Chapter 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.