Theocritus Bion and Moschus Rendered into English Prose Part 18

Thou sleepest on the leaf-strewn ground, O Daphnis, resting thy weary limbs, and the stakes of thy nets are newly fastened on the hills.

But Pan is on thy track, and Priapus, with the golden ivy wreath twined round his winsome head,--both are leaping at one bound into thy cavern. Nay, flee them, flee, shake off thy slumber, shake off the heavy sleep that is falling upon thee.

IV--Priapus.

When thou hast turned yonder lane, goatherd, where the oak-trees are, thou wilt find an image of fig-tree wood, newly carven; three-legged it is, the bark still covers it, and it is earless withal, yet meet for the arts of Cypris. A right holy precinct runs round it, and a ceaseless stream that falleth from the rocks on every side is green with laurels, and myrtles, and fragrant cypress. And all around the place that child of the grape, the vine, doth flourish with its tendrils, and the merles in spring with their sweet songs utter their wood-notes wild, and the brown nightingales reply with their complaints, pouring from their bills the honey-sweet song. There, prithee, sit down and pray to gracious Priapus, that I may be delivered from my love of Daphnis, and say that instantly thereon I will sacrifice a fair kid. But if he refuse, ah then, should I win Daphnis's love, I would fain sacrifice three victims,--and offer a calf, a s.h.a.ggy he-goat, and a lamb that I keep in the stall, and oh that graciously the G.o.d may hear my prayer.

V--The rural Concert.

Ah, in the Muses' name, wilt thou play me some sweet air on the double flute, and I will take up the harp, and touch a note, and the neatherd Daphnis will charm us the while, breathing music into his wax-bound pipe. And beside this rugged oak behind the cave will we stand, and rob the goat-foot Pan of his repose.

VI--The Dead are beyond hope.

Ah hapless Thyrsis, where is thy gain, shouldst thou lament till thy two eyes are consumed with tears? She has pa.s.sed away,--the kid, the youngling beautiful,--she has pa.s.sed away to Hades. Yea, the jaws of the fierce wolf have closed on her, and now the hounds are baying, but what avail they when nor bone nor cinder is left of her that is departed?

VII--For a statue of Asclepius.

Even to Miletus he hath come, the son of Paeon, to dwell with one that is a healer of all sickness, with Nicias, who even approaches him day by day with sacrifices, and hath let carve this statue out of fragrant cedar-wood; and to Eetion he promised a high guerdon for his skill of hand: on this work Eetion has put forth all his craft.

VIII--Orthon's Grave.

Stranger, the Syracusan Orthon lays this behest on thee; go never abroad in thy cups on a night of storm. For thus did I come by my end, and far from my rich fatherland I lie, clothed on with alien soil.

IX--The Death of Cleonicus.

Man, husband thy life, nor go voyaging out of season, for brief are the days of men! Unhappy Cleonicus, thou wert eager to win rich Thasus, from Coelo-Syria sailing with thy merchandise,--with thy merchandise, O Cleonicus, at the setting of the Pleiades didst thou cross the sea,--and didst sink with the sinking Pleiades!

X--A Group of the Muses.

For your delight, all ye G.o.ddesses Nine, did Xenocles offer this statue of marble, Xenocles that hath music in his soul, as none will deny. And inasmuch as for his skill in this art he wins renown, he forgets not to give their due to the Muses.

XI--The Grave of Eusthenes.

This is the memorial stone of Eusthenes, the sage; a physiognomist was he, and skilled to read the very spirit in the eyes. n.o.bly have his friends buried him--a stranger in a strange land--and most dear was he, yea, to the makers of song. All his dues in death has the sage, and, though he was no great one, 'tis plain he had friends to care for him.

XII--The Offering of Demoteles.

'Twas Demoteles the ch.o.r.egus, O Dionysus, who dedicated this tripod, and this statue of thee, the dearest of the blessed G.o.ds. No great fame he won when he gave a chorus of boys, but with a chorus of men he bore off the victory, for he knew what was fair and what was seemly.

XIII--For a statue of Aphrodite.

This is Cypris,--not she of the people; nay, venerate the G.o.ddess by her name--the Heavenly Aphrodite. The statue is the offering of chaste Chrysogone, even in the house of Amphicles, whose children and whose life were hers! And always year by year went well with them, who began each year with thy worship, Lady, for mortals who care for the Immortals have themselves thereby the better fortune.

XIV--The Grave of Euryrnedon.

An infant son didst thou leave behind, and in the flower of thine own age didst die, Eurymedon, and win this tomb. For thee a throne is set among men made perfect, but thy son the citizens will hold in honour, remembering the excellence of his father.

XV--The Grave of Eurymedon.

Wayfarer, I shall know whether thou dost reverence the good, or whether the coward is held by thee in the same esteem. 'Hail to this tomb,' thou wilt say, for light it lies above the holy head of Eurymedon.

XVI--For a statue of Anacreon.

Mark well this statue, stranger, and say, when thou hast returned to thy home, 'In Teos I beheld the statue of Anacreon, who surely excelled all the singers of times past.' And if thou dost add that he delighted in the young, thou wilt truly paint all the man.

XVII--For a statue of Epicharmus.

Dorian is the strain, and Dorian the man we sing; he that first devised Comedy, even Epicharmus. O Bacchus, here in bronze (as the man is now no more) they have erected his statue, the colonists {165} that dwell in Syracuse, to the honour of one that was their fellow- citizen. Yea, for a gift he gave, wherefore we should be mindful thereof and pay him what wage we may, for many maxims he spoke that were serviceable to the life of all men. Great thanks be his.

XVIII--The Grave of Cleita.

The little Medeus has raised this tomb by the wayside to the memory of his Thracian nurse, and has added the inscription -

HERE LIES CLEITA.

The woman will have this recompense for all her careful nurture of the boy,--and why?--because she was serviceable even to the end.

XIX--The statue of Archilochus.

Stay, and behold Archilochus, him of old time, the maker of iambics, whose myriad fame has pa.s.sed westward, alike, and towards the dawning day. Surely the Muses loved him, yea, and the Delian Apollo, so practised and so skilled he grew in forging song, and chanting to the lyre.

XX--The statue of Pisander.

This man, behold, Pisander of Corinth, of all the ancient makers was the first who wrote of the son of Zeus, the lion-slayer, the ready of hand, and spake of all the adventures that with toil he achieved.

Know this therefore, that the people set him here, a statue of bronze, when many months had gone by and many years.

XXI--The Grave of Hipponax.

Here lies the poet Hipponax! If thou art a sinner draw not near this tomb, but if thou art a true man, and the son of righteous sires, sit boldly down here, yea, and sleep if thou wilt.

XXII--For the Bank of Caicus.

To citizens and strangers alike this counter deals justice. If thou hast deposited aught, draw out thy money when the balance-sheet is cast up. Let others make false excuse, but Caicus tells back money lent, ay, even if one wish it after nightfall.

XXIII--On his own Poems. {167}

The Chian is another man, but I, Theocritus, who wrote these songs, am a Syracusan, a man of the people, being the son of Praxagoras and renowned Philinna. Never laid I claim to any Muse but mine own.

BION

[Greek].--Callimachus.

Bion was born at Smyrna, one of the towns which claimed the honour of being Homer's birthplace. On the evidence of a detached verse (94) of the dirge by Moschus, some have thought that Theocritus survived Bion. In that case Theocritus must have been a preternaturally aged man. The same dirge tells us that Bion was poisoned by certain enemies, and that while he left to others his wealth, to Moschus he left his minstrelsy.