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Greek Anthology Book 7

ToposText · Greek Anthology · 753 sections

  1. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.201

    § 7.201 PAMPHILUS No longer perched on the green leaves dost thou shed abroad thy sweet call, for as thou wast singing, noisy cicada, a foolish boy with outstretched hand slew thee.

  2. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.202

    § 7.202 ANYTE On a Cock No longer, as of old, shalt thou awake early to rouse me from bed, flapping rapidly thy wings; for the spoiler stole secretly upon thee, as thou didst sleep, and slew thee, nipping thy throat swiftly with his claws.

  3. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.203

    § 7.203 SIMIAS No longer, my decoy partridge, dost thou shed from thy throat thy resonant cry through the shady coppice, hunting thy pencilled fellows in their woodland feeding-ground; for thou art gone on thy last journey to the house of Acheron.

  4. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.204

    § 7.204 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS No longer, my poor partridge, exiled from the rocks, does thy plaited house hold thee in its light withes; no longer in the shine of the bright-eyed Dawn dost thou shake the tips of thy sun-warmed wings. Thy head the cat bit off, but all the rest of thee I seized from her, nor did she satisfy her wicked jaws. Now may the dust lie not light on thee but heavy, lest she drag thy corpse from the tomb.

  5. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.205

    § 7.205 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS Does the house- cat, after eating my partridge, expect to live in my halls? No! dear partridge, I will not leave thee unhonoured in death, but on thy body I will slay thy foe. For thy spirit grows ever more perturbed until I perform the rites that Pyrrhus executed on the tomb of Achilles.

  6. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.206

    § 7.206 DAMOCHARIS THE GRAMMARIAN, PUPIL OF AGATHIAS Wickedest of cats, rival of the man-eating pack, thou art one of Actaeon’s hounds. By eating the partridge of Agathias thy master, thou hurtest him no less than if thou hadst feasted on himself. Thy heart is set now on partridges, but the mice meanwhile are dancing, running off with thy dainties.

  7. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.207

    § 7.207 MELEAGER I was a swift-footed long-eared leveret, torn from my mother’s breast while yet a baby, and sweet Phanion cherished and reared me in her bosom, feeding me on flowers of spring. No longer did 1 pine for my mother, but I died of surfeiting, fattened by too many banquets. Close to her couch she buried me so that ever in her dreams she might see my grave beside her bed.

  8. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.208

    § 7.208 ANYTE This tomb Damis built for his steadfast war-horse pierced through the breast by gory Ares. The black blood bubbled through his stubborn hide, and he drenched the earth in his sore death-pangs.

  9. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.209

    § 7.209 ANTIPATER OF SIDON Here by the threshing-floor, O ant, thou careworn toiler, I built for thee a grave-mound of thirsty clod, so that in death too thou mayest delight in the corn-bearing furrow of Demeter, as thou liest chambered in the earth the plough upturned.

  10. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.210

    § 7.210 ANTIPATER OF SIDON Just when thou hadst become the mother,swallow, of a new-born brood, just when thou first wast warming thy children under thy wings, a many-coiled serpent, darting into the nest where lay thy young, robbed thee of the fruit of thy womb. Then when with all his might he came to slay thee, too, as thou wast lamenting them, he fell into the greedy breath of the hearth-fire. So died he the deed undone. See how Hephaestus succoured and saved the race of his son Erichthonius.

  11. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.211

    § 7.211 TYMNES The stone tells that it contains here the white Maltese dog, Eumelus’ faithful guardian. They called him Bull while he still lived, but now the silent paths of night possess his voice.

  12. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.212

    § 7.212 MNASALCAS On a Mare Stranger, say that this is the tomb of wind-footed Aethyia, a child of the dry land, lightest of limb; often toiling over the long course, she, like a bird, travelled as far as do the ships.

  13. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.213

    § 7.213 ARCHIAS Once, shrilling cicada, perched on the green branches of the luxuriant pine, or of the shady domed stone-pine, thou didst play with thy delicately-winged back a tune dearer to shepherds than the music of the lyre. But now the unforeseen pit of Hades hides thee vanquished by the wayside ants. If thou wert overcome it is pardonable; for Maeonides, the lord of song, perished by the riddle of the fishermen.

  14. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.214

    § 7.214 ARCHIAS No longer, dolphin, darting through the bubbling brine, shalt thou startle the flocks of the deep, nor, dancing to the tune of the pierced reed, shalt thou throw up the sea beside the ships. No longer, foamer, shalt thou take the Nereids on thy back as of yore and carry them to the realms of Tethys; for the waves when they rose high as the headland of Malea drove thee on to the sandy beach.

  15. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.215

    § 7.215 ANYTE No longer exulting in the sea that carries me, shall I lift up my neck as I rush from the depths; no longer shall I snort round the decorated bows of the ship, proud of her figure-head, my image. But the dark sea-water threw me upon the land and here I lie by this narrow (?) beach.

  16. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.216

    § 7.216 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA The waves and rough surges drove me, the dolphin, on the land, a spectacle of misfortune for all strangers to look on. Yet on earth pity finds a place, for the men who saw me straightway in reverence decked me for my grave. But now the sea who bore me has destroyed me. What faith is there in the sea, that spared not even her own nursling?

  17. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.217

    § 7.217 ASCLEPIADES (A slightly different version is attributed by Athenaeus to Plato ) I hold Archeanassa the courtesan from Colophon even on whose wrinkles sweet Love sat. Ah, ye lovers, who plucked the fresh flowers of her youth in its first piercing brilliance, through what a fiery furnace did you pass!

  18. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.218

    § 7.218 ANTIPATER OF SIDON I contain her who in Love’s company luxuriated in gold and purple, more delicate than tender Cypris, Lais the citizen of sea-girt Corinth, brighter than the white waters of Pirene; that mortal Cytherea who had more noble suitors than the daughter of Tyndareus, all plucking her mercenary favours. Her very tomb smells of sweet-scented saffron; her bones are still soaked with fragrant ointment, and her anointed locks still breathe a perfume as of frankincense. For her Aphrodite tore her lovely cheeks, and sobbing Love groaned and wailed. Had she not made her bed the public slave of gain, Greece would have battled for her as for Helen.

  19. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.219

    § 7.219 POMPEIUS THE YOUNGER Lais, whose bloom was so lovely and delightful in the eyes of all, she who alone culled the lilies of the Graces, no longer looks on the course of the Sun’s golden-bitted steeds, but sleeps the appointed sleep, having bid farewell to revelling and young men’s rivalries and lovers’ torments and the lamp her confidant.

  20. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.220

    § 7.220 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS On my way to Ephyra I saw by the roadside the tomb of Lais of old time, so said the inscription; and shedding a tributary tear, I said “Hail, woman, for from report I pity thee whom I never saw. Ah, how didst thou vex the young men’s minds! but look, thou dwellest in Lethe, having laid thy beauty in the earth.”

  21. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.221

    § 7.221 Anonymous Patrophila, ripe for love and the sweet works of Cypris, thou hast closed thy gentle eyes; gone is the charm of thy prattle, gone thy singing and playing, and thy eager pledging of the cup. Inexorable Hades, why didst thou steal our loveable companion? Hath Cypris maddened thee too?

  22. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.222

    § 7.222 PHILODEMUS Here lies the tender body of the tender being; here lies Trygonion the ornament of the wanton band of the emasculated, he who was at home by the holy shrine of Rhea, amid the noise of music and the gay prattling throng, the darling of the Mother of the Gods, he who alone among his effeminate fellows really loved the rites of Cypris, and whose charms came near those of Lais. Give birth, thou holy soil, round the grave-stone of the maenad not to brambles but to the soft petals of white violets.

  23. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.223

    § 7.223 THYILLUS The castanet dancer Aristion, who used to toss her hair among the pines in honour of Cybele, carried away by the music of the horned flute; she who could empty one upon the other three cups of untempered wine, rests here beneath the poplars, no more taking delight in love and the fatigue of the night-festivals. A long farewell to revels and frenzy! It lies low, the holy head that was covered erst by garlands of flowers.

  24. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.224

    § 7.224 ANONYMOUS I, Callicratia, bore nine and twenty children and did not witness the death of one, boy or girl; I lived to the age of a hundred and five without ever resting my trembling hand on a staff.

  25. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.225

    § 7.225 ANONYMOUS Time wears stone away and spares not iron, but with one sickle destroys all things that are. So this grave-mound of Laertes that is near the shore is being melted away by the cold rain. But the hero’s name is ever young, tor Time cannot, even if he will, make poesy dim.

  26. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.226

    § 7.226 ANACREON OF TEOS This whole city acclaimed Agathon, the doughty warrior, as he lay on the pyre after dying for Abdera; for Ares greedy of blood slew no other young man like to him in the whirlwind of the dreadful fight.

  27. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.227

    § 7.227 DIOTIMUS Not even a lion is as terrible in the mountains, as was Mico’s son Crinagoras in the clash of the shields. If this his covering be little, find no fault thereat; little is this land, but it bears men brave in war.

  28. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.228

    § 7.228 ANONYMOUS Androtion built me for himself, his children and his wife. As yet 1 am no one’s grave and so may 1 remain for long; but if it must be so, may I give earlier welcome to the earlier born.

  29. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.229

    § 7.229 DIOSCORIDES Dead on his shield to Pi tan a came Thrasybulus, having received seven wounds from the Argives, exposing his whole front to them; and old Tynnichus, as he laid his son’s blood-stained body on the pyre, said “Let cowards weep, but I will bury thee, my son, without a tear, thee who art both mine and Sparta’s.”

  30. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.230

    § 7.230 ERYCIUS OF CYZICUS Demetrius, when thy mother received thee after thy flight from the battle, all thy fine arms lost, herself she straightway drove the death-dealing spear through thy sturdy side, and said “Die and let Sparta bear no blame; it was no fault of hers if my milk reared cowards.”

  31. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.231

    § 7.231 DAMAGETUS Thus for Ambracia's sake the warrior Aristagoras, son of Theopompus, holding his shield on high, chose death rather than flight. Wonder not thereat: a Dorian cares for his country, not for the loss of his young life.

  32. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.232

    § 7.232 ANTIPATER OF SIDON This Lydian land holds Amyntor, Philip’s son, whose hands were often busied with iron war. Him no painful disease led to the house of Night, but he perished holding his round shield over his comrade.

  33. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.233

    § 7.233 APOLLONIDES Aelius, the Roman captain, whose armed neck was loaded with golden torques, when he fell into his last illness and saw the end was inevitable, was minded of his own valour and driving his sword into his vitals, said as he was dying “I am vanquished of my own will, lest Disease boast of the deed.”

  34. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.234

    § 7.234 PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA Aelius, the bold captain, whose neck was hung with the golden torques he had won in the wars, when crippled by wasting disease, ran back in his mind to the history of his past deeds of valour, and drove his sword into his vitals, saying but this: “Men perish by the sword, cowards by disease.”

  35. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.235

    § 7.235 DIODORUS OF TARSUS Measure not by this Magnesian tomb the greatness of the name, nor forget the deeds of Themistocles. Judge of the patriot by Salamis and the ships, and thereby shalt thou find him greater than Athens herself

  36. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.236

    § 7.236 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA I, This Magnesian tomb, am not that of Themistocles, but I was built as a record of the envious misjudgment of the Greeks.

  37. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.237

    § 7.237 ALPHEIUS OF MITYLENE Carve on my tomb the mountains and the sea, and midmost of both the sun as witness; yea, and the deep currents of the ever-flowing rivers, whose streams sufficed not for Xerxes' host of the thousand ships. Carve Salamis too, here where the Magnesian people proclaim the tomb of dead Themistocles.

  38. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.233

    § 7.233 ADDAEUS I, Philip, who first set the steps of Macedonia in the path of war, lie here clothed in the earth of Aegae. No king before me did such deeds, and if any have greater to boast of, it is because he is of my blood.

  39. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.239

    § 7.239 PARMENION It is a lying report that Alexander is dead if Phoebus be true. Not even Hades can lay hand on the invincible.

  40. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.240

    § 7.240 ADDAEUS If one would sing of the tomb of Alexander of Macedon, let him say that both continents are his monument.

  41. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.241

    § 7.241 ANTIPATER OF SIDON Again and again did thy father and mother, Ptolemy, defile their hair in their grief for thee; and long did thy tutor lament thee, gathering in his warlike hands the dark dust to scatter on his head Great Egypt tore her hair and the broad home of Europa groaned aloud. The very moon was darkened by mourning and deserted the stars and her heavenly path. For thou didst perish by a pestilence that devastated all the land, before thou couldst grasp in thy young hand the sceptre of thy fathers. Yet night did not receive thee from night; for such princes are not led by Hades to his house, but by Zeus to Olympus.

  42. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.242

    § 7.242 MNASALCAS These men delivering their country from the tearful yoke that rested on her neck, clothed themselves in the dark dust. High praise win they by their valour, and let each citizen looking on them dare to die for his country.

  43. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.243

    § 7.243 LOLLIUS BASSUS Look on this tomb beside the Phocian rock. I am the monument of those three hundred who were slain by the Persians, who died far from Sparta, having dimmed the might of Media and Lacedaemon alike. As for the image of an ox -slaying (?) beast say “It is the monument of the commander Leonidas ”

  44. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.244

    § 7.244 GAETULICUS Fierce Ares drew these our swords, the three hundred from Argos and as many from Sparta, there where we fought out the fight from which no messenger returned, falling dead one upon another. Thyreae was the prize of the battle.

  45. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.245

    § 7.245 GAETULICUS (?) O Time, god who lookest upon all that befalls mortals, announce our fate to all, how striving to save the holy land of Hellas, we fell in the glorious Boeotian field.

  46. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.246

    § 7.246 ANTIPATER OF SIDON On the promontory of Issus by the wild waves of the Cilician sea we lie, the many myriads of Persians who followed our King Darius on our last journey. Alexander's the Macedonian is the deed.

  47. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.247

    § 7.247 ALCAEUS Unwept, O wayfarer, unburied we lie on this Thessalian hillock, the thirty thousand, a great woe to Macedonia; and nimbler than fleet-footed deer, fled that dauntless spirit of Philip.

  48. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.248

    § 7.248 SIMONIDES Four thousand from Peloponnesus once fought here with three millions.

  49. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.249

    § 7.249 SIMONIDES Stranger, bear this message to the Spartans, that we lie here obedient to their laws.

  50. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.250

    § 7.250 SIMONIDES We lie here, having given our lives to save all Hellas when she stood on a razor's edge.

  51. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.251

    § 7.251 SIMONIDES These men having clothed their dear country in inextinguishable glory, donned the dark cloud of death; and having died, yet they are not dead, for their valour’s renown brings them up from the house of Hades.

  52. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.252

    § 7.252 ANTIPATER These men who loved death in battle, got them no grave-stone like others, but valour for their valour.

  53. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.253

    § 7.253 SIMONIDES If to die well be the chief part of virtue, Fortune granted this to us above all others; for striving to endue Hellas with freedom, we lie here possessed of praise that groweth not old.

  54. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.254

    § 7.254 SIMONIDES Hail, ye champions who won great glory in war, ye sons of Athens, excellent horsemen; who once for your country of fair dancing-floors lost your young lives, fighting against a great part of the Greeks.

  55. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.254

    § 7.254 SIMONIDES I, Brotachos, a Gortynian of Crete, lie here, where I came not for this end, but to trade.

  56. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.255

    § 7.255 AESCHYLUS Dark Fate likewise slew these staunch spearmen, defending their country rich in flocks. Living is the fame of the dead, who steadfast to the last lie clothed in the earth of Ossa.

  57. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.256

    § 7.256 PLATO Leaving behind the sounding surge of the Aegean we lie on the midmost of the plains of Ecbatana. Farewell, Eretria, once our glorious country; farewell, Athens, the neighbour of Euboea; farewell, dear Sea.

  58. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.257

    § 7.257 ANONYMOUS The sons of Athens utterly destroying the army of the Persians repelled sore slavery from their country.

  59. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.258

    § 7.258 SIMONIDES These men once by the Eurymedon lost their bright youth, fighting with the front ranks of the Median bowmen, both on foot and from the swift ships; and dying they left behind them the glorious record of their courage.

  60. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.259

    § 7.259 PLATO We are Eretrians from Euboea and we lie near Susa, alas! how far from our own land.

  61. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.260

    § 7.260 CARPHYLLIDES Find no fault with my fate, traveller, in passing my tomb; not even in death have I aught that calls for mourning. I left children’s children, I enjoyed the company of one wife who grew old together with me. I married my three children, and many children sprung from these unions I lulled to sleep on my lap, never grieving for the illness or loss of one. They all, pouring their libations on my grave, sent me off on a painless journey to the home of the pious dead to sleep the sweet sleep.

  62. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.261

    § 7.261 DIOTIMUS What profiteth it to labour in childbirth and bring forth children if she who bears them is to see them dead! So his mother built the tomb for her little Bianor, while he should have done this for his mother.

  63. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.262

    § 7.262 THEOCRITUS The writing will tell what tomb-stone is this and who lies under it. I am the tomb of famous Glauca.

  64. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.263

    § 7.263 ANACREON And thee too, Clenorides, homesickness drove to death when thou didst entrust thyself to the wintry blasts of the south wind. That faithless weather stayed thy journey and the wet seas washed out thy lovely youth.

  65. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.264

    § 7.264 LEONIDAS A good voyage to all who travel on the sea; but let him who looses his cable from my tomb, if the storm carries him like me to the haven of Hades, blame not the inhospitable deep, but his own daring.

  66. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.266

    § 7.266 PLATO I am the tomb of a shipwrecked man, and that opposite is the tomb of a husbandman. So death lies in wait for us alike on sea and land.

  67. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.266

    § 7.266 LEONIDAS I am the tomb of the shipwrecked Diocles. Out on the daring of those who start from here, loosing their cable from me!

  68. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.267

    § 7.267 POSIDIPPUS Sailors, why do you bury me near the sea? Far away from it ye should have built the poor tomb of the shipwrecked man. I shudder at the noise of the waves my destroyers. Yet even so I wish you well for taking pity on Nicetas.

  69. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.268

    § 7.268 PLATO I whom ye look upon am a shipwrecked man. The sea pitied me, and was ashamed to bare me of my last vesture. It was a man who with fearless hands stripped me, burdening himself with so heavy a crime for so light a gain. Let him put it on and take it with him to Hades, and let Minos see him wearing my old coat.

  70. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.269

    § 7.269 PLATO Mariners, may ye be safe on sea and land; but know that this tomb ye are passing is a shipwrecked man’s.

  71. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.270

    § 7.270 SIMONIDES These men, when bringing the firstfruits from Sparta to Phoebus, one sea, one night, one ship brought to the grave.

  72. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.271

    § 7.271 CALLIMACHUS Would that swift ships had never been, for then we should not be lamenting Sopolis the son of Dioclides. Now somewhere on the sea his corpse is tossing, and what we pass by here is not himself, but a name and an empty grave.

  73. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.272

    § 7.272 CALLIMACHUS Lycus of Naxos died not on land, but in the sea. he saw his ship and his life lost together, as he sailed from Aegina to trade. Now he is somewhere in the sea, a corpse, and I his tomb, bearing his idle name, proclaim this word of truth “Sailor, foregather not with the sea when the Kids are setting.”

  74. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.273

    § 7.273 LEONIDAS The fierce and sudden squall of the south-east wind, and the night and the waves that Orion at his dark setting arouses were my ruin, and I, Callaeschrus, glided out of life as I sailed the middle of the Libyan deep. 1 myself am lost, whirled hither and thither in the sea a prey to fishes, and it is a liar, this stone that rests on my grave.

  75. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.274

    § 7.274 HONESTUS OF BYZANTIUM I announce the name of Timocles and look round in every direction over the salt sea, wondering where his corpse may be. Alas! the fishes have devoured him ere this, and I, this useless stone, bear this idle writing carved on me.

  76. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.275

    § 7.275 GAETULICUS The Peloponnesus and the perilous sea of Crete and the blind cliffs of Cape Malea when he was turning it were fatal to Astydamas son of Damis the Cydonian. Ere this he has gorged the bellies of sea monsters. But on the land they raised me his lying tomb. What wonder! since “ Cretans are liars,” and even Zeus has a tomb there.

  77. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.276

    § 7.276 HEGESIPPUS The fishermen brought up from the sea in their net a half eaten man, a most mournful relic of some sea voyage. They sought not for unholy gain, but him and the fishes too they buried under this light coat of sand. Thou hast, O land, the whole of the shipwrecked man, but instead of the rest of his flesh thou hast the fishes who fed on it.

  78. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.277

    § 7.277 CALLIMACHUS Who art thou, shipwrecked stranger? Leontichus found thee here dead on the beach, and buried thee in this tomb, weeping for his own uncertain life; for he also rests not, but travels over the sea like a gull.

  79. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.278

    § 7.278 ARCHIAS OF BYZANTIUM Not even now I am dead shall I, shipwrecked Theris, cast up on land by the waves, forget the sleepless surges. For here under the brine-beaten hill, near the sea my foe, a stranger made my grave; and, ever wretched that 1 am, even among the dead the hateful roar of the billows sounds in my ears. Not even Hades gave me rest from trouble, since I alone even in death cannot lie in unbroken repose.

  80. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.279

    § 7.279 ANONYMOUS Cease to paint ever on this tomb oars and the beaks of ships over my cold ashes. The tomb is a shipwrecked man’s. Why wouldst thou remind him who is under earth of his disfigurement by the waves.

  81. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.280

    § 7.280 ISIDORUS OF AEGAE This hummock is a tomb; you there! hold in your oxen and pull up the ploughshare, for you are disturbing ashes. On such earth shed no seed of corn, but tears.

  82. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.281

    § 7.281 HERACLIDES Hands off, hands off, labourer! and cut not through this earth of the tomb. This clod is soaked with tears, and from earth thus soaked no bearded ear shall spring.

  83. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.282

    § 7.282 THEODORIDAS I am the tomb of a shipwrecked man; but set sail, stranger; for when we were lost, the other ships voyaged on.

  84. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.283

    § 7.283 LEONIDAS Why, roaring sea, didst thou not cast me up, Phyleus, son of Amphimenes, when I came to a sad end, far away from the bare beach, so that even wrapped in the evil mist of Hades I might not be near to thee?

  85. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.284

    § 7.284 ASCLEPIADES Keep off from me, thou fierce sea, eight cubits’ space and swell and roar with all thy might But if thou dost destroy the tomb of Eumares, naught shall it profit thee, for naught shalt thou find but bones and ashes.

  86. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.285

    § 7.285 GLAUCUS OF NICOPOLIS Not this earth or this light stone that rests thereon is the tomb of Erasippus, but all this sea whereon thou lookest. For he perished along with his ship, and his bones are rotting somewhere, but where only the gulls can tell.

  87. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.286

    § 7.286 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA Unhappy Nicanor, wasted by the grey sea, thou liest naked on a strange beach or perchance near the rocks; gone from thee are thy rich halls, and the hope of all Tyre has perished. None of thy possessions saved thee; alas, poor wight, thou art dead and hast laboured but for the fishes and the sea.

  88. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.287

    § 7.287 ANTIPATER Even in death shall the unappeased sea vex me, Lysis, buried as I am beneath this desert rock, sounding ever harshly in my ears close to my deaf tomb. Why, O men, did ye lay me next to her who reft me of breath, who wrecked me not trading on a merchantman, but embarked on a little rowing-boat? From the sea I sought to gain my living, and from the sea I drew forth death.

  89. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.288

    § 7.288 ANTIPATER I belong entirely to neither now I am dead, but sea and land possess an equal portion of me. My flesh the fishes ate in the sea, but my bones have been washed up on this cold beach.

  90. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.289

    § 7.289 ANTIPATER OF MACEDONIA When shipwrecked Antheus had swum ashore at night on a small plank to the mouth of the Peneus, a solitary wolf rushing from the thicket slew him off his guard. O waves less treacherous than the land!

  91. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.290

    § 7.290 STATYLLIUS FLACCUS The shipwrecked mariner had escaped the whirlwind and the fury of the deadly sea, and as he was lying on the Libyan sand not far from the beach, deep in his last sleep, naked and exhausted by the unhappy wreck, a baneful viper slew him. Why did he struggle with the waves in vain, escaping then the fate that was his lot on the land?

  92. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.291

    § 7.291 XENOCRITUS OF RHODES The salt sea still drips from thy locks, Lysidice, unhappy girl, shipwrecked and drowned. When the sea began to be disturbed, fearing its violence, thou didst fall from the hollow ship. The tomb proclaims thy name and that of thy land, Cyme, but thy bones are wave-washed on the cold beach. A bitter sorrow it was to thy father Aristomachus, who, escorting thee to thy marriage, brought there neither his daughter nor her corpse.

  93. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.292

    § 7.292 THEON OF ALEXANDRIA The halcyons, perchance, care for thee, Lenaeus, but thy mother mourns for thee dumbly over thy cold tomb.

  94. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.293

    § 7.293 ISIDORUS OF AEGAE No tempest, no stormy setting of a constellation overwhelmed Nicophemus in the waters of the Libyan Sea. But alas, unhappy man! stayed by a calm he was burnt up by thirst. This too was the work of the winds. Ah, what a curse are they to sailors, whether they blow or be silent!

  95. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.294

    § 7.294 TULLIUS LAUREAS Gryneus, the old man who got his living by his sea-worn wherry, busying himself with lines and hooks, the sea, roused to fury by a terrible southerly gale, swamped and washed up in the morning on the beach, his hands eaten off. Who would say that they had no sense, the fish who ate just those parts of him by which they used to perish?

  96. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.295

    § 7.295 LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM Theris, the old man who got his living from his lucky weels, who rode on the sea more than a gull, the preyer on fishes, the seine-hauler, the prober of crevices in the rocks, who sailed on no many-oared ship, in spite of all owed not his end to Arcturus, nor did any tempest drive to death his many decades, but he died in his reed hut, going out like a lamp of his own accord owing to his length of years. This tomb was not set up by his children or wife, but by the guild of his fellow fishermen.

  97. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.296

    § 7.296 SIMONIDES Since the sea parted Europe from Asia, since fierce Ares directs the battles of nations, never was a more splendid deed of arms performed by mortals on land and on the sea at once. For these men after slaying many Medes in Cyprus, took a hundred Phoenician ships at sea with their crews. Asia groaned aloud, smitten with both hands by their triumphant might.

  98. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.297

    § 7.297 POLYSTRATUS Lucius has smitten sore the great Achaean Acrocorinth, the star of Hellas, and the twin parallel shores of the Isthmus. One heap of stones covers the bones of those slain in the rout; and the sons of Aeneas left unwept and unhallowed by funeral rites the Achaeans who burnt the house of Priam.

  99. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.298

    § 7.298 Anonymous Woe is me! this is the worst of all, when men weep for a bride or bridegroom dead; but worse when it is for both, as for Eupolis and good Lycaenion, whose chamber falling in on the first night extinguished their wedlock. There is no other mourning to equal this by which you, Nicis, bewailed your son, and you, Theodicus, your daughter.

  100. urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.299

    § 7.299 NICOMACHUS This (why say I “this?”) is that Plataea which a sudden earthquake tumbled down utterly: only a little remnant was left, and we, the dead, lie here with our beloved city laid on us for a monument

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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.