Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology Part 23

Ah thou wert not quick enough, Myron, in thy casting; but the bronze grew solid before thou hadst cast in a soul.

XLV ON A SLEEPING SATYR PLATO

This Satyr Diodorus engraved not, but laid to rest; your touch will wake him; the silver is asleep.

XLVI THE LIMIT OF ART PARRHASIUS

Even though incredible to the hearer, I say this; for I affirm that the clear limits of this art have been found under my hand, and the mark is fixed fast that cannot be exceeded. But nothing among mortals is faultless.

CHAPTER V

RELIGION

I WORSHIP IN SPRING (1) THEAETETUS

Now at her fruitful birth-tide the fair green field flowers out in blowing roses; now on the boughs of the colonnaded cypresses the cicala, mad with music, lulls the binder of sheaves; and the careful mother-swallow, having fashioned houses under the eaves, gives harbourage to her brood in the mud-plastered cells: and the sea slumbers, with zephyr-wooing calm spread clear over the broad ship- tracks, not breaking in squalls on the stern-posts, not vomiting foam upon the beaches. O sailor, burn by the altars the glittering round of a mullet or a cuttle-fish, or a vocal scarus, to Priapus, ruler of ocean and giver of anchorage; and so go fearlessly on thy seafaring to the bounds of the Ionian Sea.

II WORSHIP IN SPRING (2) AGATHIAS

Ocean lies purple in calm; for no gale whitens the fretted waves with its ruffling breath, and no longer is the sea shattered round the rocks and sucked back again down towards the deep. West winds breathe, and the swallow t.i.tters over the straw-glued chamber that she has built. Be of good cheer, O skilled in seafaring, whether thou sail to the Syrtis or the Sicilian shingle: only by the altars of Priapus of the Anchorage burn a scarus or ruddy wra.s.se.

III ZEUS OF THE FAIR WIND AUTHOR UNKNOWN

Let one call from the stern on Zeus the Fair Wind for guide on his road, shaking out sail against the forestays; whether he runs to the Dark Eddies, where Poseidon rolls his curling wave along the sands, or whether he searches the backward pa.s.sage down the Aegean sea-plain, let him lay honey-cakes by this image, and so go his way; here Philon, son of Antipater, set up the ever-gracious G.o.d for pledge of fair and fortunate voyaging.

IV THE SACRED CITY MACEDONIUS

Beneath flowering Tmolus, by the stream of Maeonian Hermus, am I, Sardis, capital city of the Lydians. I was the first who bore witness for Zeus; for I would not betray the hidden child of our Rhea. I too was nurse of Bromius, and saw him amid the thunder-flash shining with broader radiance; and first on our slopes the golden-haired G.o.d pressed the harvest of wine out of the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of the grape. All grace has been given me, and many a time has many an age found me envied by the happiest cities.

V HERMES OF THE WAYS AUTHOR UNKNOWN

Go and rest your limbs here for a little under the juniper, O wayfarers, by Hermes, Guardian of the Way, not in crowds, but those of you whose knees are tired with heavy toil and thirst after traversing a long road; for there a breeze and a shady seat and the fountain under the rock will lull your toil-wearied limbs; and having so escaped the midday breath of the autumnal dogstar, as is right, honour Hermes of the Ways.

VI BELOW CYLLENE NICIAS

I who inherit the tossing mountain-forests of steep Cyllene, stand here guarding the pleasant playing fields, Hermes, to whom boys often offer marjoram and hyacinth and fresh garlands of violets.

VII PAN OF THE SEA-CLIFF ARCHIAS

Me, Pan, the fishermen placed upon this holy cliff, Pan of the seash.o.r.e, the watcher here over the fair anchorages of the harbour; and I take care now of the baskets and again of the trawlers off this sh.o.r.e. But sail thou by, O stranger, and in requital of this good service of theirs I will send behind thee a gentle south wind.

VIII THE SPIRIT OF THE SEA ARCHIAS

Small to see, I, Priapus, inhabit this spit of sh.o.r.e, not much bigger than a sea-gull, sharp-headed, footless, such an one as upon lonely beaches might be carved by the sons of toiling fishermen. But if any basket-finder or angler call me to succour, I rush fleeter than the blast: likewise I see the creatures that run under water; and truly the form of G.o.dhead is known from deeds, not from shape.

IX THE GUARDIAN OF THE CHASE SATYRUS

Whether thou goest on the hill with lime smeared over thy fowler's reed, or whether thou killest hares, call on Pan; Pan shows the dog the prints of the furry foot, Pan raises the stiff-jointed lime-twigs.

X THE HUNTER G.o.d LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM

Fair fall thy chase, O hunter of hares, and thou fowler who comest pursuing the winged people beneath this double hill; and cry thou to me, Pan, the guardian of the wood from my cliff; I join the chase with both dogs and reeds.

XI FORTUNA PARVULORUM PERSES

Even me the little G.o.d of small things if thou call upon in due season thou shalt find; but ask not for great things; since whatsoever a G.o.d of the commons can give to a labouring man, of this I, Tycho, have control.

XII THE PRAYERS OF THE SAINTS ADDAEUS

If thou pa.s.s by the hero (and he is called Philopregmon) who lies by the cross-roads in front of Potidaea, tell him to what work thou leadest thy feet; straightway will he, being by thee, make thy business easy.

XIII SAVED BY FAITH LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM

They call me the little one, and say I cannot go straight and fearless on a prosperous voyage like ships that sail out to sea; and I deny it not; I am a little boat, but to the sea all is equal; fortune, not size, makes the difference. Let another have the advantage in rudders; for some put their confidence in this and some in that, but may my salvation be of G.o.d.

XIV THE SERVICE OF G.o.d AUTHOR UNKNOWN

Me Chelidon, priestess of Zeus, who knew well in old age how to make offering on the altars of the immortals, happy in my children, free from grief, the tomb holds; for with no shadow in their eyes the G.o.ds saw my piety.

XV BEATI MUNDO CORDE AUTHOR UNKNOWN

He who enters the incense-filled temple must be holy; and holiness is to have a pure mind.

XVI THE WATER OF PURITY AUTHOR UNKNOWN

Hallowed in soul, O stranger, come even into the precinct of a pure G.o.d, touching thyself with the virgin water; for the good a few drops are set; but a wicked man the whole ocean cannot wash in its waters.

XVII THE GREAT MYSTERIES CRINAGORAS