Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology Part 15

LXXIII LOVE THE CONQUEROR MELEAGER

I am down: tread with thy foot on my neck, cruel divinity; I know thee, by the G.o.ds, heavy as thou art to bear: I know too thy fiery arrows: but hurling thy brands at my soul thou wilt no longer kindle it, for it is all ashes.

LXXIV LOVE'S PRISONER MELEAGER

Did I not cry aloud to thee, O soul, "Yes, by the Cyprian, thou wilt be caught, poor lover, if thou flutterest so often near the lime- twigs"? did I not cry aloud? and the snare has taken thee. Why dost thou gasp vainly in the toils? Love himself has bound thy wings and set thee on the fire, and sprinkled thee to swooning with perfumes, and given thee in thy thirst hot tears to drink.

LXXV FROST AND FIRE MELEAGER

Ah suffering soul, now thou burnest in the fire, and now thou revivest, and fetchest breath again: why weepest thou? when thou didst feed pitiless Love in thy bosom, knewest thou not that he was being fed for thy woe? knewest thou not? Know now his repayment, a fair foster-hire! take it, fire and cold snow together. Thou wouldst have it so; bear the pain; thou sufferest the wages of thy work, scorched with his burning honey.

LXXVI THE SCULPTOR OF SOULS MELEAGER

Within my heart Love himself has moulded Heliodora with her lovely voice, the soul of my soul.

LXXVII LOVE'S IMMORTALITY STRATO

Who may know if a loved one pa.s.ses the prime, while ever with him and never left alone? who may not satisfy to-day who satisfied yesterday?

and if he did satisfy, what should befall him not to satisfy to-morrow?

CHAPTER II

PRAYERS AND DEDICATIONS

I TO ZEUS OF SCHERIA JULIUS POLYAENUS

Though the terror of those who pray, and the thanks of those who have prayed, ever fill thine ears with myriad voice, O Zeus, who abidest in the holy plain of Scheria, yet hearken to us also, and bow down with a promise that lies not, that my exile now may have an end, and I may live in my native land at rest from labour of long journeys.

II TO THE G.o.d OF THE SEA CRINAGORAS

Holy Spirit of the great Shaker of Earth, be thou gracious to others also who ply across the Aegean brine; since even to me, chased by the Thracian hurricane, thou didst open out the calm haven of my desire.

III TO THE G.o.dS OF HARBOUR AND HEADLAND ANTIPHILUS

Harbour-G.o.d, do thou, O blessed one, send with a gentle breeze the outward-bound sail of Archelaus down smooth water even to the sea; and thou who hast the point of the sh.o.r.e in ward, keep the convoy that is bound for the Pythian shrine; and thenceforward, if all we singers are in Phoebus' care, I will sail cheerily on with a fair-flowing west wind.

IV TO POSEIDON OF AEGAE ALPHEUS

Thou who holdest sovereignty of swift-sailing s.h.i.+ps, steed-loving G.o.d, and the great overhanging cliff of Euboea, give to thy wors.h.i.+ppers a favourable voyage even to the City of Ares, who loosed moorings from Syria.

V TO THE LORD OF SEA AND LAND MACEDONIUS

This s.h.i.+p to thee, O king of sea and sovereign of land, I Crantas dedicate, this s.h.i.+p wet no longer, a feather tossed by the wandering winds, whereon many a time I deemed in my terror that I drove to death; now renouncing all, fear and hope, sea and storms, I have planted my foot securely upon earth.

VI TO THE G.o.dS OF SEA AND WEATHER PHILODEMUS

O Melicerta son of Ino, and thou, sea-green Leucothea, mistress of Ocean, deity that s.h.i.+eldest from harm, and choirs of the Nereds, and waves, and thou Poseidon, and Thracian Zephyrus, gentlest of the winds, carry me propitiously, sped through the broad wave, safe to the sweet sh.o.r.e of the Peiraeus.

VII TO POSEIDON, BY A FISHERMAN MACEDONIUS

Old Amyntichus tied his plummeted fis.h.i.+ng-net round his fish-spear, ceasing from his sea-toil, and spake towards Poseidon and the salt surge of the sea, letting a tear fall from his eyelids; Thou knowest, blessed one, I am weary; and in an evil old age clinging Poverty keeps her youth and wastes my limbs: give sustenance to a poor old man while he yet draws breath, but from the land as he desires, O ruler of both earth and sea.

VIII TO PALAEMON AND INO ANTIPATER OF SIDON

This shattered fragment of a sea-wandering scolopendra, lying on the sandy sh.o.r.e, twice four fathom long, all befouled with froth, much torn under the sea-washed rock, Hermonax chanced upon when he was hauling a draught of fishes out of the sea as he plied his fisher's craft; and having found it, he hung it up to the boy Palaemon and Ino, giving the sea-marvel to the sea-deities.

IX TO ARTEMIS OF THE FIs.h.i.+NG-NETS APOLLONIDES

A red mullet and a hake from the embers to thee, Artemis of the Haven, I Menis, the caster of nets, offer, and a br.i.m.m.i.n.g cup of wine mixed strong, and a broken crust of dry bread, a poor man's sacrifice; in recompence whereof give thou nets ever filled with prey; to thee, O blessed one, all meshes have been given.

X TO PRIAPUS OF THE Sh.o.r.e MAECIUS

Priapus of the seash.o.r.e, the trawlers lay before thee these gifts by the grace of thine aid from the promontory, having imprisoned a tunny shoal in their nets of spun hemp in the green sea-entrances: a beechen cup and a rude stool of heath and a gla.s.s cup holding wine, that thou mayest rest thy foot weary and cramped with dancing while thou chasest away the dry thirst.

XI TO APOLLO OF LEUCAS PHILIPPUS

Phoebus who holdest the sheer steep of Leucas, far seen of mariners and washed by the Ionian sea, receive of sailors this mess of hand- kneaded barley bread and a libation mingled in a little cup, and the gleam of a brief-s.h.i.+ning lamp that drinks with half-saturate mouth from a sparing oil-flask; in recompence whereof be gracious, and send on their sails a favourable wind to run with them to the harbours of Actium.

XII TO ARTEMIS OF THE WAYS ANTIPHILUS

Thou of the Ways, to thee Antiphilus dedicates this hat from his own head, a voucher of his wayfaring; for thou wast gracious to his prayers, wast favouring to his paths; and his thank-offering is small indeed but sacred. Let not any greedy traveller's hand s.n.a.t.c.h our gift; sacrilege is not safe even in little things.

XIII TO THE TWIN BRETHREN CALLIMACHUS

He who set me here, Euaenetus, says (for of myself I know not) that I am dedicated in recompence of his single-handed victory, I the c.o.c.k of bra.s.s, to the Twin Brethren; I believe the son of Phaedrus the Philoxenid.

XIV TO THE DELPHIAN APOLLO PAULUS SILENTIARIUS

Eunomus the Locrian hangs up this brazen gra.s.shopper to the Lycorean G.o.d, a memorial of the contest for the crown. The strife was of the Lyre, and Parthis stood up against me: but when the Locrian sh.e.l.l sounded under the plectrum, a lyre-string rang and snapped jarringly; but ere ever the tune halted in its fair harmonies, a delicate- trilling gra.s.shopper seated itself on the lyre and took up the note of the lost string, and turned the rustic sound that till then was vocal in the groves to the strain of our touch upon the lyre; and therefore, blessed son of Leto, he does honour to thy gra.s.shopper, seating the singer in bra.s.s upon his harp.