OrpheusEurydiceANCIENT_Moschus
Lament for Bion, 113-26
The anonymous Lament for Bion (Epitaphium Bionis) is traditionally ascribed to Moschus; but, the remarkable piece seems genuinely ascribable to some anonymous 2nd century BC poet of Magna Graecia. The excerpt below is translated by RTM. For more graceful treatment of the piece and its content one should consult the translation by Neil Hopkinson in the Loeb Classical Library, vol. 28, Theocritus, Moschus, Bion: DOI: 10.4159/DLCL.moschus-lament_bion.2015
Lament for Bion, 113-26
Daughters of Sicily, begin, o Muses, begin the lamentation.
Justice overtakes everybody. But I bewail your fate
Weeping upon this lament as well. If only I could —
As Orpheus descended to Tartaros, or as Odysseus,
Or as Heracles of old — so too, I would go to the house
Of Hades so that I also could see you there.
And, if you were singing to Pluto,
I wish I could hear what you were singing. But come!
Do a Sicilian pastoral that’s shrill and sweet for Kore.
She also as a Sicilian girl played on the Aetnaean shores
And has learned the Dorian mode. Nor will the performance
Go unrewarded, even as she granted recurrent Eurydice
Unto Orpheus for plucking sweet lyrics on his lyre.
So too will she send you, Bion, back to your hilltops. If I, too,
Had some capacity in pastoral, I'd have piped for Pluto myself.
Epitaphium Bionis, 113-26
ἄρχετε Σικελικαί, τῶ πένθεος ἄρχετε, Μοῖσαι.
ἀλλὰ Δίκα κίχε πάντας· ἐγὼ δ’ ἐπὶ πένθεϊ τῷδε
δακρυχέων τεὸν οἶτον ὀδύρομαι. εἰ δυνάμαν δέ,
ὡς Ὀρφεὺς καταβὰς ποτὶ Τάρταρον, ὥς ποκ’ Ὀδυσσεύς,
ὡς πάρος Ἀλκεΐδας, κἠγὼ τάχ’ ἂν ἐς δόμον ἦλθον
Πλουτέος ὥς κέ σ’ ἴδοιμι καί, εἰ Πλουτῆι μελίσδῃ,
ὡς ἂν ἀκουσαίμαν τί μελίσδεαι. ἀλλ’ ἄγε Κώρᾳ
Σικελικόν τι λίγαινε καὶ ἁδύ τι βουκολιάζευ·
καὶ κείνα Σικελά, καὶ ἐν Αἰτναίαισιν ἔπαιζεν
ᾀόσι, καὶ μέλος οἶδε τὸ Δώριον· οὐκ ἀγέραστος
ἐσσεῖθ’ ἁ μολπά, χὠς Ὀρφέι πρόσθεν ἔδωκεν
ἁδέα φορμίζοντι παλίσσυτον Εὐρυδίκειαν,
καὶ σέ, Βίων, πέμψει τοῖς ὤρεσιν. εἰ δέ τι κἠγών
συρίσδων δυνάμαν, παρὰ Πλουτέι κ’ αὐτὸς ἄειδον.