Pseudo-Platonica

Those works which have been falsely and doubtfully attributed to Plato, whether through error or forgery, are collectively known as Pseudo-Platonica.

Quotes

Poetry

• Hushed be on Dryads’ wooded rock the rills,
    And hushed the bleatings on the meads,
  Now Pan his pipe with breath melodious fills
    And kisses with moist lip the reeds;
  While, treading nimble dances all around,
  Dryads and Hamadryads beat the ground.
  • Anthologia Palatina, ix, 823, as translated by Herbert Kynaston, in E. D. Stone, A Short Memoir, &c. (1912), p. 20
  • Other translations:
    Be still, ye wooded cliffs and waterfalls
      And mingled bleatings from the murmuring meads!
    For Pan with sweetly ringing music calls,
      Laying his lip on pipe of bounden reeds:
    And round him, dancing swift with glimmering feet,
    Nymphs of the forest and the fountain meet.
    —J. A. Butler, Amaranth and Asphodel (1881), "A Song of Plato (Pan Piping)"

• Within the shady grove we chanced to peep,
  And caught Cythera’s rosy boy asleep:
  None of his brave artillery had he,
  But bow and quiver hung upon a tree;
  While he on rosebuds smiling lay, in warm
  Slumber fast bound; and o’er his lips a swarm
  Of honey bees laid sweets and wrought no harm.
  • Anthologia Palatina, xvi, 210, as translated by Herbert Kynaston, in E. D. Stone, A Short Memoir, &c. (1912), p. 20
  • Other translations:
    We reached the grove’s deep shadow and there found
    Cythera’s son in sleep’s sweet fetters bound,
    Looking like ruddy apples on their tree:
    No quiver and no bended bow had he;
    These were suspended on a leafy spray.
    Himself in cups of roses cradled lay,
    Smiling in sleep; while, from their flight in air,
    The brown bees to his soft lips made repair,
    To ply their waxen task, and leave their honey there.
    —Lord Neaves, The Greek Anthology (1874), "Love Asleep"

• Thou gazest on the stars:
    Would I might be,
  O star of mine, the skies
  With myriad eyes
    To gaze on thee.
  • Anthologia Palatina, vii, 669; Diogenes Laërtius, iii, 29, as translated by Percy Bysshe Shelley, in Poetical Works (1839), "Aster"
  • Other translations:
    My star, thou gazest on the stars: O would that I might be
    The starry sky, so gaze might I with myriad eyes on thee!
    —G. B. Grundy, Ancient Gems in Modern Settings (1913), "The Lover’s Star"

• Thou wert the morning star among the living,
    Ere thy fair light had fled;—
  Now, having died, thou art as Hesperus, giving
    New splendour to the dead.
  • Anthologia Palatina, vii, 670, as translated by Percy Bysshe Shelley, in Poetical Works (1839), "To Stella"
  • Other translations:
    Erstwhile the star of dawn thy light on living men was shed;
    But now in death an evening star, thou’rt light among the dead.
    —G. B. Grundy, Ancient Gems in Modern Settings (1913), "Morning and Evening Star"