κλῶνες ἀπῃόριοι ταναῆς δρυός, εὔσκιον ὕψος
ἀνδράσιν ἄκρητον καῦμα φυλασσομένοις,
εὐπέταλοι, κεράμων στεγανώτεροι, οἰκία φαττῶν,
οἰκία τεττίγων, ἔνδιοι ἀκρεμόνες,
κἠμὲ τὸν ὑμετέραισιν ὑποκλινθέντα κόμαισιν
ῥύσασθ', ἀκτίνων ἡελίου φυγάδα.[243]
Here again is a rustic retreat for lovers, beneath the spreading branches of a plane (ii. 43):
ἁ χλοερὰ πλατάνιστος ἴδ' ὡς ἔκρυψε φιλεύντων
ὄργια, τὰν ἱερὰν φυλλάδα τεινομένα·
ἀμφὶ δ' ἄρ' ἀκρεμόνεσσιν ἑοῖς κεχαρισμένος ὥραις
ἡμερίδος λαρῆς βότρυς ἀποκρέμαται·
οὕτως, ὦ πλατάνιστε, φύοις· χλοερὰ δ' ἀπὸ σεῖο
φυλλὰς ἀεὶ κεύθοι τοὺς Παφίης ὀάρους.[244]
Of the same sort is this invitation (ii. 529):
ὑψίκομον παρὰ τάνδε καθίζεο φωνήεσσαν
φρίσσουσαν πυκινοῖς κῶνον ὑπὸ Ζεφύροις,
καί σοι καχλάζουσιν ἐμοῖς παρὰ νάμασι σύριγξ
θελγομένων ἄξει κῶμα κατὰ βλεφάρων.[245]
And this plea from the oak-tree to the woodman to be spared (ii. 63):
ὦνερ τὰν βαλάνων τὰν ματέρα φείδεο κόπτειν,
φείδεο· γηραλέαν δ' ἐκκεράϊζε πίτυν,
ἢ πεύκαν, ἢ τάνδε πολυστέλεχον παλίουρον,
ἢ πρῖνον, ἢ τὰν αὐαλέαν κόμαρον·
τηλόθι δ' ἴσχε δρυὸς πελέκυν· κοκύαι γὰρ ἔλεξαν
ἁμῖν ὡς πρότεραι ματέρες ἐντὶ δρύες.[246]
Among the epigrams which seem to have been composed in the same spirit as those exquisite little capricci engraved by Greek artists upon gems, few are more felicitous than the three following. The affection of the Greeks for the grasshopper is one of their most charming naïvetés. Everybody knows the pretty story Socrates tells about these Μουσῶν προφῆται, or Prophets of the Muses, in the Phædrus—how they once were mortals who took such delight in the songs of the Muses that, "Singing always, they never thought of eating and drinking, until at last they forgot and died: and now they live again in the grasshoppers, and this is the return the Muses make to them—they hunger no more, neither thirst any more, but are always singing from the moment that they are born, and never eating or drinking." Thus the grasshoppers were held sacred in Greece, like storks in Germany and robins in England. Most of the epigrams about them turn on this sanctity. The following is a plea for pity from an imprisoned grasshopper to the rustics who have caught him (ii. 76):