Social Commentaries
Book XI, 330
Translated by W. R. Paton (1916–18) · From The Greek Anthology (Loeb, vol. IV, 1918)
I was invited yesterday, Demetrius, and came to supper to-day. Don’t find fault with me; you have a long staircase. I spent an age on it, and I should not have got safe up it to-day only I came up holding on to a donkey’s tail. You touch the stars: Zeus, it seems, when he ran away with Ganymede, went up with him by this route. But from here how long will it take you to reach Hades? You are not wanting in cleverness; you have hit on a trick for being immortal.
This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.
Cite this poem
MLA
Nicarchus. “Book XI, 330.” Translated by W. R. Paton. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/nicarchus/35/.
Chicago
Nicarchus. “Book XI, 330.” Translated by W. R. Paton. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/nicarchus/35/.
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