Agathias

Agathias Scholasticus (Ancient Greek: Ἀγαθίας σχολαστικός; c. AD 530 – 582/594) was a Greek poet and the principal historian of part of the reign of the Roman emperor Justinian I between 552 and 558.

Quotes

• Εἰμί μὲν οὐ φιλόοινος: ὅταν δ᾽ ἐθέλῃς με μεθύσσαι,
     πρῶτα σὺ γευομένη πρόσφερε, καὶ δέχομαι.
  εἰ γὰρ ἐπιψαύσεις τοῖς χείλεσιν, οὐκέτι νήφειν
     εὐμαρὲς, οὐδὲ φυγεῖν τὸν γλυκὺν οἰνοχόον
  πορθμεύει γὰρ ἔμοιγε κύλιξ παρὰ σοῦ τὸ φίλημα,
     καί μοι ἀπαγγέλλει τὴν χάριν ἣν ἔλαβεν.
  • Anthologia Palatina, bk. 5, no. 261 (ed. W. R. Paton)
    • I love not the wine-cup, but if thou art fain
      I should drink, do thou taste it, and bring it to me;
      If it touch but thy lips it were hard to refrain,
      It were hard from the sweet maid who bears it to flee;
      For the cup ferries over the kisses, and plain
      Does it speak of the grace that was given it by thee.
      • Andrew Lang, Ban and Arriere Ban: A Rally of Fugitive Rhymes (London: Longmans, Green & Co, 1894) p. 39
    • No wine for me!—Nay, an it be thy will,
      Kiss first the goblet—I will drink my fill:
      How may I, when thy lips have touched it, dare
      Be sober still, and that sweet draught forswear:
      For the cup steers the kiss from thee to me,
      And tells me all the bliss it won of thee.
      • William M. Hardinge, in Selections from the Greek Anthology (London: Walter Scott, 1895) p. 2
    • I drink no wine, but bow to thy command,
      Yet give me first the cup from thy dear hand.
      If, having tasted, thou should’st then draw nigh,
      So sweet a cup-bearer I cannot fly.
      From thine own lips the cup will draw its bliss,
      And serve to bear from thee to me a kiss.
      • Earl of Cromer, Paraphrases and Translations from the Greek (London: Macmillan and Co, 1903) p. 12

• Εἰργομένη φιλέειν με κατὰ στόμα δῖα Ῥοδάνθη
     ζώνην παρθενικὴν ἐξετάνυσσε μέσην,
  καὶ κείνην φιλέεσκεν ἐγὼ δέ τις ὡς ὀχετηγὸς
     ἀρχὴν εἰς ἑτέρην εἷλκον ἔρωτος ὕδωρ,
  αὐερύων τὸ φίλημα: περὶ ζωστῆρα δὲ κούρης
     μάστακι ποππύζων, τηλόθεν ἀντεφίλουν.
  ἦν δὲ πόνου καὶ τοῦτο παραίφασις: ἡ γλυκερὴ γὰρ
     ζώνη πορθμὸς ἔην χείλεος ἀμφοτέρου.
  • Anthologia Palatina, bk. 5, no. 285 (ed. W. R. Paton)
    • Divine Rodanthe, when my mouth in doubt
      To kiss, her slim waist’s virgin zone held out,
      And kiss’d: then I, as one who from its source
      Leads water, led love’s stream a second course,
      Her kiss imbibing, and, with loving smack,
      On the girl’s belt, from far, her kiss gave back:
      So was our strait reliev’d: ’tween lips of both
      That sweet belt serv’d to signal love and troth.
      • Robert Guthrie MacGregor, Greek Anthology (London: Nissen & Parker, 1864) p. 37
    • Since she was watched and could not kiss me closely,
         Divine Rhodanthe cast her maiden zone
      From off her waist, and holding it thus loosely
         By the one end, she put a kiss thereon;
      Then I—Love’s stream as through a channel taking—
         My lips upon the other end did press
      And drew the kisses in, while ceaseless making,
         Thus from afar, reply to her caress.
      So the sweet girdle did beguile our pain,
      Being a ferry for our kisses twain.
      • Alma Strettell, in Selections from the Greek Anthology (1895) p. 613

• Τῇ Παφίῃ στεφάνους, τῇ Παλλάδι τὴν πλοκαμῖδα,
  Ἀρτέμιδι ζώνην ἄνθετο Καλλιρόη:
  εὕρετο γὰρ μνηστῆρα τὸν ἤθελε, καὶ λάχεν ἥβην
  σώφρονα, καὶ τεκέων ἄρσεν ἔτικτε γένος.
  • Anthologia Palatina, bk. 6, no. 59 (ed. W. R. Paton)
    • Callirhoë brings the Paphian fair
      These flowers; Love a wooer found her.
      Let Pallas take a tress of hair,
      And Artemis the zone that bound her.
      These kindly three, who reign above,
      Lavished their gifts when she was wed;
      Blameless, she gained a husband’s love,
      Male children blessed her marriage bed.
      • Earl of Cromer, Paraphrases and Translations from the Greek (1903) p. 101

• Εἰ μὲν ἀπὸ Σπάρτης τις ἔφυς, ξένε μή με γελάσσηις· οὐ γὰρ ἐμοὶ μούνηι ταῦτα τέλεσσε Τύχη·
  εἰ δέ τις ἐξ Ἀσίης, μὴ πένθεε· Δαρδανικοῖς γὰρ σκήπτροις Αἰνεαδῶν πᾶσα νένευκε πόλις.
  εἰ δὲ θεῶν τεμένη καὶ τείχεα καὶ ναετῆρας ζηλήμων δηίων ἐξεκένωσεν Ἄρης,
  εἰμὶ πάλιν· βασίλεια σὺ δ', ὦ τέκος, ἄτρομε Ῥώμη, βάλλε καθ' Ἑλλήνων σῆς ζυγόδεσμα δίκης.
  • Anthologia Palatina, bk. 9, no. 155 (ed. W. R. Paton)
    • O Spartan, hold me not in scorn,
      Others have shared my hapless plight.
      And, thou of Asia, cease to mourn,
      Thy cities know the Dardan might.
      Although the foe has razed my home,
      My queenly rank shall never cease,
      For thou, my child, Imperial Rome,
      Shalt lay thy heavy yoke on Greece.
      • Earl of Cromer, Paraphrases and Translations from the Greek (1903) p. 127
      • On Troy