Epigram XXXVIII. — On Myron who asked Lais for an Assignation

Hoar-headed Myron asked Lais for an assignation, and was refused outright: he understood the cause, and dyed his white poll with black soot. In face — though not in hair— the selfsame Myron, he begged what he had begged before. But she, contrasting his features with his hair, and thinking him like, though not the same (perchance even thinking him the same, but wishing to enjoy the jest), thus addressed the artful gallant: "Fool, why askest thou what I have refused? I have already rejected thy father."