#palatine anthology
On the Greatness of Homer
Anthologia Palatina 9.24 = Leonidas of Tarentum (320-260 BCE)
The fiery sun, whirling its axis,
Dulls the stars and the moon’s holy circles;
Just so Homer has plunged into night
All the songsmiths in a mass,
Holding high the Muses’ brightest light.
ἄστρα μὲν ἠμαύρωσε καὶ ἱερὰ κύκλα σελήνης
ἄξονα δινήσας ἔμπυρος ἠέλιος:
ὑμνοπόλους δ᾽ ἀγεληδὸν ἀπημάλδυνεν Ὅμηρος,
λαμπρότατον Μουσῶν φέγγος ἀνασχόμενος.
Homer, Girolamo Troppa, between 1665 and 1668
Death of a Bird-Catcher
Anthologia Palatina 7.171 = Mnasalces of Sicyon (3rd cent. BCE)
Here, too, the sacred bird will rest his swift wing,
Perched atop this sweet plane-tree:
For Poemandrus the Melian has died – he comes no longer
After smearing his fowling-twigs with bird-lime.
Ἀμπαύσει καὶ τῇδε θοὸν πτερὸν ἱερὸς ὄρνις,
τᾶσδ᾽ ὑπὲρ ἁδείας ἑζόμενος πλατάνου:
ὤλετο γὰρ Ποίμανδρος ὁ Μάλιος, οὐδ᾽ ἔτι νεῖται
ἰξὸν ἐπ᾽ ἀγρευταῖς χευάμενος καλάμοις.
The Bird-Catchers, François Boucher, 1748