Friday, March 08, 2019
Right Next to You
Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, Vol. I, ed. Bruno Snell, rev. Richard Kannicht (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1986), p. 262 (92 Sosiphanes Syracusanus F 3, my translation):
Newer› ‹Older
Unfortunate in many things, happy in few,ἔδωκε and ἀφείλετο: gnomic aorists?
o mortals, why do you glory in your wealth,
which one day gives and another takes away?
If you have good luck, although you're nothing, at once
you think thoughts equal to heaven, and powerful
Death you don't see, although he stands right next to you.
ὦ δυστυχεῖς μὲν πολλά, παῦρα δ' ὄλβιοι
βροτοί, τί σεμνύνεσθε ταῖς ἐξουσίαις,
ἃς ἕν τ' ἔδωκε φέγγος ἕν τ' ἀφείλετο;
ἢν δ' εὐτυχῆτε μηδὲν ὄντες εὐθέως
ἴσ' οὐρανῷ φρονεῖτε, τὸν δὲ κύριον
Ἅιδην παρεστῶτ' οὐχ ὁρᾶτε πλησίον.
