Saturday, February 12, 2022
Cedon
Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians 20.5 (tr. H. Rackham):
The couplet is Poetae Melici Graeci, fragment 906 (Carmina Convivialia, fragment 30).
Rackham's translation is too free, because of his insistence on rhyming. Rhodes' translation is preferable:
Newer› ‹Older
And even before the Alcmaeonids Cedon had attacked the tyrants, owing to which people also sang in his honor in their catches:P.J. Rhodes ad loc.:Now fill to Cedon, boy! let's drink him too,ἔτι δὲ πρότερον τῶν Ἀλκμεωνιδῶν Κήδων ἐπέθετο τοῖς τυράννοις, διὸ καὶ ᾖδον καὶ εἰς τοῦτον ἐν τοῖς σκολιοῖς·
If duty bids us toast good men and true.ἔγχει καὶ Κήδωνι, διάκονε, μηδ᾽ ἐπιλήθου,
εἰ χρὴ τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς ἀνδράσιν οἰνοχοεῖν.
Rackham's translation is too free, because of his insistence on rhyming. Rhodes' translation is preferable:
Pour to Cedon also, steward, and forget him not,
If wine is to be poured to valiant men.
