ΕΥΔΟΞΑ ΑΓΝΩΣΤΑ ΚΑΤΑΓΕΛΑΣΤΑ
“If you say what you want you may hear what you don’t.”
αἴ κ’ εἴπηις τὰ θέληις <καί κεν> ἀκούσαις τά κεν οὐ θέλοις
From Alcaeus, the one from Mytilene.
“Whatever someone gives to a prostitute he might as well spill into the waves of the dark sea”
[ ]ται· πόρναι δ’ ὄ κέ τις δίδ[ωι
ἴ]σα κἀ[ς] πολίας κῦμ’ ἄλ[ο]ς ἐσβ[ά]λην.
Alcaeus, charming and loving
“I don’t fathom the war of the winds
One wave courses from this side
The other from that, and we in the middle
Are tossed about in a black ship”
ἀσυννέτημμι τὼν ἀνέμων στάσιν,
τὸ μὲν γὰρ ἔνθεν κῦμα κυλίνδεται,
τὸ δ’ ἔνθεν, ἄμμες δ’ ὂν τὸ μέσσον
νᾶϊ φορήμμεθα σὺν μελαίναι
Sea-Faring is scary.
“You drove me from my grief”
ἔκ μ’ ἔλασας ἀλγέων
Alcaeus of Mytilene was a lyric poet often paired with Sappho