Day 16: Never Trust a Man in Love, by Callimachus
Day 16: Never Trust a Man in Love, by Callimachus
ὤμοσε Καλλίγνωτος Ἰωνίδι μήποτ᾿ ἐκείνης
ἕξειν μήτε φίλον κρέσσονα μήτε φίλην.
ὤμοσεν· ἀλλὰ λέγουσιν ἀληθέα τοὺς ἐν ἔρωτι
ὅρκους μὴ δύνειν οὔατ᾿ ἐς ἀθανάτων.
5νῦν δ᾿ ὁ μὲν ἀρσενικῷ θέρεται πυρί, τῆς δὲ ταλαίνης
νύμφης ὡς Μεγαρέων οὐ λόγος οὐδ᾿ ἀριθμός.
Kallignotos swore to Ionis never to hold another
dearer than her – neither man, nor woman.
He swore! But what they say is true: an oath from one
in love won’t wend its way to the ears of immortals.
5Now, he is all aflame over some manI mistakenly followed an older translator in saying ‘a boy’, but the Greek specifically does not say this: Kallignotos is, θέρεται πυρί ἀρσενικῷ, lit. “made hot by a fire of masculinity/virility”. Contextually, an older Greek man would probably be pursuing a younger lover, but ‘boy’ would imply something in modern English not implied by Callimachus., and as for the poor girl?
As the Oracle said to the Megarians, neither word nor reckoning.
— Callimachus, Epigram 25, trans. me
Another one from Callimachus this morning! This one always gives me a chuckle (though not at poor Ionis’ fate), but because of the classic misdirect. It even managed to confuse the monk who compiled the surviving tome of epigrams in the 10th Century – he sorted the collection of poems into books by topic, and mistakenly put this in the book of ‘straight’ erotic poems (rather than delegating it to the book of ‘Greek’ erotics).
This was very much a later sensibility; in Greece itself a practicing bisexuality was the norm (with certain rules) and sexuality as a concept had yet to be invented. For this reason, the joke Callimachus is making is not that Kallignotos was queer, but that he was unfaithful!
Featured Image: Today’s featured image is one I took in the National Museum of Denmark. James, Ahalya and I visited their attic floor of Classical artefacts, and I stood by this one long after they’d moved on because something just… wasn’t right. I could swear it was Greek, but my brain couldn’t make sense of the words. I was perplexed, until I realised it was just… upside down? Shame on you, Nationalmuseet!
TJC 