Bion of Smyrna

Bion (Greek: Βίων, Bíо̄n) was an ancient Greek bucolic poet from Smyrna, probably active at the end of the second or beginning of the first century BC. He is named in the Suda as one of three canonical bucolic poets alongside Theocritus and Moschus. One long poem about Adonis and seventeen shorter fragments of his poetry survive.

Quotes

Greek text cited from C. Gallavotti, Theocritus quique feruntur Bucolici Graeci (Rome, ³1993), whose numbering is also followed.

Lament for Adonis

• μηκέτι πορφυρέοις ἐνὶ φάρεσι Κύπρι κάθευδε·
  ἔγρεο δειλαία κυανόστολε καὶ πλατάγησον
  στήθεα καὶ λέγε πᾶσιν· ἀπώλετο καλὸς Ἄδωνις.
  • Sleep no more, Cypris, beneath thy purple coverlet, but awake to thy misery; put on the sable robe and fall to beating thy breast, and tell it to the world, The beauteous Adonis іs dead.
  • Lines 3–5 (tr. J. M. Edmonds, 1912)

Fragments

• κρίνειν οὐκ ἐπέοικε θεήια ἔργα βροτοῖσι.
  • Ill it seems that man should judge God's handiwork.
  • Frg. 2.9 (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897

• μολπὰν ταὶ Μοῖσαί μοι ἀεὶ ποθέοντι διδοῖεν,
  τὰν γλυκερὰν μολπάν, τᾶς φάρμακον ἅδιον οὐδέν.
  • May the Muses ever give me song at my desire, dear melodious song, the sweetest physic in the world.
  • Frg. 3.2–3 (tr. J. M. Edmonds, 1912)

• ἐκ θαμινᾶς ῥαθάμιγγος, ὅπως λόγος, αἰὲς ἰοίσας
  χἁ λίθος ἐς ῥωχμὸν κοιλαίνεται.
  • The unceasing drip of water, as they say,
    Will wear a channel in the hardest stone.
  • Frg. 4 (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897)

• ἦ λαθόμεσθ᾿ ἄρα πάντες, ὅτι θνατοὶ γενόμεσθα,
  χὡς βραχὺν ἐκ Μοίρας λάχομες χρόνον.
  • Methinks we all forget that we are mortal,
    And that so short a span the Fates allot.
  • Frg. 8.13–14 (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897)

• οὐδ᾿ ἵνα νυκτὸς ὁδοιπορέοντας ἐνοχλέω,
  ἀλλ᾿ ἐράω· καλὸν δέ τ᾿ ἐρασσαμένῳ συναρέσθαι.
  • I be no thief nor highwayman—tis not for that I'm abroad at night—, but a lover; and lovers deserve all aid.
  • Frg. 11.7–8 (tr. J. M. Edmonds, 1912)
    • Alternative translation (W. Barnstone, 1967):
    • I am no thief, no highway man to plague a traveller at night.
      A lover I am. And those in love must be helped.

• ὄλβιοι οἱ φιλέοντες, ἐπὴν ἴσον ἀντεράωνται.
  • Blessed are they who love, if they are loved in turn.
  • Frg. 12.1 (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897)

• μορφὰ θηλυτέραισι πέλει καλόν, ἀνέρι δ᾿ ἀλκά.
  • Beauty's a woman glory, strength a man's.
  • Frg. 15 (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897)

• αὐτὰρ ἐγὼν βασεῦμαι ἐμὰν ὁδὸν ἐς τὸ κάταντες
  τῆνο ποτὶ ψάμαθόν τε καὶ ἀιόνα ψιθυρίσδων,
  λισσόμενος Γαλάτειαν ἀπηνέα· τὰς δὲ γλυκείας
  ἐλπίδας ὑστατίῳ μέχρι γήραος οὐκ ἀπολειψῶ.
  • . . . But I will go my way to yonder hillside, singing low to sand and shore my supplication of the cruel Galatea; for I will not give over my sweet hopes till I come unto uttermost old age . . .
  • Frg. 16 (tr. J. M. Edmonds, 1912)
    • Alternative translation (M. J. Chapman, 1836):
    • I to the sandy shore and seaward slope
        Will go, and try with murmured song to bend
      The cruel Galatea: my sweet hope
        I'll cast away—when life itself doth end.