This morning we beheld with streaming eyes
The flames from Melanippus' body rise;
At eve, fair Basile resign'd her breath,
...
By mighty Pan and Bacchus' greater name,
Beneath these embers lurks a spreading flame.
Embrace me not; tho' streams in silence fall,
...
Had never vessel cross'd the main,
Our present grief had been in vain;
...
Whoe'er with hallow'd feet approaches near,
Behold, Callimachus lies buried here,
I drew my breath from fam'd Cyrene's shore,
...
They told me, Heraclitus, they told me you were dead,
They brought me bitter news to hear and bitter tears to shed.
I wept as I remembered how often you and I
...
But twelve short years you lived, my son,
Just twelve short years, and then you died:
...
The basket swift-descending from the skies,
Thus, thus, ye matrons, let your voices rise:
'Hail! Ceres, hail! by thee, from fertile ground
Swift springs the corn, and plenty flows around.'
...
Tho' great Apollo claim the poet's lyre,
Yet cold neglect may tempt Diana's ire,
Come, virgin-goddess, and inspire my song,
To you the chase, the sylvan dance belong,
...
The huntsman o'er the hills pursues
The timid hare, and keenly views
The tracks of hinds amid the snow,
...
Cleombrotus, high on a rock,
Above Ambracia stood,
Bade Sol adieu, and, as he spoke,
...
I hate the bard who strolls along,
And sells in streets his borrow'd song;
I seldom walk the public way,
...
This book is sure exactly wrote
In Hesiod's manner, style, and thought,
Of Grecian poet's not the least.
...
Cleonicus, unhappy man,
Say whence thy sorrows first began?
For, by yon' blazing orb of light,
I ne'er beheld so sad a sight.
...
A Youth, in haste, to Mitylene came,
And anxious, thus reveal'd his am'rous flame
To Pittacus the wife; O sacred Sire,
...
A sacred shell Zephyritis divine,
Fair Selenæa offers at thy shrine,
And thus thy Nautilus is doubly bless'd,
...
Whoe'er shall to this tomb draw nigh,
Behold, in death, a priestess lie;
I sacred Ceres first implor'd,
...
I hear, O friend, the fatal news
Of Heraclitus death.
A sudden tear my cheek bedews,
...
What force, what sudden impulse thus can make
The laurel-branch, and all the temple shake!
Depart ye souls profane; hence, hence! O fly
...
Whilst we to Jove immortal and divine,
Perform the rites, and pour the ruddy wine;
What shall the Muse, with sacred rapture sing,
...
If sober, and inclin'd to sport,
To you, my fair one, I resort;
The still-forbidden bliss to prove,
...
Callimachus (/kæˈlɪməkəs/; Greek: Καλλίμαχος, Kallimachos; 310/305–240 BC) was a native of the Greek colony of Cyrene, Libya. He was a noted poet, critic and scholar at the Library of Alexandria and enjoyed the patronage of the Egyptian–Greek Pharaohs Ptolemy II Philadelphus and Ptolemy III Euergetes. Although he was never made chief librarian, he was responsible for producing a bibliographic survey based upon the contents of the Library. This, his Pinakes, 120 volumes long, provided the foundation for later work on the history of Greek literature. As one of the earliest critic-poets, he typifies Hellenistic scholarship.)
The Death of Melanippus
This morning we beheld with streaming eyes
The flames from Melanippus' body rise;
At eve, fair Basile resign'd her breath,
Disdaining to survive a brother's death;
With frantic hands she gave the deadly blow
That sent her soul to gloomy shades below.
Two mighty ills the wretched fire must mourn,
And weep around a son and daughter's urn;
Old Aristippus sunk in grief appears,
And all Cyrene melts in briny tears