Laudator Temporis Acti

Euripides, fragment 369 Kannicht (from Erechtheus; tr. C.M. Bowra):

Let my spear lie down for the spider to weave its thread;
May Peace dwell with me at home when I grow old.
May I sing with garlands bound on my whitening head,
Let the pillared shrine of Pallas Athene hold
My buckler from Thrace, while in books I unfold
Sweet words which the wise have said.

κείσθω δόρυ μοι μίτον ἀμφιπλέκειν ἀράχναις.
μετὰ δ᾿ ἡσυχίας πολιῷ γήρᾳ συνοικοίην·
ἀείδοιμι δὲ στεφάνοις κάρα πολιὸν στεφανώσας
Θρῃκίαν πέλταν πρὸς Ἀθάνας
περικίοσιν ἀγκρεμάσας θαλάμοις        5
δελτῶν τ᾿ ἀναπτύσσοιμι γῆρυν ἃν σοφοὶ κλέονται.

2 συνοικοίην codd.: συνοικῶν Cropp: σύνοικος Page

See C. Collard et al., edd., Euripides, Selected Fragmentary Plays, Vol. I (Warminster: Aris & Phillips Ltd., 1995), pp. 184-185, and Maurizio Sonnino, ed., Euripidis Erechthei quae exstant (Florence: Felice Le Monnier, 2010), pp. 233-243.

Plutarch, Life of Nicias 9.5 (tr. Bernadotte Perrin):

The two parties had before this made a sort of stay of mutual hostilities for a year, during this time they had held conferences with one another, and tasted again the sweets of security and leisure and intercourse with friends at home and abroad, so that they yearned for that old life which was undefiled by war, and listened gladly when choirs sang such strains as

"Let my spear lie unused for the spider to cover with webs"

and gladly called to mind the saying, "In peace the sleeper is waked not by the trumpet, but by the cock."

ἦσαν οὖν πρότερον πεποιημένοι τινὰ πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἐκεχειρίαν ἐνιαύσιον, ἐν ᾗ συνιόντες εἰς ταὐτὸ καὶ γευόμενοι πάλιν ἀδείας καὶ σχολῆς καὶ πρὸς ξένους καὶ οἰκείους ἐπιμιξίας, ἐπόθουν τὸν ἀμίαντον καὶ ἀπόλεμον βίον, ἡδέως μὲν ᾀδόντων τὰ τοιαῦτα χορῶν ἀκούοντες·

κείσθω δόρυ μοι μίτον ἀμφιπλέκειν ἀράχναις·

ἡδέως δὲ μεμνημένοι τοῦ εἰπόντος ὅτι τοὺς ἐν εἰρήνῃ καθεύδοντας οὐ σάλπιγγες, ἀλλ᾽ ἀλεκτρυόνες ἀφυπνίζουσι.