Sailor Becalmed (Greek Anthology 640)
Prion, a sailor of Greece,
outran the storms of the sea
to shelter in a windless harbor.
Pirates caught him there,
took his ship and cargo,
recruited his crew, and killed him.
Becalmed -- Edward Wesson
Prion, a sailor of Greece,
outran the storms of the sea
to shelter in a windless harbor.
Pirates caught him there,
took his ship and cargo,
recruited his crew, and killed him.
Becalmed -- Edward Wesson
late in the 1st century BCE, Lucius Calpurnius Piso, Julius Caesar's brother-in-law, appointed Antipater governor of Thessalonike, the capital of the Roman province of Macedonia. Over 100 of the epigrams of Antipater of Thessalonica are included in the Greek anthology.
ReplyDeleteFearsome for sailors is the setting of the Kids, but for Pyro calm was far more adverse than storm. For his ship, stayed by calm, was overtaken by a swift double-oared pirate galley. He was slain by them, having escaped the storm but to perish in the calm. Alas, in what an evil harbour ended his voyage!
-- tr. W. R. Paton
(The Kids [Haedi] are a pair of stars -- Zeta Aurigae and Eta Aurigae -- in the constellation of Auriga. The stars were named in the 6th century BCE by Cleostratus, who was credited with introducing the zodiac and the solar calendar. The "kids" were associated with a nymph who owned the goat Amalthea that suckled the infant Zeus to save him from being eaten by his father Kronos [Time]; the nymph was as ugly as a Gorgon so Zeus skinned her after her death and used her hide as his protective shield in his war against his father.)