“Didyme plunders me with her beauty. When I look at her I am wax over fire. If she's black, what if it? So are coals. When kindled, they glow like blooming roses.” Willis BarnstoneAsklepiades Author:Asklepiades
“Didyme plunders me with her beauty. When I look at her I am wax over fire. If she's black, what of it? So are coals. When kindled, they glow like blooming roses.” Willis BarnstoneAsklepiades Author:Asklepiades
“They brought me word of your death, Heraklieitos, and I wept for you remembering how often we watched the sun setting as we talked. Dear Halikarnassian friend, you lie elsewhere now and are mere ashes; yet your songs—your nightingales—will live, and never will the underworld, destroying everything, touch them with its deadly hand.” Willis BarnstoneKallimachos Author:Kallimachos
“I gave you wings to fly looming high and easy over unboarded sea and the entire earth. At every meal and banquet you will be present on the lips of guests. Graceful young men will sing of you in limpid lovely notes to the clean piping of the flutes. When you go under the dark vaults of earth to the mournful chambers of sad Hell, even when you lie dead you will not lose your glory. Your name will be recalled among men always, Kyrnos. You will wheel high over the mainland and Greek islands and cross the unharvested sea pulsing with fish, not by horse but carried to those who love you in the gifts of Muses capped in violet flowers. You will be like a song to the living as long as there is sun, earth. Yet you ignore me and trick me as if I were a child.” Willis BarnstoneTheognis Author:Theognis
“Come with me now and leave the land of Pelops, mighty sons of Zeus and Leda, and in kindness spread your light on us, Kastor and Polydeukes. You who wander above the long earth and over all the seas on swift horses, easily delivering mariners from pitiful death, fly to the masthead of our swift ship, and gazing over foremast and forstays, light a clear path through the midnight gloom for our black vessel.” Willis BarnstoneAlkaios Author:Alkaios
“My nurse was the island of Tyros, and Attic land of Syrian Gadara was my birthplace. I was sired by Eukrates —I, Meleagros, friend of the Muses and first to waken to the Graces of Menippos. A Syrian? What if I am? Stranger, we all live in one country: the world. Out of one chaos were all men born. In my old age I traced these letters on the slab before my grave, knowing that old men are neighbors to death. Passerby, wish me well, the talkative old man, and you may also reach a loquacious old age.” Willis BarnstoneMeleagros Author:Meleagros
“One day a dog was being thrashed in the street, and behold, Pythagoras, philosopher of spirits, was walking by. His heart was in his mouth for the poor pup. 'Stop! Stop!' he cried. 'Don't beat him any more. This is my dear friend's soul. I recognize the voice when I hear him bark.” Willis BarnstoneXenophanes Author:Xenophanes
“All is laughter and dust. And all is nothing, since out of unreason comes all that is.” Willis BarnstoneGlykon Author:Glykon
“Best of all things is never to be born, never to know the light of sharp sun. But being born, then best to pass quickly as one can through the gates of Hell, and there lie under the massive shield of earth.” Willis BarnstoneTheognis Author:Theognis
“Most beautiful of things I leave is sunlight, then come glazing stars and the moon's face, then ripe cucumbers and apples and pears.” Willis BarnstonePraxilla Author:Praxilla