, when she woke up, and with her white hands set to tearing out all my hair. She struggled till all was over, and then said, her eyes filled with tears: “Wretch, you have had your will, and taken that for which I often refused your gold; and now you will leave me and take another to your breast; for you all are servants of insatiable Cypris.”
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.276
§ 5.276 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS This coif, bright with patterns worked in gold, I bring for thee, my bride to be. Set it on thy hair, and putting this tucker over thy shoulders, draw it round thy white bosom. Yea, pin it lower, that it may cincture thy breasts, wound close around thee. These wear as a maiden, but mayest thou soon be a matron with fair fruit of offspring, that I may get thee a silver head-band, and a hair-caul set with precious stones.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.277
§ 5.277 ERATOSTHENES SCHOLASTICUS Let males be for others. I can love but women, whose charms are more enduring. There is no beauty in youths at the age of puberty; I hate the unkind hair that begins to grow too soon.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.278
§ 5.278 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICS S May Aphrodite herself and the darling Loves melt my empty heart for hate of me, if I ever am inclined to love males. May I never make such conquests or fall into the graver sin. It is enough to sin with women. This I will indulge in, but leave young men to foolish Pittalacus.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.279
§ 5.279 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS Cleophantis delays, and for the third time the wick of the lamp begins to droop and rapidly fade. Would that the flame in my heart would sink with the lamp and did not this long while burn me with sleepless desire. Ah! how often she swore to Cytherea to come in the evening, but she scruples not to offend men and gods alike.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.280
§ 5.280 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS Art thou too in pain, Philinna, art thou too sick, and dost thou waste away, with burning eyes? Or dost thou enjoy sweetest sleep, with no thought, no count of my suffering? The same shall be one day thy lot, and I shall see thy cheeks, wretched girl, drenched with floods of tears. Cypris is in all else a malignant goddess, but one virtue is hers, that she hates a prude.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.281
§ 5.281 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS Yesterday Hermonassa, as after a carouse I was hanging a wreath on her outer door, poured a jug of water on me, and flattened my hair, which I had taken such pains to curl that it would have lasted three days. But the water set me all the more aglow, for the hidden fire of her sweet lips was in the jug.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.282
§ 5.282 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS Slender Melite, though now on the threshold of old age, has not lost the grace of youth; still her cheeks are polished, and her eye has not forgotten to charm. Yet her decades are not few. Her girlish high spirit survives too. This taught me that time cannot subdue nature.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.283
§ 5.283 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS I had loveable Theano all night with me, but she never ceased from weeping piteously. From the hour when the evening star began to mount the heaven, she cursed it for being herald of the morrow's dawn. Nothing is just as mortals would have it; a servant of Love requires Cimmerian nights.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.284
§ 5.284 RUFINUS DOMESTICUS I love everything in you. I hate only your undiscerning eye which is pleased by odious men.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.285
§ 5.285 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS Divine Rhodanthe, being prevented from kissing me, held her maiden girdle stretched out between us, and kept kissing it, while I, like a gardener, diverted the stream of love to another point, sucking up the kiss, and so returned it from a distance, smacking with my lips on her girdle. Even this a little eased my pain, for the sweet girdle was like a ferry plying from lip to lip.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.286
§ 5.286 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS Think, Cleophantis, what joy it is when the storm of love descends with fury on two hearts equally, to toss them. What war, or extremity of fear, or what shame shall sunder them as they entwine their limbs? Would mine were the fetters that the Lemnian smith, Hephaestus, cunningly forged. Let me only clasp thee to me, my sweet, and feed on thy limbs to my heart's content. Then, for all I care, let a stranger see me or my own countryman, or a traveller, dear, or a clergyman, or even my wife.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.287
§ 5.287 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS Curious to find out if lovely Ereutho were fond of me, I tested her heart by a subtle falsehood. I said, “I am going abroad, but remain, my dear, faithful and ever mindful of my love.” But she gave a great cry, and leapt up, and beat her face with her hands, and tore the clusters of her braided hair, begging me to remain. Then, as one not easily persuaded and with a dissatisfied expression, I just consented. I am happy in my love, for what I wished to do in any case, that I granted as a great favour.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.288
§ 5.288 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS Ever since Chariklo, playing with me at the feast, put her wreath slyly on my head, a deadly fire devours me; for the wreath, it seems, had in it something of the poison that burnt Glauce, the daughter of Creon.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.289
§ 5.289 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS The old hag, thrice as old as the oldest crow, who has often for my sorrow got a new lease of life, has a savage heart, and will not be softened either by gold or by greater and stronger cups, but is watching all round the girl. If she ever sees her eyes wandering to me furtively, she actually dares to slap the tender darling's face and make her cry piteously. If it be true, Persephone, that thou didst love Adonis, pity the pain of our mutual passion and grant us both one favour. Deliver the girl from the old woman before she meets with some mischance.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.290
§ 5.290 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS Eluding her mother's apprehensive eyes, the charming girl gave me a pair of rosy apples. I think she had secretly ensorcelled those red apples with the torch of love, for I, alack! am wrapped in flame, and instead of two breasts, ye gods, my purposeless hands grasp two apples.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.291
§ 5.291 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS If, my sweet, you gave me these two apples as tokens of your breasts, I bless you for your great favour; but if your gift does not go beyond the apples, you do me wrong in refusing to quench the fierce fire you lit. Telephus was healed by him who hurt him; do not, dear, be crueller than an enemy to me.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.292
§ 5.292 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS Lines written to Paulus Silenliarius by Agathias while staying on the opposite bank of the Bosporus for the purpose of studying law Here the land, clothing itself in greenery, has revealed the full beauty of the rich foliage, and here warble under shady cypresses the birds, now mothers of tender chicks. The gold-finches sing shrilly, and the turtle-dove moans from its home in the thorny thicket. But what joy have I in all this, I who would rather hear your voice than the notes of Apollo's harp? Two loves beset me; I long to see you, my happy friend, and to see the sweet heifer, the thoughts of whom consume me; but the Law keeps me here far from that slender fawn.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.293
§ 5.293 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS Reply on the same subject to his friend Agathias Love, the violent, knows not Law, nor does any other work tear a man away from true passion. If the labour of your law studies holds you back, then fierce love dwells not in your breast. What love is that, when a narrow strait of the sea can keep you apart from your beloved? Leander showed the power of love by swimming fearless of the billows and the night. And you, my friend, can take the ferry; but the fact is you have renounced Cypris, and pay more attention to Athene. To Pallas belongs law, to Cypris desire. Tell me! what man can serve both at once?
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.294
§ 5.294 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS The envious old woman slept next the girl, lying athwart the bed like an insurmountable projecting rampart, and like a tower an ample blanket covered the girl. The pretentious waiting woman had closed the door of the room, and lay asleep heavy with untempered wine. But I was not afraid of them. I slightly raised with noiseless hands the latch of the door, and blowing out the blazing torch by waving my cloak, I made my way sideways across the room avoiding the sleeping sentry. Then crawling softly on my belly under the girths of the bed, I gradually raised myself, there where the wall was surmountable, and resting my chest near the girl I clasped her breasts and wantoned on her face, feeding my lips on the softness of hers. So her lovely mouth was my sole trophy and her kiss the sole token of my night assault. I have not yet stormed the tower of her virginity, but it is still firmly closed, the assault delayed. Yet, if I deliver another attack, perchance I may carry the walls of her maidenhead, and no longer be held back by the ramparts. If I succeed I will weave a wreath for thee, Cypris the Conqueror.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.295
§ 5.295 LEONTIUS Touch, O cup, the lips that drop honey, suck now thou hast the chance. I envy not, but would thy luck were mine.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.296
§ 5.296 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS Ever since the prophetic bowl pealed aloud in response to the touch of the far-away love-splash, I know that you love me, but you will convince me completely by passing the night with me. This will show that you are wholly sincere, and I will leave the tipplers to enjoy the strokes of the wine-dregs.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.297
§ 5.297 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS Young men have not so much suffering as is the lot of us poor tender-hearted girls. They have friends of their own age to whom they confidently tell their cares and sorrows, and they have games to cheer them, and they can stroll in the streets and let their eyes wander from one picture to another. We on the contrary are not even allowed to see the daylight, but are kept hidden in our chambers, the prey of dismal thoughts.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.298
§ 5.298 JULIANUS, PREFECT OF EGYPT Charming Maria is too exalted: but do thou, holy Justice, punish her arrogance, yet not by death, my Queen, but on the contrary may she reach grey old age, may her hard face grow wrinkled. May the grey hairs avenge these tears, and beauty, the cause of her soul's transgression, suffer for it.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.299
§ 5.299 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS “Naught in excess ” said the sage; and I, believing myself to be comely and loveable, was puffed up by pride, and fancied that this, it would seem, crafty girl's heart lay entirely in my hands. But she now holds herself very high and her brow looks down on me with scorn, as if she found fault with her previous lenity. Now I, formerly so fierce-looking, so brazen, so obdurate, I who flew so high have had a sudden fall. Everything is reversed, and throwing myself on my knees I cried to her: “Forgive me, my youth was at fault.”
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.300
§ 5.300 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS He who was so confident and held his head so high and gathered his brow, lies low now, the plaything of a feeble girl; he who thought formerly to crush the child with his overbearing manner, is himself subdued and has lost his hope. He now falls on his knees and supplicates and laments like a girl, while she has the angry look of a man. Lion -hearted maid, though thou burnest with just anger, quench thy pride; so near hast thou looked on Nemesis.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.301
§ 5.301 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS Though thou settest thy foot far beyond Meroe; winged love shall carry me there with winged power, though thou hiest to the dawn as rose-red as thyself, I will follow thee on foot a myriad miles. If I send thee now this gift from the deep, forgive me, my lady. It is Aphrodite of the sea who offers it to thee, vanquished by the loveliness of thy fair body and abandoning her old confidence in her beauty.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.302
§ 5.302 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS By what road shall one go to the Land of Love? If you seek him in the streets, you will repent the courtesan's greed for gold and luxury. If you approach a maiden's bed, it must end in lawful wedlock or punishment for seduction. Who would endure to awake reluctant desire for his lawful wife, forced to do a duty? Adulterous intercourse is the worst of all and has no part in love, and unnatural sin should be ranked with it. As for widows, if one of them is ill-conducted, she is anyone's mistress, and knows all the arts of harlotry, while if she is chaste she with difficulty consents, she is pricked by loveless remorse, hates what she has done, and having a remnant of shame shrinks from the union till she is disposed to announce its end. If you associate with your own servant, you must make up your mind to change places and become hers, and if with someone else's, the law which prosecutes for outrage on slaves not one's own will mark you with infamy. Diogenes escaped all this and sang the marriage hymn to his palm, not craving for Lais.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.303
§ 5.303 Anonymous There is a noise of loud shouting and great tumult in the street, and why takest thou no heed, Cypris? It is thy boy arrested on his way by all who have the fire of love in their hearts.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.304
§ 5.304 Anonymous When you were a green grape you refused me, when you were ripe you bade me be off, at least grudge me not a little of your raisin.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.305
§ 5.305 Anonymous A girl kissed me in the evening with wet lips. The kiss was nectar, for her mouth smelt sweet of nectar; and I am drunk with the kiss, I have drunk love in abundance.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.306
§ 5.306 PHILODEMUS (Addressed by a girl to a man) You weep, you speak in piteous accents, you look strangely at me, you are jealous, you touch me often and go on kissing me. That is like a lover; but when I say “Here I am next you” and you dawdle, you have absolutely nothing of the lover in you.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.307
§ 5.307 ANTIPHILUS (On a Picture of Zeus and Leda ) This is the Laconian river Eurotas, and that is Leda with nothing on, and he who is hidden in the swan is Zeus. And you little Cupids, who are luring me so little disposed to love, what bird am I to become? If Zeus is a swan, I suppose I must be a lark.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.308
§ 5.308 ANTIPHILUS or PHILODEMUS O you pretty creature, wait for me. What is your name? Where can I see you? I will give what you choose. You don't even speak. Where do you live? I will send someone with you. Do you possibly belong to anyone? Well, you stuck-up thing, goodbye. You won't even say “goodbye.” But again and again I will accost you. I know how to soften even more hard-hearted beauties; and for the present, “goodbye, madam! ”
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:5.309
§ 5.309 DIOPHANES OF MYRINA Love may justly be called thrice a brigand. He is wakeful, reckless, and he strips us bare.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.1a
§ 6.1a BOOK VI THE DEDICATORY EPIGRAMS From one stone lighten the varied rites of Bacchus' worship and above the company of winged Cupids plucking grapes. {This should perhaps be transferred to the end of the previous book. It refers no doubt to a carved gem.)
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.1
§ 6.1 PLATO I, Lais, whose haughty beauty made mock of Greece, I who once had a swarm of young lovers at my doors, dedicate my mirror to Aphrodite, since I wish not to look on myself as I am, and cannot look on myself as I once was.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.2
§ 6.2 SIMONIDES This bow, resting from tearful war, hangs here under the roof of Athenaia's temple. Often mid the roar of battle, in the struggle of men, was it washed in the blood of Persian cavaliers.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.3
§ 6.3 DIONYSIUS Heracles, who treadest stony Trachis and Oeta and the headland of Pholoe clothed in deep forest, to thee Dionysius offers this club yet green, which he cut himself with his sickle from a wild olive-tree.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.4
§ 6.4 LEONIDAS Diophantus the fisherman, as is fit, dedicates to the patron of his craft these relics of his old calling, his hook, easily gulped down, his long poles, his line, his creels, this weel, device of sea-faring netsmen for trapping fishes, his sharp trident, weapon of Poseidon, and the two oars of his boat.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.5
§ 6.5 PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA Piso the fisherman, weighed down by long toil and his right hand already shaky, gives to Hermes these his rods with the lines hanging from their tips, his oar that swam through the sea, his curved hooks whose points bite the fishes' throats, his net fringed with lead, the float that announced where his weel lay, his two wicker creels, the flint pregnant with fire that sets the tinder alight, and his anchor, the trap that holds fast wandering ships.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.6
§ 6.6 On a Caldron in Delphi Amphitryon dedicated me, having won me from the Teleboi.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.7
§ 6.7 On Another Scaeus, having conquered in the boxing contest, dedicated me a beautiful ornament to thee, Apollo the Far-shooter.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.8
§ 6.8 On Another Laodamas himself during his reign dedicated to thee, Apollo the Archer, this tripod as a beautiful ornament.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.9
§ 6.9 MNASALCAS Here hang as gifts from Promachus to thee, Phoebus, his crooked bow and quiver that delights in arrows; but his winged shafts, the deadly gifts he sent his foes, are in the hearts of men on the field of battle.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.10
§ 6.10 ANTIPATER Trito-born Saviour, daughter of Zeus, who hatest wedlock, Pallas, queen of childless virginity, Seleucus built thee this horned altar at the bidding of Apollo (P).
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.11
§ 6.11 SATYRIUS The three brothers, skilled in three crafts, dedicate to Pan, Damis the huntsman this long net, Pigres his light-meshed fowling net, and Clitor, the night-rower, his tunic for red mullet. Look kindly on the pious brethren, O Pan, and grant them gain from fowl, fish and venison.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.12
§ 6.12 JULIANUS, PREFECT OF EGYPT Receive, Pan, the nets of the three brothers for three kinds of chase. Pigres brings his from fowl, Damis from beast, and Clitor from sea. Grant them good sport from air, earth, and water.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.13
§ 6.13 LEONIDAS Huntsman Pan, the three brothers dedicated these nets to thee, each from a different chase: Pigres these from fowl, Damis these from beast, and Clitor his from the denizens of the deep. In return for which send them easily caught game, to the first through the air, to the second through the woods, and to the third through the shore-water.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.14
§ 6.14 ANTIPATER OF SIDON The three brothers dedicated to Pan these implements of their craft: Damis his net for trapping the beasts of the mountain, Clitor this net for fish, and Pigres this untearable net that fetters birds' necks. For they never returned home with empty nets, the one from the copses, the second from the air, the third from the sea.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.15
§ 6.15 ANTIPATER OF SIDON or by ZOSIMUS The blessed triad of brothers dedicated these nets to Pan: Clitor his fishing nets, Damis his hunting nets, Pigres his fowling nets. But do thou grant them sport in air, sea, and land.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.16
§ 6.16 ARCHIAS To thee, Pan the scout, the three brothers from three kinds of netting gave these manifold gifts: Damis his net for beasts, Pigres his neck-fetters for birds, Clitor his drift-nets. Make the first again successful in the air, the second in the sea, and the third in the thickets.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.17
§ 6.17 LUCIAN (On the above Exercises) Three courtesans dedicated their playthings to you, blessed Cyprian, each from a different task. From her bottom Euphro offered this, from the proper place Cleio that, the third Atthis from the heavens. In exchange send the first, Mistress, boyish profits, to the second feminine ones, to the third, of neither.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.18
§ 6.18 JULIANUS, PREFECT OF EGYPT On Lais' Mirror Lais, her loveliness laid low by time, hates whatever witnesses to her wrinkled age. Therefore, detesting the cruel evidence of her mirror, she dedicates it to the queen of her former glory. “Receive, Cytherea, the circle, the companion of youth, since thy beauty dreads not time.”
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.19
§ 6.19 By the same on the same Thou grantest beauty, Cytherea, but creeping time withers thy gift, my Queen. Now since thy gift has passed me by and flown away, receive, gracious goddess, this mirror that bore witness to it.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.20
§ 6.20 By the same on the same Lais took captive by her beauty Greece, which had laid in the dust the proud shield of Persia. Only old age conquered her, and the proof of her fall, the friend of her youth, she dedicates to thee, Cypris. She hates to see even the shadowy image of those grey hairs, whose actual sight she cannot bear.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.21
§ 6.21 Anonymous To thee, Priapus the gardener, did Potamon, who gained wealth by this calling, dedicate the hoe that dug his thirsty garden, and his curved sickle for cutting vegetables, the ragged cloak that kept the rain off his back, his strong boots of untanned hide, the dibble for planting out young cabbages going straight into the easily pierced soil, and his mattock that never ceased during the dry summer to refresh the thirsty beds with draughts from the channels.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.22
§ 6.22 Anonymous The fruit-watcher dedicated to rustic Priapus, carved out of a trunk, this sacrifice from the trees, a newly split pomegranate, this quince covered with fresh down, a navelled fig with wrinkled skin, a purple cluster of thick-set grapes, fountain of wine, and a walnut just out of its green rind.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.23
§ 6.23 Anonymous Hermes, who dwellest in this wave-beaten rock-cave, that gives good footing to fisher gulls, accept this fragment of the great seine worn by the sea and scraped often by the rough beach; this little purse-seine, the round weel that entraps fishes, the float whose task it is to mark where the weels are concealed, and the long cane rod, the child of the marsh, with its horse-hair line, not unfurnished with hooks, wound round it.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.24
§ 6.24 Anonymous Heliodorus dedicates to the Syrian Daimon in the porch [propylon] of this temple his net worn out in vain. It is untainted by any catch of fish, but he hauled out plenty of sea-weed in it on the spacious beach of the anchorage.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.25
§ 6.25 JULIANUS, PREFECT OF EGYPT Old Cinyras, weary of long fishing, dedicates to the Nymphs this worn sweep-net; for no longer could his trembling hand cast it freely to open in an enfolding circle. If the gift is but a small one, it is not his fault, ye Nymphs, for this was all Cinyras had to live on.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.26
§ 6.26 By the same Cinyras dedicates to the nymphs this net, for his old age cannot support the labour of casting it. Feed, ye fish, happily, since Cinyras old age has given freedom to the sea.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.27
§ 6.27 THEAETETUS SCHOLASTICUS {This and the next two are Exercises on the Theme of No. 5) Baeto the fisherman, now his hand is heavy with ailing old age, gives to the gods who grant good catches his many-eyed net that caught him many a fish, his pair of rods with their hooks, his float, the faithful indicator of the weels set in the depths, his flint that gives birth to fire when struck, the anchor besides, fetter of the storm, that held his boat fast, and the jaws of his curved hooks that pierce fishes.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.28
§ 6.28 JULIANUS, PREFECT OF EGYPT Baeto the fisherman, having reached trembling old age, offers thee, Hermes, these gifts, his pliant rods, his oar, whip of his boat, his curved, pointed hooks, his encompassing circular net weighted with lead, the floats that testify to where the weels lie in the sea, a pair of well-woven creels, this stone, the mother of fire, and his anchor, the stay of his unstable boat.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.29
§ 6.29 By the same To Hermes Baeto, fearing the weakness of old age, gives the implements of his sea-faring craft, his anchor, his round flint, his creel and float, his hook, oar, nets and rods.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.30
§ 6.30 MACEDONIUS THE CONSUL {after No. 38) Old Amyntichus, his toil on the deep over, bound his lead-weighted net round his fishing spear, and to Poseidon and the salt sea wave said, shedding tears, “Thou knowest. Lord, that I am weary with toil, and now in my evil old age wasting Poverty, from whom there is no release, is in her youthful prime. Feed the old man while he yet breathes, but from the land as he wishes, thou who art Lord over both land and sea.”
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.31
§ 6.31 NICARCHUS (?) I have offered this as a common gift to Pan the goattreader, to Dionysus the giver of good fruit, and to Demeter the Earth -goddess, and I beg from them fine flocks, good wine and to gather good grain from the ears.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.32
§ 6.32 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS Charicles by the wooded hill offered to Pan who loves the rock this yellow, bearded goat, a horned creature to the horned, a hairy one to the hairylegged, a bounding one to the deft leaper, a denizen of the woods to the forest god.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.33
§ 6.33 MAECIUS Priapus of the beach, the fishermen, after surrounding with their deep-sunk net the circling shoal of tunnies in the green narrows of the sea, dedicated to thee these gifts out of the profits of the rich catch they made on this strand — a bowl of beech wood, a stool roughly carved of heath, and a glass wine-cup, so that when thy weary limbs are broken by the dance thou mayest rest them and drive away dry thirst.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.34
§ 6.34 RHIANUS Polyaenus hung here as a gift to Pan the club, the bow and these boar's feet. Also to the Lord of the hills he dedicated this quiver and the dog -collar, gifts of thanks for his success in boar -hunting. But do thou, O Pan the scout, send home Polyaenus, the son of Symilas, in future, too, laden with spoils of the chase.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.35
§ 6.35 LEONIDAS This skin did Teleso stretch on the woodland plane-tree, an offering to goat -hoofed Pan the goat -treader, and the crutched, well-pointed staff, with which he used to bring down red-eyed wolves, the cheese-pails, too, and the leash and collars of his keen-scented hounds.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.36
§ 6.36 PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA These trusses from the furrows of his little field did Sosicles the husbandman dedicate to thee, Demeter, who lovest the corn; for this is a rich harvest of grain he hath gathered. But another time, too, may he bring back his sickle blunted by reaping.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.37
§ 6.37 Anonymous The rustic herdsmen cut on the mountain this beech-branch which old age had bent as it bends us, and having trimmed it, set it up by the road, a pretty toy for Pan who protects the glossy cattle.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:6.38
§ 6.38 PHILIPPUS To thee Poseidon, Lord of the sea, did Amyntichus give these his last gifts, when he ceased from his toil on the deep — his nets edged with lead that plunge into the sea, his oar still drunk with the brine, his spear for killing sea-monsters, strong lanee of the waters, his weel ever betrayed by floats, his anchor, firm hand of his boat, and the flint, dear to sailors, that has the art of guarding the seed of fire.

Via ToposText (topostext.org), a project of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation created by Brady Kiesling. Translated by William Roger Paton (1857-1921). Composed ca. 900 CE. Licence: public domain. Source.