The goat runs after cytisus, the wolf pursues the goat, the crane follows the plough, but I am wild for love of thee.
Would it were mine, all the wealth whereof once Croesus was lord, as men tell! Then images of us twain, all in gold, should be dedicated to Aphrodite, thou with thy flute, and a rose, yea, or an apple, and I in fair attire, and new shoon of Amyclae on both my feet.
Ah gracious Bombyca, thy feet are fashioned like carven ivory, thy voice is drowsy sweet, and thy ways, I cannot tell of them! [57]
Milan. Verily our clown was a maker of lovely songs, and we knew it not! How well he meted out and shaped his harmony; woe is me for the beard that I have grown, all in vain! Come, mark thou too these lines of godlike Lityerses
The Lityerses Song.
Demeter, rich in fruit, and rich in grain, may this corn be easy to win, and fruitful exceedingly!
Bind, ye bandsters, the sheaves, lest the wayfarer should cry, ‘Men of straw were the workers here, ay, and their hire was wasted!’
See that the cut stubble faces the North wind, or the West, ’tis thus the grain waxes richest.
They that thresh corn should shun the noon-day steep; at noon the chaff parts easiest from the straw.
As for the reapers, let them begin when the crested lark is waking, and cease when he sleeps, but take holiday in the heat.