Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology

Epigrams, Greek; Greek poetry -- Translations into English

Untouched, O young Satyr, does thy reed utter a sound, or why leaning
sideways dost thou put thine ear to the pipe? He laughs and is silent;
yet haply had he spoken a word, but was held in forgetfulness by
delight? for the wax did not hinder, but of his own will he welcomed
silence, with his whole mind turned intent on the pipe.


                                 XLIV
                        ON THE HEIFER OF MYRON
                            AUTHOR UNKNOWN

Ah thou wert not quick enough, Myron, in thy casting; but the bronze
grew solid before thou hadst cast in a soul.


                                 XLV
                         ON A SLEEPING SATYR
                                PLATO

This Satyr Diodorus engraved not, but laid to rest; your touch will
wake him; the silver is asleep.


                                 XLVI
                           THE LIMIT OF ART
                              PARRHASIUS

Even though incredible to the hearer, I say this; for I affirm that
the clear limits of this art have been found under my hand, and the
mark is fixed fast that cannot be exceeded. But nothing among mortals
is faultless.



                              CHAPTER V

                               RELIGION


                                  I
                        WORSHIP IN SPRING (1)
                              THEAETETUS

Now at her fruitful birth-tide the fair green field flowers out in
blowing roses; now on the boughs of the colonnaded cypresses the
cicala, mad with music, lulls the binder of sheaves; and the careful
mother-swallow, having fashioned houses under the eaves, gives
harbourage to her brood in the mud-plastered cells: and the sea
slumbers, with zephyr-wooing calm spread clear over the broad ship-
tracks, not breaking in squalls on the stern-posts, not vomiting foam
upon the beaches. O sailor, burn by the altars the glittering round of
a mullet or a cuttle-fish, or a vocal scarus, to Priapus, ruler of
ocean and giver of anchorage; and so go fearlessly on thy seafaring to
the bounds of the Ionian Sea.


                                  II
                        WORSHIP IN SPRING (2)
                               AGATHIAS

Ocean lies purple in calm; for no gale whitens the fretted waves with
its ruffling breath, and no longer is the sea shattered round the
rocks and sucked back again down towards the deep. West winds breathe,
and the swallow titters over the straw-glued chamber that she has
built. Be of good cheer, O skilled in seafaring, whether thou sail to
the Syrtis or the Sicilian shingle: only by the altars of Priapus of
the Anchorage burn a scarus or ruddy wrasse.


                                 III
                        ZEUS OF THE FAIR WIND
                            AUTHOR UNKNOWN

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

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Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology

Epigrams, Greek; Greek poetry -- Translations into English

Untouched, O young Satyr, does thy reed utter a sound, or why leaning
sideways dost thou put thine ear to the pipe? He laughs and is silent;
yet haply had he spoken a word, but was held in forgetfulness by
delight? for the wax did not hinder, but of his own will he welcomed
silence, with his whole mind turned intent on the pipe.


                                 XLIV
                        ON THE HEIFER OF MYRON
                            AUTHOR UNKNOWN

Ah thou wert not quick enough, Myron, in thy casting; but the bronze
grew solid before thou hadst cast in a soul.


                                 XLV
                         ON A SLEEPING SATYR
                                PLATO

This Satyr Diodorus engraved not, but laid to rest; your touch will
wake him; the silver is asleep.


                                 XLVI
                           THE LIMIT OF ART
                              PARRHASIUS

Even though incredible to the hearer, I say this; for I affirm that
the clear limits of this art have been found under my hand, and the
mark is fixed fast that cannot be exceeded. But nothing among mortals
is faultless.



                              CHAPTER V

                               RELIGION


                                  I
                        WORSHIP IN SPRING (1)
                              THEAETETUS

Now at her fruitful birth-tide the fair green field flowers out in
blowing roses; now on the boughs of the colonnaded cypresses the
cicala, mad with music, lulls the binder of sheaves; and the careful
mother-swallow, having fashioned houses under the eaves, gives
harbourage to her brood in the mud-plastered cells: and the sea
slumbers, with zephyr-wooing calm spread clear over the broad ship-
tracks, not breaking in squalls on the stern-posts, not vomiting foam
upon the beaches. O sailor, burn by the altars the glittering round of
a mullet or a cuttle-fish, or a vocal scarus, to Priapus, ruler of
ocean and giver of anchorage; and so go fearlessly on thy seafaring to
the bounds of the Ionian Sea.


                                  II
                        WORSHIP IN SPRING (2)
                               AGATHIAS

Ocean lies purple in calm; for no gale whitens the fretted waves with
its ruffling breath, and no longer is the sea shattered round the
rocks and sucked back again down towards the deep. West winds breathe,
and the swallow titters over the straw-glued chamber that she has
built. Be of good cheer, O skilled in seafaring, whether thou sail to
the Syrtis or the Sicilian shingle: only by the altars of Priapus of
the Anchorage burn a scarus or ruddy wrasse.


                                 III
                        ZEUS OF THE FAIR WIND
                            AUTHOR UNKNOWN

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology

Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology

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