Greek Anthology Book 9

ToposText · Greek Anthology · 827 sections

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§ 9.402 Anonymous on Pompey the Great In what sore need of a tomb stood he who possessed abundant temples!
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§ 9.403 MACCIUS To Dionysus Enter the vat thyself, my lord, and tread leaping swiftly; lead the labour of the night. Make naked thy proud feet, and give strength to the dance thy servant, girt up above thy active knees, and guide, O blessed one, the sweet-voiced wine into the empty casks. So shalt thou receive cakes and a shaggy goat.
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§ 9.404 ANTIPHILUS Ah! lovely is the liquor of the bees, self-wrought in the ether, and the cells self-moulded and not with hands; a gift unrequited to the life of men, needing no mattock, or oxen, or crooked sickle, but only a little vessel into which the bee pours forth the sweet stream in abundance from its tiny body. Hail! ye pure creatures; pasture on the flowers, ye winged makers of ethereal nectar.
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§ 9.405 DIODORUS May holy Adrasteia preserve thee, and Nemesis, the maiden who treadeth in our track, she who has cheated many. I fear for thy body's lovely form, O youth; for thy mental gifts and the strength of thy divine courage, for thy learning and thy prudent counsel. Such we are told, Drusus, are the children of the blessed immortals.
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§ 9.406 ANTIGONUS OF CARYSTUS On a figure of a Frog placed in a Crater I am a frog, now no longer croaking continually, placed under the shower of wine from the silver spout. I lie in the water, whose friend I am, but no enemy to Bacchus, and I am washed by the drops of both. Too late in life I went revelling to Dionysus. Alas for those who drink water: they are mad but with a temperate madness!
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§ 9.407 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA The slave-child of Hippocrates, having crept from the neighbouring cottage to the broad edge of the sea, died of drinking more than it had drunk at the breast. Out on thee, Sea, who didst receive the baby as a mother, and didst deceive it!
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§ 9.408 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA Would I had continued to stray at the will of all the winds that blow, rather than be fixed firm to help wandering Leto in her labour: I should never have had to lament such solitude. Alas, poor me, how many Greek ships now sail past deserted Delos, once so revered! Hera has taken this late but terrible vengeance on Leto.
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§ 9.409 ANTIPHANES If there be one who does not take delight in the strains of the flute and the sweet sound of harpplaying, or in nectareous wine, oldest of the old, or in torches, revels, garlands, and scent, but who takes a frugal supper and stores up with greedy hands the fruits of stealthy-footed usury, to me he is dead, and I pass by the... corpse, who hoards for the weasands of others.
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§ 9.410 TULLIUS SABINUS A mouse once, lickerish of every kind of food and not even shy of the mouse -trap, but one who won booty even from death, gnawed through Phoebus' melodious lyre-string. The strained chord springing up to the bridge of the lyre, throttled the mouse. We wonder at the bow's good aim; but Phoebus uses his lyre, too, as a weapon wherewith to aim well at his enemies.
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§ 9.411 MAECIUS Cornelius is changed all of a sudden, and is no longer pleased with our simple literary life, but depends on light hope. We are not the same as before to him, but the hope on which he hangs is another. Let us give in, my heart; we are thrown; seek not to resist; it is a silver fall that has laid us on the ground.
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§ 9.412 PHILODEMUS It is already the season of the rose, Sosylus, and of ripe chick-peas, and the first cut cabbages, and smelts, and fresh salted cheese, and the tender leaves of curly lettuces. But we do not go up to the pleasaunce or sit on the belvedere, Sosylus, as we used. Yet Antigenes and Bacchius were sporting but yesterday, and today we carry them to their graves.
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§ 9.413 ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM The terebinth island has few vineyards, being small, but is all flat and not rugged. The islands near it are large and broad, but for the most part rough, and superior in this only, their size. We compete for crops, not for furlongs, just as the cornfields of Egypt take no count of the sands of Libya.
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§ 9.414 GEMINUS I am the rhamnus, a thorny shrub used as a fence. Who shall say I am unproductive when I protect the fruitful crops?
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§ 9.415 ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM On a Ship built from the Profits of a Brothel: I was formerly, too, my master's partner in his lucrative trade, when the crew he collected consisted of public votaries of Cypris. From those profits he built my keel that Cypris might see me, a product of the land, tossing on the sea. My rig befits a lady of pleasure; I wear dainty white linen, and on my timbers lies a delicate dye. Come, sailors, confidently mount on my stern. I can take any number of oarsmen.
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§ 9.416 PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA On the same: I am a ship built from the business of Cypris, and betake me to the sea that gave birth to that goddess; for the man who made me was a merchant of beauty, and christened me Courtesan, for I am friendly to all. Board me confidently; I don't demand a heavy fare; I receive all comers. I carry both natives and foreigners; you can row me either on land or in the sea.
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§ 9.417 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA Lampo, Midas' hound, died of thirst, though he toiled hard for his life. For with his paws he dug into the damp earth, but the lazy water would not hasten to gush from the hidden source. He fell exhausted, and then the spring burst forth. Is it, Nymphs, that ye were wrath with Lampo for all the deer he had killed?
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§ 9.418 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA On a Water-mill: Cease from grinding, ye women who toil at the mill; sleep late, even if the crowing cocks announce the dawn. For Demeter has ordered the Nymphs to perform the work of your hands, and they, leaping down on the top of the wheel, turn its axle which, with its revolving spokes, turns the heavy concave Nisyrian mill-stones. We taste again the joys of the primitive life, learning to feast on the products of Demeter without labour.
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§ 9.419 CRINAGORAS With most august Caesar, even if he go to the depths of the Hercynian forest or to extreme Soloeis and the western edge of Libya, goeth everywhere glory. The waters of the Pyrenees testify it. They in which not even the neighbouring wood-cutters washed, shall now be baths for two continents.
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§ 9.420 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA Think not, Telembrotus, to persuade love by tears, or with a little water to put out so stubborn a fire. Gold is ever the medicine of love, and not even then when he was born on the deep sea was he quenched.
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§ 9.421 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA On the Cyclades: Ye desert islands, crumbs of land, which the sounding cincture of the Aegean wave confines, ye have followed the example of Siphnus and squalid Pholegandrus, poor islands, and lost your ancient splendour. Delos, of a truth, once so brilliant, has taught you her ways, Delos who first of you all was condemned to solitude.
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§ 9.422 APOLLONIDES “By our children,” she said, “I implore thee, if thou layest me out dead, enter not a second time into the loving bond of wedlock.” She spoke, but he hastened to take another wife. Yet Philinna, even dead, punished Diogenes for forgetting her. For on the first night the wrath from which there is no escape laid their chamber in ruins, so that the sun never shone on his second marriage.
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§ 9.423 BIANOR Sardis, once the city of Gyges and Alyattes; Sardis, who wast for the great king a second Persia in Anatolia; thou who didst build thee of old time a hall of golden bricks, winning wealth from the stream of Pactolus; now, ill-fated city, enveloped all of thee in one disaster, thou hast fallen headlong into the depths, swallowed by the fathomless cavern. Bura and Helice too were engulfed by the sea, but thou, Sardis, the inland city, hast met with the same end as these which rest in the deep.
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§ 9.424 DURIS OF ELAEA Clouds of the heavens, whence drunk ye bitter waters, and in league with unbroken night deluged all? This is not Libya, these countless dwellings and the wealth of many prosperous years, but unhappy Ephesus. Whither, then, were the eyes of the Saving deities turned? Alas for the most besung of all Ionian cities! All, like rolling waves, has been swept to sea by the floods.
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§ 9.425 IOANNES BARBUCALLUS Here I lie, the luckless city, no longer a city, with my dead inhabitants, most ill-fated of all towns. After the Earth -shaker's shock Hephaestus consumed me. Alas, how excellent my beauty who now am dust! But as ye pass by bewail my fate, and let fall a tear for destroyed Berytus.
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§ 9.426 IOANNES BARBUCALLUS Where is Cypris, the keeper of the city, that she may see her who was once the seat of the Graces become the dwelling-place of spectres? The city is the tomb of dead men who had no funeral; under her ashes we, Beroe's many thousands, rest. Engrave on one stone above her, ye dear survivors: “ Berytus the lamented lies low on the ground.”
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§ 9.427 IOANNES BARBUCALLUS Stop not thy ship's course, mariner, because of me; lower not thy sails; thou seest the harbour dry. I am but one tomb. Let some other place that knows not mourning hear the beat of thine oars as thy ship approaches. This is Poseidon's pleasure and that of the Hospitable gods. Farewell seafarers, farewell wayfarers!
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§ 9.428 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA (Addressed to L. Calpurnius Piso ): Thessalonica, the mother of all Macedonia, sends me to thee, despoiler of Thrace. I sing thy conquest of the martial Bessi, collecting all that I learnt about the war. But be thou, like a god, attentive to me, and listen to my prayers. What occupation is there which can deny an ear to the Muses?
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§ 9.429 CRINAGORAS Akisto sung of Nauplius, the watchman of sea-beaten Euboea, and the song set me on fire, valiant as I am. The flame of that false beacon shown in the night from the rock of Caphereus caught my ill-fated heart.
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§ 9.430 CRINAGORAS This sheep is a native of Agarra, where the felt-capped Armenians drink the water of Araxes. Its fleece is not, like a sheep's, composed of soft wool, but thin-haired and rougher than a wild goat's. Every year it bears triplets, and the teats of its udders are always full of milk. Its bleating resembles most the lowing of a tender calf, for diverse lands bear all things different.
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§ 9.431 Anonymous on a Thief who found a Gold Sword I both love gold, and I shrink from hostile Ares.
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§ 9.432 THEOCRITUS Ah! poor Thyrsis, what use crying out thy two eyes? The kid is gone, the little dear; it is gone to Hades, for the cruel wolf caught it in his claws. The dogs bay, but what use is that now when it is gone, and neither bone nor dust of it left?
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§ 9.433 THEOCRITUS By the Muses, wilt thou play something sweet to me on the double flute? and I will lift up my harp and begin a tune, and the herd Daphnis shall stand close by and make music with the breath of the wax-joined pipe. Standing there hard by, inside the cave shaggy with hanging greenery, let us bereave Pan the goat -mounter of sleep.
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§ 9.434 THEOCRITUS Prefixed to a collection of Theocritus' works The Chian Theocritus is another, but I, the Theocritus who wrote these poems, am one of the many Syracusans, the son of Praxagoras and noble Philinna. I admitted no verse that is other than genuine.
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§ 9.435 THEOCRITUS This bank pays citizen and foreigner alike. Withdraw what you deposited, the reckoning counters meeting their liabilities. Let others find pretexts for not paying; Caicus pays money deposited with him on demand, even at night.
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§ 9.436 An Inscription from Syracuse The votive offerings to Apollo were old, but as for the base it is in one case twenty, in another seven, in another twelve, and in this last case two hundred years later; for so the figures work out when counted.
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§ 9.437 THEOCRITUS Goatherd, on turning the corner of that path where the oaks are, thou shalt find a newly carved image made of a fig-bough, three-forked, with the bark still on, without ears, but able with its generative phallus to do the work of Aphrodite. Round it is a most holy hedge, and a perennial stream issuing from the rocks feeds on all sides abundance of laurel, myrtle, and sweet-scented cypress, round which curl the tendrils of the vine, mother of the grape. In spring the shrill song of the blackbirds echoes here with its varied notes, and the brown nightingales pour from their throats their honeyed voice in response. Sit here and pray to kind Priapus to make me fall out of love with Daphnis, and sacrifice at once to him a fine kid. But if he grants the prayer I will offer him in return three sacrifices. I will kill him a heifer, a shaggy billy- goat, and the stalled lamb I have. May the god be benevolent and grant it.
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§ 9.438 PHILIPPUS When the burrowing ants, the army of the earth, nibbled at the rustic bee -keeper's sweet dainty, the old man in anger set the jar in a dish of water, thinking that, being creatures of the land, they would not get to it. But they, setting up fresh stalks of straw against it, quickly found their way, without anyone to steer them, to the vessel. So their dear belly induced even these tiny creatures to migrate from earth to water, the very newest variety of boatmen.
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§ 9.439 CRINAGORAS On a Skull: Once hairy crown, deserted shell of the eye, fabric of the tongueless mouth, feeble fence of the brain, relic of the unburied dead, set by the wayside to draw a tear from passers-by, thou liest there by the path near the tree-trunk, that looking on thee we may learn what profit there is in being thrifty of life.
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§ 9.440 MOSCHUS Fugitive Love Cypris cried loudly her lost son Love. “If anyone hath seen Love straying in the cross-roads, he is my fugitive child, and the informer shall be rewarded. The reward is a kiss from Cypris; and if you bring him, not a mere kiss, stranger, but something besides. The boy is easily recognisable; you could tell him among twenty. His complexion is not pale, but like to fire. His eyes are piercing and aflame. Evil is his heart, but sweet his speech, for what he has in his mind he speaks not. His voice is like honey, but if he grow wrath his spirit cannot be tamed. A cozener he is, never speaking the truth; a cunning child, and the games he plays are savage. Plenty of hair on his head, and he has a most forward face. His hands are tiny, but they shoot far; they shoot as far as Acheron and the King of Hades. Naked is his body, but his mind is wrapped up well. Like a winged bird he flies to one man and woman after another, and perches on their vitals. He has a very small bow, and on the bow an arrow; little is his arrow, but it flies even to heaven. He bears a golden quiver on his back, and in it are the bitter shafts with which he often wounds even me. All about him is savage, all, and worst of all his torch; it is but a little brand, and sets fire to the Sun himself. If you catch him, bring him bound and have no mercy on him. If you see him crying, mind he does not take you in; and if he smiles, drag him; and if he wants to kiss you, run away, for his kiss is evil and his lips are poison. And if he says'Take these, I give you all my weapons,' touch not the deceitful gifts, for they are all dipped in fire.”
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§ 9.441 PALLADAS OF ALEXANDRIA On a Statue of Heracles I marvelled seeing at the cross-roads Jove's brazen son, once constantly invoked, now cast aside, and in wrath I said: “Averter of woes, offspring of three nights, thou, who never didst suffer defeat, art today laid low.” But at night the god stood by my bed smiling, and said: “Even though I am a god I have learnt to serve the times.”
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§ 9.442 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS A fisherman was toiling to catch fish when a wealthy girl, seeing him, felt the pangs of love. She made him her husband, and he exchanged his poverty for a life boasting of every luxury. Fortune stood by smiling, and said to Cypris: “This is not your achievement, but mine.”
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§ 9.443 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS Open not the recesses of thy mind to Aphrodite, for light Love at once rebounds from a heart that is hardened. The nature of passion is insinuating; if one receives the tip of the flaming arrow, the whole of it penetrates. Flatter not thy mind with lascivious hope, for it attracts the spirit and fans the consuming fire.
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§ 9.444 ERATOSTHENES SCHOLASTICUS Fair are the treasures of virginity, but if it were observed by all it would put an end to life. Therefore live in lawful wedlock, and give a mortal to the world to replace thee; but avoid lechery.
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§ 9.445 JULIANUS OF EGYPT Golden Tetianus, the Emperor wished to send you again to the distressed cities which had need of you; but you preferred a peaceful life, keeping to your home and inheritance, and increasing the righteously acquired fortune of your house. For Justice, enthroned beside you, knows that you loathe to touch wealth won from those you rule.
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§ 9.446 JULIANUS OF EGYPT All the paths of life are pleasant. In the middle of the city there are fame and society; at home our griefs are hidden. The country has its delights, seavoyages give profit, and foreign countries acquaintanceships. Marriage produces domestic concord, while the unmarried life is ever free from care. A child is his father's defence, while the childless are quit of fear. It is the virtue of youth to give us courage, that of hoary hairs to give us wisdom. Therefore be of good heart, and live and produce offspring.
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§ 9.447 JULIANUS OF EGYPT A mother, banishing the memory of her pangs, killed her son who abandoned the field after the death of his comrades. For Sparta distinguishes purity of race by warriors' bravery, not by children's birth.
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§ 9.448 Anonymous Homer's Question: Fishermen from Arcadia, what have we? The Answer We left what we caught and carry what we did not catch.
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§ 9.449 Anonymous What Love would say if he were in love Who is this that overcame fire by fire, who quenched a torch with a torch? Who drew another bow against mine? A new Love by my might contends on equal terms with Love.
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§ 9.450 PHILEMON Spoken by Philemon about Euripides If the dead in truth had use of their senses, as some say, I would have hanged myself to see Euripides.
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§ 9.451 Anonymous What Philomela mould say to her Sister Procne: Thy wicked husband shut me up, ill-fated that I am, alone in a deep cave, and took my maidenhead. An abominable present he made me on this my calamitous marriage, cutting off my tongue and quenching Greek speech in me.
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§ 9.452 Anonymous on the same Thy sister Philomela, Procne, wishes thee well if this be well-wishing. Let the robe tell thee the suffering of my heart which savage Tereus inflicted on me. Shutting me up, luckless maid, in the shepherd's fold, he deprived me first of virginity and next of speech.
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§ 9.453 MELEAGER Zeus who dwellest in heaven, the ox itself, a suppliant at thy altar, lows, begging to be saved from death. Release the plougher, son of Cronos; for thou thyself, O king, didst become a bull to bear Europa across the sea.
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§ 9.454 Anonymous What Calliope would say to George This man, not Zeus, is my true father.
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§ 9.455 Anonymous What Apollo would say about Homer: The song is mine, but divine Homer wrote it down.
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§ 9.456 Anonymous Pasiphae to Love: If thou hast taught me to love a bull that roams over the mountains, teach me to low so that I may call my dear husband.
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§ 9.457 Anonymous What Achilles would say if Agamemnon were wounded: Thou knowest now, Agamemnon, my man-destroying wrath; thou knowest how great is Hector's strength in hand-to-hand combat. For all have now perished owing to thy insult fraught with disaster, and a greater woe, worse than death, has come upon thee. Thou sufferest the evil and intolerable sorrow due to thy folly, who wast the defence in battle of all the Greeks.
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§ 9.458 Anonymous What Ulysses would say on landing in Ithaca: Hail, Ithaca! After all my labours and the bitter woes of the sea, right glad am I to reach thy soil, in hope to see Laertes and my wife and glorious only son. Love of thee soothed my heart; I myself know that “nothing is sweeter than a man's country and his parents.”
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§ 9.459 Anonymous What Achilles would say on seeing Ulysses in Hades: Of a truth Odysseus is the most resourceful of men. Alive he looks on what it is not allowed to see, the infernal recesses and the bitter pains of the dead. How did he venture to leave the holy light? Did some necessity bring him here against his will? Odysseus never has his fill of cunning devices on earth, on the sea, and among the dead.
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§ 9.460 Anonymous What Achilles would have said when he saw the Armour lying before him: Mother, thou bringest to thy valiant son this armour, a glorious gift such as no man ever looked on. Now I know that Pallas arms my hand against Hector, and prepares disgrace and death for the Trojans.
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§ 9.461 Anonymous What Pyrrhus would say on entering Troy: The labour of my noble father was not completed, but I have come, preparing slaughter for all the Trojans; for I glory more exceedingly in my valour, and my might is capable of destroying in battle King Priam and all that Achilles left alive. The warlike city of Troy will I sack, and my spear shall complete the ten years' labour of the Greeks.
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§ 9.462 Anonymous What Deidamia would say when Pyrrhus had sacked Troy Thou hast made to cease all the heavy woe of my heart for the fate of thy father Achillea, whom mournful Troy slew. To the Greeks who were eager for it thou hast given the undying glory which the ten years of war could not accomplish for the whole host of the Danai.
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§ 9.463 Anonymous What Hector would say when he saw Achilles in the Armour: Athena in her wrath has again clothed the son of Peleus in immortal mail. Some worse woe shall befall the unhappy Trojans and Hector and his father, since the goddess gave this man this armour.
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§ 9.464 Anonymous What Paris would say when Menelaus was wounded: Out on you all, ye craven Argives! Menelaus is dead now and gives me greater glory.
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§ 9.465 Anonymous What Althaea, entreating Meleager, would say: My son, thou forgettest thy family and heedest not thy country's fate. Thou hast cast aside thy strong sword, putting Oeneus and Calydon and her people to shame.
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§ 9.466 Anonymous What Alcestis would say when Admetus yoked a Lion and Boar to his Chariot: Great deeds of valour crowned thy chariot, and with excellently composed wedding hymns men celebrate thy bride.
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§ 9.467 Anonymous What Peleus would say on hearing that Achilles absented himself from the battle: Ye peaks of Pelias, who nursed him, tell my son, whom Chiron taught to be first in battle, to cast oil his wrath and fatal enmity to the Greeks.
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§ 9.468 Anonymous What Hera would say when Heracles was deified: Thy father, Heracles, has well rewarded thy valiant toil, since labour can bring to men unsurpassable renown after an infinite round of labours.
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§ 9.469 Anonymous on the same Labour and immense toil procured thee the favour of occupying a blessed seat that no man reached before thee.
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§ 9.470 Anonymous What Achilles would say to reconcile Ajax with Ulysses: It is not permitted to nourish ill-will among the dead. Now thou hast escaped the sorrows of earth, love thy friend; for Odysseus did not sin against thee of his own will, but the strong hand of Athena killed thee, and Father Zeus, and Fate, and the Erinys that walks in darkness. Would that divine Thetis had east the armour into the salt depths of the sea, stilling the strife of thy heart.
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§ 9.471 Anonymous What Nestor would say on learning of Ulysses' return: The good man has escaped the merciless sea, and after toil has reached his fatherland, and he must be my better, as he has become well acquainted with cities and customs and the minds of men.
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§ 9.472 Anonymous on Ulysses It was after much toil that long-suffering Odysseus came home; yet Odysseus, the sacker of cities, surely has great fame on land and sea among men of future times.
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§ 9.473 Anonymous What Agamemnon would say when Achilles was armed: Beetling Ilion is fallen, and God has given it a prey to the Greeks now that Achilles has cast off his wrath and arms his murderous hands.
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§ 9.474 Anonymous What Idothea would say on seeing Helen in Pharos: I pity thy beauty, since thou art the child of Zeus. For I see a god-nourished form, and verily thou wast the cause of the ten years' war between Greeks and Trojans. Where is the help of aegis-bearing Zeus thy father? But go soon on thy way, making, by the kindness of Idothea, a safe voyage home over the back of the cruel sea.
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§ 9.475 Anonymous What Helen would say on seeing the Combat between Paris and Menelaus: Ye warlike kings of Europe and Asia, for both of you it stands upon a razor's edge, which of you longsuffering men shall take unhappy me to wife. Let Father Zeus decide, but without Aphrodite's help, lest another thief of wedded women steal me, a disgrace to Greece.
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§ 9.476 Anonymous What Hector would say when Patroclus could not lift the Spear of Achilles Thy weakness has defrauded Hector, for thou bringest me defective spoils.
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§ 9.477 Anonymous What Thetis would say when Telephus was tripped up by the vine: Vine, what shall I do when Daphnaean Apollo lays low my vine-branch by the arrow of Alexander?
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§ 9.478 Anonymous What Priam would say when Helen advised the Greeks how to take Troy: Splendid is the gift thou offerest thy country.
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§ 9.479 Anonymous What Perseus would say after slaying the Monster, when Andromeda refused him: The cruel fetters of the rock have turned thy heart to stone, and now let the eye of Medusa turn thy body, too, to stone.
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§ 9.480 Anonymous What Hippodamia would say after the death of Oenomaus if Pelops refused to marry her: Hippodamia. Thou turnest thy back on me now thou hast liberty to enjoy me. Pelops. Yea, for Love does not go hand in hand with such liberty. Love walks in another path.
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§ 9.481 JULIANUS SCHOLASTICUS (When he came too late to lecture) Both evening sleep and morning sleep overcame me, the latter having been too heavy and the former not having invited me. Let morning sleep begone and evening sleep come in kindly wise knowing the just number of hours.
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§ 9.482 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS We Mortals of no account, even if we perform great deeds, do not survive long in the memory of anyone; but as for the great, if they do nothing, if they only breathe, as the Libyan said, it is engraved in adamant. For instance Zeno, the lord and emperor of our city, while in the middle of a game played with the capricious dice, found himself in this complicated position: when of the white men who were on their way back, the sixth line contained seven, the ninth one, and the tenth and summus two each, while the line after the summus had two, and the last piece was on the divus. Black had two on the eighth line, and as many on the eleventh; on the twelfth were two, and one on the thirteenth. There were two on Antigonus and also on the fifteenth and eighteenth, and the fourth line from the last (the twentieth) also had two. It was the king's turn to play for White, and not seeing the trap in store for him, he cast the three dice from the wooden box with its hidden ladder, and threw two, six, and five, so that at once he had eight single pieces in all which had formerly been next others (?). Avoid backgammon, as the king himself did not escape from its blind chance.
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§ 9.483 Anonymous on a Child who was poisoned by Peach Kernels From the murderous Persians Perseus brought back a murderous fruit which caused the death of Theognostus' child.
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§ 9.484 PALLADAS Odysseus once, when sailing on the sea, received as a gift a bag of winds — a very valuable thing. But this my Aeolus of the windy heart sends me a fowl stuffed with wind. You send me winged winds, my friend, yes wind, and I can't eat compressed air.
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§ 9.485 HELIODORUS (From his Aethiopica, iii. 2) I sing Thetis, golden-haired Thetis, the immortal daughter of the sea-god Nereus, who by the counsel of Zeus wedded Peleus, the glory of the sea, our Aphrodite, her who bore from her womb the raging spearman, the Ares of war, the lightning of Greece, divine Achilles, whose glory reaches to heaven. By him Pyrrha bore Neoptolemus, the sacker of Troy and saviour of Greece. Be gracious unto us, blessed hero Neoptolemus, now lying in Delphian earth; receive favourably this sacrifice and ward off all fear from our city. Thetis I sing, golden-haired Thetis.
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§ 9.486 PALLADAS When my slave untied the paunch you sent me, after tying it up yourself, he found it to be a bellows full of air.
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§ 9.487 PALLADAS You served me the food of fig-fattened pigs from Cyprus, dry and thirst-provoking. But when you find me sufficiently fig-fattened, either kill me at once or quench my thirst with Cyprian wine.
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§ 9.488 TRYPHO Terpes, harping beautifully at the Carneian feast of tabernacles, died... among the Lacedaemonians, not wounded by a sword or a missile, but by a fig on the lips. Alas! Death is never at a loss for occasions.
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§ 9.489 PALLADAS A grammarian's daughter, having known a man, gave birth to a child which was masculine, feminine, and neuter.
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§ 9.490 HELIODORUS (From his Aethiopica, viii. 11) When wearing the stone Pantarbes (Fear-all), fear not the force of fire. The unexpected is easy for the Fates.
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§ 9.491 THEON A Monostichon on the Days of the Week Jove, Mars, Venus, Moon, Saturn, Sun, Mercury.
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§ 9.492 Anonymous on a Soldier's Arms Together lay shield and sword, arrows, cuirass, helmet, horse.
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§ 9.493 Anonymous, another Shield, bow and arrows, helmet, sword, strong spear.
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§ 9.494 Anonymous, another Arrow, bow, shield, helmet, spear, sword, cuirass.
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§ 9.495 Anonymous (Spoken by Agamemnon ) Dwellers in Greece, noble chieftains, place no trust any longer in perfidious women. A woman overcame me, whom my foe Hector slew not.
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§ 9.496 ATHENAEUS Hail! ye who are learned in the Stoic lore, ye whose holy pages contain the very best of doctrines, that virtue is the soul's only good. This is the only doctrine that saves the lives and cities of men. But indulgence of the flesh, an end dear to others, is only approved by one of all Mnemosyne's daughters.
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§ 9.497 CRATES Hunger puts an end to love, or if not hunger, time. But if neither of these put out the fire, the only cure left for you is to hang yourself.
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§ 9.498 Anonymous on a Persian Bury not the unburied; leave him to be the prey of dogs. Earth, the mother of all, will not receive the man who denies the bed of his mother.
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§ 9.499 Anonymous Grey Time goes along in silence, but as he creeps by he steals the voices of speaking men. Himself unseen, he makes the seen unseen and brings the unseen to light. O undetermined end of the life of men who day by day advance towards the dark!
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§ 9.500 Anonymous No longer call the living heirs, but call the dead heirs. The dead are now heirs, and gain a great inheritance, departure from this wretched life.
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§ 9.501 Anonymous on an Earthquake The dead used to leave the city alive behind them, but we living now carry the city to her grave.

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.