Greek Anthology Books 10-12

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§ 10.101 BIANOR Look, the heifer draws the instrument that cuts the earth, and is followed by the calf she is suckling! She dreads the husbandman at her heels, and waits for her little one, sagaciously careful of both. Thou who followest the plough up and down the field, who turnest up the soil, hold thy hand, nor drive her who bears the double burden of two labours.
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§ 10.102 BASSUS I would not have the fierce sea drive me in storm, nor do I welcome the dull windless calm that follows. The mean is best, and so likewise where men do their business, I welcome the sufficient measure. Love this, dear Lampis, and hate evil tempests; there are gentle Zephyrs in life too.
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§ 10.103 PHILODEMUS Neither look into nor pass by (the place where they sell scarce delicacies?). Now be off to the tripe-stall to spend a drachma. One fig too at times may cost a drachma, but if you wait, it will buy you a thousand. Time is the poor man's god.
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§ 10.104 CRATES THE PHILOSOPHER Hail! divine lady Simplicity, child of glorious Temperance, beloved by good men. All who practise righteousness venerate thy virtue.
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§ 10.105 SIMONIDES A certain Theodorus rejoices because I am dead. Another shall rejoice at his death. We are all owed to death.
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§ 10.106 Anonymous Many are the thyrsus-bearers but few the initiated.
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§ 10.107 EURIPIDES No man is fortunate unless God will it. Alas! how unequal is the lot of men. Some are prosperous and on others who reverence the gods fall cruel misfortunes.
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§ 10.108 Anonymous Zeus the king, give us good things whether we pray for them or not, and keep evil things away from us even if we pray for them.
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§ 10.109 Anonymous Every word is vain that is not completed by deed, and let every deed spring from reason.
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§ 10.110 AESCHYLUS A lion cub should not be reared in the city. First and foremost bring up no lion in the city, but if one be reared, submit to his ways.
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§ 10.111 Anonymous Envy slays itself by its own arrows.
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§ 10.112 Anonymous Wine and baths and venerean indulgence make the road to Hades more precipitous.
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§ 10.113 Anonymous I do not wish or pray to be wealthy, but I would live on a little, suffering no evil.
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§ 10.114 Anonymous Below in Hell are judgment and Tantalus. I do not disbelieve it, realising by my poverty the infernal torments.
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§ 10.115 Anonymous Live by reason, and thou shalt not be in want.
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§ 10.116 Anonymous “No married man but is tempest-tossed ” they all say and marry knowing it.
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§ 10.117 PHOCYLIDES I am a genuine friend, and I know a friend to be a friend, but I turn my back on all evil-doers. I flatter no one hypocritically, but those whom I honour I love from beginning to end.
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§ 10.118 Anonymous How was I born? Whence am I? Why came I here? To depart again? How can I learn aught, knowing nothing? I was nothing and was born; again I shall be as at first. Nothing and of no worth is the race of men. But serve me the merry fountain of Bacchus; for this is the antidote of ills.
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§ 10.119 Anonymous To feed many slaves and erect many houses is the readiest road to poverty.
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§ 10.120 Anonymous Every woman loves more than a man loves; but out of shame she hides the sting of love, although she be mad for it.
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§ 10.121 RARUS He who says openly that he hates us does not hurt us so much as the man who simulates pure friendship. For having previous knowledge of him who hates us, we avoid him, but we do not guard ourselves against him who says he loves us. Him I judge a grievous enemy, who, when we trust him as a friend, does us injury by stealth.
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§ 10.122 LUCILIUS Heaven can do many things even though they be unlikely; it exalteth the little and casteth down the great. Thy lofty looks and pride it shall make to cease, even though a river bring thee streams of gold. The wind hurts not the rush or the mallow, but the greatest oaks and planes it can lay low on the ground.
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§ 10.123 AESOP Life, how shall one escape thee without death; for thou hast a myriad ills and neither to fly from them nor to bear them is easy. Sweet are thy natural beauties, the earth, the sea, the stars, the orbs of the sun and moon. But all the rest is fear and pain, and if some good befall a man, an answering Nemesis succeeds it.
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§ 10.124 GLYCON All is laughter, all is dust, all is nothing, for all that is cometh from unreason.
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§ 10.124a Anonymous Children are a trouble; it is a great evil if anything happens to them, and even if they live they are no small trouble. A wife if she be good hath something in her that delights, but a bad one brings a man a bitter life.
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§ 10.125 Anonymous A friend is a very difficult thing to find, but many or nearly all are friends only in name.
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§ 10.126 Anonymous A useful servant is a good thing for him who makes use of him, but a man who is self-sufficient experiences less evil.
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§ 11.1 BOOK XI THE CONVIVIAL AND SATIRICAL EPIGRAMS NICARCHUS At the feast of Hermes, Aphrodisius, as he was carrying six choes of wine, stumbled and threw us into deep mourning. Wine was the death even of the Centaurs." “Would it had been ours; but now it is it we have lost.”
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§ 11.2 CALLICTER Theodorus, son of Aeschylus, why do the leaders fight with me? Won't you stop them? They all have stones.
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§ 11.3 Anonymous I would have liked to be as rich as Croesus once was, and to be king of great Asia. But when I look at Nicanor the coffin-maker and learn what these flute-cases he is making are meant for, I sprinkle my flour no matter where, and moistening it with my pint of wine I sell Asia for scent and garlands.
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§ 11.4 PARMENION A certain man, having married a woman who is complaisant to his neighbour only, snores and feeds. That was the way to get a living easily — not to go to sea, not to dig, but to snore off one's dinner with a comfortable stomach, fattened richly at the expense of another.
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§ 11.5 CALLICTER He who finds corn at home without buying it has a wife who is “a horn” of plenty.
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§ 11.6 CALLICTER A poor man's marriage is a dog -fight, at once the roar of battle, abuse, blows, damage, trouble and law-suits.
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§ 11.7 NICARCHUS No one, Charidemus, can constantly sleep with his own wife and take heart-felt pleasure in it. Our nature is so fond of titillation, such a luster after foreign flesh, that it persists in seeking intrigue with other women.
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§ 11.8 Anonymous Bestow not scent and crowns on stone columns, nor set the fire ablaze; the outlay is in vain. Give me gifts, if thou wilt, when I am alive, but by steeping ashes in wine thou wilt make mud, and the dead shall not drink thereof.
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§ 11.9 LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA Set not before me after supper, when I can no longer persuade my belly, udders and slices of pork. For neither to labourers after harvest is rain out of season useful, nor the Zephyr to mariners in port.
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§ 11.10 LUCILIUS You know the rule of my little banquets. To-day, Aulus, I invite you under new convivial laws. No lyric poet shall sit there and recite, and you yourself shall neither trouble us nor be troubled with literary discussions.
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§ 11.11 LUCILIUS I never knew, Epicrates, that you were a tragedian or a choral flute-player or any other sort of person whose business it is to have a chorus with them. But I invited you alone; you, however, came bringing with you from home a chorus of dancing slaves, to whom you hand all the dishes over your shoulder as a gift. If this is to be so, make the slaves sit down at table and we will come and stand at their feet to serve.
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§ 11.12 ALCAEUS OF MESSENE “Wine slew the Centaur ” too, Epicrates, not yourself alone and Callias in his lovely prime. Truly the one-eyed monster is the Charon of the wine-cup. Send him right quickly from Hades the same draught.
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§ 11.13 AMMIANUS Dawn after dawn goes by, and then, when we take no heed shall come the Dark One. Melting some of us, roasting some and puffing out others, he shall bring us all to the same pit.
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§ 11.14 AMMIANUS Invited to dinner yesterday, when it was time for my siesta, I rested my head on the Gorgon's pillow or Niobe's, a pillow which none wove, but someone sawed or hacked out of the quarry and brought to Proclus' house. If I had not woke up very soon and left it, Proclus would have made his pillow into a grave-stone or coffin for me.
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§ 11.15 AMMIANUS Lucius, if you have decided to bury only the senators whose names begin with Alpha, you have your brother (Ammianus) too. But if, as is reasonable to suppose, you proceed in alphabetical order, my name, I beg to state, is now Origenes.
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§ 11.16 AMMIANUS Cyllus and Leurus, two Thessalian spear-children, and Cyllus the more spear-childish of the two.
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§ 11.17 -NICARCHUS Stephanus was poor and a gardener, but now having got on well and become rich, he has suddenly turned into Philostephanus, adding four fine letters to the original Stephanus, and in due time he will be Hippocratippiades or, owing to his extravagance, Dionysiopeganodorus. But in all the market he is still Stephanus.
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§ 11.18 By the same Philaenis without conceiving bore a girl child to Heliodorus spontaneously, and when he was vexed at its being a girl she let six days pass and said she had borne a boy. So it is all over with Bubastis; for if every woman is brought to bed like Philaenis, who will pay any attention to the goddess?
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§ 11.19 STRATO Drink and love now, Damocrates, for we shall not drink for ever or be for ever with the lads. Let us bind our heads with garlands and scent ourselves before others bear flowers and scent to our tombs. Now may my bones inside me drink all the more wine, and when they are dead let Deucalion's flood cover them.
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§ 11.20 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA Away with you who sing of loccae (cloaks) or lophnides (torches) or camasenes (fish), race of thorn-gathering poets; and you who practising effeminately decorative verse drink only simple water from the holy fount. To-day we pour the wine in honour of the birthday of Archilochus and virile Homer. Our bowl receives no water-drinkers.
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§ 11.21 STRATO Agathon's lizard was rosy-fingered the other day; now it is already even rosy-armed.
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§ 11.22 STRATO There is a certain youth Draco, extremely fair; but being a serpent how does he take another snake in his hole?
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§ 11.23 ANTIPATER OF SIDON Men learned in the stars say I am short-lived. I am, Seleucus, but I care not. There is one road down to Hades for all, and if mine is quicker, I shall see Minos all the sooner. Let us drink, for this is very truth, that wine is a horse for the road, while foot-travellers take a by-path to Hades.
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§ 11.24 ANTIPATER OF SIDON On a cup-bearer named Helicon Boeotian Helicon once didst thou often shed from thy springs the water of sweet speech for Hesiod. But still for us does the boy who bears thy name pour out Italian wine from a fountain that causes less care. Rather would I drink one cup only from his hand than a thousand of Castalia from thine.
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§ 11.25 APOLLONIDES Thou art asleep, my friend, but the cup itself is calling to thee: “Awake, and entertain not thyself with this meditation on death.” Spare not, Diodorus, but slipping greedily into wine, drink it unmixed until thy knees give way. The time shall come when we shall not drink — a long, long time; but come, haste thee; the age of wisdom is beginning to tint our temples.
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§ 11.26 ARGENTARIUS I feel drunk with wine; but who shall save me from Bacchus who makes my limbs totter? How unjust a god have I encountered, since while I carry thee, Bacchus, by thee, in return, I am carried astray.
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§ 11.27 MACEDONIUS Rough, sweet-scented dust of Sorrento, hail, and hail, thou earth of Pollentia's most honied and Asta's soil thrice desired from which the triple band of Graces knead for Bacchus the clay that is akin to wine! Hail, common possession of wealth and poverty, to the poor a necessary vessel, to the rich a more superfluous instrument of luxury!
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§ 11.28 ARGENTARIUS Dead, five feet of earth shall be thine and thou shalt not look on the delights of life or on the rays of the sun. So take the cup of unmixed wine and drain it rejoicing, Cincius, with thy arm round thy lovely wife. But if thou deemest wisdom to be immortal, know that Cleanthes and Zeno went to deep Hades.
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§ 11.29 AUTOMEDON Send and summon her; you have everything ready. But if she comes, what will you do? Think over that, Automedon. For this rather parsnipy vegetable, alive and unbending before, all dead hides inside your thighs. They will laugh at you much if you venture to put to sea without any tackle, an oarsman who no longer has his oar.
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§ 11.30 PHILODEMUS I who used to do it five and nine times, O Aphrodite, now barely do it once from the first hour of night until daybreak. And alas, this thing (it has often been half-dead) is gradually dying outright. This is the calamity of Termerus that I suffer. Old age, old age, what shalt thou do later, if thou comest, since already I am thus languid?
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§ 11.31 ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA I dread not the setting of the Pleiads nor the waves of the sea that roar round the stubborn rock, nor the lightning of great heaven so much as I dread a wicked man and water-drinkers who remember all our words.
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§ 11.32 HONESTUS Bacchus, leading the rout of the Graces, instituted in thee, Sicyon, the sermons of the jolly Muse. Indeed, very sweet are his rebukes and in laughter is his sting. A man in his cups teaches wisdom to a clever man of the town.
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§ 11.33 PHILIPPUS Secretly advancing, O ivy, thy twisted creeping foot, thou throttlest me, the vine, sweet gift of Bacchus, mother of clusters. But thou dost not so much fetter me as thou dost destroy thine own honour; for who would set ivy on his brows without pouring out wine?
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§ 11.34 PHILODEMUS I wish no garlands of white violets again, no lyre-playing again, no Chian wine again, no Syrian myrrh again, no revelling again, no thirsty whore with me again. I hate these things that lead to madness. But bind my head with narcissus and let me taste the crooked flute, and anoint my limbs with saffron ointment, wet my gullet with wine of Mytilene and mate me with a virgin who will love her nest,
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§ 11.35 PHILODEMUS Artemidorus gave us a cabbage, Aristarchus caviare, Athenagoras little onions, Philodemus a small liver, and Apollophanes two pounds of pork, and there were three pounds still over from yesterday. Go and buy us an egg and garlands and sandals and scent, and I wish them to be here at four o'clock sharp.
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§ 11.36 PHILIPPUS When you were pretty, Archestratus, and the hearts of the young men were burnt for your wine-red cheeks, there was no talk of friendship with me, but sporting with others you spoilt your prime like a rose. Now, however, when you begin to blacken with horrid hair, you would force me to be your friend, offering me the straw after giving the harvest to others.
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§ 11.37 ANTIPATER OF SIDON It is already autumn, Epicles, and from the girdle of Bootes springs the bright flame of Arcturus. Already the vines bethink them of the pruning-hook and men build winter huts to shelter them. But you have no warm woollen cloak nor tunic indoors, and you will grow stiff, blaming the star.
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§ 11.38 KING POLEMO On a relief representing ajar, a loaf, a crown, and a skull This is the poor man's welcome armour against hunger — a jar and a loaf, here is a crown of dewy leaves, and this is the holy bone, outwork of a dead brain, the highest citadel of the soul. “Drink,” says the sculpture, “and eat, and surround thee with flowers, for like to this we suddenly become.”
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§ 11.39 MACEDONIUS OF THESSALONICA Yesterday a woman was drinking with me about whom an unpleasant story is current. Break the cups, slaves.
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§ 11.40 ANTISTIUS Cleodemus, Eumenes' boy, is still small, but tiny as he is, he dances with the boys in a little company of worshippers. Look! he has even girt on the skin of a dappled fawn and he shakes the ivy on his yellow hair. Make him big, Theban King, so that thy little servant may soon lead holy dances of young men.
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§ 11.41 PHILODEMUS Seven years added to thirty are gone already like so many pages torn out of my life; already, Xanthippe, my head is sprinkled with grey hairs, messengers of the age of wisdom. But still I care for the speaking music of the lyre and for revelling, and in my insatiate heart the fire is alive. But ye Muses, my mistresses, bring it to a close at once with the words “ Xanthippe is the end of my madness.”
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§ 11.42 CRINAGORAS Though thy life be always sedentary, and thou hast never sailed on the sea or traversed the high roads of the land, yet set thy foot on the Attic soil, that thou mayest see those long nights of Demeter's holy rites, whereby while thou art among the living thy mind shall be free from care, and when thou goest to join the greater number it shall be lighter.
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§ 11.43 ZONAS Give me the sweet beaker wrought of earth, earth from which I was born, and under which I shall lie when dead.
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§ 11.44 PHILODEMUS Tomorrow, dearest Piso, your friend, beloved by the Muses, who keeps our annual feast of the twentieth invites you to come after the ninth hour to his simple cottage. If you miss udders and draughts of Chian wine, you will see at least sincere friends and you will hear things far sweeter than the land of the Phaeacians. But if you ever cast your eyes on me, Piso, we shall celebrate the twentieth richly instead of simply.
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§ 11.45 HONESTUS Drink which we wish ourselves is ever the sweetest; what is forced on us does outrage to the wine as well as to the drinker. The drinker will spill the wine on the earth secretly, and, if he drink it, it will often take him under the earth to the bitter water of Lethe. Farewell, ye topers; as much as I like to drink is to me the sufficient measure of all enjoyment.
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§ 11.46 AUTOMEDON OF CYZICUS We are men in the evening when we drink together, but when day-break comes, we get up wild beasts preying on each other.
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§ 11.47 ANACREON I care not for the wealth of Gyges the King of Sardis, nor does'gold take me captive, and I praise not tyrants. I care to drench my beard with scent and crown my head with roses. I care for today; who knows tomorrow?
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§ 11.48 ANACREON Moulding the silver make me, Hephaestus, no suit of armour, but fashion as deep as thou canst a hollow cup, and work on it neither stars nor chariots nor hateful Orion, but blooming vines and laughing clusters with lovely Bacchus.
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§ 11.49 EVENUS The best measure of wine is neither much nor very little; for it is the cause of either grief or madness. It pleases the wine to be the fourth, mixed with three Nymphs. Then it is most suited for the bridal chamber too but if it breathe too fiercely, it puts the Loves to flight and plunges us in a sleep which is neighbour to death.
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§ 11.50 AUTOMEDON Blest is he first who owes naught to anyone, next he who never married, and thirdly he who is childless. But if a man be mad enough to marry, it is a blessing for him if he buries his wife at once after getting a handsome dowry. Knowing this, be wise, and leave Epicurus to enquire in vain where is the void and what are the atoms.
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§ 11.51 Anonymous Enjoy the season of thy prime; all things soon decline: one summer turns a kid into a shaggy he- goat.
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§ 11.52 Anonymous Caught, Thrasybulus, in the net of a boy's love, thou gaspest like a dolphin on the beach, longing for the waves, and not even Perseus' sickle is sharp enough to cut through the net that binds thee.
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§ 11.53 Anonymous The rose blooms for a little season, and when that goes by thou shalt find, if thou seekest, no rose, but a briar.
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§ 11.54 PALLADAS The women mock me for being old, bidding me look at the wreck of my years in the mirror. But I, as I approach the end of my life, care not whether I have white hair or black, and with sweet-scented ointments and crowns of lovely flowers and wine I make heavy care to cease.
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§ 11.55 PALLADAS Give me to drink, that wine may scatter my troubles, warming again my chilled heart.
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§ 11.56 Anonymous Drink and take thy delight; for none knows what is tomorrow or what is the future. Hasten not and toil not; be generous and give according to thy power, eat and let thy thoughts befit a mortal: there is no difference between living and not living. All life is such, a mere turn of the scale; all things are thine if thou art beforehand, but if thou diest, another's, and thou hast nothing.
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§ 11.57 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS Old Oenopion had loaded his belly with sweet-scented wine, but yet he did not lay aside the cup, still thirsty and blaming his own hand for not having ladled anything out of the crater. But the young men are snoring, and none has strength to reckon the number of the cups he goes on drinking. Drink, old man, and live. It was a vain saying of divine Homer's that grey hairs are hard pressed by youth.
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§ 11.58 MACEDONIUS THE CONSUL I wish not for gold, nor for the myriad cities of the world, nor for all that Homer said Thebes contained, but I would have the rounded bowl overflow with wine and my lips be bathed by a perpetual stream. I would have the gossiping company of those I revere drink with me while over-industrious folk labour at the vines. That for me is the great wealth ever dear to me, and when I hold the bowl I care naught for consuls resplendent with gold.
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§ 11.59 MACEDONIUS THE CONSUL We deep drinkers, champions of Bacchus the king, will initiate the exploits of our banquet, the war of cups, pouring out copiously the gift of the Icarian god. Let the rites of Triptolemus be the concern of others, there where the oxen are and the ploughs and the pole and the share and the corn-ears, relics of the rape of Persephone. But if we are ever forced to put any food in our mouths, the raisins of Bacchus suffice for wine-bibbers.
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§ 11.60 PAULUS SILENTIARIUS We wine-drinkers will pour a libation to Bacchus the awakener of laughter, with the cups we will expel man-killing care. Let toiling rustics supply their bread-tolerating bellies with the mother of black-robed Persephone, and we will leave to wild beasts and birds that feed on raw flesh the copious and bloody banquets of meat of slain bulls. Let us surrender the bones of fish that cut the skin to the lips of men to whom Hades is dearer than the sun. But for us let wine the bountiful be ever food and drink, and let others long for ambrosia.
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§ 11.61 MACEDONIUS THE CONSUL A physician, a foeman, stood by me yesterday when I was ill, forbidding me the nectar of the cups, and told me to drink water, an empty-headed fellow who had never learnt that Homer calls wine the strength of men.
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§ 11.62 PALLADAS Death is a debt due by all men and no mortal knows if he shall be alive to-mon-ow. Take this well to heart, O man, and make thee merry, since thou possessest wine that is oblivion of death. Take joy too in Aphrodite whilst thou leadest this fleeting life, and give up all else to the control of Fortune.
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§ 11.63 MACEDONIUS THE CONSUL Ye men who care for the rites of harmless Bacchus, cast away poverty by the hope the vine inspires. Let me have a punch-bowl for a cup, and instead of a cask a wine-vat at hand, the home of bright jollity. Then straight when I have drunk a bowl of my wine I will fight with the giants, the sons of Canastra, if thou wilt. I dread not the ruthless sea nor the thunderbolt, having the sure courage of fearless Bacchus.
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§ 11.64 AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS We treading the plenteous fruit of Bacchus were weaving in a band the rhythmic revellers' dance. Already a vast flood was running down, and the cups like boats were swimming on the sweet surges. Dipping therewith we soon had improvised a carouse in no great need of the hot Naiads. But pretty Rhodanthe stooping over the vat made the stream glorious with the radiance of her beauty. The alert spirits of all were shaken from their seat, nor was there one who was not conquered by Bacchus and the Paphian. Poor wretches, his stream flowed at our feet in abundance, but we were mocked by hope alone of her.
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§ 11.65 On Old Women (65-74) PARMENION It is difficult to choose between famine and an old woman. To hunger is terrible, but her bed is still more painful. Phillis when starving prayed to have an elderly wife, but when he slept with her he prayed for famine. Lo the inconstancy of a portionless son!
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§ 11.66 ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM Even if you smoothen the wrinkled skin of your many-trenched cheeks, and blacken with coal your lidless eyes, and dye your white hair black, and hang round your temples curly ringlets crisped by fire, this is useless and even ridiculous, and even if you go further...
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§ 11.67 MYRINUS The letter Ypsilon signifies four hundred, but your years are twice as much, my tender Lais, as old as a crow and Hecuba put together, grandmother of Sisyphus and sister of Deucalion. But dye your white hair and say “tata” to everyone.
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§ 11.68 LUCILIUS Some say, Nicylla, that you dye your hair, but you bought it as black as coal in the market.
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§ 11.69 LUCILIUS Themistonoe, three times a crow's age, when she dyes her grey hair becomes suddenly not young (nea) but Rhea.
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§ 11.70 LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA Philinus when he was young married an old woman, in his old age he married a girl of twelve, but he never knew Venus at the right season. Therefore sowing formerly in barren land he remained childless, and now has married a wife for others to enjoy and is deprived of both blessings.
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§ 11.71 NICARCHUS Niconoe was once in her prime, I admit that, but her prime was when Deucalion looked on the vast waters. Of those times we have no knowledge, but of her now we know that she should seek not a husband, but a tomb.
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§ 11.72 BASSUS OF SMYRNA Cytotaris with her grey temples, the garrulous old woman, who makes Nestor no longer the oldest of men, she who has looked on the light longer than a stag and has begun to reckon her second old age on her left hand, is alive and sharp-sighted and firm on her legs like a bride, so that I wonder if something has not befallen Death.
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§ 11.73 NICARCHUS A handsome old woman (why deny it?) you know she was, when she was young; but then she asked for money while now she is ready to pay her mount. You will find her an artist, and when she has had something to drink then all the more you will have her submissive to whatever you want. For she drinks, if you consent, three or four pints, and then things are all topsy-turvy with her; she clings, she scratches, she plays the pathic; and if one gives her anything, she accepts, if not, the pleasure is her payment.

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.