The quest will miss,
E'en though ten thousand join the band.
E'en though ten thousand join the band.
Universal Anthology - v04
He will put up his head and ask the steersman if he is half way, and what he thinks of the face of the heavens ; remarking to the person sitting next him that a certain dream makes him feel uneasy ; and he will take off his tunic and give it to his slave ; or he will beg them to put him ashore.
On land also, when he is campaigning, he will call to him those who are going out to the rescue, and bid them come and stand by him and look about them first, saying that it is hard to make out which is the enemy. Hearing shouts and seeing men falling, he will remark to those who stand by him that he has forgotten in his haste to bring his sword, and will run to the tent, where, having sent his slave out to reconnoiter the
CHARACTERS OF MEN. 275
position of the enemy, he will hide the sword under his pillow, and then spend a long time in pretending to look for it. And seeing from the tent a wounded comrade being carried in, he will run towards him and cry " Cheer up ! " he will take him into his arms and carry him ; he will tend and sponge him ; he will sit by him and keep the flies off his wound ; in short, he will do anything rather than fight with the enemy. Again, when the trumpeter has sounded the signal for battle, he will cry as he sits in the tent, " Bother ! you will not allow" the man to get a wink of sleep with your perpetual bugling ! Then, covered with blood from the other's wound, he will meet those who are returning from the fight, and announce to them, " I have run some risk to save one of our fellows," and he will bring in the men of his parish and of his tribe to see his patient, at the same time explaining to each of them that he carried him with his own hands to the tent.
The Oligarch.
The Oligarchical temper would seem to consist in a love of authority ; covetous, not of gain, but of power.
The Oligarchical man is one who, when the people are deliberating whom they shall associate with the archon as joint directors of the procession, will come forward and express his opinion that these directors ought to have plenary powers ; and, if others propose ten, he will say that " one is sufficient," but that " he must be a man. " Of Homer's poetry he has mastered only this one line : —
No good comes of manifold rule ; let the ruler be one :
of the rest he is absolutely ignorant. It is very much in his manner to use phrases of this kind : " We must meet and discuss these matters by ourselves, and get clear of the rabble and the market place : " " we must leave off"courting office, and being slighted or graced by these fellows ; " either they or we must govern the city. " He will go out about the middle of the day with his cloak gracefully adjusted, his hair daintily trimmed, his nails delicately pared, and strut through the Odeum Street, making such remarks as these : " There is no living in Athens for the informers ; " " we are shamefully treated in the courts
"I cannot conceive what people want with meddling in public affairs ; " " how ungrateful the people are —
by the juries ; "
276 CHARACTERS OF MEN.
always the slaves of a largess or a bribe ; " and " how ashamed I am when a meager, squalid fellow sits down by me in the Ecclesia ! " " When," he will ask, " will they have done ruin ing us with these public services and trierarchies ? How de testable that set of demagogues is ! " " Theseus " (he will say) " was the beginning of the mischief to the state. It was he who reduced it from twelve cities to one, and undid the monarchy. And he was rightly served, for he was the people's first victim himself. "
And so on to foreigners and to those citizens who resemble him in their disposition and their politics.
The Patron of Rascals.
The Patronizing of Rascals is a form of the appetite for vice.
The Patron of Rascals is one who will throw himself into the company of those who have lost lawsuits and have been found guilty in criminal causes ; conceiving that, if he associ ates with such persons, he will become more a man of the world, and will inspire the greater awe. Speaking of honest men he will add " so-so," and will remark that no one"is honest, — all men are alike ; indeed, one of his sarcasms is, What an honest fellow ! " Again he will say that the rascal is " a frank man, if one will look fairly at the matter. " " Most of the things that people say" of him," he admits, " are true ; but some things," he adds, they do not know ; namely, that he is a clever fellow, and fond of his friends, and a man of tact ; " and he will contend in his behalf that he has " never met with an abler man. " He will show him favor, also, when he speaks in the Ecclesia or is at the bar of a court ; he is fond, too, of remarking to the bench, " The question is of the cause, not of the person. " "The defendant," he will say, " is the watchdog of the people, — he keeps an eye on evil-doers. We shall have nobody to take the public wrongs to heart, if we allow our
selves to lose such men. " Then he is apt to become the cham pion of worthless persons, and to form conspiracies in the law courts in bad causes ; and, when he is hearing a case, to take up the statements of the litigants in the worst sense.
In short, sympathy with rascality "is sister to rascality itself ; and true is the proverb that, Like moves towards like. "
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK TRAGIC POETS. 277
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK TRAGIC POETS.
(Translations by several different hands ; the greater part made for this work by Forrest Morgan. )
Thespis.
[Lived in the middle of the sixth century b. c. The traditional founder of Greek tragedy. ]
To Pan.
Lo, unto thee I pour the creamy draught
Pressed from the nursing goats of creamy hue ; Lo, on thy holy altars I have placed,
O twi-horned Pan, cheese with red honey mixed ; Behold, I pour thee Bromius' sparkling blood.
Phryniohus.
[Flourished about b. c. 612-476. ]
The light of love burns upon crimson cheeks.
Meleager.
Yet could he not escape a horrid doom :
Swift flame consumed him from the wasting brand, Fired by his evil-working mother's will.
The Invasion of Bceotia by the Barbarians.
Once poured the host of Hyas through this land, The ancient people who had tilled the soil ;
And all the fields and meadows by the sea,
The swift flame licked up in its gluttonous jaws.
Pratinas.
[Flourished before and after b. c. 500. ]
What revel-rout is this ? What noise is here ? What barbarian discord strikes my ear ?
What jarring sounds are these that rage
Unholy on the Bacchic stage ? —
'Tis mine to sing in Bromius' praise
'Tis mine to laud the god in dithyrambic lays
—
As o'er the mountain height,
The woodland Nymphs among,
I wing my rapid flight,
And tune my varied song,
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK TRAGIC POETS.
Sweet as the melody of swans, that lave
Their nestling pinions in the silver wave ;
Of the harmonious lay the Muse is sovereign still ; Then let the minstrel follow if he will —
But not precede : whose stricter care should be, And more appropriate aim,
To fan the lawless flame
Of fiery youths, and lead them on To deeds of drunkenness alone,
The minister of revelry —
When doors, with many a sturdy stroke,
Fly from their bolts, to shivers broke,
And captive beauty yields, but is not won.
Down with the Phrygian pipe's discordant sound !
Crackle, ye flames ! and burn the monster foul To very ashes — in whose notes are found
Naught but what's harsh and flat — no music for the soul, The work of some vile handicraft. To thee,
Great Dithyrambus ! ivy-tressed king !
I stretch my hand, — 'tis here — and rapidly
My feet in airy mazes fling.
Listen my Doric lay: to thee, to thee I sing.
Akistias.
[Fifth century b. o. Contemporary of Sophocles. ] The Glutton.
That feaster is a boatman or a tramp,
A parasite of hell, with bottomless belly.
Aristarchus.
[Flourished about b. c. 454. ]
"
About it and about. " — Omar Khayyam.
Faib speech in such things, and no speech, are one ; Study and ignorance have equal value;
For wise men know no more than simple fools
In these dark matters ; and if one by speaking Conquer another, mere words win the day.
Love Laughs at Locksmiths.
That man who hath not tried of love the might Knows not the strong rule of necessity,
Bound and constrained, whereby this road I travel ;
great argument
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK TRAGIC POETS. 279
Yea, our lord Love strengthens the strengthless, teaches The craftless how to find both craft and cunning.
Neophron.
[Exhibited 431 b. c]
Medea Decides to Kill her Children.
Well, well : what wilt thou do, my soul ? Think much Before this sin be sinned, before thy dearest
Thou turn to deadliest foes. Whither art bounding ? Restrain thy force, thy god-detested fury.
And yet, why grieve I thus, seeing my life
Laid desolate, despitefully abandoned,
By those who least should leave me ? Soft, forsooth, Shall I be in the midst of wrongs like these ?
Nay, heart of mine, be not thy own betrayer !
Ah me ! 'Tis settled. Children, from my sight
Get you away ! for now bloodthirsty madness
Sinks in my soul and swells it. Oh, hands, hands, Unto what deed are we accoutred ? Woe !
Undone by my own daring ! In one minute
I
go to blast the fruit of my long toil.
Achjsus.
[Flourished about b. c. 484-448. He and Ion were ranked next after JEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, as making up the five great tragic drama
tists of Athens. ]
The Athletes in the Games.
Naked above, their radiant arms displaying,
In lustihood of ruffling youth, and bloom
Of beauty bright on stalwart breasts, they fare ;
Their shoulders and their feet in floods of oil
Are bathed, like men whose homes abound in plenty. . . . Ambassadors or athletes do you mean ?
Great feeders are they, like most men in training.
Of what race are the strangers, then ? — Boeotians.
The Cock and the Pearls.
To hungry men a barley cake is more Than gold and ivory in an ample store.
The Scythians Angry at the Watered Wine.
Was the whole Achelous in this wine ?
But even then this race would not cease drinking, For this is all a Scythian's happiness.
280
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK TRAGIC FOETS.
Ion.
[Exhibited about b. c. 424. ]
" Know thou thyself — " that saw is trivial stuff : Not even a god but Zeus has power enough.
The town of Sparta is not walled with words ; But when young Ares falls upon her men, Then reason rules and the hand does the deed.
The Crippled, Blinded, and Caged Bird.
His body maimed, his sight no more, Still he recalls his strength of yore: Helpless he cries, and gladly would Exchange for death his servitude.
Agathon.
[About b. c. 477-430. ]
One thing not God himself can do, I ween, —
To make what's done as though it ne'er had been.
Skill is true friend of chance, and chance of skill. Worsted by suffering, cowards dote on death.
Some things we mortals can effect by skill ; Some fall on us as fate and fortune will.
We work on superfluities as if a need were nigh, And dawdle on our real work as superfluity.
Abiston.
[Son of Sophocles ; middle of the fifth century b. c. This citation is on the authority of Theophilus, bishop of Antioch in the latter part of the second century a. d. ; but the Greek verse is unclassically poor, and it is quite possible Theophilus wrote it himself. ]
Providence.
A. Cheer up : the god is wont to succor all Deserving of it — chiefly just this sort.
If the front rank be not assigned to them, Why should men practice rigid piety ?
B. That may be so ; and yet Ioften see Those who conduct their business piously Bearing strange evils ; on the other hand,
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK TRAGIC POETS. 281
Those out for profit and themselves alone Holding a far more honored place among us.
A. For the present, yes ; but one should look ahead And wait the final closing up of all.
By not so doing, some have let prevail
The notion, vile and profitless to life,
That each man's course is automatic, each Guided by chance ; and so the mob decide Each for himself to hug his provender.
And yet the crowns are for the virtuous lives, And to the wicked comes their penalty ;
For naught takes place apart from Providence.
Chcebilus.
[Flourished latter part of fifth century B. C. ] "Some Banquet Hall Deserted. "
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
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK TRAGIC POETS.
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.
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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.
On land also, when he is campaigning, he will call to him those who are going out to the rescue, and bid them come and stand by him and look about them first, saying that it is hard to make out which is the enemy. Hearing shouts and seeing men falling, he will remark to those who stand by him that he has forgotten in his haste to bring his sword, and will run to the tent, where, having sent his slave out to reconnoiter the
CHARACTERS OF MEN. 275
position of the enemy, he will hide the sword under his pillow, and then spend a long time in pretending to look for it. And seeing from the tent a wounded comrade being carried in, he will run towards him and cry " Cheer up ! " he will take him into his arms and carry him ; he will tend and sponge him ; he will sit by him and keep the flies off his wound ; in short, he will do anything rather than fight with the enemy. Again, when the trumpeter has sounded the signal for battle, he will cry as he sits in the tent, " Bother ! you will not allow" the man to get a wink of sleep with your perpetual bugling ! Then, covered with blood from the other's wound, he will meet those who are returning from the fight, and announce to them, " I have run some risk to save one of our fellows," and he will bring in the men of his parish and of his tribe to see his patient, at the same time explaining to each of them that he carried him with his own hands to the tent.
The Oligarch.
The Oligarchical temper would seem to consist in a love of authority ; covetous, not of gain, but of power.
The Oligarchical man is one who, when the people are deliberating whom they shall associate with the archon as joint directors of the procession, will come forward and express his opinion that these directors ought to have plenary powers ; and, if others propose ten, he will say that " one is sufficient," but that " he must be a man. " Of Homer's poetry he has mastered only this one line : —
No good comes of manifold rule ; let the ruler be one :
of the rest he is absolutely ignorant. It is very much in his manner to use phrases of this kind : " We must meet and discuss these matters by ourselves, and get clear of the rabble and the market place : " " we must leave off"courting office, and being slighted or graced by these fellows ; " either they or we must govern the city. " He will go out about the middle of the day with his cloak gracefully adjusted, his hair daintily trimmed, his nails delicately pared, and strut through the Odeum Street, making such remarks as these : " There is no living in Athens for the informers ; " " we are shamefully treated in the courts
"I cannot conceive what people want with meddling in public affairs ; " " how ungrateful the people are —
by the juries ; "
276 CHARACTERS OF MEN.
always the slaves of a largess or a bribe ; " and " how ashamed I am when a meager, squalid fellow sits down by me in the Ecclesia ! " " When," he will ask, " will they have done ruin ing us with these public services and trierarchies ? How de testable that set of demagogues is ! " " Theseus " (he will say) " was the beginning of the mischief to the state. It was he who reduced it from twelve cities to one, and undid the monarchy. And he was rightly served, for he was the people's first victim himself. "
And so on to foreigners and to those citizens who resemble him in their disposition and their politics.
The Patron of Rascals.
The Patronizing of Rascals is a form of the appetite for vice.
The Patron of Rascals is one who will throw himself into the company of those who have lost lawsuits and have been found guilty in criminal causes ; conceiving that, if he associ ates with such persons, he will become more a man of the world, and will inspire the greater awe. Speaking of honest men he will add " so-so," and will remark that no one"is honest, — all men are alike ; indeed, one of his sarcasms is, What an honest fellow ! " Again he will say that the rascal is " a frank man, if one will look fairly at the matter. " " Most of the things that people say" of him," he admits, " are true ; but some things," he adds, they do not know ; namely, that he is a clever fellow, and fond of his friends, and a man of tact ; " and he will contend in his behalf that he has " never met with an abler man. " He will show him favor, also, when he speaks in the Ecclesia or is at the bar of a court ; he is fond, too, of remarking to the bench, " The question is of the cause, not of the person. " "The defendant," he will say, " is the watchdog of the people, — he keeps an eye on evil-doers. We shall have nobody to take the public wrongs to heart, if we allow our
selves to lose such men. " Then he is apt to become the cham pion of worthless persons, and to form conspiracies in the law courts in bad causes ; and, when he is hearing a case, to take up the statements of the litigants in the worst sense.
In short, sympathy with rascality "is sister to rascality itself ; and true is the proverb that, Like moves towards like. "
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK TRAGIC POETS. 277
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK TRAGIC POETS.
(Translations by several different hands ; the greater part made for this work by Forrest Morgan. )
Thespis.
[Lived in the middle of the sixth century b. c. The traditional founder of Greek tragedy. ]
To Pan.
Lo, unto thee I pour the creamy draught
Pressed from the nursing goats of creamy hue ; Lo, on thy holy altars I have placed,
O twi-horned Pan, cheese with red honey mixed ; Behold, I pour thee Bromius' sparkling blood.
Phryniohus.
[Flourished about b. c. 612-476. ]
The light of love burns upon crimson cheeks.
Meleager.
Yet could he not escape a horrid doom :
Swift flame consumed him from the wasting brand, Fired by his evil-working mother's will.
The Invasion of Bceotia by the Barbarians.
Once poured the host of Hyas through this land, The ancient people who had tilled the soil ;
And all the fields and meadows by the sea,
The swift flame licked up in its gluttonous jaws.
Pratinas.
[Flourished before and after b. c. 500. ]
What revel-rout is this ? What noise is here ? What barbarian discord strikes my ear ?
What jarring sounds are these that rage
Unholy on the Bacchic stage ? —
'Tis mine to sing in Bromius' praise
'Tis mine to laud the god in dithyrambic lays
—
As o'er the mountain height,
The woodland Nymphs among,
I wing my rapid flight,
And tune my varied song,
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK TRAGIC POETS.
Sweet as the melody of swans, that lave
Their nestling pinions in the silver wave ;
Of the harmonious lay the Muse is sovereign still ; Then let the minstrel follow if he will —
But not precede : whose stricter care should be, And more appropriate aim,
To fan the lawless flame
Of fiery youths, and lead them on To deeds of drunkenness alone,
The minister of revelry —
When doors, with many a sturdy stroke,
Fly from their bolts, to shivers broke,
And captive beauty yields, but is not won.
Down with the Phrygian pipe's discordant sound !
Crackle, ye flames ! and burn the monster foul To very ashes — in whose notes are found
Naught but what's harsh and flat — no music for the soul, The work of some vile handicraft. To thee,
Great Dithyrambus ! ivy-tressed king !
I stretch my hand, — 'tis here — and rapidly
My feet in airy mazes fling.
Listen my Doric lay: to thee, to thee I sing.
Akistias.
[Fifth century b. o. Contemporary of Sophocles. ] The Glutton.
That feaster is a boatman or a tramp,
A parasite of hell, with bottomless belly.
Aristarchus.
[Flourished about b. c. 454. ]
"
About it and about. " — Omar Khayyam.
Faib speech in such things, and no speech, are one ; Study and ignorance have equal value;
For wise men know no more than simple fools
In these dark matters ; and if one by speaking Conquer another, mere words win the day.
Love Laughs at Locksmiths.
That man who hath not tried of love the might Knows not the strong rule of necessity,
Bound and constrained, whereby this road I travel ;
great argument
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK TRAGIC POETS. 279
Yea, our lord Love strengthens the strengthless, teaches The craftless how to find both craft and cunning.
Neophron.
[Exhibited 431 b. c]
Medea Decides to Kill her Children.
Well, well : what wilt thou do, my soul ? Think much Before this sin be sinned, before thy dearest
Thou turn to deadliest foes. Whither art bounding ? Restrain thy force, thy god-detested fury.
And yet, why grieve I thus, seeing my life
Laid desolate, despitefully abandoned,
By those who least should leave me ? Soft, forsooth, Shall I be in the midst of wrongs like these ?
Nay, heart of mine, be not thy own betrayer !
Ah me ! 'Tis settled. Children, from my sight
Get you away ! for now bloodthirsty madness
Sinks in my soul and swells it. Oh, hands, hands, Unto what deed are we accoutred ? Woe !
Undone by my own daring ! In one minute
I
go to blast the fruit of my long toil.
Achjsus.
[Flourished about b. c. 484-448. He and Ion were ranked next after JEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, as making up the five great tragic drama
tists of Athens. ]
The Athletes in the Games.
Naked above, their radiant arms displaying,
In lustihood of ruffling youth, and bloom
Of beauty bright on stalwart breasts, they fare ;
Their shoulders and their feet in floods of oil
Are bathed, like men whose homes abound in plenty. . . . Ambassadors or athletes do you mean ?
Great feeders are they, like most men in training.
Of what race are the strangers, then ? — Boeotians.
The Cock and the Pearls.
To hungry men a barley cake is more Than gold and ivory in an ample store.
The Scythians Angry at the Watered Wine.
Was the whole Achelous in this wine ?
But even then this race would not cease drinking, For this is all a Scythian's happiness.
280
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK TRAGIC FOETS.
Ion.
[Exhibited about b. c. 424. ]
" Know thou thyself — " that saw is trivial stuff : Not even a god but Zeus has power enough.
The town of Sparta is not walled with words ; But when young Ares falls upon her men, Then reason rules and the hand does the deed.
The Crippled, Blinded, and Caged Bird.
His body maimed, his sight no more, Still he recalls his strength of yore: Helpless he cries, and gladly would Exchange for death his servitude.
Agathon.
[About b. c. 477-430. ]
One thing not God himself can do, I ween, —
To make what's done as though it ne'er had been.
Skill is true friend of chance, and chance of skill. Worsted by suffering, cowards dote on death.
Some things we mortals can effect by skill ; Some fall on us as fate and fortune will.
We work on superfluities as if a need were nigh, And dawdle on our real work as superfluity.
Abiston.
[Son of Sophocles ; middle of the fifth century b. c. This citation is on the authority of Theophilus, bishop of Antioch in the latter part of the second century a. d. ; but the Greek verse is unclassically poor, and it is quite possible Theophilus wrote it himself. ]
Providence.
A. Cheer up : the god is wont to succor all Deserving of it — chiefly just this sort.
If the front rank be not assigned to them, Why should men practice rigid piety ?
B. That may be so ; and yet Ioften see Those who conduct their business piously Bearing strange evils ; on the other hand,
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK TRAGIC POETS. 281
Those out for profit and themselves alone Holding a far more honored place among us.
A. For the present, yes ; but one should look ahead And wait the final closing up of all.
By not so doing, some have let prevail
The notion, vile and profitless to life,
That each man's course is automatic, each Guided by chance ; and so the mob decide Each for himself to hug his provender.
And yet the crowns are for the virtuous lives, And to the wicked comes their penalty ;
For naught takes place apart from Providence.
Chcebilus.
[Flourished latter part of fifth century B. C. ] "Some Banquet Hall Deserted. "
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
FRAGMENTS OF GREEK TRAGIC POETS.
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.
