We should not surrender our hearts to our troubles, for we shall make no headway by grieving, Bycchis: the best of remedies is to bring wine and get drunk.
οὐ χρὴ κάκοισι θῦμον ἐπιτρέπην
προκόψομεν γὰρ οὐδὲν ἀσάμενοι,
ὧ Βύκχι, φαρμάκων δ' ἄριστον
οἶνον ἐνεικαμένοις μεθύσθην.
"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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Sunday, August 10, 2014
The Best of Remedies
Alcaeus, fragment 335 Lobel-Page (tr. David A. Campbell):