Living
Maxims of Theognis: Let no man persuade thee
Translated by Rev. J. Banks (Bohn, 1856) · From Hesiod, Callimachus and Theognis (Bohn, 1856)
Let no man persuade thee, Cyrnus, to love a bad man. For what benefit is that man, if he be a friend? Neither would he rescue you from severe trouble and loss, nor when he has what is good, would he be willing to share this. ’Tis the vainest thanks to one that does good to them-of-low-degree, all one with sowing the wide-waters of the gray brine. Since neither if you sow the waters-wide, would you reap a thick crop, nor benefiting the mean, would you be requited in turn with benefit. For the mean have an insatiate mind: if you shall have erred in one thing, spilt is the love arising from all the ancient kindnesses. But the noble in the highest degree receive and enjoy benefits, and retain memory of good deeds, and gratitude in aftertime.
This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.
Codex Note
Literal prose translation by the Rev. J. Banks (Bohn, 1856), printed as prose: the plain-sense companion to Frere’s verse version. Banks’s hyphenated compounds are his own.
Cite this poem
MLA
Megara, Theognis of. “Maxims of Theognis: Let no man persuade thee.” Translated by Rev. J. Banks. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/theognis/124/.
Chicago
Megara, Theognis of. “Maxims of Theognis: Let no man persuade thee.” Translated by Rev. J. Banks. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/theognis/124/.
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