Laudator Temporis Acti

Bacchylides, Victory Odes 3.75-92 (tr. Richard C. Jebb):

But deceitful Hope has crept into the hearts of men, children of a day. Yet the lord Apollo [, the shepherd,] said to the son of Pheres:— 'As a mortal, thou must nourish each of two

forebodings; that to-morrow's sunlight will be the last that thou shalt see; or that for fifty years thou wilt live out thy life in ample wealth. Act righteously, and be of a cheerful spirit: that is the supreme gain.'

I speak words of meaning for the wise: the depths of air receive no taint; the waters of the sea are incorrupt; gold is a joy: but for a man it is not lawful to pass by hoary

eld, and to recover the bloom of youth. Yet the radiance of manly worth wanes not with the mortal body; it is cherished by the Muse.

δολό]εσσα δ᾽ ἐλπὶς ὑπ[ὸ κέαρ δέδυκεν        75
    ἐφαμ]ερίων· ὁ δ᾽ ἄναξ [Ἀπόλλων
ὁ βουκό]λος εἶπε Φέρη[τος υἷι·
θνατὸν εὖντα χρὴ διδύμους ἀέξειν

γνώμας, ὅτι τ᾽ αὔριον ὄψεαι
    μοῦνον ἁλίου φάος,        80
χὥτι πεντήκοντ᾽ ἔτεα
ζωὰν βαθύπλουτον τελεῖς.
ὅσια δρῶν εὔφραινε θυμόν· τοῦτο γὰρ
κερδέων ὑπέρτατον.

φρονέοντι συνετὰ γαρύω· βαθὺς μὲν        85
αἰθὴρ ἀμίαντος· ὕδωρ δὲ πόντου
οὐ σάπεται· εὐφροσύνα δ᾽ ὁ χρυσός·
    ἀνδρὶ δ᾽ οὐ θέμις, πολιὸν π[αρ]έντα

γῆρας, θάλειαν αὖτις ἀγκομίσσαι
ἥβαν. ἀρετᾶ[ς γε μ]ὲν οὐ μινύθει        90
βροτῶν ἅμα σ[ώμα]τι φέγγος, ἀλλὰ
    Μοῦσά νιν τρ[έφει].

Eric Thomson sent me the following image of Herwig Maehler's Teubner text as a reminder of the advances in the study of Bacchylides since Jebb's day: Winged hope undermines the understanding of short-lived men, etc.