Living
Maxims of Theognis: Relying on none of the
Translated by Rev. J. Banks (Bohn, 1856) · From Hesiod, Callimachus and Theognis (Bohn, 1856)
Relying on none of the citizens, advance one step, trusting neither oath nor covenant, not even if a man, wishing to give pledges, chooses to give Jove, the supreme king of immortals, as his surety. For verily in a city so malignantly-blaming as this, nothing pleases, and according as any one does, so they are called far the more senseless. But now the ills of the well-born are good things to the mean of men, and become a law to the devious. For a sense-of-shame hath perished: impudence and insolence, having mastered justice, possess the whole earth.
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: Relying on none of the.” Translated by Rev. J. Banks. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/theognis/154/.
Chicago
Megara, Theognis of. “Maxims of Theognis: Relying on none of the.” Translated by Rev. J. Banks. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/theognis/154/.
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