Lucian of Samosata, Hercules, Austin Morris Harmon (Translator), 8

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[8] Goodbye, then, to strength, speed, beauty and all manner of physical excellence! Let your god of love, O Tean poet, ¹ glance at my grizzled chin and flit by me if he will on his gold-gleaming pinions: Hippoclides will not mind! ² Now should certainly be the time for eloquence to flourish and flower and reach its fulness, to drag as many as it can by the ears and to let fly many arrows. At least there is no fear that its quiver will unexpectedly run short!

You see what encouragement I apply to my age and my infirmities. This it is which gave me the heart to drag my pinnace, long ago laid up, to the water, provision her as best I could and set sail on the high seas once more. Be it your part, ye gods, to blowme fair, for now if ever do I need a breeze

that fills the sail, a good companion.

Odyss. 11,7; 12, 149. If anyone thinks me worthy, I would have him apply to me the words of Homer:

How stout a thigh the old man’s rags reveal!

Odyss. 18, 74

Hercules. Lucian of Samosata. Austin Morris Harmon (Translator). United States. Perseus 5.0.

Funding provided by National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Heracles: an Introduction (English) (Lucian, Vol. 1. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1913.)

Editions (1)

Προλαλιά. Ἡρακλῆς Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 1. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1913.) — 8 focus

[8] ὥστε ἰσχὺς μὲν καὶ τάχος καὶ κάλλος καὶ ὅσα σώματος ἀγαθὰ χαιρέτω, καὶ ὁ Ἔρως ὁ σός, ὦ Τήϊε ποιητά, ἐσιδών με ὑποπόλιον τὸ¹ γένειον χρυσοφαέννων εἰ βούλεται πτερύγων ταρσοῖς² παραπετέσθω, καὶ ὁ Ἱπποκλείδης οὐ φροντιεῖ. τῷ λόγῳ δὲ νῦν ἂν μάλιστα ἀνηβᾶν καὶ ἀνθεῖν καὶ ἀκμάζειν καθʼ ὥραν εἴη καὶ ἕλκειν τῶν ὤτων ὅσους ἂν πλείστους δύνηται, καὶ τοξεύειν πολλάκις, ὡς οὐδέν γε δέος μὴ κενωθεὶς λάθοι ὁ γωρυτὸς αὐτῷ.

ὁρᾷς ὅπως παραμυθοῦμαι τὴν ἡλικίαν καὶ τὸ γῆρας τὸ ἐμαυτοῦ. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἐτόλμησα πάλαι νενεωλκημένον τὸ ἀκάτιον κατασπάσας καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἐνόντων ἐπισκευάσας αὖθις ἀφεῖναι ἐς μέσον τὸ πέλαγος. εἴη δʼ, ὦ θεοί, καὶ τὰ παρʼ ὑμῶν ἐμπνεῦσαι δεξιά, ὡς νῦν γε μάλιστα πλησιστίου τε καὶ ἐσθλοῦ ἑταίρου ἀνέμου δεόμεθα, ἵνα, εἰ ἄξιοι φαινοίμεθα, καὶ ἡμῖν τὸ Ὁμηρικὸν ἐκεῖνο ἐπιφθέγξηταί τίς,

οἵην ἐκ ῥακέων ὁ γέρων ἐπιγουνίδα φαίνει.

Translations (1)

Heracles, an Introductory Lecture Perseus (The Works of Lucian of Samosata, Vol. 3. Fowler, Henry Watson and Fowler, Francis George, translators. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.) — 8 focus

[8] Good-bye, then, to bodily perfections, to strength and speed and beauty; Love, when he sees my grey beard, is, welcome to fly past, as the poet of Teos' has it, with rush of gilded wines; ’tis all one to Hippoclides. - Old age is Wisdom’s 1 Anacreon, youth, the day of her glorious flower: let her draw whom she can by the ears; let her shoot her bolts freely; no fear now lest the supply run short. There is the old man’s comfort, on the strength of which he ventures to drag down his boat, which has long lain high and dry, provision her as best he may, and once more put out to sea.

Never did I stand in more need of a generous breeze, to fill my sails and speed me on my way: may the Gods dispose you to contribute thereto; so shall I not be found wanting, and of me, as of Odysseus, it shall be said How stout a thigh lurked ’neath the old man’s rags!

Notes on the current edition

Hercules

1. Anacreon (frg. 23 Bergk): the poem is lost.

2. Hippoclides of Athens, one of many suitors for the hand of the daughter of Clisthenes, tyrant of Sicyon, was preferred above them all. But at the feast which was to have announced his engagement he danced so well and so unwisely that Clisthenes was disgusted and said ‘Son of Tisander, you have danced yourself out of the match!” “Hippoclides does not mind!” was the answer he received. “Hence the proverb,” as Herodotus says (6, 126-131).

Lucian of Samosata Hercules 8

Austin Morris Harmon (Translator)

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