Epigrams
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng1
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HaveThe Epigrams are preserved in the pseudo-Herodotean Life of Homer. Nos. III, XIII, and XVII are also found in the Contest of Homer and Hesiod, and No. I is also extant at the end of some MSS. of the Homeric Hymns. reverence for him who needs a home and stranger’s dole,
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all ye who dwell in the high city of Cyme, the lovely maiden,
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hard by the foothills of lofty Sardene,
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ye who drink the heavenly water of the divine stream,
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eddying Hermus, whom deathless Zeus begot.
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Speedily may my feet bear me to some town of righteous men;
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for their hearts are generous and their wit is best.
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I am a maiden of bronze and am set upon the tomb of Midas.
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While the waters flow and tall trees flourish,
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and the sun rises and shines and the bright moon also;
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while rivers run and the sea breaks on the shore,
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ever remaining on this mournful tomb,
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I tell the passer-by that Midas here lies buried.
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To what a fate did Zeus the Father give me a prey
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even while he made me to grow, a babe at my mother’s knees!
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By the will of Zeus who holds the aegis
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the people of Phricon, riders on wanton horses,
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more active than raging fire in the test of war,
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once built the towers of Aeolian Smyrna, wave-shaken neighbor to the sea,
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through which glides the pleasant stream of sacred Meles;
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thencesc. from Smyrna, Homer’s reputed birth-place. arose the daughters of Zeus, glorious children,
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and would fain have made famous that fair country and the city of its people.
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But in their folly those men scorned the divine voice and renown of song,
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and in trouble shall one of them remember this hereafter—
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he who with scornful words to themThe councillors of Cyme who refused to support Homer at the public expense. contrived my fate.
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Yet I will endure the lot which heaven gave me even at my birth,
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bearing my disappointment with a patient heart.
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My dear limbs yearn not to stay in the sacred streets
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of Cyme, but rather my great heart urges me
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to go unto another country, small though I am.
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Thestorides, full many things there are that mortals cannot sound;
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but there is nothing more unfathomable than the heart of man.
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Hear me, Poseidon, strong shaker of the earth,
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ruler of wide-spread, tawny Helicon!
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Give a fair wind and sight of safe return
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to the shipmen who speed and govern this ship.
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And grant that when I come to the nether slopes of towering Mimas
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I may find honorable, god-fearing men.
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Also may I avenge me on the wretch who deceived me
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and grieved Zeus the lord of guests and his own guest-table.
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Queen Earth, all bounteous giver of honey-hearted wealth,
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how kindly, it seems, you are to some,
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and how intractable and rough for those with whom you are angry.
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Sailors, who rove the seas and whom a hateful fate has made as
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the shy sea-fowl, living an unenviable life,
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observe the reverence due to Zeus who rules on high, the god of strangers;
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for terrible is the vengeance of this god afterwards for whosoever has sinned.
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Strangers, a contrary wind has caught you:
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but even now take me aboard and you shall make your voyage.
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Another sort of pine shall bear a better fruitThe better fruit is apparently the iron smelted out in fires of pine-wood.
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than you upon the heights of furrowed, windy Ida.
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For there shall mortal men get the iron that Ares loves
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so soon as the Cebrenians shall hold the land.
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Glaucus, watchman of flocks, a word will I put in your heart.
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First give the dogs their dinner at the courtyard gate,
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for this is well. The dog first hears
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a man approaching and the wild-beast coming to the fence.
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Goddess-nurse of the young,Hecate: cp. Hesiod, Theogony, 450. give ear to my prayer, and grant that this woman
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may reject the love-embrace of youth
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and dote on grey-haired old men
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whose powers are dulled, but whose hearts still desire.
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Children are a man’s crown, towers of a city;
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horses are the glory of a plain, and so are ships of the sea;
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wealth will make a house great, and reverend princes
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seated in assembly are a goodly sight for the folk to see.
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But a blazing fire makes a house look more comely upon a winter’s day,
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when the Son of Cronos sends down snow.
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Potters, if you will give me a reward, I will sing for you.
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Come, then, Athena, with hand upraisedi.e. in protection. over the kiln.
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Let the pots and all the dishes turn out well
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and be well fired: let them fetch good prices
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and be sold in plenty in the market, and plenty in the streets.
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Grant that the potters may get great gain and grant me so to sing to them.
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But if you turn shameless and make false promises,
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then I call together the destroyers of kilns,
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Shatter and Smash and Charr and Crash
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and Crudebake who can work this craft much mischief.
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Come all of you and sack the kiln-yard and the buildings: let the
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whole kiln be shaken up to the potter’s loud lament.
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As a horse’s jaw grinds, so let the kiln grind
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to powder all the pots inside.
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And you, too, daughter of the Sun, Circe the witch,
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come and cast cruel spells; hurt both these men and their handiwork.
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Let Chiron also come and bring many Centaurs—
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all that escaped the hands of Heracles and all that were destroyed:
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let them make sad havoc of the pots and overthrow the kiln,
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and let the potters see the mischief and be grieved;
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but I will gloat as I behold their luckless craft.
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And if anyone of them stoops to peer in, let all his face
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be burned up, that all men may learn to deal honestly.
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This song is called by pseudo-Herodotus Εἰρησιώνη. The word properly indicates a garland wound with wool which was worn at harvest-festivals, but came to be applied first to the harvest song and then to any begging song. The present is akin to the Swallow-Song (Χελιδόνισμα), sung at the beginning of spring, and answering to the still surviving English May-Day songs. Cp. Athenaeus, viii. 360 B. Let us betake us to the house of some man of great power,—
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one who bears great power and is greatly prosperous always.
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Open of yourselves, you doors, for mighty Wealth will enter in,
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and with Wealth comes jolly Mirth
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and gentle Peace. May all the corn-bins be full
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and the mass of dough always overflow the kneading-trough.
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Now (set before us) cheerful barley-pottage, full of sesame
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Your son’s wife, driving to this house with strong-hoofed mules,
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shall dismount from her carriage to greet you; Lines 8 and 9 do not correspond well with the Greek.
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may she be shod with golden shoes as she stands weaving at the loom.