FRAGMENTS
OF GREEK COMIC POETS.
Universal Anthology - v04
"
Here in my hands I hold a wretched piece Of earthen goblet, broken all around,
Sad relic of a band of merry feasters ;
And often the fierce gale of wanton Bacchus Dashes such wrecks with insult on the shore.
Critias.
[The leader and the worst of the Thirty Tyrants, b. o. 404, and slain fighting for them against Thrasybulus the same year. He was a pupil of Socrates, friend and supporter of Alcibiades, and a democrat till banished by the people ; re turning, headed the oligarchic revolution with the vindictive rancor of a rene gade, put his colleague Theramenes to death for counseling caution, and threatened Socrates. He was a forcible speaker, and a dabbler in various kinds of literature. The opening lines of this poem are curious when compared with his final venture in public life. ]
Theoretic Evolution of Law and Religion.
Time was, when lawless was the life of men,
Like to wild beasts, in thrall to mere brute force, When to the good resulted no reward,
When to the wicked fell no chastisement. Thereafter, men I think established laws
To quell the unruly, so that justice might
Put down the tyrants, check the outrages,
And punish whoso broke the social rule.
Then, when the laws forbade the evil sort
To work their will by force and openly,
Yet still they did their mischief underhand, —
I fancy then some subtle sage conceived
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What mortals needed was to find out how
Fear might be laid on evil-doers, if aught
They do or speak or think in secret wise :
That then he introduced the Being Divine,
As spirit blooming in perpetual life,
Hearing and seeing and thinking with the mind, Forever keeping watch on those misdeeds,
And as a god, with power to see and hear Whate'er was done or said among mankind ; Even if in silence you frame evil wishes,
You shall not hide it from the gods, for thought Is the gods' essence.
Speaking in such words, He must have introduced grand moral teachings,
Concealing truth with mask of lying phrase ; Asserted that the gods dwelt here on earth,
To strike dismay to men and lead them on.
He noted too that fears came on them thence, Adding new hardships to their wretched life : The motions of the sky, that brought about
The lightning's glare, the fearful thunder crash, The starry host — resplendent broidery
Of Time, sage artificer ; thence beside
The dazzling meteor shot the heavenly way,
The laden storm-cloud moved along the land.
These all about them pierced their souls with fear ; Thereby his speech gained credit, when a place
He chose as fit to build the god a home,
And crushed the headstrong by the laws he made. Thus first, methinks, men must have been persuaded By some man to obey the spirit's law.
Moschioit.
[Flourished about b. c. 380. He is also ranked as a writer of the Middle Comedy, which shows the absurdity of the artificial classification of tragic and comic. But the remains belong to the serious Muse. ]
De Mortuis Nil Nisi Bonum.
'Tis vain to offer outrage to thin shades : God-fearers strike the living, not the dead.
What gain we by insulting mere dead men ? What profit were taunts cast at voiceless clay ? For when the sense that can discern things sweet And things offensive is corrupt and fled,
The body takes the rank of mere deaf stone.
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Quality Counts, not Quantity.
In far mountain vales
See how a single ax fells countless firs ; So a few men can curb a myriad lances.
AsTYDAMAS JuNIOB.
[Grandson of JEechylus' sister. Flourished middle of fourth century B. C. ] The Dramatic Craft.
A wise playwright should act like the man who gives a magnificent feast:
He should seek to delight the spectators, that each on departing may feel
He has eaten and drunk just the things he would chiefly have chosen himself :
Not set but one dish for all palates, one writing for all sorts of tastes.
Virtue will Always be Honored.
The people's praise is sure to fall, Their fullest honor to be shown,
To him who makes the right his all, Whose ways are loftiest : such a one
They will term noble. Search the land :
In every hundred, one like this
Can there be found ? The quest will miss,
E'en though ten thousand join the band.
Cakcinus Junior,
[Flourished about b. o. 380. ]
O Zeus, what need for one to waste one's words
In speaking ill of women ? for what worse
Is there to add, when one has called them women ?
Virtue is for the individual's care ; Fortune to ask for of the gods in prayer :
Whoever has the power to yoke the two, Rightly a good and happy name shall bear.
For most of human ills, the sovereign healing Is silence, which at least is prudent dealing.
[To a slave :]
Seeing you full of hate, I am rejoiced :
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK TRAGIC POETS.
Knowing that hatred works one piece of justice
On those it strikes, — the slave abhors his masters.
O wealth, though oft enough a luckless fate, Thou forcest men to fiercely emulate.
This is a thing that men should hold in dread — To vaunt one's self above the mighty dead.
Wine should not turn you ; for if you have been Admonished by your nature fixed within, Occasion ne'er will tempt you into sin.
Diogenes GSnomaus. [Began to exhibit b. c. 404. ] Music in Asiatic Worship.
And now I hear the turban-bearing women,
The votaries of Asian Cybele,
The wealthy Phrygians' daughters, loudly sounding, With drums, and rhombs, and brazen-clashing cymbals, Their hands in concert striking on each other,
Pour forth a wise and healing hymn to the gods. Likewise the Syrian and the Bactrian maids
Who dwell beside the Halys, loudly worship
The Tmolian goddess Artemis, who loves
The laurel shade of the thick leafy grove,
Striking the clear three-cornered pectis, and
Raising responsive airs upon the magadis,
While flutes in Persian manner neatly joined Accompany the chorus.
Dionysius.
[Tyrant of Syracuse b. o. 405-867. ]
Ie then you think no pain to your condition Will come, you have a happy disposition : Of gods' life, not of mortals', is your vision.
[Solon's saw versified :]
Let no man think another mortal blest Until he sees his life close undistrest : To praise the dead alone is safe and best.
As from a tranquil face looks out God's eye, And gazes o'er all things eternally.
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[This is the original, or at least the theme, of verse 45, canto 3, of "Childe Harold. " The repetitions and assonances closely follow the Greek. ]
Knowest thou naught of this fact of fate's — Those who are naught, not any one hates ? Ever the great is what rouses hate ;
All power tall grown is fated for hatred.
If humbly born, hate not the rich : Envy tunes some to slander's pitch.
Theodbctes.
[A great rhetorician of the school of Isocrates : lived about b. o. 875-835. ] Mirages.
Old age and marriage are twin happenings : We long to have them both befall ourselves, But when befallen, we deplore too late.
The One Immortal Thing.
All human things are born to die And reach their ending by-and-by, Save shamelessness, apparently Let the race wax howe'er it may, This waxes with it day by day.
Hope Deferred.
One can but oft
Be weary of the quest for fame and praise.
Our indolence, the present sweetness grasped,
Wails, with fond dreams what future time will bring.
The Mills of God.
[This is the exact theme of Walter Bagehot's " The Ignorance of Man. "]
Mortal, whoe'er thou art, who blamest God Because not swiftly but with long delay He strikes the wicked, listen to the cause : Were retribution visited forthwith,
Many through fear and not through piety Would worship God; but retribution now Being far off, each acts his nature out. But when detected, known as evil men, They pay the penalty in later times.
s
286 FRAGMENTS OF GREEK TRAGIC POETS.
The bridegroom when he brings his housemate home Not merely takes a wife, 'tis evident :
Along with that he takes a spirit in,
For blessing or malignance, as may be.
CH2EBEMON.
[Flourished probably about b. c. 380. ] A Garden of Girls.
There one reclined apart I saw, within the moon's pale light, With bosom through her parted robe appearing snowy white : Another danced, and floating free her garments in the breeze,
She seemed as buoyant as the waves that leap o'er summer seas ; While dusky shadows all around shrunk backward from the place, Chased by the beaming splendor shed like sunshine from her face. Beside this living picture stood a maiden passing fair,
With soft round arms exposed. A fourth, with free and graceful air, Like Dian when the bounding hart she tracks through morning dew, Bared through the opening of her robes her lovely limbs to view ; And oh ! the image of her charms, as clouds in heaven above, Mirrored by streams, left on my soul the stamp of hopeless love. And slumbering near them others lay, on beds of sweetest flowers, The dusky-petaled violet, the rose of Raphian bowers,
The inula and saffron flower, which on their garments cast
And veils, such hues as deck the sky when day is ebbing fast ; While far and near tall marjoram bedecked the fairy ground, Loading with sweets the vagrant winds that frolicked all around.
Cbates.
[Cynic philosopher: flourished about b. c. 328. ]
No single fortress, no one single house, Is fatherland to me ; but all throughout Each city and each dwelling in the land Will find me ready there to make a home.
Hunger will quell your love ; if not, then time ; If neither of these things will quench the flame, The one cure left's a rope to hang yourself.
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Sositheus.
[Flourished about b. c. 280. One of the so-called " Pleiad " — seven poets of the Alexandrian court, in the third century b. c, ranked as the chief Grecian tragic poets after tht great Five (^Eschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Ion, Achaeus), they were — Homer, Sositheus, Lycophron (see his "Cassandra" under sepa rate head), Alexander, Fhiliacus, Sosiphanes, Dionysiades. The first two were considered greatest. ]
The Myth of Lityerses.
This is Celaenae, fatherland, old city
Of aged Midas, who with asses' ears
And stupid human mind, here held his reign.
This is his bastard son, with spurious father,
But of what mother, she who bore him knows :
He eats in sooth three pack-ass loads of bread
Three times in one short day, and what he calls
A measure of wine is a ten-amphora jar ; [three barrels] But for his food supply he labors nimbly,
Mowing the swathes ; yet on a given day
He mingles Dionysus with his victual.
And when a stranger came or passed along,
He gave him to eat, — indeed, he fed him fat, —
And freely proffered drink, as wont in summer —
One hesitates to grudge those doomed to death.
Viewing the fields along Maeander's channels
Watered for herbage with abundant streams,
The man-tall corn he cuts with sharpened sickle ;
Then sheaf and stranger mingled into one
He leaves without a head, and laughs to think
How foolishly the reaper breakfasted. *******
A. Slain, he was pitched by the feet into Maeander, Just like a quoit ; and who the quoitsman was —
B. Who?
A. You shall hear. Who else but Hercules ?
Philiscus.
[See above. ]
0 fool, the idlers find it hard To earn the laborer's reward.
Among both men and gods, the right alone Forever deathless holds their judgments' throne.
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK COMIC POETS.
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK COMIC POETS.
(Translations by various hands; in part made for this work by Forrest Morgan. )
"OLD COMEDY. "
SuSARION.
[Father of Greek comedy; flourished about b. c. 570. ]
Hear, folk ! Susarion has this to say, Philinus' son, native of Megara :
Women are evils : just the same, my friends, Without those evils all home-building ends. To marry or not, alike to evil tends.
Chionides.
I have known many a youth of not your breed In rough night watch or sleeping on mat of reed.
Meseems, by Heaven, no difference from me hath A willow sprung amid the torrent's path.
Epioharmus.
[About b. c. 540-450. Born in Cos, but spent most of his life at the court of Hiero in Syracuse. A famous Pythagorean philosopher ; as a poet said to have lifted comedy from low buffoonery to art. ]
"A Man's a Man for a' That. "
Good gossip, if you love me, prate no more : What are your genealogies to me ?
Away to those who have more need of them ! Let the degenerate wretches, if they can,
Dig up dead honor from their fathers' tombs,
And boast it for their own — vain, empty boast ! When every common fellow that they meet,
If accident hath not cut off the scroll,
Can show a list of ancestry as long.
You call the Scythians barbarous, and despise them : Yet Anacharsis was a Scythian born ;
And every man of a like noble nature,
Though he were molded from an Ethiop's loins,
Is nobler than your pedigrees can make him.
[Fifth century b. c]
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK COMIC POETS. 289
Marriage.
Marriage is like to casting dice. If chance Bring you a virtuous and good-tempered wife, Your lot is happy. If you gain instead
A gadding, gossiping, and thriftless quean, No wife is yours, but everlasting plague
In woman's garb ; the habitable globe Holds not so dire a torment anywhere.
I feel it to my sorrow : better luck
Is that man's portion who has never tried.
It needs the strength of a lion to subdue the weakness of love.
Be sober in thought, be slow to belief : these are the sinews of wis
dom.
'Tis a wise man's part to judge rightly before the course is begun • So shall he not repent him after the action is done.
Waste not your anger on trifles ! let reason, not rage, be your guide.
Mankind owe more to labor than to talent : The gods set up their favors at a price, And industry alone can furnish it.
If you lack merit, you will not be envied ; But who would win exemption at the cost ?
PHRTNICHU8.
[Exhibited from b. o. 429 till after 405. ] The Men Proud of Insolent Wit.
The hardest task that our fortune sends To-day is to ward them off, in sooth ;
For they have a sting at their finger-ends — The malice of blooming and insolent youth.
They're forever at hand in the market-place,
And honey us all with their compliments blithe ;
Then they stand on the seats and scratch face after face, And deride us in concert at seeing us writhe.
'Tis sweet to do grilling
And not spend a shilling. VOL. IV. — 19
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Epitaph on Sophocles.
Blest Sophocles ! who, wonted age o'erpast, Died fortunate and skilful to the last. Many and fair the tragic scenes he drew ; His end as fair, and ills he never knew.
Magnes.
[Flourished about b. c. 430. See Parabasis to Aristophanes' "Knights," end of Vol. 8. ]
Have you not heard the hot loaves from the pan Hissing when honey you have poured thereon ?
Teleclides.
[See Crates for a companion picture. Several other poets of the period have left similar skits, but these two are sufficient]
The Golden Age.
[Zeus speaks. ]
I will tell you, then, what the life was that at first I made ready for
mortals.
To begin with, peace was for all, just like water for washing the
hands.
The earth bore no fear nor diseases, all the needfuls were there of
themselves :
For each mountain stream flowed with wine, and the loaves had a
strife with the biscuits
To enter the mouths of the people, and begged to be taken and
eaten
If any one loved utter whiteness; the fishes came into the houses, And broiling themselves, placed their bodies for viands upon the
tables ;
Beside every couch ran a river of soup with hot meat floating
through it ;
And streamlets of salads were there for all who might chance to
desire them,
So that the tender mouthful was lavishly watered to swallow. Cakelets thrown into dishlets were ready and sprinkled with sauce-
lets ;
And one could see thrushes with toastlets flying into men's gullets ; From the pancakes jostling each other at mouths came a cry as of
battle,
And boys along with their mothers played dice with the tidbits and
cutlets.
Men were all corpulent then, and a huge aggregation of giants.
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK COMIC POETS. 291
Cratinus.
[Flourished from about 480 to 423 b. c. The originator of political comedy. See, for a magnificent tribute to him, the Parabasis to Aristophanes' "Knights," end of Vol. 3. He won nine first prizes, one over Aristophanes himself after the latter had counted him out of the field, and when near death. ]
The Cyclops to Ulysses and his Company.
Fob all these services, my dear companions, When I have taken you and roasted you,
Boiled you, and broiled you on a charcoal fire, Salted you down and dipped you into pickle, — Warm vinegar and salt, or salt and garlic, — Him that seems cooked most perfectly of all I'll gnaw his bones myself, in soldier fashion.
The men who lived in times of yore, When Kronos was their king,
They gambled with the loaves of bread, And often used to fling
The ripe iEgina barley cakes
Down in the wrestling ring ; —
And they plumed themselves upon their lands When Kronos was the king.
Have you seen that Thasian pickle, how he does the big bow-wow ? How well and swiftly he pays back his grudges, here and now !
It's not " a blind man talking to a deaf one," you'll allow.
A. How can one break this man, how can one, pray, Break him from drink, from drinking much too much ?
B. I know : I'll smash his gallon jars for him, And burn his casks to ashes like the lightning, And all the other vessels for his liquor,
Till not a wine cup shall be his to own.
It takes more than the eating of one brook trout To make one an epicure out and out.
[Lampon was a soothsayer, whose gluttony and covetousness were constant butts of Aristophanes. ]
There's Lampon, whom never a law men could make
Would keep from his friends when a spread was at stake ; . . .
Now he's belching again ;
He eats all that's in sight — for a mullet he'd fight.
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Leda's Egg.
Leda, this is your work : now it is your duty Dignifiedly, like a hen, — there's no other wise, — To sit on and hatch us out perfect little beauty,
A bird so wonderful that one must praise to the skies.
[On the luxury of old times
By their ears stood the soft thyme, the lily, or the rose Sceptre-globe and staff held, market loungers those.
[On the Lacedaemonian feast called the Kopis compare Irving's " Knick erbocker," and the lump of sugar hung by string
Is true, as they say, that each stranger among The arrivals banqueted high at that feast
In the clubrooms are sausages skewered and hung For the elders to bite pieces off with their teeth
[On the youth
The land has trained and fed them free
At public cost to man's degree, That they may its defenders be.
[The woman speaks
Let us return to what we were discussing
Whether this man, who has another woman
In his heart, slandering me to her think His trouble part old age, and partly liquor For nothing comes before his drink to him.
Good Lord, don't know letters, they're no reliance of mine But I'll tell you the story with my tongue, for remember fine.
[On himself see Parabasis as above:]
Lord Apollo, what flood of words
The torrents roar twelve springs are in that mouth, Ilissus in that throat What shall tell you
For unless some one plugs that mouth of yours, Everything here will be o'erflowed with songs.
Time was that with only rag to your loin You cheerfully threw in your lot with mine, And drank the lees of the poorest wine.
Far from the lyre the asses sit.
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FRAGMENTS OF GREEK COMIC POETS. 293
Every spectator will take his chances to sleep, if he's wise, To be rid of the spell of stupidity cast by the poets' eyes.
Splendid things are waiting for you, you'll be glad to hit on ; Gracious beaming girls, that and maple stools to sit on.
The Cottabus.
It death to drink wine that water's come near
But she mixed half and half of two lots that were sheer,
And drank six quarts from curving cup, Then named the Corinthian pet she held dear,
And threw the last drops for what fate would show up.
Crates.
[Flourished about b. c. 440. For his literary character, see Parabasis to the "Knights," as above. ]
Old Age.
These shriveled sinews and this bending frame
The workmanship of Time's strong hand proclaim Skilled to reverse whate'er the gods create,
And make that crooked which they fashion straight. Hard choice for man — to die, or else to be
That tottering, wretched, wrinkled thing you see, Yet age we all prefer for age we pray,
And travel on to life's last lingering day
Then sinking slowly down from worse to worse, Find Heaven's extorted boon our greatest curse. . You've cursed to me as mighty ill,
Yet borne not, death the price — greater still We covet, yet reject when arrived —
So thanklessly our nature contrived.
The blossoming of bosoms that are maiden's dower
Is like
rosy apple or arbutus in flower.
Megabyzus feeds the hind Shivering at his door He will get dole of food
For wages — nothing more.
The Golden Age.
[See also Teleclides. ]
A. Then none shall own slave of either sex. B. But shall an old man have to serve himself
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294 FRAGMENTS OF GREEK COMIC POETS.
A. Oh no : I will make all these things come straight.
B. And how will it better them ?
A.
Why, all utensils
Will come of their own accord when called. " Here, table,
Come up and set yourself ! You bread-trough, knead ! — Pitcher, pour wine ! Where's the cup ? wash yourself ! — The dinner-pot had best give forth some beets ! —
March, fish ! " — " But I'm not cooked on the other side. " — " Turn over, then, and salt yourself, you fool ! "
B. Well, listen, tit for tat : contrariwise
I'll bring the hot baths to my friends' abodes,
On columns such as through the hospital
By the seaside, so that they shall flow to each
Into his bath : he speaks, the water stops.
And then an alabaster box of unguent
Shall come of its own accord, and sponge, and slippers.
Swarms and swarms of lovers come here,
We've so many young pigs and lambs for their cheer.
Python.
[Of Catana. Flourished in the time of Alexander the Great. For HarpalnB ("Pallides"), the subject of these sarcastic lines, see note under Dinarchus,
in the selections from the Ten Attic Orators. The courtesan referred to was his mistress Pythionica. ]
Where grew this reed, a lofty crag aspires, Beyond the reach of birds ; and on its left A harlot's famous temple, which Pallides Building, condemned himself to exile for. Then some of the Barbarians' magi, noting His sorry plight, persuaded him their spells Could raise the soul of Pythionica.
****** A. But I would learn from you,
Since far from there I dwell — the Attic land What fortunes hap, and how its people fare.
B. When they declared they led the life of slaves, They had food in plenty ; now they solely eat
Fennel and pulse, and very little corn.
A. And yet I hear that Harpalus has sent them Thousands of bushels of wheat, not less than Agen, And has been made a freeman of the city.
B. That was Glycera's wheat; and just the same A pledge of ruin, not of comradeship.
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MOSCHION. [Contemporary with Chaeremon. ] Origin of Civilization.
First I come forward, and will put in words
The start and ordering of mortals' life.
When that time was, that like the savage beasts
Men had the mountain caves for their abode,
Dwelt in the sunless chasms of the rocks ;
When the thatched roof was not, nor cities wide Fended by towers of stone ; nor the curved plow
Had cleft the dark earth clod, the corn-fruit's mother, Nor the great workman iron had helped to till
The gardens flowing with Iacchus' wine,
But mute and barren was the virgin earth ;
And for all food, flesh-eaters slew each others
And furnished forth their feasts ; and law was helpless, And Force held joint dominion with the gods,
The weak being food for the stronger. But when Time, Progenitor and nourisher of all,
Brought changes to this pristine life of men,
Either instructed by Prometheus' care,
Or sheer necessity or experience hard —
Making their inner being's self a teacher,
They found a way to cultivate the food
Of chaste Demeter ; found the luscious fount
Of Bacchus ; and the earth, before untilled,
Now felt the plow as oxen bore the yoke.
And cities towered and houses covered round
They built ; and changed their old existence wild
For that of civilized amenities.
Henceforward, too, the law enjoined that dying,
One's dust be covered by a lot-drawn tomb ;
No longer lie unburied in men's sight,
Impious remembrancer of former feasts.
Patrocles.
[Date uncertain ; somewhere in this period. ]
See now the many formidable words
Fate gathers in this little instrument ! [the tongue]. Why do we mortals swell with idle threats,
And heap up tools of vengeance with our hands, Yet look not forward to our near-by doom,
To see and know our own unhappy lot?
—
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK COMIC POETS.
Apollonides.
[Uncertain, but in this period. ]
Ah, ladies, in our human race
Not gold, or ease, or royal place, Afford such sweetness ever new
As to good men and women true Just judgment and right feeling do.
Ecdorus.
[As above. ] Body Like Soul.
Where'er you find a form that's foul of face, You'll always find it with befitting ways ; For nature out of evil evil breeds,
As serpent unto serpent still succeeds.
Sosiphaites.
[See above. ]
0 mortals most ill-fated, little blest,
Why do you magnify your offices,
Which one day gave, and one may take away ? If, being naught, you gain success, you straight Liken yourselves to Heaven, nor bear in mind Nor see the ruling Hades not far off.
Hermippus. [Flourished just before Aristophanes. ]
As to mischievous habits, if you ask my vote,
I say there are two common kinds of self -slaughter : One, constantly pouring strong wine down your throat,
'Tother, plunging in up to your throat in hot water.
[On a gluttonous rival :]
If there were such a race of men we had to fight to-day,
And they were captained by a big broiled fish or fatted hog, The rest should stay at home and send Nothippus to the fray
H6'd single-handed eat the whole Morea for his prog.
Do you know what to do for me ? Your little cup I scorn, But give me just one swig from out that jolly drinking-horn.
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK COMIC POETS.
Hail, transmarine army ! " What then are we doing ? Our bodies are soft to appearance, but then,
The vigor of youth in our muscles is brewing :
Have you heard that Abydans have turned into men ?
War.
Now with shaggy cloaks we're done : Each one puts his breastplate on, Binds the greaves upon his thighs 5 Sandals white we all despise.
One may see the cottabus staff Rolled neglected in the chaff ; No last drops the Manes hears, And the wretched scale appears Lying on the rubbish pile
Just beside the garden stile.
Eupolis.
297
"
[Born B. C. 449 ; drowned at the battle of Cynossema, 410 ; also said, but probably without truth, to have been assassinated at the instance of Alcibiades for a lampoon in one of his plays. He collaborated with Aristophanes in the
"Knights," and is said to have written part of the closing chorus. lieved to have been second only to Aristophanes in genius. ]
The Parasite.
Mark now, and learn of me the thriving arts By which we parasites contrive to live :
Fine rogues we are, my friend, of that be sure, And daintily we gull mankind. — Observe! First I provide myself a nimble thing
He is be
To be my page, a varlet of all crafts ;
Next two new suits for feasts and gala days, Which I promote by turns, when I walk forth
To sun myself upon the public square ;
There if perchance I spy some rich, dull knave, Straight I accost him, do him reverence,
And sauntering up and down, with idle chat
Hold him awhile in play : at every word
Which his wise worship utters, I stop short
And bless myself for wonder ; if he ventures
On some vile joke, I blow it to the skies,
And hold my sides for laughter. — Then to supper With others of our brotherhood, to mess
In some night cellar on our barley cakes,
And club inventions for the next day's shift.
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Yes, music is a science deep, involved,
And ever something new will be found in it By those who have the genius of discovery.
Those whom you'd once have not made wine inspectors Now you make generals. O city, city !
How much more lucky than rational you are !
A. Let Alcibiades keep away from the women.
B. You're talking nonsense : why don't you go home And train your own wife to her duty first ?
Pherecrates.
[Flourished b. c. 438-420. ] On Old Age.
Age is the heaviest burden man can bear, Compound of disappointment, pain, and care : For when the mind's experience comes at length, It comes to mourn the body's loss of strength ; Resigned to ignorance all our better days, Knowledge just ripens when the man decays ; One ray of light the closing eye receives,
And wisdom only takes what folly leaves.
The Musical Inventors of the Day.
[Music comes in, dressed in woman's garb, bruised and torn, and Justice in quires the reason. ]
Music — I speak not loath, for 'tis your part
To hear, and speaking glads my heart From Melanippides arose
My sorrows : he was first of those Who seizing me relaxed my wings, Giving a dozen slacker strings
For the old eleven ; yet, be sure,
He was a man I could endure
Compared with these, the last and worst. For one Cinesias, an accurst
Athenian, making discords vile
By sudden turns for novel style
In strophic endings, so destroyed me That in the verse where he employed me, His dithyrambs, like shields in fight You'd think the left side was the right. But even this you could not call
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK COMIC POETS.
Rough in comparison at all :
Phrynis came next, and, having thrown
A certain whirlwind of his own
To the front, with twists and turns of tone Ruined me quite, while on five strings
A dozen harmonies he rings.
Yet even he could be endured,
For his wrong-doing could be cured,
But, dearest, Timotheus, you see,
— Buried and foully murdered me.
Justice— Timotheus who ? Music
— Milesian.
A red-head low
Justice Music —
Has he harmed you so ? All that I tell you : I'm undone
By tortuous melodies that run
Along the strings like swarms of ants.
And if by any evil chance
Walking alone he ever meets me,
With the twelve strings he ties and beats me.
The Real "Old Times. "
Nobody then had male or female servants, —
No help at all, — and each had for himself
To execute all labors in the house :
Mornings with their own hands they ground the corn, The hamlet echoed as they thumped the mills.
Settling a Bore.
If a conceited donkey start to bray,
I'd answer him — " Don't have so much to say ! Be pleased to turn your mind and ears this way. "
The Feminine Toper.
A. I'm just out of the hot-bath, quite cooked through ; My throat's as dry —
B. I'll bring you something to drink. A. Dear me, my mouth is sticky with saliva.
B. How large a cup will satisfy you ?
A. Well,
Don't make it small : it always stirs my bile When I've drunk medicine from such a one ;
So have mine poured into a good-sized cup. . . .
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK COMIC POETS.
A.
B. Isn't it watered ?
300
[The same topic elsewhere. ]
Then by the potters for the men were made
Broad cups that had no sides, but only bottoms,
Not holding a mussel-shellful — just like tasters ;
But for themselves [women] deep cups like merchant vessels Wine-ships, round, grasped by the middle, belly- shaped ; — Not thoughtlessly, but with long-sighted craft
How they could guzzle wine and give no reasons.
Then, when we charge that they've drunk up the wine,
They tongue us, swearing they have " drunk but one " ;
But that one's bigger than a thousand cups.
Here in my hands I hold a wretched piece Of earthen goblet, broken all around,
Sad relic of a band of merry feasters ;
And often the fierce gale of wanton Bacchus Dashes such wrecks with insult on the shore.
Critias.
[The leader and the worst of the Thirty Tyrants, b. o. 404, and slain fighting for them against Thrasybulus the same year. He was a pupil of Socrates, friend and supporter of Alcibiades, and a democrat till banished by the people ; re turning, headed the oligarchic revolution with the vindictive rancor of a rene gade, put his colleague Theramenes to death for counseling caution, and threatened Socrates. He was a forcible speaker, and a dabbler in various kinds of literature. The opening lines of this poem are curious when compared with his final venture in public life. ]
Theoretic Evolution of Law and Religion.
Time was, when lawless was the life of men,
Like to wild beasts, in thrall to mere brute force, When to the good resulted no reward,
When to the wicked fell no chastisement. Thereafter, men I think established laws
To quell the unruly, so that justice might
Put down the tyrants, check the outrages,
And punish whoso broke the social rule.
Then, when the laws forbade the evil sort
To work their will by force and openly,
Yet still they did their mischief underhand, —
I fancy then some subtle sage conceived
282
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What mortals needed was to find out how
Fear might be laid on evil-doers, if aught
They do or speak or think in secret wise :
That then he introduced the Being Divine,
As spirit blooming in perpetual life,
Hearing and seeing and thinking with the mind, Forever keeping watch on those misdeeds,
And as a god, with power to see and hear Whate'er was done or said among mankind ; Even if in silence you frame evil wishes,
You shall not hide it from the gods, for thought Is the gods' essence.
Speaking in such words, He must have introduced grand moral teachings,
Concealing truth with mask of lying phrase ; Asserted that the gods dwelt here on earth,
To strike dismay to men and lead them on.
He noted too that fears came on them thence, Adding new hardships to their wretched life : The motions of the sky, that brought about
The lightning's glare, the fearful thunder crash, The starry host — resplendent broidery
Of Time, sage artificer ; thence beside
The dazzling meteor shot the heavenly way,
The laden storm-cloud moved along the land.
These all about them pierced their souls with fear ; Thereby his speech gained credit, when a place
He chose as fit to build the god a home,
And crushed the headstrong by the laws he made. Thus first, methinks, men must have been persuaded By some man to obey the spirit's law.
Moschioit.
[Flourished about b. c. 380. He is also ranked as a writer of the Middle Comedy, which shows the absurdity of the artificial classification of tragic and comic. But the remains belong to the serious Muse. ]
De Mortuis Nil Nisi Bonum.
'Tis vain to offer outrage to thin shades : God-fearers strike the living, not the dead.
What gain we by insulting mere dead men ? What profit were taunts cast at voiceless clay ? For when the sense that can discern things sweet And things offensive is corrupt and fled,
The body takes the rank of mere deaf stone.
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK TRAGIC POETS. 283
Quality Counts, not Quantity.
In far mountain vales
See how a single ax fells countless firs ; So a few men can curb a myriad lances.
AsTYDAMAS JuNIOB.
[Grandson of JEechylus' sister. Flourished middle of fourth century B. C. ] The Dramatic Craft.
A wise playwright should act like the man who gives a magnificent feast:
He should seek to delight the spectators, that each on departing may feel
He has eaten and drunk just the things he would chiefly have chosen himself :
Not set but one dish for all palates, one writing for all sorts of tastes.
Virtue will Always be Honored.
The people's praise is sure to fall, Their fullest honor to be shown,
To him who makes the right his all, Whose ways are loftiest : such a one
They will term noble. Search the land :
In every hundred, one like this
Can there be found ? The quest will miss,
E'en though ten thousand join the band.
Cakcinus Junior,
[Flourished about b. o. 380. ]
O Zeus, what need for one to waste one's words
In speaking ill of women ? for what worse
Is there to add, when one has called them women ?
Virtue is for the individual's care ; Fortune to ask for of the gods in prayer :
Whoever has the power to yoke the two, Rightly a good and happy name shall bear.
For most of human ills, the sovereign healing Is silence, which at least is prudent dealing.
[To a slave :]
Seeing you full of hate, I am rejoiced :
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK TRAGIC POETS.
Knowing that hatred works one piece of justice
On those it strikes, — the slave abhors his masters.
O wealth, though oft enough a luckless fate, Thou forcest men to fiercely emulate.
This is a thing that men should hold in dread — To vaunt one's self above the mighty dead.
Wine should not turn you ; for if you have been Admonished by your nature fixed within, Occasion ne'er will tempt you into sin.
Diogenes GSnomaus. [Began to exhibit b. c. 404. ] Music in Asiatic Worship.
And now I hear the turban-bearing women,
The votaries of Asian Cybele,
The wealthy Phrygians' daughters, loudly sounding, With drums, and rhombs, and brazen-clashing cymbals, Their hands in concert striking on each other,
Pour forth a wise and healing hymn to the gods. Likewise the Syrian and the Bactrian maids
Who dwell beside the Halys, loudly worship
The Tmolian goddess Artemis, who loves
The laurel shade of the thick leafy grove,
Striking the clear three-cornered pectis, and
Raising responsive airs upon the magadis,
While flutes in Persian manner neatly joined Accompany the chorus.
Dionysius.
[Tyrant of Syracuse b. o. 405-867. ]
Ie then you think no pain to your condition Will come, you have a happy disposition : Of gods' life, not of mortals', is your vision.
[Solon's saw versified :]
Let no man think another mortal blest Until he sees his life close undistrest : To praise the dead alone is safe and best.
As from a tranquil face looks out God's eye, And gazes o'er all things eternally.
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK TRAGIC POETS. 285
[This is the original, or at least the theme, of verse 45, canto 3, of "Childe Harold. " The repetitions and assonances closely follow the Greek. ]
Knowest thou naught of this fact of fate's — Those who are naught, not any one hates ? Ever the great is what rouses hate ;
All power tall grown is fated for hatred.
If humbly born, hate not the rich : Envy tunes some to slander's pitch.
Theodbctes.
[A great rhetorician of the school of Isocrates : lived about b. o. 875-835. ] Mirages.
Old age and marriage are twin happenings : We long to have them both befall ourselves, But when befallen, we deplore too late.
The One Immortal Thing.
All human things are born to die And reach their ending by-and-by, Save shamelessness, apparently Let the race wax howe'er it may, This waxes with it day by day.
Hope Deferred.
One can but oft
Be weary of the quest for fame and praise.
Our indolence, the present sweetness grasped,
Wails, with fond dreams what future time will bring.
The Mills of God.
[This is the exact theme of Walter Bagehot's " The Ignorance of Man. "]
Mortal, whoe'er thou art, who blamest God Because not swiftly but with long delay He strikes the wicked, listen to the cause : Were retribution visited forthwith,
Many through fear and not through piety Would worship God; but retribution now Being far off, each acts his nature out. But when detected, known as evil men, They pay the penalty in later times.
s
286 FRAGMENTS OF GREEK TRAGIC POETS.
The bridegroom when he brings his housemate home Not merely takes a wife, 'tis evident :
Along with that he takes a spirit in,
For blessing or malignance, as may be.
CH2EBEMON.
[Flourished probably about b. c. 380. ] A Garden of Girls.
There one reclined apart I saw, within the moon's pale light, With bosom through her parted robe appearing snowy white : Another danced, and floating free her garments in the breeze,
She seemed as buoyant as the waves that leap o'er summer seas ; While dusky shadows all around shrunk backward from the place, Chased by the beaming splendor shed like sunshine from her face. Beside this living picture stood a maiden passing fair,
With soft round arms exposed. A fourth, with free and graceful air, Like Dian when the bounding hart she tracks through morning dew, Bared through the opening of her robes her lovely limbs to view ; And oh ! the image of her charms, as clouds in heaven above, Mirrored by streams, left on my soul the stamp of hopeless love. And slumbering near them others lay, on beds of sweetest flowers, The dusky-petaled violet, the rose of Raphian bowers,
The inula and saffron flower, which on their garments cast
And veils, such hues as deck the sky when day is ebbing fast ; While far and near tall marjoram bedecked the fairy ground, Loading with sweets the vagrant winds that frolicked all around.
Cbates.
[Cynic philosopher: flourished about b. c. 328. ]
No single fortress, no one single house, Is fatherland to me ; but all throughout Each city and each dwelling in the land Will find me ready there to make a home.
Hunger will quell your love ; if not, then time ; If neither of these things will quench the flame, The one cure left's a rope to hang yourself.
FRAGMENTS OF GftEEK TBAGIC POETS. 287
Sositheus.
[Flourished about b. c. 280. One of the so-called " Pleiad " — seven poets of the Alexandrian court, in the third century b. c, ranked as the chief Grecian tragic poets after tht great Five (^Eschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Ion, Achaeus), they were — Homer, Sositheus, Lycophron (see his "Cassandra" under sepa rate head), Alexander, Fhiliacus, Sosiphanes, Dionysiades. The first two were considered greatest. ]
The Myth of Lityerses.
This is Celaenae, fatherland, old city
Of aged Midas, who with asses' ears
And stupid human mind, here held his reign.
This is his bastard son, with spurious father,
But of what mother, she who bore him knows :
He eats in sooth three pack-ass loads of bread
Three times in one short day, and what he calls
A measure of wine is a ten-amphora jar ; [three barrels] But for his food supply he labors nimbly,
Mowing the swathes ; yet on a given day
He mingles Dionysus with his victual.
And when a stranger came or passed along,
He gave him to eat, — indeed, he fed him fat, —
And freely proffered drink, as wont in summer —
One hesitates to grudge those doomed to death.
Viewing the fields along Maeander's channels
Watered for herbage with abundant streams,
The man-tall corn he cuts with sharpened sickle ;
Then sheaf and stranger mingled into one
He leaves without a head, and laughs to think
How foolishly the reaper breakfasted. *******
A. Slain, he was pitched by the feet into Maeander, Just like a quoit ; and who the quoitsman was —
B. Who?
A. You shall hear. Who else but Hercules ?
Philiscus.
[See above. ]
0 fool, the idlers find it hard To earn the laborer's reward.
Among both men and gods, the right alone Forever deathless holds their judgments' throne.
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK COMIC POETS.
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK COMIC POETS.
(Translations by various hands; in part made for this work by Forrest Morgan. )
"OLD COMEDY. "
SuSARION.
[Father of Greek comedy; flourished about b. c. 570. ]
Hear, folk ! Susarion has this to say, Philinus' son, native of Megara :
Women are evils : just the same, my friends, Without those evils all home-building ends. To marry or not, alike to evil tends.
Chionides.
I have known many a youth of not your breed In rough night watch or sleeping on mat of reed.
Meseems, by Heaven, no difference from me hath A willow sprung amid the torrent's path.
Epioharmus.
[About b. c. 540-450. Born in Cos, but spent most of his life at the court of Hiero in Syracuse. A famous Pythagorean philosopher ; as a poet said to have lifted comedy from low buffoonery to art. ]
"A Man's a Man for a' That. "
Good gossip, if you love me, prate no more : What are your genealogies to me ?
Away to those who have more need of them ! Let the degenerate wretches, if they can,
Dig up dead honor from their fathers' tombs,
And boast it for their own — vain, empty boast ! When every common fellow that they meet,
If accident hath not cut off the scroll,
Can show a list of ancestry as long.
You call the Scythians barbarous, and despise them : Yet Anacharsis was a Scythian born ;
And every man of a like noble nature,
Though he were molded from an Ethiop's loins,
Is nobler than your pedigrees can make him.
[Fifth century b. c]
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK COMIC POETS. 289
Marriage.
Marriage is like to casting dice. If chance Bring you a virtuous and good-tempered wife, Your lot is happy. If you gain instead
A gadding, gossiping, and thriftless quean, No wife is yours, but everlasting plague
In woman's garb ; the habitable globe Holds not so dire a torment anywhere.
I feel it to my sorrow : better luck
Is that man's portion who has never tried.
It needs the strength of a lion to subdue the weakness of love.
Be sober in thought, be slow to belief : these are the sinews of wis
dom.
'Tis a wise man's part to judge rightly before the course is begun • So shall he not repent him after the action is done.
Waste not your anger on trifles ! let reason, not rage, be your guide.
Mankind owe more to labor than to talent : The gods set up their favors at a price, And industry alone can furnish it.
If you lack merit, you will not be envied ; But who would win exemption at the cost ?
PHRTNICHU8.
[Exhibited from b. o. 429 till after 405. ] The Men Proud of Insolent Wit.
The hardest task that our fortune sends To-day is to ward them off, in sooth ;
For they have a sting at their finger-ends — The malice of blooming and insolent youth.
They're forever at hand in the market-place,
And honey us all with their compliments blithe ;
Then they stand on the seats and scratch face after face, And deride us in concert at seeing us writhe.
'Tis sweet to do grilling
And not spend a shilling. VOL. IV. — 19
290
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK COMIC POETS.
Epitaph on Sophocles.
Blest Sophocles ! who, wonted age o'erpast, Died fortunate and skilful to the last. Many and fair the tragic scenes he drew ; His end as fair, and ills he never knew.
Magnes.
[Flourished about b. c. 430. See Parabasis to Aristophanes' "Knights," end of Vol. 8. ]
Have you not heard the hot loaves from the pan Hissing when honey you have poured thereon ?
Teleclides.
[See Crates for a companion picture. Several other poets of the period have left similar skits, but these two are sufficient]
The Golden Age.
[Zeus speaks. ]
I will tell you, then, what the life was that at first I made ready for
mortals.
To begin with, peace was for all, just like water for washing the
hands.
The earth bore no fear nor diseases, all the needfuls were there of
themselves :
For each mountain stream flowed with wine, and the loaves had a
strife with the biscuits
To enter the mouths of the people, and begged to be taken and
eaten
If any one loved utter whiteness; the fishes came into the houses, And broiling themselves, placed their bodies for viands upon the
tables ;
Beside every couch ran a river of soup with hot meat floating
through it ;
And streamlets of salads were there for all who might chance to
desire them,
So that the tender mouthful was lavishly watered to swallow. Cakelets thrown into dishlets were ready and sprinkled with sauce-
lets ;
And one could see thrushes with toastlets flying into men's gullets ; From the pancakes jostling each other at mouths came a cry as of
battle,
And boys along with their mothers played dice with the tidbits and
cutlets.
Men were all corpulent then, and a huge aggregation of giants.
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK COMIC POETS. 291
Cratinus.
[Flourished from about 480 to 423 b. c. The originator of political comedy. See, for a magnificent tribute to him, the Parabasis to Aristophanes' "Knights," end of Vol. 3. He won nine first prizes, one over Aristophanes himself after the latter had counted him out of the field, and when near death. ]
The Cyclops to Ulysses and his Company.
Fob all these services, my dear companions, When I have taken you and roasted you,
Boiled you, and broiled you on a charcoal fire, Salted you down and dipped you into pickle, — Warm vinegar and salt, or salt and garlic, — Him that seems cooked most perfectly of all I'll gnaw his bones myself, in soldier fashion.
The men who lived in times of yore, When Kronos was their king,
They gambled with the loaves of bread, And often used to fling
The ripe iEgina barley cakes
Down in the wrestling ring ; —
And they plumed themselves upon their lands When Kronos was the king.
Have you seen that Thasian pickle, how he does the big bow-wow ? How well and swiftly he pays back his grudges, here and now !
It's not " a blind man talking to a deaf one," you'll allow.
A. How can one break this man, how can one, pray, Break him from drink, from drinking much too much ?
B. I know : I'll smash his gallon jars for him, And burn his casks to ashes like the lightning, And all the other vessels for his liquor,
Till not a wine cup shall be his to own.
It takes more than the eating of one brook trout To make one an epicure out and out.
[Lampon was a soothsayer, whose gluttony and covetousness were constant butts of Aristophanes. ]
There's Lampon, whom never a law men could make
Would keep from his friends when a spread was at stake ; . . .
Now he's belching again ;
He eats all that's in sight — for a mullet he'd fight.
292
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK COMIC POET*
Leda's Egg.
Leda, this is your work : now it is your duty Dignifiedly, like a hen, — there's no other wise, — To sit on and hatch us out perfect little beauty,
A bird so wonderful that one must praise to the skies.
[On the luxury of old times
By their ears stood the soft thyme, the lily, or the rose Sceptre-globe and staff held, market loungers those.
[On the Lacedaemonian feast called the Kopis compare Irving's " Knick erbocker," and the lump of sugar hung by string
Is true, as they say, that each stranger among The arrivals banqueted high at that feast
In the clubrooms are sausages skewered and hung For the elders to bite pieces off with their teeth
[On the youth
The land has trained and fed them free
At public cost to man's degree, That they may its defenders be.
[The woman speaks
Let us return to what we were discussing
Whether this man, who has another woman
In his heart, slandering me to her think His trouble part old age, and partly liquor For nothing comes before his drink to him.
Good Lord, don't know letters, they're no reliance of mine But I'll tell you the story with my tongue, for remember fine.
[On himself see Parabasis as above:]
Lord Apollo, what flood of words
The torrents roar twelve springs are in that mouth, Ilissus in that throat What shall tell you
For unless some one plugs that mouth of yours, Everything here will be o'erflowed with songs.
Time was that with only rag to your loin You cheerfully threw in your lot with mine, And drank the lees of the poorest wine.
Far from the lyre the asses sit.
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FRAGMENTS OF GREEK COMIC POETS. 293
Every spectator will take his chances to sleep, if he's wise, To be rid of the spell of stupidity cast by the poets' eyes.
Splendid things are waiting for you, you'll be glad to hit on ; Gracious beaming girls, that and maple stools to sit on.
The Cottabus.
It death to drink wine that water's come near
But she mixed half and half of two lots that were sheer,
And drank six quarts from curving cup, Then named the Corinthian pet she held dear,
And threw the last drops for what fate would show up.
Crates.
[Flourished about b. c. 440. For his literary character, see Parabasis to the "Knights," as above. ]
Old Age.
These shriveled sinews and this bending frame
The workmanship of Time's strong hand proclaim Skilled to reverse whate'er the gods create,
And make that crooked which they fashion straight. Hard choice for man — to die, or else to be
That tottering, wretched, wrinkled thing you see, Yet age we all prefer for age we pray,
And travel on to life's last lingering day
Then sinking slowly down from worse to worse, Find Heaven's extorted boon our greatest curse. . You've cursed to me as mighty ill,
Yet borne not, death the price — greater still We covet, yet reject when arrived —
So thanklessly our nature contrived.
The blossoming of bosoms that are maiden's dower
Is like
rosy apple or arbutus in flower.
Megabyzus feeds the hind Shivering at his door He will get dole of food
For wages — nothing more.
The Golden Age.
[See also Teleclides. ]
A. Then none shall own slave of either sex. B. But shall an old man have to serve himself
?
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294 FRAGMENTS OF GREEK COMIC POETS.
A. Oh no : I will make all these things come straight.
B. And how will it better them ?
A.
Why, all utensils
Will come of their own accord when called. " Here, table,
Come up and set yourself ! You bread-trough, knead ! — Pitcher, pour wine ! Where's the cup ? wash yourself ! — The dinner-pot had best give forth some beets ! —
March, fish ! " — " But I'm not cooked on the other side. " — " Turn over, then, and salt yourself, you fool ! "
B. Well, listen, tit for tat : contrariwise
I'll bring the hot baths to my friends' abodes,
On columns such as through the hospital
By the seaside, so that they shall flow to each
Into his bath : he speaks, the water stops.
And then an alabaster box of unguent
Shall come of its own accord, and sponge, and slippers.
Swarms and swarms of lovers come here,
We've so many young pigs and lambs for their cheer.
Python.
[Of Catana. Flourished in the time of Alexander the Great. For HarpalnB ("Pallides"), the subject of these sarcastic lines, see note under Dinarchus,
in the selections from the Ten Attic Orators. The courtesan referred to was his mistress Pythionica. ]
Where grew this reed, a lofty crag aspires, Beyond the reach of birds ; and on its left A harlot's famous temple, which Pallides Building, condemned himself to exile for. Then some of the Barbarians' magi, noting His sorry plight, persuaded him their spells Could raise the soul of Pythionica.
****** A. But I would learn from you,
Since far from there I dwell — the Attic land What fortunes hap, and how its people fare.
B. When they declared they led the life of slaves, They had food in plenty ; now they solely eat
Fennel and pulse, and very little corn.
A. And yet I hear that Harpalus has sent them Thousands of bushels of wheat, not less than Agen, And has been made a freeman of the city.
B. That was Glycera's wheat; and just the same A pledge of ruin, not of comradeship.
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK COMIC POETS- 295
MOSCHION. [Contemporary with Chaeremon. ] Origin of Civilization.
First I come forward, and will put in words
The start and ordering of mortals' life.
When that time was, that like the savage beasts
Men had the mountain caves for their abode,
Dwelt in the sunless chasms of the rocks ;
When the thatched roof was not, nor cities wide Fended by towers of stone ; nor the curved plow
Had cleft the dark earth clod, the corn-fruit's mother, Nor the great workman iron had helped to till
The gardens flowing with Iacchus' wine,
But mute and barren was the virgin earth ;
And for all food, flesh-eaters slew each others
And furnished forth their feasts ; and law was helpless, And Force held joint dominion with the gods,
The weak being food for the stronger. But when Time, Progenitor and nourisher of all,
Brought changes to this pristine life of men,
Either instructed by Prometheus' care,
Or sheer necessity or experience hard —
Making their inner being's self a teacher,
They found a way to cultivate the food
Of chaste Demeter ; found the luscious fount
Of Bacchus ; and the earth, before untilled,
Now felt the plow as oxen bore the yoke.
And cities towered and houses covered round
They built ; and changed their old existence wild
For that of civilized amenities.
Henceforward, too, the law enjoined that dying,
One's dust be covered by a lot-drawn tomb ;
No longer lie unburied in men's sight,
Impious remembrancer of former feasts.
Patrocles.
[Date uncertain ; somewhere in this period. ]
See now the many formidable words
Fate gathers in this little instrument ! [the tongue]. Why do we mortals swell with idle threats,
And heap up tools of vengeance with our hands, Yet look not forward to our near-by doom,
To see and know our own unhappy lot?
—
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK COMIC POETS.
Apollonides.
[Uncertain, but in this period. ]
Ah, ladies, in our human race
Not gold, or ease, or royal place, Afford such sweetness ever new
As to good men and women true Just judgment and right feeling do.
Ecdorus.
[As above. ] Body Like Soul.
Where'er you find a form that's foul of face, You'll always find it with befitting ways ; For nature out of evil evil breeds,
As serpent unto serpent still succeeds.
Sosiphaites.
[See above. ]
0 mortals most ill-fated, little blest,
Why do you magnify your offices,
Which one day gave, and one may take away ? If, being naught, you gain success, you straight Liken yourselves to Heaven, nor bear in mind Nor see the ruling Hades not far off.
Hermippus. [Flourished just before Aristophanes. ]
As to mischievous habits, if you ask my vote,
I say there are two common kinds of self -slaughter : One, constantly pouring strong wine down your throat,
'Tother, plunging in up to your throat in hot water.
[On a gluttonous rival :]
If there were such a race of men we had to fight to-day,
And they were captained by a big broiled fish or fatted hog, The rest should stay at home and send Nothippus to the fray
H6'd single-handed eat the whole Morea for his prog.
Do you know what to do for me ? Your little cup I scorn, But give me just one swig from out that jolly drinking-horn.
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK COMIC POETS.
Hail, transmarine army ! " What then are we doing ? Our bodies are soft to appearance, but then,
The vigor of youth in our muscles is brewing :
Have you heard that Abydans have turned into men ?
War.
Now with shaggy cloaks we're done : Each one puts his breastplate on, Binds the greaves upon his thighs 5 Sandals white we all despise.
One may see the cottabus staff Rolled neglected in the chaff ; No last drops the Manes hears, And the wretched scale appears Lying on the rubbish pile
Just beside the garden stile.
Eupolis.
297
"
[Born B. C. 449 ; drowned at the battle of Cynossema, 410 ; also said, but probably without truth, to have been assassinated at the instance of Alcibiades for a lampoon in one of his plays. He collaborated with Aristophanes in the
"Knights," and is said to have written part of the closing chorus. lieved to have been second only to Aristophanes in genius. ]
The Parasite.
Mark now, and learn of me the thriving arts By which we parasites contrive to live :
Fine rogues we are, my friend, of that be sure, And daintily we gull mankind. — Observe! First I provide myself a nimble thing
He is be
To be my page, a varlet of all crafts ;
Next two new suits for feasts and gala days, Which I promote by turns, when I walk forth
To sun myself upon the public square ;
There if perchance I spy some rich, dull knave, Straight I accost him, do him reverence,
And sauntering up and down, with idle chat
Hold him awhile in play : at every word
Which his wise worship utters, I stop short
And bless myself for wonder ; if he ventures
On some vile joke, I blow it to the skies,
And hold my sides for laughter. — Then to supper With others of our brotherhood, to mess
In some night cellar on our barley cakes,
And club inventions for the next day's shift.
298
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK COMIC POETS.
Yes, music is a science deep, involved,
And ever something new will be found in it By those who have the genius of discovery.
Those whom you'd once have not made wine inspectors Now you make generals. O city, city !
How much more lucky than rational you are !
A. Let Alcibiades keep away from the women.
B. You're talking nonsense : why don't you go home And train your own wife to her duty first ?
Pherecrates.
[Flourished b. c. 438-420. ] On Old Age.
Age is the heaviest burden man can bear, Compound of disappointment, pain, and care : For when the mind's experience comes at length, It comes to mourn the body's loss of strength ; Resigned to ignorance all our better days, Knowledge just ripens when the man decays ; One ray of light the closing eye receives,
And wisdom only takes what folly leaves.
The Musical Inventors of the Day.
[Music comes in, dressed in woman's garb, bruised and torn, and Justice in quires the reason. ]
Music — I speak not loath, for 'tis your part
To hear, and speaking glads my heart From Melanippides arose
My sorrows : he was first of those Who seizing me relaxed my wings, Giving a dozen slacker strings
For the old eleven ; yet, be sure,
He was a man I could endure
Compared with these, the last and worst. For one Cinesias, an accurst
Athenian, making discords vile
By sudden turns for novel style
In strophic endings, so destroyed me That in the verse where he employed me, His dithyrambs, like shields in fight You'd think the left side was the right. But even this you could not call
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK COMIC POETS.
Rough in comparison at all :
Phrynis came next, and, having thrown
A certain whirlwind of his own
To the front, with twists and turns of tone Ruined me quite, while on five strings
A dozen harmonies he rings.
Yet even he could be endured,
For his wrong-doing could be cured,
But, dearest, Timotheus, you see,
— Buried and foully murdered me.
Justice— Timotheus who ? Music
— Milesian.
A red-head low
Justice Music —
Has he harmed you so ? All that I tell you : I'm undone
By tortuous melodies that run
Along the strings like swarms of ants.
And if by any evil chance
Walking alone he ever meets me,
With the twelve strings he ties and beats me.
The Real "Old Times. "
Nobody then had male or female servants, —
No help at all, — and each had for himself
To execute all labors in the house :
Mornings with their own hands they ground the corn, The hamlet echoed as they thumped the mills.
Settling a Bore.
If a conceited donkey start to bray,
I'd answer him — " Don't have so much to say ! Be pleased to turn your mind and ears this way. "
The Feminine Toper.
A. I'm just out of the hot-bath, quite cooked through ; My throat's as dry —
B. I'll bring you something to drink. A. Dear me, my mouth is sticky with saliva.
B. How large a cup will satisfy you ?
A. Well,
Don't make it small : it always stirs my bile When I've drunk medicine from such a one ;
So have mine poured into a good-sized cup. . . .
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK COMIC POETS.
A.
B. Isn't it watered ?
300
[The same topic elsewhere. ]
Then by the potters for the men were made
Broad cups that had no sides, but only bottoms,
Not holding a mussel-shellful — just like tasters ;
But for themselves [women] deep cups like merchant vessels Wine-ships, round, grasped by the middle, belly- shaped ; — Not thoughtlessly, but with long-sighted craft
How they could guzzle wine and give no reasons.
Then, when we charge that they've drunk up the wine,
They tongue us, swearing they have " drunk but one " ;
But that one's bigger than a thousand cups.
