by Theocritus
AESCHINAS
Well met!
THYONICHUS
Well met it is; but what ails ye?
AESCHINAS
Luck’s way’s not my way, Thyonichus.
THYONICHUS
Ah! that’s for why thou’rt so lean and the hair o’ thy lip so lank, and thy love-locks all-to-bemoiled. Thou’rt like one of your Pythagoreaners that came t’other day, pale-faced and never a shoe to’s foot; hailed from Athens, he said.
AESCHINAS
And was he, too, in love?
THYONICHUS
Aye, marry, was he – with a dish o’ porridge.
AESCHINAS
Thou’lt be ever at thy quips, good lad, With me ’tis the pretty Cynisca, and she’s playing the jade. And I doubt ’tis but a hair’s-breadth betwixt me and a madman.
THYONICHUS
‘Faith, that’s ever my Aeschinas; something hastier than might be; will have all his own way. But come, what is it?
AESCHINAS
Αἰσχίνης
ὡργεῖος κἠγὼ καὶ ὁ Θεσσαλὸς ἱπποδιώκτας
[12] There was the Argive and I and Agis the jockey out o’ Thessaly, and Cleunicus the man-at-arms a-drinking at my farm.
̂̓Απις καὶ Κλεύνικος ἐπίνομες ὁ στρατιώτας
ἐν χώρῳ παρ᾽ ἐμίν. δύο μὲν κατέκοψα νεοσσὼς
θηλάζοντά τε χοῖρον, ἀνῷξα δὲ βίβλινον αὐτοῖς 15
εὐώδη, τετόρων ἐτέων, σχεδὸν ὡς ἀπὸ λανῶ.
βολβὸς κτεὶς κοχλίας ἐξῃρέθη. ἦς πότος ἁδύς.
I’d killed a pair of pullets, look you, and a suckling pig, and broached ’em a hogshead of Bibline fine and fragrant – four years in the cask, mark you, and yet, where new’s best, as good as new – and on the board a cuttlefish and cockles to boot; i’ faith, a jolly bout.
ἤδη δὲ προϊόντος, ἔδοξ᾽ ἐπιχεῖσθαι ἄκρατον
ὧτινος ἤθελ᾽ ἕκαστος: ἔδει μόνον ὧτινος εἰπεῖν.
ἄμμες μὲν φωνεῦντες ἐπίνομες, ὡς ἐδέδοκτο: 20
ἁ δ᾽ οὐδὲν παρεόντος ἐμεῦ. τίν᾽ ἔχειν με δοκεῖς νοῦν;
‘οὐ φθεγξῇ; λύκον εἶδες:’ ἔπαιξέ τις. ‘῾ς σοφός’ εἶπε,
κἠφᾶπτ᾽: εὐμαρέως κεν ἀπ᾽ αὐτᾶς καὶ λύχνον ἇψας.
ἔστι Λύκος, Λύκος ἐστί, Λάβα τῶ γείτονος υἱός,
εὐμάκης ἁπαλός, πολλοῖς δοκέων καλὸς ἦμεν. 25
τούτω τὸν κλύμενον κατετάκετο τῆνον ἔρωτα.
χἁμῖν τοῦτο δι᾽ ὠτὸς ἔγεντό ποθ᾽ ἁσυχᾷ οὑτῶς:
οὐ μὰν ἐξήταξα μάταν εἰς ἄνδρα γενειῶν.
[18] To’t we went, and when things waxed warmer ’twas agreed we should toast every man his fancy; only we should give the name. But when we came to drink, the wench would not keep the bond like the rest of us, for all I was there. How, think you, I liked of that? ‘Wilt be mum?’ says one, and in jest, ‘Hast met a wolf?’ ‘O well said!’ cries she, and falls a-blushing like fire; Lord! you might have lit a candle at her face. One Wolf there is, look you, tall and sleek sort, in some folks’ eyes a proper man. ’Twas he she made so brave a show of pining for out o’ love. And I’d had wind o’t too, mind you, softly, somehow, and so-to-speak; but there! I never raised inquiry for all my beard’s so long.
ἤδη δ᾽ ὦν πόσιος τοὶ τέσσαρες ἐν βάθει ἦμες,
χὡ Λαρισαῖος ‘τὸν ἐμὸν Λύκον’ ᾆδεν ἀπ᾽ ἀρχᾶς, 30
Θεσσαλικόν τι μέλισμα, κακαὶ φρένες: ἁ δὲ Κυνίσκα
ἔκλαι᾽ ἐξαπίνας θαλερώτερον ἢ παρὰ ματρὶ
παρθένος ἑξαέτης κόλπω ἐπιθυμήσασα.
τᾶμος ἐγώ, τὸν ἴσαις τὺ Θυώνιχε, πὺξ ἐπὶ κόρρας
ἤλασα, κἄλλαν αὖθις. ἀνειρύσσασα δὲ πέπλως 35
ἔξω ἀπῴχετο θᾶσσον. ‘ἐμὸν κακόν, οὔ τοι ἀρέσκω;
ἄλλός τοι γλυκίων ὑποκόλπιος; ἄλλον ἰοῖσα
θάλπε φίλον. τήνῳ τὰ σὰ δάκρυα μᾶλα ῥέοντι.’
μάστακα δοῖσα τέκνοισιν ὑπωροφίοισι χελιδὼν
ἄψορρον ταχινὰ πέτεται βίον ἄλλον ἀγείρειν: 40
ὠκυτέρα μαλακᾶς ἀπὸ δίφρακος ἔδραμε τήνα
ἰθὺ δι᾽ ἀμφιθύρω καὶ δικλίδος, ᾇ πόδες ἆγον.
αἶνός θην λέγεταί τις: ἔβα τάχα ταῦρος ἀν᾽ ὕλαν.
[29] Be that as it may, we four good men were well in, when he of Larissa, like the mischief he was, fell a-singing a Thessalian catch beginning ‘My friend the Wolf’; whereupon Cynisca bursts out a-weeping and a-wailing like a six-year-old maiden in want of a lap. Then – you know me, Thyonichus, – I up and fetched her a clout o’ the ear, and again a clout. Whereat she catched up her skirts and was gone in a twink. ‘Am I not good enough, my sweet mischief? Hast ever a better in thy lap? Go to, pack, and be warming another. Yons he thou wee’pst apples over.’ Now a swallow, mark you, that bringeth her young eaves-dwellers their pap, gives and is gone again to get her more; so quickly that piece was up from her cushions and off through door-place and through door, howsoever her feet would carry her. Aye, ’tis an old story how the Centaur went through the wood.
εἴκατι: ταὶ δ᾽ ὀκτώ, ταὶ δ᾽ ἐννέα, ταὶ δὲ δέκ᾽ ἄλλαι,
σάμερον ἑνδεκάτα, ποτίθει δύο, καὶ δύο μῆνες, 45
ἐξ ὧ ἀπ᾽ ἀλλάλων. οὐδ᾽ εἰ Θρᾳκιστὶ κέκαρμαι,
οἶδε. Λύκος νῦν πάντα, Λύκῳ καὶ νυκτὸς ἀνῷκται.
ἄμμες δ᾽ οὔτε λόγω τινὸς ἄξιοι οὔτ᾽ ἀριθμητοί,
δύστηνοι Μεγαρῆες ἀτιμοτάτῃ ἐνὶ μοίρῃ.
κεἰ μὲν ἀποστέρξαιμι, τὰ πάντά κεν εἰς δέον ἕρποι. 50
νῦν δὲ πόθεν; μῦς, φαντὶ Θυώνιχε, γεύμεθα πίσσας.
χὥτι τὸ φάρμακόν ἐστιν ἀμηχανέοντος ἔρωτος,
οὐκ οἶδα. πλὰν Σῖμος ὁ τᾶς ᾿Επιχάλκω ἐρασθεὶς
ἐκπλεύσας ὑγιὴς ἐπανῆλθ᾽, ἐμὸς ἁλικιώτας.
πλευσοῦμαι κἠγὼ διαπόντιος, οὔτε κάκιστος 55
[44] Let me see, ’twas the twentieth o’ the month. Eight, nine, ten; to-day’s the eleventh. You’ve only to add ten days and ‘twill be two months since we parted; and I may be Thracian-cropped for aught she knows. Ah! ’tis all Wolf nowadays; Wolf hath the door left open for him o’ nights; as for me, I forsooth am altogether beside the reckoning, like miserable Megara, last i’ the list. ’Tis true, if I would but take my love off the wench, all would go well. But alack! how can that be? When mouse tastes pitch, Thyonichus – ; and what may be the medicine for love there’s no getting away from, ‘faith, I know not – sae that Simus that fell in love, as the saying is, with Mistress Brassbound and went overseas, he came home whole; a mate of mine he was. Suppose I cross the water, like him; your soldier’s life, as ’tis not maybe o’ the highest, so is it not o’ the lowest, but ’tis e’en as good as another.
THYONICHUS
οὔτε πρᾶτος ἴσως, ὁμαλὸς δέ τις ὁ στρατιώτας.
Θυώνιχος
ὤφελε μὰν χωρεῖν κατὰ νοῦν τεόν, ὧν ἐπεθύμεις
Αἰσχίνα. εἰ δ᾽ οὑτῶς ἄρα τοι δοκεῖ ὥστ᾽ ἀποδαμεῖν,
[56] I would indeed thy desire had run smooth, Aeschinas. But if so be thy mind is made up to go thy ways abroad, I’ll e’en tell thee the best paymaster a freeman can have; King Ptolemy.
AESCHINAS
μισθοδότας Πτολεμαῖος ἐλευθέρῳ οἷος ἄριστος,
[59] And what sort of man is he in other ways.
THYONICHUS
Αἰσχίνης
τἄλλα δ᾽ ἀνὴρ ποῖός τις ἐλευθέρῳ οἷος ἄριστος; 60
Θυώνιχος
εὐγνώμων, φιλόμουσος, ἐρωτικός, εἰς ἄκρον ἁδύς,
εἰδὼς τὸν φιλέοντα, τὸν οὐ φιλέοντ᾽ ἔτι μᾶλλον,
πολλοῖς πολλὰ διδούς, αἰτεύμενος οὐκ ἀνανεύων
οἷα χρὴ βασιλῆ᾽: αἰτεῖν δὲ δεῖ οὐκ ἐπὶ παντὶ
Αἰσχίνα. ὥστ᾽ εἴ τοι κατὰ δεξιὸν ὦμον ἀρέσκει 65
λῶπος ἄκρον περονᾶσθαι, ἐπ᾽ ἀμφοτέροις δὲ βεβακὼς
τολμασεῖς ἐπιόντα μένειν θρασὺν ἀσπιδιώταν,
ᾇ τάχος εἰς Αἴγυπτον. ἀπὸ κροτάφων πελόμεσθα
πάντες γηραλέοι, καὶ ἐπισχερὼ ἐς γένυν ἕρπει
λευκαίνων ὁ χρόνος: ποιεῖν τι δεῖ, ἇς γόνυ χλωρόν. 70
[60] This pick o’ the best: a kind heart, man of parts, a true gallant, and the top o’ good-fellowship; knows well the colour of a friend, and still better the look of a foe; like a true king, gives far and wide and says no man nay – albeit one should not be for ever asking, Aeschians. (in mock-heroic strain) So an thou be’st minded to clasp the warrior’s cloak about thee, and legs astride to abide the onset of the hardy foeman, to Egypt with thee. To judge by our noddles we’re all waxing old, and old Time comes us grizzling line by line down the cheek. We must fain be up and doing while there’s sap in our legs.
IDYLL XV. Συρακούσιαι ἢ Αδωνιάζουσαι
IDYLL XV. THE WOMEN AT THE ADONIS FESTIVAL
The scene of this mime is Alexandria, and the chief characters are two fellow-countrywomen of the author. Gorgo, paying a morning call, finds Praxinoa, with her two-year-old child, superintending the spinning of her maids, and asks her tom come with her to the Festival of Adonis at the palace of Ptolemy II. Praxinoa makes some demur, but at last washes and dresses and sallies forth with her visitor and their two maids. After sundry encounters in the crowded streets, they enter the palace, and soon after, the prima donna begins the Drie – which is really a wedding-song containing a forecast of a dirge – with an address to the bride Aphrodite and a reference to the deification of the queen of Ptolemy I. The song describes the scene – the offerings displayed about the marriage-bed, the two canopies of greenery above it, the bedstead with its representation of the Rape of Ganymede, the coverlets which enwrap the effigies of Adonis and Aphrodite, the image of the holy bridegroom himself – and ends with an anticipation of the choral dirge to be sung on the morrow at the funeral of Adonis.
GORGO (with her maid Etychis at the door, as the maid Eunoa opens it)
Γοργώ
῎Ενδοι Πραξινόα;
Πραχινόα
Γοργοῖ φίλα, ὡς χρόνῳ. ἔνδοι.
θαῦμ᾽ ὅτι καὶ νῦν ἦνθες. ὅρη δίφρον Εὐνόα αὐτῇ.
ἔμβαλε καὶ ποτίκρανον.
Γοργώ
ἔχει κάλλιστα.
Πραχινόα
καθίζευ.
Γοργώ
ὢ τᾶς ἀλεμάτω ψυχᾶς: μόλις ὔμμιν ἐσώθην
Πραξινόα πολλῶ μὲν ὄχλω, πολλῶν δὲ τεθρίππων. 5
παντᾷ κρηπῖδες, παντᾷ χλαμυδηφόροι ἄνδρες:
ἁ δ᾽ ὁδὸς ἄτρυτος: τὺ δ᾽ ἑκαστάτω ὅσσον ἀποικεῖς.
Πραχινόα
ταῦθ᾽ ὁ πάραρος τῆνος ἐπ᾽ ἔσχατα γᾶς ἔλαβ᾽ ἐνθὼν
ἰλεόν, οὐκ οἴκησιν, ὅπως μὴ γείτονες ὦμες
ἀλλάλαις, ποτ᾽ ἔριν, φθονερὸν κακόν, αἰὲν ὁμοῖος. 10
[1] Praxinoa at home?
PRAXINOA (running forward)
Dear Gorgo! at last! she is at home. I quite thought you’d forgotten me. (to the maid) Here, Eunoa, a chair of the lady, and a cushion on it.
GORGO (refusing the cushion)
No, thank you, really.
PRAXINOA
Do sit down.
GORGO (sitting)
O what a silly I was to come! What with the crush and the horses, Praxinoa, I’ve scarcely got here alive. It’s all big boots and people in uniform. And the street was never-ending, and you can’t think how far your house is along it.
PRAXINOA
That’s my lunatic; came and took one at the end of the world, and more an animal’s den, too, than a place of a human being to live in, just to prevent you and me being neighbours, out of sheer spite, the jealous old wretch! He’s always the same.
GORGO
Γοργώ
μὴ λέγε τὸν τεὸν ἄνδρα φίλα Δίκωνα τοιαῦτα,
τῶ μικκῶ παρεόντος: ὅρη γύναι, ὡς ποθορῇ τυ.
θάρσει Ζωπυρίων, γλυκερὸν τέκος: οὐ λέγει ἀπφῦν.
[11] My dear, pray don’t call your good Dinon such names before Baby. See how he’s staring at you. (to the child) It’s all right, Zopyrion, my pet. It’s not dad-dad she’s talking about.
PRAXINOA
Πραχινόα
αἰσθάνεται τὸ βρέφος, ναὶ τὰν πότνιαν.
[14] Upon my word, the child understands.
GORGO
Γοργώ
καλὸς ἀπφῦς.
[14] Nice dad-dad.
PRAXINOA
Πραχινόα
ἀπφῦς μὰν τῆνος τὰ πρόαν （λέγομες δὲ πρόαν θην 15
πάντα） νίτρον καὶ φῦκος ἀπὸ σκανᾶς ἀγοράσδων
[15] And yet that dad-dad of his the other day – the other day, now I tell him ‘Daddy, get mother some soap and rouge from the shop,’ and, would you believe it? back he came with a packet of salt, the great six feet of folly!
GORGO
ἦνθε φέρων ἅλας ἄμμιν, ἀνὴρ τρισκαιδεκάπηχυς.
Γοργώ
χὡμὸς ταὐτᾷ ἔχει, φθόρος ἀργυρίω, Διοκλείδας:
ἑπταδράχμως κυνάδας, γραιᾶν ἀποτίλματα πηρᾶν,
πέντε πόκως ἔλαβ᾽ ἐχθές, ἅπαν ῥύπον, ἔργον ἐπ᾽ ἔργῳ. 20
ἀλλ᾽ ἴθι τὠμπέχονον καὶ τὰν περονατρίδα λάζευ.
βᾶμες τῶ βασιλῆος ἐς ἀφνειῶ Πτολεμαίω
θασόμεναι τὸν ῎Αδωνιν: ἀκούω χρῆμα καλόν τι
κοσμεῖν τὰν βασίλισσαν.
[17] Mine’s just the same. Diocleidas is a perfect spendthrift. Yesterday he gave seven shillings a piece for mere bits of dog’s hair, mere pluckings of old handbags, fiv
e of them, all filth, all work to be done over again. But come, my dear, get your cloak and gown. I want you to come with me (grandly) to call on our high and mighty Prince Ptolemy to see the Adonis. I hear the Queen’s getting up something quite splendid this year.
PRAXINOA (hesitating)
Πραχινόα
ἐν ὀλβίω ὄλβια πάντα.
[24] Fine folks, fine ways.
GORGO
Γοργώ
ὧν ἴδες, ὧν εἶπες καὶ ἰδοῖσα τὺ τῷ μὴ ἰδόντι. 25
[25] Yes; but sightseers make good gossips, you know, if you’ve been and other people haven’t. It’s time we were on the move.
PRAXINOA (still hesitating)
ἕρπειν ὥρα κ᾽ εἴη.
Πραχινόα
ἀεργοῖς αἰὲν ἑορτά.
Εὐνόα, αἶρε τὸ νῆμα καὶ ἐς μέσον αἰνόθρυπτε
θὲς πάλιν. αἱ γαλέαι μαλακῶς χρῄζοντι καθεύδειν:
κινεῦ δή, φέρε θᾶσσον ὕδωρ. ὕδατος πρότερον δεῖ.
ἁ δὲ σμᾶμα φέρει. δὸς ὅμως. μὴ δὴ πολὺ ἄπληστε. 30
ἔγχει ὕδωρ. δύστανε, τί μευ τὸ χιτώνιον ἄρδεις;
παῦε. ὁκοῖα θεοῖς ἐδόκει, τοιαῦτα νένιμμαι.
ἁ κλᾲξ τᾶς μεγάλας πᾷ λάρνακος; ὧδε φέρ᾽ αὐτάν.
[26] It’s always holiday with people who’ve nothing to do. (suddenly making up her mind) Here, Eunoa, you scratch-face, take up the spinning and put it away with the rest. Cats always will lie soft. Come, bestir yourself. Quick, some water! (to Gorgo) Water’s wanted first, and she brings the soap. (to Eunoa) Never mind; give it me. (Eunoa pours out the powdered soap) Not all that, you wicked waste! Pour out the water. (Eunoa washes her mistress’s hands and face) Oh, you wretch! What do you mean by wetting my bodice like that? That’s enough. (to Gorgo) I’ve got myself washed somehow, thank goodness. (to Eunoa) Now where’s the key of the big cupboard? Bring it here. (Takes out a Dorian pinner – a gown fastened with pins or brooches to the shoulders and reaching to the ground, with an overfold coming to the waist – and puts it on with Eunoa’s aid over the inner garment with short sleeves which she wears indoors)