Stobaeus, Anthology 4.50:
From Euripides’ Melanippe (fr. 509 N.2):
What else? An old man is just sound and shade.
Antiphanes, in his Epiclerus (fr. 94 K):
O Old Age, you are desirable to all people like a kindly spirit. Then, when you are here, you are grievous, distressing. No one speaks well of you, but everyone who is wise curses you.
Heroda, in his Mimiambi:
Women, the whitening of hairs dulls the mind.
This is from Chaeremon:
Every evil old man is ready to do service.
Menecrates of Samos:
Everyone prays for old age when it is gone. But when it comes, they curse it. It is always better when it is still owed to one.
From the Skyrioi of Sophocles:
There is no pain quite like long life.
All evils are found in long old age: a mind gone, works rendered useless, and sense made empty.
From Sophron:
Hated old age preserves me as I waste away.
Crates has:
For time has bent me: a wise worker, but one rendering everything strengthless.
Diphilus from The Well:
Time is a grizzly worker, stranger. It rejoices to refashion everything worse.
Mimnermus, in his Nanno:
Zeus gave it to Tithonus to have an undying evil, old age, which is even more horrible than painful death.
Beloved youth is like a short-lived dream, while difficult and ugly old age is suspended above one’s head, simultaneously hateful and dishonorable: it makes a man unknown, destroys his eyes, and pours over his mind.
Εὐριπίδου Μελανίππης (fr. 509 N.2).
Τί δ’ ἄλλο; φωνὴ καὶ σκιὰ γέρων ἀνήρ.
᾿Αντιφάνους ἐξ ᾿Επικλήρου (fr. 94 K.).
῏Ω γῆρας, ὡς ἅπασιν ἀνθρώποισιν εἶ
ποθεινόν, ὡς εὔδαιμον· εἶθ’ ὅταν παρῇς,
† ἀχθηρόν, ὡς μοχθηρόν· εὖ λέγει τέ σε
οὐδείς, κακῶς <δὲ> πᾶς τις, ὃς σοφός, λέγει.
῾Ηρώδα Μιμιάμβων (I 67 Crus.4).
Γύναι, τὰ λευκὰ τῶν τριχῶν ἀπαμβλύνει
τὸν νοῦν.
Χαιρήμονος (fr. 38 N.2).
Γέρων γὰρ ὀργῇ πᾶς ὑπηρετεῖν κακός.
Μενεκράτους Σαμίου.
Γῆρας ἐπὰν μὲν ἀπῇ, πᾶς εὔχεται· ἢν δέ ποτ’ ἔλθῃ,
μέμφεται· ἔστι δ’ ἀεὶ κρεῖσσον ὀφειλόμενον.
Σοφοκλέους Σκυρίων (fr. 512 N.2).
Οὐδὲν γὰρ ἄλγος οἷον ἡ πολλὴ ζοή.
(Sophoclis fr. 863 N.2).
Πάντ’ ἐμπέφυκε τῷ μακρῷ γήρᾳ κακά,
νοῦς φροῦδος, ἔργ’ ἀχρεῖα, φροντίδες κεναί.
Σώφρονος (fr. 54 Kaib.).
Τὸ γὰρ ἀπεχθόμενον γῆρας ἁμὲ μαραῖνον ταριχεύει.
Κράτητος (fr. 17 poet. phil. p. 223 Diels).
῾Ο γὰρ χρόνος μ’ ἔκαμψε, τέκτων μὲν σοφὸς,
ἅπαντα δ’ ἐργαζόμενος ἀσθενέστερα.
Διφίλου ἐκ Φρέατος (fr. 83 K.).
Πολιὸς τεχνίτης ἐστὶν ὁ χρόνος, ὦ ξένε·
χαίρει μεταπλάττων πάντας ἐπὶ τὰ χείρονα.
Μιμνέρμου Ναννοῦς (fr. 4 B.4).
Τιθωνῷ μὲν ἔδωκεν ἔχειν κακὸν ἄφθιτον <ὁ> Ζεὺς
γῆρας, ὃ καὶ θανάτου ῥίγιον ἀργαλέου.
Μιμνέρμου Ναννοῦς (fr. 5 B.4).
᾿Αλλ’ ὀλιγοχρόνιον γίγνεται ὥσπερ ὄναρ
ἥβη τιμήεσσα, τὸ δ’ ἀργαλέον καὶ ἄμορφον
γῆρας ὑπὲρ κεφαλῆς αὐτίχ’ ὑπερκρέμαται
ἐχθρὸν ὁμῶς καὶ ἄτιμον, ὅ τ’ ἄγνωστον τιθεῖ ἄνδρα,
βλάπτει δ’ ὀφθαλμοὺς καὶ νόον ἀμφιχυθέν.
