Humanitext Reader

Callimachus · Aetia §2.1-2.8

Immortality of Words and Fragments of Myth

Passage 3 of 7 · Greek

Summary

The poet expresses the conviction that while physical pleasures (ointments and food) vanish instantly, only knowledge and words received through the ears remain forever, followed by various mythological and legendary fragments.

§2.1καὶ γὰρ ἐγὼ τὰ μὲν ὅσσα καρήατι τῆμος ἔδωκα ξανθὰ σὺν εὐόδμοις ἁβρὰ λίπη στεφάνοις, ἄπνοα πάντ’ ἐγένοντο παραχρῆμ’· ὅσσα τ’ ὀδόντων ἔνδοθι νειαίρην τ’ εἰς ἀχάριστον ἔδυ, καὶ τῶν οὐδὲν ἔμεινεν ἐς αὔριον· ὅσσα δ’ ἀκουαῖς εἰσεθέμην, ἔτι μοι μοῦνα πάρεστι τάδε.
For indeed, all those delicate, yellow ointments which I then gave to my head along with sweet-smelling wreaths, all became scentless at once; and all those things which went within my teeth and down into my ungrateful belly, of those too nothing remained for tomorrow; but all those things which I put into my ears, these alone still remain with me.
§2.2ἡ μὲν ἀερτάζουσα μέγα τρύφος Ὑψιζώρου ἄστυρον εἰσανέβαιν’.
She, lifting up a great piece of Hypsizorus, was going up to the little town.
§2.3ὥς τε Ζεὺς ἐράτιζε τριηκοσίους ἐνιαυτούς.
Just as Zeus was in love for three hundred years.
§2.4οὕνεκεν οἰκτείρειν οἶδε μόνη πολίων.
Because she alone of cities knows how to pity.
"Καλλίμαχος. . ἐν τῷ τέλει τοῦ β′ τῶν Αἰτίων. " §2.5Τάμμεω θυγατέρος.
"Callimachus... at the end of the second book of the Aetia." Of the daughter of Tammeus.
§2.6τὸ δρέπανον παρὰ Σικελοῖς ζάγκλον καλεῖται.
The sickle is called "zanclon" among the Sicilians.
μέμνηται δὲ καὶ Καλλίμαχος ἐν δευτέρῳ Αἰτίων.
Callimachus also mentions this in the second book of the Aetia.
§2.7ὠνόμασται. . . , ὡς Ἐπαφρόδιτος ὑπομνηματίζων τὸ β′ Αἰτίων, ἀπὸ Δωδώνης μιᾶς τῶν Ὠκεανίδων νυμφῶν.
...was named, as Epaphroditus says in his commentary on the second book of the Aetia, after Dodona, one of the Oceanid nymphs.
§2.8Αἴγυπτος προπάροιθεν ἐπ’ ἐννέα κάρφετο ποίας· . . . . . .
Formerly Egypt was withered for nine seasons of grass;......
τὴν κείνου Φάλαρις πρᾶξιν ἀπεπλάσατο, πρῶτος ἐπεὶ τὸν ταῦρον ἐκαίνισεν ὃς τὸν ὄλεθρον εὗρε τὸν ἐν χαλκῷ καὶ πυρὶ γιγνόμενον.
Phalaris imitated that man's deed, when he first put to use the bull of him who invented the destruction that takes place in bronze and fire.

Notes

  1. 2.1νειαίρην τ’ εἰς ἀχάριστον — Meaning "into the ungrateful lower belly". The adjective ἀχάριστος ("ungrateful") is used because no matter how much food is put into it, it digests everything by the next day, leaving nothing behind, symbolizing the futility of physical consumption.
  2. 2.8ὃς τὸν ὄλεθρον εὗρε — The antecedent of the relative pronoun ὃς ("who") is not the immediate noun ταῦρον ("bull"), but rather its inventor, Perilaus, who is implied in the context. This is an instance of constructio ad sensum (synesis), where the relative clause refers to the creator of the object.

Cite this passage

Callimachus, Aetia §2.1-2.8. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0533.tlg006.humanitext-grc1:2.1-2.8

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