Leonidas of Tarentum

Leonidas of Tarentum (fl. 3rd century BC) was a Hellenistic poet of Magna Graecia.

Quotes

• Εὐκαπὲς ἄγκιστρον, καὶ δούρατα δουλιχόεντα,
  χὠρμιήν, καὶ τὰς ἰχθυδόκους σπυρίδας,
  καὶ τοῦτον νηκτοῖσιν ἐπ᾽ ἰχθύσι τεχνασθέντα
  κύρτον, ἁλιπλάγκτων εὕρεμα δικτυβόλων,
  τρηχύν τε τριόδοντα, Ποσειδαώνιον ἔγχος,
  καὶ τοὺς ἐξ ἀκάτων διχθαδίους ἐρέτας,
  ὁ γριπεὺς Διόφαντος ἀνάκτορι θήκατο τέχνας,
  ὡς θέμις, ἀρχαίας λείψανα τεχνοσύνας.
  • His lengths of rod, and hooks of bended steel,
    The baskets where he packed his finny prey,
    His fisherman’s device, the osier creel,
    That leads the scaly wanderers astray—
    His three-pronged gaff like to Poseidon’s spear—
    His pair of oars, from rowlocks now removed—
    Old Diophantus offers of his gear
    These to the patron of the art he loved.
  • Anthologia Palatina, vi, 4, as translated by Herbert Kynaston, ed. E. D. Stone (1912), pp. 19–20

• Ποιμένες οἳ ταύτην ὄρεος ῥάχιν οἰοπολεῖτε
    αἶγας κεὐείρους ἐμβοτέοντες ὄις,
  Κλειταγόρῃ, πρὸς Γῆς, ὀλίγην χάριν, ἀλλὰ προσηνῆ
    τίνοιτε, χθονίης εἵνεκα Φερσεφόνης.
  βληχήσαιντ᾽ ὄιές μοι, ἐπ᾽ ἀξέστοιο δὲ ποιμὴν
    πέτρης συρίζοι πρηέα βοσκομέναις:
  εἴαρι δὲ πρώτῳ λειμώνιον ἄνθος ἀμέρσας
    χωρίτης στεφέτω τύμβον ἐμὸν στεφάνῳ,
  καί τις ἀπ᾽ εὐάρνοιο καταχραίνοιτο γάλακτι
    οἰός, ἀμολγαῖον μαστὸν ἀνασχόμενος,
  κρηπῖδ᾽ ὑγραίνων ἐπιτύμβιον εἰσὶ θανόντων
    εἰσὶν ἀμοιβαῖαι κἀν φθιμένοις χάριτες.
  • Ye shepherds, who along these ridgy banks
      Your goats and fleecy flocks to pasture guide,
    To please the Shadow-Queen some gift of thanks
      In tribute to Cleitagoras provide.
    To me, in answer to the bleating flock,
    Pipe softly, shepherd, seated on the rock:
    Let rustic maids, to deck my tombstone, bring
    A garland of the first wild-flowers of spring;
    And some kind hand the ewe’s full udder press,
      A rich libation from that source to shed
    Over my resting place: such tenderness
    Earns grateful thanks, aye earns them from the dead.
  • Anthologia Palatina, vii, 657, as translated by Herbert Kynaston, ed. E. D. Stone (1912), p. 19
  • Shepherds, that o’er this ridgy mountain-steep
    Come pasturing with your goats and fleecy sheep,
    In Earth’s name, for the dark Persephone,
    Grant me one favour, slight, but sweet to me!
    Here let the sheep bleat, and the shepherd play
    Soft music from the bare rock while they stray:
    And when the Spring comes, from the meadow bloom
    Some peasant weave a wreath, to wreathe my tomb:
    And some one bring a milch-ewe lately lambed,
    Hold the udder up, and let the stream undammed
    Fall on the flat grave-stone. To those that earn,
    Doubt not, the dead feel thanks, and make return.
  • W. G. Headlam, A Book of Greek Verse (1907), p. 192

• Τὰν ἐκφυγοῦσαν ματρὸς ἐκ κόλπων, ἔτι
  ἀφρῷ τε μορμύρουσαν, εὐλεχῆ Κύπριν
  ἰδὼν Ἀπελλῆς, κάλλος ἱμερώτατον,
  οὐ γραπτόν, ἀλλ᾽ ἔμψυχον ἐξεμάξατο.
  εὖ μὲν γὰρ ἄκραις χερσὶν ἐκθλίβει κόμαν,
  εὖ δ᾽ ὀμμάτων γαληνὸς ἐκλάμπει πόθος,
  καὶ μαζός, ἀκμῆς ἄγγελος, κυδωνιᾷ:
  αὐτὰ δ᾽ Ἀθάνα καὶ Διὸς συνευνέτις
  φάσουσιν ‘ὦ Ζεῦ, λειπόμεσθα τῇ κρίσει.’
  • Fair Kypris, rising from her mother's breast,
      Her beauty with the salt sea foam aglow,
    Apelles saw and bade the loveliest
      Vision of joy upon his canvas grow.
    A living form, which seems to breathe and move!
      She draws her taper fingers through her hair;
    In her calm eye shines soft the light of love;
      Her quince-shaped breasts her wondrous charms declare.
    Then, then Athena and great Hera yield
    Confessing, “Zeus, for her we quit the field.”
  • Anthologia Palatina, xvi, 182, "On the Aphrodite Anadyomene of Apelles", as translated by Charles Whibley, Selections from the Greek Anthology (1895), p. 119.

• ?
  • Cling to thy home! If there the meanest shed
    Yield thee a hearth and shelter for thy head,
    And some poor plot, with vegetables stored,
    Be all that heaven allots thee for thy board,
    Unsavoury bread, and herbs that scattered grow,
    Wild on the river-brink or mountain-brow,
    Yet e'en this cheerless mansion shall provide
    More heart's repose than all the world beside.
  • Anthologia Palatina, ?, ?, as translated by Robert Bland, Collections from the Greek Anthology (1813), p. 111