Palladas of Alexandria, Greek Anthology 9.171
“I am selling my books, those woeful instruments of the Muses, for I am set upon a new profession. Goodbye, Muses! Farewell, Learned Words! Syntax is the death of me.”
῎Οργανα Μουσάων, τὰ πολύστονα βιβλία πωλῶ
εἰς ἑτέρας τέχνης ἔργα μετερχόμενος.
Πιερίδες, σῴζοισθε· λόγοι, συντάσσομαι ὑμῖν·
σύνταξις γὰρ ἐμοὶ καὶ θάνατον παρέχει.
*Autobiographical Note: I once owned a t-shirt inscribed with the phrase, σύνταξις γὰρ ἐμοὶ καὶ θάνατον παρέχει, but until yesterday had no idea that it was a direct quotation from this poem!
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Thanks for reposting this. I really can’t come up with rational or even aesthetic reasons why I like these poems so much–but they are awesome.
These poems are brilliant, that’s why! But we should also consider that they speak to us, and our experience, rather specifically. Similarly so, angst-ridden teenagers can’t come up with rational or even aesthetic reasons to explain their penchant for shitty music on the radio, but it speaks to their own personal experience so vividly!
In fact, I’m sure that this is why we enjoy these poems so much more than others about, say, napkin thievery.
I think you’re absolutely right If we weren’t philologists who had frequently wondered about the sanity of our occupations, Palladas would probably interested us a lot less.
(But I like napkin thinking too!)
BY THE UNCLOVEN HOOF OF PEGASUS! They still sell the shirt for this that I used to wear back in 2005, when the sun still shone and smartphones still seemed as far off as Skynet.
http://www.cafepress.com/mf/10741570/syntax-is-the-death-of-me-ash-grey_tshirt?productId=1212600790
I’m ordering one!
You may not be the only one ordering this one. Who is the one who designed this shirt?