Book 2

1. Socrates

Polycrates: Blessed Pythagoras, Heliconian scion of the Muses,

tell me, since I ask: how many in the contest of wisdom

are in your halls, contending nobly for the prize?

Pythagoras: I will tell you, then, Polycrates. Half of them

press on toward the fair branches of learning; a fourth

labour over the nature of the immortal; a seventh

are wholly given to silence, and to imperishable inward words;

three are women, and Theano excels the rest.

So many ministers of the Muses I myself lead on.

2. Anonymous epigrammatists

On a statue of Pallas Golden Pallas am I, of beaten gold; and the gold

is the gift of vigorous men, the followers of song.

Half the gold Charisius gave, and an eighth part

Thespis, and a tenth part Solon gave,

a twentieth Themison; and the remaining talents,

nine of them, and the workmanship, are the gift of Aristodicus.

3. Anonymous epigrammatists

Cypris addressed Eros as he hung his head:

"What grief, my child, has come upon you?" And he answered:

"The Pierians have plundered my apples, one this way, one that,

snatching them from my lap—those I was bringing from Helicon.

Clio took a fifth part of the apples; a twelfth

Euterpe; bright Thalia got an eighth;

Melpomene carried off a twentieth; Terpsichore

a fourth; and Erato came after for a seventh part;

Polymnia robbed me of thirty apples,

and Urania of a hundred and twenty; and Calliope

has gone off weighed down with three hundred apples.

So I come to you with lighter hands,

bringing these fifty apples, what the goddesses have left."

4. Anonymous epigrammatists

On the dung of Augeas The mighty strength of Alcides asked Augeas,

inquiring after the multitude of his herds; and he answered:

"By the streams of Alpheus, friend, are half of them;

an eighth part graze about the hill of Cronus;

a twelfth, far off, beside the shrine of Taraxippus;

a twentieth feed about divine Elis;

a thirtieth I have left behind in Arcadia;

and the rest of the herds, these fifty, you see here."

5. Anonymous epigrammatists

I am the dark child of a white father, a wingless bird,

flying up even to the clouds of heaven;

and to the maidens who meet me I give birth to tears without grief;

yet, born straightway, I am dissolved into the air.

6. Anonymous epigrammatists

Best of the keepers of the hours, how much of the day has passed?

As much as twice two-thirds of what is gone is what remains.

7. Anonymous epigrammatists

I am a lion of bronze; and my fountains are my two eyes,

and my mouth, and the sole of my right foot.

My right eye fills the bowl in two days,

my left in three, and the sole of my foot in four;

six hours suffice to fill the mouth. With all at once,

mouth and eyes and foot together, say in what time.

8. Anonymous epigrammatists

Six, one, five, two, three, four—so the die runs on.

9. Anonymous epigrammatists

My father-in-law killed my husband, and my husband killed my father-in-law,

and my brother-in-law his father-in-law, and my father-in-law his own father.

10. Anonymous epigrammatists

I have learned that cauldrons are not ones to keep silent,

but rather urge the bronze to ring out true,

the first striking back its echo to the second,

and the third passing it on to the fourth.

But if the mover stays at rest and does not blow,

the cauldron is voiceless; for by nature it is no chatterer.

The nature of your cauldrons, indeed, is fair of mouth;

yet meeting yours it grows fairer still of mouth,

silent when it must be, and speaking when it should.

11. Anonymous epigrammatists

The thousand staters that I have gained

I bid my two sons take;

but let the legitimate one's fifth be increased

by ten of the fourth measure that falls to the bastard.

12. Anonymous epigrammatists

King Croesus dedicated six bowls of six minae,

each one larger than the next by a drachma.

13. Anonymous epigrammatists

Together we two weigh twenty minae,

Zethus and his kinsman; but if you take from me

a third, and the fourth part of this Amphion here,

finding the whole to be six, you will find our mother's weight.

14. Anonymous epigrammatists

One wind; two ships; ten sailors row;

and one helmsman steers them both.

15. Anonymous epigrammatists

Six feet, in six places, measure out the iambic line:

spondee, choree, dactyl, and anapaest,

pyrrhic and iamb; and each has its own house.

The pyrrhic's end is one that knows a long at the start;

the first and the third and the fifth hold these.

The others march alike along the whole path;

only the lordly iamb the place receives, wherever it will.

16. Anonymous epigrammatists

A whole island, the lowing of an ox, and the voice of a money-lender.

17. Anonymous epigrammatists

The hunt is a rehearsal for war; the hunt teaches

to seize the hidden, to await the attacker, to flee, to pursue.

18. Anonymous epigrammatists

Hector—the man Diomedes slew, that other Hector,

Ajax, who fought before the Trojans with his spear.

19. Anonymous epigrammatists

I once saw a beast running upright on its back

through a wood cut by iron, its feet not touching the ground.

20. Anonymous epigrammatists

If you set in the midst of blazing fire its hundred,

you will find the son and the slayer of a maiden.

21. Anonymous epigrammatists

Casting into the midst of Hephaestus a single hundred,

you will find the son and the slayer of a maiden.

22. Anonymous epigrammatists

Do not speak, and you will speak my name. But must you speak it?

Then thus again—a great marvel—speaking, you will speak my name.

23. Anonymous epigrammatists

Child of Nereus though I am, the son of Earth bears me up,

as I sink down into the lovely streams of Styx.

24. Anonymous epigrammatists

. . . you see me, Dionysus; a twofold womb

bore me, and my father is the lord of memory.

First it bore me a beast-bearer, pitiless of heart;

but when I had slain the dear son of a roe, my own sister's,

no longer do I bear the beast, but heaven and sea,

and earth, and the holy chorus of the blessed, deathless forever.

25. Anonymous epigrammatists

I long for the eyes of Scylla, which the sun himself put out,

and the moon; and my father feared me, his daughter.

I bathe, though dead, in two ever-flowing rivers

that the summit pours forth upon a beetling hill.

26. Anonymous epigrammatists

Once I was a yellow thing, but, when struck,

I become whiter than gleaming snow;

and I delight in the sweet and fish-filled bath,

going first of all the banqueters into the dance.

27. Anonymous epigrammatists

Seeking on the sea the maiden that was once a lion,

you will find the grandmother of child-slaying Hecuba.

28. Anonymous epigrammatists

From the sea I drew a fish-laden race; and a single contest

knows how to lead me to the Dionysiac games;

and, having anointed my body in the stadium with oil,

with my own hands I destroyed the son of Deo;

and again, in the second place, I send forth the Giants,

gathered from here and there, dragged off by many hands.

29. Anonymous epigrammatists

It is given to me alone to join with women in love,

when their own husbands beg it.

30. Anonymous epigrammatists

I have a ram for father, and a tortoise bore me to him;

and at my birth I slew both my parents.

31. Anonymous epigrammatists

Write the second mother of wine, and set upon the limb

a limb; the wife of his fatherland's father you behold.

32. Anonymous epigrammatists

Being slain, I slew my slayer; yet not even so

did he come to Hades; but I, for my part, died.

33. Anonymous epigrammatists

Him who slew me I slew, but I have no joy of it;

for death has made the slain man deathless.

34. Anonymous epigrammatists

There is a city, an island, that drew its blood from a plant's name,

bearing at once an isthmus and a strait upon the mainland;

there is my blood, and the blood of Cecrops together;

there Hephaestus, rejoicing, holds grey-eyed Athena;

there I bade them send sacrifice to Heracles.

35. Anonymous epigrammatists

I am a limb of man, which even iron cuts;

when a letter is taken away, the sun goes down.

36. Anonymous epigrammatists

Bitter to me is life, sweet is death—and both are water;

I die, pierced by bloodless spears;

and if any, while I yet live, hide me, a corpse, in a tomb,

I am first soaked with the blood of my kindred.

37. Anonymous epigrammatists

I am dear to Pallas, and I bring forth countless children,

which men hurl down from the rocks; and as they perish,

they were a light to Peleus' son, a cure for mortals, a bulwark in contests.

38. Anonymous epigrammatists

I slew my brother, and my brother in turn slew me; we died by our father;

and, both being dead, we slew our mother.

39. Anonymous epigrammatists

Whoever calls me an island will not lie; for in very truth

he has set my name into many roaring noises.

40. Anonymous epigrammatists

There are two sisters, born of the same blood; the one bears

the other, and she who bore is herself born of the other;

so that, being sisters and of the same blood,

they are both, in common, each other's mothers.

41. Anonymous epigrammatists

I give birth to my mother and am born of her; and I am of her

at one time greater, at another smaller.

42. Anonymous epigrammatists

I am a maiden woman, and I am the maiden of a woman,

and year by year, a maiden, I give birth, a woman.

43. Anonymous epigrammatists

I am the image of the sky; two beasts drive me,

one in front, Erigone's, and behind, Pasiphae's;

the bedfellow of Heracles watches over me, and the dear bride

of Phoebus wears me down, often set ablaze.

44. Anonymous epigrammatists

In a single night I came against the Trojans, and the tribes

of the Pelasgians I cut through and took without a spear;

neither the son of Tydeus, nor city-sacking Odysseus,

had strength to drive me, the bold one, out from the ships;

but, swelling with might and courage in my breast,

I destroyed the army of the Argives and of the Phrygians.

45. Anonymous epigrammatists

I am black, white, yellow, dry and moist;

and when you stretch me out above the wooden plains,

I speak to Ares and the hand, though I have no speech.

46. Anonymous epigrammatists

When a letter takes a blow, the name of a foot it makes,

my own; yet it will never let men's feet stumble.

47. Anonymous epigrammatists

For a man's sake I lost my light; and a man, standing by,

gave me a light I love, granting it as a favour to my feet.

48. Anonymous epigrammatists

The Graces were carrying baskets of apples, and in each

was an equal number. The Muses met them,

nine of them, and asked them for apples; and they gave

an equal number to each, and they had—nine and three alike.

Say how many they gave, that all might have equal shares.

49. Anonymous epigrammatists

Make me a crown, mixing gold and bronze,

and tin together with them, and much-wrought iron,

of sixty minae; and let the gold, with the bronze,

be two parts of three; the gold, with the tin together,

three parts of four; and the gold, with the iron,

so many parts of five. Tell me, then, how much you must mix

of gold, and how much of bronze; and tell me still

how much of tin, and say how much of the remaining iron,

that you may make for me the crown of sixty minae.

50. Anonymous epigrammatists

Add a third, silversmith, and the fourth

of the bowl into one, and the twelfth as well;

then drive it into the furnace, and, when all is stirred,

draw me out the lump, and let it weigh a mina for me.

51. Anonymous epigrammatists

A. I have the next man's share, and a third of the third's.

B. And I the next man's share, and a third of the first's.

C. And I ten minae, and a third of the middle one's.

52. Anonymous epigrammatists

On wine There was a time when, with the Lapiths and valiant Heracles,

I destroyed in battle the two-formed Centaurs;

there was a time when the only-begotten maiden died of three blows

of mine, and I grieved the son of Cronus who dwells in the sea;

but now the third Muse beholds me, mingled with the fiery Nymphs,

lying upon a floor of glass.

53. Anonymous epigrammatists

On a lamp Pallas once, overcome in the arms of Hephaestus,

went to his bed in the chamber of Peleus;

and when they had covered themselves in shining linen,

at once was born the night-faring Phaethon.

54. Anonymous epigrammatists

On a cupping-glass The cunning craft of Paeon made me too breathe in fire,

hidden beneath lips of beaten bronze;

and, drawing the dark blood from feeble men,

I slay Hephaestus, holding him close within my belly.

55. Anonymous epigrammatists

On a clyster To me alone among women it is right to join

openly in love, when husbands beg it;

and I alone go in to youths, and men, and old men,

and to maidens, to the grief of their parents.

I hate lewdness; but the healer's hand loves me,

while I accomplish the labour of Amphitryon's son.

For those who are tended I would fight even with Pluto,

ever for the life of all whom I have joined with.

A keen-scented child with white teeth I am made

by men's skill—ivory mingled with the goat.

56. Anonymous epigrammatists

On a mirror If you look at me, I too look at you. You look with your eyelids,

but I not with eyelids; for I have no eyelids.

And, if you wish, I speak without a voice; for yours it is

to have a voice, while in me the lips are opened in vain.

57. Anonymous epigrammatists

On the date of the palm I have my mother's name; I am sweeter than she who bore me;

but she is long, and I am little;

she is not to be eaten, save for her head; but I

am wholly to be eaten, only my inwards are not.

58. Anonymous epigrammatists

On the artichoke I carry a brain without a head; and I am green,

lifted from the earth on a long neck;

I look like a ball upon a pipe; and, if you search

within my flanks, I have my mother's father.

59. Anonymous epigrammatists

On the Argo Having received fifty sons in a single womb,

. . . I slew the leader of all the . . .

And he has died twice, since two wombs

bore him—one of bronze, and before it, one of man.

60. Anonymous epigrammatists

A writing-tablet The wood begot me, and iron made me new;

I am the secret receptacle of the Muses;

shut, I am silent; but I speak when you open me wide,

having Ares alone as the partner of my words.

61. Anonymous epigrammatists

In the mountains I was born; a tree was my mother,

fire my father; and I am a darkening clod;

but if my father melt me within deep clay,

I heal the wounds of the sea-borne ship.

62. Anonymous epigrammatists

On a ball I am very hairy, but my leaves hide

my hairs, so that no hole appears anywhere;

by many children I am played with; and if any is

clumsy at the throw, he stands like an ass.

63. Mesomedes

Creeping, flying, walking, a maiden,

a running lioness lifting a bastard track,

winged was she, in front a woman,

in the middle a roaring lioness, a beast,

and behind, a coiling serpent.

Neither did her trailing length run off as a serpent, nor as a woman,

nor as a bird in her whole body, nor as a beast;

for she appeared a maiden without feet,

and the roaring beast had no head.

She had a nature confusedly mixed,

things unfinished and finished blended together.

64. Anonymous epigrammatists

The riddle of the Sphinx There is on the earth a two-footed thing, and four-footed, with one voice,

and three-footed; alone it changes its form of all the creatures

that move upon the earth, and through the air, and over the sea.

But whenever it walks supported on the most feet,

then is the speed of its limbs at its very feeblest.

65. Anonymous epigrammatists

An oracle given to Homer There is an island, Ios, your mother's homeland, which, when you are dead,

will receive you; but beware the riddle of the young boys.

66. Anonymous epigrammatists

Another, to the same man Blessed and ill-fated—for you were born to both—

you seek your homeland; but it is your mother's, not your father's,

a mother-city in an island, off broad Crete,

the land of Minos, neither near nor far away;

there it is your fated portion to end your life,

when, hearing it from the tongue of boys, you cannot make out

a hymn hard to grasp, spoken in crooked words.

For you have drawn a twofold portion of life: the one dim,

of two suns, the other equal to the immortals' share,

in life and in death; and dead you shall yet be far from age.

67. Anonymous epigrammatists

An oracle given to Laius the Theban Laius, son of Labdacus, you ask for a blessed race of children.

I will give you a dear son; but it is fated

that you will leave the light by your own son's hands; for so I have nodded assent.

68. Anonymous epigrammatists

An oracle given to Carystus Dear child of glorious Chiron, Carystus,

leaving Pelion, come to the headland of Euboea;

there it is decreed for you to found a holy land.

69. Anonymous epigrammatists

An oracle given to Lycurgus You come, Lycurgus, to my rich temple,

dear to Zeus and to all who hold the Olympian halls.

I am in doubt whether to prophesy you a god or a man;

but rather, even more, I hope you are a god, Lycurgus.

70. Anonymous epigrammatists

An oracle given from Sarapis Do not blame your fate, nor the gods at all, stranger;

blame rather the hour in which your father sowed you.

71. Anonymous epigrammatists

An oracle of the Pythia Pure, stranger, come to the precinct of the pure god,

having touched the nymph's running water in your soul;

for to the good a small drop suffices; but a base man

not even all Ocean could wash clean with its streams.

72. Anonymous epigrammatists

An oracle given to Rufinus, who asked how he might take an oath from his own ship's captain When the Titan lifts his early course above the earth,

loosing with his rays the harms of murky night,

and Dawn, the early-born, shines forth her radiant new light,

then, leading the man down beside the shores and the sea-sprayed beaches,

set him facing toward the light of the sun's beam.

Let him hold his right foot within the stream,

set in the eddies, and let him plant his left foot firm upon the ground;

and, touching with his hands on either side,

with one the sea and with the other the dry land, to confirm the oath

let him swear by heaven, and the boundless earth, and the harbours of the sea,

and the life-giving lord of the heavenly fire;

for such an oath the gods themselves do not dare

to slight upon their lips, the proud sons of Heaven.

73. Anonymous epigrammatists

An oracle given to the Megarians Of all the land, Pelasgian Argos is best,

the mares of Thessaly, and the women of Lacedaemon,

and the men who drink the water of fair Arethusa;

but better still than these are they who dwell between

Tiryns and sheep-rich Arcadia,

the linen-corseleted Argives, the goads of war;

but you, Megarians, are not third, nor fourth,

nor twelfth—not to be reckoned in word or in number.

74. Anonymous epigrammatists

An oracle of the Pythia The shrines of the gods stand open to the good, nor is there need

of purifications; no pollution touches virtue.

But whoever is baneful of heart, depart; for never

will a drenched body wash your soul clean.

75. Anonymous epigrammatists

An oracle given in Heliopolis, when the columns of the temple of Zeus that was there suffered shipwreck—the columns that are now in Berytus Say to Poseidon: "It is fitting to obey

elder brothers; you take no proper pride

in the columns of my glorious court." Say it, having shaken

three times the gleaming sea, and he will obey. But if he disobeys,

let him take heed, lest I set the whole sea ablaze;

for not even the sea quenches the thunderbolt of Zeus.

76. Anonymous epigrammatists

An oracle of the Pythia You ask me for Arcadia; you ask a great thing; I will not give it you;

many acorn-eating men are in Arcadia,

who will hinder you; yet I begrudge you nothing.

I will give you Tegea to dance with stamping feet,

and a fair plain to measure out with the line.

77. Anonymous epigrammatists

An oracle reported in the Lives of Theseus Blessed is this man, who now over the stone threshold

mounts up to the oracle of Phoebus Apollo,

come in search of good government; and I, for my part,

will give you what no other city upon earth shall have.

78. Anonymous epigrammatists

An oracle of the Pythia There is a Tegea of Arcadia, in a level place;

there two winds blow under strong constraint,

and stroke lies against counter-stroke, and woe upon woe;

there the life-giving earth holds the son of Agamemnon's son;

bring him home, and you will be the protector of Tegea.

79. Anonymous epigrammatists

Of Lydian race, king of many, great fool Croesus,

do not wish to hear within your halls the long-prayed-for voice

of your son speaking; far better for you that it be

otherwise; for he will first speak on a day of misfortune.

80. Anonymous epigrammatists

The fated portion it is impossible

to escape, even for a god.

81. Anonymous epigrammatists

Do not burn through the isthmus, nor dig it;

for Zeus would have made it an island, had he wished.

82. Anonymous epigrammatists

But when in Siphnos the town-halls turn white,

and the marketplace is white-browed, then indeed there is need of a man of sense

to beware a wooden ambush and a red herald.

83. Anonymous epigrammatists

Battus, you have come for a voice; but lord Phoebus Apollo

sends you to sheep-rearing Libya as its founder.

84. Anonymous epigrammatists

If you know sheep-rearing Libya better than I,

without having gone there, while I have gone—much do I admire your wisdom.

85. Anonymous epigrammatists

Whoever shall come later to lovely Libya,

when the land is being parcelled out, I say he shall one day be sorry for it.

86. Anonymous epigrammatists

Eetion, no one honours you, though you are full worthy of honour.

Labda is with child, and shall bear a rolling stone; it shall fall

upon men who are monarchs, and shall set Corinth to rights.

87. Anonymous epigrammatists

An oracle An eagle is with young among the rocks, and shall bear a lion,

mighty, raw-devouring; and he shall loose the knees of many.

88. Anonymous epigrammatists

Blessed is this man, who comes down into my house,

Cypselus, son of Eetion, king of famous Corinth,

himself and his sons—but no longer his sons' sons.

89. Anonymous epigrammatists

And then indeed, Miletus, contriver of evil deeds,

you shall become a feast and splendid spoils for many;

and your wives shall wash the feet of many long-haired men;

and the care of my temple at Didyma shall fall to others.

90. Anonymous epigrammatists

But when the female, having vanquished the male,

drives him out, and wins glory among the Argives,

then she shall make many Argive women tear their cheeks;

so that one day a man among those yet to come will say:

"A dread serpent, uncoiled, perished, subdued by the spear."

91. Anonymous epigrammatists

Glaucus, son of Epicydes, for the moment this is more profitable—

to win by an oath and plunder the goods.

Swear, then; for death awaits even the man true to his oath.

But Oath has a son, nameless, with no hands

and no feet; yet swiftly he comes on, until he seizes

and destroys the whole race and the whole house.

But the race of the man true to his oath is better hereafter.

92. Anonymous epigrammatists

Wretched ones, why do you sit? Leave and flee to the ends of the earth,

your homes, and the topmost heights of your wheel-shaped city.

For neither the head shall stay firm, nor the body,

nor the lowest feet, nor the hands, nor anything of the middle

is left, but all is wretched; for fire lays it low,

and keen Ares, driving on the Syrian chariot;

and many other towers besides he shall destroy, not yours alone,

and many temples of the immortals he shall give to ravening fire,

which now, I think, stand streaming with sweat,

quaking with fear; and down the topmost roofs

dark blood is poured, foreseeing the doom of disaster.

But go forth from the shrine, and pour out your spirit upon your woes.

93. Anonymous epigrammatists

Pallas cannot appease Olympian Zeus,

though she entreat him with many words and shrewd counsel;

but to you I will speak this word again, making it hard as adamant.

When all the rest is taken, all that the bound of Cecrops

holds within, and the hollow of holy Cithaeron,

far-thundering Zeus grants to Tritogeneia a wall of wood

alone to remain unsacked, which shall profit you and your children.

And do not stay at rest to await the horse and the foot,

the great army coming from the mainland, but withdraw,

turning your back; yet one day you shall stand against them.

O divine Salamis, you shall destroy the children of women,

whether Demeter is scattered or gathered in.

94. Anonymous epigrammatists

An oracle of the Pythia Hateful to your neighbours, dear to the immortal gods,

sit guarded, holding your spear within,

and guard your head; and it will save the body too.

95. Anonymous epigrammatists

An oracle Foolish men, you blame as coming from Menelaus' vengeance

the tears that Minos, in his wrath, has sent you—

because they did not help him to avenge the death

that came to him in Camicus, while you for them

avenged the woman snatched from Sparta by a barbarian man.

96. Anonymous epigrammatists

To you, dwellers in spacious Sparta,

either the great and glorious city is sacked by the men

of Perseus' line; or, if not that, the bound of Lacedaemon

shall mourn a king dead, of the stock of Heracles.

For neither the might of bulls nor of lions

shall hold him back face to face; for he has the might of Zeus; nor do I say

he shall be held, until he has torn one of these two utterly apart.

97. Athenaeus

An oracle of the Pythia Take heed, when the barbarian-tongued one casts a yoke of papyrus

upon the sea, to keep the loud-bleating goats away from Euboea.

98. Athenaeus

An oracle of Bacis concerning the victory of the Greeks But when they bridge with ships the holy shore

of golden-sworded Artemis and sea-girt Cynosura,

in maddened hope, having sacked shining Athens,

divine Justice shall quench mighty Insolence, son of Outrage,

raging dreadful, thinking to overcome all things.

For bronze shall mingle with bronze, and Ares with blood

shall redden the sea; then the day of freedom for Greece

far-thundering Zeus brings on, and lady Victory.

99. Athenaeus

The gathering of the Greeks by Thermodon and grassy Asopus,

and the barbarian-tongued battle-cry,

where many shall fall beyond their lot and their doom,

of the bow-bearing Medes, when the appointed day comes.

100. Anonymous epigrammatists

An oracle given to Menelaus and Alexander Why have you two kings, the one of the Trojans, the other of the Achaeans,

not of one mind, come up into my house—

the one, indeed, seeking to find the offspring of a mare,

the other to lead the mare away? What now will you devise, great Zeus?

101. Cleobulus

One is the father, and the children twelve; and of each

are children twice thirty, of twofold appearance:

some of them are white to look upon, and others black;

and, though immortal, they all perish.

102. Anonymous epigrammatists

From the Pythia, to the emperor Hadrian You ask of me, the unknown, the race and homeland

of the ambrosial Siren; some Ithaca of Homer is my seat;

Telemachus was my father, and Nestor's Polycaste

my mother, who bore him wiser than all other mortals.

103. Anonymous epigrammatists

On a raisin If you had taken me young, you might soon have drunk my spilled blood;

but now, when time has made me old,

eat me, wrinkled, having nothing moist,

crushing my bones together with my flesh.

104. Anonymous epigrammatists

A pouch on your back, a basket in your hand, a he-goat on your shoulders—

goatherd, you carry all the tokens of your fields.

105. Anonymous epigrammatists

I am a lowly limb of living things; but if you take from me

a single letter, I become another part of the head;

if another, I shall be a living creature again; and if yet another,

you will find not one, but two hundred.

106. Anonymous epigrammatists

With four letters I make my way along the path; but if you take

the first letter away, I hear; and the next after that again—

you will find me dearest to the mire; and if you lift the last,

you will find an adverb of place.

107. Anonymous epigrammatists

Eros has hurled forth his torch and his bow and his arrows,

and pours out, instead of darts, the dust of the Ethiopians.

108. Anonymous epigrammatists

I have nothing within, and yet all is within me,

and freely, for my virtue, I give grace to all.

109. Anonymous epigrammatists

A maiden, laid in the fire, died; and the betrayer

was wine; and that by which she died was a shoot of Pallas;

her slayer was a shipwrecked man; and in a living tomb

she lies, blaming the favours of Bromius.

109a. Anonymous epigrammatists

Pallas and Bromius and the famous Lame One,

these three made away with the one and only maiden.

110. Anonymous epigrammatists

No one seeing sees me, but the unseeing beholds;

he who speaks not speaks, he who runs not runs;

and I am false, though I tell all truths.

111. Anonymous epigrammatists

Childless of childless ones, dart-bearing, the babe within, the lifting up.

112. Anonymous epigrammatists

An oracle given to Croesus the Lydian But when a mule becomes king over the Medes,

then indeed, tender-footed Lydian, by the pebble-strewn Hermus

flee, and do not stay, nor be ashamed to be a coward.

113. Anonymous epigrammatists

An oracle given to Archilochus Deathless and renowned in song, Telesicles, shall your son be

among men—he who shall be the first to greet you

as you step from your ship in your dear native land.

114. Anonymous epigrammatists

An oracle given to the mother of Alexander in Cyzicus The Persians slew my servant, my commander, with violent hand,

and his own dust covers his corpse;

and if any should swiftly show his white bones to Phaethon,

that man shall shatter the great power of the Persians from within;

he lies within an island bounded by the coast of Asia,

beside laurel and streams, by aged Pelion;

and mark a man, a seer, a guide of the road,

a Phocian, who dwells in the sands of Aparnis.

115. Anonymous epigrammatists

Constantine, having come near to Troy, wished to found there a royal city; and receiving the oracle, he departed and founded Constantinople. It is not lawful for you, on a foundation cut down long ago at Troy,

to set up the new name of Rome; go rejoicing

to the Megarian town beside the sea of the Propontis,

where fish and deer feed on the same pasture.

116. Anonymous epigrammatists

Why do you press me with blows for the sake of the nuts,

mother? Fair maidens shared all these out among them.

For Melission took two-sevenths of mine,

and Titane took a twelfth; a sixth and a third

are held by Astyoche and Philinna, fond of play;

Thetis snatched and took twenty, Thisbe twelve;

and look—Glauce laughs sweetly, holding in her hands

eleven; and this one nut alone is left to me.

117. Anonymous epigrammatists

A. Where have your apples gone, my child? B. Ino has two-sixths,

and Semele holds an eighth part;

Autonoe carried off a fourth; and Agave

went off snatching a fifth from my lap;

ten apples are kept for yourself; but I—

yes, by dear Cypris—have this one only.

118. Anonymous epigrammatists

Myrto, having once plucked apples, shared them among her friends:

to Chrysis she gave a fifth of the apples, to Hero a fourth,

a nineteenth to Psamathe, a tenth to Cleopatra;

and a twentieth she gave to Parthenopeia;

but to Euadne she gave twelve alone; and to herself

came, out of all, a hundred and twenty apples.

119. Anonymous epigrammatists

Once, meeting their friends, Ino and Semele shared out apples

among twelve maidens.

And to some Semele gave even numbers; to others odd

her sister gave; and she had the more apples.

For Semele gave three-sevenths to three companions,

and to two she gave a fifth of all as their share;

eleven Astynome took from her, and there were left her

only two apples to bear to her sisters.

But the other gave to four maidens two-fourths of her apples,

and to a fifth she gave a sixth part to keep;

four she gave as a gift to Eurychore; and with four other

apples Semele remained, rejoicing.

120. Anonymous epigrammatists

The nut-tree was laden with many nuts;

but now someone of a sudden has stripped it bare. But what does it say?

"Of my nuts Parthenopeia took a fifth;

an eighth share Philinna carries off; and Aganippe

a fourth; in a seventh Oreithyia delights;

a sixth share of nuts Eurynome plucked;

three times six and a hundred the Graces shared among them;

and nine times nine the Muses took of mine; and the remaining seven

you will find sitting on the topmost boughs."

121. Anonymous epigrammatists

From Gadira to the seven-hilled city: a sixth of the road

as far as the loud-lowing shores of Baetis;

thence again a fifth to the Phocian land of Pylades,

the Taurian country, named from its fine cattle;

from there, as you go on to steep-horned Pyrene,

an eighth, and a twelfth of a single tenth.

Between Pyrene and the high-headed Alps

a fourth; and straightway a twelfth of Ausonia,

where it begins, the amber of Eridanus shines forth.

O blessed I, who have accomplished two thousand stades,

and, driving on still five hundred more from there—

for the Tarpeian palace was my care.

122. Anonymous epigrammatists

Having defiled the holy veils of fair-eyed Justice,

that I might gaze on you, all-subduing gold, for so long,

I have nothing; for four tens of talents I gave in vain

to friends of ill omen for no good;

and a half, and a third, and an eighth, O manifold

dooms of men, I see in the hands of an enemy.

123. Anonymous epigrammatists

Take a fifth of the inheritance, my son; and a twelfth

receive, my wife; and you, four children of my departed son,

and two brothers, and my much-groaning mother,

let each have an eleventh part of the estate.

But you, my nephews, receive twelve talents;

and let Eubulus, my friend, have five talents.

To my most faithful slaves, freedom and a reward,

the wage of their service—this I give to these:

let them take it thus: let Onesimus have twenty-five

minae; let Daos have twenty minae,

Syrus fifty, Synete ten, Tibius eight;

and seven minae I give to Synete, the child of Syrus.

From thirty talents adorn my tomb,

and perform a sacrifice to Zeus of the Underworld

for the two—both for the pyre and the barley-meal and the fillets;

let the body of the two receive its due thanks.

124. Anonymous epigrammatists

The sun, the moon, and the wandering stars that run round

the zodiac, spun for you such a destiny:

a sixth part of your life to remain, an orphan,

beside your dear mother; an eighth in hardship,

to serve among your enemies; and after that, on the third portion,

the gods will grant you a return home, a wife, and a beloved child;

then indeed your child and your wife shall perish

under Scythian spears. And you, having poured out tears for those sorrows,

at seven and twenty years shall pass to the end of your life.

125. Anonymous epigrammatists

I am a tomb; and I hold the much-bewailed children of Philinna,

such fruit of her ill-childbearing womb:

a fifth among the youths, a third among the maidens,

and three newly wedded girls Philinna gave me;

and the rest, four from her womb, bereft utterly of sun

and of voice, fell into Acheron.

126. Anonymous epigrammatists

This tomb holds Diophantus—ah, great marvel—

and the tomb tells, by its art, the measure of his life.

A sixth part of his life the god granted him to be a boy;

adding a twelfth, he clothed his cheeks with down;

and after a seventh part he kindled for him the light of marriage,

and five years after the marriage he granted him a child.

Alas, the late-born, wretched child—half his father's

span the cold grave took, after taking the measure of his life.

And for four years more, consoling his grief,

by the science of numbers he came to the end of his life.

127. Anonymous epigrammatists

Of all the time he lived, a fourth Demochares

lived as a boy; a fifth as a youth;

a third entering manhood; and when grey old age came on,

he lived the remaining thirteen years on the threshold of age.

128. Anonymous epigrammatists

How my brother has done me violence, dividing the five talents

of our father's goods in no holy portion.

Seven of these elevenths of my brother's share, in many tears,

I have, but a fifth of the portion. Zeus, you are in a deep sleep.

129. Anonymous epigrammatists

Someone said to the helmsman, as he cut the broad passage of the Adriatic

with his ship: "How many measures of the sea are yet left?"

And he answered him: "Sailor, from the brow of Cretan Crios

to Sicilian Pelorias are six times

a thousand measures; and of the course already past,

twice two-fifths is left to the Sicilian strait."

130. Anonymous epigrammatists

Of the four spouts, one filled the whole

cistern in a day, this one in two, this in three days,

and the fourth in four. In what time will they all fill it?

131. Anonymous epigrammatists

Open me, and in four hours I will fill the cistern

that stands here, a spout pouring forth abundantly;

my right-hand fellow falls short of me by as many hours

before it fills it; and the third by twice as many.

But if you bid both pour out their stream of water with me,

in a small part of a day we shall fill it.

132. Anonymous epigrammatists

I am the Cyclops Polyphemus, made of bronze; and on me

someone has wrought an eye and a mouth and a hand,

joining them to spouts; and I seem to be wholly dripping,

and still I am seen gushing from my mouth.

But none of the spouts is irregular: the hand, in three days alone,

pouring forth, will fill the cistern;

the eye, in a day; and the mouth in two-fifths of a day.

Who could tell what time the three running together would take?

133. Anonymous epigrammatists

How good it is that these two swift rivers

mingle their stream into the bowl, with the Grace of Bromius.

But the course of the streams is not equal for all; rather Nile alone,

pouring on, will fill it in a day,

so much water does he belch from his breasts; and from Bacchus

the thyrsus, in three days, sends forth its wine;

and your horn, Achelous, in two days. Now all together

flow, and you will fill it in a few hours.

134. Anonymous epigrammatists

O woman, how you have forgotten your poverty—poverty that lies

ever upon you with the necessary goads of toil.

A mina of wool you used to spin in a day; the elder

of your daughters drew out a mina and a third of the weft;

the younger bore the half of one. But now, with all of them at once,

you make ready supper, having drawn out but a single mina.

135. Anonymous epigrammatists

We three bath-pouring Loves stand here,

sending baths upon the fair-flowing channel.

I, the right-hand one, from my long-winged ankles

will fill this in a sixth part of a day;

the left, again, from his jar in four hours;

and the middle one, from his bow, in the very middle of the day.

Consider, then, in how short a time we might fill it,

pouring at once from wings and bow and jar.

136. Anonymous epigrammatists

Brick-makers, I am most eager to raise up this house,

and this day is cloudless today; nor do I need

many more, having all the brick but three hundred short.

You alone made so many in a day;

but your son left off two hundred short of the labour,

and your son-in-law again so many, and yet fifty more.

In how many hours will the three teams build this?

137. Anonymous epigrammatists

Dropping a tear beside us, pass on; for we are those

whom this fallen house of Antiochus destroyed,

his banqueters; and a god granted us a tomb equal

to our feast, and this place for our burial. Four of us

from Tegea lie here; twelve from Messene; and five

from Argos; and from Sparta half the banqueters,

and Antiochus himself; and a fifth of a fifth perished,

the sons of Cecrops; and you, Corinth, weep for Hylas alone.

138. Anonymous epigrammatists

Nicarete, playing with five companions of her own age,

of the nuts she had gave Clio a third,

and a fourth to Sappho, and a fifth to Aristodice,

a twentieth to Theano, and again a twelfth,

and a twenty-fourth to Philinnis; and there were left over

to Nicarete herself fifty nuts.

139. Anonymous epigrammatists

Diodorus, great glory of the sundial-makers, tell me the hour

at which from the east the golden wheels of the sun

leapt up to the pole. "Of his course as much as three-fifths

is now gone, and four times as much again is left until the western sea."

140. Anonymous epigrammatists

Blessed Zeus, were these deeds truly pleasing to you, such as the women

of Thessaly play at? The eye of Selene fades

before mortal men; I saw it myself; and there was still until dawn

of the departing night twice as much as two-sixths and a seventh.

141. Anonymous epigrammatists

Of the fixed stars, and the passings of the wanderers besides,

tell me, when yesterday my wife was in labour.

"The day was as much as twice a seventh from the rising,

and six times as much it was until the western sea."

142. Anonymous epigrammatists

Awake! Dawn has run past us; a fifth of the day, workers,

is gone, leaving three of the eighths behind.

143. Anonymous epigrammatists

In the shoals of the Syrtis my father died. And from that voyage

this one, the foremost of my brothers, came home

bringing five talents; for to me indeed

he gave twice two-thirds of his portion,

and to my mother two-eighths of our share

he granted, nor did he miss the justice of the immortals.

144. Anonymous epigrammatists

A. The base on which I tread, with me, draws what a weight!

B. And the pedestal, with me, bears so many talents.

A. But I, alone, draw up your base twice over;

B. And I, being alone, lift your base three times.

145. Anonymous epigrammatists

A. Give me ten minae, and I become three times yours.

B. And I, taking the same from you, am five times yours.

146. Anonymous epigrammatists

A. Give me two minae, and I become double yours.

B. And I, taking the same from you, am four times yours.

147. Homerus

Homer, to Hesiod, who asked how great was the number of the Greeks that marched against Ilium Seven were the hearths of ravening fire; and on each

were fifty spits, and around them fifty pieces of meat;

and three times three hundred Achaeans there were about each single piece.

148. Germanus

An oracle given to Julian the Apostate, when, keeping his birthday, he was passing the time near Ctesiphon, watching the chariot-races Once the counsellor Zeus slew the race of the Earth-born,

most hateful to the blessed ones who hold the Olympian halls.

The godlike king of the Romans, Julian,

warring against cities upon cities and long walls

of close-fighting men, laid them waste with fire and mighty iron,

and unceasingly subdued many nations besides;

he too, taking by close-pressed battles the Alamannic soil

of the men of the West, ravaged their fields.

149. Anonymous epigrammatists

An oracle given to Timocrates the Athenian, who asked concerning epilepsy Lifting from the head of a fleecy bleating sheep

a worm grown large, lay it about the body of the field-roaming flock,

a wide-wandering creeper from the head of the well-fleeced beast.

150. Anonymous epigrammatists

An oracle given to Aegeus, who asked concerning the begetting of children The jutting foot of the wineskin, dearest of men,

do not loose, until you come to the height of Athens.