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.
- I tell the passer-by that Midas here lies buried.
- To what a fate did Zeus the Father give me a prey
- even while he made me to grow, a babe at my mother’s knees!
- By the will of Zeus who holds the aegis
- the people of Phricon, riders on wanton horses,
- more active than raging fire in the test of war,
- once built the towers of Aeolian Smyrna, wave-shaken neighbor to the sea,
- through which glides the pleasant stream of sacred Meles;
- thence[*](sc. from Smyrna, Homer’s reputed birth-place.) arose the daughters of Zeus, glorious children,
- and would fain have made famous that fair country and the city of its people.
- But in their folly those men scorned the divine voice and renown of song,
- and in trouble shall one of them remember this hereafter—
- he who with scornful words to them[*](The councillors of Cyme who refused to support Homer at the public expense.) contrived my fate.