Poets From Greece

"Peragit tranquilla potestas quod violenta nequit; mandataque fortius urget imperiosa quies."

"Vile latens virtus."

"For all things are from the earth and to the earth all things come in the end."

"Αἰθίοπές τε <θεοὺς σφετέρους> σιμοὺς μέλανάς τε Θρῇκἐς τε γλαυκοὺς καὶ πυρρούς <φασι πέλεσθαι>."

"There is one god, greatest among gods and men, similar to mortals neither in shape nor in thought."

"ἀλλ᾽οἱ βροτοὶ δοκέουσι γεννᾶσθαι θεοὺς, τὴν σφετέρην δ᾽ἐσθῆτα ἔχειν φωνήν τε δέμας τε."

"ἀλλ᾽ εἰ χεῖρας ἔχον βόες <ἵπποι τ᾽> ἠὲ λέοντες ἢ γράψαι χείρεσσι καὶ ἔργα τελεῖν ἅπερ ἄνδρες, ἵπποι μέν θ᾽ ἵπποισι βόες δέ τε βουσὶν ὁμοίας καί <κε> θεῶν ἰδέας ἔγραφον καὶ σώματ᾽ ἐποίουν τοιαῦθ᾽ οἷόν περ καὐτοὶ δέμας εἶχον <ἕκαστοι>."

"Solon's way of living was expensive and profuse and if in his poems, he speaks of pleasure with more freedom than becomes a philosopher, this is thought to be due to his mercantile life; he encountered many and great dangers, and sought his reward therefor in sundry luxuries and enjoyments."

"Athens, which like other cities was distracted and oppressed by a privileged class, avoided violence and appointed Solon to revise its laws. It was the happiest choice that history records. Solon was not only the wisest man to be found in Athens, but the most profound political genius of antiquity; and the easy, bloodless, and pacific revolution by which he accomplished the deliverance of his country was the first step in a career which our age glories in pursuing, and instituted a power which has done more than anything, except revealed religion, for the regeneration of society. The upper class had possessed the right of making and administering the laws, and he left them in possession, only transferring to wealth what had been the privilege of birth. To the rich who alone had the means of sustaining the burden of public service in taxation and war, Solon gave a share of power proportioned to the demands made on their resources. The poorest classes were exempt from direct taxes, but were excluded from office. Solon gave them a voice in electing magistrates from the classes above them, and the right of calling them to account. This concession... was the beginning of a mighty change. It introduced the idea that a man ought to have a voice in selecting those to whose rectitude and wisdom he is compelled to trust his fortune, his family, and his life. And this idea completely inverted the notion of human authority, for it inaugurated the reign of moral influence... Government by consent superseded government by compulsion, and the pyramid which had stood on a point was made to stand upon its base. By making every citizen the guardian of his own interest Solon admitted the element of Democracy into the State."

"Laws are like spider's webs: If some poor weak creature comes up against them, it is caught; but a big one can break through and get away."

"That city in which those who are not wronged, no less than those who are wronged, exert themselves to punish the wrongdoers."

"πολλοί τοι πλουτοῦσι κακοί, ἀγαθοὶ δὲ πένονται:"

"As the Deity has given us Greeks all other blessings in moderation, so our moderation gives us a kind of wisdom which is timid, in all likelihood, and fit for common people, not one which is kingly and splendid. This wisdom, such as it is, observing that human life is ever subject to all sorts of vicissitudes, forbids us to be puffed up by the good things we have, or to admire a man's felicity while there is still time for it to change."

"Watch well each separate citizen, Lest having in his heart of hearts A secret spear, one still may come Saluting you with cheerful face, And utter with a double tongue The feigned good wishes of his wary mind."

"Rule, after you have first learned to submit to rule."

"Wealth I desire to have; but wrongfully to get it, I do not wish. Justice, even if slow, is sure."

"Γηράσκω δ’ αἰεὶ πολλὰ διδασκόμενος."

"No fool can be silent at a feast."

"If through your vices you afflicted are, Lay not the blame of your distress on God; You made your rulers mighty, gave them guards, So now you groan 'neath slavery's heavy rod."

"Men keep their agreements when it is an advantage to both parties not to break them; and I shall so frame my laws that it will be evident to the Athenians that it will be for their interest to observe them."

"Consider your honour, as a gentleman, of more weight than an oath."

"We are all clever enough at envying a famous man while he is yet alive, and at praising him when he is dead."

"Si, Mimnermus uti censet, sinè amore jocisque Nil est jucundum, vivas in amore jocisque."

"Ἠέλιος μὲν γὰρ πόνον ἔλλαχεν ἤματα πάντα οὐδέ κοτ᾽ ἄμπαυσις γίγνεται οὐδεμία ἵπποισίν τε καὶ αὐτῷ, ἐπεὶ ῥοδοδάκτυλος Ἠὼς Ὠκεανὸν προλιποῦσ᾽ οὐρανὸν εἰσαναβῇ: τὸν μὲν γὰρ διὰ κῦμα φέρει πολυήρατος εὐνὴ κοιΐλη, Ἡφαίστου χερσὶν ἐληλαμένη χρυσοῦ τιμήεντος, ὑπόπτερος, ἄκρον ἐφ᾽ ὕδωρ εὕδονθ᾽ ἁρπαλέως χώρου ἀφ᾽ Ἑσπερίδων γαῖαν ἐς Αἰθιόπων, ἵνα οἱ θοὸν ἅρμα καὶ ἵπποι ἑστᾶσ᾽, ὄφρ᾽ Ἠὼς ἠριγένεια μόλῃ: ἐνθ᾽ ἐπεβήσεθ᾽ ἑῶν ὀχέων Ὑπερίονος υἱός."

"Τίς δὲ βίος, τί δὲ τερπνὸν ἄτερ χρυσῆς Ἀφροδίτης; τεθναίην ὅτε μοι μηκέτι ταῦτα μέλοι, κρυπταδίη φιλότης καὶ μείλιχα δῶρα καὶ εὐνή, οἷ᾽ ἥβης ἄνθ εα γίγνεται ἁρπαλέα ἀνδράσιν ἠδὲ γυναιξίν· ἐπεὶ δ᾽ ὀδυνηρὸν ἐπέλθῃ γῆρας, ὅ τ᾽ αἰσχρὸν ὁμῶς καὶ κακὸν ἄνδρα τιθεῖ, αἰεί μιν φρένας ἀμφὶ κακαὶ τείρουσι μέριμναι, οὐδ᾽ αὐγὰς προσορῶν τέρπεται ἠελίου, ἀλλ᾽ ἐχθρὸς μὲν παισίν, ἀτίμαστος δὲ γυναιξίν, οὕτως ἄργαλέον γῆρας ἔθηκε θεός."

"You promise heavens free from strife, Pure truth, and perfect change of will; But sweet, sweet is this human life, So sweet, I fain would breathe it still; Your chilly stars I can forgo, This warm kind world is all I know.You say there is no substance here, One great reality above: Back from that void I shrink in fear, And child-like hide myself in love: Show me what angels feel. Till then I cling, a mere weak man, to men.You bid me lift my mean desires From faltering lips and fitful veins To sexless souls, ideal quires, Unwearied voices, wordless strains: My mind with fonder welcome owns One dear dead friend’s remember’d tones.Forsooth the present we must give To that which cannot pass away; All beauteous things for which we live By laws of time and space decay. But Oh, the very reason why I clasp them, is because they die."

"Do not counsel what is most pleasant, but what is best."

"An unlucky rich man is more capable of satisfying his desires and of riding out disaster when it strikes, but a lucky man is better off than him…He is the one who deserves to be described as happy. But until he is dead, you had better refrain from calling him happy, and just call him fortunate."

"If I might now venture to speak of the merits of the several pastoral writers, I would say, that in Theocritus we are charmed with a certain sweetness, a romantic rusticity and wildness, heightened by the Doric dialect, that are almost inimitable... Several of his pieces indicate a genius of a higher class, far superior to pastoral, and equal to the sublimest species of poetry."

"There are few images and sentiments in the Eclogues of Virgil, but what are drawn from the Idylliums of Theocritus: in whom there is a rural, romantic wildness of thought, heightened by the Doric dialect; with such lively pictures of the passions, and of simple unadorned nature, as are infinitely pleasing to such lovers and judges of true poetry as yourself. Theocritus is indeed the great store-house of pastoral description, and every succeeding painter of rural beauty (except Thomson in his Seasons) hath copied his images from him, without ever looking abroad upon the face of nature themselves."

"Theocritus excels all others in nature and simplicity. The subjects of his Idyllia are purely pastoral... But it is enough that all others [pastoral writers] learned their excellence from him, and that his dialect alone has a secret charm in it, which no other could ever attain."

"The Idylliums of Theocritus have something so inimitably sweet in the verse and thoughts, such a native simplicity, and are so genuine, so natural a result of the rural life, that I must, in my poor judgment, allow him the honour of the pastoral."

"Quin etiam ritus pastorum et Pana sonantem In calamos Sicula memorat tellure creatus, Nec silvis silvestre canit perque horrida motus Rura serit dulcis Musamque inducit in aulas."

"That which distinguishes Theocritus from all other Poets, both Greek and Latin, and which raises him even above Virgil in his Eclogues, is the inimitable tenderness of his passions, and the natural expression of them in words so becoming of a Pastoral."

"Reflect, ere you spurn me, that youth at his sides Wears wings; and once gone, all pursuit he derides."

"Theocritus [is] another bright instance of the happy abilities and various accomplishments of the ancients. He has written in several sorts of poetry, and succeeded in them all. It seems unnecessary to praise the native simplicity and easy freedom of his pastorals, when Virgil himself sometimes invokes the muse of Syracuse; when he imitates him through all his own poems of that kind, and in several passages translates him... In several of his other poems he shows such strength of reason and politeness, that would qualify him to plead among the orators, and make him acceptable in the courts of princes."

"Men shall look on thee and murmur to each other, "Lo! how small Was the gift, and yet how precious! Friendship's gifts are priceless all.""

"Faults are beauties, when survey'd by love."

"Milk the ewe that thou hast, why pursue the thing that shuns thee?"

"τάχ᾽ αὔριον ἔσσετ᾽ ἄμεινον ἐλπίδες ἐν ζωοῖσιν, ἀνέλπιστοι δὲ θανόντες"

"Goethe and Holderlin in Germany were obsessed by the power of Pindar—Goethe ranked him second only to Homer—and composed lyrics which echo much of the Pindaric spirit. In England Gray was the first to respond to the call. His Pindaric odes, with their urgency and passion, foreshadow bolder flights that were to come. Shelley's Ode to Naples is divided into ten irregular stanzas marked epode, strophe and antistrophe and characterized by the lively transitions and unrestrained imagery of Pindar. The Ode to the West Wind and Wordsworth's Intimations of Immortality stand in the same tradition. The suitability and appeal of Pindar penetrated to the schools and Universities."

"Pindar usually takes some heroic legend or group of legends connected with the victor or the victor's city, and makes this his main theme... In treating the legends, Pindar aims especially at bringing out their moral, and applying this to the victor or his city. If we wish to understand Pindar's place among his contemporaries, we must never forget how closely these legends which he interpreted were bound up with Greek religion, and with the belief of Greek cities and great Greek families about their own origin."

"The loss of the music by which Pindar's Odes were accompanied deprives us of an indispensable aid to the comprehension of their effect as works of art. And, if the music were extant, modern imagination would still have to supply the scenic accessories of a gorgeous festival, the light, the colour, the movement, the glowing sympathy of a brilliant audience with the newly won or freshly remembered victory which shed a reflected lustre on the victor's native city, the thrill of patriotic pride responding to each allusion, faint or dark, perhaps, for us, that touched some household word of inherited renown, the sense of deepened spiritual life with which Greeks for whom the faith of their fathers was still a vital force heard the secret lessons of divine lore drawn forth by that great poet of all Greece in whom the priests of the Delphian Apollo revered the full inspiration of their god. Pindar's achievement cannot be measured by a literary criticism of his text. The glory of his song has passed for ever from the world with the sound of the rolling harmonies on which it once was borne, with the splendour of rushing chariots and athletic forms around which it threw its radiance, with the white-pillared cities by the Aegean or Sicilian sea in which it wrought its spell, with the beliefs or joys which it ennobled; but those who love his poetry, and who strive to enter into its high places, can still know that they breathe a pure and bracing air, and can still feel vibrating through a clear calm sky the strong pulse of the eagle's wings as he soars with steady eyes against the sun."

"ἠνίδε σιγῇ μὲν πόντος, σιγῶντι δ᾽ ἀῆται ἁ δ᾽ ἐμὰ οὐ σιγῇ στέρνων ἔντοσθεν ἀνία"

"Pindar was a lyric poet of vehement intensity. His principal surviving works are epinikia, choral odes to be sung in honour of victories at the athletic festivals. In them he expressed attitudes which, however conventional or unoriginal at the time, had much in common with the new outlook of the Romantics. His themes are glory, beauty, nobility, freedom: the glory of athletic prowess, family achievement, the beauty of physical perfection, the nobility of breeding or heroism, the great gestures, such as Hiero's victory over the Etruscans or the Athenian victories in the Persian Wars, which secured national freedom."

"ἐς Τροίαν πειρώμενοι ἦνθον ᾿Αχαιοί, καλλίστα παίδων: πείρᾳ θην πάντα τελεῖται."

"His innate, unquestioning pride in his poetical mission means that he gives to it all his gifts and all his efforts. The result is a poetry that by any standards deserves the name because it is based on a radiant vision of reality and fashioned with so subtle, so adventurous, and so dedicated an art that it is worthy to be an earthly counterpart of the songs which Apollo and the Muses sing on Olympus, and which Pindar regards as the archetype of music on those lofty occasions when all discords are resolved and all misgivings obliterated by the power of the life-giving word."

"σοφὸς ὁ πολλὰ εἰδὼς φυᾷ."

"The association between the agon and the aristocratic made it possible for individual families to cherish a tradition of competing and winning. Such families of champions were Pindar's best customers, and it is from him that we learn of them; he is our indispensable informant on the competitive spirit."

"ἁμέραι δ᾽ ἐπίλοιποι μάρτυρες σοφώτατοι."