Laudator Temporis Acti

Many are your temples and wooded groves, and all the peaks find favor with you, and the upper ridges of the high mountains, and the rivers flowing on to the sea. But it is in Delos, Phoibos, that your heart most delights, where the Ionians with trailing robes assemble with their children and wives on your avenue, and when they have seated the gathering they think of you and entertain you with boxing, dancing, and singing. A man might think they were the unaging immortals if he came along then when the Ionians are all together: he would take in the beauty of the whole scene, and be delighted at the spectacle of the men and the fair-girt women, the swift ships and the people's piles of belongings.

πολλοί τοι νηοί τε καὶ ἄλσεα δενδρήεντα,
πᾶσαι δὲ σκοπιαί τε φίλαι καὶ πρώονες ἄκροι
ὑψηλῶν ὀρέων ποταμοί θ᾿ ἅλαδε προρέοντες·        145
ἀλλὰ σὺ Δήλωι, Φοῖβε, μάλιστ᾿ ἐπιτέρπεαι ἦτορ,
ἔνθά τοι ἑλκεχίτωνες Ἰάονες ἠγερέθονται
αὐτοῖς σὺν παίδεσσι γυναιξί τε σὴν ἐς ἄγυιαν·
οἳ δέ σε πυγμαχίηι τε καὶ ὀρχηστυῖ καὶ ἀοιδῆι
μνησάμενοι τέρπουσιν, ὅταν καθέσωσιν ἀγῶνα.        150
φαίη κ᾿ ἀθανάτους καὶ ἀγήρως ἔμμεναι ἀνήρ,
ὃς τότ᾿ ἐπαντιάσει᾿, ὅτ᾿ Ἰάονες ἁθρόοι εἶεν·
πάντων γάρ κεν ἴδοιτο χάριν, τέρψαιτο δὲ θυμόν
ἄνδράς τ᾿ εἰσορόων καλλιζώνους τε γυναῖκας
νῆάς τ᾿ ὠκείας ἠδ᾿ αὐτῶν κτήματα πολλά.        155