Theocritus, Bion and Moschus, Rendered into English ProseTheocritus
General
Theocritus, Bion and Moschus, Rendered into English Prose
Theocritus
Greek poetry -- Translations into English; Pastoral poetry, Greek -- Translations into English
FOR your delight, all ye Goddesses Nine, did Xenocles offer this statue
of marble, Xenocles that hath music in his soul, as none will deny. And
inasmuch as for his skill in this art he wins renown, he forgets not to
give their due to the Muses.
XI
_The Grave of Eusthenes_.
THIS is the memorial stone of Eusthenes, the sage; a physiognomist was
he, and skilled to read the very spirit in the eyes. Nobly have his
friends buried him—a stranger in a strange land—and most dear was he,
yea, to the makers of song. All his dues in death has the sage, and,
though he was no great one, ’tis plain he had friends to care for him.
XII
_The Offering of Demoteles_.
’TWAS Demoteles the choregus, O Dionysus, who dedicated this tripod, and
this statue of thee, the dearest of the blessed gods. No great fame he
won when he gave a chorus of boys, but with a chorus of men he bore off
the victory, for he knew what was fair and what was seemly.
XIII
_For a statue of Aphrodite_.
THIS is Cypris,—not she of the people; nay, venerate the goddess by her
name—the Heavenly Aphrodite. The statue is the offering of chaste
Chrysogone, even in the house of Amphicles, whose children and whose life
were hers! And always year by year went well with them, who began each
year with thy worship, Lady, for mortals who care for the Immortals have
themselves thereby the better fortune.
XIV
_The Grave of Euryrnedon_.
AN infant son didst thou leave behind, and in the flower of thine own age
didst die, Eurymedon, and win this tomb. For thee a throne is set among
men made perfect, but thy son the citizens will hold in honour,
remembering the excellence of his father.
XV
_The Grave of Eurymedon_.
WAYFARER, I shall know whether thou dost reverence the good, or whether
the coward is held by thee in the same esteem. ‘Hail to this tomb,’ thou
wilt say, for light it lies above the holy head of Eurymedon.
XVI
_For a statue of Anacreon_.
MARK well this statue, stranger, and say, when thou hast returned to thy
home, ‘In Teos I beheld the statue of Anacreon, who surely excelled all
the singers of times past.’ And if thou dost add that he delighted in
the young, thou wilt truly paint all the man.
XVII
_For a statue of Epicharmus_.
DORIAN is the strain, and Dorian the man we sing; he that first devised
Comedy, even Epicharmus. O Bacchus, here in bronze (as the man is now no
more) they have erected his statue, the colonists {165} that dwell in
Syracuse, to the honour of one that was their fellow-citizen. Yea, for a
gift he gave, wherefore we should be mindful thereof and pay him what
wage we may, for many maxims he spoke that were serviceable to the life
of all men. Great thanks be his.
XVIII
_The Grave of Cleita_.
THE little Medeus has raised this tomb by the wayside to the memory of
his Thracian nurse, and has added the inscription—
HERE LIES CLEITA.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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