ADDRESS TO HIS SOUL (Jacobs I. 43, xiv.). Translated by the late Colonel Mure, of Caldwell. Cast down. But still let moderation prove Of life's uncertain cup the bitter and the sweet. Philemon shows that an equable frame of mind is the possession of a wise man. Cumberland thus translates the epigram in the "Observer (No. 139): Extremes of fortune are true wisdom's test, Agathias in an amusing epigram (Jacobs IV. 25, lxiv.) shows the result of unexpected good fortune. The translation is by Philip Smyth: Euseia, rich in gold and land, Who play'd this trick, pray-you or I? SAPPHO. This poetess flourished B.c. 610. She was a native of Mitylene in the island of Lesbos. She married, but was early left a widow. She is said to have fixed her affections on a youth named Phaon, who, however, did not return her love. In consequence of this she cast herself into the sea from a promontory in Acarnania, called Leucate; the belief being that those who survived the leap would be cured of hopeless love. She perished in the experiment. Unfortunately little more than fiagments of the beautiful poetry of Sappho have come down to us, and only three epigrams by her are preserved in Jacobs' Anthologia. Her celebrity, however, is attested by many Greek epigrams. This, by Antipater of Sidon (Jacobs II. 19, xlvi.), is translated by Dr. Wellesley: Amazement seized Mnemosyné At Sappho's honey'd song: "What, does a tenth Muse, then," cried she, And a joyous epigram by an uncertain author (Jacobs IV. 227, dxxi.) is thus translated by C.: Come, Lesbian maids, to blue-eyed Juno's shrine, Your own lov'd Sappho with her golden lyre Shall sweep the strings, and lead the laughing choir; EPITAPH ON A PRIESTESS OF DIANA (Jacobs I. 49, i.). Does any ask? I answer from the dead: Then hear thy priestess, hear, O Virgin power! EPITAPH ON A FISHERMAN (Jacobs I. 50, ii.). This oar, and net, and fisher's wicker'd snare, The hard and needy life of Pelagon. It was the custom of the ancients to carve on the tombs of their friends, devices emblematic of the profession or trade which they exercised when alive; of this we have many examples in the Anthology, and in the works of Homer and Virgil. In the case of the clergy the custom has extended to modern times, as it was, and is again becoming, usual to engrave on their tombs a chalice, to denote their Priesthood. Granger (Biog. Hist. 1779, I. 81) mentions a picture in the Lexington Collection, with a device which seems to be borrowed from the Greek. It is traditionally supposed to be a portrait of a daughter of Sir Thomas More. It represents a female standing on a tortoise, with a bunch of keys by her side, her finger on her lips, and a dove on her head. On the frame is a Latin inscription, believed to be by Sir Thomas More, which has been thus translated: Be frugal, ye wives, live in silence and love, This learn from the keys, the lips, and the dove, This inscription seems to have been suggested, not only by the general custom of the Greeks, but particularly by an epitaph on Lycidice by Antipater of Sidon, thus translated by C. (Jacobs II. 31, lxxxvii., from which four lines are omitted in the translation in accordance with other authorities. See Jacobs' Notes, and Potter's "Antiquities of Greece," Book IV. Chap. vii.): Tell me, Lycidice, what meanings have These sculptur'd emblems on thy pillar'd grave?— ERINNA. Flourished B.C. 610. She was contemporary with Sappho, to whom she is said to have been as superior in hexameters as she was inferior, in lyrics. She was celebrated as well for her beauty as for her genius, and was tenderly mourned by the poets on account of her early death, as in the following epigram by Antipater of Sidon, translated by Major Macgregor (Jacobs II. 19, xlvii.): Few were Erinna's words, and brief her lays, Thus of one swan more joy the soft notes bring ON A PORTRAIT (Jacobs I. 50, i.). Skill'd hands these traits, O best Prometheus! drew— Had she but voice, this Agatharcis were. It is doubtful whether this epigram can be rightly ascribed to Erinna at a date so early. The conceit embodied in it is foreign to the extreme simplicity of her age. That men could match Prometheus was a thought often adopted by the Epigrammatists at a later period, as, for instance, by Antipater of Sidon in one of the many epigrams on Myron's Cow (Jacobs II. 21, lv.): This heifer sure will low; A modern epigram describes a portrait, which, unlike that of Agatharcis, would not have represented the original, had voice been added: A lord of senatorial fame Was by his portrait known outright; EPITAPH ON A DECEASED COMPANION (Jacobs I. 50, ii.). Cold pillars! Sirens mute! and thou, sad urn! Say that a virgin I lie here, by name father call'd me so-who came Of Tenian race, and let them know my friend Erinna wrote another epitaph on Baucis, from which we learn that she died on her marriage day. On the similarly mournful fate of another maiden, Meleager wrote an epigram (Jacobs I. 38, cxxv.), thus translated by Archdeacon Wrangham: Her virgin zone unloosed, Cleara's charms Death clasps-stern bridegroom-in his iron arms. This morn the wail was raised, and, hushed and low, Other epigrams on this subject will be found under Philippus. A fragment in Athenæus gives the information that Erinna herself died in early youth and unmarried, which adds much to the interest of the epitaph which she wrote on her young companion, who died probably a very short time before her. CLEOBULUS. Flourished B.C. 586. He was Tyrant of Lindus, and one of the Seven Sages of Greece. INSCRIPTION ON THE TOMB OF MIDAS (Jacobs I. 52, i.). Translated by the late Colonel Mure, of Caldwell. A maid of bronze am I, and here will stand Simonides has an epigram (Jacobs I. 59, x.) in which he severely ridicules the idea of the maid of bronze enduring as long as the earth itself. It is too long for insertion, but the last few lines of Merivale's translation may be given: The sculptur'd tomb is but a toy Go, go! who said it, was-an ass. But Cleobulus delighted in conundrums, and it is very probable, as Colonel Mure points out, that the inscription is of that character, requiring for its interpretation a knowledge of circumstances connected with its composition, which Simonides did not possess. It is not likely that Cleobulus seriously put forward such an extravagant assertion. If he did so, he might be answered in the words of Spenser in "The Ruines of Time": In vaine doo earthly princes then, in vaine * * * All such vaine moniments of earthlie masse, Devour'd of Time, in time to nought doo passe. On the destructive power of Time, Plato has a distich of much beauty (Jacobs I. 106, xix.), thus translated by C.: Time changes all things; and beneath his sway |