Epigrams (Plato)

The epigrams

The ''Greek Anthology''

Book V (Amatory Epigrams)

• My soul was on my lips as I was kissing Agathon. Poor soul! she came hoping to cross over to him.
• I throw the apple at thee, and thou, if thou lovest me from thy heart, take it and give me of thy maidenhead; but if thy thoughts be what I pray they are not, take it still and reflect how short-lived is beauty.
• I am an apple; one who loves thee throws me at thee. But consent, Xanthippe; both thou and I decay.

Book VI (Dedicatory Epigrams)

• I, Laïs, whose haughty beauty made mock of Greece, I who once had a swarm of young lovers at my doors, dedicate my mirror to Aphrodite, since I wish not to look on myself as I am, and cannot look on myself as I once was.
• Some traveller, who stilled here his tormenting thirst in the heat, moulded in bronze and dedicated ex voto this servant of the Nymphs, the damp songster who loves the rain, the frog who takes joy in light fountains; for it guided him to the water, as he wandered, singing opportunely with its amphibious mouth from the damp hollow. Then, not deserting the guiding voice, he found the drink he longed for.

Book VII (Sepulchral Epigrams)

• Congenial to strangers and dear to his countrymen was this man, Pindar, the servant of the sweet-voiced Muses.
• The Fates decreed tears for Hecuba and the Trojan women even at the hour of their birth; and after thou, Dio, hadst triumphed in the accomplishment of noble deeds, the gods spilt all thy far-reaching hopes. But thou liest in thy spacious city, honoured by thy countrymen, Dio, who didst madden my soul with love.
• Now when I said nothing except just that Alexis is fair, he is looked at everywhere and by everyone when he appears. Why, my heart, dost thou point out bones to dogs and have to sorrow for it afterwards? Was it not thus that I lost Phaedrus?
• I have a mistress, fair Archeanassa of Colophon, on whose very wrinkles sits hot love. O hapless ye who met such beauty on its first voyage, what a flame must have been kindled in you!
• Leaving behind the sounding surge of the Aegean we lie on the midmost of the plains of Ecbatana. Farewell, Eretria, once our glorious country; farewell, Athens, the neighbour of Euboea; farewell, dear Sea.
• We are Eretrians from Euboea and we lie near Susa, alas! how far from our own land.
• I am the tomb of a shipwrecked man, and that opposite is the tomb of a husbandman. So death lies in wait for us alike on sea and land.
• I whom ye look upon am a shipwrecked man. The sea pitied me, and was ashamed to bare me of my last vesture. It was a man who with fearless hands stripped me, burdening himself with so heavy a crime for so light a gain. Let him put it on and take it with him to Hades, and let Minos see him wearing my old coat.
• Mariners, may ye be safe on sea and land; but know that this tomb ye are passing is a shipwrecked man's.
• Thou lookest on the stars, my Star. Would I were heaven, to look on thee with many eyes.
• Of old among the living thou didst shine the Star of morn; now shinest thou in death the Star of eve.

Book IX (Declamatory and Descriptive Epigrams)

• They planted me, a walnut-tree, by the road-side, to amuse passing boys, as a mark for their well-aimed stones. And all my twigs and flourishing shoots are broken, hit as I am by showers of pebbles. It is no advantage for trees to be fruitful. I indeed, poor tree, bore fruit only for my own undoing.
• Cypris to the Muses: "Honour Aphrodite, ye maidens, or I will arm Love against you." And the Muses to Cypris: "Talk that twaddle to Ares. Your brat has no wings to fly to us."
• A man finding gold left his halter, but the man who had left the gold and did not find it, hanged himself with the halter he found.
• Time brings everything; length of years can change names, forms, nature, and fortune.
• Some say the Muses are nine, but how carelessly! Look at the tenth, Sappho from Lesbos.
• The little jasper stone is carved with five cows all looking alive as they feed. Perhaps they would run away, but now the little herd is confined in the golden pen.
• Let the cliff clothed in greenery of the Dryads keep silence, and the fountains that fall from the rock, and the confused bleating of the ewes newly lambed; for Pan himself plays on his sweet-toned pipe, running his pliant lips over the joined reeds, and around with their fresh feet they have started the dance, the Nymphs, Hydriads, and Hamadryads.
• On a Satyr standing by a Well and Love Asleep: A cunning master wrought me, the Satyr, son of Bacchus, divinely inspiring the monolith with breath, I am the playmate of the Nymphs, and instead of purple wine I now pour forth pleasant water. Guide thy steps here in silence, lest thou disturb the boy lapped in soft sleep.
• I am the dear servant of horned Dionysus, and

Book XVI (Epigrams of the Planudean Anthology not in the Palatine Manuscript)

• Sit down by this high-foliaged vocal pine that quivers in the constant western breeze, and beside my plashing stream Pan's pipe shall bring slumber to thy charmed eyelids.
• Paphian Cytherea came through the waves to Cnidus, wishing to see her own image, and having viewed it from all sides in its open shrine, she cried, "Where did Praxiteles see me naked?" Praxiteles did not look on forbidden things, but the steel carved the Paphian as Ares would have her.
• Neither did Praxiteles nor the chisel work thee, but so thou standest as of old when thou camest to judgment.
• Cypris, seeing Cypris in Cnidus, said, "Alas! alas! where did Praxiteles see me naked?"
• When we entered the deep-shadowed wood we found within it the son of Cytherea, like unto rosy apples. Nor had he the quiver that holds arrows, nor his bent bow, but they were hanging on the leafy trees, and he lay among the rose-blossoms smiling, bound fast by sleep, and above him the tawny bees were sprinkling on his dainty lips honey dripping from the comb.

Further epigrams

• The Graces, when they wish’d to find A shrine, that should for ever live, Said, what they sought, alone the mind Of Aristophanes could give.

Plato the Younger

• A blind man carried a lame man on his back, lending him his feet and borrowing from him his eyes.
• On Dionysus carved on an Amethyst: The stone is amethyst, but I am the toper Dionysus. Either let it teach me to be sober, or learn itself to get drunk.
• The stone is Hyacinthus, and on it are Apollo and Daphne. Of which was Apollo rather the lover?
• On a Satyr chased on a Cup: Droporus did not engrave this Satyr, but sent him to sleep. Prod him and you will wake him up: the silver is asleep.

Posidippus or Plato the Comic Poet

• What path of life should one pursue? In the market-place are broils and business difficulties, and at home are anxieties; in the country there is too much labour, and at sea there is fear. In a foreign land there is apprehension if you possess anything, and if you are ill off, life is a burden. You are married? You won't be without cares. You are unmarried? You live a still more lonely life. Children are a trouble, and a childless life is a crippled one. Youth is foolish, and old age again is feeble. There is then, it seems, a choice between two things, either not to be born or to die at once on being born.