Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology Part 33

XXVII A RESTLESS GRAVE ARCHIAS

Not even in death shall I Theris, tossed s.h.i.+pwrecked upon land by the waves, forget the sleepless sh.o.r.es; for beneath the spray-beaten reefs, nigh the disastrous main, I found a grave at the hands of strangers, and for ever do I wretchedly hear roaring even among the dead the hated thunder of the sea.

XXVIII TELLURIS AMOR CRINAGORAS

O happy shepherd, would that even I had shepherded on the mountain along this white gra.s.sy hill, making the bleating folk move after the leader rams, rather than have dipped a s.h.i.+p's steering-rudders in the bitter brine: so I sank under the depths, and the east wind that swallowed me down cast me up again on this sh.o.r.e.

XXIX A GRAVE BY THE SEA ASCLEPIADES

Keep eight cubits away from me, O rough sea, and billow and roar with all thy might; but if thou pullest down the grave of Eumares, thou wilt find nothing of value, but only bones and dust.

x.x.x AN EMPTY TOMB CALLIMACHUS

Would that swift s.h.i.+ps had never been, for we should not have bewailed Sopolis son of Diocleides; but now somewhere in the sea he drifts dead, and instead of him we pa.s.s by a name on an empty tomb.

x.x.xI THE DAYS OF THE HALCYONS APOLLONIDES

And when shall thy swirling pa.s.sage be free from fear, say, O sea, if even in the days of the halcyons we must weep, of the halcyons for whom Ocean evermore stills his windless wave, that one might think dry land less trustworthy? but even when thou callest thyself a gentle nurse and harmless to women in labour, thou didst drown Aristomenes with his freight.

x.x.xII A WINTER VOYAGE AUTHOR UNKNOWN

Thee too, son of Cleanor, desire after thy native land destroyed, trusting to the wintry gust of the South; for the unsecured season entangled thee, and the wet waves washed away thy lovely youth.

x.x.xIII THE DEAD CHILD AUTHOR UNKNOWN

Not yet were thy tresses cut, nor had the monthly courses of the moon driven a three years' s.p.a.ce, O poor Cleodicus, when thy mother Nicasis, clasping thy coffin, wailed long over thy lamented grave, and thy father Pericleitus; but an unknown Acheron thou shalt flower out the youth that never, never returns.

x.x.xIV THE LITTLE SISTER LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM

This girl pa.s.sed to Hades untimely, in her seventh year, before her many playmates, poor thing, pining for her baby brother, who at twenty months old tasted of loveless Death. Alas, ill-fated Peristeris, how near at hand G.o.d has set the sorest griefs to men.

x.x.xV PERSEPHONE'S PLAYTHING AUTHOR UNKNOWN

Hades inexorable and inflexible, why hast thou thus reft infant Callaeschrus of life? Surely the child will be a plaything in the palace of Persephone, but at home he has left bitter sorrows.

x.x.xVI CHILDLESS AMONG WOMEN LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM

Ah wretched Anticles, and wretched I who have laid on the pyre in the flower of youth my only son, thee, child, who didst perish at eighteen years; and I weep, bewailing an orphaned old age: fain would I go to the shadowy house of Hades; neither is morn sweet to me, nor the beam of the swift sun. Ah wretched Anticles, struck down by fate, be thou healer of my sorrow, taking me with thee out of life.

x.x.xVII FATE'S PERSISTENCY PHILIPPUS

I Philaenion who gave birth but for the pyre, I the woeful mother, I who had seen the threefold grave of my children, anch.o.r.ed my trust on another's pangs; for I surely hoped that he at least would live, whom I had not borne. So I, who once had fair children, brought up an adopted son; but G.o.d would not let me have even a second mother's grace; for being called ours he perished, and now I am become a woe to the rest of mothers too.

x.x.xVIII ANTE DIEM BIANOR

Ever insatiate Charon, why hast thou wantonly taken young Attalus? was he not thine, even if he had died old?

x.x.xIX UNFORGOTTEN SIMONIDES

Protomachus said, as his father held him in his hands when he was breathing away his lovely youth, "O son of Timenor, thou wilt never forget thy dear son, nor cease to long for his valour and his wisdom."

XL THE BRIDECHAMBER ANTIPATER OF SIDON

Already the saffron-strewn bride-bed was spread within the golden wedding-chamber for the bride of Pitane, Cleinareta, and her guardians Demo and Nicippus hoped to light the torch-flame held at stretch of arm and lifted in both hands, when sickness s.n.a.t.c.hed her away yet a maiden, and drew her to the sea of Lethe; and her sorrowing companions knocked not on the bridal doors, but on their own smitten b.r.e.a.s.t.s in the clamour of death.

XLI BRIDEGROOM DEATH MELEAGER

Not marriage but Death for bridegroom did Clearista receive when she loosed the knot of her maidenhood: for but now at even the flutes sounded at the bride's portal, and the doors of the wedding-chamber were clashed; and at morn they cried the wail, and Hymenaeus put to silence changed into a voice of lamentation; and the same pine-brands flashed their torchlight before the bride-bed, and lit the dead on her downward way.

XLII THE YOUNG WIFE JULIa.n.u.s AEGYTPIUS

In season the bride-chamber held thee, out of season the grave took thee, O Anastasia, flower of the blithe Graces; for thee a father, for thee a husband pours bitter tears; for thee haply even the ferryman of the dead weeps; for not a whole year didst thou accomplish beside thine husband, but at sixteen years old, alas! the tomb holds thee.

XLIII SANCTISSIMA CONIUNX CRINAGORAS

Unhappy, by what first word, by what second shall I name thee?

unhappy! this word is true in every ill. Thou art gone, O gracious wife, who didst carry off the palm in bloom of beauty and in bearing of soul; Prote wert thou truly called, for all else comes second to those inimitable graces of thine.

XLIV SUNDERED HANDS DAMAGETUS

This last word, O famous city of Phocaea, Theano spoke as she went down into the unharvested night: "Woe's me unhappy; Apellichus, husband, what length, what length of sea dost thou cross on thine own s.h.i.+p! but nigh me stands my doom; would G.o.d I had but died with my hand clasped in thy dear hand."

XLV UNDIVIDED APOLLONIDES

Heliodorus went first, and Diogeneia the wife, not an hour's s.p.a.ce after, followed her dear husband; and both, even as they dwelt together, are buried under this slab, rejoicing in their common tomb even as in a bride-chamber.

XLVI FIRST LOVE MELEAGER

Tears I give to thee even below with earth between us, Heliodora, such relic of love as may pa.s.s to Hades, tears sorely wept; and on thy much-wailed tomb I pour the libation of my longing, the memorial of my affection. Piteously, piteously, I Meleager make lamentation for thee, my dear, even among the dead, an idle gift to Acheron. Woe's me, where is my cherished flower? Hades plucked her, plucked her and marred the freshly-blown blossom with his dust. But I beseech thee, Earth, that nurturest all, gently to clasp her, the all-lamented, O mother, to thy breast.