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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    Diogenes offers similar opportunities for clever writing. The best of his epitaphs is this well-known but anonymous dialogue (i. 285) :* €i7re, kxjov, rlvos &v8pbs ecpeo’rciis arrifia (pvXaa'eTeis; rov kvv6s • dXXa rls ifv ovtos av'bp 6 Kvuv ; Aloyevrjs. yevos erne. Zivocirevs. bs irldov (picei ; Kai paXa ‘ vvv 8e Qavuv aarepas oIkov ex(l- The epitaphs on Erinna, who died when she was only nine- teen, are charged with the thought which so often recurs when we reflect on poets like Chatter ton untimely slain ;—what would not they have done, if they had lived? (i. 275) :f 6 yXvKvs ’HpLi/vrjs ovtos tt6vos, ovxl 7roAus fiev &s Uv irapdeviKas evveanaibeKeTevs, aXX’ erepcav ttoXXwv Svvar At epos’ el 8’ ’A'/'Sas ol p.7] raxvs ^ A0e, ris tev raXlnov eatf fivofia ; Sappho rouses a louder strain of celebration (i. 276): + ’Saircpci tol KevOcis x^^v AtoAi rav fierce Movcrais dQavdrais Gvarav Moucrai/ aet8ofievav, hv Kim pis Kai pcos ffvv dfi erpaepov, as fiera Ilet0& eirXeic aeifaov Ihepl8uv areepavov, EAAaSi piev repipiv, <rol 8e KXeos ’ 3) rpieXiKTOV Motpai Sivevcai vrjfia tear 7]Xaicd.Tas, * “Tell me, good dog, whose tomb you guard so well ? The Cynic’s. True : but who that Cynic, tell. Diogenes, of fair Sinope’s race. What ! He that in a tub was wont to dwell ? Yes : but the stars are now his dwelling-place.” J. A. Symonds, M.D. + “ These are Erinna’s songs : how sweet, though slight !— For she was but a girl of nineteen years Yet stronger far than what most men can write : Had Death delayed, whose fame had equalled hers ? ” X “ Does Sappho then beneath thy bosom rest,. yEolian earth ? that mortal Muse confessed Inferior only to the choir above, That foster-child of Venus and of Love ; Warm from whose lips divine Persuasion came, Greece to delight, and raise the Lesbian name ?