_Fronte capillata, &c._ (Vol. iii., pp. 8. 43.).--The representation of
"Occasio," or "Opportunity," with hair in front, and bald behind, is far
more ancient than the drama referred to by your correspondent G. A. S.
In the _Anthologia_ (Brunck's edition, vol. ii. p. 49.) the following
beautiful epigram is the 13th by Posidippus:--
[Greek: Eis Agalma tou Kairou.]
[Greek: Tis, pothen ho plastes? Sikuonios. Ounoma de tis?]
[Greek: Lusippos. Su de, tis? Kairos ho pandamator.]
[Greek: Tipte d' ep' akra bebekas? Aei trochao. Ti de tarsous]
[Greek: Possin echeis diphueis? Hiptam' hupenemios.]
[Greek: Cheiri de dexiterei ti phereis xuron? Andrasi deigma]
[Greek: Hos akmes pases oxuteros teletho.]
[Greek: He de kome, ti kat' opsin? Hupantiasanti labesthai,]
[Greek: Ne Dia. Taxopithen pros ti phalakra pelei?]
[Greek: Ton gar hapax ptenoisi parathrexanta me possin]
[Greek: Ou tis eu' himeiron draxetai exopithen.]
[Greek: Tounech' ho technites se dieplasen? Heineken humeon,]
[Greek: Xeine, kai en prothurois theke dikaskalien.]
{93} The same epigram, with an inconsiderable alteration, is given in
Bosch's _Anthologia Graeca_, vol. ii. p. 478., with a close Latin
translation by Grotius.
The following English version of the Greek is as nearly literal as the
idioms of the two languages will allow.
"Who is the sculptor, say, and whence?
From Sicyon. What is he
By name? Lysippus. Who art thou?
I am Opportunity.
"Why is thy step so high and light?
I am running all the day.
Why on each foot hast thou a wing?
I fly with the winds away.
"Why is a razor in thy hand?
More keen my edge is set.
Why hast thou hair upon thy brow?
To seize me by, when met.
"Why is thy head then bald behind?
Because men wish in vain,
When I have run past on winged feet
To catch me e'er again.
"Why did the artist form thee so?
To place me in this hall,
That I a lesson thus might give
To thee, friend, and to all."
Ausonius, in the fourteenth century of the Christian era, imitates this in
his 12th epigram.
Phaedrus (lib. v., fab. 8), in the Augustine age, speaks of the same
representation as already sanctioned by antiquity:--
"OCCASIO DEPICTA.
"Cursu veloci pendens in novacula,
Calvus, comosa fronte, nudo corpore;
Quem si occuparis, teneas: elapsum semel
Non ipse possit Jupiter reprehendere;
Occassionem rerum significat brevem.
Effectus impediret ne segnis mora,
Finxere antiqui talem effigiem temporis."