II. Cleobulus composed songs and obscure sayings in verse to the number of three thousand lines, and some say that it was he who composed the epigram on Midas. I am a brazen maiden lying here Upon the tomb of Midas. And as long As water flows, as trees are green with leaves As the sun shines and eke the silver moon, As long as rivers flow, and billows roar, So long will I upon this much wept tomb, Tell passers by, “Midas lies buried here.” And as an evidence of this epigram being by him they quote a song of Simonides, which runs thus:— What men possessed of sense Would ever praise the Lindian Cleobulus? Who could compare a statue made by man To everflowing streams, To blushing flowers of spring, To the sun’s rays, to beams o’ the golden morn, And to the ceaseless waves of mighty Ocean? All things are trifling when compared to God. While men beneath their hands can crush a stone; So that such sentiments can only come from fools. And the epigram cannot possibly be by Homer, for he lived many years, as it is said, before Midas. III. There is also the following enigma quoted in the Commentaries of Pamphila, as the work of Cleobulus:— There was one father and he had twelve daughters, Each of his daughters had twice thirty children. But most unlike in figure and complexion; For some were white, and others black to view, And though immortal they all taste of death. And the solution is, “the year.”