In the foregoing specimens no selection has been made of lines remarkable for their æsthetic beauty. This omission is due to Stobæus, who was more bent on extracting moral maxims than strains of poetry comparable with the invocation of Hippolytus to Artemis. Two, however, I have marked for translation on account of their artistic charm; the first for its pretty touch of picturesqueness, the second for its sympathy with sculpture:
πολὺς δ' ἀνεῖρπε κισσὸς εὐφυὴς κλάδος
χελιδόνων μουσεῖον.
ἔα· τίν' ὄχθον τόνδ' ὁρῶ περίρρυτον
ἄφρῳ θαλάσσης, παρθένου τ' εἰκώ τινα
ἐξ αὐτομόρφων λαΐνων τειχισμάτων
σοφῆς ἄγαλμα χειρός.[65]
Some passages, worthy of preservation, yet not easily classified, may wind up the series. Here is "Envy, eldest born of hell:"
τίς ἆρα μήτηρ ἢ πατὴρ κακὸν μέγα
βροτοῖς ἔφυσε τὸν δυσώνυμον φθόνον;
ποῦ καί ποτ' οἰκεῖ σωμάτων λαχὼν μέρος;
ἐν χερσὶν ἢ σπλάγχνοισιν ἢ παρ' ὄμματα
ἔσθ' ἡμίν; ὡς ἦν μόχθος ἰατροῖς μέγας
τομαῖς ἀφαιρεῖν ἢ ποτοῖς ἢ φαρμάκοις
πασῶν μεγίστην τῶν ἐν ἀνθρώποις νόσων.[66]
The next couplet is pregnant with a home-truth which most men have had occasion to feel:
ἅπαντές ἐσμεν εἰς τὸ νουθετεῖν σοφοὶ
αὐτοὶ δ' ὅταν σφαλῶμεν οὐ γιγνώσκομεν.[67]
The value attached by Greek political philosophers to the ἦθος, or temperament, of states, and their dislike of demagogy, are accounted for in these four lines:
τρόπος ἐστὶ χρηστὸς ἀσφαλέστερος νόμου.
τὸν μὲν γὰρ οὐδεὶς ἂν διαστρέψαι ποτὲ
ῥήτωρ δύναιτο, τὸν δ' ἄνω τε καὶ κάτω
λόγοις ταράσσων πολλάκις λυμαίνεται.[68]
One single line, noticeable for its weighty meaning, and Euripidean by reason of its pathos, shall end the list: