Idyll 12
Hellenistic Theocritus Greek- The Beloved You have come, dear boy, with the third night and the dawn?
You have come; and those who long grow old in a single day.
As much as spring is sweeter than winter, as much as the apple
than the sloe, as much as the ewe is more fleecy than her lamb,
as much as a maiden surpasses a thrice-wedded woman,
as much as the fawn is nimbler than the calf, as much as the nightingale
is the most musical in voice of all winged things,
so much have you gladdened me by appearing; and I ran
to your shade like a wayfarer to a beech when the sun is scorching.
Would that the Loves might breathe equally upon us both,
and that we two might become a song to all that come after.
Two godlike men were these among the men of old,
the one the inspirer, as a man of Amyclae would say,
the other again, as the Thessalian would call him, the beloved.
They loved each other with an even yoke. Truly then there were
golden men once more, when the loved one loved in return.
Would that this might be, father, son of Cronos; would that the ageless
immortals might grant that, after two hundred generations,
someone might bring me word, by the path that has no return, to Acheron:
This love of yours and of the gracious beloved
is now on all men's lips, and most of all among the young.
But truly the gods of heaven, who are above these things,
will do as they will; yet I, praising you who are fair,
will raise no false growth of lies above my slender nose.
For even if you bite me, you have at once made it harmless,
and given me twice the joy, and I went off with measure to spare.
You men of Nisaean Megara, foremost at the oar,
may you dwell in happiness, for you honored beyond all others
the Attic stranger Diocles, the lover of boys.
Always about his tomb at the first of spring, gathered together,
the boys contend to carry off the prize of a kiss.
And whoever presses lips most sweetly to lips
goes off to his mother weighed down with garlands.
Happy is he who judges those kisses for the boys.
Surely he calls much upon bright-eyed Ganymede
to give his mouth a touch like the Lydian stone, by which
the money-changers make sure the gold is no base counterfeit.