Simonides of Ceos

Simonides of Ceos (c. 556 - 469 BC) Greek lyric poet

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ὦ ξεῖν', ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε
κείμεθα τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι.

O xein!, angellein Lakedaimoniois hoti täde
keimetha tois keinon rhämasi peithomenoi!

Go, tell the Spartans, stranger passing by
That here, obedient to their laws, we lie.

Go, tell the Spartans, thou who passest by,
That here obedient to their laws we lie.

Stranger, go tell the men of Lacedaemon
That we, who lie here, did as we were ordered.

Stranger, bring the message to the Spartans that here
we remain, obedient to their orders.

Oh foreigner, tell the Lacedaemonians
that here we lie, obeying those words.

Not even the gods fight against necessity.
- Quoted by Plato, in the Dialogue Protagoras; Variant translations:

The gods do not fight against necessity.

Not even the gods war against necessity.

I praise and love all men who do no sin willingly; but with necessity even the gods do not contend.

We did not flinch but gave our lives to save Greece when her fate hung on a razor's edge.
- from the Cenotaph at the Isthmos

Painting is silent poetry, and poetry painting that speaks.
- As quoted by Plutarch; Variant translations:

Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting with the gift of speech.

Painting is silent poetry, poetry is eloquent painting.

A man gains no possession better than a good woman, nothing more horrible than a bad one.
- Variant translation: Of earthly goods, the best is a good wife; A bad, the bitterest curse of human life.

Difficult, say you? Difficult to be a man of virtue, truly good, shaped and fashioned without flaw in the perfect figure of four-squared excellence, in body and mind, in act and thought?

It is hard to be truly excellent, four-square in hand and foot and mind, formed without blemish.

There is no better test of a man's work than time, which also reveals the thoughts which lay hidden in his breast.

Last updated: 10-26-2005 03:52:15