Thursday, March 23, 2023
The Passion for Freedom
Greek Anthology 9.294 (Antiphilus of Byzantium; tr. W.R. Paton):
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"Xerxes gave thee this purple cloak, Leonidas, reverencing thy valorous deeds." B. "I do not accept it; that is the reward of traitors. Let me be clothed in my shield in death too; no wealthy funeral for me!" A. "But thou art dead. Why dost thou hate the Persians so bitterly even in death?" B. "The passion for freedom dies not."Hugo Stadtmueller in his Teubner edition attributed θαμβήσας to Scaliger. The same conjecture appeared (seemingly independently) in Alph. Hecker, Commentatio Critica de Anthologia Graeca. Pars Prior (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1852), p. 215.
α. "πορφυρέαν τοι τάνδε, Λεωνίδα, ᾤπασε χλαῖναν
Ξέρξης, ταρβήσας ἔργα τεᾶς ἀρετᾶς."
β. "οὐ δέχομαι· προδόταις αὕτα χάρις. ἀσπὶς ἔχοι με
καὶ νέκυν· ὁ πλοῦτος δ' οὐκ ἐμὸν ἐντάφιον."
α. "ἀλλ' ἔθανες· τί τοσόνδε καὶ ἐν νεκύεσσιν ἀπεχθὴς
Πέρσαις;" β. "οὐ θνᾴσκει ζῆλος ἐλευθερίας."
2 ταρβήσας codd.: θαμβήσας Scaliger
