Friday, July 15, 2022

 

Gold

Euripides, fragment 324 Kannicht (from Danaë; tr. Charles Burton Gulick):
O Gold, fairest gift welcomed by mortals! For neither a mother, nor children in the house, nor loved father can bring such delights as thou and they that own thee in their halls. If the glance which shines from Kypris' eyes is like thine, no wonder that countless loves attend her.

ὦ χρυσέ, δεξίωμα κάλλιστον βροτοῖς,
ὡς οὔτε μήτηρ ἡδονὰς τοιάσδ᾽ ἔχει,
οὐ παῖδες ἐν δόμοισιν, οὐ φίλος πατήρ,
οἵας σὺ χοἰ σὲ δώμασιν κεκτημένοι.
εἰ δ᾽ ἡ Κύπρις τοιοῦτον ὀφθαλμοῖς ὁρᾷ,
οὐ θαῦμ᾽ Ἔρωτας μυρίους αὐτὴν ἔχειν.
Latin translation by Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 115.14:
pecunia ingens generis humani bonum,
cui non voluptas matris aut blandae potest
par esse prolis, non sacer meritis parens.
tam dulce siquid Veneris in vultu micat,
merito illa amores caelitum atque hominum movet.

5 amores Erasmus: mores codd.
See Ioanna Karamanou, Euripides Danae and Dictys: Introduction, Text and Commentary (Munich: K.G. Saur, 2006), pp. 78-82.



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