Page:The Greek bucolic poets (1912).djvu/401

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THE INSCRIPTIONS, V–VIII

notes of his wax-bound breath; and so standing beside the shaggy oak behind the cave, let’s rob yon goat-foot Pan of his slumber.

VI.—[FOR A PICTURE]

Well-a-day, you poor Thyrsis! what boots it if you cry your two eyes out of their sockets? Your kid’s gone, the pretty babe, dead and gone, all erushed in the talons of the great rough wolf. True, the dogs are baying him; but to what end, when there’s neither ash nor bone of the poor dead left?

VII.—[FOR THE GRAVE OF A YOUNG FATHER]

Here are you, Eurymedon, come in your prime to the grave; but you left a little son behind you, and though your dwelling henceforth is with the great o’ the earth, you may trust your countrymen to honour the child for the sake of the father.

VIII.—[FOR NICIAS’ NEW STATUE OF ASCLEPIUS]

The Great Healer’s son is come to Miletus now, to live with his fellow-craftsman Nicias, who both maketh sacrifice before him every day, and hath now made carve this statue of fragrant cedar-wood; he promised Eétion a round price for the finished cunning of his hand, and Eétion hath put forth all his art to the making of the work.

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