τίπτε με τὸν φιλέρημον ἀναιδέϊ ποιμένες ἄγρῃ
τέττιγα δροσερῶν ἕλκετ' ἀπ' ἀκρεμόνων,
τὴν Νυμφῶν παροδῖτιν ἀηδόνα, κἤματι μέσσῳ
οὔρεσι καὶ σκιεραῖς ξουθὰ λαλεῦντα νάπαις;
ἠνίδε καὶ κίχλην καὶ κόσσυφον, ἠνίδε τόσσους
ψᾶρας, ἀρουραίης ἅρπαγας εὐπορίης·
καρπῶν δηλητῆρας ἐλεῖν θέμις· ὄλλυτ' ἐκείνους·
φύλλων καὶ χλοερῆς τὶς φθόνος ἐστὶ δρόσου;[247]
Another epigram on the same page tells how the poet found a grasshopper struggling in a spider's web and released it with these words: "Go safe and free with your sweet voice of song!" But the prettiest of all is this long story (ii. 119):
Εὔνομον, ὤπολλον, σὺ μὲν οἶσθά με, πῶς ποτ' ἐνίκων
Σπάρτιν ὁ Λοκρὸς ἐγώ· πευθομένοις δ' ἐνέπω.
αἰόλον ἐν κιθάρᾳ νόμον ἔκρεκον, ἐν δὲ μεσεύσᾳ
ᾠδᾷ μοι χορδὰν πλᾶκτρον ἀπεκρέμασεν·
καί μοι φθόγγον ἑτοῖμον ὁπανίκα καιρὸς ἀπῄτει,
εἰς ἀκοὰς ῥυθμῶν τὠτρεκὲς οὐκ ἔνεμεν·
καί τις ἀπ' αὐτομάτω κιθάρας ἐπὶ πῆχυν ἐπιπτὰς
τέττιξ ἐπλήρου τοὐλλιπὲς ἁρμονίας·
νεῦρα γὰρ ἓξ ἐτίνασσον· ὅθ' ἑβδομάτας δὲ μελοίμαν
χορδᾶς, τὰν τούτω γῆρυν ἐκιχράμεθα·
πρὸς γὰρ ἐμὰν μελέταν ὁ μεσαμβρινὸς οὔρεσιν ᾠδὸς
τῆνο τὸ ποιμενικὸν φθέγμα μεθηρμόσατο,
καὶ μὲν ὅτε φθέγγοιτο, σὺν ἀψύχοις τόκα νευραῖς
τῷ μεταβαλλομένῳ συμμετέπιπτε θρόῳ·
τοὔνεκα συμφώνῳ μὲν ἔχω χάριν· ὃς δὲ τυπωθεὶς
χάλκεος ἁμετέρας ἕζεθ' ὑπὲρ κιθάρας.[248]
So friendly were the relations of the Greeks with the grasshoppers. We do not wonder when we read that the Athenians wore golden grasshoppers in their hair.
Baths, groves, gardens, houses, temples, city-gates, and works of art furnish the later epigrammatists with congenial subjects. The Greeks of the Empire exercised much ingenuity in describing—whether in prose, like Philostratus, or in verse, like Agathias—the famous monuments of the maturity of Hellas. In this style the epigrams on statues are at once the most noticeable and the most abundant. The cow of Myron has at least two score of little sonnets to herself. The horses of Lysippus, the Zeus of Pheidias, the Rhamnusian statue of Nemesis, the Praxitelean Venus, various images of Eros, the Niobids, Marsyas, Ariadne, Herakles, Alexander, poets, physicians, orators, historians, and all the charioteers and athletes preserved in the museums of Byzantium or the groves of Altis, are described with a minuteness and a point that enable us to identify many of them with the surviving monuments of Greek sculpture. Pictures also come in for their due share of notice. A Polyxena of Polycletus, a Philoctetes of Parrhasius, and a Medea, which may have been the original of the famous Pompeian fresco, are specially remarkable. Then again cups engraved with figures in relief of Tantalus or Love, seals inscribed with Phœbus or Medusa, gems and intaglios of all kinds, furnish matter for other epigrams. The following couplet on the amethyst turns upon an untranslatable play of words (ii. 149):
ἡ λίθος ἐστ' ἀμέθυστος, ἐγὼ δ' ὁ πότης Διόνυσος·
πεισάτω ἢ νήφειν μ', ἢ μαθέτω μεθύειν.
Amid this multitude of poems it is difficult to make a fair or representative selection. There are, however, four which I cannot well omit. The first is written by Poseidippus on a lost statue of Lysippus (ii. 584):
τίς πόθεν ὁ πλάστης; Σικυώνιος· οὔνομα δὴ τίς;
Λύσιππος. σὺ δὲ τίς; Καιρὸς ὁ πανδαμάτωρ·
τίπτε δ' ἐπ' ἄκρα βέβηκας; ἀεὶ τροχάω. τὶ δὲ ταρσοὺς
ποσσὶν ἔχεις διφυεῖς; ἵπταμ' ὑπηνέμιος·
χειρὶ δὲ δεξιτερῇ τὶ φέρεις ξυρόν; ἀνδράσι δεῖγμα
ὡς ἀκμῆς πάσης ὀξύτερος τελέθω.
ἡ δὲ κόμη τὶ κατ' ὄψιν; ὑπαντιάσαντι λαβέσθαι.
νὴ Δία τἀξόπιθεν δ' εἰς τὶ φαλακρὰ πέλει;
τὸν γὰρ ἅπαξ πτηνοῖσι παραθρέξαντά με ποσσὶν
οὔτις ἔθ' ἱμείρων δράξεται ἐξόπιθεν.
τοὔνεχ' ὁ τεχνίτης σε διέπλασεν; εἵνεκεν ὑμῶν,
ξεῖνε· καὶ ἐν προθύροις θῆκε διδασκαλίην.[249]
The second describes the statue of Nemesis erected near Marathon by Pheidias—that memorable work by which the greatest of sculptors recorded the most important crisis in the world's history (ii. 573):
χιονέην με λίθον παλιναυξέος ἐκ περιωπῆς
λαοτύπος τμήξας πετροτόμοις ἀκίσι
Μῆδος ἐποντοπόρευσεν, ὅπως ἀνδρείκελα τεύξῃ,
τῆς κατ' Ἀθηναίων σύμβολα καμμονίης·
ὡς δὲ δαϊζομένοις Μαραθὼν ἀντέκτυπε Πέρσαις
καὶ νέες ὑγροπόρουν χεύμασιν αἱμαλέοις,
ἔξεσαν Ἀδρήστειαν ἀριστώδινες Ἀθῆναι,
δαίμον' ὑπερφιάλοις ἀντίπαλον μερόπων·
ἀντιταλαντεύω τὰς ἔλπιδας· εἰμὶ δὲ καὶ νῦν
Νίκη Ἐρεχθείδαις, Ἀσσυρίοις Νέμεσις.[250]