Ancient Greek & Roman
Theognis of Megara
Theognis of Megara was an archaic Greek elegiac poet, traditionally placed in the sixth century BC. A body of about 1,400 lines of elegiac couplets, the Theognidea, survives under his name, though much of it is probably the work of other hands and later date.
The two epigrams here come from the Greek Anthology and are printed in J. W. Mackail's Select Epigrams (1890); the saying that it is best never to have been born is one of the most quoted sentiments of Greek poetry.
Poems (369)
- The Shadow of Life (Mackail)
- Pis-Aller (Mackail)
- Fragment I: Guided and aided by their holy will
- Fragment II: My heart exults the lively call obeying
- Fragment III: To revel with the pipe, to chaunt and sing
- Fragment IV: Learning and wealth the wise and wealthy find
- Fragment V: My thirst was sated at a secret source
- Fragment VI: To prove our gold or silver coarse or fine
- Fragment VII: My brain grows dizzy, whirl’d and overthrown
- Fragment VIII: Never oblige your company to stay
- Fragment IX: Kurnus, these lines of mine, let them remain
- Fragment X: With kine and horses, Kurnus! we proceed
- Fragment XI: To rear a child is easy, but’'to teach
- Fragment XII: Our commonwealth preserves its former frame
- Fragment XIII: Our state is pregnant ; shortly to produce
- Fragment XIV: My friend, I fear it! pride, which overthrew
- Fragment XV: Pride and oppressive rule destroy’d the state
- Fragment XVI: Kurnus, our state is pregnant to produce
- Fragment XVII: I walk by rule and measure, and incline
- Fragment XVIII: That happy man, my friend, was never seen
- Fragment XX: The generous and the brave, in common fame
- Fragment XXI: The worldly minded and the worldly wise
- Fragment XXII: Many true counsels in this breast of mine
- Fragment XXIII: Court not a tyrant’s favour, nor combine
- Fragment XXIV: I shall not join the funeral train, to go
- Fragment XXV: I envy not these sumptuous obsequies
- Fragment XXVI: Easy discourse with steady sense combin’d
- Fragment XXVII: No costly sacrifice nor offerings given
- Fragment XXVIII: The sovereign single person—what cares he
- Fragment XXIX: If popular distrust and hate prevail
- Fragment XXX: My friend, the feeling you can not correct
- Fragment XXXI: Talks pleasantly ; the friend that will afford
- Fragment XXXII: Let no persuasive art tempt you to place
- Fragment XXXIII: The civil person (he that, to your face
- Fragment XXXIV: Never engage with a poltroon or craven
- Fragment XXXV: Waste not your efforts, struggle not, my friend
- Fragment XXXVI: Kurnus, proceed like me! Walk not awry
- Fragment XXXVII: Bad company breeds mischief ;” Kurnus, you
- Fragment XXXVIII: At entertainments show yourself discreet
- Fragment XXXIX: Rash angry words, and spoken out of season
- Fragment XL: The gods send Insolence to lead astray
- Fragment XLI: Learn, Kurnus, learn to bear an easy mind
- Fragment XLII: Join with the world; adopt with every man
- Fragment XLIII: Let not a base calumnious pretence
- Fragment XLIV: A rival or antagonist is hard
- Fragment XLV: That smith, dear Kurnus, shows but little wit
- Fragment XLVI: No more with empty phrase and speeches fine
- Fragment XLVII: Yes! Drench me with invective! not a stain
- Fragment XLVIII: Change for the worse is sooner understood
- Fragment XLIX: You blame me for an error not my own
- Fragment L: My mind is in a strange distracted state
- Fragment LI: You soar aloft, and over land and wave
- Where on the father’s and the mother’s side
- Fragment LII: Bad faith hath ruin’d me; distrust alone
- Fragment LIII: Learn patience, O my soul! though rack’d and torn
- Fragment LIV: Entire and perfect happiness fs never
- Fragment LV: O mighty Jove! I wish the powers of heaven
- Fragment LVI: Lawful and honest gain, the gift of Heaven
- Fragment LVII: Blessed, almighty Jove! with deep amaze
- Fragment LVIII: Kurnus, believe it! fortune good or ill
- Fragment LIX: In a frail bark across the seas you come
- Fragment LX: The yearly summons of the creaking crane
- Fragment LXI: How could I bear it? In the public place
- Fragment LXII: Elate with wine, my losses I despise
- Fragment LXIII: Simonides ! If with my learning’s store
- Fragment LXIV: Schemes unadvisable and out of reason
- Fragment LXV: Stir not a step! risk nothing! but believe
- Fragment LXVI: A trusty partisan, faithful and bold
- Fragment LXVII: Lash your obedient rabble! lash and load
- Fragment LXVIII: Friend ! if your sense and judgment had been wholly
- Fragment LXIX: Scarce can I venture plainly to declare
- Fragment LXX: From many a friend you must withhold your plans
- Fragment LXXI: Kurnus! since here we meet friends and allies
- Kurnus! in power and honour, heretofore
- Fragment LXXII: A speechless messenger, the beacon’s light
- Fragment LXXIII: Alas, for our disgrace! Cerinthus lost
- Fragment LXXIV: My heart exults, the lively call obeying
- The slavish visage never is erect
- Fragment LXXV: To seize my lost possessions and bestow
- Fragment LXXVI: Talk not of evils past! Ulysses bore
- Fragment LXXVII: Kurnus, of all good things in human life
- Fragment LXXVIII: May Jove assist me to discharge the debt
- Fragment LXXIX: For human nature Hope remains alone
- Fragment LXXX: I search among my friends—none can I find
- Fragment LXXXI: An exile has no friends! no partisan
- Fragment LXXXII: The last and worst of ills, save death alone
- Fragment LXXXIII: Happy the man, with worldly wealth and ease
- Fragment LXXXIV: No mean or coward heart will I commend
- Fragment LXXXV: Not to be born—never to see the sun
- Fragment LXXXVI: For noble minds, the worst of miseries
- Fragment LXXXVII: Wearied and sick at heart, in seas of trouble
- Fragment LXXXVIII: All kinds of shabby shifts are understood
- Fragment LXXXIX: I cannot warble like a nightingale
- Fragment XC: O poverty! how sorely do you press
- Fragment XCI: I wish that a fair trial were prepar’d
- Enough of such discourse ; now let us try
- Fragment XCII: You boast of wealth, and scornfully deplore '
- Fragment XCIII: Though gifted with a shrewd and subtle ken
- Fragment XCIV: Dunces are often rich, while indigence
- Fragment XCV: The passions and the wants of nature breed '
- Fragment XCVI: Plutus! of all the gods the first and best
- Fragment XCVII: My old companions, Fancy and Desire
- Fragment XCIX: Peace is my wish, may peace and plenty crown
- Fragment C: The gods have granted mighty stores of pelf
- Fragment CI: O Plutus! justly to your gifts and you
- Fragment CII: Enjoy your time, my soul! another race
- Fragment CIII: Ye twins of Jove! an undivided twain
- Fragment CIV: Now that in mid-career, checking his course
- Fragment CV: May Jove, the almighty, with his own right hand
- Fragment CVI: You, great Apollo, with its walls and towers
- Fragment CVII: The gods in just allotment have assign’d
- Maxims of Theognis: O King, son of Latona
- Maxims of Theognis: King Phœbus, when the goddess
- Maxims of Theognis: Beast-slaying Artemis, daughter of Jove
- Maxims of Theognis: Muses and Graces, daughters of
- Maxims of Theognis: Cyrnus, let a seal be
- Maxims of Theognis: Be wise, and do not
- Maxims of Theognis: Cyrnus, this city is pregnant
- Maxims of Theognis: Cyrnus, this state is still
- Maxims of Theognis: Never, Cyrnus, trustingly consult with
- Maxims of Theognis: Not even to all friends
- Maxims of Theognis: A faithful man is worthy
- Maxims of Theognis: Do not caress me in
- Maxims of Theognis: If a man shall praise
- Maxims of Theognis: Let no man persuade thee
- Maxims of Theognis: Never make the mean man
- Maxims of Theognis: Pray, son-of-Polypas, to be foremost
- Maxims of Theognis: Nought among men is better
- Maxims of Theognis: Nor doth any man toil
- Maxims of Theognis: None ever, son of Polypas
- Maxims of Theognis: Choose also rather to live
- Maxims of Theognis: Insolence, O Cyrnus, the god
- Maxims of Theognis: Do not ever, having become
- Maxims of Theognis: Never speak in public, Cyrnus
- Maxims of Theognis: Many, I wot, enjoy a
- Maxims of Theognis: No man is either wealthy
- Maxims of Theognis: Pray to the gods, whose
- Maxims of Theognis: Poverty most of all things
- Maxims of Theognis: We seek for well-bred rams
- Maxims of Theognis: The man-of-rank weds the woman-without-fame
- Maxims of Theognis: But to whatsoever man riches
- Maxims of Theognis: But these things deceive the
- Maxims of Theognis: To an exile, believe me
- Maxims of Theognis: Verily, to drink much wine
- Maxims of Theognis: Cyrnus, direct a various habit
- Maxims of Theognis: Whoso, look you, thinks that
- Maxims of Theognis: Now no limit of wealth
- Maxims of Theognis: Though he be citadel and
- Maxims of Theognis: To thee indeed I have
- Maxims of Theognis: I am as it were
- Maxims of Theognis: Wine is not drunk by
- Maxims of Theognis: Known, look you, is poverty
- Maxims of Theognis: Equally, in truth, to mortal
- Maxims of Theognis: It is likely that a
- Maxims of Theognis: Relying on none of the
- Maxims of Theognis: Neither does a lion always
- Maxims of Theognis: To a babbling man silence
- Maxims of Theognis: Among companions-at-a-meal, be a prudent
- Maxims of Theognis: Among the mad indeed I
- Maxims of Theognis: Many mean men are rich
- Maxims of Theognis: Cyrnus, a noble man hath
- Maxims of Theognis: Do not ever on a
- Maxims of Theognis: Even the slow man with-good-counsel
- Maxims of Theognis: Quietly, as I do, pursue
- Maxims of Theognis: Never, Cyrnus, kindly-treat an exile
- Maxims of Theognis: Make-too-much haste in nothing, the
- Maxims of Theognis: May Jove grant me both
- Maxims of Theognis: O worthless poverty, why tarriest
- Maxims of Theognis: Be of good courage, Cyrnus
- Maxims of Theognis: The heart of a man
- Maxims of Theognis: Beguile your enemy with good
- Maxims of Theognis: Restrain thy mind, and let
- Maxims of Theognis: I cannot understand the mind
- Maxims of Theognis: Do not, goading me perforce
- Maxims of Theognis: Kind Jove, I marvel at
- Maxims of Theognis: Respect your friends, and flee
- Maxims of Theognis: Make too much haste in
- Maxims of Theognis: Most dear though thou art
- Maxims of Theognis: No treasure wilt thou lay
- Maxims of Theognis: Of no man, whom judgment
- Maxims of Theognis: But when I drink, I
- Maxims of Theognis: None like me can I
- Maxims of Theognis: Many things pass me by
- Maxims of Theognis: To many men well-fitting doors
- Maxims of Theognis: Of all things indeed to
- Maxims of Theognis: To beget and nurture a
- Maxims of Theognis: He is a fool, who
- Maxims of Theognis: No one, look you, is
- Maxims of Theognis: If you choose to drench
- Maxims of Theognis: O man, hadst thou obtained
- Maxims of Theognis: A young woman, look you
- Maxims of Theognis: Never set thy mind at
- Maxims of Theognis: Easily, look you, the gods
- Maxims of Theognis: Practise yourself about virtue: and
- Maxims of Theognis: Force no one of these
- Maxims of Theognis: Wine belongs to the senseless
- Maxims of Theognis: In fire, indeed, skilful men
- Maxims of Theognis: My head, Onomacritus, is heavy-with-wine
- Maxims of Theognis: Much wine drunk is bad
- Maxims of Theognis: So thou hast come, Clearistus
- Maxims of Theognis: Not to no purpose, Plutus
- Maxims of Theognis: Alas me for youth and
- Maxims of Theognis: I have betrayed neither any
- Maxims of Theognis: Ever is my heart cheered
- Maxims of Theognis: Never is a slave’s head
- Maxims of Theognis: No man, dear Cyrnus, forges
- Maxims of Theognis: I fear, O son of
- Maxims of Theognis: ’Tis right that I, O
- Maxims of Theognis: Never do violence to any
- Maxims of Theognis: A voiceless messenger stirs up
- Maxims of Theognis: It behoves a man lying
- Maxims of Theognis: Consider: the danger, look you
- Maxims of Theognis: Be it mine to have
- Maxims of Theognis: Now ’tis meet that one
- Maxims of Theognis: Delighting myself in youth I
- Maxims of Theognis: Opinion, indeed, is a great
- Maxims of Theognis: Do good, and good shall
- Maxims of Theognis: My friends abandon me, yes
- Maxims of Theognis: ’Tis easier to make a
- Maxims of Theognis: I hate a mean man
- Maxims of Theognis: Danger, I wot, is attendant
- Maxims of Theognis: It is right to endure
- Maxims of Theognis: Goud Sir, let us be
- Maxims of Theognis: You have not escaped-my-notice as
- Maxims of Theognis: Such-like deeds, such insolence, ruined
- Maxims of Theognis: Fulness hath ere now destroyed
- Maxims of Theognis: At the beginning a lie
- Maxims of Theognis: It is not hard to
- Maxims of Theognis: No one of the present
- Maxims of Theognis: Not to any great extent
- Maxims of Theognis: I am much tost-about in
- Maxims of Theognis: Every one honours a rich
- Maxims of Theognis: All-kinds-of-baseness exist among men, and
- Maxims of Theognis: ’Tis hard for a sensible
- Maxims of Theognis: In truth, ’tis disgraceful for
- Maxims of Theognis: Man’s-estate and youth lighten a
- Maxims of Theognis: Whoso hath not a mind
- Maxims of Theognis: Consult twice and thrice on
- Maxims of Theognis: Judgment and sense-of-shame attend men
- Maxims of Theognis: Hope and hazard are alike
- Maxims of Theognis: Often beyond both expectation and
- Maxims of Theognis: A single individual, look you
- Maxims of Theognis: Few companions would you find
- Maxims of Theognis: Now at length a sense-of-shame
- Maxims of Theognis: Thou luckless poverty, why, seated
- Maxims of Theognis: May I be fortunate, and
- Maxims of Theognis: Along with thee, Cyrnus, when
- Maxims of Theognis: In hard fortunes be not
- Maxims of Theognis: Nor is it right to
- Maxims of Theognis: Yet still one ought to
- Maxims of Theognis: If I had wealth, Simonides
- Maxims of Theognis: But now they (riches) pass-me-by
- Maxims of Theognis: Many dunces have riches, but
- Maxims of Theognis: ’Tis impossible for mortals to
- Maxims of Theognis: It is not right to
- Maxims of Theognis: With satisfaction mayest thou duly
- Maxims of Theognis: Many men, look you, being
- Maxims of Theognis: In truth, O my spirit
- Maxims of Theognis: When I am flourishing, friends
- Maxims of Theognis: Not even though you should
- Maxims of Theognis: Equally rich, look you, are
- Maxims of Theognis: O Father Jove, would that
- Maxims of Theognis: Having learned this, dear comrade
- Maxims of Theognis: May Jove, dwelling in heaven
- Maxims of Theognis: ’Tis meet that the Muses’
- Maxims of Theognis: O sovereign Phœbus, thou thyself
- Maxims of Theognis: Never may other fresher care
- Maxims of Theognis: Harming by baneful deeds neither
- Maxims of Theognis: No one of men will
- Maxims of Theognis: It behoves, indeed, a man
- Maxims of Theognis: I have experienced a thing
- Maxims of Theognis: An ox, stamping on my
- Maxims of Theognis: But they who dishonour their
- Maxims of Theognis: Neither aid any tyrant in
- Maxims of Theognis: How hath our spirit had
- Maxims of Theognis: By faith have I lost
- Maxims of Theognis: There are two fates truly
- Maxims of Theognis: To upset a man well
- Maxims of Theognis: Spurn the empty-spirited rabble, strike
- Maxims of Theognis: May Olympian Jove destroy the
- Maxims of Theognis: Oft hath this city through
- Maxims of Theognis: But if any of my
- Maxims of Theognis: My friends forsake me, and
- Maxims of Theognis: To many useless men the
- Maxims of Theognis: Then may the broad brazen
- Maxims of Theognis: Wine, I in part commend
- Maxims of Theognis: Drink wine, which to me
- Maxims of Theognis: May peace and wealth possess
- Maxims of Theognis: Alas me, for our cowardice
- Maxims of Theognis: Nought better than judgment hath
- Maxims of Theognis: Cyrnus, be not in all
- Maxims of Theognis: Whoso watches expenditure, hunting after
- Maxims of Theognis: For if it were possible
- Maxims of Theognis: ’Tis best to spare: since
- Maxims of Theognis: Few among men doth worth
- Maxims of Theognis: I cannot sing tunefully with
- Maxims of Theognis: I will walk by rule
- Maxims of Theognis: Though having overtaken with my
- Maxims of Theognis: There are two evils to
- Maxims of Theognis: If, after having experienced some
- Maxims of Theognis: While I was drinking alone
- Maxims of Theognis: Never praise before that you
- Maxims of Theognis: But what excellence is it
- Maxims of Theognis: There is no one of
- Maxims of Theognis: Be no man friend to
- Maxims of Theognis: Let us then stake our
- Maxims of Theognis: Drink when men drink: but
- Maxims of Theognis: Would it was allowed, Academus
- Maxims of Theognis: But when the sun indeed
- Maxims of Theognis: But excellence, this is the
- Maxims of Theognis: Now I will counsel men
- Maxims of Theognis: How blest and fortunate and
- Maxims of Theognis: Straightway perspiration without measure flows
- Maxims of Theognis: Never will I place my
- Maxims of Theognis: To the meaner sort their
- Maxims of Theognis: The practice of mischief, look
- Maxims of Theognis: Take courage, mine heart, in
- Maxims of Theognis: To beguile a noble man
- Maxims of Theognis: Senseless and fools are the
- Maxims of Theognis: To you now, as to
- Maxims of Theognis: But this account we will
- Maxims of Theognis: Timagoras, ’tis hard for one-seeing-from-far
- Maxims of Theognis: But in youth ’tis best
- Maxims of Theognis: Senseless and childish are the
- Maxims of Theognis: Prithee, delight thyself, dear heart
- Maxims of Theognis: Cyrnus, direct a various temper-of-mind
- Maxims of Theognis: No one of mine enemies
- Maxims of Theognis: Thus it behoves the well-born
- Maxims of Theognis: My mind is distressed respecting
- Maxims of Theognis: Now even on wings am
- Maxims of Theognis: Insolence hath ruined both the
- Maxims of Theognis: Ah wretched me for now
- Maxims of Theognis: O Cyrnus, they who were
- Maxims of Theognis: Possessing riches, you have reproached
- Maxims of Theognis: O wealth, of all gods
- Maxims of Theognis: May I have youth’s prime
- Maxims of Theognis: Remind me not of ills
- Maxims of Theognis: If I but drink, I
- Maxims of Theognis: Cyrnus, for present friends we
- Maxims of Theognis: Hope alone remains, a kind
- Maxims of Theognis: Gone is Faith, a mighty
- Maxims of Theognis: Never let go your present
- Maxims of Theognis: Be it mine to be
- Maxims of Theognis: I neither long nor pray
- Maxims of Theognis: Wealth and wisdom are a
- Maxims of Theognis: No treasure is it better
- Maxims of Theognis: In prudent men, eyes, tongue
- Maxims of Theognis: Company with the noble: but
- Maxims of Theognis: The gods, O Cyrnus, give
- Maxims of Theognis: Would that, O Cyrnus, thou
- Maxims of Theognis: Cyrnus, reverence and fear the
- Maxims of Theognis: To lay-low a tyrant that
- Maxims of Theognis: Good sense and good speech
- Maxims of Theognis: No one by paying ransom
- Maxims of Theognis: I desire not to lie
- Maxims of Theognis: Neither swear by the gods
- Maxims of Theognis: I hear, son of Polypas
- Maxims of Theognis: I will not go, neither
- Maxims of Theognis: I neither forbid you, nor
- Maxims of Theognis: Never let us sit down
- Maxims of Theognis: To deceive an enemy, indeed
- Maxims of Theognis: Nothing, Cyrnus, is more sweet
- Maxims of Theognis: Speech is wont to bring
- Maxims of Theognis: The cares of men have
- Maxims of Theognis: Be young, dear heart: soon
- Maxims of Theognis: But growing old, he is
- Maxims of Theognis: On no one, Cyrnus, do
- Maxims of Theognis: But I am not able
- Maxims of Theognis: For heretofore hath a marine