#daily classics

And I saw, and - there! - a white horse, and the one riding it held a bow, and he wore a garland, and he went out conquering and for the sake of conquest. …

And another horse came out, red, and to the one riding it was given the power to overpower the peace in the land - even so that he could turn its people to slaughtering each other - and a great sword was given to him. …

And I saw, and - there! - a black horse, and the one riding it held a balance in his hand. And I heard a voice among the four living beings saying, “A day’s food for a denarius, and three day’s barley for a denarius, and do no ill to the oil or the wine!” …

And I saw, and - there! - a pale horse, and the one riding upon it was named “Death”, and Haides followed him; and dominance was given to them each over a quarter of the land, to kill by blade and by hunger and by death and by the wild beasts of the land.

(Christian Bible, Book of Revelations 6.2-8; my translation)

καὶ εἶδον, καὶ ἰδοὺ ἵππος λευκός, καὶ ὁ καθήμενος ἐπ’ αὐτὸν ἔχων τόξον, καὶ ἐδόθη αὐτῷ στέφανος, καὶ ἐξῆλθεν νικῶν καὶ ἵνα νικήσῃ. …

καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ἄλλος ἵππος πυρρός, καὶ τῷ καθημένῳ ἐπ’ αὐτὸν ἐδόθη αὐτῷ λαβεῖν τὴν εἰρήνην ἐκ τῆς γῆς καὶ ἵνα ἀλλήλους σφάξουσιν, καὶ ἐδόθη αὐτῷ μάχαιρα μεγάλη. …

καὶ εἶδον, καὶ ἰδοὺ ἵππος μέλας, καὶ ὁ καθήμενος ἐπ’ αὐτὸν ἔχων ζυγὸν ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ. καὶ ἤκουσα ὡς φωνὴν ἐν μέσῳ τῶν τεσσάρων ζῴων λέγουσαν Χοῖνιξ σίτου δηναρίου, καὶ τρεῖς χοίνικες κριθῶν δηναρίου· καὶ τὸ ἔλαιον καὶ τὸν οἶνον μὴ ἀδικήσῃς. …

καὶ εἶδον, καὶ ἰδοὺ ἵππος χλωρός, καὶ ὁ καθήμενος ἐπάνω αὐτοῦ, ὄνομα αὐτῷ Ὁ Θάνατος, καὶ ὁ Ἅιδης ἠκολούθει μετ’ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐδόθη αὐτοῖς ἐξουσία ἐπὶ τὸ τέταρτον τῆς γῆς, ἀποκτεῖναι ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ καὶ ἐν λιμῷ καὶ ἐν θανάτῳ καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν θηρίων τῆς γῆς.

Meanwhile, the son of Peleus did not yet forget
his spirit, for in his unconquerable limbs
the black blood still boiled with eagerness for war.
Then not one of the Trojans dared to come near him,
even after he was shot, but stood far far away, like when a lion
makes countrypeople in the woods stand in awe, though it
has been shot by a hunter; despite being struck in the heart by an arrow,
it does not forget its courage, but stares about savagely
and roars terribly from its bristling jaws.
Just so, anger and the deadly wound roused the son of Peleus’
spirit to its highest, though the god’s arrow broke him.
Even so, he sprang up and charged among his enemies,
mighty spear poised: he killed godlike Orythaon,
Hektor’s noble companion, having struck him through the temple -
his helmet did not stop the great spear as it was intended to,
and instead it went straight through helm and skull
into the nerves of the brain, and put an end to his great life.
Hipponoos too he broke, thrusting his spear under his brow
into the roots of his eye; his eyeball fell to the earth
from under his eyelid, and his spirit flew down to to the house of Haides.
Alkathoos then he stabbed through the jaw
and cut away his whole tongue: he fell to the ground,
breathing his last, the spearpoint coming out of his ear.
And these he slew when they rushed to face him,
that godlike man, and he took the spirits of many others
as they fled, for in his heart the blood still boiled.

(Quintus of Smyrna, Posthomerica 3.138-63; my translation)

ὁ δ᾽ οὔπω λήθετο θυμοῦ

Πηλείδης: ἔτι γάρ οἱ ἀμαιμακέτοις ἐνὶ γυίοις
ἔζεεν αἷμα κελαινὸν ἐελδομένοιο μάχεσθαι.
οὐδ᾽ ἄρα οἱ Τρώων τις ἐτόλμα ἐγγὺς ἱκέσθαι
βλημένου, ἀλλ᾽ ἀπάνευθεν ἀφέστασαν, εὖτε λέοντος
ἀγρόται ἐν ξυλόχοισι τεθηπότες, ὅν τε βάλῃσι
θηρητήρ, ὁ δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ οὔτι πεπαρμένος ἦτορ ἄκοντι
λήθεται ἠνορέης, ἀλλὴ στρέφετ᾽ ἄγριον ὄμμα
σμερδαλέον βλοσυρῇσιν ὑπαὶ γενύεσσι βεβρυχώς.
ὣς ἄρα Πηλείδαο χόλος καὶ λοίγιον ἕλκος
θυμὸν ἄδην ὀρόθυνε: θεοῦ δέ μιν ἰὸς ἐδάμνα.
ἀλλὰ καὶ ὣς ἀνόρουσε καὶ ἔνθορε δυσμενέεσσι
πάλλων ὄβριμον ἔγχος: ἕλεν δ᾽ Ὀρυθάονα δῖον,
Ἕκτορος ἐσθλὸν ἑταῖρον, ἔσω κροτάφοιο τυχήσας:
οὐ γάρ οἱ κόρυς ἔσχε μακρὸν δόρυ, μαιμώωντος
ἀλλὰ δι᾽ αὐτῆς αἶψα καὶ ὀστέου ἔνδον ἵκανεν
ἶνας ἐς ἐγκεφάλοιο, κέδασσε δέ οἱ θαλερὸν κῆρ.
Ἱππόνοον δ᾽ ἐδάμασσε κατ᾽ ὀφρύος ἔγχος ἐρείσας
ἐς θέμεθλ᾽ ὀφθαλμοῖο: χαμαὶ δέ οἱ ἔκπεσε γλήνη
ἐκ βλεφάρων: ψυχὴ δὲ κατ᾽ Ἄϊδος ἐξεποτήθη.
Ἀλκαθόου δ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἔπειτα διὰ γναθμοῖο περήσας
γλῶσσαν ὅλην ἀνέκερσεν: ὁ δ᾽ ἐς πέδον ἤριπε γαίης
ἐκπνείων, αἰχμὴ δὲ δι᾽ οὔατος ἐξεφαάνθη.
καὶ τοὺς μὲν κατέπεφνε καταντίον ἀΐσσοντας
δῖος ἀνήρ: πολλῶν δὲ καὶ ἄλλων θυμὸν ἔλυσε
φευγόντων: ἔτι γάρ οἱ ἐνὶ φρεσὶν ἔζεεν αἷμα.

Around about the time Gnathainion was on the verge of retiring and no longer acting as a courtesan, on account of the pleasure she took in an actor - one Andronikos - there was a particularly handsome coppersmith in Athens. When Andronikos had gone abroad, after Gnathainion had borne him a son, the smith would not stop pestering her to name her price. He kept on pursuing her; and after spending a huge quantity of gold, she agreed.

Being nothing more than a rude mechanical, when he was later sitting in a shoe-maker’s with some fellows, he idly gossiped about Gnathainion, telling them that they’d never had sex in any other way than her riding on top of him over and over again, five times.

Later, Andronikos got wind of what had happened. Recently arrived back from Corinth, he flew into a rage, and cursed Gnathainion bitterly while he was drunk. He said, “I wasn’t ever worth, in your eyes, trying this position with – but common bastards can enjoy it?”

Then Gnathainion said to him, “I didn’t want to embrace him, the pig, covered in ashes from head to foot. But after I’d taken so much gold from him, I allowed him to approach, and decided on something cunning: I’d embrace only the tip of his body - and, as far as it stuck out, it was still his very smallest part.”

(Athenaios, Professors at Dinner 581c-f; my translation)

“ἐν ταῖς Ἀθήναις χαλκοτύπος σφόδρ᾽ εὐφυής, καταλελυκυίας τῆς

Γναθαινίου σχεδὸν οὐκέτι θ᾽ ἑταιρεῖν ὑπομενούσης διὰ τό πως τὸν Ἀνδρόνικον ἡδέως αὐτῆς ἔχειν τὸν ὑποκριτὴν τότε δ᾽ ὄντος ἐν ἀποδημίᾳ, ἐξ οὗ γεγονὸς ἦν ἄρρεν αὐτῷ παιδίον, οὐχ ὑπομένουσαν τὴν Γναθαίνιον λαβεῖν μίσθωμα, λιπαρῶν δὲ καὶ προσκείμενος πολὺ δαπανήσας ἔσχεν αὐτὴν χρυσίον.

ἀνάγωγος ὢν δὲ καὶ βάναυσος παντελῶς ἐν σκυτοτομείῳ μετά τινων καθήμενος κατεσχόλαζε τῆς Γναθαινίου λέγων, ἑτέρῳ τρόπῳ μὲν συγγεγενῆσθαι μηδενί, ἑξῆς καθιππάσθαι δ᾽ ὑπ᾽ αὐτῆς πεντάκις.

μετὰ ταῦτ᾽ ἀκούσας Ἀνδρόνικος τὸ γεγονὸς. ἐκ τῆς Κορίνθου προσφάτως ἀφιγμένος ὀργιζόμενος πικρῶς τε λοιδορούμενος παρὰ τὸν πότον ταῦτ᾽ ἔλεγε τῇ Γναθαινίῳ, αὐτὸν μὲν ἀξιοῦντα μὴ τετευχέναι τούτου παρ᾽ αὐτῆς μηδέποτε τοῦ σχήματος, ἐν τῷδε δ᾽ ἑτέρους ἐντρυφᾶν μαστιγίας.

ἔπειτεν εἰπεῖν φασι τὴν Γναθαίνιον ‘ περιλαμβάνειν γὰρ οὐκ ἐδοκίμαζον, τάλαν, ἄνθρωπον ἄχρι τοῦ στόματος ἠσβολωμένον διὰ τοῦθ᾽ ὑπέμεινα πολὺ λαβοῦσα χρυσίον, ἐφιλοσόφησά θ᾽, ἵν᾽ ἄκρον ὡς μάλιστα καὶ ἐλάχιστον αὐτοῦ περιλάβω τοῦ σώματος.’

(I love this satire of the usual, chatty, pseudo-epigrams of the Alexandrian poets).

Why are you standing next to me?
Why don’t you let me sleep?
Asking who I was, and from where,
and what country I was born in?
Get going, march on past my marker!
I’m Menoitios, Philarkhos’ son, Kretan.
We don’t waste words where I’m from.

(Poseidippos in the Milan Papyrus (fr. 102 Angiò/Cuypers/Acosta-Hughes/Kosmetatou); my translation)

τί πρὸϲ ἔμ’ ὧδ’ ἔϲτητε; τί μ’ οὐκ ἠάϲατ’ ἰαύειν,
εἰρόμενοι τίϲ ἐγὼ καὶ πόθεν ἢ ποδαπόϲ;
ϲτείχε‹τέ› μου παρὰ ϲῆμα· Μενοίτιόϲ εἰμι Φιλάρχω
__ Κρήϲ, ὀλιγορρήμων ὡϲ ἂν ἐπὶ ξενίηϲ.

One of Asklepiades’ defining features as a love epigrammist is the variety he depicts. He’s not alwayspositiveabout it, as in the first case - and in fact he often writes miserably or about misery - but he surveys the breadth of romance and sexuality as he thought of it. Here, therefore, we learn of two lesbian Samians, an exotic (probably Nubian, but she was in any case noted for being both coal-black and ‘native’ instead of Greek) royal mistress to Asklepiades’ ruler Ptolemy Philadelphos, and a woman who likes adolescent youths and, seducing them, dresses in the petasosandkhlamys.

Two women from Samos, Bitto and Nannion, don’t want to
come to Aphrodite on the goddess’ terms.
They’re abandoning her for something else, something wrong. Lady Kypris,
curse their bed, these women who turn their backs on you.

Didyme’s bloom has enchanted me, oh god! I’m
melting, like wax by a fire, in the light of her beauty.
If she’s black, so what? Coals are too; but when
we tend them, they still glow, like a rose’s unfurled petals.

Dorkion, that lover of youths, just like a boy, knows
how to loose the swift arrow of Common Love,
striking them with desire from her eyes like a lightning bolt, and from her shoulders
[…]
with her boy’s hat, her boy’s cloak shows her naked thigh.

(Asklepiades in the Greek Anthology (5.207, 5.210, 12.161); my translation)

αἱ Σάμιαι Βιττὼ καὶ Νάννιον εἰς Ἀφροδίτης
φοιτᾶν τοῖς αὐτῆς οὐκ ἐθέλουσι νόμοις,
εἰς δ᾽ ἕτερ᾽ αὐτομολοῦσιν, ἃ μὴ καλά. δεσπότι Κύπρι,
μίσει τὰς κοίτης τῆς παρὰ σοὶ φυγάδας

τῷ θαλλῷ Διδύμη με συνήρπασεν ὤ μοι. ἐγὼ δὲ
τήκομαι, ὡς κηρὸς πὰρ πυρί, κάλλος ὁρῶν.
εἰ δὲ μέλαινα, τί τοῦτο ; καὶ ἄνθρακες: ἀλλ᾽ ὅτ᾽ ἐκείνους
θάλψωμεν, λάμπους᾽ ὡς ῥόδεαι κάλυκες.

Δόρκιον ἡ φιλέφηβος ἐπίσταται, ὡς ἁπαλὸς παῖς,
ἕσθαι πανδήμου Κύπριδος ὠκὺ βέλος,
ἵμερον ἀστράπτουσα κατ᾽ ὄμματος, ἠδ᾽ ὑπὲρ ὤμων
[…]
σὺν πετάσῳ γυμνὸν μηρὸν ἔφαινε χλαμύς.