All things in human life age naturally
and reach an end of their appointed time,
except it seems for shamelessness alone.
The more the race of mortals is increased,
the more she becomes greater day by day.
ἅπαντ’ ἐν ἀνθρώποισι γηράσκειν ἔφυ
καὶ πρὸς τελευτὴν ἔρχεται τακτοῦ χρόνου,
πλὴν, ὡς ἔοικε, τῆς ἀναιδείας μόνον.
αὕτη δ’ ὅσῳπερ αὔξεται θνητῶν γένος,
τοσῷδε μείζων γίγνεται καθ’ ἡμέραν. 5
2 τακτοῦ Buecheler: τὰ τοῦ codd. Stobaei 3.32.14
3 μόνον codd.: μόνης Meineke
"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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Friday, February 02, 2024
Shamelessness
Theodectas, fragment 12 (tr. Martin Cropp):