ὠνήμην ἕρδων οἷά τ’ ἐλεύθερος ὤν. (l. 1377)
or of this:
οὐδαμά σ’ οὐδ’ ἀπιὼν[359] δηλήσομαι, οὐδέ με πείσει
οὐδεὶς ἀνθρώπων ὥστε με μή σε φιλεῖν. (l. 1363)
Similarly, that fatherly attitude on the part of the older man, which we have noticed both in Theognis and in the Theocritean imitation of Alcaeus, is apparent in more than one place (e.g. 1351 seqq.). This lends a particular point to those passages which compare the lover to a horse’s owner or rider (1249 seqq., 1267 seqq.)
Again, there is the same appeal to the friend’s better feelings that we have noticed in Theocritus (1319 seqq.), the same appeal to his care for his good name (1295 seqq.), all marked, too, by the same consideration and courtesy (1235 seqq.); there is the same exhortation to constancy, the same reproof of faithlessness (1257 seqq., &c.), the same warning, full of earnestness, but withal full of tenderness, as to the shortness of youth (1299 seqq., 1305 seqq.).[360]
But it is needless to go further into detail. Enough has been said to show the general character of these poems, and anyone who reads them can easily supplement these instances with others. So, whatever value one may be inclined to assign to the evidence here adduced, it must, at least, be admitted that there is nothing in it which in any way contradicts anything that has gone before.[361]