Fragments - Lines 0219 - 0220
Do not distress yourself too much at the turbulence of your fellow citizens,
Kyrnos, but walk down the middle of the road, as I do.
poem by Theognis
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Fragments - Lines 0255 - 0256
The noblest thing is justice; the most advantageous, health;
But what gives greatest delight is to gain the object of one's desire.
poem by Theognis
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Fragments - Lines 0001 - 0004
O lord, son of Leto, child of Zeus, you I shall never
Forget, either beginning or coming to an end,
But always, first and last and in the middle,
I shall sing of you. And you, hear me and grant good things.
poem by Theognis
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Fragments - Lines 1267 - 1270
A boy and a horse are alike in mind, for the horse does not
Weep for its rider when he lies in the dust,
But, fed full with barley, it carries the next man;
And in just this way the boy too loves whoever is at hand.
poem by Theognis
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Fragments - Lines 1337 - 1340
No longer do I love a boy. I have kicked aside harsh torments;
From grievous hardships I have gladly escaped;
I am set loose from longing by fair-wreathed Kythereia.
As for you, my boy, you have no attractiveness in my eyes.
poem by Theognis
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Fragments - Lines 1353 - 1356
Bitter and sweet, alluring and tormenting:
Such, till it be fulfilled, Kyrnos, is love to the young;
For if one finds fulfillment, it proves sweet; but if, pursuing,
One fails of fulfillment, then of all things it is most painful.
poem by Theognis
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Fragments - Lines 0425 - 0428
Not to be born is the best of all things for those who live on earth,
And not to gaze on the radiance of the keen-burning sun.
Once born, however, it is best to pass with all possible speed through Hades' gates
And to lie beneath a great heap of earth.
poem by Theognis
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Fragments - Lines 0005 - 0010
Lord Phoibos, when the goddess, lady Leto, bore you,
Clasping a palm tree in her slender hands,
You the most beautiful of immortals, beside the wheel-round lake,
Then all of boundless Delos was filled
With an ambrosial scent; the huge earth laughed,
And the deep waters of the hoary sea rejoiced.
poem by Theognis
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Fragments - Lines 0173 - 0178
Of all things it is poverty that most subdues a noble man,
More even than hoary old age, Kyrnos, or fever;
Indeed, to avoid it one should even throw oneself into the sea's
Deep gulfs, Kyrnos, or off sheer cliffs.
For the man subdued by poverty can neither say
Nor do anything, because his tongue is tied.
poem by Theognis
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Fragments - Lines 0783 - 0788
Yes, I went once to the land of Sicily too,
I went to Euboia's vineyard-covered plain,
And to Sparta, that splendid city on Eurotas' reedy banks;
And everywhere I went they welcomed me with kindness.
But no pleasure came to my heart from any of them:
So true is it, after all, that nothing is dearer than one's homeland.
poem by Theognis
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