Nor dare to wield the shafts of Love That wound the gods and conquer Jove. 40 I yield! adieu the lofty strain; Anacreon is himself again: Again the melting song I play, Attemper'd to the vocal Jay. See! see! how with attentive ears, The youths imbibe the nectar'd airs! And quaff, in bowery shades reclin'd, My precepts, to regale the mind. ODE LXVII. ON LOVE. To Love I wake the silver string, A wreath of flowers adorns his brow, An upstart of ignoble blood, 10 ODE LXVIII. THE SUPPLICATION. QUEEN of the woodland chace, whose darts ODE LXX. TO HIS BOY. Boy, while here I sit supine, THE EPIGRAMS OF ANACREON. EPIGRAM I. ON TIMOCRITUS. THE tomb of great Timocritus behold! Mars spares the base, but slays the brave and bold. ODE LXIX. ARTEMON. A FRAGMENT. Now Artemon, a favourite name, Inspires Eurypele with flame: Ode LXVIII.-This is, as madame Dacier remarks, an entire hymn, or part of one, composed in honour of Diana, in favour of some town situated on the river Lethe, which she supposes to be Magnesia, near Ephesus. It was probably made on occasion of some battle in which the Magnesians had been defeated. The poet entreats Diana to assist a people in distress, who depended only upon her protection. Ode LXIX.-The fourth Epode of Horace has a great similitude to this ode: Lisit superbus ambules pecuniâ, &c. Duncombe. EPIGRAM II. ON AGATHON. FOR Agathon, in fighting fields renown'd Epigram I.-2. Mars spares the base, but slays the brave and bold.] Priam, speaking of the most valiant of his sons, says Τις μεν απώλεσ' Αρης Iliad, b. 2. ver. 260. All those relentless Mars untimely slew, And left me these, a soft and servile crew. - Pope. Epig. II.-2. Abdera mourns, &c.] The Teians after their expulsion from Ionia by Harpagus the general of Cyrus, sailed into Thrace, and settled in the city of Abdera; where they had not been long, before the Thracians, jealous of their new neighbours, endeavoured to give them disturbance. It seems to be in these conflicts that Anacreon lost those friends whom he celebrates in his Epigrams. See the first, second, and thirteenth. EPIGRAM III. ON THE SON OF CLEENOR. THEE, Cleenorides, the bold, the brave, EPIGRAM IV. ON A PICTURE REPRESENTING THREE BACCHE. FIRST, Heliconias with a thyrsus past, EPIGRAM V: ON MYRON'S COW. FEED, gentle swain, thy cattle far away, EPIGRAM VI. ON THE SAME. TAIS heifer is not cast, but rolling years Harden'd the life to what it now appears: Myron unjustly would the honour claim, But Nature has prevented him in fame. Epig. III. This Cleënorides, as Barnes observes, seems to have been cast away in attempting a voyage from Abdera to his native country Teios, in the winter. Epig. V. Myron was the most celebrated artist of his time for casting statues in brass. Petronius, speaking of him, says, Penè hominum animas ferarumque ære comprehenderat: "He had almost found the art to enclose the souls of men and beasts in brass." Among the many epigrams, which have been composed on Myron's cow, the following from Ausonius deserves commendation: Bucula sum, cælo genitoris facta Myronis Area; nec factain me puto, sed genetam. By Myron's chisel I was form'd of brass; Epig. VI-I found this epigram, thus excellently translated, in a paltry edition of Anacreon in English, printed by Curl. The following epigram on an excellent modern The following epigrams were collected by Barnes, and first added to his edition of our poet: The first five on the authority of a manuscript Anthologia at Paris; the rest on the credit of a Heidleberg manuscript. EPIGRAM VII. ON COMPANY. I NE'ER can think his conversation good, Who o'er the bottle talks of wars and blood: But his whose wit the pleasing talk refines, And lovely Venus with the Graces joins. EPIGRAM VIII. A DEDICATION TO JUPITER, IN THE PHIDOLA, as a monument of speed, EPIGRAM IX. TO APOLLO, IN THE NAME OF NAU- GOD of the silver bow, and golden hair, EPIGRAM X. ANOTHER DEDICATION. LYCEUS' son, Praxagoras, bestow'd EPIGRAM XI. ANOTHER. MINERVA'S grove contains the favour'd shield, That guarded Python in the bloody field. work has expressed the same thought with the same simplicity. ON CLARISSA. This work is Nature's, every tittle in't Epig. VIII.-2. This mare, &c.] Pausanias, Eliac. 1. 2. c. 15. mentions this mare of Phidola's, and tells us she was named Aura, or Air; and that she won the race herself, after her rider was thrown. Epig. X.-4 Anaxagoras, a native of Ægina, was a celebrated statuary: he flourished both before and after the expedition of Xerxes. Barnes. Epig. XI.-When the ancients escaped any imminent danger, it was usual for them to consecrate Thus Horace, 1. 1. ode 5. some memorial of it in the temples of their gods. EPIGRAM XII. WHEN Hermes' bust, Leocrates, you rais'd. EPIGRAM XIII. ON THE SON OF ARISTOCLES. To Aristoclides, the best of friends, This honorary verse the Muse commends: Bold and adventurous in the martial strife, He sav'd his country, but he lost his life. EPIGRAM XIV. PRAXIDICE this flowery mantle made, Epig. XII.-3. The Academe]' The Athenian academy was not far distant from the Areopagus, in a grove without the city. Epig. XIII.-Nothing among the ancient Greeks and Romans was esteemed a greater act of piety, than to fight for the good of the community; and they, who have greatly fallen in so righteous a cause, are embalmed with immortal honours. Tyrtæus wrote some noble poems on martial virtue. The following lines are translated from a fragment of his: speaking of the hero that dares to die for his country, he says, His fair renown shall never fade away, Anon. Epig. XIV.-Addison quotes a passage from Shakespeare similar to this epigram: We, Hermia, like two artificial gods, Created with our needles both one flower, Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion; Both warbling of one song, both in one key; As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds, Had been incorporate. So we grew together, Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, But yet an union in partition, Two lovely berries moulded on one stem; Or with two seeming bodies, but one heart. EPIGRAM XV. UNDER A STATUE. CALLITELES first fix'd me on this base Fair rising to the view: EPIGRAM XVI. THIS trophy Areiphilus's son To Bacchus consecrates, for battles won. EPIGRAM XVII. THESSALIA'S monarch, Echecratides, Bacchus, the jolly god of wine, to please, EPIGRAM XVIII. To Mercury your orisons address, EPIGRAM XIX. GREAT Sophocles, for tragic story prais'd, These altars to the gods immortal rais'd. EPIGRAM XX. O MERCURY! for honours paid to thee Epig. XVIII-1. To Mercury, &c.] The an cients esteemed Mercury the general protector of learning; and therefore usually placed his statue in their libraries, and in the porticoes before their public schools and academies. Addison. Epig. XIX. This epigram, notwithstanding what Barnes says to the contrary, is thought not to be Anacreon's; the mention of Sophocles being too repugnant to chronology, to admit it for ge Midsummer Night's Dream.nuine. |