#hellenistic poetry

[imperatrix-dissoluta]

Sappho wrote my favourite poetry line ever.

[lionofchaeronea]

Hark, the sea is silent, the breezes silent too: The pain within my breast, though--it will not be stilled. ἠνίδε σιγῇ μὲν πόντος, σιγῶντι δ᾽ ἀῆται: ἁ δ᾽ ἐμὰ οὐ σιγῇ στέρνων ἔντοσθεν ἀνία --Theocritus, Idyll 2.38-39

[deathlessathanasia]

PHILIKOS’ HYMN TO DEMETER

[buggabeewitch]

Prayer to Lady Aphrodite

made this for my instagram that i’m starting up! doesn’t seem to be much of a helpol community on ig but sometimes i’m much more visual so having an excuse to look at other pretty pictures and post my own is a little easier than navigating tumblrs looonnng and, while appreciated, hard to read (for me) posting precedent (probably the wrong word to use there oops). so yeah! i’ve already posted this prayer from how i wrote it in my devotional journal but this is it a little revised and much more aesthetically pleasing!!

[apsyrtus]

Nossis 1

In an effort to get acquainted with more Hellenistic epigram writers, I’ll be starting a series of translations of Nossis and then Anyte. The numbering and text are according to Gow and Page’s Hellenistic Epigram. Translations are my own and will be more conveying the meaning of the Greek rather than any artistry.

I’ll begin with Nossis, a hellenistic poetess from early 3rd century BCE.

Ἅδιον οὐδὲν ἔρωτος, ἃ δ' ὄλβια δεύτερα πάντα ἐστίν· ἀπὸ στόματος δ' ἔπτυσα καὶ τὸ μέλι. τοῦτο λέγει Νοσσίς· τίνα δ' ἁ Κύπρις οὐκ ἐφίλησεν, οὐκ οἶδεν †κῆνα τ’† ἄνθεα ποῖα ῥόδα.

Nothing is sweeter than love, all other delights are secondary; I have spit out even honey from my mouth. Nossis says this: whomever Cypris has not loved, †she† does not know what sort of flowers roses are.

AP. 5.170

[quousque]

ok just that one poem by Theocritus where a woman sees a couple of shirtless dudes on the road and goes “hot damn those pecs shine brighter than the moon” and then goes home and lies down for ten days because she’s overwhelmed by the glistening pecs

[lionofchaeronea]

Epitaph for an Ant

Anthologia Palatina 7.209 = Antipater of Sidon (2nd half of 2nd cent. BCE) Note: Deo = Demeter. Here beside the threshing floor, o suffering workman-ant, I have raised for you a barrow made of thirsty dirt, So that the grain-bearing furrow of Deo may charm you even dead, As you lie in a chamber turned over by the plow. αὐτοῦ σοὶ παρ᾽ ἅλωνι, δυηπαθὲς ἐργάτα μύρμηξ, ἠρίον ἐκ βώλου διψάδος ἐκτισάμαν, ὄφρα σε καὶ φθίμενον Δηοῦς σταχυητρόφος αὖλαξ θέλγῃ, ἀροτραίᾐ κείμενον ἐν θαλάμῃ.

Ants, pg. 180 from Album der Natur, 1854-55

[lionofchaeronea]

On a Realistic Cow Statue

Anthologia Palatina 9.719 = Leonidas of Tarentum (fl. 3rd cent. BCE) Myron didn’t sculpt me – that’s a lie. As I was grazing He drove me from my herd, bound me to a base of stone. οὐκ ἔπλασέν με Μύρων, ἐψεύσατο: βοσκομέναν δὲ ἐξ ἀγέλας ἐλάσας, δῆσε βάσει λιθίνῳ.

Cow, Isidore Bonheur (1827-1901)