Translated from the Greek by Thomas Stanley.
Greek text attributed to Moschus (fl. c.150 BCE – earlier than Bion, so that this poem cannot be his).
This translation first published in the second part of Stanley’sPoems(1651), with separate title-page entitled ‘Anacreon. Bion. Moschvs. [etc.]’.
Epitaph on Bion the Pastoral Poet.
Mourn, and your grief ye Groves in soft sighs breath, Ye Rivers drop in tears, forBionsdeath:
His losse ye Plants lament, ye Woods bewaile, Ye Flowers your odours with your griefs exhale;
In purple mourn, Anemony and Rose;
Breathe Hyacinth that sigh, and more, which grows Upon thy cheek; the sweet voic’d Singers gone:
Begin Sicilian Muse, begin your mone.
Ye Nightingales that mourn on thickest boughs,
10 Tell gentleArethusa’sstream which flows
ThroughSicily, Bionthe Shepherds dead, And with him Poetry and Musick fled.
Begin Sicilian, &c.
Strimonian Swans vent from your mournful throats
3 Ote]pipe or stalk of the oat plant. 16 of our owne]A conventional premise of pastoral: its idealized shepherds owned their flocks, unlike the wretched shepherds of the present day. Title,Bion]Greek lyric poet (fl.100 BCE). None of his surviving work is markedly pastoral, though there is a celebrated quasi-pastoral ‘Lament for Adonis’. 5 Anemony]a flower generated by Venus from the dead Adonis’
blood, hence associated with mourning. But in Bion’s ‘Lament for Adonis’ (hence here) Venus’ tears generate the anemone and Adonis’ blood the rose. 6 Hyacinth]Hyacinthus was a youth beloved of Apollo but accidentally killed by him. From his blood sprang the hyacinth flower, whose marks resemble the grieving Gk exclamationAI AI. There is a poem about Hyacinthus ascribed to Bion.
10 Arethusa]the fountain Arethusa, sacred to poetry: on the island of Ortygia near Syracuse in Sicily, traditional home of pastoral poetry, hence specially associated with pastoral. 14 Strimonian Swans]
Strymon is a river in Orpheus’ homeland Thrace. Swans are supposed to sing before they die.
(Gliding upon the waves) such dying notes As heretofore in you the Poet sung;
Tell theOeagrian, tell theThracianyoung Virgins, the DorickOrpheushence is gone;
Begin Sicilian Muse, begin your mone.
20 He never more shall pipe to his lov’d flock, Laid underneath some solitary Oak, But songs ofLethenow, byPlutotaught;
The Hils are dumb; the Heifers that late sought The Bull lament, and let their meat alone.
Begin Sicilian Muse, begin your mone.
Apollowept thy death, thy silenc’d reeds Satyrs, Priapusses in mourning weeds
And Fawns bewail: ‘mongst woods the Nymphs that dwell fauns, minor wood-gods In fountains weep, whose tears to fountains swell;
30 Eccho ’mongst rocks her silence doth deplore, Nor words (now thine are stopt) will follow more;
Flowers fade; abortive fruit falls from the trees;
The Ews no Milk, no Honey give the Bees, But wither’d combs; the sweetness being gone Of thy lov’d voice, Honey itself hath none.
Begin Sicilian Muse begin your mone.
So Dolphin never wail’d upon the strand;
So never Nightingale on craggy land;
So never Swallow on the mountains mourn’d;
40 NorHalcyonssorrowsCeyxso return’d.
Begin Sicilian, &c.
SoCeryluson blew waves never sung;
In Eastern vales, the bird fromMemnonsprung Aurora’sson so mourn’d not, hovering o’re His Sepulcher, asBionthey deplore.
Begin Sicilian, &c.
Swallows and Nightingales, whom he to please Once taught to sing, now sitting on high trees
Sing forth their grief in parts, the rest reply, in turn, as in a part-song 50 And Doves with murmuring keep them company.
Begin Sicilian, &c.
Who now can use thy Pipe, or dare betray Such boldness to thy Reeds his lips to lay?
They yet are by thy lips and breath inspir’d, blown or breathed into And Eccho thence hath harmony acquir’d;
Pankeeps thy Pipe, but will its use decline, Fearing to prove his own skill short of thine.
Begin Sicilian, &c.
TheeGalatheawails, whom heretofore 60 Thy songs delighted sitting on the shore:
The Cyclops sung not so; She through the Sea
17-18 Oeagrian ...Virgins]Oeager was king of Thrace and (by the muse Calliope) father of Orpheus.
HenceOeagrides= Orpheus’ sisters (Virgins), by extension the Muses.Thracian young Virgins] trans-lating ‘Bistonian nymphs’ in original, Bistonia being a place in Thrace. 18 Dorick]pastoral: The-ocritus wrote in the Doric dialect. Bion is being called the Orpheus of pastoral. 22 Lethe]A river (of forgetfulness) in the underworld orPluto’skingdom. 27 Priapusses]Priapus, conspicuously phallic god of fertility associated with the conventionally lustful fauns and satyrs. The plural is used generically of this whole class of wood-gods – likePanes(‘Pans’) in the Gk, rendered by Stanley asFawns(28).
37 Dolphin]So certain mss. Standard Gk text refers to Sirens. 40 Halcyon, Ceyx]In one version of the legend, Ceyx dies in a shipwreck, his beloved Alcyone throws herself into the sea for grief, and both are turned into birds (perhaps kingfishers). 42 Cerylus]a fabulous sea-bird. 43 Memnon]
son of Tithonus and Aurora (Dawn). His ashes generated a flock of birds visiting his tomb every year.
This entire section (37-45) obscure in the original. All allusions are to humans metamorphosed into birds: the point seems to be that they mourn more deeply for Bion than for their original griefs. 50 Doves]not in original. 55 Eccho]The nymph Echo was punished by Juno by having no independent utterance or control over her tongue; but the echo of Bion’s songs lingering in his pipe is harmonious.
Cf. 30-31. 56 Pan keeps thy pipe]Gk has: ‘Shall I take your pipe to Pan?’ 59 Galathea]a nymph beloved of the Cyclops Polyphemus. His love recounted in Theocritus XI (see no.2), and mentioned in two poems by Bion.
(Though him she fled) darted kind looks at Thee;
And now in desert sands she sits, the deep Forsaking quite, and doth thy Oxen keep.
Begin Sicilian, &c.
With thee (lov’d Swain) dy all the Muses joyes, The kisses of young Maids and amorous Boyes;
The Cupids weep about thy Sepulcher;
TheeVenusdid beyond the kisse prefer
70 Which fromAdonisdying she receiv’d.
Thou hast new cause, great River, to be griev’d, New sorrow,Melus:Homerfirst by death Was seiz’d (Calliopesharmonious breath);
Then thy fair Son thy troubled waves deplor’d, And over all the Sea their current roar’d;
Thou now must languish for another Son:
Both Fountains lov’d: thePegasæanOne, The other courtedArethusa’sspring:
One did ofTyndarusfair Daughter sing, Thetisgreat Son, andMenelauswrong; 80 Nor wars nor tears,Panwas the others song, And Shepherds: As he sung he us’d to feed His flock, milk Cows, or carve an oaten reed, Taught the Youth courtship, in his bosom love He nurs’d, andVenusonly did approve.
Begin Sicilian, &c.
Thy death each City, every Town resents; feels or mourns deeply Above herHesiod Ascrathee laments;
LessePindarbyBoetianwoods is lov’d;
90 Less withAlcaeusfate wasLesbusmov’d;
Their Poets losse lesse griev’d theCeiantown;
Paruslesse love t’Archilochushath shown;
Thy verse ’boveSapphos Mytileneadmires;
All whom th’indulgence of the Muses fires With pastoral heat, bewail thy sad decease;
TheSamianglory mournsSicelides;
AmongstCydonians(whose late mirth their pride) Licidasweeps; his grief byHalestide
Philetas, ’mongstTriopians, doth diffuse, Theocritus’mongst those ofSyracuse; 100 And withAusoniangrief my verse is fraught;
68 The Cupids]Erotes, infant figures accompanying the infant Cupid. 69 Adonis]a hunter beloved of Venus; killed by a boar, to Venus’ distracted grief. Bion’s ‘Lament for Adonis’ describes her kissing his dead body. 72 Melus]Meles, a river in Smyrna, birthplace of Bion and, reputedly, of Homer.
73 Calliope]Muse of epic poetry and thus of Homer. 77Pegasæan]Hippocrene under Mount Helicon, sprung from the hoof-beat of the winged horse Pegasus: sacred to all the Muses, but here specially associated with Homer and the epic. 78 Arethusa]contrastingly associated with Bion and the pastoral: see 10n. 79 Tyndarus fair Daughter]Helen of Troy. Tyndar[e]us was married to He-len’s mother Leda, though Helen was begotten by Zeus. 80 Thetis great Son]Achilles.Menelaus wrong]when Paris abducted his wife Helen. These allusions to theIliadcontrast with Bion’s pastoral theme. 85 approve]?try, put to test (OED 8). Gk has ‘who aroused the passion of Venus herself.’
88 Ascra]a town in Boeotia, on Mount Helicon; abode of Hesiod. 89 Pindar]born in Thebes, the principal city of Boeotia. 90 Alcaeus]was born and dwelt in Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. 91 the Ceian town]Simonides was born on the island of Ceos. Standard Gk text cites Teos, the home of Anacreon. 92 Archilochus]belonged to Paros. 93 Sappho]belonged to Lesbos and probably, like Alcaeus, to Mytilene. 96 Samian]of the island of Samos. The poet cannot be identified: per-haps Pythagoras, a musician as well as philosopher and mathematician.Sicelides]Sicilians, perhaps the Sicilian or pastoral muses (as in Virgil IV.1). 96-9 The Samian glory ... doth diffuse]A late interpolation, rejected by modern editors but accepted in the Renaissance. Impairing chronology, ‘Li-cidas’, Philetas, Theocritus and the poet himself are all presented as Bion’s disciples (Scholers, 102) mourning his death. 97-8 Cydonians]Cretans.Licidas]probably Epimenides.97 whose ... pride]
Their now deceased cause of joy (i.e., ‘Licidas’) was their pride. 98-9 Hales ... Philetas ... Triopi-ans]Conflating two rivers called Hales, in Asia Minor and in Cos. Triopium was in Asia Minor, while the poet Philetas belonged to Cos. 100 Theocritus]Theocritus hailed from Syracuse. Standard Gk text implies ‘You are a Theocritus [i.e., as good as, or better than, Theocritus] even to Syracuse’. 101 Ausonian]Italian. The unknown poet, like Moschus, seems to hail from Southern Italy.
Such thy own Scholers by thy self were taught, Who as thy heirs claim Dorik poesie;
Thy wealth to others, verse thou left’st to me.
Begin Sicilian, &c.
Alas though time the garden Mallows kill,
The verdant Smallage and the flowry Dill, Smallage: types of parsley or celery Yet these revive, and new the next year rise;
But Man, though ne’re so great, so strong, so wise, 110 Once dead, inclos’d in hollow earth must keep
A long, obscure, inexcitable sleep. unwakable
And thou art thus laid silent in the ground;
For thy sweet voice we onely hear the sound Of the hoarse Frogs unintermitted grone.
Begin Sicilian Muse, begin your mone.
Cam’st thou by Poyson Bion to thy death?
Scapt that the Antidote of thy sweet breath?
What cruel Man to thee could poyson bear?
Against thy musick sure he stopt his ear.
120 Begin Sicilian, &c.
But a just vengeance is reserv’d for all;
Meantime, with others, I bewail thy fall.
Might I likeOrpheusview the states below, And likeAlcides, orUlissesgo
ToPluto’scourt, I would enquire if there
To him thou singst, and what thou singst would hear;
Court Her with someSicilianpast’ral strain, Who sporting onSicilian Aetna’splain Sung Dorik laies; thine may successful be, 130 And as onceOrpheusbroughtEuridice
Thee back perhaps they to these hills may bring:
Had I such skill, toPlutoI would sing.