Greek Anthology Book 7

ToposText · Greek Anthology · 753 sections

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§ 7.100 By the same On Alexis and Phaedrus (not an epitaph) Now when I said nothing except just that Alexis is fair, he is looked at everywhere and by everyone when he appears. Why, my heart, dost thou point out bones to dogs and have to sorrow for it afterwards? Was it not thus that I lost Phaedrus?
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§ 7.101 DIOGENES LAERTIUS On Speusippus If I had not heard that Speusippus would die so, no one would have persuaded me to say this, that he was not akin to Plato; for then he would not have died disheartened by reason of a matter exceeding small.
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§ 7.102 By the same On Xenocrates Stumbling once over a brazen cauldron and hitting his forehead Xenocrates, who in all matters and everywhere had shown himself to be a man, called out Oh! sharply and died.
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§ 7.103 ANTAGORAS On Polemo and Crates Stranger, as thou passest by, tell that this tomb holds god-like Crates and Polemo, great-hearted kindred spirits, from whose inspired mouths the holy word rushed. A pure pursuit of wisdom, obedient to their unswerving doctrines, adorned their divine lives.
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§ 7.104 DIOGENES LAERTIUS On Arcesilaus Arcesilaus, why did you drink so much wine, and so unsparingly as to slip out of your senses? I am not so sorry for you because you died as because you did violence to the Muses by using immoderate cups.
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§ 7.105 On Lacydes And about you too, Lacydes, I heard that Bacchus took hold of you by the toes and dragged you to Hades. It is clear; when Bacchus enters the body in force he paralyses the limbs. Is that not why he is called Lyaeus?
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§ 7.106 On Epicurus “Adieu, and remember my doctrines,” were Epicurus’ last words to his friends when dying. For after entering a warm bath, he drank wine and then on the top of it he drank cold death.
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§ 7.107 On Aristotle Eurymedon, the priest of Demeter, was once about to prosecute Aristotle for impiety, but he escaped by drinking hemlock. This was then, it seems, to overcome unjust slander without trouble.
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§ 7.108 On Plato How, if Phoebus had not produced Plato in Greece, could he cure men’s souls by letters? For his son Asclepius is the healer of the body, as Plato is of the immortal soul.
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§ 7.109 on the same Phoebus generated for mortals both Asclepius and Plato, the one to save the body, the other the soul. After celebrating a marriage he went to the city which he had founded for himself and was established in the house of Zeus.
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§ 7.110 On Theophrastus This, then, was no idle word that some man spoke, that the bow of wisdom breaks when relaxed. As long as Theophrastus worked he was sound of limb, but when he grew slack he died infirm.
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§ 7.111 On Strato This Strato to whom Lampsacus gave birth was a thin man (I don't mind if you don't attend. I assert this at least). He ever fought with disease and died without feeling it.
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§ 7.112 On Lyco No, neither shall we neglect to tell how Lyco died of the gout. The thing that surprises me most is that he who formerly walked with other people’s feet managed in one night to run all the way to Hades.
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§ 7.113 On Demetrius Phalereus An asp that had much poison, not to be wiped off, darting no light but black death from its eyes, slew wise Demetrius.
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§ 7.114 On Heraclides Ponticus Heraclides, you wished to leave a report among men that when you died you became a live serpent in the eyes of all. But you were taken in, cunning wise man, for the beast was indeed a serpent, but you, being no wise man, were shown to be a beast.
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§ 7.115 On Antisthenes You were in your lifetime a Dog, Antisthenes, of such a nature that you bit the heart with words, not with your mouth. But someone perchance will say you died of consumption. What does that matter? One must have someone to guide one to Hades.
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§ 7.116 On Diogenes “ Diogenes, tell what fate took you to Hades? A dog’s fierce bite.”
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§ 7.117 ZENODOTUS On Zeno Zeno, reverend grey-browed sage, thou didst found the self-sufficient life, abandoning the pursuit of vainglorious wealth; for virile (and thou didst train thyself to foresight) was the school of thought thou didst institute, the mother of dauntless freedom. If thy country were Phoenicia what reproach is that? Cadmus too, from whom Greece learnt writing, was a Phoenician.
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§ 7.118 DIOGENES LAERTIUS on the same Some say that Zeno of Citium, suffering much from old age, remained without food, and others that striking the earth with his hand he said, “I come of my own accord. Why dost thou call me?” on the ground, he cried, “I come; why callest thou me?” and at once strangled himself.
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§ 7.119 ANONYMOUS On Pythagoras Dedicated when Pythagoras discovered that famous figure to celebrate which he made a grand sacrifice of an ox.
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§ 7.120 XENOPHANES on the same They say that once he passed by as a dog was being beaten, and pitying it spoke as follows, “Stop and beat it not; for the soul is that of a friend; I know it, for I heard it speak.”
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§ 7.121 DIOGENES LAERTIUS on the same Not you alone, Pythagoras, abstained from living things, but we do so likewise; who ever touched living things? But when they are boiled and roasted and salted, then they have no life in them and we eat them.
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§ 7.122 By the same on the same Alas! why did Pythagoras reverence beans so much and die together with his pupils? There was a field of beans, and in order to avoid trampling them he let himself be killed on the road by the Agrigentines.
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§ 7.123 By the same On Empedocles And you too, Empedocles, purifying your body by liquid flame, drank immortal Are from the crater. I will not say that you threw yourself on purpose into Etna's stream, but wishing to hide you fell in against your will.
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§ 7.124 By the same on the same They say Empedocles died by a fall from a carriage, breaking his right thigh. But if he jumped into the fiery bowl and drank life, how is.it his tomb is shown still in Megara?
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§ 7.125 ANONYMOUS On Epicharmus Even as the great burning sun surpasseth the stars and the sea is stronger than the rivers, so I say that Epicharmus, whom this his city Syracuse crowned, excelleth all in wisdom.
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§ 7.126 DIOGENES LAERTIUS On Philolaus I advise all men to cure suspicion, for even if you don’t do a thing, but people think you do, it is ill for you. So Croton, his country, once slew Philolaus because they thought he wished to have a house like a tyrant’s.
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§ 7.127 By the same On Heraclitus I often wondered about Heraclitus, how after leading such an unhappy life, he finally died. For an evil disease, watering his body, put out the light in his eyes and brought on darkness.
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§ 7.128 ANONYMOUS on the same I am Heraclitus. Why do you pull me this way and that, ye illiterate? I did not work for you, but for those who understand me. One man for me is equivalent to thirty thousand and countless men are but as nobody. This I proclaim even in the house of Persephone.
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§ 7.129 DIOGENES LAERTIUS On Zeno the Eleatic You wished, Zeno —'twas a goodly wish — to kill the tyrant and free Elea, but you were slain, for the tyrant caught you and pounded you in a mortar. Why do I speak thus? It was your body, not you.
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§ 7.130 DIOGENES LAERTIUS on Protagoras About you, too, Protagoras, I heard that once leaving Athens in your old age you died on the road; for the city of Cecrops decreed your exile. So you escaped from Athens but not from Pluto. The same saying is attributed to Democritus by Seneca, and both philosophers no doubt shared this contempt for the many.
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§ 7.131 ANONYMOUS on the same Protagoras is said to have died here; but... his body alone reached the earth, his soul leapt up to the wise.
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§ 7.132 ANONYMOUS on the same We know too, Protagoras, the sharp arrow of thy wisdom. Yet it wounds not, but is a sweet unguent.
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§ 7.133 DIOGENES LAERTIUS On Anaxarchus Bray it in the mortar still more, Nicocreon, it is a bag, bray it, but Anaxarchus is already in the house of Zeus, and Persephone soon, carding you, will say, “Out on thee, evil miller.”
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§ 7.134 ANONYMOUS On Gorgias Here I lie, the head of Cynic Gorgias, no longer clearing my throat nor blowing my nose.
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§ 7.135 ANONYMOUS On Hippocrates of Cos, the Physician Here lieth Thessalian Hippocrates, by descent a Coan, sprung from the immortal stock of Phoebus. Armed by Health he gained many victories over Disease, and won great glory not by chance, but by science.
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§ 7.136 ANTIPATER On Priam Small am I, the barrow of Priam the hero, not that I am worthy of such a man, but because I was built by the hands of his foes.
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§ 7.137 ANONYMOUS On Hector Do not judge Hector by his tomb or measure by his barrow the adversary of all Hellas. The Iliad, Homer himself, Greece, the Achaeans in flight — these are my tomb by these all was my barrow built. (If the earth you see above me is little, it is no disgrace to me, I was entombed by the hands of my foes the Greeks.)
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§ 7.138 ACERATUS GRAMMATICUS on the same Hector, constant theme of Homer’s books, strongest bulwark of the god-built wall, Homer rested at thy death and with that the pages of the Iliad were silenced.
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§ 7.139 ANONYMOUS on the same and on Alexander of Macedon With Hector perished Troy and no longer raised her hand to resist the attack of the Danai. And Pella, too, perished with Alexander. So fatherlands glory in men, their sons, not men in their fatherlands.
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§ 7.140 ARCHIAS OF MACEDON On Hector Tell, O column, the parentage of him beneath thee and his name and country and by what death he died. “His father was Priam, his country Ilion, his name Hector, and he perished fighting for his native land.”
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§ 7.141 ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM. On Protesilaus O THESSALIAN Protesilaus, long ages shall sing of thee, how thou didst strike the first blow in Troy’s predestined fall. The Nymphs tend and encircle with overshadowing elms thy tomb opposite hated Ilion. Wrathful are the trees, and if they chance to see the walls of Troy, they shed their withered leaves. How bitter was the hatred of the heroes if a part of their enmity lives yet in soulless branches.
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§ 7.142 Anonymous On Achilles This is the tomb of Achilles the man-breaker, which the Achaeans built to be a terror to the Trojans even in after generations, and it slopes to the beach, that the son of Thetis the sea-goddess may be saluted by the moan of the waves.
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§ 7.143 ANONYMOUS On Achilles and Patroclus Hail Aeacides and Menoetiades, ye twain supreme in Love and Arms.
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§ 7.144 ANONYMOUS On Nestor Sweet-spoken Nestor of Pylus, the hero-son of Neleus, the old, old man, has his tomb in pleasant Pylus.
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§ 7.145 ASCLEPIADES on Ajax Here sit I, miserable Virtue, by this tomb of Ajax, with shorn hair, smitten with heavy sorrow that cunning Fraud hath more power with the Greeks than I.
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§ 7.146 ANTIPATER OF SIDON on the same By the tomb of Ajax on the Rhoetian shore, I, Virtue, sit and mourn, heavy at heart, with shorn locks, in soiled raiment, because that in the judgment court of the Greeks not Virtue but Fraud triumphed. Achilles’ arms would fain cry, “We want no crooked words, but manly valour.”
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§ 7.147 ARCHIAS on the same Alone in defence of the routed host, with extended shield didst thou, Ajax, await the Trojan host that threatened the ships. Neither the crashing stones moved thee, nor the cloud of arrows, nor the clash of spears and swords; but even so, like some crag, standing out and firmly planted thou didst face the hurricane of the foes. If Hellas did not give thee the arms of Achilles to wear, a worthy reward of thy valour, it was by the counsel of the Fates that she erred, in order that thou shouldst meet with doom from no foe, but at thine own hand.
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§ 7.148 ANONYMOUS on the same This is the tomb of Telamonian Ajax whom Fate slew by means of his own hand and sword. For Clotho, even had she wished it, could not find among mortals another able to kill him.
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§ 7.149 LEONTIUS SCHOLASTICUS on the same The Telamonian lies low in Troy, but he gave no foeman cause to boast of his death. For Time finding no other man worthy of such a deed entrusted it to his own self-slaying hand.
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§ 7.150 By the same on the same Ajax lieth in Troy after a thousand vaunted deeds of prowess, blaming not his foes but his friends.
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§ 7.151 ANONYMOUS On Ajax and Hector Hector gave his sword to Ajax and Ajax his girdle to Hector, and the gifts of both are alike instruments of death.
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§ 7.152 ANONYMOUS on the same Bitter favours did Hector and Ajax of the great shield give each other after the fight in memory of their friendship. For Hector received a girdle and gave a sword in return, and they proved in death the favour that was in the gifts. The sword slew Ajax in his madness, and the girdle dragged Hector behind the chariot Thus the adversaries gave each other the self-destroying gifts, which held death in them under pretence of kindness.
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§ 7.153 HOMER or CLEOBULUS OF LINDUS I am a maiden of brass, and rest on Midas’ tomb. As long as water flows, and tall trees put forth their leaves, abiding here upon the tearful tomb, I tell the passers-by that Midas is buried here. I am set here, an image common to the Megarians and the Argives, the avenger of unhappy Psamathe. A ghoul, a denizen of the tomb am I, and he who slew me was Coroebus; here under my feet he lies, all for the tripod. For even so did the voice of Delphi decree, that I should be the monument of Apollo’s bride and tell her story.
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§ 7.155 ANONYMOUS On Philistion the actor of Nicaea I, Philistion of Nicaea, who tempered with laughter the miserable life of men, lie here, the remains of all life; I often died, but never yet just in this way.
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§ 7.156 ISIDORUS OF AEGAE By his bird-lime and canes Eumelus lived on the creatures of the air, simply but in freedom. Never did he kiss a strange hand for his belly’s sake. This his craft supplied him with luxury and delight Ninety years he lived, and now sleeps here, having left to his children his bird-lime, nets and canes.
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§ 7.157 ANONYMOUS Three decades and twice three years did the heavenly augurs fix as the measure of my life. I am content therewith, for that age is the finest flower of life. Even ancient Nestor died.
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§ 7.158 ANONYMOUS On Marcellus the Physician of Side This is the tomb of Marcellus the renowned physician, a most celebrated man, honoured by the gods, whose books were presented (to the public library) in fair-built Rome by Hadrian the best of our former emperors, and by admirable Antoninus, Hadrian's son; so that among men in after years he might win renown for his eloquence, the gift of Phoebus Apollo. He sung of the treatment of diseases in forty skilled books of heroic verse called the Chironides.
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§ 7.159 NICARCHUS Orpheus won the highest prize among mortals by his harp, Nestor by the skill of his sweet-phrased tongue, divine Homer, the learned in lore, by the art of his verse, but Telephanes, whose tomb this is, by the flute.
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§ 7.160 ANACREON Valiant in war was Timocritus, whose tomb this is. War is not sparing of the brave, but of cowards.
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§ 7.161 ANTIPATER OF SIDON On Aristomenes, on whose Tomb stood an Eagle “Fleet-winged bird of Zeus, why dost thou stand in splendour on the tomb of great Aristomenes?” “I tell unto men that as I am chief among the birds, so was he among the youth. Timid doves watch over cowards, but we delight in dauntless men.”
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§ 7.162 DIOSCORIDES Burn not Euphrates, Philonymus, nor defile Fire for me. I am a Persian as my fathers were, a Persian of pure stock, yea, master: to defile Fire is for us bitterer than cruel death. But wrap me up and lay me in the ground, washing not my corpse; I worship rivers also, master.
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§ 7.163 LEONIDAS A. “WHO art thou, who thy father, lady lying under the column of Parian marble.?” B. “ Praxo, daughter of Calliteles.” A. “And thy country?’ B. ” Samos." A. “Who laid thee to rest?”. B. “ Theocritus to whom my parents gave me in marriage.” A. “And how didst thou die?” B. “In childbirth.” A. “How old?” B. “Twenty-two.” if. “Childless then?” B. “No! I left behind my three year old Calliteles.” A. “May he live and reach a ripe old age.” B. “And to thee, stranger, may Fortune give all good things.”
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§ 7.164 ANTIPATER OF SIDON A Variant of the Last A. “TELL me, lady, thy parentage, name and country.” B. “ Calliteles begat me, Praxo was my name, and my land Samos.” A. “And who erected this monument?” B. “ Theocritus who loosed my maiden zone, untouched as yet” A. “How didst thou die?” B. “In the pains of labour.” A. “And tell me what age thou hadst reached.” B. “Twice eleven years.” A. “Childless?” B. “No, stranger, I left Calliteles behind me, my baby boy.” A. “May he reach a grey and blessed old age.” B. “And may Fortune, O stranger, steer the course of all thy life before a fair breeze.”
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§ 7.165 By the same, OR BY ARCHIAS Another Variant A. “TELL me, lady, who thou wast?” B. “ Praxo.” A. “Who thy father?” B. “ Calliteles.” A. “And from what country art thou?” B. “ Samos.” A. “Who made thy tomb?” B. “ Theocritus who took me to wife.” A. “How didst thou die?” B. “In labour pangs.” A. “At what age?” B. “Twenty-two.” A. “Hast thou left a child?” B. “ Calliteles, a baby of three.” A. “May he grow to manhood.” B. “And may Fortune, O wayfarer, end thy life happily.”
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§ 7.166 DIOSCORIDES OR NICARCHUS In Africa on the banks of the Nile resteth with her twin babes Lamisca of Samos the twenty year old daughter of Nicarete and Eupolis, who breathed her last in the bitter pangs of labour. Bring to the girl, ye maidens, such gifts as ye give to one newly delivered, and shed warm tears upon her cold tomb.
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§ 7.167 DIOSCORIDES OR NICARCHUS, OR BY HECATAEUS OF THASOS Call me Polyxena the wife of Archelaus, daughter of Theodectes and ill-fated Demarete, a mother too in so far at least as I bore a child; for Fate overtook my babe ere it was twenty days old, and I died at eighteen, for a brief time a mother, for a brief time a bride in all short-lived.
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§ 7.168 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA “Let women after this pray for children,” cried Polyxo, her belly torn by three babes; and in the midwife’s hands she fell dead, while the boys slid from her hollow flanks to the ground, a live birth from a dead mother. So one god took life from her and gave it to them.
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§ 7.169 ANONYMOUS On the statue of a heifer that stands opposite Byzantium in Chrysopolis. Inscribed on the column. I am not the image of the Argive heifer, nor is the sea that faces me, the Bosporus, called after me. She of old was driven to Pharos by the heavy wrath of Hera; but I here am a dead Athenian woman, I was the bed-fellow of Chares, and sailed with him when he sailed here to meet Philip’s ships in battle. I was called Boeidion (little cow ) then, and now I, bed-fellow of Chares, enjoy a view of two continents.
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§ 7.170 POSEIDIPPUS OR CALLIMACHUS The dumb image of himself attracted Archianax the three year old boy, as he was playing by the well. His mother dragged him all dripping from the water, asking herself if any life was left in him. The child defiled not with death the dwelling of the Nymphs, but fell asleep on his mother’s knees, and slumbers sound.
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§ 7.171 MNASALCAS OF SICYON. Here, too, the birds of heaven shall rest their swift wings, alighting on this sweet plane-tree. For Poemander of Melos is dead, and cometh here no longer, his fowling canes smeared with lime.
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§ 7.172 ANTIPATER OF SIDON I, Alcimenes, who used to protect the crops from the starlings and that high-flying robber the Bistonian crane, was swinging the pliant arms of my leathern sling to keep the crowd of birds away, when a dipsas viper wounded me about the ankles, and injecting into my flesh the bitter bile from her jaws robbed me of the sunlight. Look ye how gazing at what was in the air I noticed not the evil that was creeping at my feet.
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§ 7.173 DIOTIMUS OR LEONIDAS Op themselves in the evening the kine came home to byre from the hill through the heavy snow. But Therimachus, alas! sleeps the long sleep under the oak. The fire of heaven laid him to rest.
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§ 7.174 ERYCIAS on the same No longer, Therimachus, dost thou play thy shepherds’ tunes on the pipes near this crooked-leaved plane. Nor shall the horned kine listen again to the sweet music thou didst make, reclining by the shady oak. The burning bolt of heaven slew thee, and they at nightfall came down the hill to their byre driven by the snow.
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§ 7.175 ANTIPHILUS So there is no more turf, husbandman, left for thee to break up, and thy oxen tread on the backs of tombs, and the share is among the dead! What doth it profit thee? How much is this wheat ye shall snatch from ashes, not from earth? Ye shall not live for ever, and another shall plough you up, you who set to all the example of this evil husbandry.
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§ 7.176 ANTIPHILUS Not because I lacked funeral when I died, do I lie here, a naked corpse on wheat-bearing land. Duly was I buried once on a time, but now by the ploughman's hand the iron share hath rolled me out of my tomb. Who said that death was deliverance from evil, when not even the tomb, stranger, is the end of my sufferings?
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§ 7.177 SIMONIDES This monument his father erected above Spinther on his death (the rest is missing).
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§ 7.178 DIOSCORIDES OF NICOPOLIS I am a Lydian, yea a Lydian, but thou, master, didst lay me, thy foster-father Timanthes, in a freeman’s grave. Live long and prosper free from calamity, and if stricken in years thou comest to me, I am thine, O master, in Hades too.
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§ 7.179 Anonymous Now, too, underground I remain faithful to thee, master, as before, not forgetting thy kindness, how thrice when I was sick thou didst set me safe upon my feet, and hast laid me now under sufficient shelter, announcing on the stone my name, Manes, a Persian. Because thou hast been good to me thou shalt have slaves more ready to serve thee in the hour of need.
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§ 7.180 APOLLONIDES The doom of death hath been transferred, and in thy place, master, I, thy slave, fill the loathly grave. When I was building thy tearful chamber underground to lay thy body in after death, the earth around slid and covered me. Hades is not grievous to me. I shall dwell under thy sun.
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§ 7.181 ANDRONICUS Sore pitied, dear Democrateia, didst thou go to the dark house of Acheron, leaving thy mother to lament. And she, when thou wast dead, shore the grey hairs from her old head with the newly-sharpened steel.
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§ 7.182 MELEAGER No husband but Death did Clearista receive on her bridal night as she loosed her maiden zone. But now at eve the flutes were making music at the door of the bride, the portals of her chamber echoed to knocking hands. And at morn the death wail was loud, the bridal song was hushed and changed to a voice of wailing. The same torches that flamed round her marriage bed lighted her dead on her downward way to Hades.
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§ 7.183 PARMENION (As she had just loosed her maiden zone) Death came first and took the maidenhood of Crocale. The bridal song ended in wailing, and the fond anxiety of her parents was set to rest not by marriage but by the tomb.
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§ 7.184 PARMENION I am the tomb of the maiden Helen, and in mourning too for her brother who died before her I receive double tears from their mother. To her suitors I left a common grief; for the hope of all mourned equally for her who was yet no one’s.
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§ 7.185 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA The Italian earth holds me an African, and near to Rome I lie, a virgin yet, by these sands. Pompeia who reared me wept for me as for a daughter and laid me in a freewoman’s grave. Another light she hoped for, but this came earlier, and the torch was lit not as we prayed, but by Persephone.
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§ 7.186 PHILIPPUS But now the sweet flute was echoing in the bridal chamber of Nikippis, and the house rejoiced in the clapping of hands at her wedding. But the voice of wailing burst in upon the bridal hymn, and we saw her dead, the poor child, not yet quite a wife. O tearful Hades, why didst thou divorce the bridegroom and bride, thou who thyself takest delight in ravishment?
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§ 7.187 PHILIPPUS Aged Nico garlanded the tomb of maiden Melite. Hades, was thy judgement righteous?
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§ 7.188 ANTONIUS THALLUS Unhappy Cleanassa, thou wast ripe for marriage, being in the bloom of thine age. But at thy wedding attended not Hymenaeus to preside at the feast, nor did Hera who linketh man and wife come with her torches. Black-robed Hades burst in and by him the fell Erinys chanted the dirge of death. On the very day that the lights were lit around thy bridal bed thou earnest to no wedding chamber, but to thy funeral pyre.
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§ 7.189 ARISTODICUS OF RHODES No longer, shrill-voiced locust, shall the sun look on thee, as thou singest in the wealthy house of Alkis, for now thou hast flown to the meadows of Hades and the dewy flowers of golden Persephone.
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§ 7.190 ANYTE OR LEONIDAS For her locust, the nightingale of the fields, and her cicada that resteth on the trees one tomb hath little Myro made, shedding girlish tears; for inexorable Hades hath carried off her two pets.
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§ 7.191 ARCHIAS A magpie I, that oft of old screeched in answer to the speech of the shepherds and woodcutters and fishermen. Often like some many-voiced Echo, with responsive lips I struck up a mocking strain. Now I lie on the ground, tongueless and speechless, having renounced my passion for mimicry.
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§ 7.192 MNASALCAS On a Locust No longer, locust, sitting in the fruitful furrows shalt thou sing with thy shrill-toned wings, nor shalt thou delight me as I lie under the shade of the leaves, striking sweet music from thy tawny wings.
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§ 7.193 SIMIAS (Not an Epitaph) This locust crouching in the leaves of a vine I caught as I was walking in this copse of fair trees, so that in a well-fenced home it may make noise for me, chirping pleasantly with its tongueless mouth.
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§ 7.194 MNASALCAS This clay vessel set beside the far-reaching road holds the body of Democritus’ locust that made music with its wings. When it started to sing its long evening hymn, all the house rang with the melodious song.
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§ 7.195 MELEAGER {This and 196 are not epitaphs but amatory poems) Locust, beguiler of my loves, persuader of sleep, locust, shrill-winged Muse of the corn fields, Nature’s mimic lyre, play for me some tune I love, beating with thy dear feet thy talking wings, that so, locust, thou mayest deliver me from the pains of sleepless care, weaving a song that enticeth Love away. And in the morning I will give thee a fresh green leek, and drops of dew sprayed from my mouth.
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§ 7.196 MELEAGER On a Cicada Noisy cicada, drunk with dew drops, thou singest thy rustic ditty that fills the wilderness with voice, and seated on the edge of the leaves, striking with saw-like legs thy sunburnt skin thou shrillest music like the lyre’s. But sing, dear, some new tune to gladden the woodland nymphs, strike up some strain responsive to Pan’s pipe, that I may escape from love and snatch a little midday sleep, reclining here beneath the shady plane-tree.
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§ 7.197 PHAENNUS I am the locust who brought deep sleep to Democritus, when I started the shrill music of my wings. And Democritus, O wayfarer, raised for me when I died a seemly tomb near Oropus.
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§ 7.198 LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM Wayfarer, though the tombstone that surmounts my grave seems small and almost on the ground, blame not Philaenis. Me, her singing locust, that used to walk on thistles, a thing that looked like a straw, she loved and cherished for two years, because I made a melodious noise. And even when I was dead she cast me not away, but built this little monument of my varied talent.
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§ 7.199 TYMNES On an unknown bird called elaetis Bird, nursling of the Graces, who didst modulate thy voice till it was like unto a halcyon's, thou art gone, dear elaeus, and the silent ways of night possess thy gentleness and thy sweet breath.
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§ 7.200 NICIAS No longer curled under the leafy branch shall I delight in sending forth a voice from my tender wings. For I fell into the.... hand of a boy, who caught me stealthily as I was seated on the green leaves.

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.