Homer’s Epigrams

Homer

Homer. Hesiod, The Homeric Hymns and Homerica. Evelyn-White, Hugh G. (Hugh Gerard), editor. London: William Heinmann; New York: The Macmillan Co., 1914.

  1. but I will gloat as I behold their luckless craft.
  2. And if anyone of them stoops to peer in, let all his face
  3. be burned up, that all men may learn to deal honestly.
  1. [*](This song is called by pseudo-Herodotus Εἰρησιώνη. The word properly indicates a garland wound with wool which was worn at harvest-festivals, but came to be applied first to the harvest song and then to any begging song. The present is akin to the Swallow-Song (Χελιδόνισμα), sung at the beginning of spring, and answering to the still surviving English May-Day songs. Cp. Athenaeus, viii. 360 B.) Let us betake us to the house of some man of great power,—
  2. one who bears great power and is greatly prosperous always.
  3. Open of yourselves, you doors, for mighty Wealth will enter in,
  4. and with Wealth comes jolly Mirth
  5. and gentle Peace. May all the corn-bins be full
  6. and the mass of dough always overflow the kneading-trough.
  7. Now (set before us) cheerful barley-pottage, full of sesame
    8. ---
  8. Your son’s wife, driving to this house with strong-hoofed mules,
  9. shall dismount from her carriage to greet you; [*](Lines 8 and 9 do not correspond well with the Greek.)
  10. may she be shod with golden shoes as she stands weaving at the loom.
  11. I come, and I come yearly, like the swallow
  12. that perches light-footed in the fore-part of your house. But quickly bring
  13. ---
  1. If you will give us anything (well). But if not, we will not wait,
  2. for we are not come here to dwell with you.
HOMER
  1. Hunters of deep sea prey, have we caught anything?
FISHERMEN
  1. All that we caught we left behind, and all that we did not catch we carry home.[*](The lice which they caught in their clothes they left behind, but carried home in their clothes those which they could not catch.)