Laudator Temporis Acti

Apollodorus of Carystus, fragment 5 Kassel and Austin, lines 1-14 (tr. Charles Burton Gulick):

O world of men! Why do ye give up the happy life, and devote all your thought to injuring one another by making war? Can it be that some boorish fate to‑day presides over our lives — a fate which knows no culture at all, is completely ignorant of what is bad or what is good, and in some random way tosses us about as chance decrees? I think so indeed. For what fate, were she really a Greek, would prefer to see men thrashed​ by one another and lying prone as corpses, when they might be jolly, playful, just a bit tipsy, enjoying the sound of music as they should? Tell me, yourself, sweetest lady, say that our fate is indeed a boor.

ὦ πάντες ἄνθρωποι, τί τὸ ζῆν ἡδέως
παρέντες ἐπιμελεῖσθε τοῦ κακῶς ποιεῖν
πολεμοῦντες ἀλλήλους; πότερα πρὸς τῶν θεῶν
ἐπιστατεῖ τις τοῦ βίου νυνὶ Τύχη
ἄγροικος ἡμῶν, οὔτε παιδείαν ὅλως        5
εἰδυῖα, τί τὸ κακόν ποτ᾽ ἢ τί τἀγαθὸν
ἔστ᾽ ἀγνοοῦσα παντελῶς εἰκῆ τέ πως
ἡμᾶς κυλίνδουσ᾽ ὅντιν᾽ ἂν τύχῃ τρόπον;
οἶμαί γε· τίς γὰρ μᾶλλον ἂν προείλετο
Ἕλλην ἀληθῶς οὖσα λεπομένους ὁρᾶν        10
αὐτοὺς ὑφ᾽ αὑτῶν καὶ καταπίπτοντας νεκρούς,
ἐξὸν ἱλαρούς παίζοντας ὑποπεπωκότας
αὐλουμένους. † ωδει † λέγ᾽ αὐτή, γλυκυτάτη,
ἔλεγχ᾽ ἄγροικον οὖσαν ἡμῶν τὴν Τύχην.

13 ωδει codd.: ᾠδῇ Grotius (unde κηλούμενος ᾠδῇ Meineke): ὡδί Morel: σποδεῖν Kock: ὡς δεῖ Lumb: σὺ δὴ Kaibel: ἰδεῖν Palmer