Book VII, 164: A Variant of the Last

A. “Tell me, lady, thy parentage, name and country.” B. “Calliteles begat me, Praxo was my name, and my land Samos.’ A. “And who erected this monument?” B. “Theocritus who loosed my maiden zone, untouched as yet.” A. “How didst thou die?” B. “In the pains of labour.” A. “And tell me what age thou hadst reached.” B. ‘Twice eleven years.” A. “Childless?” B. “No, stranger, I left Calliteles behind me, my baby boy.” A. “May he reach a grey and blessed old age.” B. “And may Fortune, O stranger, steer the course of all thy life before a fair breeze.”