Social Commentaries
Phantasms of the Living (Mackail)
Translated by J. W. Mackail (1890) · From Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology (1890)
Lean Gaius yesterday breathed his very last breath, and left nothing at all for burial, but having passed down into Hades just as he was in life, flutters there the thinnest of the anatomies under earth; and his kinsfolk lifted an empty bier on their shoulders, inscribing above it, "This is Gaius' funeral."
This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.
Cite this poem
MLA
Lucillius. “Phantasms of the Living (Mackail).” Translated by J. W. Mackail. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/lucillius/131/.
Chicago
Lucillius. “Phantasms of the Living (Mackail).” Translated by J. W. Mackail. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/lucillius/131/.
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