Living
Maxims of Theognis: There are two fates truly
Translated by Rev. J. Banks (Bohn, 1856) · From Hesiod, Callimachus and Theognis (Bohn, 1856)
There are two fates truly of drinking to wretched mortals, limb-relaxing thirst, and baneful drunkenness. Now between these I shall abide, nor will you persuade me either not to drink at all, or to be excessively drunken. Wine, indeed, in other respects is agreeable to me, but in one ’tis disagreeable, to wit, when, having made me drunk, it leads me against a foe. But when one, being properly above, shall have been lowered, then ’tis meet he should go home, having ceased from drinking.
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: There are two fates truly.” Translated by Rev. J. Banks. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/theognis/276/.
Chicago
Megara, Theognis of. “Maxims of Theognis: There are two fates truly.” Translated by Rev. J. Banks. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/theognis/276/.
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