Living
Maxims of Theognis: We seek for well-bred rams
Translated by Rev. J. Banks (Bohn, 1856) · From Hesiod, Callimachus and Theognis (Bohn, 1856)
We seek for well-bred rams, asses, and horses, Cyrnus, and every one wishes that those from a noble breed should cover. But a well-born man cares not to marry a mean woman, a mean man’s daughter, if he give her much wealth. No woman refuses to be wife of a mean man if he be rich, but prefers that he be wealthy instead of noble. ’Tis wealth they value; noble man weds mean man’s daughter, and mean man the daughter of the noble. Wealth is wont to mix the breed. Then marvel not, son of Polypas, that the race of citizens is obscured, for noble is mixed with base.
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: We seek for well-bred rams.” Translated by Rev. J. Banks. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/theognis/138/.
Chicago
Megara, Theognis of. “Maxims of Theognis: We seek for well-bred rams.” Translated by Rev. J. Banks. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/theognis/138/.
Read this poem with the Codex →