Monday, November 14, 2022
Death of a Hunter
Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum 54:788 (from Marmaroto on the island of Kos, 2nd/1st century BC):
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πρὶν μὲν ἐνὶ ζωοῖσιν ἔτ' ὤν, Στίβε, πολλὰ κατ' ἄγκηMy translation:
τέρπεο γαυριόων κυδαλίμοισιν ἄγραις,
νῦν δέ σε τεθνειῶτα μέλαν νέφος ἀμφικαλύπτει·
ὀκτωκαιδεχέτη μοῖραν ἐπερχόμενον
εἷλ' ἁμῖ]ν Ἀΐδας· ἀλλ' ὦ Κυλλάνιε δαῖμον,
παῖδα τὸν ἀκρήβην πέμψον ἐπ' εὐσεβέας.
Formerly, when you were still among the living, Stibos, down many mountain glensThe Kyllenian god is of course Hermes Psychopompos, conductor of souls.
you used to take pleasure, rejoicing in glorious hunts,
but now a black cloud enfolds you who have died;
at eighteen years old when you came upon your fate,
Hades took you away from us; but, o Kyllenian god,
send this boy, a youth in his prime, to the pious ones.
