ILLUSTRATION D
Pindar: fragment-
[this song was to be sung & danced by an ad hoc local chorus in the island-state of Aigina, commissioned by the family of an aristocrat named Aristomenes, as a celebration of his victory in the wrestling event at the Pythian Games of 446 BC]
Creatures of a day! What is anyone?
What is anyone not? A dream of a shadow
Is our mortal being. But when there comes to men
A gleam of splendour given of heaven,
Then rests on them a light of glory
And blessed are their days.
​
​conclusion to the Victory Ode in Pythian 8
Theocritus, fragment-
[a shepherd & a goatherd meet in the pastures one noon & compliment each other upon their piping. The shepherd, Thyrsis, is persuaded to sing a ballad - The Affliction of Daphnis- a tale about an ideal shepherd, friend of Nymphs and Muse, & all the wild creatures, having vowed to his first love that she should be his last, pined and died for the love of another.]
Country-song, sing country-song, sweet Muses.
‘Tis Thyrsis sings, of Etna, and a rare sweet voice hath he.
Where were ye, Nymphs, when Daphnis pined? ye Nymphs, O where were ye?
Was it Peneius’ pretty vale, or Pindus’ glens? ‘twas never
Anápus’ flood nor Etna’s pike nor Acis’ holy river.
Country-song, sing country-song, sweet Muses.
When Daphnis died the foxes wailed and the wolves they wailed full sore,
The lion from the green ward wept when Daphnis was no more.
Country-song, sing country-song, sweet Muses.
O many the lusty steers at his feet, and may the heifers slim,
Many the claves and many the kine that made their moan for him.
from Idyll 1. THYRSIS