From dark Persephone’s constraining arms.
CURIOUS AND PUZZLING EPITAPHS.
On the monument of Sardanapalus was inscribed, in Assyrian characters,—
ΕΣΤΗΙΕ, ΠΙΝΕ, ΠΑΙΖΕ. ὩΣ ΤΑΛΛΑ ΤΟΥΤΟΥ ΟΥΚ ΑΞΙΑ
EAT, DRINK, BE MERRY. THE REST IS NOT WORTH THAT!
meaning a snap of the fingers, which is represented by a hand engraved on the stone, with the thumb and middle finger meeting at the top. Casaubon translates παιζειν, to love (παιζειν nihil aliud significat nisi ερᾶν). Solomon said, all is vanity, but not till he had eaten, drunk, and loved to a surfeit; and Swift left the well-known lines,—
Life’s a farce, and all things show it,
I thought so once, but now I know it,—
but this information was for the tomb, when the capacity to eat, drink, and love was gone.