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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 35907 ***
+
+LOVE, WORSHIP AND DEATH
+
+Some renderings from the Greek Anthology
+
+BY
+
+SIR RENNELL RODD
+
+
+AUTHOR OF
+
+'BALLADS OF THE FLEET'
+
+'THE VIOLET CROWN,' ETC.
+
+
+
+LONDON
+
+EDWARD ARNOLD
+
+1916
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+Among the many diverse forms of expression in which the Greek genius has
+been revealed to us, that which is preserved in the lyrics of the
+anthology most typically reflects the familiar life of men, the thought
+and feeling of every day in the lost ancient world. These little flowers
+of song reveal, as does no other phase of that great literature, a
+personal outlook on life, kindly, direct and simple, the tenderness
+which characterised family relations, the reciprocal affection of master
+and slave, sympathy with the domestic animals, a generous sense of the
+obligations of friendship, a gentle piety and a close intimacy with the
+nature gods, of whose presence, malignant or benign, the Greek was ever
+sensitively conscious. For these reasons they still make so vivid an
+appeal to us after a long silence of many centuries. To myself who have
+lived for some years in that enchanted world of Greece, and have sailed
+from island to island of its haunted seas, the shores have seemed still
+quick with the voices of those gracious presences who gave exquisite
+form to their thoughts on life and death, their sense of awe and beauty
+and love. There indeed poetry seems the appropriate expression of the
+environment, and there even still to-day, more than anywhere else in the
+world, the correlation of our life with nature may be felt
+instinctively; the human soul seems nearest to the soul of the world.
+
+The poems, of which some renderings are here offered to those who cannot
+read the originals, cover a period of about a thousand years, broken by
+one interval during which the lesser lyre is silent. The poets of the
+_elegy_ and the _melos_ appear in due succession after those of the
+_epic_ and, significant perhaps of the transition, there are found in
+the first great period of the lyric the names of two women, Sappho of
+Lesbos, acknowledged by the unanimous voice of antiquity, which is
+confirmed by the quality of a few remaining fragments, to be among the
+greatest poets of all times, and Corinna of Tanagra, who contended with
+Pindar and rivalled Sappho's mastery. The canon of Alexandria does not
+include among the nine greater lyrists the name of Erinna of Rhodes, who
+died too young, in the maiden glory of her youth and fame. The earlier
+poets of the _melos_ were for the most part natives of
+
+                    'the sprinkled isles,
+     Lily on lily that overlace the sea.'
+
+Theirs is the age of the austerer mood, when the clean-cut marble
+outlines of a great language matured in its noblest expression. Then a
+century of song is followed by the period of the dramatists during which
+the lyric muse is almost silent, in an age of political and intellectual
+intensity.
+
+A new epoch of lyrical revival is inaugurated by the advent of
+Alexander, and the wide extension of Hellenic culture to more distant
+areas of the Mediterranean. Then follows the long succession of poets
+who may generally be classified as of the school of Alexandria. Among
+them are three other women singers of high renown, Anyte of Tegea,
+Nossis of Locri in southern Italy, and Moero of Byzantium. The later
+writers of this period had lost the graver purity of the first lyric
+outburst, but they had gained by a wider range of sympathy and a closer
+touch with nature. This group may be said to close with Meleager, who
+was born in Syria and educated at Tyre, whose contact with the eastern
+world explains a certain suggestive and exotic fascination in his poetry
+which is not strictly Greek. The Alexandrian is followed by the Roman
+period, and the Roman by the Byzantine, in which the spirit of the muse
+of Hellas expires reluctantly in an atmosphere of bureaucratic and
+religious pedantry.
+
+These few words of introduction should suffice, since the development of
+the lyric poetry of Greece and the characteristics of its successive
+exponents have been made familiar to English readers in the admirable
+work of my friend J.W. Mackail. A reference to his _Select Epigrams from
+the Greek Anthology_ suggests one plea of justification for the present
+little collection of renderings, since the greater number of them have
+been by him translated incomparably well into prose.
+
+Of the quality of verse translation there are many tests: the closeness
+with which the intention and atmosphere of the original has been
+maintained; the absence of extraneous additions; the omission of no
+essential feature, and the interpretation, by such equivalent as most
+adequately corresponds, of individualities of style and assonances of
+language. But not the least essential justification of poetical
+translation is that the version should constitute a poem on its own
+account, worthy to stand by itself on its own merits if the reader were
+unaware that it was a translation. It is to this test especially that
+renderings in verse too often fail to conform. I have discarded not a
+few because they seemed too obviously to bear the forced expression
+which the effort to interpret is apt to induce. Of those that remain
+some at least I hope approach the desired standard, failing to achieve
+which they would undoubtedly be better expressed in simple prose. And
+yet there is a value in rendering rhythm by rhythm where it is possible,
+and if any success has been attained, such translations probably convey
+more of the spirit of the original, which meant verse, with all which
+that implies, and not prose.
+
+The arrangement in this little volume is approximately chronological in
+sequence. This should serve to illustrate the severe and restrained
+simplicity of the earlier writers as contrasted with the more complex
+and conscious thought, and the more elaborate expression of later
+centuries when the horizons of Hellenism had been vastly extended.
+
+The interpretation of these lyrics has been my sole and grateful
+distraction during a period of ceaseless work and intense anxiety in the
+tragic years of 1914 and 1915.
+
+R.R.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX OF AUTHORS
+
+
+MIMNERMUS--CARPE DIEM
+
+SAPPHO--
+  I. A BITTER WORD
+  II. THE BELOVED PRESENCE
+  III. HESPER
+  IV. OUT OF REACH
+
+ANACREONTICA--
+  I. LOVE'S CHALLENGE
+  II. BACCHANAL
+  III. HER PORTRAIT
+  IV. METAMORPHOSIS
+  V. APOLOGIA
+
+UNKNOWN--ANACREON'S GRAVE
+
+SIMONIDES--
+  I. ON THE SPARTANS
+  II. ON THE ATHENIANS
+
+PLATO--
+  I. A GRAVE IN PERSIA
+  II. STARWORSHIP
+  III. THE UNSET STAR
+  IV. LAIS
+
+PERSES--A RUSTIC SHRINE
+
+ANYTE OF TEGEA--
+  I. A SHRINE BY THE SEA
+  II. THE GOD OF THE CROSS-ROADS
+
+ADDAEUS--THE ANCIENT OX
+
+ASCLEPIADES--THE PRAISE OF LOVE
+
+MICIAS--A WAYSIDE FOUNTAIN
+
+CALLIMACHUS--CAST UP BY THE SEA
+
+NOSSIS--
+  I. ROSES OF CYPRIS
+  II. RINTHO'S GRAVE
+
+LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM--
+  I. ERINNA
+  II. THE FOUNTAIN HEAD
+
+DIONYSUS--THE ROSE OF YOUTH
+
+DAMAGETUS--THEANO
+
+ARCHIAS--
+  I. THE HARBOUR GOD
+  II. A GRAVE BY THE SEA
+
+MELEAGER--
+  I. LOVE'S QUIVER
+  II. THE CUP
+  III. ZENOPHILE
+  IV. LOVE AND DEATH
+  V. LOVE'S MALICE
+  VI. ASCLEPIAS
+  VII. HELIODORA
+  VIII. THE WREATH
+  IX. LIBATION
+  X. THE GRAVE OF HELIODORA
+  XI. HIS EPITAPH
+
+CRINAGORAS--ROSES IN WINTER
+
+JULIUS POLYAENUS--
+  AN EXILE'S PRAYER
+
+ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA--
+  A GRAVE AT OSTIA
+
+UNKNOWN--
+  FRIENDSHIP'S EPITAPH
+
+UNKNOWN--
+  THE COUNSEL OF PAN
+  BÉNITIER
+  THE END OF THE COMEDY
+
+STRATO--THE KISS
+
+AMMIANUS--THE LORD OF LANDS
+
+ALPHEUS--MYCENAE
+
+MACEDONIUS--THE THRESHOLD
+
+NOTES
+
+
+
+MIMNERMUS
+
+7TH CENTURY B.C.
+
+
+
+     CARPE DIEM
+
+
+     Hold fast thine youth, dear soul of mine, new lives will come to birth,
+     And I that shall have passed away be one with the brown earth.
+
+
+
+
+     SAPPHO
+
+     7TH AND 6TH CENTURY B.C.
+
+
+
+     I
+
+     A BITTER WORD
+
+
+     Dying thou shalt lie in nothingness, nor after
+     Love shall abide here nor memory of thee;
+     For thou hast no portion in the roses of Pieria;
+     But even in the nether world obscurely shalt thou wander
+     Flitting hither thither with the phantoms of the dead.
+
+
+     Note 1
+
+
+
+     II
+
+     THE BELOVED PRESENCE
+
+
+     Blest as the Gods are esteem I him who alway
+     Sits face to face with thee and watching thee forgoes not
+     The voice that is music and the smile that is seduction,
+                 Smile that my heart knows
+     Fluttered in its chambers. For lo, when I behold thee
+     Forthwith my voice fails, my tongue is tied in silence,
+     Flame of fire goes through me, my ears are full of murmur,
+                 Blinded I see naught:
+     Sweat breaketh forth on me, and all my being trembles,
+     Paler am I grown than the pallor of the dry grass,
+     Death seemeth almost to have laid his hand upon me.--
+                      Then I dare all things.
+
+
+     Note 2
+
+
+
+     III
+
+     HESPER
+
+
+     Thou, Hesper, bringest homeward all
+       That radiant dawn sped far and wide:
+     The sheep to fold, the goat to stall,
+       The children to their mother's side.
+
+
+
+     IV
+
+     OUT OF REACH
+
+
+     Like the apple that ripens rosy at the end of a branch on high,
+       At the utmost end of the utmost bough,
+       Which those that gather forgot till now.
+     Nay, did not forget, but only they never might come thereby.
+
+
+
+
+     ANACREONTICA
+
+     ANACREON, 6TH CENTURY B.C.
+
+
+
+     I
+
+     LOVE'S CHALLENGE
+
+
+     Love smote me with his jacinth wand and challenged me to race,
+     And wore me down with running till the sweat poured off my face,
+     Through breaks of tangled woodland, by chasms sheer to scale,
+     Until my heart was in my lips and at the point to fail.
+     Then as I felt his tender wings brush lightly round my head,
+     ''Tis proven that thou lackest the strength to love,' he said.
+
+
+     Note 3
+
+
+
+     II
+
+     BACCHANAL
+
+
+     When Bacchus hath possessed me my cares are lulled in wine,
+     And all the wealth of Croesus is not more his than mine:
+     I crown my head with ivy, I lift my voice to sing,
+     And in my exultation seem lord of every thing.
+     So let the warrior don his arms, give me my cup instead,
+     If I must lie my length on earth, why better drunk than dead.
+
+
+
+     III
+
+     HER PORTRAIT
+
+
+     Master of all the craftsmen,
+       Prince of the Rhodian art,
+     Interpret, master craftsman,
+       Each detail I impart,
+     And draw as were she present
+       The mistress of my heart.
+
+     First you must match those masses
+       Of darkly clustered hair,
+     And if such skill be in your wax
+       The scent that harbours there;
+     And where the flowing tresses cast
+       A warm-toned shadow, trace
+     A forehead white as ivory,
+       The oval of her face.
+     Her brows you must not quite divide
+       Nor wholly join, there lies
+     A subtle link between them
+       Above the dark-lashed eyes.
+     And you must borrow flame of fire
+       To give her glance its due,
+     As tender as Cithera's
+       And as Athena's blue.
+     For cheek and nostril rose-leaves
+       And milk you shall enlist,
+     And shape her lips like Peitho's
+       Inviting to be kissed.
+     Let all the Graces stay their flight
+       And gather round to deck
+     The outline of her tender chin,
+       The marble of her neck.
+     And for the rest--bedrape her
+       In robe of purple hue,
+     With here and there to give it life
+       The flesh tint peeping through.
+     Now hold thy hand,--for I can see
+       The face and form I seek,
+     And surely in a moment's space
+       I think your wax will speak.
+
+
+     Note 4
+
+
+
+     IV
+
+     METAMORPHOSIS
+
+
+     If she who, born to Tantalus,
+       As Niobe we know,
+     Was turned to stone among the hills
+       Of Phrygia long ago;
+     If Proene by such magic change
+       Was made a bird that flies,
+     Let me become the mirror
+       That holds my lady's eyes!
+     Or let me be the water
+       In which your beauty bathes,
+     Or the dress which clinging closely
+       Your gracious presence swathes;
+     Or change me to the perfume
+       You sprinkle on your skin,
+     Or let me be the pearl-drop
+       That hangs beneath your chin;
+     And if not these the girdle
+       You bind below your breast;
+     Or be at least the sandal
+       Your little foot hath pressed.
+
+
+
+     V
+
+     APOLOGIA
+
+
+     The brown earth drinks from heaven, and from the earth the tree,
+     The sea drinks down the vapour, and the sun drinks up the sea,
+     The moon drinks in the sunlight; now therefore, comrades, say
+     What fault have you to find in me if I would drink as they?
+
+
+
+
+     AUTHOR UNKNOWN
+
+
+
+     ANACREON'S GRAVE
+
+
+     You that pass this place of graves
+       Pause and spill a cup for me,
+     For I hold Anacreon's ashes,
+       And would drink as once would he.
+
+
+
+
+     SIMONIDES
+
+     556-467 B.C.
+
+
+
+     _THE PLATAEAN EPITAPHS_
+
+
+
+     I
+
+     ON THE SPARTANS
+
+
+     These who with fame eternal their own dear land endowed
+     Took on them as a mantle the shade of death's dark cloud;
+     Yet dying thus they died not, on whom is glory shed
+     By virtue which exalts them above all other dead.
+
+
+
+     II
+
+     ON THE ATHENIANS
+
+
+     If to die nobly be the meed that lures the noblest mind,
+     Then unto us of all men in this was fortune kind.
+     For Greece we marched, that freedom's arm should ever round her fold;
+     We died, but gained for guerdon renown  that grows not old.
+
+
+
+
+     PLATO
+
+     429-347 B.C.
+
+
+
+     I
+
+     A GRAVE IN PERSIA
+
+
+     Far from our own Ægean shore
+       And the surges booming deep,
+     Here where Ecbatana's great plain
+       Lies broad, we exiles sleep.
+     Farewell, Eretria the renowned,
+       Where once we used to dwell;
+     Farewell, our neighbour Athens;
+       Beloved sea, farewell!
+
+
+     Note 5
+
+
+
+     II
+
+     STARWORSHIP
+
+
+     Thou gazest starward, star of mine, whose heaven I fain would be,
+     That all my myriad starry eyes might only gaze on thee.
+
+
+
+     III
+
+     THE UNSET STAR
+
+
+     Star that didst on the living at dawn thy lustre shed,
+     Now as the star of evening thou shinest with the dead!
+
+
+
+     IV
+
+     LAIS
+
+
+     I that through the land of Hellas
+       Laughed in triumph and disdain,
+     Lais, of whose open porches
+       All the love-struck youth were fain,
+     Bring the mirror once I gazed in,
+       Cyprian, at thy shrine to vow,
+     Since I see not there what once was,
+       And I would not what is now.
+
+
+
+
+     PERSES
+
+     4TH CENTURY B.C.
+
+
+
+     A RUSTIC SHRINE
+
+
+     I am the god of the little things,
+       In whom you will surely find,
+     If you call upon me in season,
+       A little god who is kind.
+     You must not ask of me great things,
+       But what is in my control,
+     I, Tychon, god of the humble,
+       May grant to a simple soul.
+
+
+     Note 6
+
+
+
+
+     ANYTE OF TEGEA
+
+     4TH CENTURY B.C.
+
+
+
+     I
+
+     A SHRINE BY THE SEA
+
+
+     This is the Cyprian's holy ground,
+       Who ever loves to stand
+     Where she can watch the shining seas
+       Beyond the utmost land;
+     That sailors on their voyages
+       May prosper by her aid,
+     Whose radiant effigy the deep
+       Beholding is afraid.
+
+
+
+     II
+
+     THE GOD OF THE CROSS-ROADS
+
+
+     I, Hermes, by the grey sea-shore,
+       Set where the three roads meet,
+     Outside the wind-swept garden,
+       Give rest to weary feet;
+     The waters of my fountain
+       Are clear, and cool, and sweet.
+
+
+
+
+     ADDAEUS
+
+     4TH CENTURY B.C.
+
+
+
+     THE ANCIENT OX
+
+
+     The ox of Alcon was not led to the slaughter when at length
+     Age and the weary furrow had sapped his olden strength.
+     His faithful work was honoured, and in the deep grass now
+     He strays and lows contentment, enfranchised from the plough.
+
+
+
+
+     ASCLEPIADES
+
+     3RD CENTURY B.C.
+
+
+
+     THE PRAISE OF LOVE
+
+
+     Sweet is the snow in summer thirst to drink, and sweet the day
+     When sailors see spring's garland bloom and winter pass away.
+     But the sweetest thing on earth is when, one mantle for their cover,
+     Two hearts recite the Cyprian's praise as lover unto lover.
+
+
+
+
+     MICIAS
+
+     3RD CENTURY B.C.
+
+
+
+     A WAYSIDE FOUNTAIN
+
+
+     Rest here beneath the poplars,
+       When tired with travelling,
+     And drawing nigh refresh you
+       With water from our spring.
+     So may you keep in memory
+       When under other skies
+     The fount his father Simus set
+       By the grave where Gillus lies.
+
+
+
+
+     CALLIMACHUS
+
+     3RD CENTURY B.C.
+
+
+
+     CAST UP BY THE SEA
+
+
+     Who were you, shipwrecked sailor? The body that he found,
+     Cast on the beach, Leontichus laid in this burial mound;
+     And mindful of his own grim life he wept, for neither he
+     May rest in peace who like a gull goes up and down the sea.
+
+
+
+
+     NOSSIS
+
+     3RD CENTURY B.C.
+
+
+
+     I
+
+     ROSES OF CYPRIS
+
+
+     Of all the world's delightful things most sweet is love. The rest,
+     Ay, even honey in the mouth, are only second best.
+     This Nossis saith. And only they the Cyprian loves may know
+     The glory of the roses that in her garden grow.
+
+
+
+     II
+
+     RINTHO'S GRAVE
+
+
+     Give me a hearty laugh, and say
+     A friendly word and go thy way.
+     Rintho was I of Syracuse,
+     A modest song bird of the muse,
+     Whose tears and smiles together sown
+     Have born an ivy all my own.
+
+
+     Note 7
+
+
+
+
+     LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM
+
+     3RD CENTURY B.C.
+
+
+
+     I
+
+     ERINNA
+
+
+     The lyric maid Erinna, the poet-bee that drew
+     The honey from the rarest blooms the muses' garden grew,
+     Hath Hades snatched to be his bride. Mark where the maiden saith,
+     Prophetic in her wisdom, 'How envious art thou, Death!'
+
+
+     Note 8
+
+
+
+     II
+
+     THE FOUNTAIN HEAD
+
+
+     Pause not here to drink thy fill
+     Where the sheep have stirred the rill,
+     And the pool lies warm and still--
+     Cross yon ridge a little way,
+     Where the grazing heifers stray,
+     And the stone-pine's branches sway
+     O'er a creviced rock below;
+     Thence the bubbling waters flow
+     Cooler than the northern snow.
+
+
+
+
+     DIONYSUS
+
+     2ND CENTURY B.C. (?)
+
+
+     THE ROSE OF YOUTH
+
+
+     Girl with the roses and the grace
+     Of all the roses in your face,
+     Are you, or are the blooms you bear,
+     Or haply both your market ware?
+
+
+
+
+     DAMAGETUS
+
+     2ND CENTURY B.C.
+
+
+
+     THEANO
+
+
+     These words, renowned Phocæa, were the last Theano said,
+     As she went down into the night that none hath harvested.
+     Hapless am I, Apellichus, beloved husband mine,
+     Where in the wide, wide waters is now that bark of thine?
+     My doom hath come upon me, and would to God that I
+     Had felt my hand in thy dear hand on the day I had to die.
+
+
+
+
+     ARCHIAS
+
+     1ST CENTURY B.C.
+
+
+
+     I
+
+     THE HARBOUR GOD
+
+
+     Me, Pan, whose presence haunts the shore,
+       The fisher folk set here,
+     To guard their haven anchorage
+       On the cliff that they revere;
+     And thence I watch them cast the net
+       And mind their fishing gear.
+     Sail past me, traveller: for I send
+       The gentle southern breeze,
+     Because of this their piety,
+       To speed thee over seas.
+
+
+
+     II
+
+     A GRAVE BY THE SEA
+
+
+     I, shipwrecked Theris, whom the tide
+       Flung landward from the deep,
+     Not even dead may I forget
+       The shores that know not sleep.
+     Beneath the cliffs that break the surf
+       My body found a grave,
+     Dug by the hands of stranger men,
+       Beside the cruel wave:
+     And still ill-starred among the dead
+       I hear for evermore
+     The hateful booming of the seas
+       That thunder on the shore.
+
+
+
+
+     MELEAGER
+
+     1ST CENTURY B.C.
+
+
+
+     I
+
+     LOVE'S QUIVER
+
+
+     By Heliodora's sandalled foot, and Demo's waving hair,
+     By Dorothea's wreath of blooms unbudding to the air,
+     By Anticlea's winsome smile and the great eyes of her,
+     And by Timarion's open door distilling scent like myrrh,
+     I know the god of love has spent his arrows winged to smart,
+     For all the shafts his quiver held I have them in my heart.
+
+
+
+     II
+
+     THE CUP
+
+
+     The cup takes heart of gladness, whose boast it is to be
+     Sipped by the mouth of love's delight, soft-voiced Zenophile.
+     Most favoured cup! I would that she with lips to my lips pressed
+     Would drink the soul in one deep draught, that is my body's guest.
+
+
+
+     III
+
+     ZENOPHILE
+
+
+     Sweet is the music of that air, by Pan of Arcady,
+     Thou drawest from the harpstrings, too sweet, Zenophile;
+     The thronging loves on every side close in and press me nigh,
+     And leave me scarce a breathing space, so whither can I fly?
+     Is it thy beauty or thy song that kindles my desire,
+     Thy grace, or every thing thou art? For I am all on fire.
+
+
+
+     IV
+
+     LOVE AND DEATH
+
+
+     Friend Cleobulus, when I die
+       Who conquered by desire,
+     Abandoned in the ashes lie
+       Of youth's consuming fire,
+     Do me this service, drench in wine
+       The urn you pass beneath,
+     And grave upon it this one line,
+       'The gift of Love to Death.'
+
+
+
+     V
+
+     LOVE'S MALICE
+
+
+     Cruel is Love, ah cruel, and what can I do more
+     Than moaning love is cruel, repeat it o'er and o'er?
+     I know the boy is laughing and pleased that I grow grim,
+     And just the bitter things I say are the bread of life to him.
+     But you that from the grey-green wave arising, Cyprian, came,
+     'Tis strange that out of water you should have borne a flame.
+
+
+
+     VI
+
+     ASCLEPIAS
+
+
+     Like the calm sea beguiling with those blue eyes of hers,
+     Asclepias tempteth all men to be love's mariners.
+
+
+
+     VII
+
+     HELIODORA
+
+
+     Say Heliodore, and Heliodore, and still say Heliodore,
+     And let the music of her name mix with the wine you pour.
+     And wreath me with the wreath she wore, that holds the scent of myrrh,
+     For all that it be yesterday's, in memory of her.
+     The rose that loveth lovers, the rose lets fall a tear
+     Because my arms are empty, because she is not here.
+
+
+
+     VIII
+
+     THE WREATH
+
+
+     White violet with the tender-leaved narcissus I will twine,
+     And the laughing lips of lilies with myrtle blooms combine;
+     And I will bind the hyacinth, the dark red-purple flower,
+     With crocus sweet and roses that are the lovers' dower,
+     To make the wreath that Heliodore's curl-scented brow shall wear,
+     To strew with falling petals the glory of her hair.
+
+
+
+     IX
+
+     LIBATION
+
+
+     Pour out as if for Peitho, and for the Cyprian pour,
+     Then for the sweet-voiced Graces, but all for Heliodore;
+     For there is but one goddess whose worship I enshrine,
+     And blent with her beloved name I drink the virgin wine.
+
+
+
+     X
+
+     THE GRAVE OF HELIODORA
+
+
+     Tears for thee, Heliodore, and bitter tears to shed,
+     If all that love has left to give can reach thee with the dead;
+     Here at thy grave I offer, that tear-drenched grave of thine,
+     Libation of my longing before affection's shrine.
+     Forlorn I mourn thee, dearest, in the land where shadows dwell,
+     Forlorn, and grudge the tribute death could have spared so well.
+     Where is the flower I cherished? Plucked by the god of doom;
+     Plucked, and his dust has tarnished the scarce unbudded bloom.
+     I may but pray thee, mother earth, who givest all thy best,
+     Clasp her I mourn for ever close to thy gentle breast.
+
+
+
+     XI
+
+     HIS EPITAPH
+
+
+     Tread softly, ye that pass, for here
+       The old man rests his head,
+     And sleeps the sleep that all men must
+       Among the honoured dead.
+     Meleager, son of Eucrates,
+       Who linked the joyous train
+     Of Graces and of Muses
+       With love's delicious pain.
+     From Gadara, the sacred land,
+       I came and god-built Tyre,
+     But Meropis and pleasant Cos
+       Consoled life's waning fire.
+     If thou be Syrian, say Salaam,
+       Or Hail, if Greek thou be,
+     Say Naidios, if Phœnician born,
+       For all are one to me.
+
+
+
+
+     CRINAGORAS
+
+     1ST CENTURY B.C.
+
+
+
+     ROSES IN WINTER
+
+
+     In spring it was we roses
+       Were used to bloom of old,
+     Who now in midmost winter
+       Our crimson cells unfold,
+     To greet thee on the birthday
+       That shall thy bridal bring.
+     'Tis more to grace so fair a brow
+       Than know the suns of spring.
+
+
+
+
+     JULIUS POLYAENUS
+
+     1ST CENTURY B.C.
+
+
+
+     AN EXILE'S PRAYER
+
+
+     Among the myriad voices that seek to win thine ear
+     From those whose prayers are granted, from those who pray in fear,
+     O Zeus of Scheria's holy plain, let my voice reach thee too,
+     And hearken and incline the brow that binds thy promise true.
+     Let my long exile have an end, my toil and travel past,
+     Grant me in my own native land to live at rest at last!
+
+
+
+
+     ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
+
+     1ST CENTURY B.C.
+
+
+
+     A GRAVE AT OSTIA
+
+
+     Ausonian earth contains me
+       That was a Libyan maid,
+     And in the sea's sand hard by Rome
+       My virgin form was laid.
+     Pompeia with a mother's care
+       Watched o'er my tender years,
+     Entombed me here among the free,
+       And gave me many tears.
+     Not as she prayed the torch was fired,
+       She would have burned for me;
+     The lamp which took the torch's place
+       Was thine, Persephone.
+
+
+
+
+     AUTHOR UNKNOWN
+
+
+
+     FRIENDSHIP'S EPITAPH
+
+
+     This stone, my good Sabinus, although it be but small,
+     Shall be of our great friendship a witness unto all.
+     Ever shall I desire thee, and thou, if this may be,
+     Forbear to drink among the dead the lethe-draft for me.
+
+
+     Note 9
+
+
+
+     THE COUNSEL OF PAN
+
+
+     In this green meadow, traveller, yield
+       Thy weary limbs to rest:
+     The branches of the stone pine sway
+       To the wind from out the west;
+     The cricket calls, and all noon long
+       The shepherd's piping fills
+     The plane-grove's leafy shadows
+       By the spring among the hills.
+     Soothed by these sounds thou shalt avoid
+       The dogstar's autumn fires,
+     And then to-morrow cross the ridge;--
+       Such wisdom Pan inspires.
+
+
+
+     BÉNITIER
+
+
+     Touch but the virgin water, clean of soul,
+       Nor fear to pass into the pure god's sight:
+     For the good a drop suffices. But the whole
+       Great ocean could not wash the unclean white.
+
+
+
+     THE END OF THE COMEDY
+
+
+     Fortune and Hope, a long adieu!
+       My ship is safe in port.
+     With me is nothing left to do,
+       Make other lives your sport.
+
+
+     Note 10
+
+
+
+
+     STRATO
+
+     2ND CENTURY A.D.
+
+
+
+     THE KISS
+
+
+     It was at even and the hour in which good-nights are bid
+     That Mœris kissed me, if indeed I do not dream she did.
+     Of all the rest that happened there is naught that I forget,
+     No word she said, no question of all she asked,--and yet
+     If she indeed did kiss me, my doubt can not decide,
+     For how could I still walk the earth had I been deified!
+
+
+
+
+     AMMIANUS
+
+     2ND CENTURY A.D.
+
+
+
+     THE LORD OF LANDS
+
+
+     Though till the gates of Heracles thy land-marks thou extend,
+     Their share in earth is equal for all men at the end;
+     And thou shalt lie as Irus lies, one obol all thy store,
+     And be resolved into an earth that is thine own no more.
+
+
+     Note 11
+
+
+
+
+     ALPHEUS
+
+     2ND CENTURY A.D.
+
+
+
+     MYCENAE
+
+
+     The cities of the hero age thine eyes may seek in vain,
+     Save where some wrecks of ruin still break the level plain.
+     So once I saw Mycenae, the ill-starred, a barren height
+     Too bleak for goats to pasture,--the goat-herds point the site.
+     And as I passed a greybeard said, 'Here used to stand of old
+     A city built by giants, and passing rich in gold.'
+
+
+     Note 12
+
+
+
+
+     MACEDONIUS
+
+     6TH CENTURY A.D.
+
+
+
+     THE THRESHOLD
+
+
+     Spirit of Birth, that gave me life,
+       Earth, that receives my clay,
+     Farewell, for I have travelled
+       The stage that twixt you lay.
+     I go, and have no knowledge
+       From whence I came to you,
+     Nor whither I shall journey,
+       Nor whose I am, nor who.
+
+
+
+
+NOTES
+
+
+Note 1.
+
+In this, No. 68 of the Sappho fragments, I have followed the reading
+
+  _κατθάνοισα δὲ κείσεαι οὐδέ ποτα μναμοσύνα_
+      _σέθεν_
+  _ἔσσετ' οὐδ' ἔρος εἰς ὔστερον·_
+
+rather than
+
+  _κατθάνοισα δὲ κείσεαι πότα, κωὐ μναμοσύνα σέθεν._
+  _ἔσσετ' οὔτε τότ' οὔτ' ὔστερον·_
+
+    'Dying thou shalt lie in nothingness, nor of
+    thee
+    There nor thereafter shall memory abide.'
+
+
+Note 2.
+
+A portion of this fragment was adopted by Catullus.
+
+
+Note 3.
+
+Anacreon's date is 563-478 B.C. It must, alas, be admitted that the
+poems attributed to him are, with the exception of a few fragments, all
+of them dubious and most of them certainly spurious. He had a great
+number of imitators down to a much later time, and a considerable number
+of the pseudo-Anacreontic poems are preserved in an appendix to the
+Palatine anthology. It may be assumed that some of them reflect a
+portion of his spirit, and many of them are graceful in conceit and
+beautiful in form. The specimens here given must be classed upon the
+productions of his later imitators, although they are inserted in the
+place where in chronological order the real Anacreon would have
+followed.
+
+
+Note 4.
+
+The portraiture of the Greeks was executed with tinted wax, and not with
+colours rendered fluid by a liquid or oily medium. The various tints and
+tones of wax were probably laid on with the finger tips or with a
+spatula.
+
+
+Note 5.
+
+There was more than one Plato, but the great Plato is evidently referred
+to in the prefatory poem of Meleager as included among the poets of his
+anthology.
+
+Captives from Eretria were established in a colony in Persia by Darius
+after the first Persian war. The colony at Ardericca was, however,
+hundreds of miles from Ecbatana.
+
+If the epigram on Lais is not attributed to the great Plato by the most
+competent authorities, the dates of the two famous courtesans who bore
+the name would not exclude the possibility of his being the author.
+
+
+Note 6.
+
+Tychon is identified with Priapus.
+
+
+Note 7.
+
+Rintho founded a new school of serio-comic drama about 300 B.C. The ivy
+was sacred to Dionysus, in whose worship the drama had its origin.
+
+
+Note 8.
+
+Also attributed to Meleager. The phrase, _βάσκανος ἔσσ' Ἀΐδα_, here
+quoted is from Erinna's lament for Baucis, one of the rare surviving
+lyrics of the Rhodian poetess.
+
+
+Note 9.
+
+The anonymous epigrams here inserted are probably not in their proper
+chronological places. But as they could not be definitely assigned to
+any date I have placed them between the two categories of B.C. and A.D.
+
+
+
+Note 10.
+
+There is a Latin version of this epigram on a tomb in the pavement of a
+church in Rome (S. Lorenzo in Panisperna).
+
+    Inveni portum, spes et fortuna valete,
+      Nil mihi vobiscum, ludite nunc alios.
+
+
+Note 11.
+
+Irus was the beggar of the Odyssey who ran messages for the suitors of
+Penelope. The obol referred to is the small coin placed between the lips
+of the dead to pay the toll to the ferryman of Hades.
+
+
+Note 12.
+
+It is interesting to know from the evidence of Alpheus, who visited the
+sites of the Homeric cities, that nearly two thousand years ago the site
+of Mycenae was just as it remained until the excavations of Schliemann.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Love, Worship and Death, by Rennell Rodd
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 35907 ***