Laudator Temporis Acti

From Eric Thomson:

Phanias (Greek Anthology 6.294) enumerates the arsenal of a plagosus Orbilius. Kallon of course would spend his retirement behind bars today.

Σκήπωνα προποδαγὸν, ἱμάντα τε, καὶ παρακοίταν
   νάρθηκα, κροτάφων πλάκτορα νηπιάχων,
κέρκον τ᾽ εὐμόλπαν φιλοκαμπέα, καὶ μονόπελμον
   συγχίδα, καὶ στεγάναν κρατὸς ἐρημοκόμου,
Κάλλων Ἑρμείᾳ θέτ᾽ ἀνάκτορι, σύμβολ᾽ ἀγωγᾶς
   παιδείου, πολιῷ γυῖα δεθεὶς καμάτῳ.

The staff that guided his feet, his flogging strap, the cane ever-ready to rap young heads, his supple whistling bull's pizzle, his sandal with a single sole, and the skull-cap for his haireless pate, Kallon, his body bound by the fatigue of old age, dedicates to Hermes the Lord the tools of his pedagogical trade.

Nice to see Paton (an Aberdonian) use 'tawse' in his translation but I doubt if many know the word now. Beazley (a Glaswegian, whose article on narthex is attached) keeps it.

---

Beazley = J.D. Beazley, "Narthex," American Journal of Archaeology 37.3 (July-September, 1933) 400-403, who translates Phanias' poem as follows:

The staff that guided his feet, his tawse, the narthex [that lay ever ready to his hand] to tap little boys with on the head, his lithe [whistling bull's pizzle], his one-soled slipper, and the skull-cap of his hairless pate, Kallon, his limbs fettered by senile fatigue, dedicates to Hermes the Lord, tokens of his career as a schoolmaster.

A rather free version by Peter Porter:

The stick he used to tap out feet
   (both kinds), the belt and cane which
lay side by side to maintain order,
   the well-oiled tawse, the stinging slipper
with its one thin sole, the skull cap
   which kept his hairless head from laughter —
these tokens of his long schoolmastering
   Callon dedicates to the Lord Hermes:
his limbs are bound by age and he
   must soon depart the ageless world of boys.

Text and apparatus from Hermann Beckby, ed., Anthologia Graeca, 2nd ed., Bd. I: Buch I-VI (Munich: Ernst Heimeran Verlag, [1966]), p. 620:

See also:

• Adelmo Barigazzi, "Il maestro giubilato," L'Antiquité Classique 23.1 (1954) 115-117
• Liliane Bodson, "Point d'études sans larmes (Anthologie Palatine VI 294)," L'Antiquité Classique 41.1 (1972) 113-122

Related posts:

• Plagosus Orbilius
• Inexpensive Instruments of Instruction
• A Close Connection Between the Skin and the Memory
• Et Nos Ergo Manum Ferulae Subduximus
• A Male Puberty Rite
• Anarchy Tempered by Despotism
• Punishment in School
• More Punishments in School
• Ordeals of a Schoolboy
• Grammar Lesson