The Greek Anthology - Vol. I of 5 (Loeb Classical Library)

528 Pages·1916·21.01 MB·English

by  T.E. Page

THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIHUARY
EDITED ny
B.LAPPS,Pu.D.,LL.D. T.B.PAGE, LiiT.U. W. II. D.HOUSE,LiiT.D.
THE GREEK ANTHOLOGY
I
I
THE (iREEK ANTHOLOGY.
Volume II.
SEPULCHRAL EPIGRAMS.
THE EPIGRAMS OF SAIXT GREGORY THE
THEOLOGIAN. _
Volume III.
THE DECLAMATORY EPIGRAMS.
VOLUMK IV.
THE HORTATORY AND ADMONITORY
EPIGRAMS.
THE CONVIVIAL AND SATIRICAL EPI-
GRAMS.
STRATO'S MUSA PUERILIS.
Volume V.
EPIGRAMS IN VARIOUS METRES.
ARITHMETICAL PROBLEMS, RIDDLES,
ORACLES.
MISCELLANEA.
EPIGRAMS OF THE PLANUDEAN ANTHO-
LOGY NOT IN THE PALATINE MANU-
SCRIPT.
//^y/t>/A '-^ ^
THE GREEK
ANTHOLOGY
WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY
W. R. PATON
IN FIVE VOLUMES
I
LONDON WILLIAM HEINEMANN
:
NEW YORK : G. P. PUTNAM S SONS
MCMXX
5 4-S^
-. V
Firstprinted 1916.
Puprinted 1920.
PREFACE
The Palatine Antliology, so called because it is
contained only in the unique manuscript of the
Palatine Library at Heidelberg, was composed in
the tenth century by Constantine Cephalas. He
drew chiefly from three older Anthologies of widely
different date : (1) the Stephanus, or Wreath, of
Meleager, collected in the beginning of the first
century b.c. by this master of the elegiac epigram
and comprising all that is most worthy of preserva-
tion in these pages. Meleager was a quite unique
personality in his own age, and his collection com-
]irises no poems (as far as we know) of that age,
except his own.^ It consists ofpoems of the seventh
to third centuries b.c.^ i.e. of all the great or
classical pferiod of Greek literature. (2) The Ste-
phanus of Philippus, made probably in the reign of
Augustus. The spirit of poesy had in the interval
descended on Italy, rather than on Greece, and
here the most Roman poets, such as Crinagoras of
Mytilene, arc those who please the most. (3) The
Cycle of Agathias, made in the age of Justinian and
comprising strictly contemporary work. Tlicre is
^ Antipater of Sidon is however his coiitemporary.
;
PREFACE
inucli tenderness and beauty in many of the poems,
but the writers wrote in a language which they did
not command, but by which they were commanded,
as all who try to write ancient Greek are.
Cephalas included also in addition to the poems
drawn from thesemain sources: (1) a certain number
ofepigrams derived from well-known authors and a
few copied from stones ; (2) the Miisa Puerilis of
Strato (Book XII), a collection on a special subject
made at an uncertain date^; (3) a collection of Love
poems largely by Rufinus (beginning of Book V)
(1) the epigrams of the Alexandrian Palladas (fifth
centurya.d.).^ At the beginning of each book (from
Book V onwards) I try to indicate what is certainly
due to each source. In Book IV will be found the
proems of the three chief sources that I mention
above. Books I-III explain themselves.
In the twelfth or thirteenth century, a scholar
of astounding industry, Maximus Planudes, to whom
learning owes a heavy debt, rearranged and revised
the work of Cephalas and to him alone we owe
1 For the sources of tliis book and also of the satirical
epigrams of Book XI see the special prefaces to these
books.
•^ .Some at least of these seem to havebeen incorporated
l)y Agathias in hi^ Cycle. It is notneces'^ary to mention
herematter included in the Palatine MS. but notreproduced
in theprinted texts.