EPITAPHS
I
OF THE ATHENIAN DEAD AT PLATAEA
SIMONIDES
If to die nobly is the chief part of excellence, to us out of all men
Fortune gave this lot; for hastening to set a crown of freedom on
Greece we lie possessed of praise that grows not old.
II
ON THE LACEDAEMONIAN DEAD AT PLATAEA
SIMONIDES
These men having set a crown of imperishable glory on their own land
were folded in the dark cloud of death; yet being dead they have not
died, since from on high their excellence raises them gloriously out
of the house of Hades.
III
ON THE SPARTANS AT THERMOPYLAE
PARMENIO
Him, who over changed paths of earth and sea sailed on the mainland
and went afoot upon the deep, Spartan valour held back on three
hundred spears; be ashamed, O mountains and seas.
IV
ON THE SAME
SIMONIDES
O passer by, tell the Lacedaemonians that we lie here obeying their
orders.
V
ON THE DEAD IN AN UNKNOWN BATTLE
MNASALCAS
These men, in saving their native land that lay with tearful fetters
on her neck, clad themselves in the dust of darkness; and they win
great praise of excellence; but looking on them let a citizen dare to
die for his country.
VI
ON THE DEAD IN A BATTLE IN BOEOTIA
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
O Time, all-surveying deity of the manifold things wrought among
mortals, carry to all men the message of our fate, that striving to
save the holy soil of Greece we die on the renowned Boeotian plains.
VII
ON A SLAIN WARRIOR
ANACREON
Valiant in war was Timocritus, whose monument this is; but Ares spares
the bad, not the good.
VIII
ON THE SLAIN IN A BATTLE IN THESSALY
AESCHYLUS
These men also, the steadfast among spears, dark Fate destroyed as
they defended their native land rich in sheep; but they being dead
their glory is alive, who woefully clad their limbs in the dust of
Ossa.
IX
ON THE ATHENIAN DEAD AT THE BATTLE OF CHALCIS
SIMONIDES
We fell under the fold of Dirphys, and a memorial is reared over us by
our country near the Euripus, not unjustly; for we lost lovely youth
facing the rough cloud of war.
X
ON THE ERETRIAN EXILES IN PERSIA
PLATO
We who of old left the booming surge of the Aegean lie here in the
mid-plain of Ecbatana: fare thou well, renowned Eretria once our
country, farewell Athens nigh to Euboea, farewell dear sea.
XI
ON THE SAME
PLATO
We are Eretrians of Euboea by blood, but we lie near Susa, alas! how
far from our own land.
XII
ON AESCHYLUS
AESCHYLUS
Aeschylus son of Euphorion the Athenian this monument hides, who died
in wheat-bearing Gela; but of his approved valour the Marathonian
grove may tell, and the deep-haired Mede who knew it.
XIII
ON AN EMPTY TOMB IN TRACHIS
EUPHORION
Not rocky Trachis covers over thy white bones, nor this stone with her
dark-blue lettering; but them the Icarian wave dashes about the
shingle of Doliche and steep Dracanon; and I, this empty earth, for
old friendship with Polymedes, am heaped among the thirsty herbage of
Dryopis.
XIV
ON THE GRAVE OF AN ATHENIAN AT MEROË
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Straight is the descent to Hades, whether thou wert to go from Athens
or takest thy journey from Meroë; let it not vex thee to have died so
far away from home; from all lands the wind that blows to Hades is but
one.
XV
ON THE GRAVE OF AN ATHENIAN WOMAN AT CYZICUS
ERYCIUS
I am an Athenian woman; for that was my city; but from Athens the
wasting war-god of the Italians plundered me long ago and made a Roman
citizen; and now that I am dead, seagirt Cyzicus wraps my bones. Fare
thou well, O land that nurturedst me, and thou that thereafter didst
hold me, and thou that at last hast taken me to thy breast.
XVI
ON A SHIPWRECKED SAILOR
PLATO
I am the tomb of one shipwrecked; and that opposite me, of a
husbandman; for a common Hades lies beneath sea and earth.
XVII
ON THE SAME
PLATO
Well be with you, O mariners, both at sea and on land; but know that
you pass by the grave of a shipwrecked man.
XVIII
ON THE SAME
THEODORIDES
I am the tomb of one shipwrecked; but sail thou; for when we were
perishing, the other ships sailed on over the sea.
XIX
ON THE SAME
LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM
May the seafarer have a prosperous voyage; but if, like me, the gale
drive him into the harbour of Hades, let him blame not the
inhospitable sea-gulf, but his own foolhardiness that loosed moorings
from our tomb.
XX
ON THE SAME
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Mariner, ask not whose tomb I am here, but be thine own fortune a
kinder sea.
XXI
ON THE SAME
CALLIMACHUS
What stranger, O shipwrecked man? Leontichus found me here a corpse on
the shore, and heaped this tomb over me, with tears for his own
calamitous life: for neither is he at peace, but flits like a gull
over the sea.
XXII
ON THE EMPTY TOMB OF ONE LOST AT SEA
GLAUCUS
Not dust nor the light weight of a stone, but all this sea that thou
beholdest is the tomb of Erasippus; for he perished with his ship, and
in some unknown place his bones moulder, and the sea-gulls alone know
them to tell.
XXIII
ON THE SAME
SIMONIDES
Cloudcapt Geraneia, cruel steep, would thou hadst looked on far Ister
and long Scythian Tanaïs, and not lain nigh the surge of the Scironian
sea by the ravines of the snowy Meluriad rock: but now he is a chill
corpse in ocean, and the empty tomb here cries aloud of his heavy
voyage.
XXIV
ON THE SAME
DAMAGETUS
Thymodes also, weeping over unlooked-for woes, reared this empty tomb
to Lycus his son; for not even in a strange land did he get a grave,
but some Thynian beach or Pontic island holds him, where, forlorn of
all funeral rites, his shining bones lie naked on an inhospitable
shore.
XXV
ON A SAILOR DROWNED IN HARBOUR
ANTIPATER OF SIDON
Everywhere the sea is the sea; why idly blame we the Cyclades or the
narrow wave of Helle and the Needles? in vain have they their fame; or
why when I had escaped them did the harbour of Scarphe cover me? Pray
whoso will for a fair passage home; that the sea's way is the sea,
Aristagoras knows who is buried here.
XXVI
ON ARISTON OF CYRENE, LOST AT SEA
THEAETETUS
O sailing mariners, Ariston of Cyrene prays you all for the sake of
Zeus the Protector, to tell his father Meno that he lies by the
Icarian rocks, having given up the ghost in the Aegean sea.
XXVII
ON BITON OF AMPHIPOLIS, LOST AT SEA
NICAENETUS
I am the grave of Biton, O wayfarer; and if leaving Torone thou goest
even to Amphipolis, tell Nicagoras that Strymonias at the setting of
the Kids lost him his only son.
XXVIII
ON POLYANTHUS OF TORONE, LOST AT SEA
PHAEDIMUS
I bewail Polyanthus, O thou who passest by, whom Aristagore his wife
laid newly-wedded in the grave, having received dust and bones (but
him the ill-blown Aegean wave cast away off Sciathus), when at early
dawn the fishermen drew his luckless corpse, O stranger, into the
harbour of Torone.
XXIX
ON A WAYSIDE TOMB
NICIAS
Sit beneath the poplars here, traveller, when thou art weary, and
drawing nigh drink of our spring; and even far away remember the
fountain that Simus sets by the side of Gillus his dead child.
XXX
ON THE CHILDREN OF NICANDER AND LYSIDICE
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
This is the single tomb of Nicander's children; the light of a single
morning ended the sacred offspring of Lysidice.
XXXI
ON A BABY
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Me a baby that was just tasting life heaven snatched away, I know not
whether for good or for evil; insatiable Death, why hast thou snatched
me cruelly in infancy? why hurriest thou? Are we not all thine in the
end?
XXXII
ON A CHILD OF FIVE
LUCIAN
Me Callimachus, a five-years-old child whose spirit knew not grief,
pitiless Death snatched away; but weep thou not for me; for little was
my share in life, and little in life's ills.
XXXIII
ON A CHILD OF SEVEN
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Hermes messenger of Persephone, whom usherest thou thus to the
laughterless abyss of Death? what hard fate snatched Ariston from the
fresh air at seven years old? and the child stands between his
parents. Pluto delighting in tears, are not all mortal spirits
allotted to thee? why gatherest thou the unripe grapes of youth?
XXXIV
ON A BOY OF TWELVE
CALLIMACHUS
Philip the father laid here the twelve-years-old child, his high hope,
Nicoteles.
XXXV
ON CLEOETES
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Looking on the monument of a dead boy, Cleoetes son of Menesaechmus,
pity him who was beautiful and died.
XXXVI
ON A BEAUTIFUL BOY
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Not death is bitter, since that is the fate of all, but to die ere the
time and before our parents: I having seen not marriage nor wedding-
chant nor bridal bed, lie here the love of many, and to be the love of
more.
XXXVII
ON A BOY OF NINETEEN
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Bidding hail to me, Diogenes beneath the earth, go about thy business
and obtain thy desire; for at nineteen years old I was laid low by
cruel sickness and leave the sweet sun.
XXXVIII
ON A SON, BY HIS MOTHER
DIOTIMUS
What profits it to labour in childbirth? what to bear children? let
not her bear who must see her child's death: for to stripling Bianor
his mother reared the tomb; but it was fitting that the mother should
obtain this service of the son.
XXXIX
ON A GIRL
CALLIMACHUS
The daughters of the Samians often require Crethis the teller of
tales, who knew pretty games, sweetest of workfellows, ever talking;
but she sleeps here the sleep to which they all must come.
XL
ON A BETROTHED GIRL
ERINNA
I am of Baucis the bride; and passing by my oft-wept pillar thou
mayest say this to Death that dwells under ground, "Thou art envious,
O Death"; and the coloured monument tells to him who sees it the most
bitter fortune of Bauco, how her father-in-law burned the girl on the
funeral pyre with those torches by whose light the marriage train was
to be led home; and thou, O Hymenaeus, didst change the tuneable
bridal song into a voice of wailing dirges.
XLI
ON THE SAME
ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
Ausonian earth holds me a woman of Libya, and I lie a maiden here by
the sea-sand near Rome; and Pompeia, who nurtured me like a daughter,
wept over me and laid me in a free tomb, while hastening on that other
torch-fire for me; but this one came first, and contrary to our
prayers Persephone lit the lamp.
XLII
ON A SINGING-GIRL
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Blue-eyed Musa, the sweet-voiced nightingale, suddenly this little
grave holds voiceless, and she lies like a stone who was so
accomplished and so famous; fair Musa, be this dust light over thee.
XLIII
ON CLAUDIA HOMONOEA
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
I Homonoea, who was far clearer-voiced than the Sirens, I who was more
golden than the Cyprian herself at revellings and feasts, I the
chattering bright swallow lie here, leaving tears to Atimetus, to whom
I was dear from girlhood; but unforeseen fate scattered all that great
affection.
XLIV
ON PAULA OF TARENTUM
DIODORUS OF SARDIS
Bear witness this my stone house of night that has hidden me, and the
wail-circled water of Cocytus, my husband did not, as men say, kill
me, looking eagerly to marriage with another; why should Rufinius have
an ill name idly? but my predestined Fates lead me away; not surely is
Paula of Tarentum the only one who has died before her day.
XLV
ON A MOTHER, DEAD IN CHILDBIRTH
DIODORUS OF SARDIS
These woeful letters of Diodorus' wisdom tell that I was engraven for
one early dead in child-birth, since she perished in bearing a boy;
and I weep to hold Athenaïs the comely daughter of Melo, who left
grief to the women of Lesbos and her father Jason; but thou, O
Artemis, wert busy with thy beast-slaying hounds.
XLVI
ON A MOTHER OF EIGHTEEN, AND HER BABY
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Name me Polyxena wife of Archelaus, child of Theodectes and hapless
Demarete, and a mother as far as the birth-pangs; but fate overtook
the child before full twenty suns, and myself died at eighteen years,
just a mother and just a bride, so brief was all my day.
XLVII
ON A YOUNG WIFE
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
To his wife Paulina, holy of life and blameless, who died at nineteen
years, Andronicus the physician paying memorial placed this witness
the last of all.
XLVIII
ON ATTHIS OF CNIDOS
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Atthis who didst live for me and breathe thy last toward me, source of
joyfulness formerly as now of tears, holy, much lamented, how sleepest
thou the mournful sleep, thou whose head was never laid away from thy
husband's breast, leaving Theius alone as one who is no more; for with
thee the hopes of our life went to darkness.
XLIX
ON PREXO, WIFE OF THEOCRITUS OF SAMOS
LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM
Who and of whom art thou, O woman, that liest under the Parian column?
Prexo, daughter of Calliteles. And of what country? Of Samos. And also
who buried thee? Theocritus, to whom my parents gave me in marriage.
And of what diedst thou? Of child-birth. How old? Two-and-twenty. And
childless? Nay, but I left a three-year-old Calliteles. May he live at
least and come to great old age. And to thee, O stranger, may Fortune
give all prosperity.
L
ON AMAZONIA OF THESSALONICA
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Why idly bemoaning linger you by my tomb? nothing worthy of
lamentation is mine among the dead. Cease from plaints and be at rest,
O husband, and you my children fare well, and keep the memory of
Amazonia.
LI
ON A LACEDAEMONIAN NURSE
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Here earth holds the Peloponnesian woman who was the most faithful
nurse of the children of Diogeitus.
LII
ON A LYDIAN SLAVE
DIOSCORIDES
A Lydian am I, yes a Lydian, but in a free tomb, O my master, thou
didst lay thy fosterer Timanthes; prosperously mayest thou lengthen
out an unharmed life, and if under the hand of old age thou shalt come
to me, I am thine, O master, even in the grave.
LIII
ON A PERSIAN SLAVE
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Even now beneath the earth I abide faithful to thee, yes my master, as
before, forgetting not thy kindness, in that then thou broughtest me
thrice out of sickness to safe foothold, and now didst lay me here
beneath sufficient shelter, calling me by name, Manes the Persian; and
for thy good deeds to me thou shalt have servants readier at need.
LIV
ON A FAVOURITE DOG
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Thou who passest on the path, if haply thou dost mark this monument,
laugh not, I pray thee, though it is a dog's grave; tears fell for me,
and the dust was heaped above me by a master's hands, who likewise
engraved these words on my tomb.
LV
ON A MALTESE WATCH-DOG
TYMNES
Here the stone says it holds the white dog from Melita, the most
faithful guardian of Eumelus; Bull they called him while he was yet
alive; but now his voice is prisoned in the silent pathways of night.
LVI
ON A TAME PARTRIDGE
AGATHIAS
No longer, poor partridge migrated from the rocks, does thy woven
house hold thee in its thin withies, nor under the sparkle of fresh-
faced Dawn dost thou ruffle up the edges of thy basking wings; the cat
bit off thy head, but the rest of thee I snatched away, and she did
not fill her greedy jaw; and now may the earth cover thee not lightly
but heavily, lest she drag out thy remains.
LVII
ON A THESSALIAN HOUND
SIMONIDES
Surely even as thou liest dead in this tomb I deem the wild beasts yet
fear thy white bones, huntress Lycas; and thy valour great Pelion
knows, and splendid Ossa and the lonely peaks of Cithaeron.
LVIII
ON CHARIDAS OF CYRENE
CALLIMACHUS
Does Charidas in truth sleep beneath thee? If thou meanest the son of
Arimmas of Cyrene, beneath me. O Charidas, what of the under world?
Great darkness. And what of the resurrection? A lie. And Pluto? A
fable; we perish utterly. This my tale to you is true; but if thou
wilt have the pleasant one of the Samian, I am a large ox in Hades.
LIX
ON THEOGNIS OF SINOPE
SIMONIDES
I am the monument of Theognis of Sinope, over whom Glaucus set me in
guerdon of their long fellowship.
LX
ON A DEAD FRIEND
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
This little stone, good Sabinus, is the record of our great
friendship; ever will I require thee; and thou, if it is permitted,
drink not among the dead of the water of Lethe for me.
LXI
ON AN UNHAPPY MAN
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
I Dionysius of Tarsus lie here at sixty, having never married; and
would that my father had not.
LXII
ON A CRETAN MERCHANT
SIMONIDES
I Brotachus of Gortyna, a Cretan, lie here, not having come hither for
this, but for traffic.
LXIII
ON SAON OF ACANTHUS
CALLIMACHUS
Here Saon, son of Dicon of Acanthus, rests in a holy sleep; say not
that the good die.