_This little piece of Aeolic verse accompanied the present of a distaff
which Theocritus brought from Syracuse to Theugenis_, _the wife of his
friend Nicias_, _the physician of Miletus_. _On the margin of a
translation by Longepierre_ (_the famous book-collector_), _Louis XIV
wrote that this idyl is a model of honourable gallantry_.
* * * * *
O DISTAFF, thou friend of them that spin, gift of grey-eyed Athene to
dames whose hearts are set on housewifery; come, boldly come with me to
the bright city of Neleus, where the shrine of the Cyprian is green
’neath its roof of delicate rushes. Thither I pray that we may win fair
voyage and favourable breeze from Zeus, that so I may gladden mine eyes
with the sight of Nicias my friend, and be greeted of him in turn;—a
sacred scion is he of the sweet-voiced Graces. And thee, distaff, thou
child of fair carven ivory, I will give into the hands of the wife of
Nicias: with her shalt thou fashion many a thing, garments for men, and
much rippling raiment that women wear. For the mothers of lambs in the
meadows might twice be shorn of their wool in the year, with her
goodwill, the dainty-ankled Theugenis, so notable is she, and cares for
all things that wise matrons love.
Nay, not to houses slatternly or idle would I have given thee, distaff,
seeing that thou art a countryman of mine. For that is thy native city
which Archias out of Ephyre founded, long ago, the very marrow of the
isle of the three capes, a town of honourable men. {153} But now shalt
thou abide in the house of a wise physician, who has learned all the
spells that ward off sore maladies from men, and thou shalt dwell in glad
Miletus with the Ionian people, to this end,—that of all the townsfolk
Theugenis may have the goodliest distaff and that thou mayst keep her
ever mindful of her friend, the lover of song.
This proverb will each man utter that looks on thee, ‘Surely great grace
goes with a little gift, and all the offerings of friends are precious.’