Idyll 28

Translated by Thothica

2 min

to women whose minds are set on the keeping of a thrifty house,

take heart and come with us to the bright city of Neleus,

where the precinct of Cypris is green beneath the soft reeds.

For there I ask of Zeus a voyage with fair winds,

that I may have the joy of seeing my friend and be loved in return,

Nicias, holy offshoot of the sweet-voiced Graces;

and you, born from ivory by much labor,

I will give as a gift into the hands of Nicias' wife,

with whom you shall accomplish much work for men's cloaks,

and much of the watery raiment that women wear.

For twice in the year the mothers of the lambs would have

their soft fleeces sheared in the pasture, for the sake of slender-ankled Theugenis;

so industrious is she, and loves all that the prudent love.

For I would not have wished to bring you to the house

of a slack or idle woman, you who are from our own land.

For your fatherland is the one that Archias once founded out of Ephyra,

the marrow of the Trinacrian isle, a city of noble men.

But now, dwelling in the house of a man who has learned much wise lore

to ward off baneful diseases from men,

you shall live in lovely Miletus among the Ionians,

that Theugenis may be renowned for her distaff among the townswomen,

and that you may ever keep for her the memory of her song-loving guest.

For seeing you a man will say this word: Great is the favor

with a small gift; and all that comes from friends is precious.