Mortals are many, and many their fortunes and of many shapes. Yet a human life of unbroken blessedness—that you will hardly find.
πολλαί γε πολλοῖς εἰσι συμφοραὶ βροτῶν,
μορφαὶ δὲ διαφέρουσιν· ἓνα δ' ἂν εὐτυχῆ
μόλις ποτ' ἐξεύροι τις ἀνθρώπων βίον.
ἓνα δ' ἂν εὐτυχῆ Heath: ἓν δ' ἂν εὐτυχὲς L
"A peculiar anthologic maze, an amusing literary chaos, a farrago of quotations, a mere olla podrida of quaintness, a pot pourri of pleasant delites, a florilegium of elegant extracts, a tangled fardel of old-world flowers of thought, a faggot of odd fancies, quips, facetiae, loosely tied" (Holbrook Jackson, Anatomy of Bibliomania) by a "laudator temporis acti," a "praiser of time past" (Horace, Ars Poetica 173).
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Saturday, October 30, 2010
Life
Euripides, Ion 381-383 (tr. David Kovacs):