Volume 1

Studies of the Greek poets / by John Addington Symonds.

  • John Addington Symonds
Date:
1877-1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Studies of the Greek poets / by John Addington Symonds. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    X&Tt pe vvp<pav evcrav %Xei Tatyos elwdre Kal t6• X^jTi ttolt^p p e/caA.et Bau/dSa x&Tl 7eVos Trivia, 00s eiduvri' Ka\ Htti poi a (TweraLpls *Hpivv’ eV Tvpficp ypapp* exdpa£e r6de. Sappho herself has left the following lament for the maiden Timas (i. 367) : * TipaSos a8e kovis, rav 51/ rrpb yapoio Qavovaav de£aro $epcr€<f)6vas Kvaveos daAapos, 5s Ka\ arrocpdipevas irdcai veoQayi cridapcp aXiKes ipeprav Kparbs eOevro K^pav. In each of these epitaphs, the untimely fading of a flower- like maiden in her prime has roused the deepest feeling of the poetess. This indeed is the chord which, rings most truly in the sepulchral lyre of the Greeks. Their most genuine sorrow is for youth cut off before the joys of life were tasted. This sentiment receives, perhaps, its most pathetic though least artistic expression in the following anonymous epitaph on a young man. The mother’s love and anguish are set forth with a vividness which we should scarcely have expected from a Greek (i. 336) : f vrjXees fi> boupov, rl 8e pun Kal (peyyos eSei^as els oXiycov irecov perpa pivvvdabLa ; ^ 'Iva \virr)<Tr)S dl eprjv fiioroio Te\evT7}v IAriTepa SeiAairiv bdupvai Kal (Trovaxais, 7] p erex % p’ arirr/Xe Kal 9) rroXu pei^ova rrarpbs <ppovriSa naideiris fjvvaev riperepris ; * “This is the dust of Timas, whom unwed Persephone locked in her darksome bed : For her the maids who were her fellows, shore Their curls and to her tomb this tribute bore.” t “Merciless heaven ! why didst thou show me light For so few years and speedy in their flight ? Was it to vex by my untimely death With tears and wailings her who gave me breath ? Who bore me, and who reared me, and who wrought More for my youth with many a careful thought, B B