Greek Anthology Book 9

ToposText · Greek Anthology · 827 sections

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§ 9.201 LEO THE PHILOSOPHER Paulus, famous among the astrologers, instructed me in the divine mysteries of Phoebus' prophetic art.
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§ 9.202 LEO THE PHILOSOPHER The book of Theo and Proclus the all-wise. The book exhibits the measurements of the Heavens and the Earth. Theo measures the Heavens and Proclus the Earth, or rather Proclus measures the Earth and Theo the Heavens. Both are worthy of equal praise, and both of them gave and took their respective arguments; for Theo, assuming the learned propositions of Proclus, demonstrates by these the courses of the stars; while Proclus, assuming the demonstrations of Theo, resolves and propounds his positions by their aid. All hail, learned pair! Hail, most excellent Theo, learned in every science, now adorning the city of Alexandria! And thou too, Proclus, hail, best scion of the race of Sarpedon and universally acclaimed'
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§ 9.203 PHOTIUS or LEO THE PHILOSOPHER On the Romance " Clitophon and Leucippe " The story of Clitophon almost brings before our eyes a bitter passion but a moral life, and the most chaste conduct of Leucippe astonishes everyone. Beaten, her head shorn, vilely used, and, above all, thrice done to death, she still bore all. If, my friend, you wish to live morally, do not pay attention to the adventitious beauty of the style, but first learn the conclusion of the discourse; for it joins in wedlock lovers who loved wisely.
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§ 9.204 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS Do not heave me up, traveller; I am Ajax's stone with which he smote Hector's breast. Black am I and rough, but ask divine Homer how I sent Priam's son rolling in the dust. Now with difficulty men, the degenerate sons of a wretched age, lever me up a little from the field. But let someone hide me in the ground; I am ashamed to be made the toy of worthless men.
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§ 9.205 ARTEMIDORUS THE GRAMMARIAN The bucolic poems were once scattered, but are now all in one fold, in one flock.
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§ 9.206 EUPITHIUS OF ATHENS On finishing the Punctuation and Accentuation of Herodian's “Universal Prosody” Oh for the number of rules all saying the same thing, and scarcely visible scratches, the work of my fine pen! My eyes ache, my wrist, my back, my neck and shoulders, and I feel universally the pain of the “Universal.”
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§ 9.207 Anonymous on the “Manual” of Epictetus Store up in thy heart the counsel of Epictetus, that thou mayest enter into the heavenly recesses, thy soul wafted up from earth to mount to the skies.
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§ 9.208 Anonymous on the same Whoever puts in practice the wise reflections of Epictetus, smiles, sailing calmly on the sea of life, and after this life's voyage reaches the vault of heaven and the watch-tower amid the stars.
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§ 9.209 Anonymous A Fowler to a Bird: Why art thou so restless, skipping from bough to bough? There was another bird who did the same and escaped not my limed reeds, but, though sore against its will, fell fluttering violently into the hand of the crafty fowler.
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§ 9.210 Anonymous on the “Tactics” of Orbicius Look on me, the book pregnant with vigorous toil, the book that the Emperor Hadrian had by him in his wars, but which for ages lay disused and nearly forgotten. But Anastasius, our powerful emperor, brought me to light again, that I might help his campaigns. For I can teach the labours of murderous war; and I know how, with me, thou shalt destroy the men of the western sea, and the Persians, and the doomed Saracens, and the swift cavalry of the warlike Huns, and the Isaurians taking refuge on their rocky summits. I will bring all things under the sceptre of Anastasius, whom time brought into the world to outshine even Trajan.
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§ 9.211 Anonymous on Nicander Apollo, Chiron, Asclepius, and Hippocrates. After these Nicander won the highest praise.
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§ 9.212 Anonymous on the same “Many drugs that are good when compounded and many that are baneful” did Nicander enumerate, “knowing better than all other men. For verily he came of the race of the Healer.”
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§ 9.213 Anonymous on the same Colophon, too, is conspicuous among cities, for she nursed two sons of supreme wisdom, first Homer and afterwards Nicander, both dear to the heavenly Muses.
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§ 9.214 LEO THE PHILOSOPHER Porphyry, with the purple of thy discourse thou dyest the lips and clothest the mind in splendour.
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§ 9.215 ANTIPATER OF MACEDONIA Ever, stranger, is the water of Hellespont cruel to women. Ask Cleonike of Dyrrhachium. For she was sailing to Sestos to meet her bridegroom, and in the black ship she met with the same fate as Helle. Poor Hero, thou didst lose a husband, and Deimachus a bride, in the space of a few furlongs.
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§ 9.216 HONESTUS OF CORINTH You will cite the holy marriage of Harmonia, but that of Oedipus was unlawful. You will tell me of Antigone's piety, but her brothers were most wicked. Ino was made immortal, but Athamas was ill-fated. The lyre built the walls by its music, but the strains of the flute were fatal to them. So did Heaven compound the destiny of Thebes, mixing good and evil in equal portions.
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§ 9.217 MUCIUS SCAEVOLA Ye goats, why, deserting the thyme and spurge and all the green pasture that is yours, do ye start leaping round and round, wantonly butting at each other, prancing round shepherd Pan, the denizen of the forest? Give over that boxing, or the crook ye detest may find its way to you from the goat -herd's hand.
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§ 9.218 AEMILIANUS OF NICAEA Ah! would that the waves of the wintry sea had engulfed me, wretched ship that I am, my load of living men now changed for one of corpses. I am ashamed of being saved. What doth it profit me to come to harbour with no men in me to tie my hawsers? Call me the dismal hull of Cocytus. I brought death to men— death, and they are shipwrecked inside the harbour.
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§ 9.219 DIODORUS OF SARDIS As, in days of old, Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, sailed to Troy from the goat -pastures of Scyrus, so among the sons of Aeneas doth their leader Nero return to the city of Remus, entering from the sea swift-flowing Tiber, a youth with the first down on his cheeks. The other's force was in his spear alone; this youth is strong both in battle and in the schools.
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§ 9.220 THALLUS OF MILETUS See how the green plane-tree hides the mysteries of the lovers, canopying them with its holy foliage, and about its branches hang the clusters of the sweet vine, the season's delight. So, plane tree, mayest thou ever flourish, and may thy green foliage ever hide the comradeship of Aphrodite.
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§ 9.221 MARCUS ARGENTARIUS I see upon the signet-ring Love, whom none can escape, driving a chariot drawn by mighty lions. One hand menaces their necks with the whip, the other guides the reins; about him is shed abundant bloom of grace. I shudder as I look on the destroyer of men, for he who can tame wild beasts will not show the least mercy to mortals.
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§ 9.222 ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM (A Dolphin speaks) I took on my back the dripping corpse and bore it to the beach; the beast saved the man, the sea creature that of the land, the living the dead. But what did it avail me? I swam from sea to land, and receive death as payment for my porterage. We interchanged destinies. His land slew me, and my water slew him who belonged to the land.
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§ 9.223 BIANOR As the eagle who circles on high, who alone among the birds is an inmate of Heaven, was bearing a message from Zeus, he eluded not the Cretan, but the archer drew his swift-shooting bow, and the winged arrow made the bird its victim. But he did not, alone among men, escape the justice of Zeus. The bird fell on the man, and he paid dear for the sureness of his arrow's aim. The eagle pierced his neck with the arrow which had found a resting-place in its own heart, and one missile drank the life-blood of two.
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§ 9.224 CRINAGORAS I am the good milch- goat with udders yielding more than any the milk-pan ever drained, and Caesar, when he had tasted the richness of my milk, sweet as honey, took me with him even on the ship to be his fellow-voyager. Some day I think I shall even reach the stars, for he to whom I gave suck from my breast is by no means inferior to the Aegis-bearer.
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§ 9.225 HONESTUS Asopis fount and Pegasis are sister springs, the one a river-god's gift, the other a horse's, both gushing forth at a blow of the foot. The horse cut the veins of Helicon, the river those of Acrocorinth. How equally happy the heel's aim in each case!
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§ 9.226 ZONAS OF SARDIS Hie ye, ye tawny hive- bees, to feed on... or the crinkled leaves of the thyme, or the petals of the poppy, or the sun-dried berries of the vine, or violets, or the down that covers the apple. Take a pick at all, and mould your waxen vessels so that Pan, the saviour of the bees and keeper of the hives, may have a taste himself, and the beeman, smoking you out with his skilled hand, may leave a little portion for you also.
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§ 9.227 BIANOR A fisherman spied an octopus in the transparent water by the sea-beach, and rushing upon it as it swam, snatched it and threw it on the land to avoid being caught by his prey. Round and round it whirled, and by a happy chance lighted on a timorous hare that was lying half asleep among the rushes. It spread all over her and fettered her, and the man by means of his booty from the sea gained fresh booty from the land.
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§ 9.228 APOLLONIDES Melitea received the unlooked for news that her son, with his cargo, had been engulfed in the waves, and seeing the symbol of her own misfortune in the corpse of another which the sea had washed up on the beach, the unhappy woman gave it burial as if it were her son's. But Dion, his ship undamaged, returned in safety from a voyage that had met all his hopes. What diverse fortune befel the two mothers! The one holds alive the son she never hoped to see, the other shall not even see her son dead.
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§ 9.229 MARCUS ARGENTARIUS My ancient boon-companion, friend of the vintner's measures, sweet babbler with the gentle laugh, pretty mouth and long neck, my flagon, ever knowing the secret of my poverty but contributing little to relieve it, I have waited for thee long, but I hold thee now. Would I had thee unmixed and unwedded, coming like a maiden undefiled to her husband.
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§ 9.230 HONESTUS Thou wert sore tired by the ascent of great Helicon, but didst drink thy fill of the sweet waters of the spring of Pegasus. Even so the labour of study is up-hill, but if thou attainest the summit thou shalt quaff the pleasant gift of the Muses.
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§ 9.231 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA I am a dry plane-tree covered by the vine that climbs over me; and I, who once fed clusters from my own branches, and was no less leafy than this vine, now am clothed in the glory of foliage not my own. Such a mistress let a man cherish who, unlike her kind, knows how to requite him even when he is dead.
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§ 9.232 PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA I am the neck of an Adriatic wine-jar, once honeyvoiced when I bore in my belly the gift of Bacchus. But now I am broken I stand here as a strong support for a newly-planted vine which reaches up to climb over this delicate arbour. Ever do I serve Bacchus; either I guard him faithfully in his old age, or rear him in his youth.
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§ 9.233 ERYCIUS As thou wast cutting the dry roots of old trees, unhappy Mindon, a spider nesting there attacked thee from beneath and bit thy left foot. The venom, spreading, devoured with black putrefaction the fresh flesh of thy heel, and hence thy sturdy leg was cut off at the knee, and a staff cut from a tall wild olivetree supports thee now on one leg.
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§ 9.234 CRINAGORAS How long, wretched soul, upborne by empty hopes nigh to the cold clouds, shalt thou build thee dream upon dream of wealth? Naught falls of its own accord into the possession of man. Pursue the gifts of the Muses, and leave these dim phantoms of the mind to fools.
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§ 9.235 CRINAGORAS On the marriage of Cleopatra (daughter of Antony and Cleopatra ) with Jnba, King of Nwnidia Great bordering regions of the world which the full stream of Nile separates from the black Aethiopians, ye have by marriage made your sovereigns common to both, turning Egypt and Libya into one country. May the children of these princes ever again rule with unshaken dominion over both lands.
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§ 9.236 BASSUS LOLLIUS The inviolable oath of the Fates decreed that final sacrifice of Priam slaughtered on the Phrygian altar. But thy holy fleet, Aeneas, is already safe in an Italian harbour, the prelude of thy heavenly home. It was for the best that the towers of Troy fell; for hence in arms arose the city that is queen of the world.
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§ 9.237 ERYCIUS A. “Herdsman, tell me by Pan whose is this colossal statue of beech-wood to which thou art pouring a libation of milk.” B. “The Tirynthian's who wrestled with the lion. Seest thou not his bow, simpleton, and his club of wild olive? All hail to thee, calf-devouring Heracles, and guard this fold, that, instead of these few, my cattle may be ten thousand.”
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§ 9.238 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA Apollo is a big boy here in this bronze work of Onatas which testifies to the beauty of Leto and Zeus, and proclaims that not idly did Zeus love her, and that, even as the saying is, the eyes and head of the son of Cronos are glorious. Not even Hera will be displeased with this bronze which Onatas moulded to such beauty by the help of Ilithyia.
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§ 9.239 CRINAGORAS The sweet company of the five lyric poets united in this volume offer the work of the inimitable Graces. We come on her festal morning to Antonia, supreme in beauty and mind.
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§ 9.240 PHILIPPUS A ram with crumpled horns was rushing fiercely to butt Calyptra's little boy, who had strayed from his mother, when the boar of Heracles, breaking his tether, buried his tusks in the ram's belly and gave the child its life. Is it because he remembers Hera's cruelty that Heracles pities children of tender age?
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§ 9.241 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA You were a neat-herd, Phoebus, and Poseidon was a nag, Zeus was a swan, and famous Amnion a snake (they did it for the sake of girls, but you, Apollo, were after a boy), all to conceal your identity; for you all enjoy by force and not by persuasion. Evagoras, however, being made of brass, need practise no deceit, but in his own form, and without any transformation, possesses all and every of either sex.
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§ 9.242 ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM Glaucus, brought up on the shores of Thasus, he who conducted those crossing by ferry to the island, skilled ploughman of the sea, who even when he was dozing guided the rudder with no uncertain hand, the old man of countless years, the battered remnant of a seafarer, not even when he was on the point of death quitted his old tub. They burnt his shell on the top of him, that the old man might sail to Hades in his own boat.
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§ 9.243 APOLLONIDES The parents of Aristippus both rejoiced and wept for their son, and one day saw both his good and evil fate. When he had escaped from the burning house, straightway Zeus launched at his head the all-powerful name of his thunderbolt. Then those who bewailed the dead spoke this word: “Unhappy boy, reserved by Fate for the fire of Heaven! ”
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§ 9.244 APOLLONIDES A timid troop of horned deer, when the frozen mountain tops were covered by the snow clouds, sought refuge, poor creatures, in the river, setting off there in the hope of wanning their swift limbs in the moist exhalations of the stream. But the unkind stream, shutting them in all of a sudden, imprisoned them in odious fetters of wintry ice. A crowd of countrymen feasted on the unsnared game that had often escaped the net and its stakes.
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§ 9.245 ANTIPHANES By the unhappy marriage-bed of Petale at her bitter bridal stood Hades, not Hymen. For, as she fled alone through the darkness, dreading the first taste of the yoke of Cypris — a terror common to all maidens — the cruel watch- dogs killed her. We had hoped to see her a wife and suddenly we could hardly find her corpse.
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§ 9.246 MARCUS ARGENTARIUS Thou art broken, sweet flagon, dear to the winebibbers, and hast shed from thy belly all the liquor of Bacchus. For from afar fell on thee, with a dreadful crash, a stone like a thunderbolt hurled by the hand, not of Zeus, but of Dion. And when it smote thee there was much laughter and many gibes, and a great noise among the company. I do not lament thee, flagon, who didst give birth to Bacchus the crier of Ehoe, for thy fate has been the same as Semele's.
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§ 9.247 PHILIPPUS I am a fine plane-tree that the furious blasts of the south wind uprooted and laid low on the ground. But after a bath of wine I stand again erect, vivified both in summer and winter by a rain sweeter than that of heaven. By death I lived, and I alone, after drinking the juice of Bacchus which makes others bend, am seen to stand straighter.
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§ 9.248 BOETHUS, THE WRITER OF ELEGIES If Dionysus had come revelling with the Maenads and Satyrs to holy Olympus, looking just as Pylades the great artist played him in the ballet according to the true canons of the servants of the tragic Muse, Hera, the consort of Zeus, would have ceased to be jealous, and exclaimed: “ Semele, thou didst pretend that Bacchus was thy son;'twas I who bore him.”
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§ 9.249 MACCIUS I am Pan; and established here at the top of the hill I keep watch over this leafy, green, climbing vine. If thou desirest my ripe fruit, traveller, I grudge it not, if it is to gratify thy belly; but if thou layest thy hand on me for the sake of robbery only, thou shalt straightway feel on thy head the weight of this knobbed staff.
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§ 9.250 HONESTUS I, Thebes, rose at the sound of the lyre, and sunk in ruins at that of the flute. Alas for the Muse that was adverse to harmony! They now lie deaf, the remains of my towers, once charmed by the lyre, the stones that took their places of their own accord in the muse-built walls, a gift that cost thee, Amphion, no labour; for with thy seven-stringed lyre thou didst build thy seven-gated city.
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§ 9.251 EVENUS Page-eater, the Muses' bitterest foe, lurking destroyer, ever feeding on thy thefts from learning, why, black bookworm, dost thou lie concealed among the sacred utterances, producing the image of envy? Away from the Muses, far away! Convey not even by the sight of thee the suspicion of how they must suffer from ill-will.
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§ 9.252 Anonymous Quickly the traveller, when he saw the pack of greedy wolves, leapt from the bank into the deep Nile. But they continued the chase through the water, each holding on by its teeth to another's tail. A long bridge of wolves was formed over the stream, and the self-taught stratagem of the swimming beasts caught the man.
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§ 9.253 PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA Splendid in Thebes was the marriage of Cadmus, but that of Oedipus was abominable. Bacchus welcomed the orgies which Pentheus, having ridiculed, bewailed. The walls arose to the music of strings, but groaned as they crumbled to the flute's. Holy were the birth-pangs of Antiope, but Iocasta's heavy with doom. Ino loved her child, but Athamas was impious. The city was always famous (?). See how for good or evil History always had plenty to tell of Thebes.
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§ 9.254 PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA I, Philaenis, who bore children but to feed the funeral pyre, the mother weighed down by grief, who had seen the burial of three, sought refuge in the fruit of another womb; for, indeed, I was confident that the son I had not borne myself would live. So, though I had given birth to so many, I brought up an adopted son. But Fate would not allow me to possess even the gift of another mother; for no sooner was he called mine than he died, and now I have become a cause of mourning even to other mothers.
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§ 9.255 PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA Needy Aristides reckoned his possessions as great; his one sheep was a Hock, his one cow a herd. But he lost both; a wolf killed the ewe, and the cow died in calving. So that the stock of his poor farm was gone, and the luckless man, noosing his neck in the strap of his wallet, perished by his shed that no longer echoed to the sound of bleating.
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§ 9.256 ANTIPHANES I thought that half of me was still alive, and that half produced one single apple on the highest branch. But the brute that ravages fruit-trees, the hairy backed caterpillar, envied me even the one, and ate it up. Envy's eyes are set on great wealth, but the creature who lays waste a little substance I must call worse even than Envy's self.
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§ 9.257 APOLLONIDES I, the Pure Fountain (for that is the name the Nymphs bestowed on me above all other springs), when the robber had slain the men who were reclining beside me, and washed his bloody hands in my sacred water, turned back that sweet stream, and no longer gush for travellers; for who will call me “The Pure” any longer?
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§ 9.258 ANTIPHANES OF MEGALOPOLIS I who once gushed with abundance of sweet water, have now lost my nymphs even to the last drop. For the murderer washed his bloody hands in my water, and tainted it with the stain. Ever since the maidens have retired from the sunlight, exclaiming, “We nymphs mix with Bacchus alone, not with Ares.”
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§ 9.259 BIANOR The house fell in from top to bottom, but much more lightly on the infant son of Zephyrus. Even a ruin spared childhood. O ye boastful mothers, see how even stone feels maternal affection.
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§ 9.260 SECUNDUS OF TARENTUM I, Lais, who was once the love-dart that smote all, am Lais no longer, but a witness to all of the Nemesis of years. No, by Cypris! — and what is Cypris to me now but an oath? — Lais is no longer recognisable to Lais herself.
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§ 9.261 EPIGONUS OF THESSALONICA I, the vine who once was young and clothed in leafy shoots, I who bore bunches of swelling grapes, am now as old as you see. Look how Time overcomes us! Even the vine's clusters know the wrinkles of old age.
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§ 9.262 PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA All once counted Aristodice to be a proud mother, for six times had she been delivered of her womb's burden. But water vied with earth in afflicting her; for three sons perished by sickness, and the rest closed their eyes in the sea. The tearful woman is ever seen complaining like a nightingale by the gravestones, and upbraiding the deep like a halcyon.
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§ 9.263 ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM Old Eubule, whenever she had set her heart on anything, used to pick up the nearest stone at her feet, as being Apollo's prophet, and try it in her hand. Whenever she did not want a thing, it was heavy; but if she wanted it, it was lighter than a feather. But she acted as it pleased her best, and if she came to grief she set down the unfairness of her hand's judgment to Phoebus.
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§ 9.264 APOLLONIDES or PHILIPPUS The cicada used to sit on the highest boughs of the shrubs, and in the burning noon-tide sun, beating its belly with its wings, by the sweet variations of its self-wrought strains filled all the wilderness with music. But Criton of Pialia, the fowler who disdains no kind of game, caught this fleshless thing by its back with his limed twig. But he suffered punishment; for his daily craft now plays him false, and he wanders about not catching even a feather.
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§ 9.265 By the same (pp. No. 223) The bird of Zeus, pierced by an arrow, avenged himself on the Cretan for his archery, returning arrow for arrow from heaven. With the returning shaft it slew the slayer at once from the sky, and falling, killed as it died. No longer boast, ye Cretans, of your unerring arrows; let the deadly aim of Zeus, too, be celebrated.
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§ 9.266 ANTIPATER Phoebus spoke thus of the sweet musician Glaphyrus when he breathed the spirit of love from his pierced flute: “ Marsyas, thou didst lie concerning thy invention, for this man hath stolen Athena's flute from Phrygia. If thou hadst then breathed into such as this, Hyagnis had never wept for the contest by the Maeander in which the flute was fatal.”
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§ 9.267 PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA Sailing of late on the Icarian sea, Damis, the son of Nicaretus, slipped from the deck and fell into the sea. Sore did his father pray to the immortals, and call on the water, beseeching the waves for his son. But, devoured by the sea, he perished miserably. That is a sea that of old, too, was deaf to a father's prayers.
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§ 9.268 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA Gorgo, the Cretan bitch, being in pup, was on the track of a hind, and had paid her vows to both Dianas. As she killed the deer she littered, and quickly did the Deliveress grant both prayers, that for success in the chase and that for an easy labour. Now Gorgo gives milk to nine children. Fly, ye Cretan deer, learning from the force of mothers in travail what their young are like to be.
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§ 9.269 By the same When the ship was dashed to pieces two men strove with each other in the water, quarrelling for one plank. Antagoras struck Pisistratus. It was not inexcusable, for his life was at stake, but Justice was concerned. The one swam on, but the other was seized by a shark. She, the all-avenger, does not cease from vengeance even in the watery deep.
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§ 9.270 MARCUS ARGENTARIUS I keep revel, gazing at the golden dance of the stars of evening, nor do I rudely disturb the converse of others. Tossing my hair that scatters flowers, I awake with musical fingers the deep-toned lyre. And in doing so I lead an orderly life, for the order of the universe itself lacks not a Lyre and a Crown.
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§ 9.271 APOLLONIDES And when then, tell me, Sea, shalt thou give safe passage to ships, if we are to weep even in the days of the halcyons, the halcyons for whom the deep has ever lulled the waves to so steady a calm that they deem it more trustworthy than the land? Even now, when thou boastest of being a nurse stilling the pangs of child-birth, thou hast sunk Aristomenes with his cargo.
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§ 9.272 BIANOR When a crow, the minister of Phoebus, parched with thirst, saw on a woman's tomb a pitcher containing rain-water, it croaked over the mouth but could not reach the bottom with its beak. But, thou, Phoebus, didst inspire the bird with opportune artfulness, and, by dropping pebbles in, it reached in its eagerness with its greedy lips the water set in motion by the stones.
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§ 9.273 BIANOR While the never silent cicada was singing on the bushes in the heat with its double-tongued mouth, Crito contrived with his limed reeds to catch the songster of the air, no proper victim of his craft. But he got his deserts for his impious capture, and was no longer successful as before in the snares he set for other birds.
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§ 9.274 PHILIPPUS The young cow, obeying the goad that pricks her thighs, cuts the recurring furrows of the field, and again, after her ploughing-labour under the yoke, suffers fresh pain in suckling her newly-born calf. Do not drive her hard, husbandman. This little calf of hers, if you spare the mother, will grow up for you and become a steer.
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§ 9.275 MACEDONIUS Codrus killed the boar on land, and the swift deer he took in the blue waves of the sea. Were there beasts with wings too, Artemis would not have seen him empty-handed even in the air.
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§ 9.276 CRINAGORAS The serving-woman washing clothes on the seabeach, a little above the wet rocks, was swept off, poor wretch, by a breaker which flooded the shore, and she drunk the bitter wave of death. She was in one moment released from life and from poverty. Who in a ship shall brave that sea from which even those on land are not protected?
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§ 9.277 ANTIPHILUS Why, torrent, in thy furious march dost thou lift thyself up so high and shut off the progress of travellers on foot? Art thou drunk with the rain, and no more content with a stream the Nymphs make transparent? Hast thou borrowed water from the turbid clouds? One day I shall see thee burnt up by the sun, who knows how to test the water of rivers, distinguishing the true from the bastard.
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§ 9.278 BIANOR A boy saw carried away by the torrent a coffin in which rested still the remains of his parents. Sorrow filled him with daring and he rushed into the ruthless stream, but his help cost him sore. For he saved the bones indeed from the water, but in their place was himself overtaken by the fierce current.
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§ 9.279 BASSUS When, for the second time, Hades received from the bark of Lethe three hundred dead, all slain in war, he said: “The company is Spartan; see how all their wounds are in front again, and war dwells in their breasts alone. Now, people of unvanquished Ares, hunger no more for battle, but rest in my sleep.”
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§ 9.280 APOLLONIDES Laelius the distinguished Roman consul said, looking at the Eurotas, “Hail! Sparta's stream, of rivers noblest far.” Having thus set his hand to the erudite book of the Muses, he saw over his head a token of learning. The magpies, birds that imitate human life, were calling from the leafy dells in all their various tongues. By' them he was encouraged; and how can the labour not be enviable if even the birds desire (to find expression for their thoughts)?
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§ 9.281 APOLLONIDES When all Asia witnessed the common marvel, the colt furious to feed on flesh of men, the grey-grown legend of the Thracian stable came before my eyes. I am in search of a second Heracles.
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§ 9.282 ANTIPATER OF MACEDONIA Strangers, I, whom you take for a tree, am a maiden. Bid the slaves' hands that are prepared to cut me spare the laurel. Instead of me, let travellers cut to strew as a couch boughs of arbutus or terebinth, for they are not far away. The brook is about a hundred yards away from me, and from its springs a wood containing every kind of tree is distant about seventy yards.
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§ 9.283 CRINAGORAS Ye Pyrenees and ye deep-valleyed Alps that look down from nigh on the sources of the Rhine, ye are witnesses of the lightning that Germanicus flashes forth as he smites the Celts with the thunderbolts of war. In masses the foe fell, and Enyo said to Ares, “It is to such hands as these that our help is due.”
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§ 9.284 CRINAGORAS What inhabitants, O luckless city, hast thou received, and in place of whom? Alas for the great calamity to Greece! Would, Corinth, thou didst lie lower than the ground and more desert than the Libyan sands, rather than that wholly abandoned to such a crowd of scoundrelly slaves, thou shouldst vex the bones of the ancient Bacchiadae!
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§ 9.285 PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA No longer does the mighty-tusked elephant, with turreted back and ready to fight phalanxes, charge unchecked into the battle; but in fear he hath yielded his thick neck to the yoke, and draws the car of divine Caesar. The wild beast knows the delight of peace; discarding the accoutrement of war, he conducts instead the father of good order.
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§ 9.286 MARCUS ARGENTARIUS Why hast thou, chanticleer, robbed me of beloved sleep, and the sweet image of Pyrrha has flown away from my bed? Is this my recompense for bringing thee up and making thee, ill-starred fowl, the lord of all the egg-laying herd in my house? I swear by the altar and sceptre of Serapis, no more shalt thou call in the night, but shalt lie on that altar by which I have sworn.
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§ 9.287 APOLLONIDES I, the holy bird, who had never set foot in Rhodes, the eagle who was but a fable to the people of Cercaphus, came borne through the vast heaven by my high-flying wings, then when Tiberius was in the island of the Sun. In his house I rested, at the beck of my master's hand, not shrinking from the future Zeus.
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§ 9.288 GEMINUS I, this stone, heavy to the Athenians, am dedicated to Ares as a sign of the valour of Philip. Here stand I to insult Marathon and the deeds of sea-girt Salamis, which bow before the Macedonian spear. Swear by the dead now, Demosthenes, but I shall be heavy to living and dead alike.
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§ 9.289 BASSUS O rocks of Caphereus, fatal to ships, which destroyed the fleet of the Greeks on their home-coming from Troy, then when the lying beacon sent forth a flame darker than the night of hell, and every keel ran blindly on the sunken reefs, ye were another Troy to Greece and more deadly than the ten years' war. Troy indeed they sacked, but Caphereus was invincible. Nauplius, then did Hellas weep tears which were a joy to thee.
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§ 9.290 PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA When with the blasts of the Libyan wind, the fierce Sirocco, the sea grew dark and belched up the sand from her profoundest depths, when every mast had fallen into the hollow of the deep and the lost merchant ship was drifting to Hades, Lysistratus called on the gods who help mariners, and they, for the sake of the temple ministrant alone, lulled the savage waves.
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§ 9.291 CRINAGORAS ( Written after a reverse of the Roman arms in Germania ) Not though Ocean arouses all his floods, not though Germania drinks up the whole Rhine, shall the might of Rome be shaken as long as she remains confident in Caesar's auspicious guidance. So the holy oaks of Zeus stand firm on their roots, but the wind strips them of the withered leaves.
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§ 9.292 HONESTUS Aristion was burning the corpse of one son when she heard the other was shipwrecked. A double grief consumed a single heart. Alas! Fate divided this mother in two, since she gave one child to fire and the other to cruel water.
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§ 9.293 PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA Xerxes, looking on the great frame of self-slain Leonidas, clothed it in a purple cloak. Then Sparta's great hero called from the dead: “I accept not the reward due to traitors. My shield is the best ornament of my tomb. Away with the Persian frippery, and I shall go even to Hades as a Spartan.”
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§ 9.294 ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM A. “ Xerxes gave thee this purple cloak, Leonidas, reverencing thy valorous deeds.” B. “I do not accept it; that is the reward of traitors. Let me be clothed in my shield in death too; no wealthy funeral for me! ” A. “But thou art dead. Why dost thou hate the Persians so bitterly even in death?” B. “The passion for freedom dies not.”
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§ 9.295 BIANOR The horse, accustomed to gallop over the plain and not over the waves, refuses to sail across the sea on the ship. Do not wonder at his neighing and kicking the sides of the vessel, and angrily trying to free himself from his bonds. He is indignant at being part of the cargo; for the swiftest of all creatures should not depend on others for his passage.
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§ 9.296 APOLLONIDES Scyllus, when Xerxes' huge fleet was driving all Greece before it, invented submarine warfare. Descending into the hidden depths of the realm of Nereus, he cut the cables of the ships' anchors. The Persian vessels, with all their crews, glided ashore and silently perished — the first achievement of Themistocles.
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§ 9.297 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA (Probably addressed to Gaius Caesar when sent by Augustus to the East in the year 1 BCE) Hie thee to the Euphrates, son of Zeus; already in the East the feet of the Parthians hasten to desert to thee. Hie thee on thy way, O prince, and thou shalt find, Caesar, their bow-strings relaxed by fear. But base all thou dost on thy father's instructions. The Ocean is Rome's boundary on every side; be thou the first to seal her domination with the rising Sun.
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§ 9.298 ANTIPHILUS My staff guided me to the temple uninitiated not only in the mysteries, but in the sunlight. The goddesses initiated me into both, and on that night I knew that my eyes as well as my soul had been purged of night. I went back to Athens without a staff, proclaiming the holiness of the mysteries of Demeter more clearly with my eyes than with my tongue.
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§ 9.299 PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA We meek-necked oxen, the ploughers of the field, endure in the sea the labour of the land. We both draw in the water a furrow not cut by iron, the long ropes attached to the seine. We toil now for fish? not for corn. Ah, long-suffering creatures! Oxen have begun to plough the sea too for its fruits.
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§ 9.300 ADDAEUS Valiant Peucestes encountered on horseback the bull as it issued from the dreadful dell of Doberus. Like a mountain it rushed at him, but with his Paeonian spear he pierced its tender temples, and having despoiled its head of the pair of horns, ever as he quaffs the wine from them boasts of his enemy's death.

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.