Death & Dying

The Old Shepherd (Mackail)

by Leonidas of Tarentum fl. early 3rd century BC

Translated by J. W. Mackail (1890) · From Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology (1890)

Death & Dying

Shepherds who pass over this ridge of hill pasturing your goats and fleecy sheep, pay to Clitagoras, in Earth's name, a small but kindly grace, for the sake of Persephone under ground; let sheep bleat by me, and the shepherd on an unhewn stone pipe softly to them as they feed, and in early spring let the countryman pluck the meadow flower to engarland my tomb with a garland, and let one make milk drip from a fruitful ewe, holding up her milking-udder, to wet the base of my tomb: there are returns for favours to dead men, there are, even among the departed.

This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.

MLA

Tarentum, Leonidas of. “The Old Shepherd (Mackail).” Translated by J. W. Mackail. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/leonidas-tarentum/108/.

Chicago

Tarentum, Leonidas of. “The Old Shepherd (Mackail).” Translated by J. W. Mackail. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/leonidas-tarentum/108/.

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