TZETZES, CHILIADES 8

CHILIADES BOOK 8, TRANSLATED BY VASILIKI DOGANI

8.1 CONCERNING ORPHEUS WHO CHARMED EVERYTHING (STORY 157)

Orpheus was a Thracian, of the Odrysian tribe, who lived near Bisaltia.
He was the son of Menippe, the daughter of Thamyris, and Oeagrus.
[10] Speaking allegorically, they say that he was the son of Calliope.
This is the twelfth story in line among the former ones.

8.2 CONCERNING “MENELAUS WEPT AND SO HELEN OF ARGOS WEPT” (STORY 158)

In the Odyssey, Homer introduces the son of Odysseus,
Along with the son of Nestor, visiting Menelaus,
In order to gain information about Odysseus.
As the memory of Odysseus sneaks upon them,
It makes everyone weep, Menelaus, Helen,
Telemachus himself and the son of Nestor.

8.3 CONCERNING THE PROVERB “WHEN SOMEONE ASKS FOR BUCKETS, AND WE DENY HIM THE SHOVELS” (STORY 159)

In their proverbs, Didymus and Tarrhaeus write:
“I was asking for shovels, and they denied me the buckets”
[20] This is a fitting proverb that is used,
When someone receives something other than that which was asked,
Or when he gives something else instead of that which he was asked for.

8.4 CONCERNING THE PARASITE WHO CAME TOO LATE TO THE MORNING MEAL (STORY 160)

Libanius writes somewhere about a gluttonous parasite
Who being invited to a morning meal and wishing to arrive there quickly,
Takes a horse from the racecourse.
But when riding his horse he reached the host’s house, that looked like a stadium,
And there was a post in the shape of the turning-post of a racecourse,
The horse thinking mistakenly that it was a hippodrome,
Was wheeling around the post until evening,
[30] And the parasite was carried away by the horse against his will.
And hardly around evening, deprived of his meal and fallen he was carried away.

8.5 CONCERNING THE SAYING “MANY PEOPLE COMMIT WRONG, BUT NOT EVEN ONE IS BEING WRONGED” (STORY 161)

The saying: “Many people commit wrong, but no one is being wronged”,
Is attributed to Socrates by Plato’s writings.
This is an old Hesiodic proverbial saying.
For Hesiod says in Works and Days:
“He harms himself, who does harm to another.
And the evil plan is most harmful to the planner.”
Such is the meaning of the proverbs that we quoted;
Many people live unrighteous lives, snatching up as many things as possible,
[40] But the soul of someone, who is wronged, is not being harmed.
The paradoxical proverb of Hesiod
Says that the one who is being wronged is not being wronged at all;
But rather the one who commits wrong is being greatly wronged,
Doing wrong to his own soul by acting unjustly.

8.6 CONCERNING THE FEEDING OF THE MULTITUDE BY THE SAVIOUR WITH FIVE LOAVES OF BREAD (STORY 162)

In the Gospel, this becomes manifest to everyone,
That our Lord fed with five loaves of bread
So great a multitude of people, and twelve baskets
Full of broken pieces of the five loaves that were left over he brought forth.

8.7 CONCERNING “WHEN A CUCKOO CRIES” (STORY 163)

Cuckoo is a bird which resembles the crow;
[50] When the winter is over, it starts crying.
So then it delights all the human beings; For it heralds the arrival of spring.

8.9 CONCERNING THE “WEEKS” PROPHECY OF DANIEL (STORY 164)

Foretelling the incarnation of the Saviour
Daniel spoke prophetically saying that,
The seventy weeks period of time shall come to pass
For the Jewish people, and it shall cause the sacrifice to cease;
Now truly, upon the appearance of Christ after the passing
Of four hundred and ninety years,
The legal sacrifices of the Jewish people shall come to an end,
And the preaching of the New Testament shall prosper.

8.10 CONCERNING “SPEAKING MANY FALSE THINGS AS THOUGH THEY WERE TRUE” (STORY 165)

[60] In the Odyssey, when Odysseus, according to Homer’s words,
Disguised as a poor beggar was asked by Penelope
What manner of man Odysseus was, and if he truly caught sight of him,
Among the many things he told Penelope, Odysseus also told this very thing;
“He spoke, and made the many falsehoods of his tale seem like the truth.”

8.11 CONCERNING THE ONE WHO IS MORE TALKATIVE THAN THE CICADAS, AND THE MYTHICAL STORY OF THE CICADAS (STORY 166)

The cicada, drunk with the beams of the sunlight
Becomes talkative and fond of singing; and if someone catches it,
It rather becomes more loquacious; wherefore the proverb
Says that it will seem to you that a cicada clings to its wings.
In this way the cicada becomes fond of singing due to the rays of the sun;
[70] But if the winter arrives, it remains silent and ceases its chirping songs.

However, all female cicadas stay forever mute,
For the self-control of women, even if it does not persuade them.
Wherefore Homer also, acknowledging the loquacity of cicadas,
Compared them with the Trojan elders,
Who poured out the words, when speaking in public, like thick snowflakes.
But the stories which the bull-headed tell after fabricating them,
That Homer compared the men with the cicadas,
Because Tithonus, who was related to them by blood, having grown old
Was turned into a cicada naturally by Hemera,
[80] This happen to be a foolish mythical belief that needs to be interpreted allegorically.
That Tithonus was the beloved one of Hemera you should understand it in this way:
That he was long-lived and he was truly loved deeply
During the days of his life and for a long period of time.
But as soon as he grew old and in the fashion of the new-born babies
He was reared in the cradle, for the sake of sleep,
Wishing that he, who was babbling like a baby, would be renewed again:
Since cicadas themselves are renewed by casting their old skin, like the serpents;
For while the cicada chirps, it bursts in pieces, and a renewed one cicada emerges;
They said that when Tithonus grew old Hemera
[90] Turned him into a cicada; that is to say, after a long time
Tithonus was once again revived anew.

8.12 CONCERNING THE SPEECHLESSNESS OF THE SERIPHIAN FROGS (STORY 167)

Every terrestrial frog is mute;
The aquatic ones, however, which Aratus calls tadpoles
And noisy, are endowed with the ability of vocalizing, excepting only those from Seriphos.
For in that place even the aquatic frogs belong to the class of mute frogs,
Due to the fact that the water there is extremely cold.

8.13 CONCERNING “FOR HARMONIDES BY FAR MORE YOU, RHETOR, THAN RHETOR THAT PHERECLUS” (STORY 168)

Homer that Phereclus, just as a master in art
And someone who fits together ships and thrones and everything else,
Allegedly named Harmonides after his father’s name.
[100] But seeing that even the rhetors have the ability of putting together their speech harmoniously,
I called the rhetor Harmonides, just like Homer.

8.14 CONCERNING THE PARODY AND PASTING TECHNIQUE OF QUOTATION (STORY 169)

In his book On Method of Forceful Style
Hermogenes teaches you the technique of pasting as well as the parodic imitation,
Saying that both of them sweeten the speeches.
Now learn what the pasting technique and the parody is.
If you cite a quotation from another source and have it woven into your writing,
Whether it is prosaic or metrical, you should call this a pasting technique.
For example, regarding the ravished maiden I speak in this way:
Judges, you are asking about the crime that this man has committed?
[110] “He ravished a maiden and tamed her against her will.”
This is a pasting technique, but certainly not a parody.
For I have quoted the verse of Oppian without altering it.

If, quoting a verse or a prosaic discourse of someone else,
I come to alter some words, then this is also regarded as a pasting,
As well as a parody, because it was paraphrased;
For example, regarding the very same discourse of which we have spoken before:
“A solitary maiden he tamed against her will.”
And the one that is most wittily mentioned in the Homeric Centones:
“On his left side, he was having Paul, on the other side, he was grasping Peter.”
[120] Now you have learnt what the pasting is and what the parody.

The technique of paragrammatism is closest to parody,
Although Hermogenes did in no wise speak of this,
I am of the opinion that even this technique happens to be a parody.
You should perceive the parody as the alteration of an entire word,
And the paragrammatism as the alteration of a single letter;
For example, since we say instead of korax, kolax,
We just substitute the letter rho for the letter lambda.

Now, you have learnt by me, what the pasting technique and the parody is,
While you have learnt along with them what paragrammatism is.
[130] But, concerning the rhetor, I say in what manner he will paraphrase the words of others
And integrate them in his own speech, and so people will assume that these words belong to him.

8.15 CONCERNING THE ONES BITTEN BY A SNAKE AND THE CURABLE WATER BEING DRUNK BY SOME OTHER PERSON (STORY 170)

If someone, bitten by a snake, drinks in silence water,
After having soaked in water the dark handle of a knife,
Before the biting snake tastes the water,
He survives unharmed the damaging venom.
Should someone else bears a message to some person saying the following words:
“A certain one bitten by a snake lies at a distance
And he did not have the strength to come here”,
The messenger drinks of the water of which we spoke,
[140] And the diseased one gets the remedy from afar.

8.16 CONCERNING TYPHON (STORY 171)

Typhon is also one of the hundred-headed daemons,
They say that he even battled Zeus once.
But now it is a violent wind, of a fiery nature,
Tearing up trees by their roots and breaking them off.

8.17 CONCERNING “FOR A LONG TIME I STAYED SPEECHLESS HEARING THE WORDS” (STORY 172)

In Iliad Homer, after the death of Patroclus,
Introduces Antilochus being ignorant of that event.
And after Menelaus told him of the misfortune,
Hearing his words, he stayed for a long time speechless,
And his eyes filled with tears.

8.18 CONCERNING THE COMPASSION OF CRASSUS THE ROMAN (STORY 173)

[150] Crassus the Roman was prone to pity in his manners.
For raising a sea eel in a fish pond,
While it was alive, he adorned it with a collar set in precious stones.
The moray eel responded to his voice.
And after it died, he buried it weeping for it not within due limits.
Dometius mocked him for weeping
And he said: “Foolish, Crassus, you are shedding tears for the sea eel?”
“But I, Dometius, he said, am weeping for the fish,
I am weeping for the moray eel, a living being least kin to me,
But you did not even weep when you buried your three wives.”

8.19 CONCERNING A HISTORICAL WORD, THE MEANING OF THE CENEBRIA (STORY 174)

[160] Cenebria, in the proper sense of the word, are called the dead animals,
Which are useless as a food source and of no benefit,
Because they are not proper for food and they are worthless;
But now the ones which are slaughtered and used for food
I called cenebria, in a misuse of language.

8.20 CONCERNING “BUT WHAT COULD I DO? GOD BRINGS ALL THINGS TO PASS” (STORY 175)

After Briseis has been taken away from Achilles,
The very woman who is also called Hippodamia,
This hero Achilles withdrew from the battle.
But as the Greeks were being defeated by the Trojans and killed,
Patroclus, after taking the armour of Achilles,
[170] Went forth to battle; and having killed not a few men,
Finally, he gets killed by Hector;
Inevitably thereafter Achilles and Agamemnon
Accused one another for many things out of enmity,
Thereafter one of them says even this:
“But what could I do? God brings all things to pass.
Ate, the eldest of Zeus’ daughters, who deludes all.”

8.21 CONCERNING “QUICK TO COME IS ONE’S SATIETY OF CHILLING SORROW” (STORY 176)

Homer says that satiety of lament comes quickly.
Now, whom he introduces saying that and in which book,
Either in the Iliad or in the Odyssey,
[180] I know not exactly; But yet, these are the words of Homer.
For although Tzetzes is without books, although he even writes impromptu,
All these very things you see, and faster that fast,
As if he transcribed these things from some books, having them in front of him,
But still he composes every writing in the most accurate way.
So he becomes unbearable to all those who write falsehoods.
And if there is someone who doubts the hastiness and the improvised writings,
And the fact that all these things are being written down without any books,
Let he move directly towards us and learn from our labour,
And let him not become ignorant, learning exactly through experience.
[190] Death becomes intelligible to Tzetzes, by transcribing.
He scarcely does this thing because he is deeply annoyed.

8.22 CONCERNING THE DEATH, SUCH AS WHICH YOU KNOW THAT SOLON ADMIRES (STORY 177)

This is the first story in the first section,
Relating how Croesus the Lydian had asked Solon,
Whether he knew a man happier in life than he,
And how Solon did not bless him at all,
Instead he blessed Tellus and Cleobis and Biton together with them,
Whose lives came to an end fulfilling a useful cause.

8.23 CONCERNING THE MUCOUS EARWAX (STORY 178)

Slime, mucus, mucous discharge, discharge of liquid waste, mucous fluid,
Cypselos and cypsele, all these indicate the dirt secreted in the ears.
[200] The beehives are also called cypselae.
But there is also the city of Cypsela, which took its name after some Cypselus,
Or because there are many beehives in that place.
And this is how Cypselus was given that name;
Being the son of Eetion, and, I think, of Labda,
His mother concealed him in a chest (cypsele),
Lest the Bacchiads should murder him. For they were searching for him.
Cypsele was indeed a spiral vessel.

8.24 CONCERNING “THOUGH CUTTING OUR HAIR IS A TRIBUTE TO THE SAD DEAD” AND CONCERNING “BUT, THAT THE SPIRIT OF MAN SHOULD COME AGAIN, NEITHER, ETC.” (STORY 179)

Homer introduces Pisistratus, the son of Nestor,
Saying to Menelaus, who was weeping at dinner time,
[210] While reminding them of the manners of Odysseus;
“Though, Menelaus, it is a tribute paid to the ones who died, when we weep,
And at the same time, cut off our hair; But, I take no delight,
In tears while eating, so cease weeping.”
Homer says these words in the book of the Odyssey.

In turn, in the ninth book of the Iliad
Achilles scaring the ambassadors away says these:
That Agamemnon would not persuade him at all,
Not even if he offered him gifts more numerous than the grains of sand and dust.
For everything may be carried off as booty, and everything may be acquired,
[220] “But, that the spirit of man can be brought back again, neither by raiding,
Nor by winning, when once it has passed the barrier of his teeth.”

8.25 CONCERNING “BUT WHEN THE DUST HAS DRAWN UP THE BLOOD OF A MAN, ONCE HE IS DEAD, THERE IS NO RETURN TO LIFE” (STORY 180)

Aeschylus, as Homer, believing in the mortality of the soul,
Considers the soul to be an exhalation from blood,
As Marcus the emperor in later times;
Aeschylus, thinking that the soul is mortal according to Homer,
Even the words of Homer translates into iambic verses.
For exactly these words that Homer says, as I said above,
“But, that the spirit of man can be brought back again, neither by raiding,
Nor by winning, when once it has passed the barrier of his teeth.”
[230] Writing in iambic verses Aeschylus himself says in this way:
“But when the dust has drawn up the blood of a man,
Once he is dead, there is no return to life.”

8.26 CONCERNING SOCRATES WHO SAYS: “I WILL FIND A PLACE MUCH BETTER THAN THIS ONE HERE” (STORY 181)

Socrates the philosopher was about to drink the hemlock,
Because the Athenians thought he was impious, and he was imprisoned,
And forced to buy even the hemlock,
(O respite from misfortune!) so as to expire by drinking it,
Because they were saying that he could not acquire hemlock at public expense,
When some men approached him in prison,
Some of them to encourage him and others to lament,
[240] That very man was most nobly philosophizing,
And he much preferred death to life,
Saying that he would find there a place better than this one here.
And truly even among the Greeks and the most impious men
Who live there he imagined there were punishments,
And rewards for both the good and the bad ones who live here.

8.27 CONCERNING THE WORDS WHICH THE SPECTRE OF PATROCLUS SAYS TO ACHILLES: “NOT WHILE I WAS ALIVE WERE YOU UNMINDFUL OF ME, BUT NOW THAT I AM DEAD” (STORY 182)

In the Iliad Homer introduces the spectre of Patroclus,
Due to the fact that he was still lying unburied in the tents,
Urging Achilles himself to bury him,
And uttering this very idea, which Homer relates
[250] In heroic verses saying in this way the following:
“Not while I was alive were you unmindful of me, but now that I am dead;
Bury me as quickly as may be, that I may pass through the gates of Hades.
Far do the souls keep me off, the phantoms of men that have done with toils.”

8.28 CONCERNING THE RIVER ILISSOS (STORY 183)

Ilissos is a river of Attica,
From where they say Boreas carried off Orithyia.
So Ilissos is a river, as I said;
But now I have called Ilissos the mouth of one of my friends.

8.29 CONCERNING THE DODECACRUNOS (OF TWELVE SPRINGS) MOUTH (STORY 184)

Callirhoe happens to be a fountain of nine spouts in Athens,
The one which was also formerly called enneacrunos (of nine spouts);
[260] But I have called in this way its mouth, dodecacrunos (of twelve spouts),
Just as it was called a long time before our time, in ages passing by,
Concerning this Cratinus the comic poet has written somewhere:
“Lord Apollo, fountains of flowing words
Splash out, his mouth has twelve springs,
An Ilissos in his throat; what can I say?”

8.30 CONCERNING THE ATTIC FOUNTAIN CALLIRHOE (STORY 185)

Of the mouth of twelve springs and Callirhoe,
I spoke to you beforehand, writing shorthand, as you know;
And without my knowing if the story concerning Callirhoe lies further below,
In turn you already have this very story added in writing.

8.31 WHAT LARINOS IS (STORY 186)

[270] Everything which is big note to call in this way larinon;
From the name of a herdsman called Larinus,
Who was of largest frame and he was also eating to excess;
And also some fatted oxen were named Larinian after him;

In this way the big one is called larinon, either due to its size,
Or due to being quite enough and quite big to satiate even Larinus.
I also call this due to the food of the gulls (laros),
In other words, because it is able to fill even the big mouth of a gull.
For larus is a bird which swallows whole fish.

8.32 CONCERNING “AS PYTHAGORAS PROVED ME SILENT” (STORY 187)

Pythagoras, the hallmark of the ends of philosophy,
[280] That is to observe silence for five years, was teaching the initiates.
This one was once asked, how long is the human lifespan?
Proving the finite duration of lifespan, revealing that it is short, he concealed it.
So did I write a letter to a friend which I have not sent;
Istrian stock fish, as it seems, my good friend,
As Pythagoras, you proved us silent.

8.33 CONCERNING THE MIGRATION OF THE SUN TOWARDS THE SOUTH POLE AND THE TROPIC OF CAPRICORN (STORY 188)

They say there are five poles of the celestial sphere,
The Arctic and North Pole, which is always above the horizon,
The Antarctic, the South, which lies hidden,
The Zodiac and along with it the two Tropics,
[290] The summer and winter Tropic.
But others do not call these poles but circles,
And they say there are eleven circles;
The five aforementioned ones and the Horizon,
The Milky Way together with them and over and above them all
The Meridian, the Equator and the two Colures.
But others of the all-wise race call them differently.
During the time the sun moves towards the South Pole,
And reaches the Tropic of Capricorn,
It is winter season. And on the contrary,
[300] When it moves towards the North Pole and the Tropic of Cancer,
It is summer season; But now I must stop.

8.34 CONCERNING THE TRIBON, THE PERITIARA AND THE COMMON PERIBOLAIA (STORY 189)

Tribon was once called the worn cloak of the philosophers;
But the black garment improperly
I called tribonion, the garment of the priests.

Tiara was a head covering of the Persians.
In later times, our people, who were awarded with a crown upon being victorious,
Had their own heads crowned with tiaras, that is to say typhas,
Such as this one which that equestrian statue
Of Justinian wears standing on the top of the column.
[310] I even spoke to you of the tiara; Now, the peritiara,
Is the proper head ornament for citizens.

In turn, I call common peribolaia
All the ornamental garments, both white and dyed ones.

8.35 CONCERNING “TO MOST MORTALS THE HAVEN OF FRIENDSHIP IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED” (STORY 190)

Euripides often celebrates friendship,
Contrariwise he disapproves, not within due limits, of one being friendless,
In the Orestes and the Phoenician Women and the other tragedies,
“To many people the institution of friendship, he says, is not to be trusted.
And it is a good thing to be prosperous, friendless men are unfortunate”.

8.36 CONCERNING POLYKLEITOS (STORY 191)

Polykleitos of Argos was a sculptor as well as a painter,
[320] Many images did he paint and many statues did he make.
But two among the rest of his works were superior to the other,
A painted image, I say, and a statue;
Of which, the image was considered exemplary of the art of painting,
And the statue, in turn, exemplary of the art of sculpture.

8.37 CONCERNING PHIDIAS (STORY 192)

Phidias was a pupil of Geladas of Argos,
Who modelled a statue of Heracles at Melite, a demos of Attica.
That Phidias was of the Athenian race,
Making bronze sculptures and sculpting and carving the wood.
It would take long to talk about his handiwork,
[330] The ivory statue of Athena in Athens,
The wrought gold statue of Zeus, in turn, at Olympia,
And the bronze statue of Athena and likewise that statue of Hera,
This very statue of that Anthelios Apollo,
And the sculpture showing Heracles carrying out the dung of the cattle of Augeas,
And countless other of his handiwork;
Some of which were destroyed, some other were melted down,
While other have been uselessly wasted.
But there are some statues set up in the circus and the forum,
While the bust of Apollo stands at the Palatine Hill itself.

8.38 CONCERNING ALCAMENES (STORY 193)

[340] Alcamenes the bronze smith was by nationality an islander,
And he was a contemporary of Phidias and quarrelled with him,
As a result of which Phidias even risked his life and nearly died.
Alcamenes produced well-shaped statues,
Although he was unskilled in optics and geometry,
But he frequented places of public assembly and he was passing all his time there,
And he had worshippers and lovers and followers.
Phidias, on the contrary, being in accordance with the rules of optics and geometry,
And being a perfectly accurate artist in sculpture,
And making everything fitting for the positions, the occasions, the persons,
[350] Striving for the decorum more than the others,
According to Tzetzes he even shunned public assemblies,
Had his art his only worshipper and lover.
And when on one occasion the Athenians wanted
To consecrate two certain statues to Athena,
Which were to be erected upon lofty pedestals,
Both sculptors started work submitting to the popular will.
Of whom, Alcamenes made the figure of the virgin goddess
Both delicate and womanly at the same time.
Phidias, on the other hand, being in accordance with the rules of optics and geometry,
[360] And considering that the whole shape would seem much smaller in proportion to the height of the appointed place,
Formed the statue with the lips wide open,
And its nostrils distended,
And all the rest accordingly to the height of the columns.
And so Alcamenes’ statue seemed to be better than that of Phidias.
Phidias was in great danger to have been stoned.
But, as soon as the statues were erected and raised up on their columns,
The work of Phidias proved the excellence of his art,
And thereafter Phidias was on everyone’s lips;
The work of Alcamenes was ridiculed and Alcamenes himself was laughed at.

8.39 CONCERNING MYRON (STORY 194)

[370] Myron was a bronze smith, whose works were many,
But his most famous work even until our time,
Is the one which once stood on the Acropolis of Athens,
The bronze statue of a young cow with her breasts swollen.
It was said that a living calf bellowing went up to suckle from the cow.

8.40 CONCERNING PRAXITELES (STORY 195)

Praxiteles was a sculptor in wood,
Who made many other works, but one of his most famous
Is the statue at Cnidus, the naked Aphrodite.
In white royal and Pentelic marble,
With which many people fell in love even madly,
[380] And among these Macareus from Perinthus, who in his frantic desire
Wishing to set fire to the temple since his passion was not calming down,
Heard during his sleep the goddess saying the words of Homer:
“No blame on the Trojans and strong-greaved Achaeans,
Who for the sake of this woman have long suffered pains.”
Therefore he had the Cnidian courtesan Ischas from the goddess.
Ptolemy writes this dedicating it to Tertylla,
If by any chance you know Ptolemy Hephaestion.

8.41 CONCERNING ZEUXIS (STORY 196)

Zeuxis was a painter, I suppose he was even from Ephesus,
He painted countless pictures,
[390] In Ephesus there is a picture of Menelaus himself,
Pouring out libations for his brother, soaked in tears.

8.42 CONCERNING APELLES (STORY 197)

Apelles was also a painter, a native of Ephesus,
And a contemporary of Ptolemy; we must not omit the other details.
How he was calumniated by the painter Antiphilus
And how he painted a picture illustrating this very calumny,
A picture entirely artistic, many others have mentioned this incident,
Lucian the rhetor writes about it in a loose manner.

8.43 CONCERNING PARRHASIUS (STORY 198)

Even this Parrhasius was a painter from Ephesus,
Having skilfully painted many other paintings,
[400] And among them, Megabyzus himself in the land of Ephesus,
Alexander the Great, the son of Philip, admired this painting,
And the Menelaus Pouring Libations of Zeuxis, of which we have spoken,
And the painting of Timanthes illustrating the Death of Palamedes,
“A great din was accumulated and poured out in my soul and violently fell upon it.”
Aeschrion wrote these words in the Ephemerides.
This Aeschrion was a Mitylenaean by race,
Having written both epic and iambic poems as well as so many other.

8.44 CONCERNING STASICRATES (STORY 199)

Stasicrates was a bronze smith and a native of Bithynia.
He lived at the time of Alexander the Great.
[410] He modelled statues that were supercilious and vain,
But not representing the features of those he portrayed.
And he said to Alexander: “I will model a statue of you,
Moving the earth and the sea, like Xerxes before you”.
Noway did Alexander want such a statue,
But one modelled in his own likeness.

8.45 CONCERNING LYSIPPOS (STORY 200)

And this Lysippos was a man who modelled bronze.
He was from Sicyon, near Corinth,
A contemporary of Alexander, son of Philip,
Making statues with utmost likeness of the ones he portrayed.
[420] Alexander rejoiced in his sculpture.
For he portrayed Alexander even with his neck bent on one side,
As if he looked up with his face to the sky, and he portrayed everything exactly,
Like the kind of man that Alexander of Macedon was,
So that the viewers behold Alexander instead of the monument,
In this monument an epigrammatist inscribed:
“The bronze statue seems to proclaim, looking at Zeus:
I place the earth under my sway, you, Zeus, keep Olympus.”

This Sicyonian sculptor, Lysippos,
When Alexander had let slip an opportunity,
[430] And was vehemently disheartened for its loss,
Most skilfully made him an effigy of Time,
Hence advising everyone no to let time escape by,
He depicted Time deaf, bald-behind, wing-footed mounted on a ball,
And offering a knife to his follower.

8.46 CONCERNING YOUR LITTLE FROGS WITH THE SWOLLEN JAW (STORY 201)

Aristophanes wrote about frogs in his play,
In which he mocks the outcasts, the foolishly wise men,
Who compare themselves with the ancient men of native mother-wit,
For having young lovers, bawlers, untimely crying out loudly,
Those men who gain great glory not from reasoning and judgement,
[440] But from the inconsiderate voices they utter after the manner of the lake frogs.
In this way now I called the lovers little frogs.

8.47 CONCERNING AUTOLYCUS’ THEFTS (STORY 202)

Autolycus was a son of Hermes, the father of Laertes,
Thus the grandfather of Odysseus, but being extremely poor,
He was gifted by Hermes with the art of stealing,
So that to excel in thievery that Egyptian thief,
And that Babylonian thief, whom Herodotus writes about,
And Eurybatus, who is being talked about a lot by the Greeks,
And Agamedes himself together with Trophonius,
And so as to surpass the very nature of the quicksilver and every thief.
[450] For whenever he stole, he replaced the stolen goods and returned one thing for another.
So the receivers thought they were getting their own things back again,
Not that they have been deceived by him and were receiving different things,
He would steal a very good horse and give back a scabby ass,
And made it seem he had returned the former;
And when he conveyed away a young girl to be his bride, he gave back again
Either a Silenus or a Satyr, some weakened little old man,
Flat-nosed, toothless and bald, runny-nosed, one of the ugly,
And her father thought of him as his daughter.
In his satyr play Autolycus the whole story
[460] About him Euripides has written accurately.

8.48 ACCORDING TO THE COMIC POET: “BITING MYSELF, BUT STILL LAUGHING” (STORY 203)

Aristophanes fabricated in his play The Frogs a story,
That Dionysus unable to tolerate the unmusical poets
Was about to descend into Hades, to retrieve a poet,
A man among the ancient ones, who composed poems skilfully,
And not in the manner the outcasts of our times compose nonsense poems.
Being about to descend into Hades, he covers himself properly with garment,
So as the many dead in Hades would think of him as Heracles.
He even wears the lion skin and carries the club;
For these were the attributes of Heracles;
[470] But he even wears his regular most feminine clothing,
The yellow dress and the high boots; he comes before Heracles,
To ask him about the most reliable passage to Hades.
Heracles, upon seeing him wearing the double disguise,
The male attire suitable for Heracles,
And the feminine clothing which is suitable for him,
Laughs and although he was biting himself, he could not stop laughing.
So do I laugh at the fraud, in this way of these I have spoken.

8.49 CONCERNING LYCOPHRON OF CHALCIS (STORY 204)

There were several men of the name of Lycophron,
Lycophron, the son of Mastor, as Homer somewhere writes,
[480] And others, wise as well as foolish men, under the name Lycophron.
But this Lycophron was the son of Lycus, or Socles,
A contemporary of Ptolemy,
He composed many satyr plays, tragedies,
And a book, which he entitled Alexandra,
On which Tzetzes wrote an exegesis, and other plays.
Someone made a claim upon this exegesis,
And not the book saying that it has been explained at length by him;
But he interprets on the whole everything that is stated in this book,
And hides the book, and says to his disciples,
[490] That the very things which he interprets are the children of his own reasoning,
Reviling and attacking Tzetzes even in his absence,
Until many of the frequenters, in his cell
Entering stealthily, found the book,
And the interpreter was despised in this way,
Being distressed and especially at those who have received benefaction from him,
Therefore he was appointed the fate of a public enemy,
So that he was even treated spitefully by those who have received his kindness.
The ungrateful, licentious and thrice-sinful men
They have perceived, having no need of the tripods of the oracles.

8.50 CONCERNING THE BIRD OF ATHENA, THE ATHENE NOCTUA (STORY 205)

[500] Aesop introduces somewhere in his own fables
Zeus, intending to create a sovereign over the birds,
Announcing publicly the appointed day, on which he intended to do this.
And while all birds were bathing in river water,
The jackdaw, which was the most deformed of all the birds,
Adorning himself with the feathers discarded by all the other birds
Seemed to be the most beautiful of them all.
But the Athene noctua, upon recognizing its own feather,
Was the first to strip the jackdaw of his plume as well as the rest of its feathers.
And the jackdaw was exposed for the jackdaw that it was from the beginning.
[510] Jackdaw was shown to be king of all birds in borrowed plumes.
This is the meaning and the moral of the fable,
Many strangers by stealing the work and collections of others
Think that they surpass those who are virtuous by nature and hard work.

That is the way the story goes; the jackdaw is,
According to Homer and Aratus, Bubrias and the others,
The smaller crow which nests in the roof openings.
Simocatus and others together with him say in turn,
That jackdaw is the best-looking bird.
Wherefore I think that the details of the mythography were somehow fabricated,
[520] According to which the jackdaw was exceptionally deformed before, but taking the plumes of every bird,
It rendered itself the most beautiful of all the birds.
For it thinks it has the plumage of all the other birds.

8.51 YOU WHO PUT THE JACKDAW TO THE TEST (STORY 206)

Now a reversal of stories has occurred, child;
In the story of the Athene noctua the story of the jackdaw was written.
And note the sharpness of Tzetzes’ mind,
How he, without delay, upon seeing the second story after the first one,
Rapidly wove together for you the two storylines into one single story.
Because the story of the jackdaw was written in the story of the owl, child,
In the story of the jackdaw I will relate to you the story of the owl.

[530] The Athene noctua is said to be the bird of Athena,
Therefore Athena had in her own shield
Painted on her breast plate both the owl and the Gorgon,
The Gorgon, signifying the dreadful spirit,
The Athene noctua, signifying the profound wisdom.
For wisdom discerns everything that is obscure and concealed,
Just as the owl sees in the dark night.

8.52 CONCERNING THE DRONES, WHICH HARVEST THE HONEY BELONGING TO ANOTHER (STORY 207)

The drones are animals bred up with the kin of bees,
For at the same time along with the bees they even procreate.
They happen to be bigger than the bees and without stings,
[540] And they serve the bees, by carrying them water.
They do not produce honey, as the bees.
And as they have large bodies, they eat a lot of honey.
Wherefore the bees in early winter
Kill them because they are afraid, lest they should die from lack of food,
When the heavy winter arrives, and there would be no available flowers,
Whence they would be able to gather their food and honey.
For the drones, as I said, devour a lot of honey.
Note that the drones happen to be of such kind altogether,
Consuming in this way the fruits of the bees’ labour and work.
[550] Whoever says something else writing about the drones,
He has been acquainted with neither the things concerning the bees, nor these concerning the drones.

8.53 CONCERNING “AGREE WITH THE LAD PROCLAIMING THAT HONEY IS ACQUIRED BY THE BEE’S LABOUR” (STORY 208)

Learn that this happen to be an ironic figure of speech.
For who does not know that the honey is acquired by the bee’s labour?
In this way he himself has spoken employing the method of forcefulness;
Agree with the one who says that the honey belongs to the bees,
Or, in other words, he says that our labours are deemed to be ours.
Even Philip once did this very thing to the Olynthians.
For when once Lasthenes had betrayed Olynthus to him,
And the rest of the traitors of their race,
[560] The Macedonians called them traitors.
As they were saying to Philip: “Do you hear, king,
How the Macedonians call us traitors?”
As the king wittily countered them,
Fittingly quoting from Aristophanes comedy;
The Macedonians, being ignorant, call the trough a trough;
That is to say, they call things what they are.
You are traitors, so that is what they call you.
Aristophanes says that in a comedy:
“I am rustic, I call the trough a trough.”

8.54 CONCERNING THE PROVERB SAYING “EVEN THE STONES WILL CRY OUT” (STORY 209)

[570] We say this proverb for things that are excessively obvious.
It is called a hyperbole by the poets and rhetors.
For the stones, the wood, the metal and everything inanimate
Do not have naturally the ability to speak and utter voice.

8.55 CONCERNING THE INDIANS (STORY 210)

The land of the Indians lies in the eastern parts of the earth,
Being the first to first partake in the sun’s rays;
It is the first to see the sun as it rises.
It is a big country, surrounded with water,
And watered by rivers, spice-producing,
Very full of metals and beasts of strange nature,
[580] Blissful, heavily populated, bigger than all the other countries,
Shaped like the figure of a rhombus and a square.

8.56 CONCERNING THE PILLARS OF DIONYSUS (STORY 211)

Near the mountain of Hemodon
Some people have set up pillars, the pillars of Dionysus,
And not those of Thebaeus and Zaboscuteles,
Just like some people think, people of both ancient and modern times;
I say these are the pillars of the Egyptian inventor of viticulture,
Noah, and Osiris, Deunyssus, Dionyssus.

8.57 CONCERNING THE EASTERN OCEANUS (STORY 212)

The Oceanus, according to poets, rhetors, philosophers,
Historians and geographers along with them,
[590] Is regarded by some people as some sweet sea,
Which is also called by them Outer Sea,
As an island encircling the whole inhabited world,
And producing all the inner seas.
Some others think of Oceanus as a river encircling the inhabited world.
Ptolemy is the only one who does not say that the Oceanus encircles the whole world,
And that there is some place towards the South, which is not encircled.
Everyone says that, originated from this Oceanus, of which I have spoken,
The seas, the lakes, the rivers, the wells, the whole body of waters,
Rush out with violence and flow into our inhabited world.
[600] For out of the Zephyrus and on the West one flowing mouth of the Oceanus
Forms every sea, that is known to us,
The Hispanic, the Iberian, the Celtic, the Ausonian,
The Sicilian, the Cretan, the Aegean, the Pamphylian,
To speak simply, each one of our seas that you hear of,
And also the Euxine Sea, just as many people say.
The natural philosopher Strato, just as Strabo writes,
Says that the Euxine Sea was like a closed lake,
Originally, as the Gaderian Sea,
And the Sea of Rhegium, the one closest to Rome,
[610] And he says that the rivers and the earthquakes, that burst, formed a communication
Of this very Euxine Sea, of which I have spoken,
With the mouth of the Byzantium and the Propontis
And the Hellespont itself; the rest of the seas,
I am talking about the Gaderian Sea and the Sea of Rhegium,
Are formed in open orifices near them.

Out of the Zephyrus and on the West one mouth of the Oceanus,
Originated from Gadeira, forms all of our seas.
Another oceanic mouth on the northern part,
Flowing inside, formed the Hyrcanian Sea.
[620] In turn, two other mouths on the South
Formed a passage to the Persian Gulf and the Erythraean Sea.
In this way the inner Oceanus flowing through four mouths
Forms the four seas, of which I have just spoken.

There are different names for the outer parts.
For at the same time Hesperian Ocean is called,
And Atlantic Sea the part towards the West,
The one towards the North, the Saturnian and congealed one is dead.

Eastern Ocean and eastern Sea
Is called the one towards the land of the Indians and the sun-beams.
[630] The one towards the South and the southern parts
Both Persian and Erythraean Ocean,
Arabian is called and Sea of the Ethiopians.

8.58 CONCERNING THE ISLAND OF TAPROBANE (STORY 213)

Taprobane is the biggest island of the Indians,
And more excellent than all the islands of the inhabited world.
On this island there are elephants and countless beasts
Of strange nature and strange and of monstrous shape,
And snakes that excel in the whole nature of snakes,
Eating the elephants employing the following artifices;
They coil around the legs of those beasts
[640] And eat them easily, after dropping them to the ground.
Many times the snakes themselves get killed together with those
Which fall on them and kill them with their weight.
In the heads of those snakes there are also stones,
Most highly valued, many of them being self-carved,
Bearing even seals; that in one particular of them even a chariot
Engraved on its own you could discern, countless men say,
And Posidippus himself writes somewhere in verses.

8.59 CONCERNING THE INDIAN ISLAND WHICH IS CALLED GOLDEN (STORY 214)

There is an Indian island which they call “golden”,
But others call it a peninsula, not an island.
[650] The Hebrews call it Ophat in their own tongue.
It has gold, and all sorts of gemstones,
But it is much more filled with the green gemstone.

8.60 CONCERNING THE SIDE OF ZEPHYRUS (STORY 215)

There are twelve winds, whose names are these:
Apeliotes, Eurus, Euronotos and Notos,
Libonotus, and then Lips, Zephyrus and Thrascias;
Some people call the wind Argestes instead of Thrascias;
And Aparctias and Boreas and Meses and Caecias.
You also need to know whence each of them blows, learn.
If you stand as looking towards the sunrise,
[660] With everything behind you being towards the west,
Note that Apeliotes blows from the sunrise itself,
Towards the land of India, and then Eurus itself blows,
Towards your right hand and the right side of India.
Following Euronotos, which blows from Persia,
And the Red Sea, that is also Arabia.
Notos over the Ethiopians themselves and the Egyptians,
I am talking about the eastern ones, blows.
Libonotos separates Libya and Egypt;
Lips lies after him towards western Libya.
[670] You are fully informed about the places on the right side of the earth towards Lips.

Zephyrus blows opposite to Apeliotes,
From Gadeira itself and the Iberian Spanish.
You recognized Zephyrus from the back side of your chine.
Now from the back and left-side parts
Move on in turn to the eastern parts of Thrascias.
Thrascias blows over the British and Tyrrhenian land,
The Romans and the Germans and countless others.

Following this very Thrascias, advancing towards the east
The Aparctias wind blows over Thule,
[680] Both of them bind close together the Latins and the Italians.

Following Aparctias, Boreas blows over the Scythians and the Euxine Sea,
Whereas over the Hyrcanians and the Colchians the wind Meses blows,
Caecias blows over the Hemodian mountains,
Which lie in the left-side places of India.

8.61 CONCERNING THE ISLAND OF GADEIRA (STORY 216)

The island that is now called Gadeira
Was called in older times Cotinusa.
Write the syllable ga of Gadeira with both a short and a long vowel.
The Greeks say that Gadeira is the neck of the earth;
For it looks like the neck of the earth; wherefore one has to write it with a long vowel.
[690] In the Phoenician language Gadara stands for the stone-paved roads,
As the Hebrews call Gabatha the stone-paved places.

The Phoenicians founded Carthage in the lands of Libya
And they also founded Gadeira, after coming from Phoenice.

There is also a city under the name Gadara in the Phoenician land,
From which the rhetor Apsines of Gadara has come.
You have learnt that for the Greeks the word Gadeira has a long vowel,
As it derives from the words ge (earth) and deira (neck); but in the Phoenician language
(For Gadeira, as we said, they call the stone-paved roads)
It has a short vowel; for it does not derive its meaning from the word ge.
[700] But it just happens to start with the syllable ga.
Perhaps the word is of a foreign origin, and for that reason it is written with a short vowel,
As Gaion, Garamantas, Gabala, Galaxian,
And every other word which starts with the syllable ga,
In the Greek language and the language of the barbarians,
Except that it was turned into the letter alpha in the Doric dialect,
As Gadeira and gapeda, garyein and words such as these.

8.62 CONCERNING THE RIVER BAITIS OF GADEIRA (STORY 217)

Baitis is a river in the Baitic land of the Spanish.
For there happen to be three provinces of the Spanish,
The province of Hispania Baetica, Lusitania and Terraconensis.
[710] Baitis and Bailon are rivers of the Baetica,
And so the river Barbesolas and Portos and Mageth.
There are also cities called Barbesola and Bailon and Mageth,
And the city of Calpe, there is also a mountain and a column under the same name.
And together with them another city, Baisippo.
And the city of Cotinusa, and the island of Gadeira.
There is also the Marianus mountains; who could tell you everything?

8.63 CONCERNING THE ISLES OF THE HESPERIDES AND THE BRITISH ISLES (STORY 218)

The British isles lie towards the Thrascias wind;
The two biggest isles of them all are, Iuernia first
And Alubia after it; these are before all the others.
[720] There are also thirty other isles, called Orcades,
And Thule is the closest one to them, another very big island,
Lying closest towards the place where Aparctias blows.
Hesperides are included among those thirty isles.
For they lie towards the western parts of Britain.
Dionysius speaks only of three cities.

8.64 TOWARDS THE BLASTS OF NOTOS AND TURNING TO GO SOUTHWARD (STORY 219)

The position of the inhabited world looks like the lowercase letter ο.
I divide the oikoumene into four parts,
East and West, North and South.
A wind blows from each of the four directions,
[730] The Apeliotes wind blows from the East
Zephyrus from the West, Boreas from the North,
And Notos from the southern parts.

8.65 CONCERNING THE INHABITABLE AND UNINHABITABLE PARTS OF ETHIOPIA (STORY 220)

Towards the southern part, from where Notos blows,
Towards your right hand, as you stand, just like I said,
First there is the stream of the southern Oceanus
And beyond that lies the uninhabitable part of Ethiopia.
Next after that in turn the inhabitable Ethiopia
And following that Egypt separated by the Nile
From the boundaries of Ethiopia; I call eastern parts,
[740] Both Ethiopia and Egypt in like manner.
For towards their eastern parts Notos blows.
Whereas Libonotos in turn separates in Libya
The western parts of Egypt and Ethiopia;
Whereas I call the western parts, the uninhabitable world.
For even according to Homer there are two separate lands of Ethiopia:
“The one where Hyperion sets, the other where he rises.”
He speaks of the inhabitable lands but not of the uninhabitable ones,
He in no way wants to delineate the tribes of the Ethiopians,
The bird-eaters, the unaffected ones, the fish-eaters,
[750] The wood-eaters, and the rest, whose names are countless.

8.66 CONCERNING THE ARCTIC AND NORTHERN REGION (STORY 221)

The place which lies towards the north part of the inhabited world
Arctic is called, due to its proximity
To the celestial pole, I speak of the Arctic one.
For in this Helice, Arctos (Ursa) and Cynosura
Were placed, lying along it,
Being always visible above the horizon, but not, as yet, sinking below it.
In this way the northern region of the inhabited world
Arctic has been called out of the Ursa constellations of the pole.

8.67 CONCERNING THE AGATHYRSI (STORY 222)

The race of the Agathyrsi is a northern nation
[760] Dwelling between the winds Aparctias and Boreas;
Much rejoicing in the Dionysian worship and fennel wands
The race has been called Agathyrsi, a name most suitable for it.

8.68 CONCERNING THE GELONI (STORY 223)

Even the race of the Geloni is a northern nation, as the race of the Agathyrsi,
Dwelling in the middle of Aparctias and in the middle of Boreas,
Located in a more southerly region than the race of the Agathyrsi,
Inclining towards the Euxine Sea from Boreas.

8.69 CONCERNING THE MAEOTIAN SCYTHIANS AND THE CAUCASIAN SCYTHIANS (STORY 224)

There are three tribes of the Scythians, learn their names:
The Maeotians and the Caucasians and the Oxiani.
Maeotis is a lake located nearest the North.
[770] Maeotis itself among the Greeks is rich according to its name,
As a mother and a midwife of all the fish populations,
As many of them as they move towards the Euxine Sea and towards us.
The very same lake is called Karmpaluk among the Scythians;
The Karmpaluk, translating it in the Greek language, means the city of fish;
For the Karm means the city in the Scythian language, whereas Paluk means the fish,
And pronouncing them quickly, they come to signify one single word, the Karmpaluk, Maeotis.
Towards the North is located the lake Karmpaluk, Maeotis;
Maeotians are called the Scythians who dwell near this lake.

The ones who dwell near the Scythian mountain of Caucasus,
[780] The one closest to Hyrcania, just where the Unni, Uzi dwell,
Where even the wind of Meses blows,
(I do not speak of Caucasus, the mountain of India)
Have been called in turn Scythians Caucasians.
Those who dwell beyond the sea of Hyrcania,
Beyond the wind of Meses towards the part of Caecias,
And Sugdiada itself, whose river is Oxus,
And Sacas and the extremities of the Indian mountains,
Those Scythians whom Herodotus call the eastern ones,
Are the Scythians Oxiani and the eastern Scythians.

8.70 CONCERNING THE EARTH AND THE SEA, THE STRONG-FLOWING OCEANUS HAS EMBRACED THEM WITH HIS WET ARMS (STORY 225)

[790] The Oceanus according to others encircles the inhabited world.
Whereas Ptolemy does not say that he encircles the entire world,
And that there is some place towards the South, which is not encircled.

8.71 CONCERNING THE THESSALIAN SOLDIER WHO CONCEALED HIMSELF AT THE COURT OF LYCOMEDES (STORY 226)

As Achilles of Thessaly, from his homeland of Phthia,
Having just married the daughter of Lycomedes,
Whose name was Deidamia, from whom a son named Pyrrhus was born,
Spent time with her in the bridal chambers,
Some people fabricated the stories, that being afraid of Hector
Thetis hid him at the court of Lycomedes,
Dressing him up as a maiden in female attire,
[800] Lest he should perish after sailing along with the Greek fleet.

8.72 CONCERNING “COMPARED WITH THE BEE DO NOT BECOME MORE UNGRATEFUL THAN THE DRONES” (STORY 227)

The drones are animals bred up together with the bees,
They are very big and without stings, and carry them water.
In wintertime they get killed by the bees,
Lest the bees should die from lack of food.
For the drones having large bodies
Consume a lot of honey by eating it.
I said, do not become more ungrateful than the drones,
Seeing that devouring the honey, as I said, the drones,
Do not become ungrateful to the bees,
[810] Since they offer the service of carrying them water in return.
By interpreting the books which are fully related by us,
Not only you seem ungrateful to the benefactors,
But also you speak foolishly and secretly in a most indecent way against us.

8.73 CONCERNING, “LEST IN ANY WAY, JUST AS PINDAR SAYS, SHOULD WE TURN THE MUSE TO SILVER ACCORDING TO SIMONIDES, SHE SHOULD NO LONGER LOOK OUT FOR THE POOR” (STORY 228)

The lyric poets in former times composed poems without pay.
Simonides was the first to compose poems at a wage.
For he made two chests,
He called the one the chest of gifts (in cash), the other of favours.
He put the money he received after composing poems in the chest,
Which he called the chest of gifts; finally it was filled;
[820] Whereas the chest of favours was empty.
So whenever someone asked him to compose a poem without pay,
He used to say, “there are two chests in my house,
One for gifts, the other for favours.
Whenever I open the chest of gifts, I find,
In it everything that might meet my needs;
But opening the chest of favours, I find it empty,
And I am not able to buy anything useful out of it.”
Speaking in this way he turned all of his writings into silver,
As both Anacreon himself and Callimachus say,
[830] And countless other notable men.
This Simonides did not compose praise songs for gods,
Avoiding composing for free; he composed praise poems for youths,
From whom he received much and quite sufficient gold.
When he was asked by some people, “why don’t you compose for gods,
But you compose praise poems for youths?”, Simonides replied:
“The youths are my gods, because from them I receive my payment.”

8.74 CONCERNING “NOT EVEN THE ONE WHO COMES IN THE EVENING, ACCORDING TO CALLIMACHUS OF CYRENE, DO THEY LOVE” (STORY 229)

That poet Callimachus of Cyrene,
Concerning someone who is unable to keep a friendship consistent,
But he vacillates and suddenly changes his mind,
[840] Says these exact words, hear them and learn:
“At eventide they love, but at dawn they hate it.”

8.75 CONCERNING THE AESOPIAN HOUND BITING THE HARE, PRETENDING TO KISS IT (STORY 230)

Aesop the mythographer introduces the hare and the hound
Wanting to play with each other, joined together in friendship.
But because this kind of friendship is incompatible,
Between the breed of hounds which are fond of hunting and the species of hare,
He makes the hound, that seems to play with the hare,
Biting it all the time, as if it was kissing it.

8.76 CONCERNING THE HISTORICAL WORDS BOULUTOS AND GRAMMATEION AND GRAMMATION (STORY 231)

Boulutos is the time when the land workers
Release the oxen from the plough and their labour,
[850] And return to their homes toward evening.
You have learnt which period of time the word boulutos indicates;
But now learn what the words grammation and grammateion mean;
Grammation is the letter, whereas grammateion is the writing tablet.

8.77 CONCERNING VOTING BY SHOW OF HANDS AND WHAT THE METHOD OF FORMER VOTING WAS (STORY 232)

In former times, either a general or anyone else of the magistrates
If they were about to appoint, they were calling them by their names.
If the one proposed for election was approved by the Assembly of people,
Everyone raised their own right hands up to a height,
At once that one was elected to the magistracy.
Learn that that was the method of former voting.
[860] But if the one occupying the magistracy was not acceptable,
They either did not raise their hands at all or they raised them slightly.
And being considered unworthy of the magistracy he was eliminated by lot.
If the number of people who raised their hands
Was equal to the number of those who on the whole did not raise their hands,
They deliberated in turn many times on this matter.

8.78 CONCERNING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A SUNODOS AND A SULLOGOS (STORY 233)

Learn the difference between a sunodos and a sullogos.
Sunodos is the gathering of people from numerous cities,
Whereas sullogos is the meeting of people from a single city.

8.79 WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PARAPLEX, A MAENOMENOS, AN ONEIROPOLOS AND A ONEIROTTON (STORY 234)

Paracope (delirium), mania (frenzy) and melagcholia (melancholy),
[870] What is the difference between them, now learn clearly.
Paracope (delirium) and along with it paraplexia (madness),
Are some kind of mild derangement, as moderate fever.
Now I do not speak of the terms apoplexia and hemiplexia.
You have learnt what the paracope is and what the paraplexia.

Melagcholia (melancholy) is the profound confusion of the mind,
Darkening the mind out of the black bile,
Rendering frivolous and faint-hearted those who suffer from it.

Mania (frenzy) is the total displacement of the mind,
Savage they are and hard to live with all those with whom they are in company,
[880] So they draw stones and swords and they strike any chance person.
And many times they even destroy the flesh of their own people.
That happens due to the yellow bile that boils over.
These are the differences of which I have now spoken
Between paracope (delirium), mania (frenzy) and melagcholia (melancholy).

Now learn about oneiropolein and oneirottein.
Oneirottein means having an emission of semen during sleep.
Whereas oneiropolein means either dreaming during sleep,
Or interpreting skilfully the dreams.

8.80 CONCERNING THE DERIVATION OF THE WORD TYREUONTES (STORY 235)

The act of contriving by trickery and intrigue was named tyreuein after the Tyrrheni.
[890] The word tyrannos (tyrant) got its name after them as well.
For the Tyrrheni are very violent and beast-like people,
Sacrificing people even for Hieron.
So contriving by trickery and intrigue was called tyreuein either after those,
Or after the milk, which we make into cheese,
Stirring and twisting up, curdling by rennet.

8.81 CONCERNING THE DERIVATION OF THE HISTORICAL WORD ATOPON (STORY 236)

Atopon (strange), lacking argument construction and proof deduction.
We name topics the proofs and the exhibited arguments,
After the places where the hunters waiting hidden,
Destroy and kill the beasts with their bows.
[900] Homer calls those places prodocas.

8.82 CONCERNING THE DERIVATION OF THE WORD SCAIOROUSIN (TO DEVISE MISCHIEVOUSLY) (STORY 237)

Scaion (ill-omened) means anything left-sided and useless,
Ora is considered the concern that is to say the idle will
And anything evil and base is called scaioria (mischief) after that,
Or after the left-handed boxer, who prevails through cunning means.

8.83 CONCERNING THE ONE WHO DOES NOT EVEN DO THE WRONGDOERS WRONG (STORY 238)

Charillus the Laconian was Lycurgus’ brother.
As he was commended for his goodness,
Some of the Laconians said: “how can he be good,
The one who does not even do the wrongdoers themselves wrong?”

8.84 WHAT THE CATHARMATA OR ELSE PHARMACOI MEAN. WHEREAS THE WORDS PHARMACEIS AND PHARMACOPOLAI HAVE DIFFERENT MEANINGS (STORY 239)

In the twenty-third story it was written
[910] Notwithstanding that in the twenty-third story of this tablet,
What the pharmacos and pharmaceus mean, I will speak of it even now briefly.
Pharmacos is a catharma such as this:
After having burnt the ugliest of all men (just as I said before)
To purify the city from its biggest calamities,
They scattered his ashes almost all over the city.
So that is the catharma which they called before pharmacon.
The pharmaceus (poisoner) is the one who uses drugs to kill.
Call both pharmacergates (apothecary) and pharmacopoles (druggist),
The one who makes and sells the drugs.

8.85 CONCERNING THE DRUGS AGAINST VENOMOUS BEASTS AND COMMON ANTIPATHY (STORY 240)

[920] The makers of antidotes against the venomous bites of beasts
The snakes and the vipers, the poisonous beasts,
Take and cut off their heads and tails,
Having prepared countless condiments, as it is appropriate,
Out of those they prepare the common antipathy (antidote) for everyone.
In this way, bad people and intriguers, it is proper
That we all cut them off and produce common antipathies against them.

8.86 CONCERNING THE INFATUATED AND MELANCHOLY MAD ONES (STORY 241)

Being both infatuated and deranged
Is some kind of mild wandering of the mind, as I said.
Being a melancholy mad means to have the mind darkened by the black bile.

8.87 CONCERNING HOW MUCH CARE THE JACKDAWS BESTOWED ON THE REALM (STORY 242)

[930] When some people are utterly and by all means free from care,
Say the proverb, the one of Tzetzes:
“For how do the jackdaws care for the realm?”

8.88 THE PROVERB THAT SAYS: “OR HOW DO THE EAGLES CARE FOR THE LAWS OF PLATO?” (STORY 243)

Note that this is also a similar proverb,
Being of Tzetzes, even this one and others following that:
“For how do the eagles care for the doctrines of Plato
And his laws concerning the harlots, which are unlawful, unrighteous,
And they write that the women are at the disposal of everyone?”

8.89 THE PROVERB THAT SAYS: “AND THE NIGHTINGALES FOR THE RATIONAL CALCULATION OF ARISTOTLE” (STORY 244)

Note also this proverb equal to the other:
“For how do the nightingales care for the rational calculation?
[940] Or for such sort of Aristotelian books?”

8.90 IF YOU WISH, ADD ALSO THIS PROVERB “AND OF CHRYSIPPOS” (STORY 245)

Learn that this is also a proverb of Tzetzes,
Similar to the aforementioned proverbs:
“For how do the nightingales care for the rational calculation
Of both Aristotle and Chrysippos?”
Chrysippos was highly skilled in dialectic.

8.91 CONCERNING ARTAXERXES MACROCHEIR, OR TANUOXARCES ACCORDING TO THE PERSIAN APPELLATION (STORY 246)

The Greeks gave Artaxerxes the surname Macrocheir (Long-Hand),
Since one of his hands was longer than the other.
The Persians call the Macrocheira Tanuoxarcen.

8.92 HOW THE CITY OF ADRIAN IS CALLED AELIA (STORY 247)

Hadrian was the son of Hadrian Afer,
[950] After being married to Trajan’s sister, he became a brother-in-law of Trajan
And after Trajan’s death, he became an emperor,
He once marched against the Scythians and chased them
Around the city of Hadrian, delighting in the pursuit,
The small town formerly called Orestias,
Which Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, had formerly built,
(For after having bathed there in the rivers he recovered from madness)
Seized the emperor Hadrian, of whom I have spoken,
Having both names, Hadrian and Aelius,
And he built it strengthening its beauty and power,
[960] Calling the city of Hadrian, the Aelian city.

8.93 THE PROVERB THAT SAYS: “ABOVE GOLD AND TOPAZ” (STORY 248)

In case of big gifts we say this proverb,
Which says: “Above gold and topaz”.
For gold is highly desired by people.
Gold brings everything into order, gold is the nerve of war,
Gold is bravery, prudence, intellect, the entire beauty of people.
And those made of gold are manifest in every human being.
Whereas the topaz is a gemstone of the leek-coloured ones,
Neither bright, nor radiant, as the rest of the gemstones,
It happens to be like the greenish seashells,
[970] Like the extra garment of poor people, a leek-coloured garment worn for bathing.
Being leek-coloured, dyed scarlet, it shines as the air rises.

8.94 CONCERNING THE INSCRIPTION AT THE FRONT DOOR OF PLATO’S HOUSE “LET NO ONE IGNORANT OF GEOMETRY ENTER” (STORY 249)

Plato had written at the front door of his house:
“Let no one ignorant of geometry enter my house.”
That is, let no one who is unjust come in here;
For geometry is fairness and justice.

8.95 CONCERNING A SICK MAN, WHO DEPARTED SECRETLY FROM HIS OWN HOUSE, BECAUSE A FRIEND, WHO CAME TO VISIT HIM, WAITED LINGERING AND DID NOT DEPART (STORY 250)

Philogelos has written somewhere in his book:
“A friend came to visit a sick man.
As he did not arise or depart easily,
The sick man displeased rose from his bed,
[980] And saying farewell to him he departed from his house.”

8.96 CONCERNING THE EPICUREANS SAYING THAT THE HONEY IS THE TENTH PART OF AMBROSIA (STORY 251)

There was a sect of Epicurean philosophers
That thought of pleasure as the end of philosophy.
Those praising pleasure and everything that is delightful,
Were saying that the honey was the tenth part of ambrosia.

8.97 AS HERODOTUS TELLS OF PROSPEROUS ARABIA (STORY 252)

Herodotus, Diodorus, Ctesias, all the others,
Say that Arabia is prosperous,
Just like the most fragrant land of India,
Exhaling fragrances, as that land,
And its carved gems have a spicy scent.
[990] People there feeling weakened because of the scents,
Some bones and horns and sweet-smelling substances,
Successively fumigate and they recover in turn.

8.98 CONCERNING THE GIFTS THAT ANTHONY GAVE CLEOPATRA (STORY 253)

The daughter of Ptolemy Dionysius
And the kinswoman of Ptolemy, mistress Cleopatra,
Being wise and eloquent and most well proportioned,
Charming with her beauty all people and the nature of beasts,
After her father’s death, fell into dispute
With her own brother over the throne.
And when Caesar was staying in Egypt,
[1000] Julius Caesar, that Gaius,
[1] Himself was at that time the judge of their cause.
But her brother, Ptolemy himself,
Standing before the judgement seat of Caesar, was speaking of himself,
Whereas Cleopatra herself pleaded her case through advocates.
But as she was being defeated, wishing that the victory would incline to her side,
She has made known to Caesar: “Let it be known to you, Caesar,
That my advocates betray the case.
In my own person, Caesar,
I want to tell you, standing before your seat, everything I wish to convey”.
[10] Having accepted that most readily Caesar
Approved it and after a splendid judgement seat was acquired,
Queen Cleopatra came towards it.
And first with the lightnings of her surpassing beauty
She subdues the whole assembly, all the judges,
But most of them all, she subdues Caesar.
As she together with the unutterable lightnings of her beauty
Set up speeches sweet as honey, skilled in pleading, eloquent,
Surpassing the speeches of Nestor, surpassing the songs of the swans,
Surpassing the widespread songs of the Sirens,
[20] Everyone was astonished and listened with uttermost silence.
What happens thereupon, who of the minded ones is ignorant?
First, she caught Caesar in the nets of love,
With Aphrodite’s flowers she kept him as a prisoner,
She enslaves the emperor, who enslaved the entire world,
She wins at trial, she won the contest for the throne.

After the death of Julius Caesar,
As Cleopatra was engaged in more fermenting situations,
Pulling away the Egyptians from Rome’s dominion,
Augustus Octavian, who held the sceptres of Rome,
[30] Being the nephew of Caesar Gaius Julius,
Being in noway able to bear the insurrection of the Egyptians,
His own sister’s, who was named Octavia,
Husband Anthony sends against the Egyptians,
To break the force of their onrush ending the rebellion.

When Cleopatra heard that Anthony was marching
Against her in Egypt with a great army,
After making a picture that so much resembled her beauty,
Letters declaring her love to Anthony
Sent to Anthony; who fascinated by the shadow alone
[40] Of her picture left his wife
And he becomes Cleopatra’s man and a part of the Egyptians
And together with them he was engaged in a war against the Romans.
And first he gives Cleopatra gifts,
The entire palm-bearing region of Jericho,
Where even the much-revered balsam-tree grows,
Which according to others was a plant and not a tree.
That palm-bearing region and countless countries
Anthony bestows on Cleopatra because of his passion,
And the whole country of the Parthians, that was led in captivity
[50] And the son of Tigranes together with other captives.
And many kings he slew for her sake.
Just as the crowned Malchus of the Arabians,
Although Octavian, unable to bear the insolence
His own sister, who was named Octavia,
Giving Agrippa as a husband instead of Anthony,
Moving his armies both by land and sea,
Traversing the continent, arrived at Leucactas,
And he makes a great war on them
Both by land and sea, so that it is impossible to sail the sea,
[60] With neither the shipowners nor the oarsmen,
As it became solid from the innumerable infusions of blood,
In turn the land was turned into sea, but a red one,
By dragging the rivers that were full of blood.
For it happened that the war horses,
And the riders themselves in the sea of blood
Swim as far as their breasts; such was the size of murder.

And as the combat between them was still evenly balanced
Both on land and sea, and no one prevailed,
Caesar Octavian made the victory incline towards his side
[70] With Roman military stratagems.
For he covered the hills with skins recently stripped from oxen,
And through them, because of their slippery nature,
He drew most wisely an innumerable multitude of ships
To the sea behind the fleet of the Egyptians,
He immediately put them to flight, as they were panic-stricken,
And Anthony himself in a heroic manner
Who strongly resisted many men was killed in battle;
They take Cleopatra and her two children captives,
A male and a female child, named Helios and Selene.
[80] And Cleopatra committed suicide by the bites of the asps,
Because she did not want to be taken to Rome as a prisoner.
But although dead she was holding her crown,
So that it would not fall off her head after her death.
Caesar Octavian embalmed her body
And brought it back to his sister in Rome,
Making a big and glorious triumph and a parade,
Including Helios himself and Selene,
The children of Cleopatra herself, as we said before.