Greek Anthology Book 7

ToposText · Greek Anthology · 753 sections

urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.596
§ 7.596 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS On Theodotus his brother-in-law Nay! by this our last journey in the earth, neither did my wife hate me nor did I, Theodotus, willingly become Eugenia's enemy; but some envy or fatality led us into that great error. Now, having come to the pure bench of Minos, we were both pronounced not guilty.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.597
§ 7.597 JULIANUS, PREFECT OF EGYPT Silent she lies, whose voice was sweet and brave, from whose bosom alone of women burst the fulness of song; so strong were the threads of Fate that they closed the tuneful lips of Calliope.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.598
§ 7.598 By the same Neither the weakness of thy sex, Calliope, nor that of old age, relaxed the strength of thy voice, but yielding with a hard struggle to the common law of death thou didst relax it, alas, alas!
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.599
§ 7.599 By the same She is dead, Kale (Beautiful) by name and more so in mind than in face. Alas! the spring of the Graces has perished utterly. For very like was she to Aphrodite, but only for her lord; for others she was an unassailable Pallas. What stone did not mourn when the strong hand of Hades tore her from her husband’s arms.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.600
§ 7.600 By the same Anastasia, flower of the blooming Graces, the marriage bed received thee in due season and the tomb before thy season. Both thy father and husband shed bitter tears for thee, and perchance even the ferry-man of the dead weeps for thee. For not even a whole year didst thou pass with thy husband, but the tomb holds thee aged alas! but sixteen.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.601
§ 7.601 By the same Alas! Alas! the winter of savage Hell nips the spring of thy countless charms; the tomb has torn thee from the light of the sun at the sad age of sixteen years, and has blinded with evil grief thy husband and thy father, for whom, Anastasia, thou didst shine brighter than the sun.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.602
§ 7.602 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS Eustathius, sweet is thy image, but I see thee in wax, and no longer doth that pleasant speech dwell in thy mouth. Alas, thy blooming youth is now futile dust of earth. For after reaching thy fifteenth year thou didst look only on twenty-four suns. Neither thy grandfathers high office helped thee, nor the riches of thy father. All who look on thy image blame unjust Fate, ah! so merciless, for quenching the light of such beauty.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.603
§ 7.603 JULIANUS, PREFECT OF EGYPT A. “CHARON is savage.” B. “Kind, rather.” A. “He carried off the young man so soon.” B. “But in mind he was the equal of greybeards.” A. “He cut him off from pleasure.” B. “But he thrust him out of the way of trouble.” A. “He knew not wedlock.” B. “Nor the pains of wedlock.”
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.604
§ 7.604 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS Maiden, thy parents with sorrowing hands made thy funeral, not thy wedding bed. The errors of life and the labour of childbed thou hast escaped, but a bitter cloud of mourning sits on them. For Fate hath hidden thee, Macedonia, aged but twelve, young in beauty, old in behaviour.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.606
§ 7.606 JULIANUS, PREFECT OF EGYPT Your sweet husband, Rhodo, builds a sarcophagus of fine marble and a tomb for you and gives alms to the poor to redeem your soul, in return for your kindness in dying early and giving him freedom.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.606
§ 7.606 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS Gentle, clothed in freedom, sweet of aspect, leaving alive a son who tended his old age, Theodorus rests here in hope of better things than death, happy in his labour and happy in his death.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.607
§ 7.607 PALLADAS OF ALEXANDRIA Old Psyllo, grudging her heirs, made herself her own heir and with a quick leap went down to the house of Hades, contriving to end her life and her outlay at the same time. Having eaten up all her fortune, she perished together with her spending power, and jumped to Hades when her last penny was gone.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.608
§ 7.608 EUTOLMIUS SCHOLASTICUS, ILLUSTRIS Menippe, mourning the early death of her son, sent forth her spirit together with her loud dirge, nor could she recover it to utter another wail, but at the same moment ceased from lament and from life.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.609
§ 7.609 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS Atticus with a bold heart dug me this tomb in his life-time, in anticipation of the common fate that overtakes all men, mocking the fear of death owing to his virtue. But long may the sun of wisdom remain beneath the sun.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.610
§ 7.610 PALLADAS OF ALEXANDRIA One carried off a bride and Fate carried off the wedding party, despoiling of life the merry company. One wedding sent four and twenty corpses to their graves, and one chamber became their common mortuary. Penthesilea, unhappy bride, Pentheus bridegroom of sorrow, rich in deaths was your marriage!
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.611
§ 7.611 EUTOLMIUS SCHOLASTICUS, ILLUSTRIS In double grief her wretched mother bewailed maiden Helen dead just after her brother. Her suitors too lamented her equally, for each could mourn for her as his own who was yet no one’s.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.612
§ 7.612 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS Alas! alas! this earth covers the tenth Muse, the lyric chanter of Rome and Alexandria. They have perished, the notes of the lyre; song hath perished as if dying together with Joanna. Perchance the nine Muses have imposed on themselves a law worthy of thee — to dwell in Joanna's tomb instead of on Helicon.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.613
§ 7.613 DIOGENES, BISHOP OF AMISUS On his nephew Diogenes This monument of thy radiant youth, Diogenes, did thy Phrygian father erect to thee on the Euxine Sea alas! how far from thy home. The decree of God brought thee here to die, a sorrow fore-doomed for me, thy father's brother, who having laid thee out with my consecrated hand and with prayer, put thee to rest here beside the dancing-place of the blest
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.614
§ 7.614 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS Thrice blessed Hellanis and lovely Lamaxis were the stars of their Lesbian home; and when Paches, sailing here with the Athenian ships, ravaged the territory of Mytilene, he conceived a guilty passion for the young matrons and killed their husbands, thinking thus to force them. They, taking ship across the wide Aegean main, hurried to steep Mopsopia and complained to the people of the actions of wicked Paches, until they drove him to an evil doom. This, ladies, ye accomplished, and returning to your country lie in it dead. And a good guerdon ye have for your pains, since ye sleep hard by your husbands, a monument of glorious virtue, and all still sing the praises of the heroines, one in heart, who avenged the sufferings of their country and of their lords.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.615
§ 7.615 ANONYMOUS The earth of Phaleron holds Musaeus, Eumolpus’ dear son, dead under this tomb.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.616
§ 7.616 ANONYMOUS Here the earth received at his death Linus of Thebes, son of the fair-wreathed Muse Urania.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.617
§ 7.617 ANONYMOUS Here the Muses buried Thracian Orpheus of the golden lyre, whom Zeus, who reigneth on high, slew with his smoking bolt.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.618
§ 7.618 ANONYMOUS This, his country Lindos, that glories in the sea, mourns wise Cleobulus dead.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.619
§ 7.619 ANONYMOUS This, his country Corinth, that lies near the sea, holds in her bosom Periander, supreme in wealth and wisdom.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.620
§ 7.620 DIOGENES LAERTIUS Never be vexed at not getting anything, but rejoice in all the gifts of God. For wise Periander died of disappointment at not attaining the thing he wished.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.621
§ 7.621 ANONYMOUS Here I, unhappy Sophocles, entered the house of Hades, laughing, because I ate Sardinian celery. So perished I, and others otherwise, but all in some way or other.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.622
§ 7.622 ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM When Borchus the neat-herd went to get the sweet honey-comb, climbing the steep rock by a rope, one of his dogs who used to follow the herd followed him, and, as he was pulling himself up, bit through the thin rope which was trickling with honey. He fell into Hades, grasping, at the cost of his life, that honey which no other man could harvest.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.623
§ 7.623 AEMILIANUS Suck, poor child, at the breast whereat thy mother will never more suckle thee; drain the last drops from the dead. She hath already rendered up her spirit, pierced by the sword, but a mother's love can cherish her child even in death.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.624
§ 7.624 DIODORUS Out on thee, dreaded Ionian Sea, pitiless water, ferrier of men to blackest Hades, thou who hast engulfed so many. Who, with the fate of the unfortunates before his eyes, shall tell all thy crimes, ill-starred sea? Thou hast swallowed in thy surges Aegeus and Labeo, with their short-lived companions and their whole ship.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.625
§ 7.625 ANTIPATER OF SIDON Know that Diodorus, the son of Calligenes of Olynthus, who could make his way even as far as Atlas, and knew the Cretan waters and the navigation of the Black Sea, died in port, falling off the prow at night, while he was spewing out the excess of the feast. Ah, how small a bit of water was fatal to him who had been proved in so vast an expanse of ocean!
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.626
§ 7.626 ANONYMOUS (Not Sepulchral) Ye furthest Nasamonian wilds of Libya, no longer, your expanse vexed by the hordes of wild beasts of the continent, shall ye ring in echo, even beyond the sands of the Nomads, to the voice of lions roaring in the desert, since Caesar the son has trapped the countless tribe and brought it face to face with his fighters. Now the heights once full of the lairs of prowling beasts are pasturage for the cattle of men.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.627
§ 7.627 DIODORUS Leaving thy bridal-chamber half prepared, thy wedding close at hand, thou hast gone, young man, down the baneful road of Hades; and sorely hast thou afflicted Thynion of Astacus, who most piteously of all lamented for thee, dead in thy prime, weeping for the evil fate of her Hipparchus, seeing thou didst complete but twenty-four years.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.628
§ 7.628 CRINAGORAS Other islands ere this have rejected their inglorious names and named themselves after men. Be called Erotides ( Love islands), ye Oxeiai (Sharp islands); it is no shame for you to change; for Eros himself gave both his name and his beauty to the boy whom Dies laid here beneath a heap of clods. O earth, crowded with tombs, and sea that washest on the shore, do thou lie light on the boy, and thou lie hushed for his sake.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.629
§ 7.629 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA Dost thou who art so great rest in so shallow a soil? He who looks at thee, Socrates, must blame the unwisdom of the Greeks. Merciless judges! who slew the best of men, nor shamed them one jot. Such often are the Athenians.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.630
§ 7.630 ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM Now nearing my country I said, “Tomorrow shall this wind that blew so long against me abate.” Scarce had I closed my lips when the sea became like hell, and that light word I spoke was my destruction. Beware ever of that word “tomorrow”; not even little things are unnoticed by the Nemesis that is the foe of our tongues.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.631
§ 7.631 APOLLONIDES If thou comest to Apollo’s harbour at Miletus, give to Diogenes the mournful message that his shipwrecked son Diphilus lies in Andrian earth, having drunk the water of the Aegean Sea.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.632
§ 7.632 DIODORUS A little child in Diodorus’ house fell from a little ladder, but falling head first broke the vertebra of its neck, to break which is fatal. But when it saw its revered master running up, it at once stretched out its baby arms to him. Earth, never lie heavy on the bones of the little slave child, but be kind to two-year-old Corax.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.633
§ 7.633 CRINAGORAS The moon herself, rising at early eve, dimmed her light, veiling her mourning in night, because she saw her namesake, pretty Selene, going down dead to murky Hades. On her she had bestowed the beauty of her light, and with her death she mingled her own darkness.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.634
§ 7.634 ANTIPHILUS Old Philo, stooping to lift the bier to gain his daily wage, stumbled slightly, but fell and was killed; for he was ripe for Hades, and old age was on the look out for an opportunity; and so all unawares he lifted for himself that bier on which he used to carry the corpses of others.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.635
§ 7.635 ANTIPHILUS Hierocles’ boat grew old with him, always travelled with him, and accompanied Him in life and in death. It was his faithful fishing partner, and no juster boat ever sailed the waves. It laboured to keep him until his old age, and then it buried him when he was dead, and travelled with him to Hades.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.636
§ 7.636 CRINAGORAS O HAPPY shepherd, would that I, too, had led my sheep down this grassy white knoll, answering the bleatings of the rams that lead the flock, rather than dipped in the bitter brine the rudder to guide my ship. Therefore I sunk to the depths, and the whistling east wind brought me to rest on this beach.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.637
§ 7.637 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA Pyrrhus the solitary oarsman, fishing with his hair-line for small hakes and sprats from his little boat, fell, struck by a thunderbolt, far away from the shore. The boat came ashore of itself, bearing the message by sulphur and smoke, and had no need of a speaking keel like that of Argo.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.638
§ 7.638 CRINAGORAS The poor mother, when the expected fate of her two sons was reversed, spoke thus, clasping both of them: “Neither did I hope, my child, to weep for thee to-day, nor, my child, to see thee yet among the living. Now your fates have been interchanged, but sorrow undeniable has come to me.”
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.639
§ 7.639 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA Every sea is sea. Why do we foolishly blame the Cyclades, or the Hellespont, and the Sharp ( Oxeiai ) Isles? They merit not their evil fame; for why, when I had escaped them, did the harbour of Scarphaea drown me? Let who will pray for fair weather to bring him home; Aristagoras, who is buried here, knows that the sea is the sea.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.640
§ 7.640 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA Fearsome for sailors is the setting of the Kids, but for Pyro calm was far more adverse than storm. For his ship, stayed by calm, was overtaken by a swift double-oared pirate galley. He was slain by them, having escaped the storm but to perish in the calm. Alas, in what an evil harbour ended his voyage!
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.641
§ 7.641 ANTIPHILUS (Not Sepulchral, but on a water-clock) This recorder of the invisible sun, divided into twelve parts, and as often speaking with tongueless mouth, each time that, the water being compressed in the narrow pipe, the air sends forth a sonorous blast, was erected by Athenaeus for the public, so that the sun might be visible even when covered by envious clouds.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.642
§ 7.642 APOLLONIDES Between Syrus and Delos the waves engulfed Menoetes of Samos, son of Diaphanes, together with his cargo. For a pious purpose was he hurrying home, but the sea is the enemy even of those who are hastening to be with their fathers in sickness.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.643
§ 7.643 CRINAGORAS O HADES the inexorable, thou hast carried off Hymnis, Evander’s daughter, ever the loveable pet of his house, the coaxing nine-year-old girl. Why didst thou send such early death to her who must one day in any case be thine?
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.644
§ 7.644 BIANOR THE GRAMMARIAN Cleariste mourned her last for the early death of her son, and on the tomb ended her embittered life. For, wailing with all the force a mother's sorrow could give her, she could not recover force to draw her breath. Women, why give ye such ample measure to your grief as to wail even till it brings you to Hades?
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.645
§ 7.645 CRINAGORAS O PHILOSTRATUS, unhappy for all thy wealth, where are those sceptres and constant intercourse with princes on which thy fortune ever depended? Shall thy tomb be (?) by the Nile conspicuous in the region of....? Foreigners have shared among them the fruit of thy toil, and thy corpse shall lie in sandy Ostracine.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.646
§ 7.646 ANYTE These were the last words that Erato spoke, throwing her arms round her dear father’s neck, her cheeks wet with fresh tears: “Father, I am thine no longer; I am gone, and sombre death casts already his black veil over my eyes.”
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.647
§ 7.647 SIMONIDES OR SIMIAS These were the very last words that Gorgo spoke to her dear mother, in tears throwing her hands round her neck: “Stay here with father and mayest thou bear another daughter, more fortunate than I was, to tend thy grey old age.”
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.648
§ 7.648 LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM Good Aristocrates, as he was taking ship for Acheron, resting his doomed head on his hand, said: “Let every man seek to have children and get him a wife, even if miserable poverty pinch him. Let him support his life with pillars; a house without pillars is ill to look on. Nay! what is best, may the room where his hearth is have many fair columns, and shining with the luxury of many lights, illumine the log that burns on the hearth.” Aristocrates knew what was best, but, O man, he hated the evilmindedness of women.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.649
§ 7.649 ANYTE Thy mother, Thersis, instead of a bridal chamber and solemn wedding rites, gave thee to stand on this thy marble tomb a maiden like to thee in stature and beauty, and even now thou art dead we may speak to thee.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.650
§ 7.650 PHALAECUS Avoid busying thee with the sea, and put thy mind to the plough that the oxen draw, if it is any joy for thee to see the end of a long life. For on land there is length of days, but on the sea it is not easy to find a man with grey hair.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.651
§ 7.651 EUPHORION Craggy Elaeus doth not cover those thy bones, nor this stone that speaks in blue letters. They are broken by the Icarian sea on the shingly beach of Doliche and lofty Dracanon, and I, this empty mound of earth, am heaped up here in the thirsty herbage of the Dryopes for the sake of old friendship with Polymedes.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.652
§ 7.652 LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM Thou booming sea, why didst thou rise in angry storm, and striking with a huge wave send headlong to the deep, cargo and all, Teleutagoras, son of Timares, as he sailed in his little ship? He, lying somewhere dead on the broad beach, is bewailed over by terns and fish-eating gulls, and Timares, looking on his son’s empty tear-bedewed tomb, weeps for his child Teleutagoras.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.653
§ 7.653 PANCRATES At the setting of the Hyades the fierce Sirocco rose and destroyed Epierides in the Aegean Sea, himself, his ship and crew; and for him his father in tears made this empty tomb.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.654
§ 7.654 LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM The Cretans are ever brigands and pirates, and never just; who ever heard of the justice of a Cretan? So they were Cretans who threw me unhappy Timolytus into the sea, when I was travelling with no very rich cargo. I am bewailed by the seagulls, and there is no Timolytus in this tomb.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.655
§ 7.655 LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM A little dust of the earth is enough for me, and may a rich and useless monument, a weight ill for the dead to bear, crush some other man in his rest. What is that to Alexander, son of Calliteles, if they know who I am or not, now that I am dead?
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.656
§ 7.656 LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM Salute, Sir, this little mound and modest monument of hapless Alcimenes, though it be oil overgrown by the sharp buckthorn and brambles on which I, Alcimenes, once waged war.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.657
§ 7.657 LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM Ye shepherds who roam over this mountain ridge feeding your goats and fleecy sheep, do, in the name of Earth, a little kindness, but a pleasant one, to Cleitagoras, for the sake of Persephone underground. May the sheep bleat to me, and the'shepherd seated on the unhewn rock pipe soft notes to them as they feed, and may the villager in early spring gather meadow flowers and lay a garland on my grave. May one of you bedew it with the milk of a ewe, mother of pretty lambs, holding her udder up and wetting the edge of the tomb. There are ways, 1 assure you, even among the dead of returning a favour done to the departed.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.658
§ 7.658 THEOCRITUS OR LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM I shall discover, wayfarer, if thou honourest more the good, or if a worthless man hath as much of thy esteem. In the first case thou wilt say, “All hail to this tomb because it lies light on the holy head of Eurymedon.”
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.659
§ 7.659 THEOCRITUS (on the same Tomb) Thou hast left an infant son, but thyself, Eurymedon, didst die in thy prime and liest in this tomb. Thy abode is with the divine among men, but him the citizens will honour, mindful of his father’s goodness.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.660
§ 7.660 LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM Stranger, a Syracusan named Orthon enjoins this upon thee: “Never go out drunk on a winter night.” For that was what caused my death, and instead of resting in my ample country I lie clothed in foreign soil.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.661
§ 7.661 LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM The tomb is that of Eusthenes the sophist, who was a reader of character, skilled in discovering our thought from our eyes. Well did his companions bury him, a stranger in a strange land, and among them was a poet marvellously dear to him. So the sophist, although he was feeble, had those who took care that he should have on his death all proper honour.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.662
§ 7.662 LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM The girl is gone to Hades before her time in her seventh year, before all her many playmates, hapless child, longing for her little brother, who twenty months old tasted of loveless death. Alas Peristera for thy sad fate! How hath Heaven decreed that the very path of men should be sown with calamities!
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.663
§ 7.663 LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM Little Medeus made this tomb by the wayside for his Thracian nurse, and inscribed it with the name of Clita. She will have her reward for nursing the boy Why? She is still called “useful”
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.664
§ 7.664 ANONYMOUS Stand and look on Archilochus, the iambic poet of old times, whose vast renown reached to the night and to the dawn. Verily did the Muses and Delian Apollo love him; so full of melody was he, so skilled to write verse and to sing it to the lyre.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.665
§ 7.665 LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM Trust not in the length or depth of the ship thou voyagest in; one wind lords it over every keel. One blast destroyed Promachus, and one huge wave dashed him into the trough of the sea. Yet Heaven was not entirely unkind to him, but he got funeral and a tomb in his own country by the hands of his own people, since the rude sea cast out his body on the expanse of the beach.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.666
§ 7.666 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA This is the place where Leander crossed, these are the straits, unkind not only to one lover. This is where Hero once dwelt, here are the ruins of the tower, the treacherous lamp rested here. In this tomb they both repose, still reproaching that envious wind.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.667
§ 7.667 ANONYMOUS In the Church of St. Anastasia in Thessalonica Why, lamenting in vain, do you stay beside my tomb? I, among the dead, suffer naught worthy of tears. Cease from lament, my husband, and ye, my children, rejoice and preserve the memory of Amazonia.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.668
§ 7.668 LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA Not even if smiling calm were to smooth the waves for me, and gently rippling Zephyr were to blow, shall ye see me take ship; for I dread the perils I encountered formerly battling with the winds.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.669
§ 7.669 PLATO Thou lookest on the stars, my Star. Would I were heaven, to look on thee with many eyes.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.670
§ 7.670 PLATO Of old among the living thou didst shine the Star of morn; now shinest thou in death the Star of eve.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.671
§ 7.671 By some attributed to BIANOR Ever insatiable Charon, why didst thou wantonly take young Attalus? Was he not thine even had he died old?
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.672
§ 7.672 ANONYMOUS Inscribed at Corinth The earth holds the comely body, heaven the glorious spirit of Andreas, who, administering justice in Greece and Illyria, kept his hands clean of ill-gotten gain.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.673
§ 7.673 ANONYMOUS If pious folk live after the end of this life, dwelling, as is fit, in the mouths of all men, thou, Andreas, livest and art not dead, but the divine place of the immortal holy ones has received thee after life's labour.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.674
§ 7.674 ADRIANUS This is the tomb of Archilochus, whom the Muse, out of kindness to Homer, guided to furious iambics.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.675
§ 7.675 LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA Isopsephon Tremble not in loosing thy cable from the tomb of the shipwrecked man. While I was perishing another was travelling unhurt.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.676
§ 7.676 ANONYMOUS I, Epictetus, was a slave, and not sound in all my limbs, and poor as Irus, and beloved by the gods.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.677
§ 7.677 SIMONIDES This is the tomb of famous Megistias the prophet, whom the Persians slew after crossing the Spercheius. Though he well knew then the impending fate, he disdained to desert the Spartan leaders.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.678
§ 7.678 ANONYMOUS Haying accomplished my military service, I, Soterichus, lie here, leaving to my sweet children the wealth I gained by my labours. I commanded in the cavalry, like Gerenian Nestor, and I never amassed any treasure from unjust actions. Therefore after death too I see the light of Olympus.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.679
§ 7.679 SAINT SOPHRONIUS THE PATRIARCH A. “TELL me, tomb, of him whom thou hast hidden within thee, who and whence he was, whose son, his profession, and substance.” B. “This man was Joannes of Cyprus, the son of noble Stephanus, and he was the pastor of Alexandria. He was wealthiest of all the Cyprians by inheritance and by his holy labours; and to tell all the divine deeds he did on earth is beyond my understanding or the tongue of others; for he surpassed in most brilliant virtues even men who seemed to surpass others. All the beautiful public works which this city possesses are ornaments due to his most praiseworthy munificence.”
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.680
§ 7.680 SAINT SOPHRONIUS THE PATRIARCH Joannes, both chief in virtue and chief priest of Alexandria, lies here after his death in his dear country. For his body was mortal, although he shall have immortal life and did countless immortal works on earth.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.681
§ 7.681 PALLADAS You did not go abroad for the sake of honour, but of death, and although lame you ran to Hades, Gessius, swifter than the Fates. For you retreated from life owing to the advancement of which you were dreaming.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.682
§ 7.682 PALLADAS Gessius did not die hurried by Fate, but arrived in Hades before Fate.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.683
§ 7.683 PALLADAS The wisest of the Seven Sages said “Naught in excess,” but you, Gessius, were not convinced of it, and came to this end. Though erudite, you incurred the reproach of the greatest lack of reason in desiring to ascend to heaven. Thus it was that Pegasus was fatal to Bellerophon, because he wished to learn the rules of motion of the stars. But he had a horse and the confident strength of youth, whereas Gessius could not screw his courage up enough even to ease himself.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.684
§ 7.684 PALLADAS Let no mortal even seek to be a god also, nor pursue the pride of high office. Gessius is the proof of it, for he was first of all puffed up and then collapsed, not content with mortal felicity.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.685
§ 7.685 PALLADAS You sought and found the end of life and happiness, seeking an office tending to the highest end. But you obtained the honour, Gessius, receiving after your death the insignia of office.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.686
§ 7.686 PALLADAS When Baucalus saw Gessius just after his death, and lamer than ever, he spoke thus: “ Gessius, what made thee descend into Hell, naked, without funeral, in new burial guise?” And to him in great wrath Gessius at once replied: “Baucalus, the pride of wealth may cause death.”
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.687
§ 7.687 PALLADAS When Gessius discovered the fraud of the oracle of Ammon not long before his death in a strange land, he blamed his own belief and that science, and those who trust in silly astrologers.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.688
§ 7.688. THE two soothsayers brought death on Gessius by their oaths, promising him the consular chair. O race of men vain minded, angry with themselves, knowing nothing even until the end of life.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.689
§ 7.689 ANONYMOUS Here Apellianus, most excellent of men, left his body, depositing his soul in the hands of Christ.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.690
§ 7.690 ANONYMOUS Not even in death hast thou lost on the earth all thy good fame, but the splendid gifts of thy mind all survive, all thy talent and learning, Pytheas, most highly endowed by nature. Therefore art thou gone to the islands of the blest.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.691
§ 7.691 ANONYMOUS I am a new Alcestis, and died for my good husband Zeno, whom alone I had taken to my bosom. My heart preferred him to the light of day and my sweet children. My name was Callicratia, and all men reverenced me.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.692
§ 7.692 ANTIPATER OR PHILIP OF THESSALONICA Glyco of Pergamus, the glory of Asia, the thunderbolt of the pancration, the broad-footed, the new Atlas, has perished; they have perished, those unvanquished hands, and Hades, who conquers all, has thrown him who never before met with a fall in Italy, Greece, or Asia.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.693
§ 7.693 APOLLONIDES I, the heap of stones by the shore, cover Glenis, who was swept away by the cruel swirl of a wave as he was angling from a steep projecting rock. All his fellow fishermen raised me. Save them, Poseidon, and grant ever to all casters of the line a calm shore.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.694
§ 7.694 ADAEUS (Not Sepulchral) If thou passest by the shrine of the hero (his name is Philopragmon) that is at the cross-roads outside Potidaea, tell him on what task thou journeyest, and he at once will help thee to find a means of accomplishing it.
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg7000.tlg001:7.695
§ 7.695 ANONYMOUS Thou seest the face of virtuous Cassis. Though she be dead, the beauty of her soul rather than of her visage is made manifest by her virtues.

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.