Come and get it": but not even if you take your oath do you
continue
to keep faith.
Greek Anthology
Translations of most of the epigrams are already available elsewhere, as indicated by the links. The translations of the remaining epigrams are taken from the edition by W. R. Paton (1916-18), but have been modified to remove some of the archaic language. Click on G to go to the Greek text of each epigram.
[1]
Leonidas →
[2]
Antipater_of_Sidon →
[3] Anonymous { F 90 } G
The way down to Hades is straight, whether you start from Athens or whether you betake yourself there, when dead, from Meroē. Let it not vex you to die far from your country. One fair wind to Hades blows from all lands. *
* Probably an epitaph on an Athenian who died at Meroe.
[4]
Marcus_Argentarius →
[5] THYILLUS { F 3 } G
Already the swallows build their mud houses, already on the waves Zephyr is bosomed in the soft sails. Already the meadows shed flowers over their green leaves, and the rough strait closes its lips in silence. Wind up your hawsers and stow the anchors on shipboard, and give all your canvas to the sheets. This is the advice that Priapus of the harbour writes for you who sail the seas seeking merchandise.
[6] SATYRUS { F 1 } G
Already the moist breath of Zephyr, who giveth birth to the grass, falls gently on the flowery meadows. The daughters of Cecrops * call, the becalmed sea smiles, untroubled by the cold winds. Be of good heart, O sailors, loose your hawsers and spread out the delicate folds of your ships' wings. Go to trade trusting in gracious Priapus, go obedient to the harbour god.
* i. e. the swallows.
[7]
Archias →
[8]
Archias →
[9] Anonymous { F 21 } G
O fishermen, who pulled your little boat ashore here (Go, hang out your nets to dry) having had a haul of many sea-swimming gurnard (? ) and scarus, not without thrissa, * honour me with slender first-fruits of a copious catch, the little Priapus under the mastic bush, the sea-blue god, the revealer of the fish your prey, established in this grove.
* Still called so; rather like a herring and goes in shoals.
[10]
Archias →
[11] SATYRUS { F 2 } G
Whether you walk over the hills with bird-lime spread on the reeds to which the birds resort, or whether you kill hares, call on Pan. Pan shows the hound the track of velvet-paw, and Pan guides higher and higher, unbent, the jointed reedy rod. *
* There was a means of gradually lengthening the limed rod so as to reach the birds high up in the trees. I suppose it was put together like a fishing-rod.
[12] Anonymous { F 73 } G
Come and rest your limbs awhile, travellers, here under the juniper by Hermes, the guardian of the road - not a mixed crowd, but those of you whose knees ache from heavy toil and who thirst after accomphshing a long day's journey. There is a breeze and a shady seat, and the fountain under the rock will still the weariness that weighs on your limbs. Escaping the midday breath of Autumn's dog-star, honour Hermes of the wayside as is meet.
[13] SATYRUS { F 3 } G
How lovely are the laurels and the spring that gushes at their feet, while the dense grove gives shade, luxuriant, traversed by Zephyrs, a protection to wayfarers from thirst and toil and the burning sun !
[17]
Antiphilus →
[18]
Marcus_Argentarius →
[19]
Apollonides →
[20] ADDAEUS { Ph 10 } G
If you see a beauty, strike while the iron is hot. Say what you mean, grasp his testicles full-handed. But if you say "I reverence you and will be like a brother," shame will close your road to accomplishment.
[21]
Philodemus →
[22]
Bianor →
[23] AUTOMEDON { Ph 3 } G
Nicetes, * like the breeze, when a ship has little sail up, begins with gentle rhetoric, but when he blows strongly and all sails are let out, he stiffens the canvas and races across the middle of the ocean, like a ship of vast burden, till he reaches the end of his discourse in the unruffled harbour.
* i. e. the eloquence of Nicetes. He was a rhetor of the latter end of the first century A. D.
[24]
Crinagoras →
[25]
Antipater_of_Thessalonica →
[43] Anonymous { F 91 } G
Six hours are most suitable for labour, and the four that follow, when set forth in letters, * say to men "Live. "
* The letters of the alphabet were used as figures : ΖΗΘΙ (meaning "Live") is 7, 8, 9, 10.
[100] ANTIPHANES { Ph 7 } G
Brief would be the whole span of life that we wretched men live, even if grey old age awaited us all, and briefer yet is the space of our prime. Therefore, while the season is ours, let all be in plenty, song, love, carousal. Henceforth is the winter of heavy age. You would give ten minae to be a man, but no ! such fetters shall be set on your manhood.
[101]
Bianor →
[102] BASSUS { Ph 9 } G
I would not have the fierce sea drive me in storm, nor do I welcome the dull windless calm that follows. The mean is best, and so likewise where men do their business, I welcome the sufficient measure. Love this, dear Lampis, and hate evil tempests ; there are gentle Zephyrs in life too.
[103]
Philodemus →
[105]
Simonides →
[117] PHOCYLIDES { F 1 } G
I am a genuine friend, and I know a friend to be a friend, but I turn my back on all evil-doers. I flatter no one hypocritically, but those whom I honour I love from beginning to end.
[122]
Lucillius →
[123] AESOP { F 1 } G
Life, how shall one escape you without death; for you have a myriad ills and neither to fly from them nor to bear them is easy. Sweet are your natural beauties, the earth, the sea, the stars, the orbs of the sun and moon. But all the rest is fear and pain, and if some good befall a man, an answering Nemesis succeeds it.
[124] GLYCON { F 1 } G
All is laughter, all is dust, all is nothing, for all that is comes out of unreason.
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Greek Anthology: Book 11
THE CONVIVIAL AND SATIRICAL EPIGRAMS
This selection from Book 11 of the Greek Anthology contains all the epigrams written before the middle of the first century A. D. , as listed in three editions:
(H) A. S. F. Gow & D. L. Page, "The Greek Anthology: Hellenistic Epigrams"
(Ph) A. S. F. Gow & D. L. Page, "The Greek Anthology: The Garland of Philip and Some Contemporary Epigrams"
(F) D. L. Page, "Further Greek Epigrams"
The labels in green are the numbers assigned to the epigrams in one of these editions. The labels in red are their numbers within the Anthology.
Translations of most of the epigrams are already available elsewhere, as indicated by the links. The translations of the remaining epigrams are taken from the edition by W. R. Paton (1916-18), but have been modified to remove some of the archaic language. Click on G to go to the Greek text of each epigram.
[1]
Nicarchus →
[4] PARMENION { Ph 12 } G
A certain man, having married a woman who is complaisant to his neighbour only, snores and feeds. That was the way to get a living easily - not to go to sea, not to dig, but to snore off one's dinner with a comfortable stomach, fattened richly at the expense of another.
[7]
Nicarchus →
[9] LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA { F 34 } G
Set not before me after supper, when I can no longer persuade my belly, udders and slices of pork. For neither to labourers after harvest is rain out of season useful, nor the Zephyr to mariners in port.
[10]
Lucillius →
[11]
Lucillius →
[12]
Alcaeus →
[17]
Philippus →
[18]
Nicarchus →
[20]
Antipater_of_Thessalonica →
[23]
Antipater_of_Thessalonica →
[24]
Antipater_of_Thessalonica →
[25]
Apollonides →
[26]
Marcus_Argentarius →
[27] MACEDONIUS { Ph 3 } G
Rough, sweet-scented dust of Surrentum, hail, and hail, you earth of Pollentia most honeyed and Hasta's soil thrice desired from which the triple band of Graces knead for Bacchus the clay that is akin to wine ! Hail, common possession of wealth and poverty, to the poor a necessary vessel, to the rich a more superfluous instrument of luxury ! *
* He addresses the different soils from which the clay considered most suitable for wine-jars came.
[28]
Marcus_Argentarius →
[29] AUTOMEDON { Ph 2 } G
Send and summon her ; you have everything ready. But if she comes, what will you do? Think over that, Automedon. For this thing, which before stayed unbending, but is now flabbier than a boiled carrot, has shrunk wholly into my thighs dead and gone. They will laugh at you much if you venture to put to sea without any tackle, an oarsman who no longer has his oar.
[30]
Philodemus →
[31]
Antipater_of_Thessalonica →
[32] HONESTUS { Ph 8 } G
Bacchus, leading the revels of the Graces, instituted in thee, Sicyon, the sermons of the jolly Muse. * Indeed, very sweet are his rebukes and in laughter is his sting. A man in his cups teaches wisdom to a clever man of the town.
* i. e. the Satyric drama. See epigram 7. 707 (Dioscorides).
[33]
Philippus →
[34]
Philodemus →
[35]
Philodemus →
[36]
Philippus →
[37]
Antipater_of_Thessalonica →
[38] KING POLEMON { Ph 2 } G
On a relief representing a jar, a loaf, a crown, and a skull
This is the poor man's welcome armour against hunger - a jar and a loaf, here is a crown of dewy leaves, and this is the holy bone, outwork of a dead brain, the highest citadel of the soul. "Drink," says the sculpture, " and eat, and surround you with flowers, for like to this we suddenly become. " *
* The distich has been found engraved on a gem beneath a skull and table spread with food.
[39] MACEDONIUS OF THESSALONICA { Ph 1 } G
Yesterday a woman was drinking with me about whom an unpleasant story is current. Break the cups, slaves.
[40] ANTISTIUS { Ph 3 } G
Cleodemus, Eumenes' boy, is still small, but tiny as he is, he dances with the boys in a little company of worshippers. Look ! he has even put on the skin of a dappled fawn and he shakes the ivy on his yellow hair. Make him big, Theban King, * so that your little servant may soon lead holy dances of young men.
* i. e. Bacchus.
[41]
Philodemus →
[42]
Crinagoras →
[43] ZONAS { Ph 9 } G
Give me the sweet beaker wrought of earth, earth from which I was born, and under which I shall lie when dead.
[44]
Philodemus →
[45] HONESTUS { Ph 9 } G
Drink which we wish ourselves is ever the sweetest ; what is forced on us does outrage to the wine as well as to the drinker. The drinker will spill the wine on the earth secretly, and, if he drink it, it will often take him under the earth to the bitter water of Lethe. Farewell, you topers ; just as much as I like to drink is to me the sufficient measure of all enjoyment.
[46] AUTOMEDON OF CYZICUS { Ph 1 } G
We are men in the evening when we drink together, but when day-break comes, we get up wild beasts preying on each other.
[49] EUENUS { Ph 6 } G
The best measure of wine is neither much nor very little ; for it is the cause of either grief or madness. It pleases the wine to be the fourth, mixed with three Nymphs. * Then it is most suited for the bridal chamber too, but if it breathe too fiercely, it puts the Loves to flight and plunges us in a sleep which is neighbour to death.
* i. e. to be mixed in the proportion of one quarter to three of water.
[50] AUTOMEDON { Ph 4 } G
Blest is he first who owes naught to anyone, next he who never married, and thirdly he who is childless. But if a man be mad enough to marry, it is a blessing for him if he buries his wife at once after getting a handsome dowry. Knowing this, be wise, and leave Epicurus to enquire in vain where is the void and what are the atoms.
[53] Anonymous { F 15 } G
The rose blooms for a little season, and when that goes by you shall find, if you seek, no rose, but a briar.
[65] PARMENION { Ph 13 } G
It is difficult to choose between famine and an old woman. To hunger is terrible, but her bed is still more painful. Phillis when starving prayed to have an elderly wife, but when he slept with her he prayed for famine. Behold the inconstancy of a portionless son !
[66]
Antiphilus →
[67] MYRINUS { Ph 4 } G
The letter υ signifies four hundred, but your years are twice as much, my tender Lais, as old as a crow and Hecuba put together, grandmother of Sisyphus and sister of Deucalion. But dye your white hair and say "tata" * to everyone.
* A child's word, "papa. " cp. Mart. i. 101.
[68]
Lucillius →
[69]
Lucillius →
[70] LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA { F 35 } G
Philinus when he was young married an old woman, in his old age he married a girl of twelve, but he never knew Venus at the right season. Therefore sowing formerly in barren land he remained childless, and now has married a wife for others to enjoy and is deprived of both blessings.
[71]
Nicarchus →
[72] BASSUS OF SMYRNA { Ph 10 } G
Cytotaris with her grey temples, the garrulous old woman, who makes Nestor no longer the oldest of men, she who has looked on the light longer than a stag and has begun to reckon her second old age on her left hand, * is alive and sharp-sighted and firm on her legs like a bride, so that I wonder if something has not befallen Death.
* The fingers of the right hand were used for counting hundreds and thousands, those of the left for decades and units. The meaning then, I suppose, is that she has reached a thousand and is now counting the years of the first century of her next thousand which he calls her second old age.
[73]
Nicarchus →
[74]
Nicarchus →
[75]
Lucillius →
[76]
Lucillius →
[77]
Lucillius →
[78]
Lucillius →
[79]
Lucillius →
[80]
Lucillius →
[81]
Lucillius →
[82]
Nicarchus →
[83]
Lucillius →
[84]
Lucillius →
[85]
Lucillius →
[87]
Lucillius →
[88]
Lucillius →
[89]
Lucillius →
[90]
Lucillius →
[91]
Lucillius →
[92]
Lucillius →
[93]
Lucillius →
[94]
Lucillius →
[95]
Lucillius →
[96]
Nicarchus →
[99]
Lucillius →
[100]
Lucillius →
[101]
Lucillius →
[102]
Nicarchus →
[103]
Lucillius →
[104]
Lucillius →
[105]
Lucillius →
[106]
Lucillius →
[107]
Lucillius →
[108] JULIAN (? ) { F 2 } G
Conon is two cubits tall, his wife four. In bed, then, with their feet on a level, reckon where Conon's face is.
[110]
Nicarchus →
[111]
Lucillius →
[112]
Lucillius →
[113]
Lucillius →
[114]
Lucillius →
[115]
Lucillius →
[116]
Lucillius →
[123] HEDYLUS { H 11 } G
Agis neither purged Aristagoras, nor touched him, but no sooner had he come in than Aristagoras was gone. What aconite has such natural virtue ? you coffin-makers, throw chaplets and garlands on Agis.
[124]
Nicarchus →
[131]
Lucillius →
[132]
Lucillius →
[133]
Lucillius →
[134]
Lucillius →
[135]
Lucillius →
[136]
Lucillius →
[137]
Lucillius →
[138]
Lucillius →
[139]
Lucillius →
[140]
Lucillius →
[141]
Lucillius →
[142]
Lucillius →
[143]
Lucillius →
[148]
Lucillius →
[153]
Lucillius →
[154]
Lucillius →
[155]
Lucillius →
[158]
Antipater of Thessalonica →
On Prophets (159-164)
[159]
Lucillius →
[160]
Lucillius →
[161]
Lucillius →
[162]
Nicarchus →
[163]
Lucillius →
[164]
Lucillius →
[165]
Lucillius →
[168] ANTIPHANES { Ph 8 } G
You reckon up your money, poor wretch ; but Time, just as it breeds interest, so, as it overtakes you, gives birth to grey old age. And so having neither drunk wine, nor bound your temples with flowers, having never known sweet ointment or a delicate little love, you shall die, leaving a great and wealthy testament, and of all your riches carrying away with you but one obol. *
* That which it was customary to put in the corpse's mouth.
[169]
Nicarchus →
[170]
Nicarchus →
[171]
Lucillius →
[172]
Lucillius →
[173]
Lucillius →
[174]
Lucillius →
[175]
Lucillius →
[176]
Lucillius →
[177]
Lucillius →
[178]
Lucillius →
[179]
Lucillius →
[183]
Lucillius →
[184]
Lucillius →
[185]
Lucillius →
[186]
Nicarchus →
[187] LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA { F 36 } G
Simylus the lyre-player killed all his neighbours by playing the whole night, except only Origenes, whom Nature had made deaf, and therefore gave him longer life in the place of hearing.
[189]
Lucillius →
[190]
Lucillius →
[191]
Lucillius →
[192]
Lucillius →
[194]
Lucillius →
[195]
Dioscorides →
On Ugly People (196-204)
[196]
Lucillius →
[197]
Lucillius →
[199] LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA { F 37 } G
Hook-nosed Sosipolis does not buy fish, but gets plenty of good fare from the sea for nothing ; bringing no line and rod, but attaching a hook to his nose, he pulls out everything that swims.
[200] LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA { F 38 } G
Zenogenes' house was on fire, and he was struggling in his efforts to let himself down from a window. By fixing planks together he could not reach far enough, but at length, when it struck him, he set Antimachus' nose as a ladder and escaped.
[205]
Lucillius →
[206]
Lucillius →
[207]
Lucillius →
[208]
Lucillius →
[210]
Lucillius →
[211]
Lucillius →
[212]
Lucillius →
[214]
Lucillius →
[215]
Lucillius →
[216]
Lucillius →
[217]
Lucillius →
[218] CRATES { H 1 } G
{ Translated by F. Cairns }
Choerilus falls far short of Antimachus, but on all occasions Euphorion had Choerilus in his mouth, and he subjected his poems to glosses, and he truly knew the works of Philitas; for he was indeed a follower of Homer. *
* Such is the meaning the epigram bears on its face, but several somewhat improper puns give it a different meaning, reflecting not on the style but on the morals of Euphorion.
[219]
Antipater of Thessalonica →
[224]
Antipater of Thessalonica →
[233]
Lucillius →
[234]
Lucillius →
[235] DEMODOCUS { F 2 } G
This, too, is by Demodocus : "The Chians are bad, not one bad and another not, but all bad except Procles, and Procles is a Chian. " *
* Demodocus of Leros lived previously to Aristotle who mentions him. There is another couplet identical with this except that the Lerians are substituted for the Chians and that the saying is attributed to Phocylides. Bentley's paraphrase, " The Germans in Greek are sadly to seek, Except only Hermann, and Hermann's a German," is well known.
[239]
Lucillius →
[240]
Lucillius →
[241]
Nicarchus →
[242]
Nicarchus →
[243]
Nicarchus →
[245]
Lucillius →
[246]
Lucillius →
[247]
Lucillius →
[248]
Bianor →
[249]
Lucillius →
[251]
Nicarchus →
[252]
Nicarchus →
[253]
Lucillius →
[254]
Lucillius →
[256]
Lucillius →
[257]
Lucillius →
[258]
Lucillius →
[259]
Lucillius →
[264]
Lucillius →
[265]
Lucillius →
[266]
Lucillius →
[275] APOLLONIUS (RHODIUS) { F 1 } G
Callimachus the outcast, the butt, the wooden head ! The origin is Callimachus who wrote the Origins. *
* Callimachus' chief poem ("Aetia"), of which we now possess portions, was so called. I think this distich was very probably written by Apollonius in the margin of an alphabetical dictionary in which stood kallusma: to katharma. . . . : to paignion. kalopous: ho xulinos pous. This gives it more point.
[276]
Lucillius →
[277]
Lucillius →
[278]
Lucillius →
[279]
Lucillius →
[281]
Lucillius →
[282]
Lucillius →
[293]
Lucillius →
[294]
Lucillius →
[295]
Lucillius →
[308]
Lucillius →
[309]
Lucillius →
[310]
Lucillius →
[311]
Lucillius →
[312]
Lucillius →
[313]
Lucillius →
[314]
Lucillius →
[315]
Lucillius →
[316]
Lucillius →
[318]
Philodemus →
[319] AUTOMEDON { Ph 5 } G
If you bring ten sacks of charcoal you, too, will be a citizen, and if you bring a pig, also, you will be Triptolemus himself, and to Heracleides your introducer must be given either some stalks of cabbage, or lentils, or snails. Have these with you and call yourself Erechtheus, Cecrops, Codrus, * whoever you like ; no one minds at all about it.
* Ancient Athenian heroes; he is satirizing the facility with which the Athenians granted citizenship.
[320]
Marcus_Argentarius →
[321]
Philippus →
[322] ANTIPHANES { Ph 9 } G
Idly curious race of grammarians, you who dig up by the roots the poetry of others ; unhappy book-worms that walk on thorns, defilers of the great, proud of your Erinna, * bitter and dry dogs set on by Callimachus, bane of poets, darkness to little beginners, away with you, bugs that secretly bite the eloquent.
* She was reckoned among the Alexandrian poets, and hence is mentioned here together with Callimachus.
[324] AUTOMEDON { Ph 6 } G
A. Accept, Phoebus, the supper I bring thee. B. I will accept it if someone lets me. A. Then, Son of Leto, is there something that you too do fear ? B. No one else but only Arrius, for he, that ministrant of an altar that smells not of fat, * has a more powerful claw than a robber-hawk, and once he has celebrated the procession he walks back carrying off everything. There is great virtue in Zeus' ambrosia, for I should be one of you {starving} if a god, too, could feel hunger.
* Because he carries all the meat away and never lets the altar smell of fat.
[325] AUTOMEDON { Ph 7 } G
Having supped yesterday on a leg of an old goat and the yellow stalk, ten days old, of a cabbage like hemp, I am shy of mentioning the man who invited me ; for he is short-tempered, and I am not a little afraid of his asking me again.
[326] AUTOMEDON { Ph 10 } G
Beard and rough hair on the thighs, how quickly time changes all ! Connichus, is this what you have become ? Did I not say, "Be not in all things harsh and discourteous; Beauty has its own Avenging Deities" ? So you have come into the pen, * proud youth ; we know that you wish for it now ; but then, too, you might have had sense.
* i. e. as I think, "You have become tame. " Commentators interpret, "You have become like a goat. "
[327]
Antipater of Thessalonica →
[328]
Nicarchus →
[329]
Nicarchus →
[330]
Nicarchus →
[331]
Nicarchus →
[332]
Nicarchus →
[346] AUTOMEDON { Ph 8 } G
How long, Polycarpus, sitting to feast at an empty table, * shall you live undetected on the savings of others ? I no longer see you much in the market-place, but you now turn up side streets and try to think where your feet shall carry you. You promise all, "Come, take yours to-morrow.
Come and get it": but not even if you take your oath do you continue to keep faith. "The wind bearing you from Cyzicus brought you to Samothrace" : this is the goal that awaits you for the rest of your life.
* i. e. his bank. The allusion in line 7, which is partly a parody of Homer, is quite obscure.
[347]
Philippus →
[348] ANTIPHANES { Ph 10 } G
O parricide, man more savage than the beasts, all things hate you, everywhere your fate awaits you. If you flee on the land, the wolf is near ; and if you climb high on trees, the asp on the branches is a terror. You make trial of the Nile, too, but he nourishes in his eddies the crocodile, a brute most just to the impious.
[361] AUTOMEDON { Ph 9 } G
Two mules, equally advanced in years, adorn my carriage, in all things resembling Homer's Prayers ** : lame, wrinkled, with squinting eyes, the escort of Hephaestus, leathery demons who never tasted, I swear it by the Sun, even in a dream, either barley in summer or grass in spring. Therefore, as far as I am concerned, may you live as long as a crow or stag, feeding on empty air.
* Hom. Il. i. 502.
[362]
Callimachus (60)
[363]
Dioscorides →
[364]
Bianor →
[388]
Lucillius →
[389]
Lucillius →
[390]
Lucillius →
[391]
Lucillius →
[392]
Lucillius →
[393]
Lucillius →
[394]
Lucillius →
[395]
Nicarchus →
[398]
Nicarchus →
[405]
Nicarchus →
[406]
Nicarchus →
[407]
Nicarchus →
[408]
Lucillius →
[409] GAETULICUS { F 8 } G
Four times putting her lips to the lips of the jar Silenis drank up the last dregs. Fair-haired Dionysus, she defiled you not with water, but even as you first came from the vineyard she used to quaff you generously, holding a cup even until she went to the sands of the dead.
[414] HEDYLUS { H 12 } G
The daughter of limb-relaxing Bacchus and limb-relaxing Aphrodite is limb-relaxing Gout.
[415]
Antipater of Thessalonica →
[418] THE EMPEROR TRAJAN { F 1 } G
If you put your nose pointing to the sun and open your mouth wide, you will show all passers-by the time of day. *
* Your nose would act as the index of a sun-dial. In rhina the emperor has been guilty of a false quantity.
[433]
Lucillius →
[437] ARATUS { H 2 } G
I lament for Diotimus, * who sits on stones repeating Alpha and Beta to the children of Gargarus.
* The epigram is not meant to be satirical. Diotimus was a poet obliged to gain his living by teaching in an obscure town.
[442] Anonymous { F 34 } G
Thrice I reigned as tyrant, and as many times did the people of Erechtheus expel me and thrice recall me, Peisistratus, great in council, who collected the works of Homer formerly sung in fragments. For that man of gold was our fellow-citizen, if we Athenians colonized Smyrna.
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Greek Anthology: Book 12
STRATO'S 'MUSA PUERILIS'
This selection from Book 12 of the Greek Anthology contains all the epigrams written before the middle of the first century A. D. , as listed in three editions:
(H) A. S. F. Gow & D. L. Page, "The Greek Anthology: Hellenistic Epigrams"
(Ph) A. S. F. Gow & D. L. Page, "The Greek Anthology: The Garland of Philip and Some Contemporary Epigrams"
(F) D. L. Page, "Further Greek Epigrams"
The labels in green are the numbers assigned to the epigrams in one of these editions. The labels in red are their numbers within the Anthology.
Translations of most of the epigrams are already available elsewhere, as indicated by the links. The translations of the remaining epigrams are taken from the edition by W. R. Paton (1916-18), but have been modified to remove some of the archaic language. Click on G to go to the Greek text of each epigram.
[12] FLACCUS { Ph 10 } G
Just as he is getting his beard, Ladon, the fair youth, cruel to lovers, is in love with a boy. Nemesis is swift.
[14]
Dioscorides →
[17]
Asclepiades →
[18] ALPHEIUS OF MYTILENE { Ph 11 } G
Unhappy are they whose life is loveless ; for without love it is not easy to do anything or to say anything. I, for example, am now all too slow, but were I to catch sight of Xenophilus I would fly swifter than lightning. Therefore I bid all men not to shun but to pursue sweet desire ; Love is the whetstone of the soul.
[20] JULIUS LEONIDAS { F 39 } G
Zeus is again rejoicing in the banquets of the Ethiopians, * or, turned to gold, hath stolen to Danaē's chamber ; for it is a marvel that, seeing Periander, he did not carry off from Earth the lovely youth ; or is the god no longer a lover of boys ?
* Homer, Il. i. 423.
[23]
Meleager →
[24] TULLIUS LAUREAS { Ph 3 } G
If my Polemon returns welcome and safe, as he was, Lord of Delos, when we sent him on his way, I do not refuse to sacrifice by your altar the bird, herald of the dawn, that I promised in my prayers to you. But if he comes possessing either more or less of anything than he had then, I am released from my promise. - But he came with a beard. If he himself prayed for this as a thing dear to him, exact the sacrifice from him who made the prayer.
[25] STATYLLIUS FLACCUS { Ph 11 } G
When I bade farewell to Polemon I prayed for him to return safe and sound to me, Apollo, promising a sacrifice of a fowl. But Polemon came to me with a hairy chin. No, Phoebus, I swear it by yourself, he came not to me, but fled from me with cruel fleetness. I no longer sacrifice the cock to you. Think not to cheat me, returning me for full ears empty chaff.
[26] STATYLLIUS FLACCUS { Ph 12 } G
If the Polemon I parted from came back to me in safety, I promised to sacrifice to you. But now Polemon is saved for himself. It is no longer he who has come back to me, Phoebus, and arriving with a beard, he is no longer saved for me. He perhaps prayed himself for his chin to be darkened. Let him then make the sacrifice himself, as he prayed for what was contrary to all my hopes.
[27] STATYLLIUS FLACCUS { Ph 13 } G
When I saw Polemon off, his cheeks like thine, Apollo, I promised to sacrifice a fowl if he came back. I do not accept him now his spiteful cheeks are bristly. Luckless wretch that I was to make a vow for the sake of such a man ! It is not fair for the innocent fowl to be plucked in vain, or let Polemon be plucked, too, Lord of Delos.
[29]
Alcaeus →
[30]
Alcaeus →
[31] PHANIAS { H 1 } G
By Themis and the bowl of wine that made me totter, your love, Pamphilus, has but a little time to last. Already your thigh has hair on it and your cheeks are downy, and Desire leads you henceforth to another kind of passion. But now that some little vestiges of the spark are still left thee, put away your parsimony. Opportunity is the friend of Love.
[32] THYMOCLES { H 1 } G
You remember, I trust, you remember the time when I spoke to you the holy verse, "Beauty is fairest and beauty is nimblest. " Not the fleetest bird in the sky shall outstrip beauty. Look, now, how all your blossoms are shed on the earth.
[33]
Meleager →
[34] AUTOMEDON { Ph 11 } G
Yesterday I supped with the boys' trainer, Demetrius, the most blessed of all men. One lay on his lap, one stooped over his shoulder, one brought him the dishes, and another served him with drink - the admirable quartet. I said to him in fun, "Do you, my dear friend, train the boys at night too ? "
[35] DIOCLES { Ph 4 } G
One thus addressed a boy who did not say good-day : "And so Damon, who excels in beauty, does not even say good-day now ! A time will come that will take vengeance for this. Then, grown all rough and hairy, you will give good-day first to those who do not give it you back. "
[36]
Asclepiades →
[37]
Dioscorides →
[38] RHIANUS { H 1 } G
The Hours and Graces shed sweet oil on you, and you let not even old men sleep. Tell me whose you are and which of the boys you adorn. And the answer was, "Menecrates. "
[39] Anonymous { H 32 } G
Nicander's light is out. All the bloom has left his complexion, and not even the name of charm survives, Nicander whom we once counted among the immortals. But, O young men, let not your thoughts mount higher than beseems a mortal ; there are such things as hairs.
[40] Anonymous { H 12 } G
Take not off my cloak, Sir, but look on me even as if I were a draped statue with the extremities only of marble. If you wish to see the naked beauty of Antiphilus you will find the rose growing as if on thorns.
[41]
Meleager →
[42]
Dioscorides →
[43]
Callimachus (30)
[44] GLAUCUS { H 1 } G
There was a time long, long ago, when boys who like presents were won by a quail, or a sewn ball, or knuckle-bones, but now they want rich dishes or money, and those playthings have no power. Search for something else, you lovers of boys.
[45]
Poseidippus (VIII)
[46]
Asclepiades →
[47]
Meleager →
[48]
Meleager →
[49]
Meleager →
[50]
Asclepiades →
[51]
Callimachus (31)
[52]
Meleager →
[53]
Meleager →
[54]
Meleager →
[55] ARTEMON (? ) { H 2 } G
Child of Leto, son of Zeus the great, who utter oracles to all men, you are lord of the sea-girt height of Delos ; but the lord of the land of Cecrops is Echedemus, a second Attic Phoebus whom soft-haired Love lit with lovely bloom. And his city Athens, once mistress of the sea and land, now has made all Greece her slave by beauty.
[56]
Meleager →
[57]
Meleager →
[58] RHIANUS { H 2 } G
Troezen is a good nurse ; you shall not err if you praise even the last of her boys. But Empedocles excels all in brilliance as much as the lovely rose outshines the other flowers of spring.
[59]
Meleager →
[60]
Meleager →
[61] Anonymous { H 17 } G
Look ! consume not all Cnidus utterly, Aribazus ; the very stone is softened and is vanishing.
[62] Anonymous { H 18 } G
Ye Persian mothers, beautiful, yea beautiful are the children you bear, but Aribazus is to me a thing more beautiful than beauty.
[63]
Meleager →
[64]
Alcaeus →
[65]
Meleager →
[66] Anonymous { H 26 } G
Judge, you Loves, of whom the boy is worthy. If truly of the god, let him have him, for I do not contend with Zeus. But if there is something left for mortals too, say, Loves, whose was Dorotheus and to whom is he now given. Openly they call out that they are in my favour ; but he departs. I trust that you, too, may not be attracted to beauty in vain. *
* I take the last line to be addressed to the boy, Dorotheus, who would not abide by the verdict of the Loves, but this line is corrupt, and the whole is rather obscure. There was evidently a terrestrial rival in addition to Zeus.
[67] Anonymous { H 25 } G
I see not lovely Dionysius. Has he been taken up to heaven, Father Zeus, to be the second cup-bearer of the immortals ? Tell me, eagle, when your wings beat rapidly over him, how did you carry the pretty boy ? has he marks from your claws ?
[68]
Meleager →
[69] Anonymous { H 21 } G
Take your delight, Zeus, with your former Ganymedes, and look from afar, O King, on my Dexander. I grudge it not. But if you carry away the fair boy by force, no longer is your tyranny supportable. Let even life go if I must live under your rule.
[70]
Meleager →
[71]
Callimachus (32)
[72]
Meleager →
[73]
Callimachus (42)
[74]
Meleager →
[75]
Asclepiades →
[76]
Meleager →
[77]
Asclepiades →
[78]
Meleager →
[79] Anonymous { H 11 } G
Antipater kissed me when my love was on the wane, and set ablaze again the fire from the cold ash. So against my will I twice encountered one flame. Away, you who are like to be love-sick, lest touching those near me I burn them.
[80]
Meleager →
[81]
Meleager →
[82]
Meleager →
[83]
Meleager →
[84]
Meleager →
[85]
Meleager →
[86]
Meleager →
[87] Anonymous { H 20 } G
Persistent Love, you ever whirl at me no desire for woman, but the lightning of burning longing for males. Now burnt by Damon, now looking on Ismenus, I ever suffer long pain. And not only on these have I looked, but my eye, ever madly roving, is dragged into the nets of all alike.
[88] Anonymous { H 19 } G
Two loves, descending on me like the tempest, consume me, Eumachus, and I am caught in the toils of two furious passions. On this side I bend towards Asander, and on that again my eye, waxing keener, turns to Telephus. Cut me in two, I should love that, and dividing the halves in a just balance, carry off my limbs, each of you, as the lot decides.
[89] Anonymous { H 2 } G
Cypris, why at one target have you shot three arrows, why are three barbs buried in one soul ? On this side I am burning, on the other I am being dragged ; I am all at a loss which way to turn, and in the furious fire I burn away utterly.
[90] Anonymous { H 1 } G
No longer do I love. I have wrestled with three passions that burn : one for a courtesan, one for a maiden, and one for a lad. And in every way I suffer pain. For I have been sore exercised, seeking to persuade the courtesan's doors to open, the foes of him who has nothing, and again ever sleepless I make my bed on the girl's couch, giving the child but one thing and that most desirable, kisses. * Alack ! how shall I tell of the third flame ? For from that I have gained nothing but glances and empty hopes.
* This seems to be the meaning ; had he wished to say he had kissed her once only he must have used the aorist.
[91] POLYSTRATUS { H 1 } G
A double love burns one heart. O eyes that cast yourselves in every direction on everything that you need not, you looked on Antiochus, conspicuous by his golden charm, the flower of our brilliant youth. It should be enough. Why did you gaze on sweet and tender Stasicrates, the sapling of violet-crowned Aphrodite ? Take fire, consume, be burnt up once for all ; for the two of you could never win one heart. *
* This last line seems to me obscure, as the heart, to judge from line 1, must be his own, not that of the beloved.
[92]
Meleager →
[93] RHIANUS { H 3 } G
Boys are a labyrinth from which there is no way out ; for wherever you cast your eye it is fast entangled as if by bird-lime. Here Theodorus attracts you to the plump ripeness of his flesh and the unadulterated bloom of his limbs, and there it is the golden face of Philocles, who is not great in stature, but heavenly grace surrounds him. But if thou turn to look on Leptines you shall no more move your limbs, but shall remain, your steps glued as if by indissoluble adamant ; such a flame has the boy in his eyes to set you afire from your head to your toe and finger tips. All hail, beautiful boys ! May you come to the prime of youth and live till grey hair clothes your heads.
[94]
Meleager →
[95]
Meleager →
[96] Anonymous { H 33 } G
Not in vain is this saying bruited among mortals, "The gods have not granted everything to everyone. " Faultless is your form, in your eyes is illustrious modesty, and the bloom of grace is on your bosom. And with all these gifts you vanquish the young men ; but the gods did not grant to you to have the same grace in your feet. But, good Pyrrhus, this boot shall hide your foot and give joy to you, proud of its beauty. *
* The verses seem to have been sent with a present of a pair of ornamental boots.
[97]
Antipater_of_Sidon →
[98]
Poseidippus (IX)
[99] Anonymous { H 9 } G
I am caught by Love, I who had never dreamt it, and never had I learnt to feed a male flame hot beneath my heart. I am caught. Yet it was no longing for evil, but a pure glance, foster-brother of modesty, that burnt me to ashes. Let it consume away, the long labour of the Muses ; for my mind is cast in the fire, bearing the burden of a sweet pain.
[100] Anonymous { H 5 } G
To what strange haven of desire have you brought me, Cypris, and pity me not, although you yourself have experience of the pain ? Is it your will that I should suffer the unbearable and speak this word, "Cypris alone has wounded the man wise in the Muses' lore" ?
[101]
Meleager →
[102]
Callimachus (33)
[103] Anonymous { H 56 } G
I know well to love them who love me, and I know to hate him who wrongs me, for I am not unversed in both.
[104] Anonymous { H 4 } G
Let my love abide with me alone ; but if it visits others, I hate, Cypris, a love that is shared.
[105]
Asclepiades →
[106]
Meleager →
[107] Anonymous { H 24 } G
Ye Graces, if lovely Dionysius' choice be for me, lead him on as now from season to season in ever-renewed beauty, but if, passing me over, he love another, let him be cast out like a stale myrtle-berry mixed with the dry sweepings.
[108] DIONYSIUS { H 3 } G
If you love me, Acratus, * may you be ranked with Chian wine, yes and even more honey-sweet ; but if you prefer another to me, let the gnats buzz about you as in the fume of a jar of vinegar.
* The name means "unwatered wine. "
[109]
Meleager →
[110]
Meleager →
[111] Anonymous { H 28 } G
Winged is Love and you are swift of foot, and the beauty of both is equal. We are only second to him, Eubius, because we have no bow and arrows.
[112] Anonymous { H 15 } G
Silence, O young men ; Arcesilaus is leading Love hither, having bound him with the purple cord of Cypris.
[113]
Meleager →
[114]
Meleager →
[115] Anonymous { H 6 } G
I have quaffed untempered madness, and all drunk with words I have armed myself with much frenzy for the way. I will march with music to her door, and what care I for God's thunder and what for his bolts, I who, if he cast them, carry love as an impenetrable shield ?
[116] Anonymous { H 34 } G
I will go to serenade him, for I am, all of me, mighty drunk. Boy, take this wreath that my tears bathe. The way is long, but I shall not go in vain ; it is the dead of night and dark, but for me Themison is a great torch.
[117]
Meleager →
[118]
Callimachus (43)
[119]
Meleager →
[120]
Poseidippus (XX)
[121] RHIANUS { H 4 } G
Tell me, Cleonicus, did the bright Graces meet you walking in a narrow lane and take you in their rosy arms, dear boy, that you have become such a Grace as you are ? From afar I bid you all hail, but ah ! dear, it is not safe for a dry corn-stalk to draw nearer to the fire.
[122]
Meleager →
[123] Anonymous { H 30 } G
When Menecharmus, Anticles' son, won the boxing match, I crowned him with ten soft fillets, and thrice I kissed him all dabbled with blood as he was, but the blood was sweeter to me than myrrh.
[124] ARTEMON (? ) { H 1 } G
As Echedemus was peeping out of his door on the sly, I slyly kissed that charming boy who is just in his prime. Now I am in dread, for he came to me in a dream, bearing a quiver, and departed after giving me fighting cocks, * but at one time smiling, at another with no friendly look. But have I touched a swarm of bees, and a nettle, and fire ?
* Of doubtful import. These birds were common presents of lovers, but to see them in a dream betided quarrels.
[125]
Meleager →
[126]
Meleager →
[127]
Meleager →
[128]
Meleager →
[129] ARATUS { H 1 } G
Philocles of Argos is "fair" * at Argos, and the columns of Corinth and tombstones of Megara announce the same. It is written that he is fair as far as Amphiaraus' Baths. But that is little ; they are only letters that beat us. For they are not stones that testify to this Philocles' beauty, but Rhianus, who saw him with his own eyes, and he is superior to the other one.
* It was the habit to write or cut the name of the beloved, adding the word kalos (fair), on stones or trees. But the poet says that it is only the evidence of these inscriptions that is in favour of Philocles of Argos. The evidence of our eyes is in favour of the other.
[130] Anonymous { H 27 } G
I said and said it again, "He is fair, he is fair," but I will still say it, that Dositheus is fair and has lovely eyes. These words we engraved on no oak or pine, no, nor on a wall, but Love burnt them into my heart. But if any man deny it, believe him not. By yourself, O God, I swear that he lies, and I who say it alone know the truth.
[131]
Poseidippus (XIII)
[132]
Meleager →
[132a]
Meleager →
[133]
Meleager →
[134]
Callimachus (44)
[135]
Asclepiades →
[136] Anonymous { H 10 } G
Ye chattering birds, why do you clamour ? Vex me not, as I lie warmed by the lad's delicate flesh, you nightingales that sit among the leaves. Sleep, I implore you, you talkative women-folk ; * hold your peace.
