Greek Anthology
ΑΝΘΟΛΟΓΙΑ
Θ
ΕΠΙΓΡΑΜΜΑΤΑ ΕΠΙΔΕΙΚΤΙΚΑ
1.—ΠΟΛΥΑΙΝΟΥ ΣΑΡΔΙΑΝΟΥ
Δορκάδος ἀρτιτόκοιο τιθηνητήριον οὖθαρ ἔμπλεον ἠμῦσαν1 πικρὸς ἔτυψεν ἔχις. νεβρὸς δ᾿ ἰομιγῆ θηλὴν σπάσε, καὶ τὸ δυσαλθὲς τραύματος ἐξ ὀλοοῦ πικρὸν ἔβροξε γάλα. 5ᾅδην δ᾿ ἠλλάξαντο, καὶ αὐτίκα νηλέϊ μοίρῃ, ἣν ἔπορεν γαστήρ, μαστὸς ἀφεῖλε χάριν.
2.—ΤΙΒΕΡΙΟΥ ΙΛΛΟΥΣΤΡΙΟΥ
Κεμμάδος ἀρτιτόκου μαζοῖς βρίθουσι γάλακτος ἡ φονίη δακέτων ἰὸν ἐνῆκεν ἔχις· φαρμαχθὲν δ᾿ ἰῷ μητρὸς γάλα νεβρὸς ἀμέλξας χείλεσι, τὸν κείνης ἐξέπιεν θάνατον.
3.—ΑΝΤΙΠΑΤΡΟΥ, οἱ δὲ ΠΛΑΤΩΝΟΣ
Εἰνοδίην καρύην με παρερχομένοις ἐφύτευσαν παισὶ λιθοβλήτου παίγνιον εὐστοχίης.
Book IX
Book IX
The Declamatoryand Descriptive Epigrams
1.—Polyaenus Of Sardis
A cruel viper struck the nursing udder of a doe which had newly calved as it hung down full of milk. Her fawn sucked the teat contaminated by poison, and from the fatal wound imbibed bitter milk charged with venom ill to cure. Death was transferred from mother to child, and at once by pitiless fate the breast bereft the young one of the gift of life that it owed to the womb.
2.—Tiberius Illustrius
A viper,the most murderous of noxious beasts, injected her venom into the udder, swollen with milk, of a doe that had just calved, and the kid, sucking its mother’s poisoned milk, drank up her death.
3.—Antipater,by some attributed to Plato
They planted me, a walnut-tree, by the road-side to amuse passing boys, as a mark for their well-aimed