Theognis of Megara

Rating: 4.33
Rating: 4.33

Theognis of Megara Poems

1.

No costly sacrifice nor offerings given
Can change the purpose of the powers of Heaven;
Whatever Fate ordains, danger or hurt,
Or death predestined, nothing can avert.
...

The daily marriages we make,
Where price is everything: for money's sake
Men marry; women are in marriage given.
The churl or ruffian that in wealth has thriven
...

3.

For human nature Hope remains alone
Of all the deities; the rest are flown.
Faith is departed; Truth and Honour dead;
And all the Graces too, my friends, are fled.
...

For noble minds, the worst of miseries,
Worse than old age, or wearisome disease,
Is Poverty. From Poverty to flee,
From some tall precipice into the sea,
...

Learning and wealth the wise and wealthy find
Inadequate to satisfy the mind
A craving eagerness remains behind;
Something is left for which we cannot rest,
...

To rear a child is easy, but to teach
Morals and manners is beyond our reach;
To make the foolish wise, the wicked good,
That science yet was never understood.
The sons of Esculapius, if their art
...

You soar aloft, and over land and wave
Are borne triumphant on the wings I gave,
The swift and mighty wings, music and verse;
Your name in easy numbers smooth and terse,
...

Pride and oppressive rule destroy'd the state
Of the Magnesians-Such was Smyrna's fate;
Smyrna the rich, and Colophon the great!
And ours, my friend, will follow, soon or late.
...

While only I quaffed yonder secret spring,
'Twas clear and sweet to my imagining.
'Tis turbid now. Or it no more I drink,
But hang o'er other stream or river-brink.
...

I envy not these sumptuous obsequies,
The stately car, the purple canopies;
Much better pleased am I, remaining here,
With cheaper equipage, and better cheer.
A couch of thorns, or an embroidered bed,
Are matters of indifference to the dead.
...

Now that in mid career, checking his force,
The bright sun pauses in his pride and force,
Let us prepare to dine; and eat and drink
The best of everything that heart can think:
...

12.

My brain grows dizzy, whirled and overthrown
With wine: my senses are no more my own.
The ceiling and the walls are wheeling round!
But let me try! perhaps my feet are sound.
Let me retire with my remaining sense,
For fear of idle language and offence.
...

The worldly-minded and the worldly wise,
In ignorance and arrogance, despise
All talents and attainments but their own;
Wisdom is their's, they think-and their's alone.
...

Learn, Kurnus, learn to bear an easy mind;
Accommodate your humour to mankind
And human nature-take it as you find!
A mixture of ingredients, good or bad,
...

The gods send Insolence, to lead astray
The man whom Fortune and the Fates betray,
Predestined to precipitate decay.
Wealth nurses Insolence, and wealth, we find,
...

Rash, angry words, and spoken out of season,
When passion has usurp'd the throne of reason,
Have ruin'd many. Passion is unjust,
And for an idle, transitory gust
Of gratified revenge, dooms us to pay
With long repentence at a later day.
...

Our state is pregnant; shortly to produce
A rude avenger of prolong'd abuse.
The commons hitherto seem sober-minded,
But their superiors are corrupt and blinded.
...

Let no persuasive art tempt you to place
Your confidence in crafty minds and base!
How can it answer? Will their help avail
When danger presses, and your foes assail?
...

Never engage with a poltroon or craven
Avoid him, Kurnus, as a treach'rous haven!
These friends and hearty comrades, as you think,
(Ready to join you, when you feast and drink),
These easy friends from difficulty shrink.
...

I walk by rule and measure, and incline
To neither side, but take an even line;
Fix'd in a single purpose and design.
With learning's happy gifts to celebrate,
To civilize and dignify the State;
Not leaguing with the discontented crew,
Nor with the proud and arbitrary few.
...

The Best Poem Of Theognis of Megara

Fate

No costly sacrifice nor offerings given
Can change the purpose of the powers of Heaven;
Whatever Fate ordains, danger or hurt,
Or death predestined, nothing can avert.

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