Chapter XXI: Epilogue: Philodemus (60 B.c.)

I was in love once; who has not been? I have reveled; who is uninitiated in revels? Nay, I was mad; at whose prompting but a god's? Let them go; for now the silver hair is fast replacing the black, a messenger of wisdom that comes with age. We too played when the time of playing was; and now that it is no longer, we will turn to worthier thoughts.

Translation of J.W. Mackail.

DOCTOR AND DIVINITY

NICARCHUS

Marcus the doctor called yesterday on the marble Zeus; though marble, and though Zeus, his funeral is to-day.

Translation of J.W. Mackail.

LOVE'S IMMORTALITY

STRATO (First Century A.D.)

Who may know if a loved one passes the prime, while ever with him and never left alone? Who may not satisfy to-day who satisfied yesterday? and if he satisfy, what should befall him not to satisfy to-morrow?

Translation of J.W. Mackail.

AS THE FLOWERS OF THE FIELD

STRATO

If thou boast in thy beauty, know that the rose too blooms, but quickly being withered, is cast on the dunghill; for blossom and beauty have the same time allotted to them, and both together envious time withers away.

Translation of J.W. Mackail.

SUMMER SAILING

ANTIPHILUS (First Century A.D.)

Mine be a mattress on the poop, and the awnings over it, sounding with the blows of the spray, and the fire forcing its way out of the hearthstones, and a pot upon them with empty turmoil of bubbles; and let me see the boy dressing the meat, and my table be a ship's plank covered with a cloth; and a game of pitch-and-toss, and the boatswain's whistle: the other day I had such fortune, for I love common life.

Translation of J.W. Mackail.

THE GREAT MYSTERIES

CRINAGORAS (First Century A.D.)

Though thy life be fixed in one seat, and thou sailest not the sea nor treadest the roads on dry land, yet by all means go to Attica, that thou mayest see those great nights of the worship of Demeter; whereby thou shalt possess thy soul without care among the living, and lighter when thou must go to the place that awaiteth all.

Translation of J.W. Mackail.

TO PRIAPUS OF THE SHORE

MAECIUS (Roman period)

Priapus of the sea-shore, the trawlers lay before thee these gifts by the grace of thine aid from the promontory, having imprisoned a tunny shoal in their nets of spun hemp in the green sea entrances: a beechen cup, and a rude stool of heath, and a glass cup holding wine, that thou mayest rest thy foot, weary and cramped with dancing, while thou chasest away the dry thirst.

Translation of J.W. Mackail.

THE COMMON LOT

AMMIANUS (Second Century A.D.)

Though thou pass beyond thy landmarks even to the pillars of Heracles, the share of earth that is equal to all men awaits thee, and thou shalt lie even as Irus, having nothing more than thine obelus moldering into a land that at last is not thine.

Translation of J.W. Mackail.

"TO-MORROW, AND TO-MORROW"

MACEDONIUS (Third Century A.D.)

"To-morrow I will look on thee,"--but that never comes for us, while the accustomed putting-off ever grows and grows. This is all thy grace to my longing; and to others thou bearest other gifts, despising my faithful service. "I will see thee at evening." And what is the evening of a woman's life?--old age, full of a million wrinkles.

Translation of J.W. Mackail.

THE PALACE GARDEN

ARABIUS (527-567 A.D.)

I am filled with waters, and gardens, and groves, and vineyards, and the joyousness of the bordering sea; and fisherman and farmer from different sides stretch forth to me the pleasant gifts of sea and land: and them who abide in me, either a bird singing or the sweet cry of the ferrymen lulls to rest.

Translation of J.W. Mackail.

THE YOUNG WIFE

JULIANUS AEGYPTIUS (532 A.D.)

In season the bride-chamber held thee, out of season the grave took thee, O Anastasia, flower of the blithe Graces; for thee a father, for thee a husband pours bitter tears; for thee haply even the ferryman of the dead weeps; for not a whole year didst thou accomplish beside thine husband, but at sixteen years old, alas! the tomb holds thee.

Translation of J.W. Mackail.

A NAMELESS GRAVE

PAULUS SILENTIARIUS

My name, my country, what are they to thee?
What, whether proud or bare my pedigree?
Perhaps I far surpassed all other men;
Perhaps I fell below them all. What then?
Suffice it, stranger, that thou seest a tomb.
Thou knowest its use. It hides--no matter whom.

Translation of William Cowper.

RESIGNATION

JOANNES BARBUCALLUS (Sixth Century A.D.)

Gazing upon my husband as my last thread was spun, I praised the gods of death, and I praised the gods of marriage,--those, that I left my husband alive, and these, that he was even such an one; but may he remain, a father for our children.

Translation of J.W. Mackail.

THE HOUSE OF THE RIGHTEOUS

MACEDONIUS (Sixth Century A.D.)

Righteousness has raised this house from the first foundation even to the lofty roof; for Macedonius fashioned not his wealth by heaping up from the possessions of others with plundering sword, nor has any poor man here wept over his vain and profitless toil, being robbed of his most just hire; and as rest from labor is kept inviolate by the just man, so let the works of pious mortals endure.

Translation of J.W. Mackail.

LOVE'S FERRIAGE

AGATHIAS (527-565 A.D.)

Since she was watched and could not kiss me closely,
Divine Rhodanthe cast her maiden zone
From off her waist, and holding it thus loosely
By the one end, she put a kiss thereon;
Then I--Love's stream as through a channel taking--
My lips upon the other end did press
And drew the kisses in, while ceaseless making,
Thus from afar, reply to her caress.
So the sweet girdle did beguile our pain,
Being a ferry for our kisses twain.

Translation of Alma Strettell.

[The following are undetermined in date.]

ON A FOWLER

ISIDORUS

With reeds and bird-lime from the desert air
Eumelus gathered free though scanty fare.
No lordly patron's hand he deign'd to kiss,
Nor luxury knew, save liberty, nor bliss.
Thrice thirty years he lived, and to his heirs
His reeds bequeathed, his bird-lime, and his snares.

Translation of William Cowper.

YOUTH AND RICHES

ANONYMOUS

I was young, but poor; now in old age I am rich: alas, alone of all men pitiable in both, who then could enjoy when I had nothing, and now have when I cannot enjoy.

Translation of J.W. Mackail.

THE SINGING REED

ANONYMOUS

I the reed was a useless plant; for out of me grow not figs, nor apple, nor grape cluster: but man consecrated me a daughter of Helicon, piercing my delicate lips and making me the channel of a narrow stream; and thenceforth whenever I sip black drink, like one inspired I speak all words with this voiceless mouth.

Translation of J.W. Mackail.

FIRST LOVE AGAIN REMEMBERED

ANONYMOUS

While yet the grapes were green thou didst refuse me;
When they were ripe, didst proudly pass me by:
But do not grudge me still a single cluster,
Now that the grapes are withering and dry.

Translation of Alma Strettell.

SLAVE AND PHILOSOPHER

ANONYMOUS

I Epictetus was a slave while here,
Deformed in body, and like Irus poor,
Yet to the gods immortal I was dear.

Translation of Lilla Cabot Perry, by permission of the
American Publishers' Corporation.

GOOD-BY TO CHILDHOOD

ANONYMOUS

Her tambourines and pretty ball, and the net that confined her hair, and her dolls and dolls' dresses, Timareta dedicates before her marriage to Artemis of Limnae,--a maiden to a maiden, as is fit; do thou, daughter of Leto, laying thine hand over the girl Timareta, preserve her purely in her purity.

Translation of J.W. Mackail.

WISHING

ANONYMOUS

It's oh! to be a wild wind, when my lady's in the sun:
She'd just unbind her neckerchief, and take me breathing in.

It's oh! to be a red rose, just a faintly blushing one,
So she'd pull me with her hand, and to her snowy breast I'd win.

Translation of William M. Hardinge.

HOPE AND EXPERIENCE

ANONYMOUS

Whoso has married once and seeks a second wedding, is a shipwrecked man who sails twice through a difficult gulf.

Translation of J.W. Mackail.

THE SERVICE OF GOD

ANONYMOUS

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 gods saw my piety.

Translation of J.W. Mackail.

THE PURE IN HEART

ANONYMOUS

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

Translation of J.W. Mackail.

THE WATER OF PURITY

ANONYMOUS

Hallowed in soul, O stranger, come even into the precinct of a pure god, 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.

Translation of J.W. Mackail.

ROSE AND THORN

ANONYMOUS

The rose is at her prime a little while; which once past, thou wilt find when thou seekest, no rose, but a thorn.

Translation of J.W. Mackail.

A LIFE'S WANDERING

ANONYMOUS

Know ye the flowery fields of the Cappadocian nation? Thence I was born of good parents: since I left them I have wandered to the sunset and the dawn; my name was Glaphyrus, and like my mind. I lived out my sixtieth year in perfect freedom; I know both the favor of fortune and the bitterness of life.

Translation of J.W. Mackail.

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

1. Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_.

2. Images have been moved from the middle of a paragraph to the closest paragraph break. Also the footnotes have been moved to the end of the paragraph/poem in which they are referred.

3. Some selections for Richard Watson Gilder are different from those mentioned in the Table of Contents.

4. The frontispiece "The Alexander Romance" and the photogravure "The Bride's Toilet" mentioned in the "Full-Page Illustrations" list are missing.

5. The words Coeli, Phoenician, Phoenicians, Phoebus, coenaeque, Soeur and POENITENTIUM use "oe" ligature in the original.

6. The original text includes Greek characters. For this etext version these letters have been replaced with transliterations.

7. Other than the corrections listed above, printer's inconsistencies in spelling, punctuation, hyphenation, and ligature usage have been retained.