Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology Part 35

I would have liked to be rich as Croesus of old was rich, and to be king of great Asia; but when I look on Nicanor the coffin-maker, and know for what he is making these flute-cases of his, sprinkling my flour and wetting it with my jug of wine, I sell all Asia for ointments and garlands.

XV RETURNING SPRING PHILODEMUS

Now is rose-time and peas are in season, and the heads of early cabbage, O Sosylus, and the milky maena, and fresh-curdled cheese, and the soft-springing leaves of curled lettuces; and do we neither pace the foreland nor climb to the outlook, as always, O Sosylus, we did before? for Antagoras and Bacchius too frolicked yesterday, and now to-day we bear them forth for burial.

XVI A LIFE'S WANDERING AUTHOR UNKNOWN

Know ye the flowery fields of the Cappadocian nation? thence I was born of good parents: since I left them I have wandered to the sunset and the dawn; my name was Glaphyrus, and like my mind. I lived out my sixtieth year in perfect freedom; I know both the favour of Fortune and the bitterness of life.

XVII ECCE MYSTERIUM BIANOR

This man, inconsiderable, mean, yes, a slave, this man is loved, and is lord of another's soul.

XVIII THE SHADOW OF LIFE THEOGNIS

Fools and children are mankind to weep the dead, and not the flower of youth peris.h.i.+ng.

XIX THE SHADOW OF DEATH AUTHOR UNKNOWN

Those who have left the sweet light I bewail no longer, but those who live ever in expectation of death.

XX PARTA QUIES PALLADAS

Expectation of death is woful grief, and this is the gain of a mortal when he perishes; weep not then for him who departs from life, for after death there is no other accident.

XXI THE CLOSED ACCOUNT PHILETAS

I weep not for thee, O dearest of friends; for thou knewest many fair things; and again G.o.d dealt thee thy lot of ill.

XXII THE VOYAGE OF LIFE PALLADAS

Life is a dangerous voyage; for tempest-tossed in it we often strike rocks more pitiably than s.h.i.+pwrecked men; and having Chance as pilot of life, we sail doubtfully as on the sea, some on a fair voyage, and others contrariwise; yet all alike we put into the one anchorage under earth.

XXIII DAILY BIRTH PALLADAS

Day by day we are born as night retires, no more possessing aught of our former life, estranged from our course of yesterday, and beginning to-day the life that remains. Do not then call thyself, old man, abundant in years; for to-day thou hast no share in what is gone.

XXIV THE LIMIT OF VISION AUTHOR UNKNOWN

Now we flourish as before others did, and soon others will, whose children we shall never see.

XXV THE BREATH OF LIFE PALLADAS

Breathing thin air into our nostrils we live and look on the torch of the sun, all we who live what is called life; and are as organs, receiving our spirits from quickening airs. If one then chokes that little breath with his hand, he robs us of life, and brings us down to Hades. Thus being nothing we wax high in hardihood, feeding on air from a little breath.

XXVI TWO ETERNITIES LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM

Infinite, O man, was the foretime until thou camest to thy dawn, and what remains is infinite on through Hades: what share is left for life but the bigness of a pinp.r.i.c.k, and tinier than a pinp.r.i.c.k if such there be? Little is thy life and afflicted; for not even so it is sweet, but more loathed than hateful death.

XXVII THE LORD OF LANDS AMMIa.n.u.s

Though thou pa.s.s beyond thy landmarks even to the pillars of Heracles, the share of earth that is equal to all men awaits thee, and thou shalt lie even as Irus, having nothing more than thine obolus, mouldering into a land that at last is not thine.

XXVIII THE PRICE OF RICHES PALLADAS

Thou art rich, and what of it in the end? as thou departest, dost thou drag thy riches with thee, pulling them into the coffin? Thou gatherest riches at expense of time, and thou canst not heap up more exceeding measures of life.

XXIX THE DARKNESS OF DAWN AMMIa.n.u.s

Morning by morning pa.s.ses; then, while we heed not, suddenly the Dark One will be come, and, some by decaying, and some by parching, and some by swelling, will lead us all to the one pit.

x.x.x NIL EXPEDIT PALLADAS

Naked I came on earth, and naked I depart under earth, and why do I vainly labour, seeing the naked end?

x.x.xI THE WAY OF THE WORLD LUCIAN

Mortal is what belongs to mortals, and all things pa.s.s by us; and if not, yet we pa.s.s by them.

x.x.xII THE SUM OF KNOWLEDGE AUTHOR UNKNOWN

I was not, I came to be; I was, I am not: that is all; and who shall say more, will lie: I shall not be.

x.x.xIII NIHILISM GLYCON

All is laughter, and all is dust, and all is nothing; for out of unreason is all that is.

x.x.xIV NEPENTHE AUTHOR UNKNOWN