TZETZES, CHILIADES 13

CHILIADES BOOK 13, TRANSLATED BY NIKOLAOS GIALLOUSIS

13.1 CONCERNING HEROD'S DISEASE (STORY 459)

Herod, about whom we hear, the king of Judea,
[1000] The child-murderer and slaughterer of his own three children
[1] Was the son of an Arab woman, Cypris, and Antipater
Around the times of august Caesar and venerable Cleopatra,
And around the time of Jesus' infancy.
Being the son, it is said, of a father rude and most villain,
He exceeded his own progenitor by means of knavish tricks
Ingratiating himself with all grand people by flattery.
After he rebuilt the city of the Samaritans,
In order to court favour with the glorious Caesar,
He named the city Sebaste instead of Samaria;
[10] And used to send to Cleopatra royal gifts.
When Anthony became husband to Cleopatra
And divorced Caesar's sister Octavia
And Anthony together with Cleopatra
Waged the great war against Caesar,
Herod, while sending letters, money and battleships
(The letters given to messengers were in two copies though,
Addressed to both Anthony and Augustus),
Said to the messengers and the carriers of money
"Wait a while and learn the outcome of the war,
[20] Then give the victor the letters and all the rest,
But hide well the letters addressed to the defeated."
Oh, who could ever record even a fraction of Herod's wicked tricks?
But, held back by tens of diseases, he dies,
With furious high fever, itching skin,
With aches and seizures of the limbs,
With maggots growing in his rotting stomach,
Unable to breathe when lying down, the worst ailment I think,
By which he was overwhelmed, on top of all his other maladies.
Before his time was due he wanted to terminate his life,
[30] Taking a knife in his hands, pretending he was to peel an apple,
He raised his right hand in order to kill himself.
His nephew, named I think Metroebos,
Grabbed the knife from his hands.
He then died a bitter death in insufferable pain.

13.2 THE STORY ABOUT “RIDING NOBLE STEEDS” IN HOMER, NOW RECOGNIZE AS SLOW STEEDS (STORY 460)

Homer often describes Hades as riding noble horses.
Hades and death, of all chance events
Death's horses are of course notorious among all people
For they are the fastest. Who could ever evade them?
Listen also, if you want to, to Homer's original line:
[40] "Thou shalt yield glory to me, and thy soul to Hades of the goodly steeds".

13.3 CONCERNING THE TRIUMPHANT RUNNING CHARIOT (STORY 461)

This short letter contains everything
About the triumphant chariot seat. What one has to write again?
They smear the champion's body with cinnabar,
And red ochre and they make them stand on the chariot,
They put on their head a golden wreath
Imprinted with all he has achieved
And give him a laurel branch to hold,
They put armlets around his arm
And crown the excellent with crowns
[50] Made of silver, citing their excellence.
A public servant stand behind them
On the chariot and holds the wreath
And whispering to their ears. Look also at the next one.
Everything on timely circumstances is to be found in this short letter.

13.4 THE PROVERB SAYING "I WAS NOT PROVEN TO BE BETTER THAN PETER, SOMETHING PETTY HAPPENED TO ME" (STORY 462)

Something petty happened To Peter, the awesome,
The foundation of the apostles, for the first time, during the crucifixion
Before the rooster's crow. Nothing else is to be said.
And again after the resurrection, a second time,
When he saw my Jesus walking on the water
[60] After he threw himself into the sea, from the boat
Wrestled against the waves – of his hesitating heart.

13.5 CONCERNING "YOU MAN OF LITTLE FAITH, WHAT MADE YOU HESITATE?", AND “LET'S PRETEND THAT IT IS WORTH TO STRIKE THREE INSTEAD OF ONE” (STORY 463)

My Jesus when Peter was hesitating
When he had thrown himself into the waves of the sea
Had said, “You man of little faith, what made you hesitate?”
I have also cited a small patch from Homer
So that we make it like it is certainly worthwhile.
And since I deviated from my writing enough,
I'll say the one about striking three in revenge of one.
Truly, when one of the leading men died
[70] Three people appeared as your benefactors in his stead.
But Homer does not say this very story
He rather says a Greek, Deiphobus, boasted about killing him.
And when three Trojans also were killed
The great Ajax, or someone else he brings in beside
Saying about Deiphobus exactly the following:
"Deiphobus, shall we now deem perchance that due requital hath been made—three men slain for one—seeing thou boasteth thus?"

13.6 THE SAYING ABOUT “NO HUMAN HEAD EMERGES ABOVE THE LIMBS” (STORY 464)

Empedocles' exact words on what god is:
[80] "No human head emerges above the limbs,
Nor a pair of branches comes out of its back
Nor legs, nor brisk knees, nor hairy genitals,
But it is only a sacred unutterable mind,
Rapidly attending to the troubles of the whole world”.

13.7 CONCERNING THE ABDERIANS' ADORATION OF DEMOCRITUS (STORY 465)

Democritus from Abdera, son of Hegesestratus,
Also a student of Leucippus, who was in turn a student of Melissus,
Was loved by Abderites in a way difficult to describe;
And what kind of person he was, we wrote before in length and proportionately,
In our first book, passage sixty-one.

13.8 CONCERNING THE RANCID FISH OF THE OXIAN RIVER (STORY 466)

[90] Oxian fish, I think they're rancid,
The ones that colloquially, and vulgarly, are called vergitika.
As for the residents of Sogdia, Hazars and Hersons,
After the river Oxus which flows across their land
Are called Oxians, hence the fish also.

13.9 CONCERNING THE WORDS XERXES SAID ABOUT ARTEMISIA, “THE MEN BECAME WOMEN, AND THE WOMEN MEN” (STORY 467)

In my previous history book passage thirty-two
You have the complete story of Xerxes at length.
The words he said in Artemisia
And which Artemisia he was giving them about,
In this book, passage four hundred and fifty five.

13.10 CONCERNING NEILEUS AND A FIELD-DWELLER FROM MILETUS (STORY 468)

[100] Codrus had two children, Medon and Neileus.
Medon, by an oracle of two olive trees
That when rubbed against each other produced saliva,
Was advised to live in his own homeland.
Neileus though after consulting the oracle about the colony
He heard these: “Your daughter will choose the land”.
Immediately when he heard this, and because she was pretty insolent
He went to them after she dashed him, saying
They should lead towards Clarus or Miletus in Caria, a misery.
And they finally sail to Miletus in Caria.
[110] He consults again the Carian oracles
And the response given to him said he should choose a land
Where someone will offer him a chunk of clay
Hearing that, Neileus, as Lycophron writes,
Knavishly cheated a local woman of age
And obtained subsidence from her pot, namely the pot's clay,
Claiming he was to engrave something for his ring.
Lycophron says that in this manner he obtained the clay.
Others say he asked a field dweller for bread,
Who, being ignorant of what Neileus was asking for,
[120] Gave him a chunk of soil, or according to others, a stone.
Thus he took control of this land
And joined Militus and Karias into fierce combats.
But others say this happened to someone else,
And also in another country rather than in Militocarias.

13.11 CONCERNING “FOR ONE HOUR YOU COULD NOT WATCH OVER WITH ME” (STORY 469)

Around the time of the crucifixion and the Saviour's passion
When the Lord found the students asleep
He told them this to discourage them from being lazy;
“Even for one hour you could not watch over with me”;
Judas is sleepless though,
[130] So that he turns Him in to the hands of the Jews to murder him.

13.12 CONCERNING HOW AMASTRIS GOT ITS NAME (STORY 470)

The place that in Homer is called Kromna is now Amastris
From the child Amastris, of Xanthos according to some,
According to others of Oxyathros, from some Persian's kin.
According to others yet, from the name of some Amazon girl.
The Homeric place Sinope is now called Kasos.

13.13 THE STORY ABOUT WHO DIONYSIUS AND PHALARIS WERE (STORY 471)

Two tyrants have ruled Sicily
Phalaris was earlier, around the time of Pythagoras
While Dionysius was concurrent with Plato.
[140] Everyone thinks bitterly of these tyrants.
I will also support this opinion,
Such were these men, and I judge them to be such myself
You may find the distinct story of Phalaris
In passage thirty-one in this book of stories.
An epigraph which you may wish to find
Mentions Teucrus being a secretary of Phalaris.

The story of Dionysus can be found
In the second table, the very small one,
Where passages 3, 20, as well as the last one
[150] About the verse of his, Dionysius.

13.14 CONCERNING THE TRAGIC AND THE MATTER (STORY 472)

The paper showed the drama by the means of its words
Describing grievous disasters and sorrows
But it really shows these by its very fate
Because it fell in the waters of the river Thressa and being soaked
The littlest fraction of it could be read.

13.15 THE STORY ABOUT THE FEMALE RIVER THRESSA BEING REALLY BARBARIC (STORY 473)

Thressa is a river in the land of Thrakans, which has a female name.
Indeed I called it Thressa, and it is a barbaric river,
Because it dismembered the paper and its content in the waters.
Similarly the Thressans had previously dismembered Orpheus
[160] Because he was teaching the rituals they considered savage,
And threw his severed head in this very river
Together with his music, which attracted even beasts and stones,
And the river drags into the black sea.

The black sea that in called the sea of Mitylene.
The music, flowing along with Orpheus' head
And with its strings pluck by the piper winds
Sang a weeping tune, moving one to mourn.

13.16 SAYING ABOUT EASTERN BIRDS OF PREY. AND “THOSE RISING WILL GO TO THE MOUNTAIN WITH GODS, OR INTO THE WAVES OF A ROARING SEA” (STORY 474)

Which are the birds of omen, and why are they called so,
This will be discussed first, and in order anything else.
[170] Birds of omen in the strict sense are the vultures, which are all female
And gestate eggs alone, without male contribution
Eggs that are born this way are empty.
Thus mainly vultures are called birds of prey,
And – inappropriately – all other carrion birds.
Earlier augurs observed the birds' flights
Those at the right, that is from the dawn
And those from the east, which they call “weights”,
And listened to their voices and cries
And they predicted what turn things will take.

[180] Thus, if the birds were “right”, coming from the east
And emitting mixed and distinguished voices
They predicted that the outcome would be good.
But if they were coming from the west, making indistinguishable sounds
They would predict the result to be vicious.
This is merely one type of augury.

Now listen to another divination, of Roman origin:
They kept and tamed wild birds, a genre living on barley
And train them; so when the time was calling for a divination
[190] They gave them barley to eat, and observed
Whether they would eat them with ease,
Or they would reject them, with wounds in their beaks.

And thus they predicted what was to come.
Another bird related augury of the people
Whose origin and name became known to all,
The victors, the defeated and everybody else,
I will explain it clearly for the ungracious ones:
After offering the barley to a domestic bird
They recite the alphabet from alpha and beta up to omega
On papers on which they place the seeds.
[200] Then they studied, for instance in case of war
Whether Greeks will prevail or some barbarian breed,
Whether Paul or Peter will earn the champion's wreath,
And whether someone will marry Maria or Zoe.
If, for example, the bird takes a seed from epsilon
And then from lambda, that showed the victor to be Greek
Note that this could be shown solely by the epsilon seed.
But if the bird touched the beta seed,
That would mean a barbarian victory.

Similarly to other definitions and things
[210] These are omens in the strict sense
Hence all types of divination also, inappropriately,
Be it a presage, a sneeze, an incident among dogs, a howling,
And any of these things; who could ever enumerate them all?

On a mountain and in the waves of the loud-roaring sea
I mentioned above that his sorrows have gone
Since the paper detailing those was washed away
In the streams of the river they call Thressa
Those sagas, they say that Helen in Homer
Addressing Hector, in this way attacked his authority;
[220] “O Brother of me that am a dog, a contriver of mischief and abhorred of all,
I would that on the day when first my mother gave me birth
An evil storm-wind had borne me away
To some mountain or to the wave of the loud-resounding sea”.

13.17 CONCERNING COLLECTORS (STORY 475)

Some people are called collectors, learn from me whence
At first really athletes, even those loving freedom
Competed for the wreath, not for prizes
And the wreath was their only prize for winning
Later they also entered the games for the prizes as well
[230] And they dealt the prizes to the winners appropriately
Even in the case of one victor, as was Achilles to Patroclus.
And when cities, countries and municipals were destroyed
And these games I talked about in which the conqueror received a present
The athletes wanting to gain something from the games
Not only lilies and flowers and pasture wreaths.
When they won they ran across the gathering,
And received contributions from the crowd
And they took the name “collectors” for collecting from the crowd
Mustering and receiving gifts for winning
[240] One or the other in the crowd would offer them something,
According to each one's capability and will
And they inappropriately are also called “collectors”.

These are in our times those that bear flags
As many as roam the land and beg
And those who at the beginning of January
At Christmas and the day of the Epiphany
They run from door to door and beg
[250] With songs, refrains and laudatory speeches
And really deceitful but suitable causes
All these may be called literally minagyrtai
You will mostly come across flag-bearers of this type
And on the first of months, you'll see them running around
And begging to obtain all that they call for
You will appropriately use the word mhnagyrtai.

Old collectors, as Babrius writes
In his choliambic fables, not his iambic verse
And others among the old and new poets,
[260] Rigged a statuette of their goddess Rhea on a donkey
And then went round all villages and beg
Playing along enchantments and songs, whenever a new moon would rise.
Listen now to a choliambic by Babrius
"Gallic collectors managed to sell to the state
A rather ill-fated donkey."
And little further on he recounts:
They used to go round about the village
And say about a field-dweller
"Doesn't he know that the white Attis was maimed?
[270] Who will not be the first to bring pulse and grain
To offer to the holy drum of Rhea?"
Now you have learned I think the nature of collectors,
Since Tzetzes wrote about them with accuracy.

13.18 CONCERNING CHORDEVEIN, MAGDALIA AND KYNOBORA. KINAVRA AND GRASUS ARE DIFFERENT THINGS, THEY DENOTE SMELLS (STORY 476)

Chordevein is weaving sheep bowels
And kolofassa suppose it means cured meat
Magdalia means waste water of meat and fish
Also stocks of various kinds and other waste of this kind,
Like the ones they give to pigs and dogs to eat.
Kynobora can only be the food of dogs,
[280] Bones and something else, like slaughter-house blood.
Assume kinavra means the smell of goats
And grasos is the smell of humans around the armpit.

13.19 CONCERNING THERAMENES' APTITUDE AND ARCHIMEDES' MACHINES (STORY 477)

The story of Theramenes I have already written
In this book passage four hundred and sixteen.
The story of Archimedes you have in my first book,
In passage thirty five.

13.20 SAYING HOW TO MAKE OUR OWN, BUT NOT OTHERS', PYRAMOUS, THE HONEY-CAKE (STORY 478)

Pyramos evolved from the old honey cake
Having somehow a dressing of honey and grain,
Used as nowadays sesame is and so many other things.
[290] Our pyramos I said you will prepare
Be it the belonging of a winner, the pleasure of victory
Be it the prize itself; because to the winners
Honey cakes were also given as prizes for their victory
As Aristophanes says, hence I also cited.

13.21 CONCERNING TRISALITROS, LOOPOS, PEOS, PODOKAKE, CHOENICES AND COLLARS (STORY 479)

On sinners and avengers
I've written above. Now I have to write about other words.
Lŏopos as in the peel of onion is spelled with omikron
But lōpos the coat with the omega
Which also means the same now. Peos is the privy part,
[300] Cuspoi and cloiopodes are also called clapoi
And everything harmful to the feet is called podokake.
As for the iron shackles for the feet, like Aristophanes
And others who call them similarly, are named after choenix
Together with anything revolving, such as the modium, gratings
And rings, and so on, they refer to as choenices.
Dioscorides says about weights and measures
A cotyla, that is three heminas are inside a choenix
That is the weight of two and a half librae
Because ten ounces of wine are in a hemina
[310] Thus for Dioscorides the choenix is a measure of liquids
But Aristophanes elsewhere mentions a measure of grain
Saying that two choenices are 1/12 of a medimnus
"Yesterday a dealer passed me two counterfeited choenices"
Now you know about choenices. I now have to tell you about cloios
Every loop that constrains the neck
Is called a cloios, from breaking those raised by the whirlwind.

13.22 CONCERNING ATTACKING THE HONOURS, AND ON PLAKOUNTES, KARYKEIA, AND PEMMA (STORY 480)

Agilatei is written with psili, and it means fiercely expel someone
But there is also a second with daseia
To set in motion burden and hatred against someone
[320] And lead the way in attacking a saint
Hipponax writes thus, that the man who hates virtue
Leads in the bull-fight, while other watch.

Plakountes is the name of every potion based on sugar or honey
And pema is every formation based on bread,
it stems from pettw and it is written with one mu
But pemma is whatever is sent, stemming from pempo/pempso
It is written with a double mu, not with one.
Karyke is a type of food with lots of dressings.
[330] Hence any food loaded with dressings and sauces
Had the fortune of bearing the name of karyke.
Which Tzetzes to put it subtly, the illiterate, has not
As neither does he the honey, to explain it better,
But rather changeable meal from garlics.
As for the wise, and those taking chances and making machines
And thousands of other things, I have not even dreamt of,
And write and say thoughtless and confusedly
They are not ashamed at all. What a great shamelessness.

13.23 CONCERNING WASTE WATER, POISON, POISONER AND PHARMACY (STORY 481)

The complete story of the waste water
[340] Which we call farmakon, and about the farmaceus
Etcetera we wrote clearly and exactly
In this book you will find it in passage 23.
And other places where we let them be.

13.24 SAYING ABOUT THE CHAIN OF EXCELLENT PETER, BUT SILENCING OUT SOMETHING, WHILE THE SHACKLES OF THIEVES ARE VALUED (STORY 482)

The excellent Peter after he was tied to a chain
Was thrown into a prison vicious and gloomy
An angel untied him by night and saved Peter
This chain is sacred for all the believers in our nation
But noble women and some of the leaders
Estimate wooden shoes more than Jewish thieves.

13.25 CONCERNING HOW THEY HAD NOT LIKE SPEECH NOR ONE LANGUAGE BUT THEIR TONGUES WERE MINGLED AND THEY WERE A FOLK SUMMONED FROM MANY THIEVES (STORY 483)

[350] These are patches from Homer, parodies
So Homer in his poems spoke about himself thusly
“They sacrificed to the gods that are forever, and one to the other”
But I say, they sacrifice to the thieves that are forever
Not in the sense that thieves share an immortal essence,
Rather than they appear at all times in one form or another.

And again Homer says in other places:
"For they had not all like speech or one language
But their tongues were mingled and they were a folk summoned from many lands".
Me again I collected them in order to parody them:
For they had not like speech nor one language
[360] But their tongues were mingled and they were a folk summoned from many thieves
The residents of the royal city of Constantine,
Not being of one tongue, nor of one nation,
Mixed languages abide, and men among the worst of thieves,
Cretan and Turks, Alanian, Rhodians and Chians
Simply from the universal nation, departed from all places,
All the worst thieves and adulterers
Are coronated as saints by the city of Constantine.
What a great hubris of inconsiderate men.

13.26 THE STORY SAYING “COME INDEED, COME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, TO BE PRESENT IN THE THIRTEENTH TASK AROUND THE TIME OF CONSTANTINE'S BIRTH AND YOU WILL EARN A CHAMPIONS HONEY CAKE” (STORY 484)

[370] Your mind will be abated with what is to be said here.
“You come along, you greatest of thieves, to Constantine's city
To become saint, exactly like the other thieves.
So the thirteenth task, just like a little addition.
Since all the tasks of Heracles were twelve”.
The atheist from Melos, Diagoras,
Departing from an inn, and in need of baking lentines
But unable to find any wood, he found Heracles
In the form of a wooden statue, among the best pieces of art.
After slicing it into bits and pieces with an axe,
[380] He threw him into the fire and told him:
"Twelve tasks you accomplished, Heracles,
So go on with accomplishing this one too
And bake the lentines". Thus Diagoras
The thirteenth task named, as a supplement.
And me too this was the thirteenth I said as a supplement.
Short addition as I said, for all thieves of this kind.

13.27 CONCERNING WHAT HAPPENED TO HIERO'S WIFE (STORY 485)

Hiero was once the king of Syracuse.
Said Hiero's breath stunk.
When he heard this by some Syracusan,
[390] Who said, “Hiero, your breath reeks beyond measure”
When Hiero blamed his own wife,
For not having warned him at all.
She said “Hiero, I thought all men's breath
Stinks like this, not only yours”.

13.28 ON THE RESIDENTS OF THESSALY, IMITATE THAT THESSALIAN SON OF PELEUS (STORY 486)

Thessalonika is another thing than Thessaly
Thessalonika is the city once named Therma
About which a good lesson can be found
In passage three hundred and sixteen of this book.
Thus Thessalonika is the city which Therma used to be.

[400] But Thessaly is a land to which many other cities belong
Larissa, Phthia, Farsalos, Trikke, and many others.
Whither also Thettaloi live, like Achilles and others.

But those who made homeland of Thessaloniki
And were registered in the manner we described here
Are called Thessalonikeis, not Thetalloi,
And that is what they call themselves, as they write themselves.
So, I say, what is the thing to be imitated?
That is to say, serve, do, take some action.
Achilles himself, this ancient Thettalos
[410] Cut up his meat with his own hand
Just as Homer described, thus writing in the sagas.
“And Automedon held them for him, while goodly Achilles carved.”

13.29 CONCERNING “BE APT WITH A SIEVE AND CLEANSE THE DIRTY GRAIN AT THE CHURCH”. AND ON STRAINING WITHOUT FILTERING OUT (STORY 487)

Sieves are instruments for cleansing the grain.
But there is a sieve serving a function at the church
In which they lay towards the ground everyone non disciplined
And they cleanse the wounds from the dirt of indiscipline.
This before a while was what a servant
Not one of the commoners and unremarkable, neither the lower class.

I said, learn how to strain, but not filter out.
[420] Ethmos, sakelisterion, trygoipos, ulister
Are common instruments to cleanse the impurity of wines
But also used figuratively, for undisciplined people
To be sieved, I said, like the dirty grain,
Namely, receiving the treatment inside the sieve
That is, enclosing himself in the straining cloth.
Another figurative use involves the lees of wine.
I told you how to strain but not filter out.
That is to say is just a warning for you, not anything wiser
Thus I explained technically, by means of rigorous method
[430] Sakellisai can be safely used to mean both
Purifying yourself and cleansing the wine
And is also used for emphasis and as a rhetoric figure,
Putting yourself in the prison of the straining-cloth.
But Ethmos, trygoipos, ulister
Are only said about the wine, and not about the lees.

13.30 PROVERB, “AND IF IXION APPEARS TO THE BENEFACTORS, WHAT HE COULD NOT RAISE” (STORY 488)

Twice Ixion is mentioned in history
And in numerous other ways. Twice however he was
Mentioned also in this book, passage ninety nine,
And two hundred and seventy three.
[440] Where the story is more extensively written.

13.31 CONCERNING OSTRACISM AND LIBEL (STORY 489)

Now learn from me where ostracism took its name from
And the fylobollhsai as well, together with it.
The Athenians, when about to banish someone
They did not sent him to exile right away
But after they had arranged a specific day
And until then they listened to a thousand accusers,
Reckoning the number of people who talked against him.
After writing his name on a shell
They disposed the shells in Kynosarges, which is a place in Athens.
[450] They also exposed bastard children there, in earlier years.
That was the very place where they disposed the exile shells as well.
Thus, if the specified day a thousand shells were found,
Without any sympathy the person was exiled.
If the shells were less than that, though,
He could stay in his homeland, achieving forgiveness.
Because of the shells ostracism stands for banishment,
The same as to which Aristides the Just was submitted.
I am about to write something hilarious about it.
While many people were writing shells against Aristides
[460] Some illiterate misfit whom he had never harmed,
Who did not even know who Aristides was,
Came to Aristides holding the shell
And told him “Please write for me here Aristides”.
He then, being among the kindest, he wrote his name for him.
So after he dropped the shell in Kynosarges
Aristides asked him, after he had come back
“I wonder what harm has Aristides caused to you”
After he said that he neither has known nor ever seen him
But they had told him to write down what everybody else did.
[470] When one of the bystanders nodded and signalled him
That the one he was talking to was Aristides
He said, “I am going now and retrieve the shell from there”.
Aristides prevented him from doing so,
And he asked to sign another shell
So that he could be easier banished by such people.
Thus exile was named ostracising.

But we also call it ekfylloforisin
In places where shells were hard to find
They used leaves in the place of shells
[480] And did everything else just as I said
But they dropped them not in Kynosarges
But in a place where the leaves could be hidden and kept dry.

So, either we use the word ostracism or ekfylloforisis for exile
We mean the very same thing
But there were people that were banished in autumn time
Because of the trees leaves and the blowing of the winds
I think it seemed defamatory to the regulators
That the written diatribes against the excellent
Could be dropped secretly and by stealth in open places
[490] Or inside the temples, or even in other places.
The laws punished those who'd write these.

13.32 PROVERB ABOUT NOT THROWING AWAY THE MOUSE AND DESISTING ONE URGE (STORY 490)

From Aesop's fables and Babrius’ lyrics;
A lion was sleeping, while a mouse was running on his neck
And waking the startled lion from his sleep
As the fox was laughing at him the lion responded
“I won't throw away the mouse, and I desist my urge”.

13.33 PROVERB SAYING "IF THEY DARE TO DO THESE ON DRY WOOD" (STORY 491)

Whether the wood is dry or green
The strength of my word is just the same, learn here why
Christ talks about this in the Gospels
[500] Who named himself green wood thusly:
If they dared to do such things on green wood
What are they able to do on dry wood?
And he calls himself green wood
That is, a god who always lives and becomes again,
And then the dry wood that drifts away refers to the mortals
So if we take my word about the green wood,
Assume he means himself, the strong and wise,
Then by dry wood suppose he means the weaker ones
And if on the dry wood it lies, they dare such things
[510] And the dry wood stands for us all.
And thus this does not clarify the writ at all
Because it means that to whom there is not a trace of accusations
That is to those refraining from acting foolishly
He will do something with wet wood, so that to restrain those traces.

With this I now fulfilled what I was aiming for
That is to respond with a dreadful thought to Demosthenes
Having made his judges think about these
As if they were themselves unjustly judged
And without thinking the trial would go otherwise
[520] They hasten to punish him who talk foolishly against me
And run upon him thousand times faster than me.

13.34 HISTORICAL WORD, ON THE LITERAL MEANING OF SEIROMASTES (STORY 492)

Many people call the lance seiromastes
As in the story of Phineas
Where he killed Zambres and Chasbes with one.
But mostly in the customs one can find
A great iron obelisk on which they slam the bags
Thus capturing the smuggled goods and confiscate them.
So you also learned and what seiromastes was, in the strict sense
As for the story of Phineas the story is well written
[530] In passage three hundred and ninety one.

13.35 CONCERNING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OLOFYRSIS AND OLOLYGMOS (STORY 493)

Olofyrmos stands for lamentation, whereas ololygmos for loud prayer
As Euripides, Homer and thousand others
Provide me examples to support this
Seventy two Jew translators
Accidentally said the pine “prayed aloud”
Instead of “lamented”, and the mistake was established
And it became a common belief and a fixed rule
To use olofyresthai in place of ololyzein.

It is a great blessing from God, that they did not find
[540] Either Athanasius' or even somebody else's
Letter addressed to Julian
In which proupton was written instead of afanestatou
Instead of froudon he had written proupton, as far as I think
In my opinion due to his absent mind; that is why he imputes this to him,
Kassitauros, and writes about him the following;
"By God, this will prevent you from becoming my friend,
Being so illiterate that you write to me proupton
Instead of afanestaton. How did you ever come up with this?”

So as here the saint was inflicted by forgetfulness
[550] And wrote manifest instead of most unseen, as I think
And many more, who could ever will say about all of them?
Thus the loud prayer was used instead of lamentation
And no commutation is possible on the laws of the most ignorant
And they say praying aloud meaning lament.
It is a great blessing from god indeed, that they did not also come up with
The manifest, of which we said, as the improper unseen;
Because if they also accepted this as a firm rule
The “manifest” would be called “unseen” by anyone.
And for every lover of rule and master of art's weights
[560] It would be futile when hearing such abominations to say all this.

13.36 CONCERNING THE MANY MEANINGS OF IOULOS AND OULOS (STORY 494)

Ioulos is a fish, but also a worm with thousand legs
And the growth of the young beards hair
And also the hymn but as a feminine noun
As Eratosthenes teaches me well in Hermes;
The hired female servant on a tall wreath
Sorting out the grain, sings beautiful hymns
So that's it about ioulos. And oulon denotes six things:
The healthy, integer, the deadly, the curly,
And furthermore the soft, and the part of the mouth.
[570] I have myself added these two to the existing ones.
And in Homer and Aeschylus there are twelve usages of these words.
Older ones used only four of them.

13.37 SAYING ABOUT BEING SIMILAR TO SPRING FLOWERS, AS HOMER DEPICTS EUPHORBUS (STORY 495)

Euphorbus was a very handsome Trojan man
Son of Panthous and Phrontis, as Homer says to me,
And Orpheus was a son of Bucolion and Abarbarea.
When he was killed by Menelaus
Homer says me the following, word by word:
"And as a man reareth a lusty sapling of an olive
In a lonely place, where water welleth up abundantly—
[580] A goodly sapling and a fair-growing; and the blasts
Of all the winds make it to quiver, and it burgeoneth out with white blossoms;
But suddenly cometh the wind with a mighty tempest,
And teareth it out of its trench, and layeth it low upon the earth;
Even in such wise did Menelaus, son of Atreus, slay Panthous' son,
Euphorbus of the good ashen spear, and set him to spoil him of his armour."

13.38 HISTORICAL WORD, ON WHAT IS BELIEVED ABOUT HYMAINEUS AT REVELRIES (STORY 496)

Komos and singing potos are drinking parties and pleasures.
Hymaineus is the wedding, but more appropriately the hymns of a wedding.
And it is called a hymaineus, as etymologists suggest
Either due to the perforation of a vaginal hymen
[590] Or that it derives from "new hymn"; these are both false.
Because there are hymenaiοi for widows where no perforation of hymen takes place
Therefore it should not be called so, according to them.

Then, if there was a “new hymn” as I hear
One would write the epsilon bare and not in a diphthong.
Both of which I just said were then shown to be false.

Others say, with stronger arguments, and this should be appraised
It stems from ama naiein, the fact that the bridegroom and the bride dwell together.
Others attribute the word to history,
Some of them saying there it happened to be a Hymenaeus among Argives
[600] Son of Terpsichore who disappeared from her chamber,
While others say he was Athenian, not Argive,
Who found some maidens kidnapped by villains
Whom he persuaded them to marry the maidens with legitimate marriages.
Thereafter hymenaioi among the Greek nation
Used to be sung at the event of a wedding,
The former, to prevent disappearances in the chamber
The Attica ones, to wish a lawful marriage.
That is what Greeks were doing in the event of weddings.
Calling Hymenaeus that Attic
[610] And recognizing legitimacy in the weddings he celebrated.
Just as Greeks invoke him in weddings
The Latin nation invokes Talasius.

Now you have your debt paid off completely
Because we told all the stories from the tablets
Even if we are afraid that more often than not we cited them concisely
Since I have written them and there is still room on the paper
I should appraise my benefactors with words
And all of them who sometime have seemed useful to me
[620] Be it on tablets or some axles
And Homer's kin I will raise here.
Except for very briefly, and only for the reason
Of you learning, who Homer's wife and children were.
Because the rest of it I have written in the Empress' book
Of which the major points I will recite here.

Homer, who is the all-wise, the sea of words
Except for being filled with nectar instead of salty water,
Obtained no less than seven uncertain origins
Seven fathers' breeding, also uncertain.
[630] But you will know that Homer was from Smyrna
Son of Meletos and Kritheis
And leave behind the other fictions about his parents.
His partner was called Eurydice,
Daughter of some Pastor or Gnostor from Kyme.
Sons of Homer were Seriphon and Theolaos
His daughter was Arsiphone, who married Stasinus,
Stasinus who wrote the epic Cypria,
Which some say was produced by Homer himself
[640] And was given to Stasinus as a dowry together along with money.
Arctinus from Miletus was a student of Homer,
And the poet also had a servant named Buccon,
Who Tzetzes playfully calls pot jar and flask
The books of Homer then are thirteen.
He was contemporary with two military campaigns
Against Thebes and against Troy, according to many others.

And Apollodorus the chronicler writes
He was eighty years old when the Trojan War occurred.
While Hesiod was at his prime, as I have found in other authors,
[650] During the eleventh Olympic games.

As for the death of Homer, it happened like this:
It was foreseen that he would die, when he would be asked
To solve a riddle, and he would be unable to.
He died in poverty, and blind due to old age,
(Who among the sane could write that fictional nonsense)
He toured all Greek cities
Singing his poems, welcomed everywhere with honours.
After he was received in Arcadia by Creophilus
He went down to the beach on foot.
[660] After he said to the Arcadian fishermen if there was something to eat,
And they responded to him talking about worms in vegetables
That they killed those that they had, and they had those who didn't.
He was on his way back, sad because he did not get it.
He stumbled in the mud and hit on a rock,
He broke his ribs on the right side, and died within three days.
So you have here concisely put the sea of nectar
The wise Helicon, rather the Muses themselves
Rather yet Apollo himself the gatherer of Muses,
The one above all else, the great Homer,
[670] Whence he was born, and who he was, and who he gave birth to,
His servant, his mentor and his student
His times and his books and where and how he died.
So we will now terminate this book, stamp it with the seal,
The seal that concludes this book of ours.

THE END