DEATH
I
THE SPAN OF LIFE
MACEDONIUS
Earth and Birth-Goddess, thou who didst bear me and thou who coverest,
farewell; I have accomplished the course between you, and I go, not
discerning whither I shall travel; for I know not either whose or who
I am, or whence I came to you.
II
DUSTY DEATH
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Pay no offering of ointments or garlands on my stony tomb, nor make
the fire blaze up; the expense is in vain. While I live be kind to me
if thou wilt; but drenching my ashes with wine thou wilt make mire,
and the dead man will not drink.
III
A CITIZEN OF THE REPUBLIC
LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM
A little dust of earth suffices me; let another lie richly, weighed
down by his extravagant tombstone, that grim weight over the dead, who
will know me here in death as Alcander son of Calliteles.
IV
BENE MERENTI
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Dear Earth, take old Amyntichus to thy bosom, remembering his many
labours on thee; for ever he planted in thee the olive-stock, and
often made thee fair with vine-cuttings, and filled thee full of corn,
and, drawing channels of water along, made thee rich with herbs and
plenteous in fruit: do thou in return lie softly over his grey temples
and flower into tresses of spring herbage.
V
PEACE IN THE END
DIONYSIUS
A gentler old age and no dulling disease quenched thee, and thou didst
fall asleep in the slumber to which all must come, O Eratosthenes,
after pondering over high matters; nor did Cyrene where thou sawest
the light receive thee within the tomb of thy fathers, O son of
Aglaus; yet dear even in a foreign land art thou buried here, by the
edge of the beach of Proteus.
VI
THE WITHERED VINE
LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM
Even as a vine on her dry pole I support myself now on a staff, and
death calls me to Hades. Be not obstinately deaf, O Gorgus; what is it
the sweeter for thee if for three or four summers yet thou shalt warm
thyself beneath the sun? So saying the aged man quietly put his life
aside, and removed his house to the greater company.
VII
ACCOMPLISHMENT
THEAETETUS
Crantor was delightful to men and yet more delightful to the Muses,
and did not live far into age: O earth, didst thou enfold the sacred
man in death, or does he still live in gladness there?
VIII
LOCA PASTORUM DESERTA
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Naiads and chill cattle-pastures, tell to the bees when they come on
their springtide way, that old Leucippus perished on a winter's night,
setting snares for scampering hares, and no longer is the tending of
the hives dear to him; but the pastoral dells mourn sore for him who
dwelt with the mountain peak for neighbour.
IX
THE OLD SHEPHERD
LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM
Shepherds who pass over this ridge of hill pasturing your goats and
fleecy sheep, pay to Clitagoras, in Earth's name, a small but kindly
grace, for the sake of Persephone under ground; let sheep bleat by me,
and the shepherd on an unhewn stone pipe softly to them as they feed,
and in early spring let the countryman pluck the meadow flower to
engarland my tomb with a garland, and let one make milk drip from a
fruitful ewe, holding up her milking-udder, to wet the base of my
tomb: there are returns for favours to dead men, there are, even among
the departed.
X
THE DEAD FOWLER
MNASALCAS
Even here shall the holy bird rest his swift wing, sitting on this
murmuring plane, since Poemander the Malian is dead and comes no more
with birdlime smeared on his fowling reeds.
XI
THE ANT BY THE THRESHING FLOOR
ANTIPATER OF SIDON
Here to thee by the threshing floor, O toiling worker ant, I rear a
memorial to thee of a thirsty clod, that even in death the ear-
nurturing furrow of Demeter may lull thee as thou liest in thy rustic
cell.
XII
THE TAME PARTRIDGE
SIMMIAS
No more along the shady woodland copse, O hunter partridge, dost thou
send thy clear cry from thy mouth as thou decoyest thy speckled
kinsfolk in their forest feeding-ground; for thou art gone on the
final road of Acheron.
XIII
THE SILENT SINGING-BIRD
TYMNES
O bird beloved of the Graces, O rivalling the halcyons in likeness of
thy note, thou art snatched away, dear warbler, and thy ways and thy
sweet breath are held in the silent paths of night.
XIV
THE FIELDS OF PERSEPHONE
ARISTODICUS
No longer in the wealthy house of Alcis, O shrill grasshopper, shall
the sun behold thee singing; for now thou art flown to the meadows of
Clymenus and the dewy flowers of golden Persephone.
XV
THE DISCONSOLATE SHEPHERD
THEOCRITUS
Ah thou poor Thyrsis, what profit is it if thou shalt waste away the
apples of thy two eyes with tears in thy mourning? the kid is gone,
the pretty young thing, is gone to Hades; for a savage wolf crunched
her in his jaws; and the dogs bay; what profit is it, when of that
lost one not a bone nor a cinder is left?
XVI
LAMPO THE HOUND
ANTIPATER OF SIDON
Thirst slew hunter Lampo, Midas' dog, though he toiled hard for his
life; for he dug with his paws in the moist flat, but the slow water
made no haste out of her blind spring, and he fell in despair; then
the water gushed out. Ah surely, Nymphs, you laid on Lampo your wrath
for the slain deer.
XVII
STORM ON THE HILLS
DIOTIMUS
Unherded at evenfall the oxen came to the farmyard from the hill,
snowed on with heavy snow; alas, and Therimachus sleeps the long sleep
beside an oak, stretched there by fire from heaven.
XVIII
A WET NIGHT
ANTIPATER OF SIDON
I know not whether I shall complain of Dionysus or blame the rain of
Zeus, but both are treacherous for feet. For the tomb holds Polyxenus,
who returning once to the country from a feast, tumbled over the
slippery slopes, and lies far from Aeolic Smyrna: but let one full of
wine fear a rainy footpath in the dark.
XIX
FAR FROM HOME
TYMNES
Let not this be of too much moment to thee, O Philaenis, that thou
hast not found thine allotted earth by the Nile, but this tomb holds
thee in Eleutherne; for to comers from all places there is an equal
way to Hades.
XX
DEATH AT SEA
SIMONIDES
Strange dust covers thy body, and the lot of death took thee, O
Cleisthenes, wandering in the Euxine sea; and thou didst fail of sweet
and dear home-coming, nor ever didst reach sea-girt Chios.
XXI
AT THE WORLD'S END
CRINAGORAS
Alas, why wander we, trusting in vain hopes and forgetting baneful
death? this Seleucus was perfect in his words and ways, but, having
enjoyed his youth but a little, among the utmost Iberians, so far away
from Lesbos, he lies a stranger on unmapped shores.
XXII
IN LIMINE PORTUS
ANTIPHILUS
Already almost in touch of my native land, "To-morrow," I said, "the
wind that has set so long against me will abate"; not yet had the
speech died on my lip, and the sea was even as Hades, and that light
word broke me down. Beware of every speech with to-morrow in it; not
even small things escape the Nemesis that avenges the tongue.
XXIII
DROWNED IN HARBOUR
ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
Not even when at anchor trust the baleful sea, O sailor, nor even if
dry land hold thy cables; for Ion fell into the harbour, and at the
plunge wine tied his quick sailor's hands. Beware of revelling on
ship-board; the sea is enemy to Iacchus; this law the Tyrrhenians
ordained.
XXIV
IN SOUND OF THE SEA
ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
Even in death shall the implacable sea vex me, Lysis hidden beneath a
lonely rock, ever sounding harshly by my ear and alongside of my deaf
tomb. Why, O fellow-men, have you made my dwelling by this that reft
me of breath, me whom not trading in my merchant-ship but sailing in a
little rowing-boat, it brought to shipwreck? and I who sought my
living out of the sea, out of the sea likewise drew my death.
XXV
THE EMPTY HOUSE
ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
Hapless Nicanor, doomed by the grey sea, thou liest then naked on a
strange beach, or haply by the rocks, and those wealthy halls are
perished from thee, and lost is the hope of all Tyre; nor did aught of
thy treasures save thee; alas, pitiable one! thou didst perish, and
all thy labour was for the fishes and the sea.
XXVI
THE SINKING OF THE PLEIAD
AUTOMEDON
O man, be sparing of life, neither go on sea-faring beyond the time;
even so the life of man is not long. Miserable Cleonicus, yet thou
didst hasten to come to fair Thasos, a merchantman out of hollow
Syria, O merchant Cleonicus; but hard on the sinking of the Pleiad as
thou journeyedst over the sea, as the Pleiad sank, so didst thou.
XXVII
A RESTLESS GRAVE
ARCHIAS
Not even in death shall I Theris, tossed shipwrecked upon land by the
waves, forget the sleepless shores; for beneath the spray-beaten
reefs, nigh the disastrous main, I found a grave at the hands of
strangers, and for ever do I wretchedly hear roaring even among the
dead the hated thunder of the sea.
XXVIII
TELLURIS AMOR
CRINAGORAS
O happy shepherd, would that even I had shepherded on the mountain
along this white grassy hill, making the bleating folk move after the
leader rams, rather than have dipped a ship's steering-rudders in the
bitter brine: so I sank under the depths, and the east wind that
swallowed me down cast me up again on this shore.
XXIX
A GRAVE BY THE SEA
ASCLEPIADES
Keep eight cubits away from me, O rough sea, and billow and roar with
all thy might; but if thou pullest down the grave of Eumares, thou
wilt find nothing of value, but only bones and dust.
XXX
AN EMPTY TOMB
CALLIMACHUS
Would that swift ships had never been, for we should not have bewailed
Sopolis son of Diocleides; but now somewhere in the sea he drifts
dead, and instead of him we pass by a name on an empty tomb.
XXXI
THE DAYS OF THE HALCYONS
APOLLONIDES
And when shall thy swirling passage be free from fear, say, O sea, if
even in the days of the halcyons we must weep, of the halcyons for
whom Ocean evermore stills his windless wave, that one might think dry
land less trustworthy? but even when thou callest thyself a gentle
nurse and harmless to women in labour, thou didst drown Aristomenes
with his freight.
XXXII
A WINTER VOYAGE
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Thee too, son of Cleanor, desire after thy native land destroyed,
trusting to the wintry gust of the South; for the unsecured season
entangled thee, and the wet waves washed away thy lovely youth.
XXXIII
THE DEAD CHILD
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Not yet were thy tresses cut, nor had the monthly courses of the moon
driven a three years' space, O poor Cleodicus, when thy mother
Nicasis, clasping thy coffin, wailed long over thy lamented grave, and
thy father Pericleitus; but an unknown Acheron thou shalt flower out
the youth that never, never returns.
XXXIV
THE LITTLE SISTER
LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM
This girl passed to Hades untimely, in her seventh year, before her
many playmates, poor thing, pining for her baby brother, who at twenty
months old tasted of loveless Death. Alas, ill-fated Peristeris, how
near at hand God has set the sorest griefs to men.
XXXV
PERSEPHONE'S PLAYTHING
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Hades inexorable and inflexible, why hast thou thus reft infant
Callaeschrus of life? Surely the child will be a plaything in the
palace of Persephone, but at home he has left bitter sorrows.
XXXVI
CHILDLESS AMONG WOMEN
LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM
Ah wretched Anticles, and wretched I who have laid on the pyre in the
flower of youth my only son, thee, child, who didst perish at eighteen
years; and I weep, bewailing an orphaned old age: fain would I go to
the shadowy house of Hades; neither is morn sweet to me, nor the beam
of the swift sun. Ah wretched Anticles, struck down by fate, be thou
healer of my sorrow, taking me with thee out of life.
XXXVII
FATE'S PERSISTENCY
PHILIPPUS
I Philaenion who gave birth but for the pyre, I the woeful mother, I
who had seen the threefold grave of my children, anchored my trust on
another's pangs; for I surely hoped that he at least would live, whom
I had not borne. So I, who once had fair children, brought up an
adopted son; but God would not let me have even a second mother's
grace; for being called ours he perished, and now I am become a woe to
the rest of mothers too.
XXXVIII
ANTE DIEM
BIANOR
Ever insatiate Charon, why hast thou wantonly taken young Attalus? was
he not thine, even if he had died old?
XXXIX
UNFORGOTTEN
SIMONIDES
Protomachus said, as his father held him in his hands when he was
breathing away his lovely youth, "O son of Timenor, thou wilt never
forget thy dear son, nor cease to long for his valour and his wisdom."
XL
THE BRIDECHAMBER
ANTIPATER OF SIDON
Already the saffron-strewn bride-bed was spread within the golden
wedding-chamber for the bride of Pitane, Cleinareta, and her guardians
Demo and Nicippus hoped to light the torch-flame held at stretch of
arm and lifted in both hands, when sickness snatched her away yet a
maiden, and drew her to the sea of Lethe; and her sorrowing companions
knocked not on the bridal doors, but on their own smitten breasts in
the clamour of death.
XLI
BRIDEGROOM DEATH
MELEAGER
Not marriage but Death for bridegroom did Clearista receive when she
loosed the knot of her maidenhood: for but now at even the flutes
sounded at the bride's portal, and the doors of the wedding-chamber
were clashed; and at morn they cried the wail, and Hymenaeus put to
silence changed into a voice of lamentation; and the same pine-brands
flashed their torchlight before the bride-bed, and lit the dead on her
downward way.
XLII
THE YOUNG WIFE
JULIANUS AEGYTPIUS
In season the bride-chamber held thee, out of season the grave took
thee, O Anastasia, flower of the blithe Graces; for thee a father, for
thee a husband pours bitter tears; for thee haply even the ferryman of
the dead weeps; for not a whole year didst thou accomplish beside
thine husband, but at sixteen years old, alas! the tomb holds thee.
XLIII
SANCTISSIMA CONIUNX
CRINAGORAS
Unhappy, by what first word, by what second shall I name thee?
unhappy! this word is true in every ill. Thou art gone, O gracious
wife, who didst carry off the palm in bloom of beauty and in bearing
of soul; Prote wert thou truly called, for all else comes second to
those inimitable graces of thine.
XLIV
SUNDERED HANDS
DAMAGETUS
This last word, O famous city of Phocaea, Theano spoke as she went
down into the unharvested night: "Woe's me unhappy; Apellichus,
husband, what length, what length of sea dost thou cross on thine own
ship! but nigh me stands my doom; would God I had but died with my
hand clasped in thy dear hand."
XLV
UNDIVIDED
APOLLONIDES
Heliodorus went first, and Diogeneia the wife, not an hour's space
after, followed her dear husband; and both, even as they dwelt
together, are buried under this slab, rejoicing in their common tomb
even as in a bride-chamber.
XLVI
FIRST LOVE
MELEAGER
Tears I give to thee even below with earth between us, Heliodora, such
relic of love as may pass to Hades, tears sorely wept; and on thy
much-wailed tomb I pour the libation of my longing, the memorial of my
affection. Piteously, piteously, I Meleager make lamentation for thee,
my dear, even among the dead, an idle gift to Acheron. Woe's me, where
is my cherished flower? Hades plucked her, plucked her and marred the
freshly-blown blossom with his dust. But I beseech thee, Earth, that
nurturest all, gently to clasp her, the all-lamented, O mother, to thy
breast.
XLVII
FIRST FRIENDSHIP
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Ah blessed one, dearest companion of the immortal Muses, fare thou
well even in the house of Hades, Callimachus.
XLVIII
STREWINGS FOR GRAVES
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
May flowers grow thick on thy newly-built tomb, not the dry bramble,
not the evil weed, but violets and margerain and wet narcissus,
Vibius, and around thee may all be roses.
XLIX
DIMITTE MORTUOS
PAULUS SILENTIARIUS
My name--Why this?--and my country--And to what end this?--and I am of
illustrious race--Yea, if thou hadst been of the obscurest?--Having
lived nobly I left life--If ignobly?--and I lie here now--Who art thou
that sayest this, and to whom?
L
MORS IMMORTALIS
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
I died, but I await thee; and thou too shalt await some one else: one
Death receives all mortals alike.
LI
THE LIGHT OF THE DEAD
PLATO
Morning Star that once didst shine among the living, now deceased thou
shinest the Evening Star among the dead.