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.

    391/468
    A young man, dying in the prime of life, is even envied by Agathias (i. 384) : <=/xirr)s oKfiios ovtos, ts tv ve6rr]TL p.apavdels eK(pvye t3]v jStoTov Baao'ov aXiTpoavvrjv. But it is not often that we hear in the Greek Anthology a strain of such pure and Christian music as this apocryphal epitaph on Prote: * ovk eOaves, UpdoTrj, p.ertl3rjs 5’ es a/xdvova x&pov, KaX vaieis /xav.dpoov v^ffovs 9a\iri %vi TroWfj, %v9a kolt ’HAvffiwv Trediav (TKipTCctra ytyr)6as &v6eauv tv p.a\aKo7tn, /ca/cwv enroaOev airavTcvv * ov Avne? <r\ ov Kav/x, ov vovltos tvoxAei, ov tteivfjs, ov 8tyos %xeL a?’ aAA’ ov8e ttodeivbs avOpdoTTMV %Tl <TOl /3 LOT OS ' £c£etS 7 OLp afxtpLTTTLtiS avyals tv KaOapcu<n,v ’OXv/xttov ttAfitfiov ovtos. Death at sea touched the Greek imagination with peculiar vividness. That a human body should toss, unburied, un- honoured, on the waves, seemed to them the last indignity. Therefore the epitaphs on Satyrus (i. 348), who exclaims : Keivcp SiV’fjevTi nal aTpvyeTcp en Ke?fxai vSaTi pLaivofxiva) /xep.(p6/xevos Bopey, and on Lysidike (i. 328), of whom Zenocritus writes -; Xcutcu (Tov TTa^ovcnv e9' aXfxvpa 8vcrp.ope Kovpr) vavrjye (pOifxtvrjs elv a\\ Avai8iKr], * “ Thou art not dead, my Prote ! thou art flown To a far country better than our own ; Thy home is now an Island of the Blest; There ’mid Elysian meadows take thy rest : Or lightly trip along the flowery glade, Rich with the asphodels that never fade ! Nor pain, nor cold, nor toil, shall vex thee more, Nor thirst, nor hunger on that happy shore ; Nor longings vain (now that blest life is won) For such poor days as mortals here drag on ; To thee for aye a blameless life is given In the pure light of ever-present Heaven.” J- A. Symonds, M.D. B B 2