Part 4 (2/2)

I

My ways are quiet, none may find My temper of malignant kind; For one should check the words that start When anger spreads within the heart.

II

Who from my hands what I can spare Of gifts accept the largest share, Those are the very ones who boast No grat.i.tude and wrong me most.

III

He who in face and form is fair Must needs be good, the G.o.ds declare; But he whose thought and act are right Will soon be equal fair to sight.

IV

Beauty of youth is but the flower Of spring, whose pleasure lasts an hour; While worth that knows no mortal doom Is like the amaranthine bloom.

PRIDE

Pride not thyself upon a ring, Or any trinket thing Of fleeting value, dross or gold.

Wealth, lacking worth, is no safe friend, Though both to life may lend, In just proportion, joy untold.

LETO AND NIOBE

Leto and Niobe were friends full dear, The G.o.ddess' heart and woman's heart were one In that maternal love that men revere, Love that endures when other loves are done.

But Niobe with all a mother's pride, Artless and foolish, would not be denied; And boasted that her children were more fair Than Leto's lovely children of the air.

The proud Olympians vowed revenge for this, Irate Apollo, angered Artemis; They slew her children, heedless of her moan, And with the last her heart was turned to stone.

THE DYE

From Scythian wood they brew The dye whose yellow hue Turns gold the lovely hair Of Lesbians fair.

So, Zanthis, slave of mine, Shall dip the fleeces fine, And dye the robes I made A saffron shade.

EROTIKA

DITHYRAMBS

HYMN TO PAPHIA

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