Living
Maxims of Theognis: Never is a slave’s head
Translated by Rev. J. Banks (Bohn, 1856) · From Hesiod, Callimachus and Theognis (Bohn, 1856)
Never is a slave’s head erect, but always crooked, and has the neck askance. For neither from the squill do roses or hyacinths spring, no, nor ever from a bond-woman a free-spirited child.
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: Never is a slave’s head.” Translated by Rev. J. Banks. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/theognis/204/.
Chicago
Megara, Theognis of. “Maxims of Theognis: Never is a slave’s head.” Translated by Rev. J. Banks. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/theognis/204/.
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