Laudator Temporis Acti

Lyric fragment preserved by Stobaeus, Anthology 1.5, in Ioannis Stobaei Anthologium, Vol. I: Libri Duo Priores, ed. Curt Wachsmuth (Berlin: Weidmann, 1884), pp. 76-77 (tr. David A. Campbell, with his notes):

Aisa,² Clotho and Lachesis, fair-armed daughters of Night, hear our prayers, you all-terrible deities of heaven and the lower world: send us rose-bosomed Eunomia³ and her bright-throned sisters Justice and garland-wearing Peace, and make this city forget its heavy-hearted misfortunes.

² Dispensation or Destiny; in Hesiod, Theog. 905 the Fates are Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos.
³ Good Order in civic government; in Hesiod, Theog. 901 ff. the sisters are the three Seasons (Horai).

Αἶσα <καὶ> Κλωθὼ Λάχεσίς τ᾿, εὐώλενοι
κοῦραι Νυκτός,
εὐχομένων ἐπακούσατ᾿,
οὐράνιαι χθόνιαί τε
δαίμονες ὦ πανδείματοι·
πέμπετ᾿ ἄμμιν <τὰν> ῥοδόκολπον
Εὐνομίαν λιπαροθρόνους τ᾿ ἀδελφὰς
Δίκαν καὶ στεφανηφόρον Εἰράναν,
πόλιν τε τάνδε βαρυφρόνων
λελάθοιτε συντυχιᾶν.

Discussion:

• C.M. Bowra, "A Prayer to the Fates," Classical Quarterly 8 (1958) 231-240
• Ove Hansen, "The So-Called Prayer to the Fates and Timotheus' Persae," Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 133 (1990) 190-192