§ 9.1  BOOK IX. THE DECLAMATORY AND DESCRIPTIVE EPIGRAMS
POLYAENUS OF SARDIS
A cruel viper struck the nursing udder of a doe which had newly calved as it hung down full of milk. Her fawn sucked the teat contaminated by poison, and from the fatal wound imbibed bitter milk charged with venom ill to cure. Death was transferred from mother to child, and at once by pitiless fate the breast bereft the young one of the gift of life that it owed to the womb.

§ 9.2  TIBERIUS ILLUSTRIUS
A viper, the most murderous of noxious beasts, injected her venom into the udder, swollen with milk, of a doe that had just calved, and the kid, sucking its mother's poisoned milk, drank up her death.

§ 9.3  ANTIPATER, by some attributed to PLATO They planted me, a walnut-tree, by the road-side to amuse passing boys, as a mark for their well-aimed stones. And all my twigs and flourishing shoots are broken, hit as I am by showers of pebbles. It is no advantage for trees to be fruitful. I indeed, poor tree, bore fruit only for my own undoing.

§ 9.4  CYLLENIUS
I, the wild pear-tree of the thicket, a denizen of the wilderness where the wild beasts feed, once bearing plenty of bastard fruit, have had foreign shoots grafted on me, and flourish now no longer wild, but loaded with a crop that is not my natural one. Gardener, I am deeply grateful for thy pains, owing it to thee that I now am enrolled in the tribe of noble fruit-trees.

§ 9.5  PALLADAS
This pear-tree is the sweet result of the labour of my, hand, with which in summer I fixed the graft in its moist bark. The slip, rooted on the tree by the incision, has changed its fruit, and though it is still a pyraster below, it is a fragrant-fruited pear-tree above.

§ 9.6  PALLADAS
I was a pyraster; thy hand hath made me a fragrant pear-tree by inserting a graft, and I reward thee for thy kindness.

§ 9.7  JULIUS POLYAENUS
Zeus, who rulest the holy land of Corey ra, though thy ears be ever full of the fears of suppliants or the thanks of those whose prayers thou hast heard, yet hearken to me, too, and grant me by a true promise that this be the end of my exile, and that I may dwell in my native land, my long labours over.

§ 9.8  JULIUS POLYAENUS
Hope ever makes the period of our days steal away, and the last dawn surprises us with many projects unaccomplished.

§ 9.9  JULIUS POLYAENUS
Often when I have prayed to thee, Zeus, hast thou granted me the welcome gift of fair weather till the end of my voyage. Give it me on this voyage, too; save me and bear me to the haven where toil ends. The delight of life is in our home and country, and superfluous cares make life not life but vexation.

§ 9.10  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
An octopus once, stretched out on a rock that projected into the sea, extended his many feet to let them bask in the sun. He had not yet changed to the colour of the rock, and therefore a sharp-eyed eagle saw him from the clouds and seized him, but fell, unhappy bird, entangled by his tentacles, into the sea, losing both its prey and its life.

§ 9.11  PHILIPPUS or ISIDORUS
One man was maimed in his legs, while another had lost his eyesight, but each contributed to the other that of which mischance had deprived him. For the blind man, taking the lame man on his shoulders, kept a straight course by listening to the other's orders. It was bitter, all-daring necessity which taught them all this, instructing them how, by dividing their imperfections between them, to make a perfect whole.

§ 9.12  LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA
The blind beggar supported the lame one on his feet, and gained in return the help of the other's eyes. Thus the two incomplete beings fitted into each other to form one complete being, each supplying what the other lacked.

§ 9.13  PLATO THE YOUNGER
A blind man carried a lame man on his back, lending him his feet and borrowing from him his eyes. 13b.— ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM Both are maimed and strolling beggars; but the one has lost the use of his eyes, the other the support of his legs. Each serves the other; for the blind man, taking the lame one on his back, walks gingerly by the aid of eyes not his own. One nature supplied the needs of both; for each contributed to the other his deficiency to form a whole.

§ 9.14  PLATO THE YOUNGER
Phaedo saw an octopus in the shallows by the beach oaring itself along in secret, and seizing it, he threw it rapidly on land before it could twine its eight spirals tightly round his hand. Whirled into a bush it fell on the home of a luckless hare, and twirling round fleet-footed puss's feet held them bound. The captured was capturer, and you, old man, got the unexpected gift of a booty both from sea and land.

§ 9.15  Anonymous
(Probably on a Picture of Love) Thou who seekest to set fire itself ablaze, who desirest to light thy lovely lamp at night, take thee light here from my soul, for that which is afire within me sends forth fierce flames.

§ 9.16  MELEAGER
The Graces are three, and three are the sweet virgin Horae, and three fierce girl Loves cast their arrows at me. Yea, verily, three bows hath Love prepared for me, as if he would wound in me not one heart, but three.

§ 9.17  GERMANICUS CAESAR
Once a hare from the mountain height leapt into the sea in her effort to escape from a dog's cruel fangs. But not even thus did she escape her fate; for at once a sea-dog seized her and bereft her of life. Out of the fire, as the saying is, into the flame didst thou fall. Of a truth Fate reared thee to be a meal for a dog either on the land or in the sea.

§ 9.18  GERMANICUS CAESAR on the same
One dog captured me after another. What is strange in that? Beasts of the water and beasts of the land have like rage against me. Henceforth, ye hares, may the sky be open to your course. But I fear thee, Heaven; thou too hast a dog among thy stars.

§ 9.19  ARCHIAS OF MYTILENE
"Eagle" who once outshone all fleet-footed horses; about whose legs chaplets once hung; he whom Pytho, the oracular seat of Phoebus, once crowned in the games, where he raced like a swiftly flying bird; he whom Nemea, too, the nurse of the grim lion, crowned, and Pisa and Isthmus with its two beaches, is now fettered by a collar as if by a bit, and grinds corn by turning a rough stone. He suffers the same fate as Heracles, who also, after accomplishing so much, put on the yoke of slavery.

§ 9.20  Anonymous on the same
I, Sir, who once gained the crown on the banks of Alpheius, and was twice proclaimed victor by the water of Castalia; I, who was announced the winner at Nemea, and formerly, as a colt, at Isthmus; I, who ran swift as the winged winds — see me now, how in my old age I turn the rotating stone driven in mockery of the crowns I won.

§ 9.21  Anonymous
I, Pegasus, attach blame to thee, my country Thessaly, breeder of horses, for this unmerited end of my days. I, who was led in procession at Pytho and Isthmus; I, who went to the festival of Nemean Zeus and to Olympia to win the Arcadian olive-twigs, now drag the heavy weight of the round Nisyrian mill-stone, grinding fine from the ears the fruit of Demeter.

§ 9.22  PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA
The temple servants destined as an acceptable sacrifice to Latona's daughter a heifer big with young; but happy birth-pangs anticipated her approaching death, and she was sent to the herd to bear her child in freedom. For the goddess who presides over child-bed deemed it not right to slay creatures in labour, having learnt to pity them.

§ 9.23  ANTIPATER
The husbandman Archippus, when, smitten by grave sickness, he was just breathing his last and gliding to Hades, spoke thus to his sons: "I charge you, dear children, that ye love the mattock and the life of a farmer. Look not with favour on the weary labour of them who sail the treacherous waves and the heavy toil of perilous sea-faring. Even as a mother is sweeter than a stepmother, so is the land more to be desired than the grey sea."

§ 9.24  LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM
As the burning sun, rolling his chariot-wheels, dims the stars and the holy circle of the moon, so Homer, holding on high the Muses' brightest torch, makes faint the glory of all the flock of singers.

§ 9.25  By the same
This is the book of learned Aratus, whose subtle mind explored the long-lived stars, both the fixed stars and the planets with which the bright revolving heaven is set. Let us praise him for the great task at which he toiled; let us count him second to Zeus, in that he made the stars brighter.

§ 9.26  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
These are the divine-voiced women that Helicon fed with song, Helicon and Macedonian Pieria's rock: Praxilla; Moero; Anyte, the female Homer; Sappho, glory of the Lesbian women with lovely tresses; Erinna; renowned Telesilla; and thou, Corinna, who didst sing the martial shield of Athena; Nossis, the tender-voiced, and dulcet-toned Myrtis — all craftswomen of eternal pages. Great Heaven gave birth to nine Muses, and Earth to these nine, the deathless delight of men.

§ 9.27  ARCHIAS or PARMENION
Heed well thy speech as thou goest past me, Echo who am a chatterbox and yet no chatterbox. If I hear anything I answer back the same, for I will return to thee thy own words; but if thou keepest silent, so shall I. Whose tongue is more just than mine?

§ 9.28  POMPEIUS or MARCUS THE YOUNGER
Though I, Mycenae, am but a heap of dust here in the desert, though I am meaner to look at than any chance rock, he who gazes on the famous city of Ilion, whose walls I trod underfoot and emptied all the house of Priam, shall know thence how mighty I was of old. If my old age has used me ill, the testimony of Homer is enough for me.

§ 9.29  ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM
Adventure, thou inventor of ships (for thou didst discover the paths of the sea, and didst excite men's minds by hope of gain), what treacherous timbers didst thou fashion; what lust for gain, oft brought home to them by death, hast thou instilled into men! Of a truth the race of mortals had been a golden one, if the sea, like hell, were viewed from the land in dim distance.

§ 9.30  ZELOTUS or BASSUS
I am a pine-tree broken by the wind on land. Why do you send me to the sea, a spar shipwrecked before sailing?

§ 9.31  ZELOTUS
Why, shipwrights, do ye entrust to the sea this pine, which the strong south-wester tore up by the roots from the mountain side? I shall make no lucky hull at sea, I, a tree which the winds hate. On land I already experienced the ill-fortune of the sea.

§ 9.32  Anonymous
I was a newly-built ship on the surf-beaten beach, and had not yet touched the grey waves. But the sea would not be kept waiting for me; the wild flood rose and carried me away from the firm shore, an unhappy bark indeed ... to whom the stormy waves were fatal both on land and at sea. c

§ 9.33  CYLLENIUS
Before I was a ship I perished. What more could I have suffered if I had become familiar with the deep? Alas, every bark meets its end by the waves!

§ 9.34  ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM
After I had traversed innumerable waves of the limitless sea, and stood firm for a season on the land, I was destroyed not by the sea, the terror of ships, but on shore by fire. Who will say that the sea is the more treacherous of the two? It was the earth on which I came into being that destroyed me, and I lie on the beach, reproaching the land for the fate I expected from the sea.

§ 9.35  ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM
I am the newly-fashioned keel of a ship, and the sea beside which I lay carried me off, raging against me even on land.

§ 9.36  SECUNDUS
I, the ship which had traversed the paths of the limitless ocean, and swum so often through the gray waves; I, whom neither the black east wind overwhelmed nor the fierce swell raised by the winter south-westers drove on shore, am now shipwrecked in the flames, and reproach the faithless land, in sore need now of the waters of my sea.

§ 9.37  TULLIUS FLACCUS
On a Fountain called Quiet Fount A. "Draw water from me in silence." B. "Why? " A. "Stop drawing." B. "Wherefore? " A. "Mine is the sweet drink of Quiet." B. "You are a disagreeable fountain." A. "Taste me and you will see I am still more disagreeable." B. "Oh what a bitter stream! " A. "Oh what a chatterbox! "

§ 9.38  Anonymous
If thou art a man, stranger, draw water from this fountain; but if thou art effeminate by nature, on no account drink me. I am a male drink, and only please men; but for those naturally effeminate their own nature is water.'

§ 9.39  MUSICIUS
Cypris to the Muses: "Honour Aphrodite, ye maidens, or I will arm Love against you." And the Muses to Cypris: "Talk that twaddle to Ares. Your brat has no wings to fly to us."

§ 9.40  ZOSIMUS OF THASOS
On the Shield of one Anaximenes Not only in combats and in the battle din do I protect the spirit of valiant Anaximenes; but in the sea, too, when the waves broke up his ship, I was a shield to save him, clinging to me in swimming as if I were a plank. On sea and land alike I am his hope and stay, having saved my bold master from two different deaths.

§ 9.41  THEON OF ALEXANDRIA
I, the shield that erst protected from the foemen's shafts and resisted the bloody wave of horrid war, not even then, when the sea in wild tumult swept on my master, and the mariners perished miserably, betrayed my comrade, but bearing thee, a noble burden indeed, my friend, went with thee even to the haven for which thou didst pray.

§ 9.42  JULIUS LEONIDAS
I, Myrtilus, escaped two dangers by the help of one weapon; the first by fighting bravely with it, the second by swimming with its support, when the north-west wind had sunk my ship. I was saved and now possess a shield proved both in war and on the waves.

§ 9.43  PARMENION OF MACEDONIA
The simple covering of my cloak is enough for me; and I, who feed on the flowers of the Muses, shall never be the slave of the table. I hate witless wealth, the nurse of flatterers, and I will not stand in attendance on one who looks down on me. I know the freedom of scanty fare.

§ 9.44  STATYLLIUS FLACCUS, by some ATTRIBUTED TO PLATO A man finding gold left his halter, but the man who had left the gold and did not find it, hanged himself with the halter he found.

§ 9.45  STATYLLIUS FLACCUS
One man found the gold and the other lost it. He who found it threw it away, and he who did not find it hanged himself with the dismal halter.

§ 9.46  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
A blind and childless woman, who prayed that she might either recover her sight or bear a child, gained both blessings. For not long after she was brought to bed, as she never had expected, and on the same day saw the sweet light of day for which she had longed with all her heart. Both her prayers were heard by Artemis, the deliverer in child-bed and the bearer of the white-rayed torch.

§ 9.47  Anonymous on a Goat that suckled a Wolf
It is not by my own will that I suckle the wolf at my own breast, but the shepherd's folly compels me to do it. Reared by me he will become a beast of prey to attack me. Gratitude cannot change nature.

§ 9.48  Anonymous
Through love Zeus became a swan for Leda, a bull for Europa, a satyr for Antiope, and gold for Danae.

§ 9.49  Anonymous
Farewell, Hope and Fortune, a long farewell. I have found the haven. I have no more to do with you. Make game of those who come after me.

§ 9.50  MIMNERMUS (not an epigram, but a Couplet from an Elegy)
Rejoice thy own heart, but of thy ill-disposed countrymen one shall speak ill of thee and another well.

§ 9.51  PLATO
Time brings everything; length of years can change names, forms, nature, and fortune.

§ 9.52  CARPYLLIDES
A man, angling on the beach with a hook attached to a fine hair line, brought to shore the hairless head of a shipwrecked man. Pitying the bodiless corpse, he dug a little grave with his hands, having no tool, and found there hidden a treasure of gold. Of a truth then righteous men lose not the reward of piety.

§ 9.53  NICODEMUS or BASSUS
Hippocrates was the light of mankind; whole peoples were saved by him, and there was a scarcity of dead in Hades.

§ 9.54  MENECRATES
Everyone prays for old age when it is still absent, but finds fault with it when it comes. It is always better while it is still owing to us.

§ 9.55  LUCILIUS or MENECRATES OF SAMOS
If anyone who has reached old age prays for life, he deserves to go on growing old for many decades.

§ 9.56  PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA
The child, treading on the frozen stream of Thracian Hebrus, did not escape death; but when he slipped into the river, now less solidly frozen, his tender neck was cut through by the ice. The rest of his body was carried away, but the head which remained on the ice gave of necessity cause for a funeral. Unhappy she whose offspring was divided between fire and water and seeming to belong to both, belongs not wholly to either.

§ 9.57  PAMPHILUS
To the Swallow Why, unhappy daughter of Pandion, dost thou mourn all day long, uttering thy twittering note? Is it that regret is come upon thee for thy maidenhead, which Thracian Tereus took from thee by dreadful force?

§ 9.58  ANTIPATER On the temple of Artemis at Ephesus I have set eyes on the wall of lofty Babylon on which is a road for chariots, and the statue of Zeus by the Alpheus, and the hanging gardens, and the colossus of the Sun, and the huge labour of the high pyramids, and the vast tomb of Mausolus; but when I saw the house of Artemis that mounted to the clouds, those other marvels lost their brilliancy, and I said, "Lo, apart from Olympus, the Sun never looked on aught so grand."

§ 9.59  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
Four Victories, winged, hold aloft on their backs as many of the immortals. One uplifts Athena in her warlike guise, one Aphrodite, one Heracles, and another dauntless Ares. They are painted on the fair dome of thy house, and mount to heaven. O Caius, bulwark of thy country, Rome, may Heracles, the devourer of oxen, make thee invincible; may Cypris bless thee with a good wife, Pallas endue thee with wisdom, and Ares with fearlessness.

§ 9.60  DIODORUS
I, this tower on the rock in the sea, am Pharos, bearing the same name as the island and serving as a beacon for the harbour.

§ 9.61  Anonymous
The Spartan woman, seeing her son hastening home in flight from the war and stripped of his armour, rushed to meet him, and driving a spear through his liver, uttered over the slain these words full of virile spirit: "Away with thee to Hades, alien scion of Sparta! Away with thee, since thou wast false to thy country and thy father! "

§ 9.62  EVENUS OF ASCALON
Strangers, the ash of ages has devoured me, holy Ilion, the famous city once renowned for my towered walls, but in Homer I still exist, defended by brazen gates. The spears of the destroying Achaeans shall not again dig me up, but I shall be on the lips of all Greece.

§ 9.63  ASCLEPIADES
Lyde is my name and I am of Lydian race, and Antimachus has made me more noble than any descendant of Codrus. For who has not sung me, who has not read Lyde, the joint work of the Muses and Antimachus?

§ 9.64  ASCLEPIADES or ARCHIAS
The Muses themselves saw thee, Hesiod, feeding thy sheep at mid-day in the rugged hills, and all drawing round thee proffered thee a branch of holy laurel with lovely leaves. They gave thee also the inspiring water of the Heliconian spring, that the hoof of the winged horse once struck, and having drunk thy fill of it thou didst write in verse the Birth of the gods and the Works, and the race of the ancient demigods.

§ 9.65  Anonymous
Leafy spring adorns the earth, the stars adorn the heavens, this land adorns Hellas, and these men their country.

§ 9.66  ANTIPATER OF SIDON
Mnemosyne was smitten with astonishment when she heard honey-voiced Sappho, wondering if men possess a tenth Muse.

§ 9.67  Anonymous
The boy was crowning his stepmother's funeral stele, a tall column, thinking that in changing life for death she had changed her character. But it came down on the tomb and killed him. Stepsons, avoid even the tomb of your stepmother.

§ 9.68  Anonymous
Stepmothers are always a curse to their stepchildren, and do not keep them safe even when they love them. Remember Phaedra and Hippolytus.

§ 9.69  PARMENION OF MACEDONIA
A stepmother's spite is ever mordant, and not gentle even in love. I know what befel chaste Hippolytus.

§ 9.70  MNASALCAS
O daughter of Pandion with the plaintive twittering voice, thou who didst submit to the unlawful embraces of Tereus, why dost thou complain, swallow, all day in the house? Cease, for tears await thee hereafter too.

§ 9.71  ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM
Overhanging branches of the spreading oak, that from on high shade well men seeking shelter from the untempered heat, leafy boughs roofing closer than tiles, the home of wood-pigeons, the home of cicadas, O noontide branches, guard me, too, who lie beneath your foliage, taking refuge from the rays of the sun.

§ 9.72  ANTIPATER
Hermes, ye shepherds, is easily contented, rejoicing in libations of milk and honey from the oak-tree, but not so Heracles. He demands a ram or fat lamb, or in any case a whole victim. But he keeps off the wolves. What profits that, when the sheep he protects if not slain by the wolf is slain by its protector?

§ 9.73  ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM
O alternating flood of the Euboean gulf, vagabond water, running contrary to thy own current, how strong but inconstant a stream thou lendest to the ships, changing its direction regularly thrice by day and thrice by night! Thou art one of the marvels of life, and I am filled with infinite wonder at thee, but do not seek the reason of thy factious course. It is the business and the secret of Nature.

§ 9.74  Anonymous
I was once the field of Achaemenides and am now Menippus', and I shall continue to pass from one man to another. For Achaemenides once thought he possessed me, and Menippus again thinks he does; but I belong to no man, only to Fortune.

§ 9.75  EVENUS OF ASCALON
(The Vine speaks) Though thou eatest me to the root, billy-goat, I will yet bear fruit enough to provide a libation for thee when thou art sacrificed.

§ 9.76  ANTIPATER OF SIDON
Of two snares one caught a fat thrush, and the other, in its horsehair fetters, a blackbird. Now while the thrush did not free its plump body from the twisted noose round its neck, to enjoy again the light of day, the other snare let free the holy blackbird. Even deaf bird-snares, then, feel compassion for singers.

§ 9.77  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
Hera, tortured by the beauty of Ganymede, and with the soul-consuming sting of jealousy in her heart, once spoke thus: "Troy gave birth to a male flame for Zeus; therefore I will send a flame to fall on Troy, Paris the bringer of woe. No eagle shall come again to the Trojans, but vultures to the feast, the day that the Danai gather the spoils of their labour."

§ 9.78  LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA
(This and the two following are Isopsepha) Do not, master, find fault with me, the wild peartree, ever loaded with unripe fruit. For the pears which I ripen on my branches are pilfered by another than yourself, but the unripe ones remain hanging round their mother.

§ 9.79  LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA
Of my own will I let my fruits be plucked, but when they are ripe. Stop throwing hard stones at me. Bacchus too will wax wrath with thee for doing injury to his gift. Bear in mind the fate of Lycurgus.

§ 9.80  LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA
Ye prophets who explore the paths of the stars, out on you, ye false professors of a futile science! Folly brought you to the birth, and Rashness was your mother, ye poor wretches, who know not even your own disrepute.

§ 9.81  CRINAGORAS
Tell me not that death is the end of life. The dead, like the living, have their own causes of suffering. Look at the fate of Nicias of Cos. He had gone to rest in Hades, and now his dead body has come again into the light of day. For his fellow citizens, forcing the bolts of his tomb, dragged out the poor hard-dying wretch to punishment.

§ 9.82  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
Trust not, mariner, to the fatal sea, even when thou art at anchor, even when thy hawsers are fast on land. For Ion fell overboard in the harbour, and his active hands, fettered by the wine, were useless for swimming. Shun dances and carousal on board ship. The sea is the enemy of Bacchus. Such is the law established by the Tyrrhene pirates.

§ 9.83  PHILIPPUS
The dolphins, the fish-eating dogs of the sea, were sporting round the ship as she moved rapidly on her course. A boar-hound, taking them for game, dashed, poor fellow, into the sea, as he would have dashed on land. He perished for the sake of a chase that was strange to him; for not all dogs are light of foot in the sea.

§ 9.84  ANTIPHANES
A shepherd saw the straying hull of a sea-tost boat carried along shore by the fierce waves. He seized it with his hand, and it dragged its saviour into the deep sea, so bitter was its hatred of all mankind. Thus the shepherd met with the fate of a shipwrecked mariner. Alas! both the woods and the harbour are put in mourning by that boat.

§ 9.85  PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA
The sea destroyed my boat, but Heaven bestowed on me, as I was carried hither and thither, a more welcome natural boat. For seeing my father's body coming to me opportunely, I climbed on it, a solitary oarsman, a burden which it was its duty to bear. The old man bore me to the harbour, thus giving life to me twice, on land as a babe and again at sea.

§ 9.86  ANTIPHILUS
An omnivorous, crawling, lickerish mouse, seeing in the house an oyster with its lips open, had a bite at its flesh-like wet beard. Immediately the house of shell closed tightly with a clap owing to the pain, and the mouse, locked in the prison from which there was no escape, compassed for himself death and the tomb.

§ 9.87  MARCUS ARGENTARIUS
No longer warble, blackbird, by the oak-tree, no longer perch on the highest branch and call. This tree is thy enemy; hie thee to where the vine mounts with shady green leaves. Set thy feet on its branch and sing by it, pouring shrill notes from thy throat. For the oak bears the mistletoe which is the foe of birds, but the vine bears grape-clusters; and Bacchus loves songsters.

§ 9.88  PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA
I, the honey-voiced nightingale, was flying over the sea, complaining of Boreas (for not even the wind that blows from Thrace is kind to me), when a dolphin received me on his back, the sea-creature serving as the chariot of the winged one. Borne by this most faithful boatman, I charmed the oarless sailor by the lyre of my lips. The dolphins ever served as oarsmen to the Muses without payment. The tale of Arion is not untrue.

§ 9.89  PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA
Ancient Nico, fending off distressful famine, was gleaning the ears of corn with the girls, and perished from the heat. Her fellow-labourers piled up for her a woodless funeral pyre from the straw of the corn. Be not wrathful, Demeter, if the maidens clothed a child of Earth in the fruits of the earth.

§ 9.90  ALPHEIUS OF MITYLENE
To Poseidon Lord of horses, who hast dominion over the swift ships and the great precipitous rock of Euboea, grant a fair passage as far as the city of Ares to thy suppliants who loosed their moorings from Syria.

§ 9.91  ARCHIAS THE YOUNGER
Hail! Hermes, the Lord, who dwellest in the city of the Corycians, and look kindly on my simple offering.

§ 9.92  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
A little dew is enough to make the cicadas tipsy, but when they have drunk they sing louder than swans. So can the singer who has received hospitality repay his benefactors with song for their little gifts. Therefore first I send thee these lines of thanks, and if the Fates consent thou shalt be often written in my pages.

§ 9.93  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
Antipater sends to Piso for his birthday a little volume, the work of one night. Let Piso receive it favourably and praise the poet, like great Zeus, whose favour is often won by a little frankincense.

§ 9.94  ISIDORUS OF AEGAE
Tynnichus once caught an octopus and threw it from the sea on to the land, fearing to be enchained by the creature's tentacles. But it fell on and twined itself round a sleeping hare that, poor thing, had just escaped from the hounds. The captive became captor, and Tynnichus threw the octopus back alive into the sea, taking the hare as its ransom.

§ 9.95  ALPHEIUS OF MITYLENE
A domestic hen, the winter snow-flakes falling thick on her, gathered her chickens safely bedded under her wings till the cold shower from the sky killed her; for she remained exposed, fighting against the clouds of heaven. Procne and Medea, blush for yourselves in Hades, learning from a hen what mothers ought to be.

§ 9.96  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
Antigenes of Gela, when he was already on his road to Hades, spoke thus to his daughter: "Maiden with lovely cheeks, daughter mine, let thy spindle ever be thy fellow-worker, a possession sufficient for a life of poverty. But if thou enterest into wedlock, keep with thee the virtues of thy Achaean mother, the safest dowry thy husband can have."

§ 9.97  ALPHEIUS OF MITYLENE
We listen still to the lament of Andromache; still we see Troy laid in ruins from her foundations and the battle-toil of Ajax, and Hector bound to the chariot and dragged under the battlements of the town — all through the verse of Maeonides, the poet whom not one country honours as its own, but all the lands of two continents.

§ 9.98  STATYLLIUS FLACCUS
Thy two Oidipodes and the relentless hate of Electra, and the Sun driven from heaven by the feast of Atreus, and thy other writings that picture the many woes of princes in a maimer worthy of the chorus of Dionysus, approved thee, Sophocles, as the chief of the company of tragic poets; for thou didst speak with the very lips of the heroes.

§ 9.99  LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM
The nanny-goat's nimble, bearded spouse once in a vineyard nibbled all the tender leaves of a vine. The vine spoke thus to him from the ground: "Cut close with thy jaws, accursed beast, my fruitful branches; my stem is entire, and shall again send forth sweet nectar enough to serve as a libation for thee, goat, when thou art sacrificed."

§ 9.100  ALPHEIUS OF MITYLENE
To Delos Holy nurse of Leda's babes, whom Zeus anchored immovably in the Aegean main! I swear, gracious lady, by thy own gods, that I will not call thee wretched or follow the verses of Antipater. I deem thee blessed in that thou didst receive Phoebus, and that Artemis, after Olympus, calls no land her fatherland but thee.

§ 9.101  ALPHEIUS OF MITYLENE
Few are the birth-places of the heroes that are still to be seen, and those yet left are not much higher than the soil. So, as I passed thee by, did I recognise thee, unhappy Mycenae, more waste than any goat-fold. The herds still point thee out, and it was an old man who said to me, "Here stood once the city, rich in gold, that the Cyclopes built."

§ 9.102  ANTONIUS
On the same I, once the stronghold of sky-mounting Perseus, I, the nurse of the star so cruel to the sons of Ilium, am left deserted now to be a fold for the goat-herds of the wilderness, and at length the spirit of Priam is avenged on me.

§ 9.103  MUNDUS MUNATIUS
I, Mycenae, the city once so rich in gold, I who received into my walls the house of the Atreidae, sons of Heaven, I who sacked Troy that a god built, I who was the secure royal seat of the Greek demigods, lie here, the pasture of sheep and oxen, with naught of my greatness left but the name. Well hath Nemesis borne thee in mind, Ilion, since now, when Mycenae is no longer to be seen, thou art, and art a city.

§ 9.104  ALPHEIUS OF MITYLENE
Argos, thou talk of Homer, and thou holy soil of Hellas, and thou stronghold of Perseus once all golden, ye are perished, and with you the light of those heroes who once levelled the god-built battlements of Troy. Now Troy is a city more powerful than ever and you are fallen and are pointed out as the stalls of lowing cattle.

§ 9.105  Anonymous
I am a pine tree broken by the wind. Why make a ship of me who tasted on land the ship-wrecking gales?

§ 9.106  LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA
I am a ship that, after I had traversed so many leagues of sea, the fire burnt on the land that had stripped herself of her pine-trees to build me. I, whom the sea spared, perished on the shore. I found her who bore me more faithless than the sea.

§ 9.107  LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA (?) They call me the little skiff, and say that I do not sail so well and fearlessly as the ocean ships. I do not deny it; I am a little boat, but small and great are all the same to the sea; it is not a matter of size, but of luck. Let another ship have more rudders; one puts his trust in this and another in that, but may I be saved by the grace of God.

§ 9.108  Anonymous
Said Zeus to Love: "I will take away all your darts." Said the winged boy: "Thunder at me if you dare and I will make a swan of you again."

§ 9.109  JULIUS DIOCLES
I know not whether to call thee a shield, thee, the faithful ally with whom I armed myself against many foes, or rather my little sea boat, since thou didst support me swimming from the doomed ship to the shore. In war I escaped the wrath of Ares, and on the sea that of Nereus, and in each case thou wast my defence.

§ 9.110  ALPHEIUS OF MITYLENE
I crave not for deep-soiled fields nor wealth of gold such as was Gyges'. I love a self-sufficient life, Macrinus. The saying "naught in excess" pleaseth me exceedingly.

§ 9.111  ARCHIAS OF MITYLENE
We should praise the Thracians because they mourn for their children when they issue from their mothers' wombs to the light, while on the other hand they bless those on whom Death, the unforeseen servant of the Fates, lays his hand. For the living ever pass through every kind of evil, but the dead have found the medicine of all.

§ 9.112  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
The astrologers foretold that I would live thrice ten and twice three years, but I am satisfied with the three decades. For this is the right limit of men's life. Longer life is for Nestor, and even Nestor went to Hades.

§ 9.113  PARMENION
The bugs fed on me with gusto till they were disgusted, but I myself laboured till I was disgusted, dislodging the bugs.

§ 9.114  PARMENION
A child was peeping down from the very edge of a high tiled roof (Death has no fears for little children), when its mother from behind turned away its attention by showing it her breast. Thus one fount of milk twice bestowed life on her child.

§ 9.115  Anonymous on the Shield of Achilles
The son of Laertes gained by the unjust judgment of the Greeks the shield of Achilles that had drunk the blood of Hector. But when he suffered shipwreck the sea robbed him of it, and floated it ashore by the tomb of Ajax and not in Ithaca.

§ 9.115b  Anonymous on the same
Poseidon's judgment was far more admirable than Athena's .... The sea proved how hateful was the decision of the Greeks, and Salamis possesses the glory that is her due.

§ 9.116  Anonymous on the same
The shield cries aloud by the shore and beats against the tomb, summoning thee, its worthy bearer: "Awake, son of Telamon, the shield of Achilles is thine."

§ 9.117  STATYLLIUS FLACCUS
When Pyrrhus on his father's high-piled tomb celebrated in his honour the mournful wedding of Polyxena, thus did Cissean Hecuba bewail the murder of her children, tearing the hair from her tear-worn head: "Once thou didst drag dead Hector tied to thy chariot wheels, and now thou art dead thou acceptest the blood of Polyxena. Achilles, why is thy wrath so sore against the fruit of my womb? Not even in death art thou gentle to my children."

§ 9.118  Anonymous
Alas for youth and hateful old age! The one approaches and the other is gone.

§ 9.119  PALLADAS
If a man who is a ruler choose to put up with flatterers, he will sacrifice many to their vile mouths; so the best men, in righteous hatred, should detest the flattered as much as the flatterer.

§ 9.120  LUCIAN
A bad man is like a jar with a hole in it. Pour every kindness into him and you have shed it in vain.

§ 9.121  Anonymous on the Hyacinth
I am a plant for which Sparta and Salamis dispute, and I mourn for either the fairest of youths or the stoutest of warriors.

§ 9.122  Anonymous, by some assigned to EVENUS
To a Swallow
Honey-nurtured child of Athens, is it a prattling cicada that thy prattling self has caught and carries for a feast to thy winged brood? Dost thou, the chatterer, prey on the chatterer; thou, the winged, on the winged; thou, the guest of summer, on the guest of summer? Wilt thou not drop it at once; it is neither meet nor just that singers should perish by mouths skilled in song.

§ 9.123  LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA
(Isopsephon) A she-goat rushing to browse on a wild pear recovered her sight from the tree, and lo! was no longer blind in one eye. For the sharp thorn pricked the one eye. See how a tree benefited more than the surgeon's skill.

§ 9.124  Anonymous on a Man cutting a Laurel with an Axe
Where has Phoebus gone? Mars is on too close terms with Daphne.

§ 9.125  Anonymous
The brave Celts test their children in the jealous Rhine, and none regards himself as being the child's father until he sees it washed by that venerated river. At once, when the babe has glided from its mother's lap and sheds its first tears, the father himself lifts it up and places it on his shield, caring naught for its suffering; for he does not feel for it like a father until he sees it judged by the bath in the river, the test of conjugal fidelity. The mother, suffering new pangs added to those of childbirth, even though she knows him to be the child's true father, awaits in fear and trembling the pronouncement of the inconstant stream.

§ 9.126  Anonymous
(What Clytaemnestra might have said when Orestes was about to kill her) Where dost thou direct thy sword, to my belly or my breasts? This belly brought thee forth, these breasts nurtured thee.

§ 9.127  Anonymous
If a little sweet wine remains in a vessel, this remnant turns to vinegar. So the old man who has quite emptied life and has reached the depth of eld becomes sour-tempered.

§ 9.128  Anonymous (but probably from the same poem as the following) The dragon crept down and drank water. The sources were exhausted and the river became dry dust, and still the brute was athirst.

§ 9.129  NESTOR
Part of it was crawling, part of it was about to crawl, and the rest was still torpid in its lair. But it thirsted and put its jaws in the stream. Then all Cephisus ran into them, and horrid gurgling sounded in its throat. As the water sunk, often did the nymphs lament for Cephisus that was no more.

§ 9.130  Anonymous
(The Olive-tree speaks) I am the plant of Pallas. Why do you clasp me, ye branches of Bacchus? Away with the clusters! I am a maiden and drink no wine.

§ 9.131  Anonymous
I was a sturdy pine on the mountain ridge, and the rainy south wind tore me up by the roots. Then out of me was built a ship to fight again with the winds. Ye men, ye never flinch from aught.

§ 9.132  Anonymous
Chastity and Love, meeting in the lists, both de stroyed life. Her burning love for Hippolytus slew Phaedra, and his pure chastity slew Hippolytus.

§ 9.133  Anonymous
If one who has once been married seeks another wife, he is like a shipwrecked sailor who sets sail again on the dreadful deep.

§ 9.134  Anonymous Hope and Fortune, a long farewell to you both! I have found the way. I no longer take delight in aught of yours. Away with both of you! for ye lead men far astray. Ye present to our minds, as in visions of sleep, things that never shall really be, as if they were. Away with thee, poor puppet, mother of many woes; away with you both! Make sport, if you will, of whomever ye find after me, whose mind dwells on things he should not think of. Of a truth Fortune is a delusion for all mortals; for she is without force, and mostly even without being. {135}— Who wrote this, God knows. Why? Himself only knows.

§ 9.136  CYRUS
Would that my father had taught me to shepherd fleecy flocks, so that, sitting under the elms or piping under a rock, I might cheer my sorrows with music. Let us fly, ye Muses, from the stately city, and seek another home. I will announce to all that the pestilent drones have done mischief to the bees.

§ 9.137  A CERTAIN HALF-STARVED GRAMMARIAN to the Emperor Hadrian
The half of me is dead, and starvation is subduing the other half. Save, Sire, a musical semitone of me.'-' The Emperor's Reply thereto Thou dost wrong both Pluto and the Sun by looking still on the latter and failing to go to the former.

§ 9.138  Anonymous
I was once young, but poor; now I am old I am rich. I alone of mortals was miserable both in youth and age. When I was able to use riches I had nothing, and now, when I cannot use them, I have them.

§ 9.139  CLAUDIANUS
The wanton, accompanying her dance with shrill shrieks and castanets, beats the brazen clappers together with quivering movements. Her grey hair, the harbinger of death, is concealed by . . . She tortures her eyes to dart ineffectual flashes; her false colour is sicklied o'er by the pallor of shame; while a fictitious splendour clothes her hidden breasts.

§ 9.140  CLAUDIANUS
A serving-man stood in the porch of Helicon bearing on his shoulders a brazen-footed stool he had seized, and would not give it to me, tired as I was, to sit on and recite. Therefore ingenious necessity sharpened my wit to deal with the situation.

§ 9.141  Anonymous
A man in a lethargy and a maniac lying in one bed ridded each other of their respective maladies. For the one, made daring by his madness, leapt from the bed and belaboured the insensible man all over. The blows cured both, waking up the one, and his great exertion throwing the other into a sleep.

§ 9.142  Anonymous
We do worship to horned Pan, the walker on the crags, the leader of the Nymphs, who dwelleth in this house of rock, praying him to look with favour on all us who came to this constant fountain and quenched our thirst.

§ 9.143  ANTIPATER OF SIDON
Simple is this my dwelling (beside the big waves am I enthroned, the queen of the sea-bathed beach), but dear to me; for I delight in the sea, vast and terrible, and in the sailors who come to me for safety. Pay honour to Cypris, and either in thy love or on the gray sea I shall be a propitious gale to bear thee on.

§ 9.144  ANYTE
This is the place of Cypris, for it is sweet to her to look ever from the land on the bright deep, that she may make the voyages of sailors happy; and around the sea trembles, looking on her polished image.

§ 9.145  Anonymous
Diogenes the cynic, on his arrival in Hades, after his wise old age was finished, laughed when he saw Croesus. Spreading his cloak on the ground near the king, who once drew great store of gold from the river, he said: "Now, too, I take up more room than you; for all I had I have brought with me, but you, Croesus, have nothing."

§ 9.146  Anonymous
I, Eunus, have set up Hope and Nemesis by the altar, the one in order that thou mayst hope, the other that thou mayst get nothing.

§ 9.147  ANTAGORAS OF RHODES
Hie ye, hie ye, ye initiated, to the temple of Demeter, fearing not the winter floods. So safe a bridge for you hath Xenocles, the son of Xeinis, thrown across this broad river.

§ 9.148  Anonymous
Weep for life, Heraclitus, much more than when thou didst live, for life is now more pitiable. Laugh now, Democritus, at life far more than before; the life of all is now more laughable. And I, too, looking at you, am puzzled as to how I am to weep with the one and laugh with the other.

§ 9.149  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
Aristides the . . . had not much from many sources, but his fortune was one ewe and one cow. Yet, notwithstanding his poverty, he escaped not Envy, and in one and the same day wild beasts killed the sheep and a difficult birth the cow. Hating the sight of his yard, in which the sound of bleating was silent, he hanged himself by the strap of his wallet from this wild pear-tree.

§ 9.150  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
All the wealth of Aristides was one heifer and one fleecy sheep. By their means he kept famine from the door. But he lost both; a wolf killed the sheep and the cow perished in labour. His poor stock was gone, and noosing his neck in the strap of his wallet, the wretched man died close to his cabin, which no longer echoed to the sound of lowing.

§ 9.151  ANTIPATER OF SIDON
Where is thy celebrated beauty, Doric Corinth? Where are the battlements of thy towers and thy ancient possessions? Where are the temples of the immortals, the houses and the matrons of the town of Sisyphus, and her myriads of people? Not even a trace is left of thee, most unhappy of towns, but war has seized on and devoured everything. We alone, the Nereids, Ocean's daughters, remain inviolate, and lament, like halcyons, thy sorrows.

§ 9.152  AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS
On Troy I am the once famous city of Priam, which not the ten years' war of the Greeks succeeded in sacking by open force, but the cursed Wooden Horse. Would that Epeius had died ere he had wrought that wooden trap. For never then had the Greeks lit the fire that licked my roofs, never had I sunk down on my foundations.

§ 9.153  AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS on the same
Where are those walls of thine, O city, where thy temples full of treasure, where the heads of the oxen thou wast wont to slay? Where are Aphrodite's caskets of ointment and her mantle all of gold? Where is the image of thy own Athena? Thou hast been robbed of all by war and the decay of ages, and the strong hand of Fate, which reversed thy fortunes. So far did bitter Envy subdue thee; but thy name and glory alone she cannot hide.

§ 9.154  By the same on the same
Have mercy on me, Athena, protectress of the city. I, wretched Ilion, as was meet, worshipped thee in thy temple resplendent with gold. But thou hast abandoned me to the spoilers, and all for the sake of an apple hast stripped all the glory from my walls. Better had it been for the cowherd, Paris, to perish, for if he broke the law, it was not his country's crime.

§ 9.155  By the same on the same
If thou art a native of Sparta, stranger, mock me not; for I am not the only one that Fortune hath used thus. But if thou art from Asia, mourn me not; for every city now bows beneath the Trojan sceptre of the house of Aeneas. If the envious sword of thy enemies hath emptied the temples of my gods, and my walls, and my streets, yet am I again a queen, and do thou, undaunted Rome, my child, set on the Greeks the yoke of thy just rule!

§ 9.156  ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM
Look on the ambush that took Troy after ten years; look on the horse whose belly was big with the armed and silent Greeks. Epeius is building it and Athena is ordering the work, and all Hellas is emerging from beneath its back. Of a truth in vain did so great a host perish, if stratagem was more helpful to the Atreidae in the war than open battle.

§ 9.157  Anonymous
Who said Love was a god? We see that no work of the gods is evil, but he smiles at the blood of men. Does he not bear in his hand a sword swift to slay? Look at the incredible trophies of this deed of blood prompted by a god. The mother, with her child, lies slain, and on their bodies the man stoned by sentence of the law. This that we see is not the work of Hades or of Ares, but the work of Love. This is how the boy plays.

§ 9.158  Anonymous
Three girls once drew lots for fun, who first should go to Hades. Thrice they threw the die, and the cast of all fell on one. She made mockery of the lot, which nevertheless was her true destiny. For, unhappy girl, she slipped and fell from the house-top afterwards, as none could have foreseen, and went to Hades even as the lot had lighted on her. A lot tells no falsehood when it is an evil one; but as for better chance neither the prayers of mortals nor their hands can attain it.

§ 9.159  Anonymous
One, seeing at the cross-roads the skull of a dead man, wept not at the presentation of the fate common to all men, but stooping, picked up in his right hand a stone and threw it at the skull. The stone, a dumb thing in appearance, yet breathed vengeance; for, hitting the bone, it bounded off and blinded the thrower, robbing him of his sweet sight. Until his death he was punished, and bewept his foolish excellence of aim.

§ 9.160  Anonymous
Herodotus entertained the Muses, and each, in return for his hospitality, gave him a book.

§ 9.161  MARCUS ARGENTARIUS
As I was turning over the pages of a volume of Hesiod, I suddenly saw Pyrrhe approaching. Throwing the book on the ground I exclaimed: "Why should I be bothered by your works, old Hesiod? "

§ 9.162  Anonymous on a Pen
I was a reed, a useless plant, bearing neither figs, nor apples, nor grapes; but a man initiated me into the mysteries of Helicon, fashioning thin lips for me and excavating in me a narrow channel. Ever since, when I sip black liquor, I become inspired, and utter every variety of words with this dumb mouth of mine.

§ 9.163  Anonymous
Through the hail of spears from the flames of Troy the hero Aeneas bore off his father, a holy burden for a son, calling to the Argives: "Hands off! The old man is no great gain in war, but a great gain to his bearer."

§ 9.164  Anonymous
"Justice, who hath vexed thee?" — "This thief who set me up here, but had nothing to do with me."

§ 9.165  PALLADAS OF ALEXANDRIA
Woman is the wrath of Zeus, given to men in the place of fire, a grievous exchange. For she burns up and withers man with care, and brings hasty old age on youth. Even Zeus does not possess Hera of the golden throne unvexed; indeed he hath often cast her out from the immortals to hang in the mist and clouds; Homer knew this, and hath described even Zeus as being wrath with his wife. Thus never is a woman at concord with her husband, not even when she lies beside him on a floor of gold.

§ 9.166  PALLADAS
Homer shows us that every woman is wicked and treacherous; be she chaste or a whore, in either case she is perdition. Helen's adultery caused the murder of men, and Penelope's chastity caused death. All the woes of the Iliad were for the sake of one woman, and Penelope was the cause of the Odyssey.

§ 9.167  PALLADAS
Zeus, in place of fire, bestowed another fire, woman. Would that neither woman nor fire had come into being! Fire, it is true, is soon put out, but woman is a fire unquenchable, flaming, ever alight.

§ 9.168  PALLADAS
I, unhappy man, have married a wife who is " pernicious wrath," and my profession, too, obliges me to begin with "wrath." Oh, man of much wrath, forced to consort with wrath in two things, my calling as a grammarian and my combative wife!

§ 9.169  PALLADAS
The wrath of Achilles was the cause of pernicious poverty to me too, since I adopted the profession of a grammarian. Would that that "wrath" had killed me with the Greeks, before the bitter hunger of grammar had put an end to me. But all to let Agamemnon run away with Briseis, and Paris with Helen, I have become poor.

§ 9.170  PALLADAS
I chastened my shameless belly by severe reasoning, correcting the troublesome gut by temperance. Indeed, if my intellect is in a higher place than my belly, how can I fail to subdue the inferior one of the two?

§ 9.171  PALLADAS
I am selling the implements of the Muses, the books that have made me groan so much, now that I am taking to another profession. Farewell, ye Muses. I bid thee good-bye, Learning, for syntax is the death of me.

§ 9.172  PALLADAS
I care no longer for either Hope or Fortune; their deceit is now of no account to me; I have reached the haven. I am a poor man, but freedom is my house-mate, and I turn my back on wealth which insults poverty.

§ 9.173  PALLADAS
The beginning of grammar is a curse in five lines. The first has the word " wrath" the second " pernicious," and after that "many woes " of the Greeks; the third "leads down souls to Hades"; to the fourth belong "spoil" and "dogs"; to the fifth "birds " of ill-omen and the " anger of Zeus." How, then, can a grammarian avoid having many sorrows after five curses and five cases (falls)?

§ 9.174  PALLADAS
The teachers here are those men with whom Sarapis is angry; they start from " pernicious wrath." Here the nurse brings, perforce, the fee once a month, tying up the wretched pittance in byblus and paper, and puts the contemptible little paper, like a pinch of incense, by the master's seat, as if by a tomb. She steals some of the small fee and changes the coins, substituting leaden ones, and she receives her commission. If any one agrees to pay a gold coin for a whole year, he changes his teacher in the eleventh month before paying up, and is so ungrateful as to make fun, too, of his former master after robbing him of a whole year's fee.

§ 9.175  PALLADAS
I sell Callimachus and Pindar, and all the cases in the grammar, being myself a sore case of poverty. For Dorotheus has cut off the salary that supported me, sending this impious message of complaint against me. But, dear Theo, protect me, and do not let me end my days in conjunction with poverty.

§ 9.176  PALLADAS
I was invited to dinner by you, the orator, and if I failed to come I have the honour you paid me, and am still more your friend. For my heart does not rejoice in appreciation of viands, but is nourished only by the honour it tastes.

§ 9.177  Anonymous
A Phrygian, standing by the tomb of dauntless Ajax, began thus to insult the hero: "But Ajax no longer stood firm." Then he from underground cried: "He stood firm." At which the living man fled in terror from the dead.

§ 9.178  ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM I, Rhodes, who once was the Sun's island, am now Caesar's, and I boast of equal light from each. Then when I was near extinguished, O Sun, a new ray illuminated me, and Nero's light shone beside thine. How shall I say to which I owe most? The one brought me to the light from the depths, and the other saved me as I was sinking.

§ 9.179  LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA
Who carved of frankincense the bowman Love, him who of old spared not Zeus himself? At length he stands a mark for Hephaestus, Love who ne'er deserved to be seen suffering aught else but consumption in the flames.

§ 9.180  PALLADAS (This and the three following are written on the subject of a Temple of Fortune converted into a Tavern)
Fortune, who pliest thy trade through all our life, whose nature is like untempered wine, thou who art ever mixing and pouring from vessel to vessel, now hast thou too become a tavern-keeper instead of a goddess, a calling suitable to thy character.

§ 9.181  By the same
Things are turned topsy-turvy as I see, and we now see Fortune in misfortune.

§ 9.182  By the same
And thou, Lady Fortune, how has evil fortune befallen thee? How hast thou, who givest us good fortune, become unfortunate? Learn thou, too, to support thy own changes of tide, learn to suffer the unhappy falls which thou sendest to others.

§ 9.183  By the same
And of thee too, Fortune, they make mockery now thou art changed, and at the end thou hast not even spared thy own fortune. Thou who hadst once a temple, keepest a tavern in thy old age, and we see thee now serving hot drinks to mortals. Justly bewail thine own mischance, fickle goddess, now that thou reversest thine own fortune like that of mortals.

§ 9.184  Anonymous
Pindar, holy mouth of the Muses, and thou, Bacchylides, garrulous Siren, and ye, Aeolian Graces of Sappho; pen of Anacreon, and thou, Stesichorus, who in thy works didst draw off Homer's stream; honeyed page of Simonides, and thou, Ibycus, who didst cull the sweet bloom of Persuasion and of the love of. lads; sword of Alcaeus, that didst often shed the blood of tyrants, defending his country's laws, and ye nightingales of Alcman, singing ever of maidens; look kindly on me, ye authors and finishers of all lyric song.

§ 9.185  Anonymous
These be the verses and sonorous iambics of Archilochus, the venom of wrath and terrible invective.

§ 9.186  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
These are the volumes of Aristophanes, a divine work, over which the ivy of Acharnae shook in profusion its green locks. Look how the pages are steeped in Dionysus, how deep-voiced are the dramas full of terrible grace. O comic poet, high of heart, and worthy interpreter of the spirit of Hellas, hating what deserved hate, and mocking where mockery was due!

§ 9.187  Anonymous
The bees themselves, culling the varied flowers of the Muses, bore off the honey to thy lips; the Graces themselves bestowed their gift on thee, Menander, endowing thy dramas with fluent felicity. Thou livest for ever, and Athens from thee derives glory that reacheth to the clouds of heaven.

§ 9.188  Anonymous
Most exquisite utterer of the eloquent Attic tongue, the whole volume of Greek letters contains no voice greater than thine. Thou first, divine Plato, didst contemplate morals and life, directing thy gaze to God and Heaven. Mingling the loftiness of Pythagoras with the irony of Socrates, thou wast the loveliest monument of their solemn strife.

§ 9.189  Anonymous
Ye ladies of Lesbos, hie ye, whirling as ye foot it delicately, to the splendid sanctuary of bull-faced Hera, there to dance a lovely measure to the goddess; and for you Sappho, holding her golden lyre, shall strike up the tune. Ye are blessed, indeed, in that dance's delight; verily ye shall deem that ye listen to the sweet hymning of Calliope herself.

§ 9.190  Anonymous on Erinna's poem "The Spindle"
This is the Lesbian honeycomb of Erinna, and though it be small, it is all infused with honey by the Muses. Her three hundred lines are equal to Homer, though she was but a child of nineteen years. Either plying her spindle in fear of her mother, or at the loom, she stood occupied in the service of the Muses. As much as Sappho excels Erinna in lyrics, so much does Erinna excel Sappho in hexameters.

§ 9.191  Anonymous on Lycophron's "Cassandra"
Not easily, being in my labyrinth of many turnings, shalt thou find thy way to the light, if at all. So ill to read is the prophetic message that Cassandra, Priam's daughter, tells here to the King in crooked speech. Yet, if Calliope love thee, take me up; but if thou art ignorant of the Muses, I am a weight in thy hands.

§ 9.192  ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM
A. "Ye books, who are ye, what do ye contain? " B. "Daughters of Maeonides, and we tell the tales of Troy; one, the wrath of Achilles and the deeds of Hector's hands, and all the struggles of the ten years' war; the other, the labours of Ulysses and the tears of good Penelope by her widowed couch." A. "I worship you and the Muses; for after your song the world could say it possessed eleven Pierian sisters."

§ 9.193  Anonymous on the History of Philostorgius
By the grace and wisdom of God I completed my History, weaving into it the varied facts of truth.

§ 9.194  Anonymous on the same
The fair name Philostorgius contains twelve letters, and therefore I wrote as many books, the first beginning with the first letter, and so on, thus by the initial letter of each writing my name.

§ 9.195  Anonymous
Asclepius, the son of Constantinus, celebrating his city, wrote the ancient history of famous Anazarba.

§ 9.196  MARINUS OF NEAPOLIS
On the "Life of Proclus" Marinus, who ever doth works pleasing to the gods, wrote this, too, with pious intent.

§ 9.197  MARINUS OF NEAPOLIS
Proclus of blessed memory, this, too, is an excellent deed on the part of thy divine self, that as a saviour and protector of souls in place of thy divine self thou hast left Marinus, the living image of all the immortals, the help of pious men. He, proclaiming the story of thy life, with which God was well pleased, wrote this book as a record of thy virtues for posterity.

§ 9.198  Anonymous
I am Nonnus; my native city was Panopolis, but in Alexandria I mowed down by my vocal sword the children of the giants.

§ 9.199  Anonymous
This is the work of divine Oribasius, whom Fate feared owing to his immortal art, and oft deferred cutting his life-thread.

§ 9.200  LEO THE PHILOSOPHER
The book of mechanics, the work of Cyrinus, his friend Marcellus participating in the task.

§ 9.201  LEO THE PHILOSOPHER
Paulus, famous among the astrologers, instructed me in the divine mysteries of Phoebus' prophetic art.

§ 9.202  LEO THE PHILOSOPHER
The book of Theo and Proclus the all-wise. The book exhibits the measurements of the Heavens and the Earth. Theo measures the Heavens and Proclus the Earth, or rather Proclus measures the Earth and Theo the Heavens. Both are worthy of equal praise, and both of them gave and took their respective arguments; for Theo, assuming the learned propositions of Proclus, demonstrates by these the courses of the stars; while Proclus, assuming the demonstrations of Theo, resolves and propounds his positions by their aid. All hail, learned pair! Hail, most excellent Theo, learned in every science, now adorning the city of Alexandria! And thou too, Proclus, hail, best scion of the race of Sarpedon and universally acclaimed '

§ 9.203  PHOTIUS or LEO THE PHILOSOPHER
On the Romance " Clitophon and Leucippe"
The story of Clitophon almost brings before our eyes a bitter passion but a moral life, and the most chaste conduct of Leucippe astonishes everyone. Beaten, her head shorn, vilely used, and, above all, thrice done to death, she still bore all. If, my friend, you wish to live morally, do not pay attention to the adventitious beauty of the style, but first learn the conclusion of the discourse; for it joins in wedlock lovers who loved wisely.

§ 9.204  AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS
Do not heave me up, traveller; I am Ajax's stone with which he smote Hector's breast. Black am I and rough, but ask divine Homer how I sent Priam's son rolling in the dust. Now with difficulty men, the degenerate sons of a wretched age, lever me up a little from the field. But let someone hide me in the ground; I am ashamed to be made the toy of worthless men.

§ 9.205  ARTEMIDORUS THE GRAMMARIAN
The bucolic poems were once scattered, but are now all in one fold, in one flock.

§ 9.206  EUPITHIUS OF ATHENS
On finishing the Punctuation and Accentuation of Herodian's "Universal Prosody" Oh for the number of rules all saying the same thing, and scarcely visible scratches, the work of my fine pen! My eyes ache, my wrist, my back, my neck and shoulders, and I feel universally the pain of the "Universal."

§ 9.207  Anonymous on the "Manual" of Epictetus
Store up in thy heart the counsel of Epictetus, that thou mayest enter into the heavenly recesses, thy soul wafted up from earth to mount to the skies.

§ 9.208  Anonymous on the same
Whoever puts in practice the wise reflections of Epictetus, smiles, sailing calmly on the sea of life, and after this life's voyage reaches the vault of heaven and the watch-tower amid the stars.

§ 9.209  Anonymous
A Fowler to a Bird: Why art thou so restless, skipping from bough to bough? There was another bird who did the same and escaped not my limed reeds, but, though sore against its will, fell fluttering violently into the hand of the crafty fowler.

§ 9.210  Anonymous on the "Tactics" of Orbicius
Look on me, the book pregnant with vigorous toil, the book that the Emperor Hadrian had by him in his wars, but which for ages lay disused and nearly forgotten. But Anastasius, our powerful emperor, brought me to light again, that I might help his campaigns. For I can teach the labours of murderous war; and I know how, with me, thou shalt destroy the men of the western sea, and the Persians, and the doomed Saracens, and the swift cavalry of the warlike Huns, and the Isaurians taking refuge on their rocky summits. I will bring all things under the sceptre of Anastasius, whom time brought into the world to outshine even Trajan.

§ 9.211  Anonymous on Nicander
Apollo, Chiron, Asclepius, and Hippocrates. After these Nicander won the highest praise.

§ 9.212  Anonymous on the same
"Many drugs that are good when compounded and many that are baneful" did Nicander enumerate, "knowing better than all other men. For verily he came of the race of the Healer."

§ 9.213  Anonymous on the same
Colophon, too, is conspicuous among cities, for she nursed two sons of supreme wisdom, first Homer and afterwards Nicander, both dear to the heavenly Muses.

§ 9.214  LEO THE PHILOSOPHER
Porphyry, with the purple of thy discourse thou dyest the lips and clothest the mind in splendour.

§ 9.215  ANTIPATER OF MACEDONIA
Ever, stranger, is the water of Hellespont cruel to women. Ask Cleonike of Dyrrhachium. For she was sailing to Sestos to meet her bridegroom, and in the black ship she met with the same fate as Helle. Poor Hero, thou didst lose a husband, and Deimachus a bride, in the space of a few furlongs.

§ 9.216  HONESTUS OF CORINTH
You will cite the holy marriage of Harmonia, but that of Oedipus was unlawful. You will tell me of Antigone's piety, but her brothers were most wicked. Ino was made immortal, but Athamas was ill-fated. The lyre built the walls by its music, but the strains of the flute were fatal to them. So did Heaven compound the destiny of Thebes, mixing good and evil in equal portions.

§ 9.217  MUCIUS SCAEVOLA
Ye goats, why, deserting the thyme and spurge and all the green pasture that is yours, do ye start leaping round and round, wantonly butting at each other, prancing round shepherd Pan, the denizen of the forest? Give over that boxing, or the crook ye detest may find its way to you from the goat-herd's hand.

§ 9.218  AEMILIANUS OF NICAEA
Ah! would that the waves of the wintry sea had engulfed me, wretched ship that I am, my load of living men now changed for one of corpses. I am ashamed of being saved. What doth it profit me to come to harbour with no men in me to tie my hawsers? Call me the dismal hull of Cocytus. I brought death to men— death, and they are shipwrecked inside the harbour.

§ 9.219  DIODORUS OF SARDIS
As, in days of old, Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, sailed to Troy from the goat-pastures of Scyrus, so among the sons of Aeneas doth their leader Nero return to the city of Remus, entering from the sea swift-flowing Tiber, a youth with the first down on his cheeks. The other's force was in his spear alone; this youth is strong both in battle and in the schools.

§ 9.220  THALLUS OF MILETUS
See how the green plane-tree hides the mysteries of the lovers, canopying them with its holy foliage, and about its branches hang the clusters of the sweet vine, the season's delight. So, plane tree, mayest thou ever flourish, and may thy green foliage ever hide the comradeship of Aphrodite.

§ 9.221  MARCUS ARGENTARIUS
I see upon the signet-ring Love, whom none can escape, driving a chariot drawn by mighty lions. One hand menaces their necks with the whip, the other guides the reins; about him is shed abundant bloom of grace. I shudder as I look on the destroyer of men, for he who can tame wild beasts will not show the least mercy to mortals.

§ 9.222  ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM
(A Dolphin speaks) I took on my back the dripping corpse and bore it to the beach; the beast saved the man, the sea creature that of the land, the living the dead. But what did it avail me? I swam from sea to land, and receive death as payment for my porterage. We interchanged destinies. His land slew me, and my water slew him who belonged to the land.

§ 9.223  BIANOR
As the eagle who circles on high, who alone among the birds is an inmate of Heaven, was bearing a message from Zeus, he eluded not the Cretan, but the archer drew his swift-shooting bow, and the winged arrow made the bird its victim. But he did not, alone among men, escape the justice of Zeus. The bird fell on the man, and he paid dear for the sureness of his arrow's aim. The eagle pierced his neck with the arrow which had found a resting-place in its own heart, and one missile drank the life-blood of two.

§ 9.224  CRINAGORAS
I am the good milch-goat with udders yielding more than any the milk-pan ever drained, and Caesar, when he had tasted the richness of my milk, sweet as honey, took me with him even on the ship to be his fellow-voyager. Some day I think I shall even reach the stars, for he to whom I gave suck from my breast is by no means inferior to the Aegis-bearer.

§ 9.225  HONESTUS
Asopis fount and Pegasis are sister springs, the one a river-god's gift, the other a horse's, both gushing forth at a blow of the foot. The horse cut the veins of Helicon, the river those of Acrocorinth. How equally happy the heel's aim in each case!

§ 9.226  ZONAS OF SARDIS
Hie ye, ye tawny hive-bees, to feed on . . . or the crinkled leaves of the thyme, or the petals of the poppy, or the sun-dried berries of the vine, or violets, or the down that covers the apple. Take a pick at all, and mould your waxen vessels so that Pan, the saviour of the bees and keeper of the hives, may have a taste himself, and the beeman, smoking you out with his skilled hand, may leave a little portion for you also.

§ 9.227  BIANOR
A fisherman spied an octopus in the transparent water by the sea-beach, and rushing upon it as it swam, snatched it and threw it on the land to avoid being caught by his prey. Round and round it whirled, and by a happy chance lighted on a timorous hare that was lying half asleep among the rushes. It spread all over her and fettered her, and the man by means of his booty from the sea gained fresh booty from the land.

§ 9.228  APOLLONIDES
Melitea received the unlooked for news that her son, with his cargo, had been engulfed in the waves, and seeing the symbol of her own misfortune in the corpse of another which the sea had washed up on the beach, the unhappy woman gave it burial as if it were her son's. But Dion, his ship undamaged, returned in safety from a voyage that had met all his hopes. What diverse fortune befel the two mothers! The one holds alive the son she never hoped to see, the other shall not even see her son dead.

§ 9.229  MARCUS ARGENTARIUS
My ancient boon-companion, friend of the vintner's measures, sweet babbler with the gentle laugh, pretty mouth and long neck, my flagon, ever knowing the secret of my poverty but contributing little to relieve it, I have waited for thee long, but I hold thee now. Would I had thee unmixed and unwedded, coming like a maiden undefiled to her husband.

§ 9.230  HONESTUS
Thou wert sore tired by the ascent of great Helicon, but didst drink thy fill of the sweet waters of the spring of Pegasus. Even so the labour of study is up-hill, but if thou attainest the summit thou shalt quaff the pleasant gift of the Muses.

§ 9.231  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
I am a dry plane-tree covered by the vine that climbs over me; and I, who once fed clusters from my own branches, and was no less leafy than this vine, now am clothed in the glory of foliage not my own. Such a mistress let a man cherish who, unlike her kind, knows how to requite him even when he is dead.

§ 9.232  PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA
I am the neck of an Adriatic wine-jar, once honeyvoiced when I bore in my belly the gift of Bacchus. But now I am broken I stand here as a strong support for a newly-planted vine which reaches up to climb over this delicate arbour. Ever do I serve Bacchus; either I guard him faithfully in his old age, or rear him in his youth.

§ 9.233  ERYCIUS
As thou wast cutting the dry roots of old trees, unhappy Mindon, a spider nesting there attacked thee from beneath and bit thy left foot. The venom, spreading, devoured with black putrefaction the fresh flesh of thy heel, and hence thy sturdy leg was cut off at the knee, and a staff cut from a tall wild olivetree supports thee now on one leg.

§ 9.234  CRINAGORAS
How long, wretched soul, upborne by empty hopes nigh to the cold clouds, shalt thou build thee dream upon dream of wealth? Naught falls of its own accord into the possession of man. Pursue the gifts of the Muses, and leave these dim phantoms of the mind to fools.

§ 9.235  CRINAGORAS
On the marriage of Cleopatra (daughter of Antony and Cleopatra) with Jnba, King of Nwnidia Great bordering regions of the world which the full stream of Nile separates from the black Aethiopians, ye have by marriage made your sovereigns common to both, turning Egypt and Libya into one country. May the children of these princes ever again rule with unshaken dominion over both lands.

§ 9.236  BASSUS LOLLIUS
The inviolable oath of the Fates decreed that final sacrifice of Priam slaughtered on the Phrygian altar. But thy holy fleet, Aeneas, is already safe in an Italian harbour, the prelude of thy heavenly home. It was for the best that the towers of Troy fell; for hence in arms arose the city that is queen of the world.

§ 9.237  ERYCIUS
A. "Herdsman, tell me by Pan whose is this colossal statue of beech-wood to which thou art pouring a libation of milk." B. "The Tirynthian's who wrestled with the lion. Seest thou not his bow, simpleton, and his club of wild olive? All hail to thee, calf-devouring Heracles, and guard this fold, that, instead of these few, my cattle may be ten thousand."

§ 9.238  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
Apollo is a big boy here in this bronze work of Onatas which testifies to the beauty of Leto and Zeus, and proclaims that not idly did Zeus love her, and that, even as the saying is, the eyes and head of the son of Cronos are glorious. Not even Hera will be displeased with this bronze which Onatas moulded to such beauty by the help of Ilithyia.

§ 9.239  CRINAGORAS
The sweet company of the five lyric poets united in this volume offer the work of the inimitable Graces. We come on her festal morning to Antonia, supreme in beauty and mind.

§ 9.240  PHILIPPUS
A ram with crumpled horns was rushing fiercely to butt Calyptra's little boy, who had strayed from his mother, when the boar of Heracles, breaking his tether, buried his tusks in the ram's belly and gave the child its life. Is it because he remembers Hera's cruelty that Heracles pities children of tender age?

§ 9.241  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
You were a neat-herd, Phoebus, and Poseidon was a nag, Zeus was a swan, and famous Amnion a snake (they did it for the sake of girls, but you, Apollo, were after a boy), all to conceal your identity; for you all enjoy by force and not by persuasion. Evagoras, however, being made of brass, need practise no deceit, but in his own form, and without any transformation, possesses all and every of either sex.

§ 9.242  ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM
Glaucus, brought up on the shores of Thasus, he who conducted those crossing by ferry to the island, skilled ploughman of the sea, who even when he was dozing guided the rudder with no uncertain hand, the old man of countless years, the battered remnant of a seafarer, not even when he was on the point of death quitted his old tub. They burnt his shell on the top of him, that the old man might sail to Hades in his own boat.

§ 9.243  APOLLONIDES
The parents of Aristippus both rejoiced and wept for their son, and one day saw both his good and evil fate. When he had escaped from the burning house, straightway Zeus launched at his head the all-powerful name of his thunderbolt. Then those who bewailed the dead spoke this word: "Unhappy boy, reserved by Fate for the fire of Heaven! "

§ 9.244  APOLLONIDES
A timid troop of horned deer, when the frozen mountain tops were covered by the snow clouds, sought refuge, poor creatures, in the river, setting off there in the hope of wanning their swift limbs in the moist exhalations of the stream. But the unkind stream, shutting them in all of a sudden, imprisoned them in odious fetters of wintry ice. A crowd of countrymen feasted on the unsnared game that had often escaped the net and its stakes.

§ 9.245  ANTIPHANES
By the unhappy marriage-bed of Petale at her bitter bridal stood Hades, not Hymen. For, as she fled alone through the darkness, dreading the first taste of the yoke of Cypris — a terror common to all maidens — the cruel watch-dogs killed her. We had hoped to see her a wife and suddenly we could hardly find her corpse.

§ 9.246  MARCUS ARGENTARIUS
Thou art broken, sweet flagon, dear to the winebibbers, and hast shed from thy belly all the liquor of Bacchus. For from afar fell on thee, with a dreadful crash, a stone like a thunderbolt hurled by the hand, not of Zeus, but of Dion. And when it smote thee there was much laughter and many gibes, and a great noise among the company. I do not lament thee, flagon, who didst give birth to Bacchus the crier of Ehoe, for thy fate has been the same as Semele's.

§ 9.247  PHILIPPUS
I am a fine plane-tree that the furious blasts of the south wind uprooted and laid low on the ground. But after a bath of wine I stand again erect, vivified both in summer and winter by a rain sweeter than that of heaven. By death I lived, and I alone, after drinking the juice of Bacchus which makes others bend, am seen to stand straighter.

§ 9.248  BOETHUS, THE WRITER OF ELEGIES If Dionysus had come revelling with the Maenads and Satyrs to holy Olympus, looking just as Pylades the great artist played him in the ballet according to the true canons of the servants of the tragic Muse, Hera, the consort of Zeus, would have ceased to be jealous, and exclaimed: "Semele, thou didst pretend that Bacchus was thy son; 'twas I who bore him."

§ 9.249  MACCIUS
I am Pan; and established here at the top of the hill I keep watch over this leafy, green, climbing vine. If thou desirest my ripe fruit, traveller, I grudge it not, if it is to gratify thy belly; but if thou layest thy hand on me for the sake of robbery only, thou shalt straightway feel on thy head the weight of this knobbed staff.

§ 9.250  HONESTUS
I, Thebes, rose at the sound of the lyre, and sunk in ruins at that of the flute. Alas for the Muse that was adverse to harmony! They now lie deaf, the remains of my towers, once charmed by the lyre, the stones that took their places of their own accord in the muse-built walls, a gift that cost thee, Amphion, no labour; for with thy seven-stringed lyre thou didst build thy seven-gated city.

§ 9.251  EVENUS
Page-eater, the Muses' bitterest foe, lurking destroyer, ever feeding on thy thefts from learning, why, black bookworm, dost thou lie concealed among the sacred utterances, producing the image of envy? Away from the Muses, far away! Convey not even by the sight of thee the suspicion of how they must suffer from ill-will.

§ 9.252  Anonymous
Quickly the traveller, when he saw the pack of greedy wolves, leapt from the bank into the deep Nile. But they continued the chase through the water, each holding on by its teeth to another's tail. A long bridge of wolves was formed over the stream, and the self-taught stratagem of the swimming beasts caught the man.

§ 9.253  PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA
Splendid in Thebes was the marriage of Cadmus, but that of Oedipus was abominable. Bacchus welcomed the orgies which Pentheus, having ridiculed, bewailed. The walls arose to the music of strings, but groaned as they crumbled to the flute's. Holy were the birth-pangs of Antiope, but Iocasta's heavy with doom. Ino loved her child, but Athamas was impious. The city was always famous (?). See how for good or evil History always had plenty to tell of Thebes.

§ 9.254  PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA
I, Philaenis, who bore children but to feed the funeral pyre, the mother weighed down by grief, who had seen the burial of three, sought refuge in the fruit of another womb; for, indeed, I was confident that the son I had not borne myself would live. So, though I had given birth to so many, I brought up an adopted son. But Fate would not allow me to possess even the gift of another mother; for no sooner was he called mine than he died, and now I have become a cause of mourning even to other mothers.

§ 9.255  PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA
Needy Aristides reckoned his possessions as great; his one sheep was a Hock, his one cow a herd. But he lost both; a wolf killed the ewe, and the cow died in calving. So that the stock of his poor farm was gone, and the luckless man, noosing his neck in the strap of his wallet, perished by his shed that no longer echoed to the sound of bleating.

§ 9.256  ANTIPHANES
I thought that half of me was still alive, and that half produced one single apple on the highest branch. But the brute that ravages fruit-trees, the hairy backed caterpillar, envied me even the one, and ate it up. Envy's eyes are set on great wealth, but the creature who lays waste a little substance I must call worse even than Envy's self.

§ 9.257  APOLLONIDES
I, the Pure Fountain (for that is the name the Nymphs bestowed on me above all other springs), when the robber had slain the men who were reclining beside me, and washed his bloody hands in my sacred water, turned back that sweet stream, and no longer gush for travellers; for who will call me "The Pure" any longer?

§ 9.258  ANTIPHANES OF MEGALOPOLIS
I who once gushed with abundance of sweet water, have now lost my nymphs even to the last drop. For the murderer washed his bloody hands in my water, and tainted it with the stain. Ever since the maidens have retired from the sunlight, exclaiming, "We nymphs mix with Bacchus alone, not with Ares."

§ 9.259  BIANOR
The house fell in from top to bottom, but much more lightly on the infant son of Zephyrus. Even a ruin spared childhood. O ye boastful mothers, see how even stone feels maternal affection.

§ 9.260  SECUNDUS OF TARENTUM
I, Lais, who was once the love-dart that smote all, am Lais no longer, but a witness to all of the Nemesis of years. No, by Cypris! — and what is Cypris to me now but an oath? — Lais is no longer recognisable to Lais herself.

§ 9.261  EPIGONUS OF THESSALONICA
I, the vine who once was young and clothed in leafy shoots, I who bore bunches of swelling grapes, am now as old as you see. Look how Time overcomes us! Even the vine's clusters know the wrinkles of old age.

§ 9.262  PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA
All once counted Aristodice to be a proud mother, for six times had she been delivered of her womb's burden. But water vied with earth in afflicting her; for three sons perished by sickness, and the rest closed their eyes in the sea. The tearful woman is ever seen complaining like a nightingale by the gravestones, and upbraiding the deep like a halcyon.

§ 9.263  ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM
Old Eubule, whenever she had set her heart on anything, used to pick up the nearest stone at her feet, as being Apollo's prophet, and try it in her hand. Whenever she did not want a thing, it was heavy; but if she wanted it, it was lighter than a feather. But she acted as it pleased her best, and if she came to grief she set down the unfairness of her hand's judgment to Phoebus.

§ 9.264  APOLLONIDES or PHILIPPUS
The cicada used to sit on the highest boughs of the shrubs, and in the burning noon-tide sun, beating its belly with its wings, by the sweet variations of its self-wrought strains filled all the wilderness with music. But Criton of Pialia, the fowler who disdains no kind of game, caught this fleshless thing by its back with his limed twig. But he suffered punishment; for his daily craft now plays him false, and he wanders about not catching even a feather.

§ 9.265  By the same
(pp. No. 223) The bird of Zeus, pierced by an arrow, avenged himself on the Cretan for his archery, returning arrow for arrow from heaven. With the returning shaft it slew the slayer at once from the sky, and falling, killed as it died. No longer boast, ye Cretans, of your unerring arrows; let the deadly aim of Zeus, too, be celebrated.

§ 9.266  ANTIPATER
Phoebus spoke thus of the sweet musician Glaphyrus when he breathed the spirit of love from his pierced flute: "Marsyas, thou didst lie concerning thy invention, for this man hath stolen Athena's flute from Phrygia. If thou hadst then breathed into such as this, Hyagnis had never wept for the contest by the Maeander in which the flute was fatal."

§ 9.267  PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA
Sailing of late on the Icarian sea, Damis, the son of Nicaretus, slipped from the deck and fell into the sea. Sore did his father pray to the immortals, and call on the water, beseeching the waves for his son. But, devoured by the sea, he perished miserably. That is a sea that of old, too, was deaf to a father's prayers.

§ 9.268  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA Gorgo, the Cretan bitch, being in pup, was on the track of a hind, and had paid her vows to both Dianas. As she killed the deer she littered, and quickly did the Deliveress grant both prayers, that for success in the chase and that for an easy labour. Now Gorgo gives milk to nine children. Fly, ye Cretan deer, learning from the force of mothers in travail what their young are like to be.

§ 9.269  By the same
When the ship was dashed to pieces two men strove with each other in the water, quarrelling for one plank. Antagoras struck Pisistratus. It was not inexcusable, for his life was at stake, but Justice was concerned. The one swam on, but the other was seized by a shark. She, the all-avenger, does not cease from vengeance even in the watery deep.

§ 9.270  MARCUS ARGENTARIUS
I keep revel, gazing at the golden dance of the stars of evening, nor do I rudely disturb the converse of others. Tossing my hair that scatters flowers, I awake with musical fingers the deep-toned lyre. And in doing so I lead an orderly life, for the order of the universe itself lacks not a Lyre and a Crown.

§ 9.271  APOLLONIDES
And when then, tell me, Sea, shalt thou give safe passage to ships, if we are to weep even in the days of the halcyons, the halcyons for whom the deep has ever lulled the waves to so steady a calm that they deem it more trustworthy than the land? Even now, when thou boastest of being a nurse stilling the pangs of child-birth, thou hast sunk Aristomenes with his cargo.

§ 9.272  BIANOR
When a crow, the minister of Phoebus, parched with thirst, saw on a woman's tomb a pitcher containing rain-water, it croaked over the mouth but could not reach the bottom with its beak. But, thou, Phoebus, didst inspire the bird with opportune artfulness, and, by dropping pebbles in, it reached in its eagerness with its greedy lips the water set in motion by the stones.

§ 9.273  BIANOR While the never silent cicada was singing on the
bushes in the heat with its double-tongued mouth, Crito contrived with his limed reeds to catch the songster of the air, no proper victim of his craft. But he got his deserts for his impious capture, and was no longer successful as before in the snares he set for other birds.

§ 9.274  PHILIPPUS
The young cow, obeying the goad that pricks her thighs, cuts the recurring furrows of the field, and again, after her ploughing-labour under the yoke, suffers fresh pain in suckling her newly-born calf. Do not drive her hard, husbandman. This little calf of hers, if you spare the mother, will grow up for you and become a steer.

§ 9.275  MACEDONIUS
Codrus killed the boar on land, and the swift deer he took in the blue waves of the sea. Were there beasts with wings too, Artemis would not have seen him empty-handed even in the air.

§ 9.276  CRINAGORAS
The serving-woman washing clothes on the seabeach, a little above the wet rocks, was swept off, poor wretch, by a breaker which flooded the shore, and she drunk the bitter wave of death. She was in one moment released from life and from poverty. Who in a ship shall brave that sea from which even those on land are not protected?

§ 9.277  ANTIPHILUS
Why, torrent, in thy furious march dost thou lift thyself up so high and shut off the progress of travellers on foot? Art thou drunk with the rain, and no more content with a stream the Nymphs make transparent? Hast thou borrowed water from the turbid clouds? One day I shall see thee burnt up by the sun, who knows how to test the water of rivers, distinguishing the true from the bastard.

§ 9.278  BIANOR
A boy saw carried away by the torrent a coffin in which rested still the remains of his parents. Sorrow filled him with daring and he rushed into the ruthless stream, but his help cost him sore. For he saved the bones indeed from the water, but in their place was himself overtaken by the fierce current.

§ 9.279  BASSUS
When, for the second time, Hades received from the bark of Lethe three hundred dead, all slain in war, he said: "The company is Spartan; see how all their wounds are in front again, and war dwells in their breasts alone. Now, people of unvanquished Ares, hunger no more for battle, but rest in my sleep."

§ 9.280  APOLLONIDES
Laelius the distinguished Roman consul said, looking at the Eurotas, "Hail! Sparta's stream, of rivers noblest far." Having thus set his hand to the erudite book of the Muses, he saw over his head a token of learning. The magpies, birds that imitate human life, were calling from the leafy dells in all their various tongues. By' them he was encouraged; and how can the labour not be enviable if even the birds desire (to find expression for their thoughts)?

§ 9.281  APOLLONIDES
When all Asia witnessed the common marvel, the colt furious to feed on flesh of men, the grey-grown legend of the Thracian stable came before my eyes. I am in search of a second Heracles.

§ 9.282  ANTIPATER OF MACEDONIA
Strangers, I, whom you take for a tree, am a maiden. Bid the slaves' hands that are prepared to cut me spare the laurel. Instead of me, let travellers cut to strew as a couch boughs of arbutus or terebinth, for they are not far away. The brook is about a hundred yards away from me, and from its springs a wood containing every kind of tree is distant about seventy yards.

§ 9.283  CRINAGORAS
Ye Pyrenees and ye deep-valleyed Alps that look down from nigh on the sources of the Rhine, ye are witnesses of the lightning that Germanicus flashes forth as he smites the Celts with the thunderbolts of war. In masses the foe fell, and Enyo said to Ares, "It is to such hands as these that our help is due."

§ 9.284  CRINAGORAS
What inhabitants, O luckless city, hast thou received, and in place of whom? Alas for the great calamity to Greece! Would, Corinth, thou didst lie lower than the ground and more desert than the Libyan sands, rather than that wholly abandoned to such a crowd of scoundrelly slaves, thou shouldst vex the bones of the ancient Bacchiadae!

§ 9.285  PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA
No longer does the mighty-tusked elephant, with turreted back and ready to fight phalanxes, charge unchecked into the battle; but in fear he hath yielded his thick neck to the yoke, and draws the car of divine Caesar. The wild beast knows the delight of peace; discarding the accoutrement of war, he conducts instead the father of good order.

§ 9.286  MARCUS ARGENTARIUS
Why hast thou, chanticleer, robbed me of beloved sleep, and the sweet image of Pyrrha has flown away from my bed? Is this my recompense for bringing thee up and making thee, ill-starred fowl, the lord of all the egg-laying herd in my house? I swear by the altar and sceptre of Serapis, no more shalt thou call in the night, but shalt lie on that altar by which I have sworn.

§ 9.287  APOLLONIDES
I, the holy bird, who had never set foot in Rhodes, the eagle who was but a fable to the people of Cercaphus, came borne through the vast heaven by my high-flying wings, then when Tiberius was in the island of the Sun. In his house I rested, at the beck of my master's hand, not shrinking from the future Zeus.

§ 9.288  GEMINUS
I, this stone, heavy to the Athenians, am dedicated to Ares as a sign of the valour of Philip. Here stand I to insult Marathon and the deeds of sea-girt Salamis, which bow before the Macedonian spear. Swear by the dead now, Demosthenes, but I shall be heavy to living and dead alike.

§ 9.289  BASSUS
O rocks of Caphereus, fatal to ships, which destroyed the fleet of the Greeks on their home-coming from Troy, then when the lying beacon sent forth a flame darker than the night of hell, and every keel ran blindly on the sunken reefs, ye were another Troy to Greece and more deadly than the ten years' war. Troy indeed they sacked, but Caphereus was invincible. Nauplius, then did Hellas weep tears which were a joy to thee.

§ 9.290  PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA
When with the blasts of the Libyan wind, the fierce Sirocco, the sea grew dark and belched up the sand from her profoundest depths, when every mast had fallen into the hollow of the deep and the lost merchant ship was drifting to Hades, Lysistratus called on the gods who help mariners, and they, for the sake of the temple ministrant alone, lulled the savage waves.

§ 9.291  CRINAGORAS
( Written after a reverse of the Roman arms in Germany) Not though Ocean arouses all his floods, not though Germany drinks up the whole Rhine, shall the might of Rome be shaken as long as she remains confident in Caesar's auspicious guidance. So the holy oaks of Zeus stand firm on their roots, but the wind strips them of the withered leaves.

§ 9.292  HONESTUS
Aristion was burning the corpse of one son when she heard the other was shipwrecked. A double grief consumed a single heart. Alas! Fate divided this mother in two, since she gave one child to fire and the other to cruel water.

§ 9.293  PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA
Xerxes, looking on the great frame of self-slain Leonidas, clothed it in a purple cloak. Then Sparta's great hero called from the dead: "I accept not the reward due to traitors. My shield is the best ornament of my tomb. Away with the Persian frippery, and I shall go even to Hades as a Spartan."

§ 9.294  ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM
A. "Xerxes gave thee this purple cloak, Leonidas, reverencing thy valorous deeds." B. "I do not accept it; that is the reward of traitors. Let me be clothed in my shield in death too; no wealthy funeral for me! " A. "But thou art dead. Why dost thou hate the Persians so bitterly even in death?" B. "The passion for freedom dies not."

§ 9.295  BIANOR
The horse, accustomed to gallop over the plain and not over the waves, refuses to sail across the sea on the ship. Do not wonder at his neighing and kicking the sides of the vessel, and angrily trying to free himself from his bonds. He is indignant at being part of the cargo; for the swiftest of all creatures should not depend on others for his passage.

§ 9.296  APOLLONIDES
Scyllus, when Xerxes' huge fleet was driving all Greece before it, invented submarine warfare. Descending into the hidden depths of the realm of Nereus, he cut the cables of the ships' anchors. The Persian vessels, with all their crews, glided ashore and silently perished — the first achievement of Themistocles.

§ 9.297  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA (Probably addressed to Gaius Caesar when sent by Augustus to the East in the year 1 BCE)
Hie thee to the Euphrates, son of Zeus; already in the East the feet of the Parthians hasten to desert to thee. Hie thee on thy way, O prince, and thou shalt find, Caesar, their bow-strings relaxed by fear. But base all thou dost on thy father's instructions. The Ocean is Rome's boundary on every side; be thou the first to seal her domination with the rising Sun.

§ 9.298  ANTIPHILUS
My staff guided me to the temple uninitiated not only in the mysteries, but in the sunlight. The goddesses initiated me into both, and on that night I knew that my eyes as well as my soul had been purged of night. I went back to Athens without a staff, proclaiming the holiness of the mysteries of Demeter more clearly with my eyes than with my tongue.

§ 9.299  PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA
We meek-necked oxen, the ploughers of the field, endure in the sea the labour of the land. We both draw in the water a furrow not cut by iron, the long ropes attached to the seine. We toil now for fish? not for corn. Ah, long-suffering creatures! Oxen have begun to plough the sea too for its fruits.

§ 9.300  ADDAEUS
Valiant Peucestes encountered on horseback the bull as it issued from the dreadful dell of Doberus. Like a mountain it rushed at him, but with his Paeonian spear he pierced its tender temples, and having despoiled its head of the pair of horns, ever as he quaffs the wine from them boasts of his enemy's death.

§ 9.301  SECUNDUS
Why do you drive me, the slow-footed braying ass, round and round with the threshing horses? Is it not enough that, driven in a circle and blindfolded, I am forced to turn the heavy millstone? But I must compete with horses too! Is the next task in store for me to plough with my neck's strength the earth that the share curves?

§ 9.302  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
Bees, ye savage pack, ye killed baby Hermonax as he was creeping to jour hive in quest of honey. Often had he been fed by you, and now, alas! ye have stung him to death. If we speak evil of serpents' nests, learn from Lysidice and Amyntor not to praise hives either. They, too, have in them bitter honey.

§ 9.303  ADDAEUS
To little Calathina, in labour with her puppies, Leto's daughter gave an easy delivery. Artemis hears not only the prayers of women, but knows how to save also the dogs, her companions in the chase.

§ 9.304  PARMENION
On the Battle of Thermopylae Him who, transforming the paths of land and ocean, sailed over the dry land and marched on the sea, three hundred valiant Spartan spears resisted. Shame on you, mountains and seas!

§ 9.305  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
I had drunk my fill of untempered water, when Bacchus yesterday, standing by my bed, spoke thus: "Thou sleepest a sleep worthy of them whom Aphrodite hates. Tell me, thou temperate man, hast thou heard of Hippolytus? Fear lest thou suffer some fate such as his." Having so spoken he departed, and ever since then water is not agreeable to me.

§ 9.306  ANTIPHILUS
Cease working, ye woodcutters, at least as far as concerns ships. It is no longer pine-trees that glide over the waves but hides. Ships are no longer built with bolts of bronze or iron, but their hulls are held together with flaxen cords, and the same ship now floats on the sea and now travels on land, folded to be mounted on a carriage. Argo was formerly the theme of song, but Pallas has granted to Sabinus to build a still more novel keel.

§ 9.307  PHILIPPUS
Daphne, who once refused Phoebus, now uprears her dark-leaved bough from the altar of Caesar, having found a better god than that former one. Though she hated the son of Leto, she desires Zeus the son of Aeneas. She struck root not in the Earth, her mother, but in a stone. Not even stone can refuse to bear offspring to Caesar.

§ 9.308  BIANOR On Arion
When the sea-robbers near the Tyrrhene surges cast the lyre-player into the sea from the ship, a dolphin straightway received him, together with the sweet-voiced lyre to whose strains lie sung, and swum, saving him from the deep, till it landed on the Isthmus of Corinth. Had the sea, then, fish which were juster than men?

§ 9.309  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
As Gorgo was lighting the coals on her hearth in winter, the fearful noise of the thunder terrified the old woman. Chill seized her lungs and she dropped dead. So then she had been spared with Eld on the one side and Death on the other, either ready to take her on any pretext.

§ 9.310  ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM
A little mouse devoured some unfired gold-dust, the scrapings of the file's iron teeth, lighter than the sands of Libya. It proved a heavy meal for him; for his belly, trailing with the weight, made the swift creature slow-footed, and so he was caught and cut open, and the stolen treasure extracted from his inside. Even to brutes, gold, thou art the cause of evil.

§ 9.311  PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA
A bitch, that vied in swiftness with the deer, was wounded, when heavy with young, in her generative organs. The scab of the wound in a short time entirely closed the orifice, and the pains of labour were at hand. But a man operated on her, terribly though she howled, and the dear little ones leapt forth from her womb. The gracious aid of Artemis in labour is a thing of the past, and Ares, on the other hand, has begun to practise midwifery.

§ 9.312  ZONAS OF SARDIS
Refrain, sirrah, from cutting the oak, the mother of acorns; refrain, and lay low the old stone-pine, or the sea-pine, or this rhamnus with many stems, or the holly-oak, or the dry arbutus. Only keep thy axe far from the oak, for our grannies tell us that oaks were the first mothers.

§ 9.313  ANYTE
Sit here, quite shaded by the beautiful luxuriant foliage of the laurel, and draw sweet drink from the lovely spring, that thy limbs, panting with the labours of summer, may take rest beaten by the western breeze.

§ 9.314  ANYTE
Here stand I, Hermes, in the cross-roads by the wind-swept belt of trees near the grey beach, giving rest to weary travellers, and cold and stainless is the water that the fountain sheds.

§ 9.315  NICIAS
Sit here under the poplar trees, traveller, for thou art weary, and come near and drink from my fountain. When thou art far away bethink thee of the spring near which stands Simus' statue beside his dead son Gillus.

§ 9.316  LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM
O ye who pass along this road, whether ye are going from town to the fields or returning to the city from the country, we two gods here are the guardians of the boundary. I, as you see me, am Hermes, and this other fellow is Heracles. We both are gracious to mortals, but to each other — save the mark! If anyone offers a dish of wild pears to both of us, he bolts them. Yes, and indeed, likewise grapes; whether they are ripe ones or any quantity of sour ones, he stows them away. I detest this method of going shares, and get no pleasure from it. Let whoever brings us anything serve it separately to each of us and not to both, saying, "This is for thee, Heracles," and again, "This is for Hermes." So he might make up our quarrel.

§ 9.317  Anonymous
Hermaphroditus. "Goatherd, I love seeing this foul-mouthed god struck on his bald pate by the pears." Silenus. "Goatherd, I buggered this one thrice, and the young billy-goats were looking at me and tupping the young nanny-goats." Goatherd. "Is it true, Hermaphroditus, that he did so?" Hermaphroditus "No, goatherd, I swear by Hermes." Silenus. "I swear by Pan I did, and I was laughing all the time."

§ 9.318  LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM
Dear Hermes, whose are this hillside rich in fennel and chervil, and this goat-pasture? Be kind both to the gatherer of herbs and to the goatherd, and thou shalt have thy share of both the herbs and the milk.

§ 9.319  PHILOXENUS
Tlepolemus of Myra, the son of Polycrites, set me up here, Hermes, presiding deity of the course, a pillar to mark the starting point in the holy races of twenty stadia. Toil, ye runners, in the race, banishing soft ease from your knees.

§ 9.320  LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM
Eurotas said once to Cypris, "Either arm thyself or go out of Sparta. The town has a craze for arms." She smiled gently and replied, "I will both remain always unarmed and continue to dwell in the land of Lacedaemon." Our Cypris is unarmed as elsewhere, and these are shameless writers who declare that with us even the goddess bears arms.

§ 9.321  ANTIMACHUS
Why, Cypris, hast thou, to whom the toil of war is strange, got thee these accoutrements of Ares? What falsifier fitted on thee, to no purpose, this hateful armour? Thou delightest in the Loves and the joys of the bridal bed, and the girls dancing madly to the castanets. Lay down these bloody spears. They are for divine Athena, but come thou to Hymenaeus with the flowing locks.

§ 9.322  LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM
These spoils are not mine. Who hung this unwelcome gift on the walls of Ares? Unbruised are the helmets, unstained by blood the polished shields, and unbroken the frail spears. My whole face reddens with shame, and the sweat, gushing from my forehead, bedews my breast. Such ornaments are for a lady's bower, or a banqueting-hall, or a court, or a bridal chamber. But blood-stained be the cavalier's spoils that deck the temple of Ares; in those I take delight.

§ 9.323  ANTIPATER OF SIDON
Who hung here these glittering shields, these unstained spears and unbroken helmets, dedicating to murderous Ares ornaments that are no ornaments? Will no one cast these weapons out of my house? Their place is in the wassailing halls of unwarlike men, not within the walls of Enyalius. I delight in hacked trophies and the blood of dying men, if, indeed, I am Ares the Destroyer.

§ 9.324  MNASALCAS
Why, O pipe, hast thou hied thee here to the house of the Foam-born? Why art thou here fresh from a shepherd's lips? Here are no more hills and dales, naught but the Loves and Desire. The mountains are the dwelling of the rustic Muse.

§ 9.325  Anonymous on a Shell with an image of Love carved inside it
Of old I dwelt in the depths on a sea-washed rock clothed in luxuriant seaweed, but now in my bosom sleeps the delightful child, tender Love, the servant of diademed Cypris.

§ 9.326  LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM
Hail, thou cold stream that leapest down from the cloven rock, and ye images of the Nymphs carved by a shepherd's hand! Hail, ye drinking troughs and your thousand little dolls, ye Maidens of the spring, that lie drenched in its waters! All hail! And I, Aristocles, the wayfarer, give you this cup which I dipped in your stream to quench my thirst.

§ 9.327  HERMOCREON
Ye Nymphs of the water, to whom Hermocreon set up these gifts when he had lighted on your delightful fountain, all hail! And may ye ever, full of pure drink, tread with your lovely feet the floor of this your watery home.

§ 9.328  DAMOSTRATUS
Ye Naiad Nymphs, who shed from the mountain cliff this fair stream in inexhaustible volume, Daraostratus, the son of Antilas, gave you these wooden images and the two hairy boar-skins.

§ 9.329  LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM
Ye water Nymphs, children of Dorus, water diligently this garden of Timocles, for to you, Maidens, doth the gardener Timocles bring ever in their season gifts from this garden.

§ 9.330  NICARCHUS
A. "I am goat-footed Pan, whom Simo put up by the clear waters of the spring." B. "And why?" A. "I will tell thee. From the fountain drink as much as thou wilt, and take this hollow pitcher, too, and draw. But offer not the crystalline gifts of the Nymphs to thy feet to bathe them. Seest thou not my menacing form?" B. "Revered god — " A. "Thou shalt not speak another word, but shalt let me take my will of thee. Such is the custom of Pan. But if thou dost it on purpose, having an inclination for the penalty, I know another trick. I will break thy head with my club."

§ 9.331  MELEAGER
On Wine and Water The Nymphs washed Bacchus when he leapt from the fire above the ashes he had just been rolling in. Therefore Bacchus is thy friend when united with the Nymphs, but if thou preventest their union thou shalt take to thee a still burning fire.

§ 9.332  NOSSIS
Let us go to the temple to see the statue of Aphrodite, how cunningly wrought it is of gold. Polyarchis erected it, having gained much substance from the glory of her own body.

§ 9.333  MNASALCAS
Let us stand on the low beach of the sea-washed promontory, gazing at the sanctuary of Cypris of the Sea, and the spring overshadowed by poplars from which the yellow kingfishers sip with their bills the running water.

§ 9.334  PERSES
If at the right season thou callest upon me too, little among the lesser gods, thou shalt get thy wish, but crave not for great things. For I, Tychon, have in my power to grant only such things as the people's god may give to a labouring man.

§ 9.335  LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM
The two statues, wayfarer, are the gift of the woodman Miccalion; but look, Hermes, how the excellent woodman from his wretched calling managed to give gifts. The good man is always good.

§ 9.336  CALLIMACHUS
I, the hero who guard the stable of Aeetion of Amphipolis, stand here, small myself and in a small porch, carrying nothing but a wriggling snake and a sword. Having lost his temper with .... he did not give me a mount either when he put me up beside him.

§ 9.337  LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM
Good sport! thou who comest to the foot of this two-peaked hill, whether hunting the hare or in pursuit of winged game. Call on me, Pan the ranger of this forest, from the rock, for I help both hounds and limed reeds to capture.

§ 9.338  THEOCRITUS
Thou sleepest, Daphnis, resting thy wearied body on a bed of leaves, and thy stake-nets are new set on the hill. But Pan hunts thee, Pan and Priapus, the saffron-coloured ivy twined on his lovely head. Intent on one purpose they are entering the cave. But fly; dispel the gathering drowsiness of sleep and fly.

§ 9.339  ARCHIAS OF MYTILENE
A raven plying his black wings in the pellucid sky, saw once a scorpion emerging from the ground, and swooped down to catch it; but the scorpion, as the raven dashed down to the ground, was not slow to strike his foot with its powerful sting, and robbed him of life. See how the luckless bird met with the fate he was preparing for another by means of that other.

§ 9.340  DIOSCORIDES
The double flute was the work of Phrygian Hyagnis at the time when the Mother of the Gods first revealed her rites on Cybela, and when the frantic servant of the Idaean chamber first loosed his lovely locks to my notes. But if the shepherd of Celaenae was known earlier as a better player, his strife with Phoebus flayed him.

§ 9.341  GLAUCUS
A. "Nymphs answer me truly, if Daphnis on his road rested here his white goats." B. "Yes, yes, piper Pan, and on the back of that poplar tree he cut a message for thee: ( Pan, Pan, go to Malea; to the mountain of Psophis. I shall come there." A. "Farewell, Nymphs, I go."

§ 9.342  PARMENION
An epigram of many lines does not, I say, conform to the Muses' law. Seek not the long course in the short stadion. The long race has many rounds, but in the stadion sharp and short is the strain on the wind.

§ 9.343  ARCHIAS
{cp. No. 76) A blackbird, driven over the hedge together with field-fares, entered the hollow of the suspended net. The cords from which there is no escape caught and held fast the whole flock of them, but let the blackbird alone go free from the meshes. Of a truth the race of singers is holy. Even deaf traps show fond care for winged songsters.

§ 9.344  LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA
{This and the following ones are Isopsephe.) There was a time when I gave pleasure to myself alone by lines, and was not known at all to noble Romans. But now I am beloved by all, for late in life I recognised how far Calliope excels Urania.

§ 9.345  LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA
The fury of Athamas against his son Learchus was not so great as the wrath that made Medea plot her children's death. For jealousy is a greater evil than madness. If a mother kills, in whom are children to place confidence?

§ 9.346  LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA
After flying, swallow, across the whole earth and the islands, thou dost rear thy brood on the picture of Medea. Dost thou believe that the Colchian woman who did not spare even her own children will keep her faith to thy young?

§ 9.347  LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA
We oxen are not only skilled in cutting straight furrows with the plough, but, look, we pull ships out of the sea too. For we have been taught the task of oarsmen. Now, sea, thou too shouldst yoke dolphins to plough on the land.

§ 9.348  LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA
Hecatonymus, the stealer of grapes, ran to Hades whipped with a stolen vine-switch.

§ 9.349  LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA
Caesar, may the baths of Cutiliae on this thy birthday gush for thee in abundance of healing, so that all the world may see thee a grandfather as it has seen thee the father of three fair children.

§ 9.350  LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA
Thou sendest me thin sheets of byblus, snowy white, and reed pens, gifts from the headland that the Nile waters. Do not, Dionysius, send another time imperfect gifts to a poet. What use are these without ink?

§ 9.351  LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA
Lysippe's baby, creeping over the edge of a precipice, was on the point of suffering the fate of Astyanax. But she turned it from its path by holding out to it her breast, that thus was its saviour from death as well as from famine.

§ 9.352  LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA
The Nile keeps festival by the holy wave of Tiber, having vowed a sacrifice for Caesar's deliverance. A hundred axes made the willing necks of as many bulls bleed at the altars of Heavenly Zeus.

§ 9.353  LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA
Pappus, thou hast both strictly composed a work adorned with learning, and hast kept thy life strict in firmity of friendship. The Egyptian poet sends thee this gift today when thou dost celebrate thy natal morn.

§ 9.354  LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA
I, whom war dreaded and slew not, am now afflicted by disease, and waste away by intestine warfare. Pierce my heart then, sword, for I will die like a valiant soldier, beating off disease even as I did war.

§ 9.355  LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA
Poppaea Augusta, spouse of Zeus, receive from the Egyptian Leonidas this map of the heavens on thy natal day; for thou takest pleasure in gifts worthy of thy alliance and thy learning.

§ 9.356  LEONIDAS OF ALEXANDRIA
We open another fountain of drink to quaff from it verses of a form hitherto strange to Leonidas. The letters of the couplets give equal numbers. But away with thee, Momus, and set thy sharp teeth in others.

§ 9.357  Anonymous
There are four games in Greece, two sacred to mortals and two to immortals: to Zeus, Apollo, Palaemon, and Archemorus, and their prizes are wild-olive, apples, celery, and pine-branches.

§ 9.358  Anonymous on Plato's "Phaedo"
If Plato did not write me there were two Platos, for I have all the flowers of the Socratic dialogues. But Panaetius made me out to be spurious. He who made the soul out to be mortal will make me spurious too.

§ 9.359  POSIDIPPUS or PLATO, THE COMIC POET What path of life should one pursue? In the market-place are broils and business difficulties, and at home are anxieties; in the country there is too much labour, and at sea there is fear. In a foreign land there is apprehension if you possess anything, and if you are ill off, life is a burden. You are married? You won't be without cares. You are unmarried? You live a still more lonely life. Children are a trouble, and a childless life is a crippled one. Youth is foolish, and old age again is feeble. There is then, it seems, a choice between two things, either not to be born or to die at once on being born.

§ 9.360  METRODORUS
Pursue every path of life. In the market place are honours and prudent dealings, at home rest; in the country the charm of nature, and at sea profit; in a foreign country, if you have any possessions, there is fame, and if you are in want no one knows it but yourself. Are you married? Your house will be the best of houses. Do you remain unmarried? Your life is yet lighter. Children are darlings; a childless life is free from care. Youth is strong, and old age again is pious. Therefore there is no choice between two things, either not to be born or to die; for all in life is excellent.

§ 9.361  LEO THE PHILOSOPHER
(\4 Homeric Cento) My cruel-hearted mother, an evil mother to me — it pains me much, the wound that a mortal man inflicted on me — in the dark night when other mortals sleep — naked, without a helmet and shield, nor had he a spear — and all his sword was bathed in hot blood — but afterwards he sent forth a gentle and harmless gale.

§ 9.362  Anonymous
Delightful Alpheus, stream that nourishest the crowns of Zeus, winding with thy muddy water through the plain of Pisa, tranquil at first, but when thou readiest the sea plunging eagerly under the waves of the vast main, now made a bridegroom conducting the current of his love in a self-made channel, thou dost hie to Sicilian Arethusa to be her watery bed-fellow. Then she, taking thee to her tired and panting, wipes off the weed and the bitter flowers of the sea, and joining her lips to thine, clasping like a bride thy Olympian stream in the sweet bonds of her embrace, lulls thee to sleep lying in her bosom. . . . and thy limpid fount was defiled by showers of blood, and no longer was thy heart filled with desire for thy Syracusan love, but thou didst hold back thy waters, repressed by blushing shame, saving from pollution the sea and thy bridal bed; yet, often compelled by thy longing for nuptial intercourse, wouldst thou pass the sea to thy beloved liquid bride and stand gazing at the stainless water of Arethusa. And the lovely Arethusa, looking on thee surging with tears from the Pelorian rock, would pity thee and beat her breasts, and melt like the dew on roses, the Sicilian fount responding to the lament of the river of Pisa. But he did not escape the eye of all-seeing Justice, that man of blood who mowed down the unwedded harvest of Greece, whereat many wives of the heroes wept for the short-lived children to bear whom they had suffered in vain.

§ 9.363  MELEAGER
Windy winter has left the skies, and the purple season of flowery spring smiles. The dark earth garlands herself in green herbage, and the plants bursting into leaf wave their new-born tresses. The meadows, drinking the nourishing dew of dawn, laugh as the roses open. The shepherd on the hills delights to play shrilly on the pipes, and the goatherd joys in his white kids. Already the mariners sail over the broad billows, their sails bellied by the kindly Zephyr. Already, crowning their heads with the bloom of berried ivy, men cry evoe! to Dionysus the giver of the grape. The bees that the bull's carcase generates bethink them of their artful labours, and seated on the hive they build the fresh white loveliness of their many-celled comb. The races of birds sing loud everywhere: the kingfishers by the waves, the swallows round the house, the swan by the river's brink, the nightingale in the grove. If the foliage of plants rejoices, and the earth flourishes, and the shepherd pipes, and the fleecy flocks disport themselves, and sailors sail, and Dionysus dances, and the birds sing, and the bees bring forth, how should a singer too not sing beautifully in the spring?

§ 9.364  NESTOR OF LARANDA
Pour for me, Muses, a draught of clear delightful song, the rain of Heliconian melody sweetened by your lips. For all for whom is shed the drink of the fountain that gives birth to poets delight in the clear song of your verses.

§ 9.365  THE EMPEROR JULIAN
On an Organ I see a new kind of reeds. Are they, perchance, the wild product of some strange brazen soil? They are not even moved by our winds, but from a cave of bull's hide issues a blast and passes into these hollow reeds at their root. And a valiant man with swift fingers stands touching the notes which play in concert with the pipes, and they, gently leaping, press the music out of the pipes.

§ 9.366  -Anonymous Sayings of the Seven Sages I will tell you in verse the cities, names, and sayings of the seven sages. Cleobulus of Lindus said that measure was best; Chilon in hollow Lacedaemon said "Know thyself;" and Periander, who dwelt in Corinth, "Master anger; " Pittacus, who was from Mytilene, said "Naught in excess; " and Solon, in holy Athens, "Look at the end of life "; Bias of Priene declared that most men are evil, and Thales of Miletus said "Shun suretyship."

§ 9.367  LUCIAN
Thero, the son of Menippus, in his youth wasted his inheritance shamefully on prodigal outlay; but Euctemon, his father's friend, when he saw that he was already pressed by parching poverty, strove with tears to cheer him, and gave him his daughter to wife with a large dowry. But when wealth got the better of Thero's wits, he began to live again in the same extravagance, satisfying disgracefully every lust of his vile belly and the parts beneath it. Thus the returning wave of baneful poverty buried Thero the second time, and Euctemon wept a second time, not for Thero, but for his daughter's dowry and bed, and learnt that a man who has made ill use of his own substance will not make honest use of another's.

§ 9.368  THE EMPEROR JULIAN
On Beer Who and whence art thou, Dionysus? For, by the true Bacchus, I know thee not: I know only the son of Zeus. He smells of nectar, but thou of billy-goat. Did the Celts for lack of grapes make thee out of corn? Then thou shouldst be called Demetrius, not Dionysus, being born of corn, rather than of the fire, and Bromus rather than Bromius.

§ 9.369  CYRILLUS
An epigram of two lines has every merit, and if you exceed three lines it is rhapsody, not epigram.

§ 9.370  TIBERIUS ILLUSTRIS
I am a fawn slain by no dogs, or stake-nets, or huntsmen, but in the sea I suffered the fate that threatened me on land. For I rushed into the sea from the wood, and then the netted snare of the fishermen dragged me up on the beach. I was wrong in flying, and all in vain, from the shore, and deservedly was taken by the fisherman after I had deserted my hills. Never again, fishermen, shall your hands be unsuccessful, since you now knit web? that serve both for sea and land.

§ 9.371  Anonymous
A hound was pressing hotly on a swift-footed hare that had just freed itself from the toils of the net. The hare, rapidly turning away from the rough hill, leapt, to avoid the dog's jaws, into the deep water near the shore, where a sea-dog with one snap caught it at once in his teeth. The poor hare was evidently destined to be dog's meat.

§ 9.372  Anonymous
The spider, that had woven her fine web with her slender feet, had caught a cicada in her crooked meshes. But when I saw the little songster lamenting in the fine toils I did not pass hastily by, but freeing him from the nooses, I comforted him and said: "Be saved, thou who callest with the musical voice."

§ 9.373  Anonymous
Why, shepherds, in wanton sport, do you pull from the dewy branches me, the cicada, the lover of the wilds, the roadside nightingale of the Muses, who at midday chatter shrilly on the hills and in the shady copses? Look at the thrushes and blackbirds! Look at all the starlings, pilferers of the country's wealth! It is lawful to catch the despoilers of the crops. Slay them. Do you grudge me my leaves and fresh dew?

§ 9.374  Anonymous
From the neighbouring grove I, ever-flowing Pure Fount, gush forth for passing travellers. On all sides, well canopied by planes and softly blooming laurels, I offer a cool resting-place under the shade. Therefore pass me not by in summer. Dispel thy thirst and rest thee, too, from toil in peace beside me.

§ 9.375  Anonymous
What man thus carelessly plucked from the vinebranch the unripe grapes of Bacchus that nurse the wine, and when his lips were drawn up by the taste threw them away, half-chewed refuse for travellers to tread on? May Dionysus be his foe, because, like Lycurgus, he quenched good cheer in its growth. Haply by that drink had some man been moved to song, or found relief from plaintive grief.

§ 9.376  Anonymous
Why, foolish carpenter, dost thou make of me, the pine-tree that am the victim of the winds, a ship to travel over the seas, and dreadest not the omen? Boreas persecuted me on land; so how shall I escape the winds at sea?

§ 9.377  PALLADAS
Tantalus ate nothing, for the fruit of the trees that tossed over his head ever eluded him, and owing to this, being in want of food, he was less thirsty; but suppose he had eaten ripe figs, and plums, and apples, do dead men get so very thirsty from eating fresh fruit? But we guests eat all sorts of salted dishes, quails and cheese and goose's fat, poultry and veal, and on the top of all drink only one glass. So we are worse off than you, Tantalus.

§ 9.378  PALLADAS
They say that Sarapis appeared in a dream by night to a murderer who was sleeping under a decayed wall, and thus spoke as in an oracle: "Arise, thou who liest here, and seek, poor wretch, another sleeping place." The man awoke and departed, and immediately the rotten wall fell to the ground. The evil-doer rejoiced, and in the morning sacrificed to the gods in thanks for his escape, thinking that Sarapis is pleased with murderers. But Sarapis appeared to him again at night, and prophesied thus to him: "Wretch, dost thou think that I protect criminals? If I did not let thee be killed now, it is that thou now hast escaped a painless death; but know that thou art reserved for the cross."

§ 9.379  PALLADAS
The proverb says, "Even a pig would bite a bad man; " but I say that we should not say that, but "Even a pig would bite simple unmeddlesome men, but even a snake would be afraid to bite a bad man."

§ 9.380  Anonymous
If a lark can sing like a swan and if owls dare compete with nightingales, if a cuckoo asserts he is more sweet-voiced than a cicada, then I too can equal Palladius.

§ 9.381  A HOMERIC CENTO On Hero and Leander
On a projecting shore on the broad Hellespont a modest maiden, having mounted to an upper chamber, stood in the tower lamenting and wailing. Holding a golden lamp she gave beautiful light, brooding on that unhappy man, would he come or not swimming. And he swiftly passed across the depth of the sea, through the ambrosial night when other mortals sleep, for a great wave surged towards the dry land of the continent. For as many days and nights as pass, the young man and maiden converse with each other, going to bed together without the knowledge of their dear parents, who inhabit Sestos, and Abydus, and divine Arisbe.

§ 9.382  Another
On the Theme "He who First heard Echo" Friends, Danaan heroes, servants of Ares, shall I lie or speak the truth, as my heart bids me? At the utmost border of the land where the tall trees grow lives a fair-haired dreadful goddess gifted with speech, either a goddess or a woman, and they called aloud on her. If she hear one call or speak, she excellently repeats what was spoken. But why narrate all this to thee in detail? Only I cannot look on her face or perceive her. Whatever kind of word thou speakest the like shalt thou hear.

§ 9.383  THE EGYPTIAN MONTHS
First Thoth learnt to uplift the hook to prune the grapes; Phaophi brings to fishermen a catch of every variety; Athyr indicates the date of the appearance of the Pleiads; Choiac shows the birth of the sown crops; Tybi displays the purple robe; Mecheir bids sailors prepare for a voyage; Phamenoth trains warriors in the use of arms; Pharmouthi is the first herald of the roses of spring; Pachon keeps for the sickle the ripened corn; Payni is the herald of fruitful autumn; Epephi, who blesses the vine, holds a bunch of grapes; and Mesori brings the vivifying water of Nile.

§ 9.384  THE ROMAN MONTHS
JANUARY: From me opens the door of the solar year and the sun looks on the supreme magistrates of Italy. February: I wet the land with thick snowflakes, making it pregnant with the splendour of spring. March: Mars begins from me, and flowers and sweet milk, and on my twentieth day night and day are equal. April: Let the gardener now cut shoots and graft tame branches on wild stems. May: Now the sea is open; equip the ships; it is time to sail them out of the untroubled harbours. June: I am half way between the rose and white lily, and I am heavy with branches of yellow cherries. July: The Sun crosses Cancer, and the husbandman with his sickle cuts the ripe ears. August: I separate the corn from the straw, and in Leo the fountains of the Naiads are at their purest. September: I am heavy with grapes and all kinds of fruit, and again night and day become equal. October: Who can be sweeter than me, who pour forth wine when I bring Bacchus from the vineyard to the press? November: If thou hast Pallas' olive-trees it is time to press the fruit and remember thee of labour. December: I bid thee cease from ploughing the fallow land, for the frosts will injure the milky seeds.

§ 9.385  STEPHANUS THE GRAMMARIAN
Contents of the Books of the "Iliad" Alpha contains the prayers of Chryses, the plague in the army and the quarrel of the kings. Beta has the dream and the Council, and numbers the ships. Gamma is the single combat for Helen between her husbands. Delta the Council of the gods, the breaking of the oaths, and beginning of the fight. In Epsilon the son of Tydeus wounds Cytherea and Ares. Zeta is the converse between Hector and Andromache. In Eta Ajax fights in single combat with divine Hector. Theta is the Council of the gods, the Trojans' victory, and Hector's boast. Iota is the embassy to stubborn Achilles. In Kappa men go out from both sides to reconnoitre. In Lambda Hector's men wound the chiefs of the Greeks. In My the Achaeans' wall falls by the hands of the Trojans. In Ny Poseidon secretly gives victory to the Greeks. In Xi Hera befools Zeus by love and sleep. In Omicron Zeus is enraged with Poseidon and Hera. In Pi the spear of Hector slays warlike Patroclus. In Ro the Greeks and Trojans are engaged round the corpse. In Sigma Thetis brings arms to Achilles from Hephaestus. In Tau divine Achilles leaves off his wrath and dashes forth. In Ypsilon there is strife among the gods, but it brings victory to the Greeks. In Phi Achilles subdues the Trojans at the river by his might. In Chi Achilles slays Hector after chasing him thrice round the wall. In Psi Achilles celebrates the games he gives the Greeks. In Omega Achilles accepts presents and gives up to Priam his son's body.

§ 9.386  Anonymous
Cypris, of late, on seeing thee naked, exclaimed: "Oh! Oh! look how impudent Nile, envying the sea's parentage, has, without the blood of Uranus, sent up another Cypris from his sweet depths."

§ 9.387  THE EMPEROR HADRIAN, Or, as others state, GERMANICUS Hector of the race of Ares, if thou hearest where'er thou art under ground, hail! and stay a little thy sighs for thy country. Ilion is inhabited, and is a famous city containing men inferior to thee, but still lovers of war, while the Myrmidons have perished. Stand by his side and tell Achilles that all Thessaly is subject to the sons of Aeneas.

§ 9.388  Under the above a soldier {some say Trajan) wrote: "They are bold, for they look not on the face of my helmet." When the Emperor praised this and wrote "Reveal who you are," he replied: {389} I am a soldier of cuirassed Mars and also a servant of Heliconian Apollo, chosen among the first men-at-arms.

§ 9.390  MENECRATES OF SMYRNA
A mother who had laid on the pyre her third child after losing the others too, reviling insatiate Death, on giving birth to a fourth sorrow would not wait, nourishing uncertain hope, but threw the child alive in the fire. "I will not rear it," she said. "What profits it? My paps, ye toil for Hades. I shall gain mourning with less trouble."

§ 9.391  DIOTIMUS
This son of Poseidon and the son of Zeus trained their youthful limbs for stubborn wrestling bouts. The contest is no brazen one for a caldron, but for which shall gain death or life. Antaeus has got the fall, and it was fit that Heracles, the son of Zeus, should win. Wrestling is Argive, not Libyan.

§ 9.392  Anonymous
If anyone is afraid of hanging himself, but wants to die, let him drink cold water from Hierapolis.

§ 9.393  PALLADAS
No magistrate ever came here who was both clean-handed and mild; for the one principle seems antagonistic to the other. Mildness is a virtue of the thief, and purity a virtue of the proud. These qualities are the two instruments of government.

§ 9.394  PALLADAS
Gold, father of flatterers, son of pain and care, it is fear to have thee and pain not to have thee.

§ 9.395  PALLADAS
Odysseus said "nothing is sweeter than a man's fatherland," for in Circe's isle he never ate cheesecake. If he had seen even the smoke curling up from that he would have sent ten Penelopes to the deuce.

§ 9.396  PAULUS SILENTIARIUS
One morning a sweet-voiced blackbird, together with a field-fare, fell into the cloud-like bag of the well-knit net. The field-fare was caught in the noose from which there is no escape, but the songster of the wilderness flew swiftly away from the trap. It would seem that blessed Artemis, the huntress, released the singing-bird for the sake of the sweet-voiced lord of the lyre.

§ 9.397  PALLADAS
A Spartan once was flying from the battle, and his mother, uplifting a sword to smite his breast, exclaimed: "If thou livest, thou dost fix on thy mother eternal disgrace, and dost violate the inherited laws of mighty Sparta. But if thou dost perish by my hand, they will call me an unlucky mother, but saved from disgrace together with my country."

§ 9.398  JULIAN, PREFECT OF EGYPT A ship that had escaped the waters of the boisterous sea, perished in the arms of its mother the earth. For fire consumed it where it lay motionless, and as it burnt it called for the aid of its foe the water.

§ 9.399  Anonymous
Thy mind, by its sweet light, conquered the sun, ever flashing forth soft brilliance of wisdom to illuminate mortals, a pleasant and painless splendour.

§ 9.400  PALLADAS
Revered Hypatia, ornament of learning, stainless star of wise teaching, when I see thee and thy discourse I worship thee, looking on the starry house of the Virgin; for thy business is in heaven.

§ 9.401  PALLADAS
Nature, loving the duties of friendship, invented instruments by which absent friends can converse, pens, paper, ink, handwriting, tokens of the heart that mourns afar off.

§ 9.402  Anonymous on Pompey the Great
In what sore need of a tomb stood he who possessed abundant temples!

§ 9.403  MACCIUS
To Dionysus Enter the vat thyself, my lord, and tread leaping swiftly; lead the labour of the night. Make naked thy proud feet, and give strength to the dance thy servant, girt up above thy active knees, and guide, O blessed one, the sweet-voiced wine into the empty casks. So shalt thou receive cakes and a shaggy goat.

§ 9.404  ANTIPHILUS
Ah! lovely is the liquor of the bees, self-wrought in the ether, and the cells self-moulded and not with hands; a gift unrequited to the life of men, needing no mattock, or oxen, or crooked sickle, but only a little vessel into which the bee pours forth the sweet stream in abundance from its tiny body. Hail! ye pure creatures; pasture on the flowers, ye winged makers of ethereal nectar.

§ 9.405  DIODORUS
May holy Adrasteia preserve thee, and Nemesis, the maiden who treadeth in our track, she who has cheated many. I fear for thy body's lovely form, O youth; for thy mental gifts and the strength of thy divine courage, for thy learning and thy prudent counsel. Such we are told, Drusus, are the children of the blessed immortals.

§ 9.406  ANTIGONUS OF CARYSTUS
On a figure of a Frog placed in a Crater I am a frog, now no longer croaking continually, placed under the shower of wine from the silver spout. I lie in the water, whose friend I am, but no enemy to Bacchus, and I am washed by the drops of both. Too late in life I went revelling to Dionysus. Alas for those who drink water: they are mad but with a temperate madness!

§ 9.407  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
The slave-child of Hippocrates, having crept from the neighbouring cottage to the broad edge of the sea, died of drinking more than it had drunk at the breast. Out on thee, Sea, who didst receive the baby as a mother, and didst deceive it!

§ 9.408  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
Would I had continued to stray at the will of all the winds that blow, rather than be fixed firm to help wandering Leto in her labour: I should never have had to lament such solitude. Alas, poor me, how many Greek ships now sail past deserted Delos, once so revered! Hera has taken this late but terrible vengeance on Leto.

§ 9.409  ANTIPHANES If there be one who does not take delight in the strains of the flute and the sweet sound of harpplaying, or in nectareous wine, oldest of the old, or in torches, revels, garlands, and scent, but who takes a frugal supper and stores up with greedy hands the fruits of stealthy-footed usury, to me he is dead, and I pass by the . . . corpse, who hoards for the weasands of others.

§ 9.410  TULLIUS SABINUS
A mouse once, lickerish of every kind of food and not even shy of the mouse-trap, but one who won booty even from death, gnawed through Phoebus' melodious lyre-string. The strained chord springing up to the bridge of the lyre, throttled the mouse. We wonder at the bow's good aim; but Phoebus uses his lyre, too, as a weapon wherewith to aim well at his enemies.

§ 9.411  MAECIUS
Cornelius is changed all of a sudden, and is no longer pleased with our simple literary life, but depends on light hope. We are not the same as before to him, but the hope on which he hangs is another. Let us give in, my heart; we are thrown; seek not to resist; it is a silver fall that has laid us on the ground.

§ 9.412  PHILODEMUS
It is already the season of the rose, Sosylus, and of ripe chick-peas, and the first cut cabbages, and smelts, and fresh salted cheese, and the tender leaves of curly lettuces. But we do not go up to the pleasaunce or sit on the belvedere, Sosylus, as we used. Yet Antigenes and Bacchius were sporting but yesterday, and today we carry them to their graves.

§ 9.413  ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM
The terebinth island has few vineyards, being small, but is all flat and not rugged. The islands near it are large and broad, but for the most part rough, and superior in this only, their size. We compete for crops, not for furlongs, just as the cornfields of Egypt take no count of the sands of Libya.

§ 9.414  GEMINUS
I am the rhamnus, a thorny shrub used as a fence. Who shall say I am unproductive when I protect the fruitful crops?

§ 9.415  ANTIPHILUS OF BYZANTIUM
On a Ship built from the Profits of a Brothel: I was formerly, too, my master's partner in his lucrative trade, when the crew he collected consisted of public votaries of Cypris. From those profits he built my keel that Cypris might see me, a product of the land, tossing on the sea. My rig befits a lady of pleasure; I wear dainty white linen, and on my timbers lies a delicate dye. Come, sailors, confidently mount on my stern. I can take any number of oarsmen.

§ 9.416  PHILIPPUS OF THESSALONICA
On the same: I am a ship built from the business of Cypris, and betake me to the sea that gave birth to that goddess; for the man who made me was a merchant of beauty, and christened me Courtesan, for I am friendly to all. Board me confidently; I don't demand a heavy fare; I receive all comers. I carry both natives and foreigners; you can row me either on land or in the sea.

§ 9.417  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
Lampo, Midas' hound, died of thirst, though he toiled hard for his life. For with his paws he dug into the damp earth, but the lazy water would not hasten to gush from the hidden source. He fell exhausted, and then the spring burst forth. Is it, Nymphs, that ye were wrath with Lampo for all the deer he had killed?

§ 9.418  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
On a Water-mill: Cease from grinding, ye women who toil at the mill; sleep late, even if the crowing cocks announce the dawn. For Demeter has ordered the Nymphs to perform the work of your hands, and they, leaping down on the top of the wheel, turn its axle which, with its revolving spokes, turns the heavy concave Nisyrian mill-stones. We taste again the joys of the primitive life, learning to feast on the products of Demeter without labour.

§ 9.419  CRINAGORAS
With most august Caesar, even if he go to the depths of the Hercynian forest or to extreme Soloeis and the western edge of Libya, goeth everywhere glory. The waters of the Pyrenees testify it. They in which not even the neighbouring wood-cutters washed, shall now be baths for two continents.

§ 9.420  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
Think not, Telembrotus, to persuade love by tears, or with a little water to put out so stubborn a fire. Gold is ever the medicine of love, and not even then when he was born on the deep sea was he quenched.

§ 9.421  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
On the Cyclades: Ye desert islands, crumbs of land, which the sounding cincture of the Aegean wave confines, ye have followed the example of Siphnus and squalid Pholegandrus, poor islands, and lost your ancient splendour. Delos, of a truth, once so brilliant, has taught you her ways, Delos who first of you all was condemned to solitude.

§ 9.422  APOLLONIDES
"By our children," she said, "I implore thee, if thou layest me out dead, enter not a second time into the loving bond of wedlock." She spoke, but he hastened to take another wife. Yet Philinna, even dead, punished Diogenes for forgetting her. For on the first night the wrath from which there is no escape laid their chamber in ruins, so that the sun never shone on his second marriage.

§ 9.423  BIANOR
Sardis, once the city of Gyges and Alyattes; Sardis, who wast for the great king a second Persia in Anatolia; thou who didst build thee of old time a hall of golden bricks, winning wealth from the stream of Pactolus; now, ill-fated city, enveloped all of thee in one disaster, thou hast fallen headlong into the depths, swallowed by the fathomless cavern. Bura and Helice too were engulfed by the sea, but thou, Sardis, the inland city, hast met with the same end as these which rest in the deep.

§ 9.424  DURIS OF ELAEA
Clouds of the heavens, whence drunk ye bitter waters, and in league with unbroken night deluged all? This is not Libya, these countless dwellings and the wealth of many prosperous years, but unhappy Ephesus. Whither, then, were the eyes of the Saving deities turned? Alas for the most besung of all Ionian cities! All, like rolling waves, has been swept to sea by the floods.

§ 9.425  IOANNES BARBUCALLUS
Here I lie, the luckless city, no longer a city, with my dead inhabitants, most ill-fated of all towns. After the Earth-shaker's shock Hephaestus consumed me. Alas, how excellent my beauty who now am dust! But as ye pass by bewail my fate, and let fall a tear for destroyed Berytus.

§ 9.426  IOANNES BARBUCALLUS
Where is Cypris, the keeper of the city, that she may see her who was once the seat of the Graces become the dwelling-place of spectres? The city is the tomb of dead men who had no funeral; under her ashes we, Beroe's many thousands, rest. Engrave on one stone above her, ye dear survivors: "Berytus the lamented lies low on the ground."

§ 9.427  IOANNES BARBUCALLUS
Stop not thy ship's course, mariner, because of me; lower not thy sails; thou seest the harbour dry. I am but one tomb. Let some other place that knows not mourning hear the beat of thine oars as thy ship approaches. This is Poseidon's pleasure and that of the Hospitable gods. Farewell seafarers, farewell wayfarers!

§ 9.428  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA (Addressed to L. Calpurnius Piso):
Thessalonica, the mother of all Macedonia, sends me to thee, despoiler of Thrace. I sing thy conquest of the martial Bessi, collecting all that I learnt about the war. But be thou, like a god, attentive to me, and listen to my prayers. What occupation is there which can deny an ear to the Muses?

§ 9.429  CRINAGORAS
Akisto sung of Nauplius, the watchman of sea-beaten Euboea, and the song set me on fire, valiant as I am. The flame of that false beacon shown in the night from the rock of Caphereus caught my ill-fated heart.

§ 9.430  CRINAGORAS
This sheep is a native of Agarra, where the felt-capped Armenians drink the water of Araxes. Its fleece is not, like a sheep's, composed of soft wool, but thin-haired and rougher than a wild goat's. Every year it bears triplets, and the teats of its udders are always full of milk. Its bleating resembles most the lowing of a tender calf, for diverse lands bear all things different.

§ 9.431  Anonymous on a Thief who found a Gold Sword
I both love gold, and I shrink from hostile Ares.

§ 9.432  THEOCRITUS
Ah! poor Thyrsis, what use crying out thy two eyes? The kid is gone, the little dear; it is gone to Hades, for the cruel wolf caught it in his claws. The dogs bay, but what use is that now when it is gone, and neither bone nor dust of it left?

§ 9.433  THEOCRITUS
By the Muses, wilt thou play something sweet to me on the double flute? and I will lift up my harp and begin a tune, and the herd Daphnis shall stand close by and make music with the breath of the wax-joined pipe. Standing there hard by, inside the cave shaggy with hanging greenery, let us bereave Pan the goat-mounter of sleep.

§ 9.434  THEOCRITUS
Prefixed to a collection of Theocritus' works
The Chian Theocritus is another, but I, the Theocritus who wrote these poems, am one of the many Syracusans, the son of Praxagoras and noble Philinna. I admitted no verse that is other than genuine.

§ 9.435  THEOCRITUS
This bank pays citizen and foreigner alike. Withdraw what you deposited, the reckoning counters meeting their liabilities. Let others find pretexts for not paying; Caicus pays money deposited with him on demand, even at night.

§ 9.436  An Inscription from Syracuse
The votive offerings to Apollo were old, but as for the base it is in one case twenty, in another seven, in another twelve, and in this last case two hundred years later; for so the figures work out when counted.

§ 9.437  THEOCRITUS
Goatherd, on turning the corner of that path where the oaks are, thou shalt find a newly carved image made of a fig-bough, three-forked, with the bark still on, without ears, but able with its generative phallus to do the work of Aphrodite. Round it is a most holy hedge, and a perennial stream issuing from the rocks feeds on all sides abundance of laurel, myrtle, and sweet-scented cypress, round which curl the tendrils of the vine, mother of the grape. In spring the shrill song of the blackbirds echoes here with its varied notes, and the brown nightingales pour from their throats their honeyed voice in response. Sit here and pray to kind Priapus to make me fall out of love with Daphnis, and sacrifice at once to him a fine kid. But if he grants the prayer I will offer him in return three sacrifices. I will kill him a heifer, a shaggy billy-goat, and the stalled lamb I have. May the god be benevolent and grant it.

§ 9.438  PHILIPPUS
When the burrowing ants, the army of the earth, nibbled at the rustic bee-keeper's sweet dainty, the old man in anger set the jar in a dish of water, thinking that, being creatures of the land, they would not get to it. But they, setting up fresh stalks of straw against it, quickly found their way, without anyone to steer them, to the vessel. So their dear belly induced even these tiny creatures to migrate from earth to water, the very newest variety of boatmen.

§ 9.439  CRINAGORAS
On a Skull: Once hairy crown, deserted shell of the eye, fabric of the tongueless mouth, feeble fence of the brain, relic of the unburied dead, set by the wayside to draw a tear from passers-by, thou liest there by the path near the tree-trunk, that looking on thee we may learn what profit there is in being thrifty of life.

§ 9.440  MOSCHUS
Fugitive Love Cypris cried loudly her lost son Love. "If anyone hath seen Love straying in the cross-roads, he is my fugitive child, and the informer shall be rewarded. The reward is a kiss from Cypris; and if you bring him, not a mere kiss, stranger, but something besides. The boy is easily recognisable; you could tell him among twenty. His complexion is not pale, but like to fire. His eyes are piercing and aflame. Evil is his heart, but sweet his speech, for what he has in his mind he speaks not. His voice is like honey, but if he grow wrath his spirit cannot be tamed. A cozener he is, never speaking the truth; a cunning child, and the games he plays are savage. Plenty of hair on his head, and he has a most forward face. His hands are tiny, but they shoot far; they shoot as far as Acheron and the King of Hades. Naked is his body, but his mind is wrapped up well. Like a winged bird he flies to one man and woman after another, and perches on their vitals. He has a very small bow, and on the bow an arrow; little is his arrow, but it flies even to heaven. He bears a golden quiver on his back, and in it are the bitter shafts with which he often wounds even me. All about him is savage, all, and worst of all his torch; it is but a little brand, and sets fire to the Sun himself. If you catch him, bring him bound and have no mercy on him. If you see him crying, mind he does not take you in; and if he smiles, drag him; and if he wants to kiss you, run away, for his kiss is evil and his lips are poison. And if he says 'Take these, I give you all my weapons,' touch not the deceitful gifts, for they are all dipped in fire."

§ 9.441  PALLADAS OF ALEXANDRIA
On a Statue of Heracles
I marvelled seeing at the cross-roads Jove's brazen son, once constantly invoked, now cast aside, and in wrath I said: "Averter of woes, offspring of three nights, thou, who never didst suffer defeat, art today laid low." But at night the god stood by my bed smiling, and said: "Even though I am a god I have learnt to serve the times."

§ 9.442  AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS
A fisherman was toiling to catch fish when a wealthy girl, seeing him, felt the pangs of love. She made him her husband, and he exchanged his poverty for a life boasting of every luxury. Fortune stood by smiling, and said to Cypris: "This is not your achievement, but mine."

§ 9.443  PAULUS SILENTIARIUS
Open not the recesses of thy mind to Aphrodite, for light Love at once rebounds from a heart that is hardened. The nature of passion is insinuating; if one receives the tip of the flaming arrow, the whole of it penetrates. Flatter not thy mind with lascivious hope, for it attracts the spirit and fans the consuming fire.

§ 9.444  ERATOSTHENES SCHOLASTICUS
Fair are the treasures of virginity, but if it were observed by all it would put an end to life. Therefore live in lawful wedlock, and give a mortal to the world to replace thee; but avoid lechery.

§ 9.445  JULIANUS OF EGYPT
Golden Tetianus, the Emperor wished to send you again to the distressed cities which had need of you; but you preferred a peaceful life, keeping to your home and inheritance, and increasing the righteously acquired fortune of your house. For Justice, enthroned beside you, knows that you loathe to touch wealth won from those you rule.

§ 9.446  JULIANUS OF EGYPT
All the paths of life are pleasant. In the middle of the city there are fame and society; at home our griefs are hidden. The country has its delights, seavoyages give profit, and foreign countries acquaintanceships. Marriage produces domestic concord, while the unmarried life is ever free from care. A child is his father's defence, while the childless are quit of fear. It is the virtue of youth to give us courage, that of hoary hairs to give us wisdom. Therefore be of good heart, and live and produce offspring.

§ 9.447  JULIANUS OF EGYPT
A mother, banishing the memory of her pangs, killed her son who abandoned the field after the death of his comrades. For Sparta distinguishes purity of race by warriors' bravery, not by children's birth.

§ 9.448  Anonymous
Homer's Question: Fishermen from Arcadia, what have we? The Answer We left what we caught and carry what we did not catch.

§ 9.449  Anonymous
What Love would say if he were in love Who is this that overcame fire by fire, who quenched a torch with a torch? Who drew another bow against mine? A new Love by my might contends on equal terms with Love.

§ 9.450  PHILEMON
Spoken by Philemon about Euripides If the dead in truth had use of their senses, as some say, I would have hanged myself to see Euripides.

§ 9.451  Anonymous
What Philomela mould say to her Sister Procne: Thy wicked husband shut me up, ill-fated that I am, alone in a deep cave, and took my maidenhead. An abominable present he made me on this my calamitous marriage, cutting off my tongue and quenching Greek speech in me.

§ 9.452  Anonymous on the same
Thy sister Philomela, Procne, wishes thee well if this be well-wishing. Let the robe tell thee the suffering of my heart which savage Tereus inflicted on me. Shutting me up, luckless maid, in the shepherd's fold, he deprived me first of virginity and next of speech.

§ 9.453  MELEAGER
Zeus who dwellest in heaven, the ox itself, a suppliant at thy altar, lows, begging to be saved from death. Release the plougher, son of Cronos; for thou thyself, O king, didst become a bull to bear Europa across the sea.

§ 9.454  Anonymous
What Calliope would say to George This man, not Zeus, is my true father.

§ 9.455  Anonymous
What Apollo would say about Homer: The song is mine, but divine Homer wrote it down.

§ 9.456  Anonymous
Pasiphae to Love: If thou hast taught me to love a bull that roams over the mountains, teach me to low so that I may call my dear husband.

§ 9.457  Anonymous
What Achilles would say if Agamemnon were wounded: Thou knowest now, Agamemnon, my man-destroying wrath; thou knowest how great is Hector's strength in hand-to-hand combat. For all have now perished owing to thy insult fraught with disaster, and a greater woe, worse than death, has come upon thee. Thou sufferest the evil and intolerable sorrow due to thy folly, who wast the defence in battle of all the Greeks.

§ 9.458  Anonymous
What Ulysses would say on landing in Ithaca: Hail, Ithaca! After all my labours and the bitter woes of the sea, right glad am I to reach thy soil, in hope to see Laertes and my wife and glorious only son. Love of thee soothed my heart; I myself know that "nothing is sweeter than a man's country and his parents."

§ 9.459  Anonymous
What Achilles would say on seeing Ulysses in Hades: Of a truth Odysseus is the most resourceful of men. Alive he looks on what it is not allowed to see, the infernal recesses and the bitter pains of the dead. How did he venture to leave the holy light? Did some necessity bring him here against his will? Odysseus never has his fill of cunning devices on earth, on the sea, and among the dead.

§ 9.460  Anonymous
What Achilles would have said when he saw the Armour lying before him: Mother, thou bringest to thy valiant son this armour, a glorious gift such as no man ever looked on. Now I know that Pallas arms my hand against Hector, and prepares disgrace and death for the Trojans.

§ 9.461  Anonymous
What Pyrrhus would say on entering Troy: The labour of my noble father was not completed, but I have come, preparing slaughter for all the Trojans; for I glory more exceedingly in my valour, and my might is capable of destroying in battle King Priam and all that Achilles left alive. The warlike city of Troy will I sack, and my spear shall complete the ten years' labour of the Greeks.

§ 9.462  Anonymous
What Deidamia would say when Pyrrhus had sacked Troy Thou hast made to cease all the heavy woe of my heart for the fate of thy father Achillea, whom mournful Troy slew. To the Greeks who were eager for it thou hast given the undying glory which the ten years of war could not accomplish for the whole host of the Danai.

§ 9.463  Anonymous
What Hector would say when he saw Achilles in the Armour: Athena in her wrath has again clothed the son of Peleus in immortal mail. Some worse woe shall befall the unhappy Trojans and Hector and his father, since the goddess gave this man this armour.

§ 9.464  Anonymous
What Paris would say when Menelaus was wounded: Out on you all, ye craven Argives! Menelaus is dead now and gives me greater glory.

§ 9.465  Anonymous
What Althaea, entreating Meleager, would say: My son, thou forgettest thy family and heedest not thy country's fate. Thou hast cast aside thy strong sword, putting Oeneus and Calydon and her people to shame.

§ 9.466  Anonymous
What Alcestis would say when Admetus yoked a Lion and Boar to his Chariot: Great deeds of valour crowned thy chariot, and with excellently composed wedding hymns men celebrate thy bride.

§ 9.467  Anonymous
What Peleus would say on hearing that Achilles absented himself from the battle: Ye peaks of Pelias, who nursed him, tell my son, whom Chiron taught to be first in battle, to cast oil his wrath and fatal enmity to the Greeks.

§ 9.468  Anonymous
What Hera would say when Heracles was deified: Thy father, Heracles, has well rewarded thy valiant toil, since labour can bring to men unsurpassable renown after an infinite round of labours.

§ 9.469  Anonymous on the same
Labour and immense toil procured thee the favour of occupying a blessed seat that no man reached before thee.

§ 9.470  Anonymous
What Achilles would say to reconcile Ajax with Ulysses: It is not permitted to nourish ill-will among the dead. Now thou hast escaped the sorrows of earth, love thy friend; for Odysseus did not sin against thee of his own will, but the strong hand of Athena killed thee, and Father Zeus, and Fate, and the Erinys that walks in darkness. Would that divine Thetis had east the armour into the salt depths of the sea, stilling the strife of thy heart.

§ 9.471  Anonymous
What Nestor would say on learning of Ulysses' return: The good man has escaped the merciless sea, and after toil has reached his fatherland, and he must be my better, as he has become well acquainted with cities and customs and the minds of men.

§ 9.472  Anonymous on Ulysses
It was after much toil that long-suffering Odysseus came home; yet Odysseus, the sacker of cities, surely has great fame on land and sea among men of future times.

§ 9.473  Anonymous
What Agamemnon would say when Achilles was armed: Beetling Ilion is fallen, and God has given it a prey to the Greeks now that Achilles has cast off his wrath and arms his murderous hands.

§ 9.474  Anonymous
What Idothea would say on seeing Helen in Pharos: I pity thy beauty, since thou art the child of Zeus. For I see a god-nourished form, and verily thou wast the cause of the ten years' war between Greeks and Trojans. Where is the help of aegis-bearing Zeus thy father? But go soon on thy way, making, by the kindness of Idothea, a safe voyage home over the back of the cruel sea.

§ 9.475  Anonymous
What Helen would say on seeing the Combat between Paris and Menelaus: Ye warlike kings of Europe and Asia, for both of you it stands upon a razor's edge, which of you longsuffering men shall take unhappy me to wife. Let Father Zeus decide, but without Aphrodite's help, lest another thief of wedded women steal me, a disgrace to Greece.

§ 9.476  Anonymous
What Hector would say when Patroclus could not lift the Spear of Achilles Thy weakness has defrauded Hector, for thou bringest me defective spoils.

§ 9.477  Anonymous
What Thetis would say when Telephus was tripped up by the vine: Vine, what shall I do when Daphnaean Apollo lays low my vine-branch by the arrow of Alexander?

§ 9.478  Anonymous
What Priam would say when Helen advised the Greeks how to take Troy: Splendid is the gift thou offerest thy country.

§ 9.479  Anonymous
What Perseus would say after slaying the Monster, when Andromeda refused him: The cruel fetters of the rock have turned thy heart to stone, and now let the eye of Medusa turn thy body, too, to stone.

§ 9.480  Anonymous
What Hippodamia would say after the death of Oenomaus if Pelops refused to marry her: Hippodamia. Thou turnest thy back on me now thou hast liberty to enjoy me. Pelops. Yea, for Love does not go hand in hand with such liberty. Love walks in another path.

§ 9.481  JULIANUS SCHOLASTICUS
(When he came too late to lecture) Both evening sleep and morning sleep overcame me, the latter having been too heavy and the former not having invited me. Let morning sleep begone and evening sleep come in kindly wise knowing the just number of hours.

§ 9.482  AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS
We Mortals of no account, even if we perform great deeds, do not survive long in the memory of anyone; but as for the great, if they do nothing, if they only breathe, as the Libyan said, it is engraved in adamant. For instance Zeno, the lord and emperor of our city, while in the middle of a game played with the capricious dice, found himself in this complicated position: when of the white men who were on their way back, the sixth line contained seven, the ninth one, and the tenth and summus two each, while the line after the summus had two, and the last piece was on the divus. Black had two on the eighth line, and as many on the eleventh; on the twelfth were two, and one on the thirteenth. There were two on Antigonus and also on the fifteenth and eighteenth, and the fourth line from the last (the twentieth) also had two. It was the king's turn to play for White, and not seeing the trap in store for him, he cast the three dice from the wooden box with its hidden ladder, and threw two, six, and five, so that at once he had eight single pieces in all which had formerly been next others (?). Avoid backgammon, as the king himself did not escape from its blind chance.

§ 9.483  Anonymous on a Child who was poisoned by Peach Kernels
From the murderous Persians Perseus brought back a murderous fruit which caused the death of Theognostus' child.

§ 9.484  PALLADAS
Odysseus once, when sailing on the sea, received as a gift a bag of winds — a very valuable thing. But this my Aeolus of the windy heart sends me a fowl stuffed with wind. You send me winged winds, my friend, yes wind, and I can't eat compressed air.

§ 9.485  HELIODORUS
(From his Aethiopica, iii. 2) I sing Thetis, golden-haired Thetis, the immortal daughter of the sea-god Nereus, who by the counsel of Zeus wedded Peleus, the glory of the sea, our Aphrodite, her who bore from her womb the raging spearman, the Ares of war, the lightning of Greece, divine Achilles, whose glory reaches to heaven. By him Pyrrha bore Neoptolemus, the sacker of Troy and saviour of Greece. Be gracious unto us, blessed hero Neoptolemus, now lying in Delphian earth; receive favourably this sacrifice and ward off all fear from our city. Thetis I sing, golden-haired Thetis.

§ 9.486  PALLADAS
When my slave untied the paunch you sent me, after tying it up yourself, he found it to be a bellows full of air.

§ 9.487  PALLADAS
You served me the food of fig-fattened pigs from Cyprus, dry and thirst-provoking. But when you find me sufficiently fig-fattened, either kill me at once or quench my thirst with Cyprian wine.

§ 9.488  TRYPHO
Terpes, harping beautifully at the Carneian feast of tabernacles, died . . . among the Lacedaemonians, not wounded by a sword or a missile, but by a fig on the lips. Alas! Death is never at a loss for occasions.

§ 9.489  PALLADAS
A grammarian's daughter, having known a man, gave birth to a child which was masculine, feminine, and neuter.

§ 9.490  HELIODORUS
(From his Aethiopica, viii. 11) When wearing the stone Pantarbes (Fear-all), fear not the force of fire. The unexpected is easy for the Fates.

§ 9.491  THEON
A Monostichon on the Days of the Week Jove, Mars, Venus, Moon, Saturn, Sun, Mercury.

§ 9.492  Anonymous on a Soldier's Arms
Together lay shield and sword, arrows, cuirass, helmet, horse.

§ 9.493  Anonymous, another
Shield, bow and arrows, helmet, sword, strong spear.

§ 9.494  Anonymous, another
Arrow, bow, shield, helmet, spear, sword, cuirass.

§ 9.495  Anonymous (Spoken by Agamemnon)
Dwellers in Greece, noble chieftains, place no trust any longer in perfidious women. A woman overcame me, whom my foe Hector slew not.

§ 9.496  ATHENAEUS
Hail! ye who are learned in the Stoic lore, ye whose holy pages contain the very best of doctrines, that virtue is the soul's only good. This is the only doctrine that saves the lives and cities of men. But indulgence of the flesh, an end dear to others, is only approved by one of all Mnemosyne's daughters.

§ 9.497  CRATES
Hunger puts an end to love, or if not hunger, time. But if neither of these put out the fire, the only cure left for you is to hang yourself.

§ 9.498  Anonymous on a Persian
Bury not the unburied; leave him to be the prey of dogs. Earth, the mother of all, will not receive the man who denies the bed of his mother.

§ 9.499  Anonymous
Grey Time goes along in silence, but as he creeps by he steals the voices of speaking men. Himself unseen, he makes the seen unseen and brings the unseen to light. O undetermined end of the life of men who day by day advance towards the dark!

§ 9.500  Anonymous
No longer call the living heirs, but call the dead heirs. The dead are now heirs, and gain a great inheritance, departure from this wretched life.

§ 9.501  Anonymous on an Earthquake
The dead used to leave the city alive behind them, but we living now carry the city to her grave.

§ 9.502  PALLADAS
I require "conditum." Where did "conditum" get its name from? for it is alien to the Greek tongue. If it is a Latin word you will know, who are such a good Latin scholar. Prepare it for me, then, for the malady of the stomach from which I suffer requires this drink, I am told.

§ 9.503  PALLADAS
I was not wrong in saying that there is a divine virtue in dizyphi. The other day at least I applied a dizyphos to one suffering from a chronic quartan ague, and he became at once as fit as a dog-tick.

§ 9.504  Anonymous on the Muses
Calliope discovered the art of heroic verse; Clio the sweet music of the lyre which accompanies the dance; Euterpe the sonorous voice of the tragic chorus; Melpomene found for mortals the honeytoned barbitos, and charming Terpsichore gave us the artful flute; Erato invented cheering hymns to the gods; learned Polymnia the joys of the dance; Urania discovered the pole and the dance of the stars of heaven, and Thalia the plots and good moral teaching of comedy.

§ 9.505  Anonymous on the same
The painter never saw Terpsichore, but owing to his art the image deceives our eyes by its truth. If, my friend, you ever hear the lyre that cheers the heart, admire Erato, who possesses such skill. Euterpe shrills on perforated reeds, scattering on them and forcing through them the spirit of the skilled bee. I, Thalia, am concerned with comic verse, and I present in play, on the scene that loves the castanets, the actions of immoral people. Look on the image of thy wisdom; for thy heart should conceive Calliope's image to be wisdom. I, Clio, dwell by the laurelled tripods of Phoebus, the Muse of prophecy and history. I, Urania, through calculations revealed by God, teach the recurring necessity of the stars' motions. Look on Melpomene, skilled in lovely eloquence, giving force to brazen-voiced epic song. I, Polymnia, am silent, but speak through the entrancing motions of my hands, conveying by my gestures a speaking silence.

§ 9.506  PLATO
Some say the Muses are nine, but how carelessly! Look at the tenth, Sappho from Lesbos.

§ 9.507  CALLIMACHUS
On the Phaenomena of Aratus
The rhythm and the manner are Hesiod's. He of Soli took as a model not the worst of poets, but, I am afraid, the most honeyed of his verses. Hail! delicate phrases, the monument of Aratus' sleepless nights.

§ 9.508  PALLADAS
If one wishes to enjoy a happy day, meeting you makes his day a good one; but if one wishes the contrary, not meeting you makes it a bad one.

§ 9.509  LYSISTRATUS THE SEER
The women of Colias shall cook with oars.

§ 9.510  Anonymous
Critonianus married me, Solon begat me, my name was Meltine, I was moulded by the hands of my husband.

§ 9.511  Anonymous
Asclepios ordered me in his kindness to adorn his grey locks with gold, and I gladly did it, since he deemed this service on my part to be pleasing to him.

§ 9.512  Anonymous on a Book
Teacher of the ruler of Rome, be gracious to me, accepting kindly the mysteries of the book of Protus, the deep words revealed by the pen of Philoponus.

§ 9.513  CRINAGORAS
On an Actor Thou didst excel in the many dramas that Menander, with one of the Muses or one of the Graces, wrote.

§ 9.514  Anonymous
I am the god who is always chanted in the chambers of brides, and Menis, the comic actor, polished me well for the wedding of newly-married Procilla, and sent me with this prayer: "Go, Hymenaeus, in friendly wise, to both bride and bridegroom."

§ 9.515  Anonymous
The Graces are three, and thou art one born for these three, that the Graces may have a Grace.

§ 9.516  CRINAGORAS
"Let every man ply his own trade," indeed. Under the high Alps the shock-headed robbers, when they have a job in hand, thus avoid the watch-dogs. They grease themselves thickly with kidney-fat to deceive the dogs' keen scent. It is more ready in devising evil than good, the Ligurian mind.

§ 9.517  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
Orpheus charmed beasts and thou charmest Orpheus. Phoebus vanquished the Phrygian, but he yields to thee when thou playest, Glaphyrus — the name suits both thy art and thy person. Athena would never have thrown the flute away had she made such music as thou, master of varied delight. Sleep himself, lying in Pasithea's arms, would awake if he heard thee.

§ 9.518  ALCAEUS OF MESSENE
Heighten thy walls, Olympian Zeus; all is accessible to Philip: shut the brazen gates of the gods. Earth and sea lie vanquished under Philip's sceptre: there remains the road to Olympus.

§ 9.519  ALCAEUS OF MESSENE
(Addressed to King Philip, son of Demetrius) I drink, Bacchus, I drink; yes, deeper than the Cyclops drunk when he had filled his belly with the flesh of men; would I could dash out the brains of my foe and drain Philip's skull to the dregs, Philip who tastes of the blood of his friends as he carouses, pouring poison into the wine.

§ 9.520  Anonymous on Alcaeus (probably by his enemy King Philip)
This is the tomb of Alcaeus who was killed by the broad-leaved daughter of earth, the radish, punisher of adulterers.

§ 9.521  Anonymous
The Muses to Sappho No little fame, Sappho, did Fate grant thee on the day thou didst first see the sun. For we consented that thy utterances should be immortal, and the Father of all, the Thunderer, approved. All men shall sing thee, and thou shalt not lack glorious report.

§ 9.522  Anonymous
Iliad, thou great work, and Odyssey, chaste poem, that hast made Ithaca Troy's equal, make me, the old man, grow in eternal youth; for from your lips Hows the Siren song of Homer.

§ 9.523  Anonymous
Calliope, eloquent goddess of Helicon the pasture of bees, bear me a second Homer, since a second Achilles has come.

§ 9.524  Anonymous
A Hymn to Dionysus (containing his Epithets in alphabetical Order) Let us chant the king who loves the call of Euhoe, the King Eiraphiotes, Tender-haired, rustic, much besung, fair of form, Boeotian, Bromius, reveller, with vine-leaves in his hair, Merry, productive, slayer of giants, the laugher, Son of Zeus, twice-born, son of the Dithyramb, Dionysus, Euius, with lovely locks, rich in vines, awaker of revels. Jealous, very wrathful, envious, bestower of envy, Gentle, sweet drinker, sweet-voiced, cozener, Thracian, thyrsus-bearing, boon-companion, lionhearted, Slayer of Indians, desirable, twiner of violets, hierophant, Reveller, horned, ivy-crowned, noisy, Lydian, lord of the wine-press, dispeller of care, Healer of sorrow, mystic, frenzied, giver of wine, thousand-shaped, God of the night, shepherd-god, fawn-like, clothed in fawn-skin, Spear-thrower, common to all, giver of guests, yellowhaired, Prone to anger, stout of heart, lover of the mountain shade, wanderer on the mountains, Deep drinker, wanderer, wearer of many garlands, constant reveller, Mind-breaker, slender, wrinkled, clad in sheep-skin, Leaper, satyr, son of Semele, Jovial, bull-faced, slayer of Tyrrhenians, swift to wrath, Chaser of sleep, liquid, hymeneal, dweller in the woods, Mad for wild beasts, terrible, laughter-loving, wanderer, Golden-horned, graceful, relaxer of the mind, goldenfilleted, Disturber of the soul, liar, bent on noise, tearer of the soul, Seasonable, eater of raw flesh, nurtured on the mountains, making clamour on the mountains. Let us chant the King who loves the call of Euhoe, the King Eiraphiotes.

§ 9.525  Anonymous
A similar Hymn to Apollo Let us hymn Paean the great god, Apollo; Immortal, gloriously formed, unshorn, soft-haired, Stern-hearted, king, delighting in arrows, giver of life, Joyous, laughing, slayer of giants, sweet-hearted, Son of Zeus, slayer of the dragon, lover of the laurel, Sweet of speech, of ample might, far-shooter, giver of hope, Creator of animals, divine, Jove-minded, giver of zeal, Mild, sweet-spoken, sweet-hearted, gentle-handed, Slayer of beasts, blooming, charmer of the spirit, soft speaking, Shooter of arrows, desirable, healer, charioteer, Weaver of the world, Clarian, strong-hearted, father of fruits, Son of Leto, pleasant, delighting in the lyre, resplendent, Lord of the mysteries, prophet, magnanimous, thousand-shaped, Lover of the bow-string, wise, stiller of grief, sober, Lover of community, common to all, taking thought for all, benefactor of all, Blessed, making blessed, Olympian, dweller on the hills, Gentle, all-seeing, sorrowless, giver of wealth, Saviour from trouble, rose-coloured, man-breaker, path-opener, Glittering, wise, father of light, saviour, Delighting in the dance, Titan, initiator, revered, Chanter of hymns, highest, stately, of the height, Phoebus, purifier, lover of garlands, cheerer of the spirit, Utterer of oracles, golden, golden-complexioned, golden-arrowed, Lover of the lyre, harper, hater of lies, giver of the soul, Swift-footed, swift-voiced, swift of vision, giver of seasons. Let us hymn Paean the great god, Apollo.

§ 9.526  ALPHEIUS OF MYTILENE
Shut, O god, the tireless gates of great Olympus; keep, O Zeus, the holy castle of heaven. Already sea and earth are subdued by the Roman arms, but the path to heaven is still untrodden.

§ 9.527  ORACLE FROM HERODOTUS Lion, with long-suffering heart, bear the unbearable. No evil man shall escape punishment.

§ 9.528  PALLADAS
On the House of Manna The inhabitants of Olympus, having become Christians, live here undisturbed; for here they shall not be put on the fire in the melting-pot that produces necessary small change.

§ 9.529  Anonymous on the Bed of a Harlot made of Laurel
I who fled the bed of one, am made a bed for many.

§ 9.530  Anonymous on an Unworthy Magistrate
Fortune did not willingly give you advancement, but to show that her omnipotence reaches even as low as you.

§ 9.531  Anonymous on the Isaurians
They run equal to the winds; hence their name.

§ 9.532  Anonymous To a Pumpkin
Tell me, pumpkin, why even so late as this the watery tribe of cucumbers and pumpkins has not appeared. The Pumpkin's Reply Zeus rained heavily and flooded the fields, which still hide our race against our will.

§ 9.533  Anonymous on a Beast-fighter who escaped by means of a Pole
A man fixed a pole on the ground, and throwing himself into the air made a somersault, and with his nimble feet passed over the back of the beast that was rushing at him. It failed to catch him; the people applauded loudly and the man escaped.

§ 9.534  Anonymous on Artemis
Artemis, sweating, forbodes war.

§ 9.535  Anonymous
Dionysus glories in ivy, Zeus in the aegis, the inhabitants of this city in their hospitality, and the city in her inhabitants.

§ 9.536  Anonymous on the River Alpheius
Water in the sea travelled through water without getting wet.

§ 9.537  NESTOR OF NICAEA
Why did you make a disturbance and stop my song? A rider has learnt how to ride, and a singer how to sing. But if one who has learnt riding wants to sing, he is a failure in both riding and singing.

§ 9.538  Anonymous
These Nonsense Verses each contain all the Letters of the Alphabet.

§ 9.540  Anonymous
Do not rapidly unfold to the end of the roll the book of Heraclitus the Ephesian. The path is very difficult, and all is mist and unilluminated darkness; but if one initiated introduce you, it is clearer than the bright sun.

§ 9.541  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA Theogenes sends to Piso the skilfully wrought bowls, and both of us together contain the heavens. We are both carved out of a sphere, and one of us contains the southern constellations, the other the northern. No longer consult Aratus, for if you empty us both you see all the Phaenomena.

§ 9.542  CRINAGORAS
Never fear, Philonides; write a piece composed for four parts or even more; for neither your singing nor the motions of Bathyllus' hands shall be lacking in grace.

§ 9.543  PHILIPPUS
The well-mounted troupe of bull-fighters from Thessaly, armed against the beasts with no weapons but their hands, spur their horses to run alongside the galloping bull, bent on throwing round its neck the noose of their arms. At the same time pulling it towards the ground by thus hanging themselves at the end of its neck and weighing down its head, they roll over even such a powerful brute.

§ 9.544  ADDAEUS
On a Figure of Galeae cut by Tryphon: Tryphon coaxed me, the Indian beryl, to be Galene, the goddess of Calm, and with his soft hands let down my hair. Look at my lips smoothing the liquid sea, and my breasts with which I charm the windless waves. Did the envious stone but consent, you would soon see me swimming, as I am longing to do.

§ 9.545  CRINAGORAS
With a copy of Callimachus' Hecale This chiselled poem is Callimachus', for in it he let out every reef of his Muse. He sings the hut of hospitable Hecale, and all the labours that Marathon imposed on Theseus. May the young strength of Theseus' hands be thine, Marcellus, and a life of equal renown.

§ 9.546  ANTIPHILUS
Once in a way let my couch be on the ship's poop, the weather-cloths above sounding with the blows of the spray, the fire breaking out from the stones, and the pot upon them bubbling with empty noise. Let my eyes be on the unwashed cabin boy, and let my table be the first plank of the deck that offers; and a game of "Give and take" and the gossip of the sailors. The other day this happened to me, who love to be at hail fellow all round.

§ 9.547  Similar to Nos. 538, 539

§ 9.548  BIANOR
Ye children of the ox, how wrong of you to kill Hermonax, the straying baby boy. The poor child, in the innocence of his heart, went to you thinking you were bees, and you proved worse than vipers. Instead of giving him a dainty feast you drove your murderous stings into him, bitter bees, contrary in nature to your sweet gifts.

§ 9.549  ANTIPHILUS
A. Ye streams of the fountain, why have ye fled? Where is all that water gone? What fiery sun has extinguished the ever-running spring? B. We are exhausted by tears for Agricola; his thirsty dust has absorbed all the drink we had to give.

§ 9.550  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA I say not, Tenos, that thou art not famous, for of old the winged sons of Boreas got thee renown. But Ortygia was celebrated too, and her name reached to the Rhipaean Hyperboreans. But now thou livest and she is dead. Who would have expected to see Delos more desert than Tenos?

§ 9.551  ANTIPHILUS
Calchedon hates and punishes the ill-omened heron. Phoebus will tell for what reason it is always called the traitor-bird. When in the shallow sea standing on its thin shanks it was picking up its food from the sand, then the foemen crossed to the city from opposite, learning at length to pass over the sea on foot. Stone the wicked bird, for it got from the enemy a heavy reward — conchs and seaweed, the traitor.

§ 9.552  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA A sword made of Macedonian steel and taught valiance by the hand of Alexander, I come, Piso, longing for thy hand, and thus I greet thee: "I rejoice to find the right hand for which fate reserved me."

§ 9.553  PHILIPPUS (?) On the Foundation of Nicopolis by Augustus
To replace Leucas, and fertile Ambracia, and Thyrreum, and Anactorium, and Amphilochian Argos, and all the surrounding cities that the furious onslaught of war destroyed, Caesar founded me, Nicopolis, a divine city. Phoebus receives this reward for the victory of Actium.

§ 9.554  MARCUS ARGENTARIUS
Calling secretly, Heraclea, you draw it to your lips. Long now all the town says it of you. How do you venture to do such a shameful thing? Did anyone catch you by your beautiful hair and force you to it? Or is it because your pretty name is derived from Heracles that in your depravity you choose to kiss his wife Hebe.

§ 9.555  CRINAGORAS
On the Island of Sybota
I am an island, small, seven stadia long, though the geographers neglected (?) to measure me; but still you will see that when I am ploughed I give birth to fat crops, and that I am rich in every kind of fruit, and have plenty of fish to catch, and cool breezes in the dog-days, and the gentleness of unruffled harbours. I am near Phaeacian Corcyra. So that I might be made fun of, I took this name [swineherd] of which I am highly proud.

§ 9.556  ZONAS
Pan is the Speaker Nereids, Nymphs of the shore, you saw Daphnis yesterday, when he washed off the dust that lay like down on his skin; when, burnt by the dog star, he rushed into your waters, the apples of his cheeks faintly reddened. Tell me, was he beautiful? Or am I a goat, not only lame in my legs but in my heart too?

§ 9.557  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
Tarsus, Cilician city, the runner Aries, son of Menecles, does not disgrace even Perseus, thy founder. Such are the boy's winged feet that not even Perseus would have shown him his back in the race. The youth is seen only at the start and the finish, never in the middle of the course.

§ 9.558  ERYCIUS
Cleson's billy-goat through the livelong night kept the she-goats awake with his snorting and jumping, for he had caught from afar the scent of a goatslaying wolf that was approaching the fold built on the cliff. At length the dogs awakened from their bed, frightened away the huge beast, and sleep closed the eyes of the goats.

§ 9.559  CRINAGORAS
I am getting ready to sail to Italy, for I am on my way to my friends from whom I have been absent for so long. I am in search of a navigator to conduct me and bring me to the Cyclades and ancient Corcyra. But I beg for your help too, my friend Menippus, author of the learned circular tour and versed in all geography.

§ 9.560  CRINAGORAS
Earthquake, most dread of all shocks, whether thou art aroused by the upshaken currents of the sea or of the winds, spare my new-built house, for I know not yet any terror to equal the quivering of the earth.

§ 9.561  PHILIPPUS
What desert, sunless hill of Northern Scythia nourished thee, wild vine? Or was it the eternal ice of the snowy Celtic Alps or the iron-bearing soil of Spain — thee, who didst bear the sour grapes, the unripened clusters — that yielded this harsh juice? I seek for thy hands, Lycurgus, to tear up by the roots the whole plant of that vine, the mother of crude fruit.

§ 9.562  CRINAGORAS
The parrot that talks with human voice, taking leave of his wicker cage, flew to the woods on his many-coloured wings, and ever assiduous in greeting famous Caesar, did not forget that name even in the mountains. All the birds, sharpening their wits to learn, strove among each other which should be the first to say "Chaire" to the god. Orpheus made the beasts obey him in the hills, and now every bird tunes its voice for thee, Caesar, unbidden.

§ 9.563  LEONIDAS
If thou findest anywhere Democritus the lover of fruit, give him, Sir, this light message: that this is my season, the white-fruited fig-tree, and I bear for him the bread that wants no baking. Let him make haste, for my position is not secure, if he would pluck the fruit from my branches before they are stoned.

§ 9.564  NICIAS
Bee, that revealest the presence of many-coloured spring in her delightful bloom; yellow bee, revelling in the prime of the flowers; fly to the sweetlyscented field and busy thyself with thy work, that thy waxen chambers may be filled.

§ 9.565  CALLIMACHUS
Theaetetus walked in an untrodden road, and if this path does not lead, Bacchus, to thy ivy, the heralds shall call the names of others for a brief season, but Hellas shall proclaim his wisdom for ever.

§ 9.566  CALLIMACHUS
A successful poet, Dionysus, is a man of few words. The most he says is "I conquer." But he whom thy auspicious gale favours not, if he be asked "What luck?" says "Things go hard with me." Let such phrases be his who broods on fancied injustice. But mine, O Lord, be the few syllables.

§ 9.567  ANTIPATER OF SIDON (?)
Antiodemis, the nursling of Aphrodite, who from her babyhood slept on purple cloth, the glance of whose melting eyes is softer than sleep, the halcyon of Lysis, the delightful toy of Methe, whose arms flow like water, who alone among women has no bones at all (for she was all cream-cheese), has crossed to Italy, that by her softening charm she may make Rome cease from war and lay down the sword.

§ 9.568  DIOSCORIDES
Nile, rising in vast volume, thou hast carried away in thy random course the farm of Aristagoras and all his possessions. But the old man himself, abandoning all hope, swam, clinging to a clod of his own land, to his neighbour's half-destroyed farm, saying: "O long toil and useless work of my aged arms, ye are all become water, and this wave so sweet to farmers was the bitterest of floods for Aristagoras."

§ 9.569  EMPEDOCLES (From his book "On Nature ")
I have been a boy and a girl, a shrub, a bird, and a warm-blooded fish of the sea. (From his "Purifications ") Hail! my friends who dwell in the citadel of the great city, yellow Agrigentum, observers of righteousness. Know that I, no longer a mortal, but an immortal god, sojourn here honoured by all as is meet, crowned with fillets and flowery garlands.

§ 9.570  PHILODEMUS
Xantho, modelled of wax, with scented skin, with a face like a Muse's, sweet-voiced, fair darling of the twin-winged Loves, play to me with thy scentbedewed hands. "I must lie and sleep for long, dying not, on a single bed cut out of stone." Sing it to me again, Xantho dear; yea! yea! sing me that sweet song. [Dost thou not hear it, man who amassest interest of moneys? On a single bed cut out of stone thou shalt live for ever, unhappy wretch.]

§ 9.571  Anonymous on the Nine Lyric Poets
Pindar screamed loud from Thebes, the Muse of Simonides breathed delight with her sweet-strained voice, Stesichorus and Ibycus shine, Alcman was sweet, and Bacchylides' lips uttered dainty song, Persuasion attended on Anacreon, Lesbian Alcaeus sings varied strains on the Aeolian . . . But Sappho was not the ninth among men, but is tenth in the list of the lovely Muses.

§ 9.572  LUCILIUS
"Let us begin our song from the Heliconian Muses"; so Hesiod wrote, they say, while he kept his sheep. "Sing, O goddess, the wrath," and "Tell me, Muse, the man," said Calliope by the mouth of Homer. Now I have got to write a proem of some sort. But what shall I write now I am beginning to publish this second book? " Olympian Muses, daughters of Zeus, I should not have been saved unless Nero Caesar had given me money."

§ 9.573  AMMIANUS
Sit not, O man, at another's table indulging thy belly with the bread of reproach, now weeping with the weeper and the sour-countenanced, and now laughing with the laugher, sharing both laughter and tears when thou hast no need of either.

§ 9.574  Anonymous
I, too, thrice unhappy Anaxis, carted along the burden of this weary life that is no life. Yet I did not pull it for long, but spurning from me this distraught life I went to Hades.

§ 9.575  PHILIPPUS
Heaven shall sooner quench its stars and the sun make bright the face of night; the sea shall sooner provide sweet water for mortals to draw, and the dead return to the land of the living, than oblivion of those ancient pages shall rob us of the glorious name of Homer.

§ 9.576  NICARCHUS
On a Statue of Athena holding an Apple. Aphrodite speaks Trito-born maiden, why dost thou vex me now by grasping in thy hand my prize of which thou hast robbed me. Thou rememberest how formerly, amid the rocks of Ida, Paris pronounced me fairest, not thee. Thine are the spear and shield, but mine is the apple. For the apple that old war was surely enough.

§ 9.577  PTOLEMAEUS
I know that I am mortal, a creature of a day; but when I search into the multitudinous revolving spirals of the stars my feet no longer rest on the earth, but, standing by Zeus himself, I take my fill of ambrosia, the food of the gods.

§ 9.578  LEON THE PHILOSOPHER
On the Conic Sections of Apollonius
Deep, reader, and exceeding hard is the character of the things wherewith this book is big, and it has every need of a Delian diver. But if one dive into its depths and investigate accurately every recess, he shall gain the first prize in geometry, and be pronounced indisputably a learned man. Plato is witness and security for this.

§ 9.579  LEON THE PHILOSOPHER
Look, Corinthian founder of Sicily, who once didst drink the famous waters of Syracusan Arethusa, upon the herald's staff as shaped by men of old time.

§ 9.580  Anonymous on the Roman Months
The consuls' month is first, the second cuts the furrow, the third rouses the Italians to war, the fourth announces the rosy-fingered season of spring. I, May, am the mother of roses. I, June, bring white lilies. This, July, is the binder of sheaves. August's wings make the Nile rise. This, September, is dear to Bacchus, rich in grapes. I, October, make honeyed wine, a delight for men. I, November, bring a joyful banquet to every man. I, December, teach men to play on the lyre and to awaken sleepers.

§ 9.581  Anonymous on a Beast-fight in the Theatre (The words are put in the mouth of the Emperor)
Bowman, lord of the Muses, far-shooter Phoebus, tell thy sister to arouse the mighty beasts just enough for them to touch men's bodies lightly and make the people cry out for pleasure in holy tones. Let me not, who sit on the throne of Jove the Merciful, look upon a man's death.

§ 9.582  Anonymous
These Armenian tribes and the doughty Iberian people, full of zeal for Christ, came willingly under the yoke, submitting themselves to the law of our invincible emperors.

§ 9.583  Anonymous on Thucydides
My friend, if thou art learned, take me in thy hand; but if thou art ignorant of the Muses, cast away what thou canst not understand. I am not accessible to all, but the few admire Thucydides, son of Olorus, by birth an Athenian.

§ 9.584  Anonymous on the Statue at Delphi of Eunomus the Lyre-player
Thou knowest, Apollo, how I, Eunomus the Locrian, conquered Spartis, but I tell it for those who ask me. I was playing on the lyre an elaborate piece, and in the middle of it my plectron loosened one chord, and when the time came to strike the note I was ready to play, it did not convey the correct sound to the ear. Then of its own accord a cicada perched on the bridge of the lyre and supplied the deficiency of the harmony. I had struck six chords, and when I required the seventh I borrowed this cicada's voice; for the midday songster of the hillside adapted to my performance that pastoral air of his, and when he shrilled he combined with the lifeless chords to change the value of the phrase. Therefore I owe a debt of thanks to my partner in the duet, and wrought in bronze he sits on my lyre.

§ 9.585  Anonymous on a Disk with a Relief of Venus and Loves
Here are four Loves. One fits the garland to his mother's brows, one has his lips at her bosom's fountain, two play at her feet, and the robe covers the place that is next to the thighs of Aphrodite, otherwise wholly undraped.

§ 9.586  COMETAS CHARTULARIUS
A. Tell me, shepherd, whose are these rows of plants? B. The olive-trees belong to Pallas and the vines round them to Dionysus. A. And whose is the corn? B. Demeter's. A. To what gods do the flowers belong? B. To Hera and rosy Aphrodite. A. Dear Pan, stay here and ply the pipe with thy lips, for thou shalt find Echo on this sunny slope.

§ 9.587  EUTOLMIUS ILLUSTRIUS
On a Vessel for pouring Hot Water or Wine I stand between Bacchus and the Nymphs, and ever pour into the cups that of which there is too little.

§ 9.588  ALCAEUS
Even as thou seest, stranger, his stout heart in the bronze image, so Hellas saw the might of Clitomachus. For when he had put off the blood-stained cestus from his hands, he straightway fought in the fierce pancratium. In the third event he fouled not his shoulders in the dust, but wrestling without a fall won the three contests at Isthmus. Alone among the Greeks he gained this honour, and seven-gated Thebes and his father Hermocrates were crowned.

§ 9.589  Anonymous on a Statue of Hera suckling Heracles
A true stepmother did the sculptor render. Therefore he added no milk to the breast that was not kindred.

§ 9.590  Anonymous on a Group of Hephaestus, Athena, and Erechtheus
"Art united that which Nature did not," said the sculptor. "O mother without birth and bridegroom without marriage '"

§ 9.591  Anonymous on a Group of Ares and Aphrodite
The painter in the interior of the house painted Ares and Aphrodite embracing each other. The bright Sun, coming in through the window, stood in astonishment as he gazed on them both. Till when shall the heavy wrath of the Sun endure? He would not banish his anger though it fell only on lifeless wax.

§ 9.592  Anonymous on a Shield representing the Birth of Christ
How simple was the artist to engrave the birth of the Prince of Peace on a shield!

§ 9.593  Anonymous on a Statue of Medea
The inspired hand infused into the marble both pity and fury, and made the stone Medea, under the empire of his art, remember all her griefs.

§ 9.594  Anonymous on a Picture of Socrates
Painter, who hast reproduced the form of Socrates, would thou couldst have put his soul into the wax!

§ 9.595  Anonymous on a Picture of Apelles
Apelles painted himself in the picture.

§ 9.596  Anonymous on a Picture of Chilon
, glorious in war, gave birth to this Chilon, who was first in wisdom of the seven sages.

§ 9.597  COMETAS SCHOLASTICUS
In Anazarba of Cilicia I was paralyzed from the hips to the soles of my feet, long deprived of my former activity, half-way between life and death, near to Hades, breathing only, otherwise an utter corpse. But skilled Philippus, whom you see in the picture, saved me, healing my chilling sickness; and now I, Antoninus, again tread on the earth and walk with my feet, and have feeling in every part.

§ 9.598  THEOCRITUS
This man, Pisander of Camirus, first among the poets of old time, wrote of the son of Zeus, the lionfighter, the nimble-handed, and told of all the labours he accomplished. Know that the city, after many months and years, set his very self up here in bronze.

§ 9.599  THEOCRITUS
Look well on this statue, stranger, and tell on thy return home: "I saw in Teos the statue of Anacreon, a song-writer most excellent of those of old." And adding that he took delight in young men, thou shalt exactly describe the whole man.

§ 9.600  THEOCRITUS
Doric is my tongue and Doric this man who invented comedy, Epicharmus. Bacchus, to thee as to a citizen, did they who dwell in Syracuse, mightiest of cities, dedicate him in bronze. Belike, mindful of his wise sayings, they paid him this guerdon. For many things useful for life he said to its children. Great thanks to him!

§ 9.601  Anonymous
This passing fair statue did Aeximenes erect to Aphrodite, the protectress of all navigation. Hail, sovereign Cypris! and if thou givest gain and welcome wealth thou shalt learn that a ship is most ready to go shares.

§ 9.602  EVENUS OF ATHENS
I who once supplicated Cypris with my maiden hands and, waving torches, prayed for marriage, after I had loosed my nuptial dress in the bridal chamber, suddenly saw spring from my thighs the marks of manhood. Now I am called a bridegroom instead of a bride, and crown the altars of Ares and Heracles instead of those of Aphrodite. Thebes once told of Tiresias, and now Chalcis greets in a chlamys her who formerly wore the snood.

§ 9.603  ANTIPATER OF SIDON
These five votaries of Dionysus the Saviour are entering upon the rapid dance. One lifts on high the body of a grim lion, another an antlered Arcadian stag, a third a bird with lovely plumage, a fourth a kettle-drum, and the fifth a heavy brazen clapper. All are frenzied and distraught by the bacchic fury of the god.

§ 9.604  NOSSIS
This is the picture of Thaumareta. Well did the painter render the bearing and the beauty of the gentle-eyed lady! Thy little house-dog would fawn upon thee if it saw thee here, thinking that it looked on the mistress of its home.

§ 9.605  NOSSIS
Callo had her portrait made exactly like herself, and hung the picture in the house of fair-haired Aphrodite. How gentle she looks standing there! Look how fresh is the bloom of her charm! All hail to her! for there is no fault in her life. 606-640 are all Inscriptions on Baths

§ 9.606  Anonymous
Look at Cytherea whom Ares once loved, bathing here in the limpid stream. Look at her swimming, and fear not. It is not maiden Athena that you see, as Tiresias did.

§ 9.607  Anonymous
The Graces bathed here, and to reward the bath they gave to the water the brightness of their limbs.

§ 9.608  Anonymous
Either such water gave birth to Cytherea, or Cytherea, by bathing in it, made the water such.

§ 9.609  Anonymous
This bath is the playground of the Graces, for it only admits the Graces to sport within it.

§ 9.609a  Anonymous
This is really the Graces' bath, for it cannot contain more than three.

§ 9.610  Anonymous
This is a little work, but beautiful to look on, like a rose in a garden or a violet in a basket of flowers.

§ 9.611  Anonymous
There is great charm in a little bath. Sweet love looks on those who bathe in the tiniest stream.

§ 9.612  Anonymous
As a myrtle has little leaves, but sweet-scented, so this bath is small, but dear.

§ 9.613  Anonymous on the Bath of Maria
Momus wept when he saw the bath of Maria, exclaiming: "I have to leave you unvisited, as I leave Maria."

§ 9.614  LEONTIUS SCHOLASTICUS
On a small Bath next that called Zeuxippus Be not wrath, Zeuxippus, with this bath that arises next thee. The little star called Erotylus shines sweetly though next the Great Bear.

§ 9.615  Anonymous on a Bath at Smyrna
Thou building, who of mortals made thee, who wast formerly dim, rich in light for bathers, and who, cleaning away the smoky grime that befouled thee, brightened thee thus? It was wise Theodorus who in this truly, as in everything, showed the cleanness of his heart. He being the treasurer and father of the city's possessions, did not stain his hands by gain derived from them. Mighty Christ, immortal God, keep by Thy hand this patriot out of the reach of misfortune.

§ 9.616  Anonymous
Here once when the Graces bathed, little Eros stole their immortal raiment and went off with it, leaving them naked and ashamed to appear outside the door.

§ 9.617  Anonymous on a too cold Bath
Who walled round a river, bathman? Who falsely styled this fountain a bath? Aeolus, son of Hippotas, dear to the immortal gods, brought the winds here from their home. And why are these two planks placed here for the feet? Not for warmth, but for freezing. This is the place of Shivering and Frost-bite. Write thereon: "Bathe here in August, for the north wind blows ever within."

§ 9.618  Anonymous on a Bath in Byzantium
The old story of the lotus-eaters is no falsehood. This bath confirms its truth. For if a man once bathe in these pure waters he does not regret his country or desire his parents.

§ 9.619  AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS
On a Bath in Byzantium
Now I know, Cytherea, how thou didst conquer in the contest, stealing the vote of Alexander. It was here thou didst dip thy body, and so didst find means to overcome Hera who had bathed in the streams of Inachus. It was the bath that won, and I fancy Pallas cried out thus: "I was conquered by the water, not by the Paphian."

§ 9.620  PAULUS SILENTIARIUS
On a Double Bath in which Men and Women Bathed
Near is the hope of love, but one cannot catch the women. A little door shuts out great Cypris. But yet this is sweet; for in the matter of amorous desire hope is sweeter than reality.

§ 9.621  Anonymous
Such women as have desire to please (and ye all have) come here, and ye shall win brighter charms. She who has a husband will give her husband pleasure, and the unmarried girl will stir many to offer her marriage. And she who makes her living by her body, if she bathe here, will have swarms of lovers at her door.

§ 9.622  Anonymous
If sweet desire for thy wedded wife possess thee, bathe here, and thou shalt appear to her brighter. Or if lust drive thee to mercenary and depraved women, bathe here, and thou shalt be paid instead of paying.

§ 9.623  CYRUS
Cypris with the Graces and her golden-arrowed boy bathed here and gave grace in payment.

§ 9.624  LEONTIUS SCHOLASTICUS
On another Bath next the Public Baths in Byzantium
A citizen built me at the gate of the public bath for excellence, not for competition. Let that serve many; I supply water and scent and charm to an intimate few.

§ 9.625  MACEDONIUS THE CONSUL
On another Bath in the Lycian Quarter (?)
Let my doorkeeper be the most faithful of men, keeping careful note of the time at which bathers enter me, lest anyone against his will see one of the Naiads naked in my waters, or Cypris with the longhaired Graces: "For hard are the gods to him who sees them manifestly." Who would dispute Homer's dictum?

§ 9.626  MARIANUS SCHOLASTICUS
On another Bath called Love
Love once bathed his mother Cypris in this bath, himself warming its lovely water with his torch. Ah, what a scent of spring had the sweat that ran from her ambrosial body mixing with the clear, white water! Henceforth from it ever bubbles a vapour smelling of roses, as if golden Cypris "were still bathing.

§ 9.627  MARIANUS SCHOLASTICUS
Here under the plane-trees tired Love lay softly sleeping, having entrusted his torch to the Nymphs. Said the Nymphs among themselves: "Why not do it at once? Would that together with this we could put out the fire in men's hearts." But it was the torch that set fire to the water, and henceforth the Love-Nymphs pour forth here hot water for men to bathe in.

§ 9.628  JOANNES GRAMMATICUS
On the Public Bath at Alexandria called the Horse Our blessed sovereign aroused with a golden bit the fair-flowing Horse which long scourging had laid low.

§ 9.629  JOANNES GRAMMATICUS
Would, Pindar, that I rather than others had washed thee in my stream. Then thou wouldst have called my water alone best.

§ 9.630  LEONTIUS SCHOLASTICUS
On the Royal Hot Baths These are really the royal hot baths, for our fathers, admiring them, gave them this name. By no mortal fire is the bright water warmed, but the spring is born hot of its own accord. Nor dost thou require a cold stream for the bath, but tempered as thou dost desire it, it gushes forth.

§ 9.631  AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS
On the Hot Baths of Agamemnon near Smyrna I am a place beloved by the Danai, coming to which they forgot the art of Podalirius. For after the battle they healed their wounds in my stream, expelling the poison of the barbarian spear. Hence I grew great and came to bear a roof, and as a token of fame received the name of Agamemnon.

§ 9.632  Anonymous on other Hot Baths
While Earth in her inmost recesses has perpetual fire and boils with hidden flames, the hot vapour, ascending to the air owing to the pressure from below, belches forth streams of water heated by fire.

§ 9.633  DAMOCHARIS GRAMMATICUS
This was the bath of Hera, Cypris, and Pallas, when they were eager to get the golden apple. And perhaps now Paris will not be their judge, but their image reflected in the silver flood.

§ 9.634  Anonymous
The Graces swore by the radiant lord of light rather to dwell here than with Cypris.

§ 9.635  Anonymous
This bath bears the name of the leafy laurel.

§ 9.636  Anonymous
It was on seeing this bath that sagest Homer said: "Allaying grief and anger, bringing oblivion of all evil." l

§ 9.637  Anonymous
After bathing her divine limbs here, Cypris straightway showed herself to Alexander, and carried off the prize of the apple.

§ 9.638  Anonymous
The three Graces of Orchomenus made the bath, and therefore it has not room for four.

§ 9.639  Anonymous
Cypris, Love, the Graces, the Nymphs, Dionysus, and Apollo swore to each other to dwell here.

§ 9.640  Anonymous
The immortals bathe when the bath is first opened, at the fifth hour the demigods, and later all the rubbish.

§ 9.641  AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS
On a Bridge over the Sangarius Thou too, Sangarius, after proud Italy and the peoples of the Medes, and all the barbarian host, art thus enslaved by the hand of our prince, thy stream fettered by strong arches. Thou who wast formerly impassable to boats and indomitable, liest gripped in bonds of stone.

§ 9.642  AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS
On a Latrine in the Suburbs of Smyrna All the extravagance of mortals and their expensive dishes excreted here have lost their previous charm. The pheasants and fishes, and the mixtures pounded in the mortar, and all that variety of kickshaws, become here dung. The belly rids itself of all that the ravenous gullet took in, and at length a man sees that in the pride of his foolish heart he spent so much gold on nothing but dust.

§ 9.643  AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS on the same
Why do you moan with the headache and groan bitterly for the heaviness you feel all over, and keep on smacking your belly, thinking to force out the work of your jaws? You would never have had all this trouble and labour if you had not largely exceeded yourself at table. When you are lying there guzzling you have a high opinion of yourself, and delight your palate with the viands, deeming that happiness. But here you are in distress, and your belly only gets many smacks to pay for the sins of your gullet.

§ 9.644  By the same on the same
Blest are you, long-suffering labourer! You have only to put up, all your life, with the pains of hoeing and poverty. Simple are your meals, and you sleep in the woods, after satisfying your throat's vast thirst for water. Yet you are perfectly sound, and sitting here for a few moments lighten your belly. You don't rub down the lower part of your spine, or beat your thighs, but you get rid of the burden naturally. They are in evil case, the rich and those who associate with them, whom feasting pleases more than sound health.

§ 9.645  MACEDONIUS THE CONSUL
I am Sardis, the chief city of Lydia, who stand under flowery Tmolus, by the stream of Maeonian Hermus. I witnessed first the birth of Jove, for I refused to betray the secretly born son of my own Rhea. It was I, too, who nursed Bacchus, and I saw him shining with broader flame in the lightning-flash. First in my fields did Autumn, the giver of wine, milk from the udder of the grape-cluster the golden juice. Everything combined to adorn me, and old Time often saw me envied by the most flourishing cities.

§ 9.646  Anonymous on the Pontic Heraclea
If you know of another city with the same name, Heraclea, know that I, the Pontic one, do not rank beneath it.

§ 9.647  Anonymous on Rome
Rome, queen of the world, thy fame shall never perish, for Victory, being wingless, cannot fly from thee.

§ 9.648  MACEDONIUS THE CONSUL On an Inn in Cibyra
Native alike and foreigner are ever dear to me, for it is not the business of hospitality to enquire who, whence, and whose son.

§ 9.649  By the same on the same
Piety built up this house from its foundations to its lofty roof. For Macedonius did not build it out of wealth gained by despoiling with the sword the possessions of others, nor did he weep, a pauper, over an empty and profitless labour, deprived of the return justly due to his outlay. As rest from labour awaits the just, so may the works of pious men survive.

§ 9.650  LEONTIUS
On an Inn situated between the Zeuxippus and the Hippodrome On the one side I have close by me the Zeuxippus, a pleasant bath, and on the other the race-course. After seeing the races at the latter and taking a bath in the former, come and rest at my hospitable table. Then in the afternoon you will be in plenty of time for the other races, reaching the course from your room quite near at hand.

§ 9.651  PAULUS SILENTIARIUS
On a High House in Constantinople From three sides I view the pleasant expanse of the sea, struck by the sunlight from all quarters. For when saffron-mantled Dawn envelops me, she is so pleased that she has no wish to go on to her setting.

§ 9.652  JULIAN, PREFECT OF EGYPT On a House situated on Level Ground
In summer I cool you and in winter I keep you warm, supplying from myself the deficiencies of the seasons.

§ 9.653  AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS
On a House situated on a Hill in Constantinople
"The gods set toil before virtue," said the poet of Ascra, speaking prophetically of this house. For after mounting the long flight of steps with exhausted feet, my hair was all soaked with sweat; but from the summit I looked on the fine view of the sea. Yea! perhaps a good room is a surer possession than virtue (?).

§ 9.654  JULIAN, PREFECT OF EGYPT On an Unguarded House
Seek other more profitable houses, ye robbers, for Poverty constantly keeps guard over this.

§ 9.655  Anonymous on the Banqueting Hall of Magnaura
This house was diligently completed by the emperors on whom the Cross bestowed a beneficent power, Heraclius and his son Constantine.

§ 9.656  Anonymous on the House called Chalce in the Palace built by Anastasius
I am the house of Anastasius, the emperor, slayer of tyrants, and I alone far excel all cities of the Earth. I am a cause of wonder to all, since the architects, seeing my height, length, and vast breadth, were minded to leave the huge pile unroofed; but skilled Aetherius, the most eminent master of that laborious art, devised my shape, laying the first-fruits of his toil before our stainless emperor. Therefore, stretching on all sides my vast bulk, I surpass the celebrated wonders of the Italian land. Beauty of the Capitolian hall, give place to thy betters, even though thy roof of bronze dazzles the eye. Hide, Pergamus, thy splendid ornament, the grove of Rufinus, narrow now beside the halls of this limitless palace; and thou, Cyzicus, no longer sing of thy noble temple of Hadrian standing fast on the long cliff. The pyramids are not capable of vying with me, or the colossus, or the Pharos; I alone surpass a great legion of buildings. My prince himself, after his victory over the Isaurians, completed me, the house of the Dawn, shining with gold, on all sides exposed to the breezes of the four winds.

§ 9.657  MARIANUS SCHOLASTICUS on the Palace, called Sophiariae:
Where the land is cut in two by the winding channel whose shores open the way to the sea, our divine emperor erected this palace for his most illustrious consort Sophia. O, far-ruling Rome, thou lookest from Europe on a prospect in Asia the beauty of which is worthy of thee.

§ 9.658  PAULUS SILENTIARIUS On the Great Praetorium when newly decorated The Emperor Justin, clearing away its begrimed decorative work, brightened up the chief Law Court, and thou, Domninus, by thy labours, expellest melancholy night from the halls of Themis and the life of mortals.

§ 9.659  THEAETETUS SCHOLASTICUS on the same
What a blessing is a child in our old age! Domninus has made the courts of me, mother Justice, brighter. I shine through my child, and my child through me, each bestowing our glory on the other

§ 9.660  Anonymous on the Basilica of the Schools in Constantinople
I am a place dedicated to Law. Here gushes forth an abundant fount of Roman Jurisprudence which runs perennially for all, and gives its whole stream to the youth here assembled.

§ 9.661  JULIANUS, PREFECT OF EGYPT On the Chair of the Sophist Craterus
I am a tree peculiarly blessed; for, once, standing in the middle of the forest, I was nurtured by the shrill winds and was the tuneful seat of birds, but I was felled by the axe to gain still better fortune. For now I am watered by the powerful (crateros) speech, not of the birds, but of Craterus, and flourish, fed by this stream of eloquence.

§ 9.662  AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS
On the same as 642
I am a place formerly hideous, divided by brick walls, and here the bellies of strangers, natives, and countrymen thunderously relieved themselves. But Agathias, the father of the city, transformed me and made me distinguished instead of most ignoble.

§ 9.663  PAULUS SILENTIARIUS
On a Garden by the Sea
The sea washes terra firma, and the expanse of the dry land is navigable and blooms with marine foliage. How skilled was he who mingled the deep with the land, sea-weed with garden plants, the floods of the Nereids with the founts of the Naiads '

§ 9.664  PAULUS SILENTIARIUS on the same
Here the Naiads, Nereids, and Hamadryads dispute as to who has the best title to the property. The Grace in their midst sits as judge, but cannot give judgment, as its charm is common to all.

§ 9.665  AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS
On the same
Give way to me, thou holy hill of Daphne, lying far from the sea, thy beauty but that of rustic solitude. For here the tree Nymphs and the Nereids of the sea established their common meeting place. When they quarrelled over me, Poseidon was judge, and pronounced that I was to be a border-land open to both.

§ 9.666  Anonymous on a Garden called Eros
Eros is not big, but he is pretty. So I am not great among gardens, but am full of charm.

§ 9.667  ARABIUS SCHOLASTICUS
On a Suburban Pleasaunce
I am rich in waters, gardens, groves, vineyards, and the generous gifts of the neighbouring sea. Both the fisherman and the husbandman offer me pleasing presents from sea and land, and those who rest in me are soothed either by the song of birds or the sweet call of the ferryman.

§ 9.668  MARIANUS SCHOLASTICUS
On a Suburban Park in Aviasia called Eros
Verily it is lovely, the grove of Eros, where these beautiful trees are stirred by the gentle breath of Zephyr, where the dewy meadow is bright with flowers, sending up a wealthy show of purple-fringed cups, while the roses of three fountains in a line one after the other spout forth the streams of the sweet Naiad. Here Iris, the ancient river, swims past the woods, resort of the soft-haired Hamadryads, and in the fruitful vineyard the fat berries of the olive-trees flourish everywhere above the great clusters of raisins set out to dry. Around sing the nightingales, and the cicada hymns an answering harmony. Do not, stranger, pass by my open gate, but enter the house and partake of my simple hospitality.

§ 9.669  MARIANUS SCHOLASTICUS on the same
Come here for a little, traveller, and reclining in the greenwood shade rest thy limbs from thy long and toilsome journey. Here amongst the plane-trees the fresh streams of water running at its will leap forth beautifully from many-mouthed fountains. Here in spring the soft violets mixed with roses empurple the ground. Look how, engarlanding the fresh meadow, the luxuriant ivy twines its flowing hair. The river runs between its foliaged banks, grazing the base of the self-sown grove. Such is Eros. What other name would be appropriate for a place replete in every way with charm and loveliness?

§ 9.670  Anonymous on a Mole in Smyrna on which there was a Cistern
A. Who made the deep dry land, who amid the surges built out of marble a shore washed on both sides by the sea? And who enabled the sailors to obtain water in the midst of the waves, drawing it with their hands even from the deck? B. This resourceful man, noble Venetius, who surpassed Theseus and Pelops by his creations.

§ 9.671  Anonymous on a Lighthouse in the same City
A. Who executed so great a work? What is his city and what his office? B. Ambrosius of Mylasa, the proconsul, built the lighthouse.

§ 9.672  Anonymous on the same City
Though thou journeyest over the sea-bound circle of the whole dry land, thou shalt nowhere see a place superior to this which renowned Ioannes, glorifying her the queen of all this land, has made so admirable; for from the sea itself he won unceasing delight for Homer's city.

§ 9.673  Anonymous on a Place in the same City
Asclepius did this work, too, for Hippolyta.

§ 9.674  Anonymous In the Pharos at Alexandria
I am the tower that helps straying mariners, lighting up the blaze of Poseidon's comforting torch. Ammonius, who is the father of our emperor, re-erected me by his labour when, borne down by the loudroaring gales, I was about to fall. To him the sailors, escaped from the wild waves, lift up their hands as to the glorious Earth-shaker.

§ 9.675  Anonymous on the Lighthouse at Smyrna
Sail to me fearlessly, ye mariners, no longer dreading the rayless gloom of the night. For all wanderers burns my far-flashing torch, keeping alive the memory of my builders the Asclepiadae.

§ 9.676  Anonymous on a Fountain in the Asiatic Mount Olympus
I yield to the Nymphs of Prusa, and salute, too, those of the Pythian waters as my superiors. But let the whole company of Naiads after Pythia and after Prusa give way to my Nymphs.

§ 9.677  AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS
On a House in Constantinople
Musonius built me with great labour, this large and imposing house, exposed to the north wind's blasts. Yet did he not avoid the dark house of Fate, but abandoning me he dwells underground. In a narrow bed of earth he lies, and I, his chiefest delight, am given up to strangers.

§ 9.678  Anonymous on a Village near Smyrna
What a great and laborious work is this, too, that thou hast achieved, Agaclides, gaining great glory by thy daring! Thou hast enriched this parched land of the ancient Nymph Bassa with water and baths.

§ 9.679  Anonymous on an Aqueduct at Assus
All cities worship Axiochus, for, on his progress, like a god he has healed the ills of each. Especially on rugged Assus did he bestow running water, cutting through the hard face of many rocks. No longer run off to a distance, all ye travellers. I overflow with the cold water of Axiochus.

§ 9.680  Anonymous on a Sea-side Garden at Antioch in which was a Bath
Thou seest in me the three Graces, stranger. Poseidon wrought the one from the neighbouring sea, the second is the work of my garden rich in produce, and the remaining one is supplied by this bath.

§ 9.681  LEONTIUS SCHOLASTICUS
On a Shell with a Carving of Aphrodite
It is a great favour I grant thee, Dionysus. Cypris bathes in me, and from her I bring thee the cup.

§ 9.682  Anonymous on the Obelisk in the Hippodrome
It was only the Emperor Theodosius who undertook to raise the four-sided column which had ever lain a burden on the earth. He committed the task to Proclus, and so great a column stood erect in thirty-two days.

§ 9.683  Anonymous on Alpheus and Arethusa
Alpheus is a male water, Arethusa a female, and Love accomplished their marriage by mixing the waters.

§ 9.684  Anonymous on the Fountain on the Island Taphos
I am the fountain Nychea, daughter of Ocean and Tethys, for so the Teleboae named me. I pour forth a bath for the Nymphs and health for mortals. It was Pterelas, the son of Ares, who placed me here.

§ 9.685  Anonymous on Camarina the Sicilian Lake
Move not Camarina, for it is best unmoved, lest, if thou move it, thou make the lesser greater.

§ 9.686  Anonymous on the Eastern Gate of Thessalonica
Exult in thy heart, stranger, when thou seest above the gate the prefect Basil, destroyer of the valour of insolent Babylon and light of incorrupt justice. Thou goest to the place of good government, the mother of excellent sons. Thou hast no need to fear the barbarian or sodomites. The Spartan for a wall has his arms, and thou a royal statue

§ 9.687  Anonymous on a Painting
I who painted the form would fain have painted also the character, but the limits of art checked my eagerness. Call me eloquent Alexander, my friend.

§ 9.688  Anonymous on the Gate of Argos
This gate, built of polished stone, both an ornament for Argos and an object of admiration for travellers, was erected by Cleadas, the husband of gentle and noble Clea. He was the excellent hierophant of the sanctuary of Lerna, and enjoyed the generosity of powerful monarchs.

§ 9.689  Anonymous on the Gate of Eugenius in Constantinople
This Julian who built the walls that protect the city erected the trophy in memory of his vigilance. He studied rather to slay his enemies at a distance than to stir up war before the city.

§ 9.690  Anonymous on the Gate called Xylocercus at Constantinople
Theodosius the emperor and Constantine, prefect of the East, built this wall in sixty days.

§ 9.691  Anonymous on the Gate of Rhesius at Constantinople
In sixty days Constantine the prefect built this strengthening wall for his sceptred sovereign.

§ 9.692  Anonymous on some Building
This is the work of Vivianus, of whom East and West sing with honour because of his just government.

§ 9.693  Anonymous on a Temple of Fortune
Demetrius the governor erected this temple of Fortune, feeling compassion for the city, like the son of Hierius he was. He built it on his own initiative, not the city's, and at his own, not at the public expense.

§ 9.694  Anonymous on an Arch
The son of Messalinus built this magnificent arch.

§ 9.695  Anonymous on the Stone Acoetonus
You see what great beauty lies in the disorderly order of the veins in the stone.

§ 9.696  Anonymous on the Portico of the Basilica in Constantinople
Theodorus, having built for the city four porticos, deserves to govern the city a fourth time.

§ 9.697  Anonymous on another part of the same Portico
It beseemed thee, Theodoras, to adorn the columned temple of Fortune by such a wonderful work, and to give splendid gifts to Constantinople, city of the golden shield, which made thee consul and sees thee for the third time prefect.

§ 9.698  Anonymous on the city of Mopsuestia
You look on this famous city of Mopsus, which the seer once built, hanging its beauty over the river.

§ 9.699  Anonymous on a Fountain called Olympias
From this fountain Alexander of Macedon drank splendid water, and said its streams were like his mother's milk. Hence he named it Olympias, as this stone testifies.

§ 9.700  SIMONIDES
Polygnotus of Thasos, the son of Aglaophon, painted the sack of the citadel of Troy.

§ 9.701  Anonymous on the Temple of Olympian Zeus at Athens
This house is worthy of Zeus. Not even Olympus would blame Zeus for descending here from heaven.

§ 9.702  Anonymous on the same
The Athenians set up this house to Zeus, so that, descending from Olympus to earth, he might find another Olympus.

§ 9.703  An Extract from Herodotus (iv. 91) The sources of the river Tearus supply the best and most beautiful water of any river, and to these came, leading his army against Sardis, the most beautiful and best of all men, Darius, son of Hystaspes, king of Persia and all the continent.

§ 9.704  Anonymous on a Rotunda
Long time wears out even stone, but immortal is the renown of the good deeds of Asclepiodotus in giving so many and such splendid gifts to his native place. Now in addition to them all should be reckoned this hollow structure with its dome.

§ 9.705  Anonymous
This gift, received from the city of Termessus in recognition of his upright jurisdiction, Eusebius dedicates to the god whose servant he is.

§ 9.706  ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA(?)
I am a holy tree. Beware of injuring me as thou passest by, stranger, for I suffer pain if I am mutilated. Remember that my bark is still virginal, not like that of savage wild pear-trees. Who does not know what the race of poplars is like? If thou dost bark me, as I stand here by the road, thou shalt weep for it. Though I am but wood, the Sun cares for me.

§ 9.707  TULLIUS GEMINUS
I am reckoned among rivers, but rival the sea in volume, Strymon, the fresh-water sea of Thrace. I am both a deep stream and a field yielding crops through my water, for water-chestnuts sweeter than the fruits of Demeter rise from me. The depths, too, are productive in Thrace, and we deem, Nile, that the bearer of the crop is superior to its feeder.

§ 9.708  PHILIPPUS
The barbarian bridged the Hellespont in his daring folly, but Time dissolved all that labour. Now Dicaearchia has made the sea a continent, and given the depths the form of dry land. She fixed firmly in the depths a vast supporting structure of stone, and with the hands of the Giants made the water beneath stand still. We could always sail over the sea, but insecure as it was for sailors who travelled on it, it has now promised to remain secure for foot-travellers.

§ 9.709  PHILIPPUS
On the Bronze Statue of the Eurotas by Eutychides The artist moulded Eurotas fresh from his bath of fire, as if still wet and immersed in his stream. For all his limbs are pliant and liquid as water, and he moves flowingly from his head to the tips of his ringers and toes. Art vied with the river. Who was it that coaxed the bronze statue to riot along more liquidly than water?

§ 9.710  Anonymous on the Pyramids in Memphis
Legend invented the false story of Ossa and Pelion mounted on Olympus. But even yet the Egyptian pyramids reach the golden Pleiads with their summits.

§ 9.711  ZENOBIUS THE GRAMMARIAN
The painter wished to depict Grammar herself, and having painted Victor, said: "I have attained my end."

§ 9.712  METRODORUS
When Law in her old age had been visited by Joannes, she said, rejuvenated: "Solon, I have you again with me."

§ 9.713  713-742 are all on Myron's celebrated Statue of a Heifer. It stood originally in the Agora at Athens, but was transferred to the Temple of Peace at Rome
Anonymous
I am Myron's little heifer, set up on a base. Goad me, herdsman, and drive me off to the herd.

§ 9.714  Anonymous
Why, Myron, didst thou set me here by the altars? Wilt thou not lead me into the house?

§ 9.715  ANACREON (?) Herdsman, pasture thy herd far from here, lest taking Myron's heifer to be alive thou drive it off with the rest.

§ 9.716  By the same
Myron pretended this heifer to be the work of his hands, but it was never formed in the mould, but turned into bronze owing to old age.

§ 9.717  EVENUS Either a complete hide of bronze clothes here a real cow, or the bronze has a soul inside it.

§ 9.718  By the same
Perhaps Myron himself will say this: "I did not mould this heifer, but its image."

§ 9.719  LEONIDAS
Myron did not mould me; he lied; but driving me from the herd where I was feeding, he fixed me to a stone base.

§ 9.720  ANTIPATER OF SIDON
If Myron had not fixed my feet to this stone I would have gone to pasture with the other cows.

§ 9.721  ANTIPATER OF SIDON
Calf, why dost thou approach my flanks, and why dost thou low? The artist put no milk in my udder.

§ 9.721a  Anonymous
The cow has just returned from ploughing, and owing to that is lazy and will not advance.

§ 9.722  ANTIPATER
Pass by the heifer, cowherd, and whistle not to her from afar. She is expecting her calf to suckle it.

§ 9.723  ANTIPATER
The lead and stone hold me fast, but, otherwise, thanks to thee, sculptor Myron, I would be nibbling lotus and rushes.

§ 9.724  ANTIPATER
I think the heifer will low. Of a truth it is not Prometheus alone who moulds living creatures, but thou too, Myron.

§ 9.725  Anonymous
Myron was looking for his own cow among the others, and found it with difficulty by driving the rest away.

§ 9.726  Anonymous
The cow, its mother, moulded this heifer giving birth to it, but the hand of Myron did not mould it, but gave birth to it.

§ 9.727  Anonymous
The horned cow would have spoken, though made of bronze, if Myron had worked entrails inside it.

§ 9.728  ANTIPATER
The heifer, I think, will low, and if it delays it is the fault of the senseless bronze, not Myron's.

§ 9.729  Anonymous
Let someone attach me to the solid plough and put a yoke on my neck, for as far as depends on thy art, Myron, I will plough.

§ 9.730  DEMETRIUS OF BITHYNIA
If a calf sees me, it will low; a bull will mount me, and the herdsman drive me to the herd.

§ 9.731  Anonymous
Myron placed me, the heifer, here, but the herdsmen throw stones at me thinking I have strayed.

§ 9.732  MARCUS ARGENTARIUS
Stranger, if thou seest my herdsman, give him this message, that the sculptor Myron tied me up here.

§ 9.733  Anonymous
Stranger, it was Myron who moulded this cow, on which this calf fawns as if it were alive, taking it for its mother.

§ 9.734  DIOSCORIDES
In vain, bull, thou rushest up to this heifer, for it is lifeless. The sculptor of cows, Myron, deceived thee.

§ 9.735  Anonymous
A calf died beside thy heifer, Myron, deceived into thinking that the bronze had milk inside.

§ 9.736  Anonymous
Alack! Myron, thou didst not have time to complete thy casting, but the bronze hardened before thou couldst put life into it.

§ 9.737  Anonymous
Thou strikest the bronze heifer. Art deceived thee much, herdsman: Myron did not add life.

§ 9.738  JULIAN, PREFECT OF EGYPT Nature and Queen Art strove in the matter of this cow, and Myron gave to each a prize of equal value. When one looks at it Art robs nature of her superiority, but when one touches it Nature is nature.

§ 9.739  By the same
Myron deceived thee too, gadfly, that thou plungest thy sting into the hard flanks of the bronze cow. But the gadfly is excusable. What wonder! when Myron deceived even the eyes of the herdsmen.

§ 9.740  GEMINUS
It is the base to which it is attached that keeps back the heifer, and if freed from this it will run off to the herd. For the bronze lows. See how much alive the artist made it. If you yoke a fellow to it, perhaps it will plough.

§ 9.741  Anonymous
Thou wast bronze, deceptive heifer, and the husbandman came up to thee dragging a plough and carrying a yoke. He far excels all other artists, Myron, who by his labour made thee alive, just like a labouring cow.

§ 9.742  PHILIPPUS
Take off from my neck, husbandman, the collar, and free me from the iron furrow-cutter; for Myron did not make my bronze into flesh, but his art gave me the aspect of being alive, so that often I even wished to low. He did not, however, let me go to work, but tied me to a base.

§ 9.743  THEODORIDAS
These cows are Thessalian, and by the gates of Itonian Athena they stand, a beautiful gift, all of bronze, twelve in number, the work of Phradmon, all wrought from the spoil of the naked Illyrians.

§ 9.744  LEONIDAS
The goatherds Soson and Simalus, rich in goats, stranger, seeing that they come from . . . dense with lentiscs, dedicated here to Hermes, the giver of cheeses and milk, this brazen, bearded goat, the lord of the flock.

§ 9.745  ANYTE
Look on the horned goat of Bacchus, how haughtily with saucy eye he looks down on his flowing beard, exulting that often in the mountains the Naiad, caressing his cheeks, took those locks in her rosy hand.

§ 9.746  KING POLEMO On a Ring
This little jasper stone has a seal of seven cows looking like one, and all looking at us as if alive. Perhaps the cows would have run away, but now the little herd is confined in the golden pen.

§ 9.747  PLATO
The little jasper stone is carved with five cows all looking alive as they feed. Perhaps they would run away, but now the little herd is confined in the golden pen.

§ 9.748  PLATO THE YOUNGER
On Dionysus carved on an Amethyst The stone is amethyst, but I am the toper Dionysus. Either let it teach me to be sober, or learn itself to get drunk.

§ 9.749  OENOMAUS
On Love carved on a Bowl Why Love on the bowl? It is enough for the heart to be set on fire by wine. Add not fire to fire.

§ 9.750  ARCHIAS
On Cows carved on a Ring Looking at the cows and the jasper on my hand, you will fancy that the cows breathe and the jasper puts forth grass.

§ 9.751  PLATO THE YOUNGER
The stone is Hyacinthus, and on it are Apollo and Daphne. Of which was Apollo rather the lover?

§ 9.752  ASCLEPIADES or ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA I am Drunkenness, the work of a skilled hand, but I am carved on the sober stone amethyst. The stone is foreign to the work. But I am the sacred possession of Cleopatra: on the queen's hand even the drunken goddess should be sober.

§ 9.753  CLAUDIANUS
On a Crystal enclosing Water The snow-white crystal, fashioned by the hand of man, showed the variegated image of the perfect universe, the heaven, clasping within it the deepvoiced sea.

§ 9.754  CLAUDIANUS
A. Tell me, ice, water frozen into stone, who froze thee. B. Boreas. A. And who melted thee? B. The South Mind.

§ 9.755  Anonymous on Scylla in Bronze
Unless the bronze glistened and betrayed the work to be a product of Hephaestus' cunning art, one looking from afar would think that Scylla herself stood here, transferred from sea to land, so threatening is her gesture, such wrath does she exhibit, as if dashing ships to pieces in the sea!

§ 9.756  AEMILIANUS
{A Silenus speaks) As far as it depends on thy art, Praxiteles, the stone could wax wanton. Let me loose and I will join in the revel again. It is not that my old age is feeble, but the fettering stone grudges the Sileni their sport.

§ 9.757  SIMONIDES
Iphion of Corinth painted this. There is no fault in his hand, since the achievement far excels the expectation.

§ 9.758  SIMONIDES
Cimon painted the door on the right, and Dionysius that on the right as you go out.

§ 9.759  Anonymous
Of one stone are chariot, charioteer, horses, yoke, reins, whip.

§ 9.760  Anonymous
Of one stone are chariot, charioteer, horses, yoke, reins, and Victory.

§ 9.761  Anonymous on a Painting of a Bunch of Grapes
I was almost grasping the cluster in my fingers, more than deceived by the sight of the colours.

§ 9.762  ABLABIUS ILLUSTRIUS
On the Quoit of Asclepiades Hephaestus wrought me with long labour, but Cytherea took me secretly from her husband's chamber and gave me to Anchises as a souvenir of their stolen intercourse. Asclepiades found me among the descendants of Aeneas.

§ 9.763  JULIANUS, PREFECT OF EGYPT On a Magistrate's Axe If thou art guilty of crime, thy eyes see here an axe, but if thou art innocent, I am only silver to thee.

§ 9.764  PAULUS SILENTIARIUS
On a Mosquito Net No powerful beast, or fish of the sea, or bird do I catch in my meshes, but men willing to be caught. My defensive art, in no wise inferior to a city's wall, keeps a man who would avoid the sting of flies uneaten as he takes his siesta after the midday meal. I bring him the gift of undisturbed slumber, and save the slaves themselves from their service of chasing the flies away.

§ 9.765  PAULUS SILENTIARIUS on the same
I am hung round wealthy bridal beds and am the net, not of the huntress Artemis, but of the tender Queen of Paphos. I cover the sleeper with a many-meshed web, so that he in no way loses the life-giving breeze.

§ 9.766  AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS
On the same It is the office of nets to surround the winged tribes and enclose their quick brood; but I take pleasure in chasing them away and do not cover them round, but rather keep them off when they attack. Not a single mosquito, however small, will manage to get through the fabric of my net. One may say that I save from death the winged creatures while I guard the beds of men. Can anyone be more righteous than I am?

§ 9.767  AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICUS
On a Draught-board Seated by this table made of pretty stones, you will start the pleasant game of dice-rattling. Neither be elated when you win, nor put out when you are beaten, blaming the little die. For even in small things the character of a man is revealed, and the dice proclaim the depth of his good sense.

§ 9.768  AGATHIAS SCHOLASTICLS on the same
These things are all play. The shifting current of Fortune is pictured in these unreasoning dice, and, now a winner, now a loser, you will perceive in them the unstable image of mortal life. We praise him who in life and in play imposes a limit on his joy and grief.

§ 9.769  By the same on the same
To men of gentle disposition this is play, but to those lacking in self-restraint it is madness and wandering of the wits and self-imposed pain. If you come in last, speak no word of offence to God, nor boil over and snort loudly. One should neither give oneself trouble in a matter of play, nor play in serious matters. Learn to allot to the hour what befits it.

§ 9.770  PAULUS SILENTIARIUS On a Cup belonging to his own Unmarried Daughter
Anicetia moistens her golden lips in me, and may I give her the bridal draught too.

§ 9.771  JULIAN, PREFECT OF EGYPT On a Cup on which Swimming Fish were chased or painted:
Thetis received Bacchus: at length the truth of Homer's story is confirmed.

§ 9.772  PHOCAS THE DEACON On a Cup in which the Leavings are collected
I am dear to the cup-bearer alone, because I collect for him the wine that is left.

§ 9.773  PALLADAS
The smith transformed Love into a frying-pan, and not unreasonably, as it also burns.

§ 9.774  GLAUCUS OF ATHENS
The Bacchante is of Parian marble, but the sculptor gave life to the stone, and she springs up as if in Bacchic fury. Scopas, thy god-creating art has produced a great marvel, a Thyad, the frenzied slayer of goats.

§ 9.775  GLAUCUS OF ATHENS
The Bacchante has made the son of Cronos a Satyr, and he rushes to the frenzied dance as if he were in Bacchic fury.

§ 9.776  DIODORUS
The colour and the beauty is worthy of Zeuxis; but Satyreius painted me on a little crystal and gave the pretty miniature to Arsinoe. I am the queen's own image, and no whit inferior to a large picture.

§ 9.777  PHILIPPUS
Look how proudly the art of the worker in bronze makes this horse stand. Fierce is his glance as he arches his neck and shakes out his wind-tossed mane for the course. I believe that if a charioteer were to fit the bit to his jaws and prick him with the spur, thy work, Lysippus, would surprise us by running away; for Art makes it breathe.

§ 9.778  PHILIPPUS On a Tapestry
In me Carpo, imitating all by her shuttle's labour at the loom, depicted accurately all the fruitful land, encompassed by Ocean, that obeys great Caesar, and the blue sea as well. I come to Caesar as a present . . . ., for it was the queen's duty to offer the gift long due to the gods.

§ 9.779  Anonymous on the Base of the Sun-dial in the Arch of the Basilica
Look, Light of Freedom, on this gift of our emperor Justin, the tyrannicide, and his wife Sophia, this skilled bronze indicator of the hours from one to twelve. It had been stolen, and Julianus the Praetorian Prefect recovered it with incorruptible hands.

§ 9.780  Anonymous on a Sun-dial
This is the learned stone which contains all the heavens, and which a little regulator adapts to every position of the sun.

§ 9.781  Anonymous on the Lattice of a House
If you shut me I am open, and if you open me you will shut me. Being such, I cannot guard your house.

§ 9.782  PAULUS SILENTIARIUS On a Water-clock
Here men divide the course of bright Phaethon into twelve hours and measure the sun's path by water, lifting up their minds from earth to heaven.

§ 9.783  Anonymous on a Hermaphrodite which stood in a Bath
To men I am Hermes, but to women appear to be Aphrodite, and I bear the tokens of both my parents. Therefore not inappropriately they put me, the Hermaphrodite, the child of doubtful sex, in a bath for both sexes.

§ 9.784  Anonymous on a Small Bath
Revile not small things. Small things possess charm. Cypris' son, Eros, was small too.

§ 9.785  Anonymous on a Vaulted Chamber on the West side of the Forum
Menas built the golden structure for all travellers, glorifying the city of our kings rich in gold.

§ 9.786  Anonymous
The inhabitants erected to the god this beautiful altar, placing it here as a sign to mark the boundary of Leuce and Pteleus. The arbiter of the division is the king of the immortals himself, Cronus' son.

§ 9.787  SOPHRONIUS THE PATRIARCH On a Guest-house
Stranger, who formerly on your arrival by land or by sea wandered about with homeless feet, approach now and stay your steps here, where, if you wish to dwell, you will find a lodging all ready. But if you, citizen, demand who made me, it was Eulogius, the good bishop of Alexandria.

§ 9.788  Anonymous
Under thy rule, noble Fortune, the blest life of men enjoys the light of prosperity. For at thy nod all things bring glory to him whom thou permittest to caress thy divine neck with his right hand. To thy will illustrious kings bow, and the blest leaders of the learned company. Ships, too, rest safer in harbour, saved at sea by thy help, and cities enjoy tranquility, and peoples, and the ambrosial meads of the verdant plain. Therefore looking on thy servant . .

§ 9.789  Anonymous on a Rhetor
Look on me, the adorner of learned discourse, who direct my art by the rule of eloquence.

§ 9.790  ANTIPATER
On the temple of Artemis at Ephesus Who was it that transported the maiden's chamber, that once stood in the celestial palace, from Olympus to Ephesus the city of Androclus, the queen of the Ionians, swift in battle, most excellent in war and letters? Was it thyself, slayer of Tityus, who, loving thy nurse more than Olympus, didst set thy chamber in her?

§ 9.791  APOLLONIDES
On a Temple of Aphrodite built in the Sea
Cytherea, who hast established in the depths of the flood the foundations of the sanctuary encinctured by thy mother the sea, around thee the sea rejoices, its blue surface smiling gently under the breeze of Zephyr. Because of this act of piety, and thy temple which Postumus erected, thou shalt boast thee more than because of Paphos.

§ 9.792  ANTIPATER
On the Picture of Ulysses' descent to Hell
This is the work of Nicias. I am painted here an ever-living city of the dead, the tomb of every age. It was Homer who explored the house of Hades, and I am copied from him as my first original.

§ 9.793  JULIAN, PREFECT OF EGYPT On Myron's Heifer
Looking on this heifer of Myron's you are like to cry out: "Either Nature is lifeless, or Art is alive."

§ 9.794  By the same on the same
Neat-herd, whither dost thou force me to advance? Stop from goading me. Art did not bestow motion on me too.

§ 9.795  By the same on the same
Skilled Myron either made the bronze alive or drove off a live heifer from the herd and made it into bronze.

§ 9.796  By the same on the same
Sculptor Myron, a traveller came to drive off thy heifer, and feeling the bronze turned out to be a futile thief.

§ 9.797  By the same on the same
A lion when he sees me opens his mouth wide, the husbandman picks up his yoke and the herd his staff.

§ 9.798  By the same on the same
Bear with it, Myron: Art is too strong for thee: the. work is lifeless. Art is the child of Nature, for Art did not invent Nature.

§ 9.799  Anonymous on the Porphyry Column in the Philadelpheion
Muselius is a well-wisher of the Emperor. Public works proclaim it; the force of facts is strong. He presented Constantinople with a Museum and with a splendid painting of the sovereign inside, an honour to poets, an ornament of the city, the hope of youth, the instrument of virtue, the wealth of good men.

§ 9.800  Anonymous on the same
These works did Muselius cheerfully dedicate to words, in pure belief that God is the Word.

§ 9.801  Anonymous on the same
He built parts of the Museum himself, and other parts which were in danger of falling he saved and set them up firmly.

§ 9.802  Anonymous on a Portrait of the Emperor Marcian
Thou seest this shape, like a live horse, carrying Marcian, ruler of the race of men. His right hand is outstretched and he spurs on the galloping horse above a foeman, who seems to support its weight on his head.

§ 9.803  Anonymous on a Portrait of the Empress Sophia at the Entrance of the Bath Zeuxippus
Julian, the prefect of the city, dedicated here Sophia (Wisdom), the queen of the Italians, as being herself full of wisdom.

§ 9.804  Anonymous on a Column with a Statue of the Emperor Justin
Julian the prefect dutifully set up here the statue of Justin his master and benefactor.

§ 9.805  Anonymous on a Stele of Ares partly buried in Thrace
As long as this fierce Ares rests on the ground the peoples of the Goths shall never set foot in Thrace.

§ 9.806  Anonymous on a Sun-dial
This place was once a garden, and the shade of the leaves shutting out the sun made it like night. But now Sergius, the patriarch, who hath seen with his eyes and reveals the mysteries of the Holy Trinity, contrived to make it bright and sunlit. Here this fixed stone seven times announces the eternal and fixed revolutions of the vault of heaven.

§ 9.807  Anonymous on the same
The mechanic art compels Phaethon by means of dials ruled in due measure to direct aright (?) the course of the sun. A small stone governs the circle of Aurora by its skilled division into hours and by the shadow's mark. This work of mortals was constructed by the heavenly command of Sergius the patriarch.

§ 9.808  CYRUS THE CONSUL
On the House of Maximinus
Maximinus built me in the newly constructed Rome, fixing my secure foundations actually on the beach. Infinite beauty extends itself around me. To right, left, and behind me lies the city, but facing me I see all the beauties of the Bithynian coast. At the foot of my most strong foundations the salt current rolls to the lovely sea, just touching the land in front of me enough to wet its edge. Often a man leaning out from me slightly has greatly rejoiced his heart, seeing in all directions different things: trees, houses, ships, sea, city, sky, and earth.

§ 9.809  CYRUS THE CONSUL, On a Statue of Pindar Cyrus set up Pindar beside the water, because singing to the lyre he said, "Water is best."

§ 9.810  Anonymous
This is Justin next Sophia. Both made the golden work after their Assyrian triumph.

§ 9.811  Anonymous
Justinian, the emperor, built me the bright house, a marvel for the sun to view at his rising. For never before when he mounted his celestial path did he see such beauty on earth.

§ 9.812  Anonymous on Justin
Domninus in the pure portals of Justice erected the statue of divine Justin, the pure guardian of Law.

§ 9.813  Anonymous on Sophia his Wife
This statue of Sophia stands before the gates of Justice, for wisdom should not be apart from justice.

§ 9.814  Anonymous on a Bath
Naiad Nymphs, ye truants, I never thought you would all quit my streams. But if the bath possesses such charm, Envy will accomplish naught, even though the Nymphs desert all the water.

§ 9.815  Anonymous on Another
Stranger, why dost thou quicken thy steps now, when thou seest the water that cures pain? This is the bath of joy; it washes away care, it lightens labour. It was built by Michael, the prefect of the Imperial Palace.

§ 9.816  Anonymous on a Dish belonging to Eubulus
In presence of Telemachus and near Penelope, why, wise Odysseus, dost thou stretch out thy hand in terror? Thy nurse will never tell the suitors of thy gesture.

§ 9.817  Anonymous on an Altar-cloth
On the table of the immaculate sacrifice I depict the passions of those sacrificed for Christ. For those whom I beg to have as protectors have I, Peter, put in the covering of the dread place.

§ 9.818  Anonymous on a Disc
I, another Peter, not having survived to see the life-giving tomb of the Lord, carved this disc representing the Holy Sepulchre, in which, bending low, I see Christ's body.

§ 9.819  Anonymous on a Cup
I, the mystic cup, by the way of the Holy Spirit pour into the heart a stream of repentance.

§ 9.820  Anonymous on the Entrance of the Heraeum
Justinian built this magnificent house, a thing of beauty to overhang land and water.

§ 9.821  Anonymous on the same Princes
Time will always proclaim your virtue, power, and great deeds, as long as the stars move in heaven.

§ 9.822  Anonymous on a Dish with the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac
This is the silver heaven where the Moon gazes on the Sun, full herself of his reflected splendour, while on either side the fixed stars and the planets that move contrary to them work the whole fortune of the race of men.

§ 9.823  PLATO
Let the cliff clothed in greenery of the Dryads keep silence, and the fountains that fall from the rock, and the confused bleating of the ewes newly lambed; for Pan himself plays on his sweet-toned pipe, running his pliant lips over the joined reeds, and around with their fresh feet they have started the dance, the Nymphs, Hydriads, and Hamadryads.

§ 9.824  ERYCIUS
Hunters, who come to this peak where dwells mountain Pan, good luck to you in the chase, whether ye go on your way trusting in nets or in the steel, or whether ye be fowlers relying on your hidden limed reeds. Let each of you call on me. I have skill to bring success to trap, spear, nets, and reeds.

§ 9.825  Anonymous on a Machine for drawing Water which worked noiselessly, on which stood an image of Pan
Echo fled from the waters, too, to escape me, Pan, her unhappy lover.

§ 9.826  PLATO
On a Satyr standing by a Well and Love Asleep
A cunning master wrought me, the Satyr, son of Bacchus, divinely inspiring the monolith with breath. I am the playmate of the Nymphs, and instead of purple wine I now pour forth pleasant water. Guide thy steps here in silence, lest thou disturb the boy lapped in soft sleep.

§ 9.827  AMMONIUS
On the same
I am the dear servant of horned Dionysus, and pour forth the water of the silver Naiads, soothing the young boy who rests asleep . . .