Death & Dying
On a Mother, Dead in Childbirth (Mackail)
Translated by J. W. Mackail (1890) · From Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology (1890)
These woeful letters of Diodorus' wisdom tell that I was engraven for one early dead in child-birth, since she perished in bearing a boy; and I weep to hold Athenaïs the comely daughter of Melo, who left grief to the women of Lesbos and her father Jason; but thou, O Artemis, wert busy with thy beast-slaying hounds.
This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.
Cite this poem
MLA
Sardis, Diodorus of. “On a Mother, Dead in Childbirth (Mackail).” Translated by J. W. Mackail. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/diodorus-sardis/14/.
Chicago
Sardis, Diodorus of. “On a Mother, Dead in Childbirth (Mackail).” Translated by J. W. Mackail. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/diodorus-sardis/14/.
Read this poem with the Codex →