Wednesday, March 20, 2024
The Seikilos Inscription
Inscription from Tralles (1st century AD), now in Copenhagen, National Museum of Denmark
(Inv. 14897), Greek text from Josef Stauber, Steinepigramme aus dem griechischen Osten, Bd. I: Die Westküste Kleinasiens von Knidos bis Ilion (Stuttgart; B.G. Teubner, 1998), pp. 207-208 (number 02/02/07) =
Werner Peek, Griechische Vers-Inschriften, Vol. I: Grab-Epigramme (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1955), p. 609 (number 1955), tr. Robert A. Rohland, Carpe Diem: The Poetics of Presence in Greek and Latin Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2023), p. 2:
Modern musical notation by Armand D'Angour, in Tom Phillips and Armand D'Angour, edd.,
Music, Text, and Culture in Ancient Greece (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), p. 69:
Performance by David Creese at https://soundcloud.com/info-1488/david-creese-sings-seikilos.
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I, the stone, am an image. Seikilos placed me here asTranslation of the song portion by M.L. West, Ancient Greek Music (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), p. 301:
long-lasting sign of immortal remembrance.
As long as you're alive, shine (?), don't be sad at all;
life is short, time asks for its due.
Seikilos, son of Euterpes; during his lifetime.
εἰκὼν ἡ λίθος | εἰμί· τίθησι μὲ | Σείκιλος ἔνθα
μνήμης ἀθανάτου | σῆμα πολυχρόνιον.
ὅσον ζῇς, φαίνου· |
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ | λυποῦ·
πρὸς ὀλί|γον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν, |
τὸ τέλος ὁ χρό|νος ἀπαιτεῖ. |
Σείκιλος Εὐτέρ(που)· | ζῇ.
While you're alive, shine, man,Image of the stone from Stauber, p. 207 (I can't find an image at https://natmus.dk/):
don't be the least bit blue.
Life's for a little span;
Time demands its due.
