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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    <rre?xe Tbv afipbv ixwv ravv/j.'fjdea, p-rfe fiedeirjs rbv Aibs rjSiarav olvox^ov kvXikwv ’ <pei8eo 8’ al/ud£cu Kovpov yap.\pwwxt Tapatp fir] Zei/s dAyfiar] tovto /3apvvop.euos. To this may be added an exhortation to pleasure in despite of death (ii. 288).* Callimachus deserves mention as a third with Meleager and Straton. His style, drier than that of Meleager, more elevated than Straton’s, is marked by a frigidity of good scholarship which only at intervals warms into the fire of passionate poetry. In writing epigrams Callimachus was careful to pre- serve the pointed character of the composition. He did not merely, as is the frequent wont of Meleager, indite a short poem in elegiacs. This being the case, his love poems, though they are many, are not equal to his epitaphs. To mention all the poets of the amatory chapters would be impossible. Their name is legion. Even Plato the divine, by right of this epigram to Aster: t affTtpas elcra0p€7s aar^p ip.6s ’ eWz yevolp.r\v ovpavbs as 7roAA.o?s 6p.p.a(Tiv ets tre /3Ae7ra>— and of this to Agathon : J T7?j/ \pvxTlv ’AyuOava (piAwv i-irl ^eiAea'ii' ecrxov ‘ 7)A0e yap f] tAt)p.a>v as Sia^T](Xop.ivy]— For Jove will wish thee sorry speed If thou molest his Ganymede.” * ‘ ‘ Drink now, and love, Democrates ; for we Shall not have wine and boys eternally : Wreathe we our heads, anoint ourselves with myrrh Others will do this to our sepulchre : Let now my living bones with wine be drenched ; Water may deluge them when I am quenched.” f “ Gazing at stars, my star ? I would that I were the welkin, Starry with infinite eyes, gazing for ever at thee ! ” Frederick Farrar. X “ Kissing Helena, together With my kiss, my soul beside it Came to my lips, and there I kept it,—