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A M A R A N T H A N D A S P H O D E L P O E M S F R O M T H E G R E E K A N T H O L O G Y M A R A N T H A N D A S P H O D E L P O E M S F R O M T H E G R E E K A ' N T H O L O G Y D one into English ver se by A U . B T L E R D . L I T T . Fellow of B rasenose C ollege Oxfor d and Fellow of Eton C ollege D E D I C A T I O N IAOIZ (DIAAIZ TE KAI (BIAQN (DIAAITATHI TEKN IE TE NHHI IZ TE TO N TEKNQN KN IZ O O TE O . P R E F A C E HE first edition of this little book achieved at least a rarity beyond its merits : for the — greaterpart of it before it could reach the book — sellers was destroyed in a warehouse fire . Full forty years have passed since that time , years for the writer full of work which suffered few and of short periods release . Moreover such leisure as College duties afforded was devoted partly to travel , partly to study and research in other fields , in which the interest was oriental rather other than classical . But among other encouragements which I have received in the pas t I have always treasured a letter from Walter Pater ; and this , overcoming a reluctance which may easily be understood , I have resolved to publish . For although I have no W ish to parade such praise as it contains , yet I cannot but feel that any letter from so great a writer as Pater has ow n its interest, quite apart from any special to purpose . I should add that the reference Mr Edmond Gosse is not printed without his sa nc tion , which was duly sought and very cord ially given . The letter runs as follows 6 P R E F A C E 2 x Bradmore Road , O ford r 1 8 Mar . 3 [ 8 1 ] My dear Butler , I have been reading your translations with extreme pleasure at so much skill in both Greek and English . Your versions , while they seem very close to the original , make in them selves a delightful book of verse . a I am sending copy to E . W . Gosse , who is I think a master in all metrical secrets , and delighting also in all Greek things , will I feel sure be pleased with your work ; also to one or two others to whom I am glad to have the Opportunity of making a little present . I was very pleased to hear that y ou had o to x 0 decided t return O ford , and h pe you will be always very far from regretting your sever ance from the lotuses and the gold of Egypt , for the share of which , however , in the genesis of your charming little book I , for one , am grateful . Believe me , Very sincerely yours , W . H . PATER . With this letter I have always kept the hOpe that I might on e day find time to enlarge and remodel the original volume : and that hope is now accomplished . P R E F A C E The epigrams here added very greatly out n 1 1 umber those of the 8 8 volume . The English renderings are based upon the same principles of translation , and the aim has been to make them read like English verse and stand as English verse apart from the Greek originals . Yet in pursuance of that aim the obligation of fidelity has not been forgotten , and in this edition I am able to set out the Greek text so which was wanting before , that for those w ho love Greek there is at least an easy refuge from any faults of the English . The original preface is given almost as it s tood , save for such changes as follow from the altered arrangement and altered headings . For the order of the epigrams in the old volume to so had be broken up , that the new renderings might fall better into place : and under the ‘ ’ heading of Temple Offerings a new series of poems is added . These votive epigrams are some of the most delightful and most moving in the Anthology , giving in many curious fla shes just such a sense of electric intimacy with the daily life and common occupations of the Greeks as is caught from a hundred fami liar little things stored in classical museums . But if the original preface is reproduced with little change , the reason is not that I find o on in it little t require amendment . On the c “ X 1 P R E F A C E tr a ry I would readily acknowledge that there is plenty of S cope for omission and for addition of matter, as well as for correction of phrase . Yet such a revision if once begun might Well on to for draw a rewriting of the whole , which n o I have adequate materials at hand ; and , of wanting perhaps something the will , I to prefer leave it in the main alone . How great has been my disadvantage from lack of books will be understood when I men tion a coincidence otherwise neither very curious nor very significant . For as most of the poems in the first edition were written in Egypt , so it happens that all those here added to out —in fell be written of England Corsica , in Italy , on the Mediterranean Sea, on the or Atlantic , on the Canadian prairies , here in this far island on the shores of the Pacific . 1 2 1 Vancouver Island , J uly 9 PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1 88 1 HE revival of Hellenism in England will , I think , be of some service to the cause of scholarship , as it is likely to encourage the only type of it which has much chance of living on in a modern atmosphere . For the pedantic style of scholarship must give way to the artistic : the love of form and colour in language must replace the craze for analysis . Already the truism that the study of Greek art and ar ch ae ology forms a vital part of a classical — education is being welcomed though shyly , — as novel doctrine n at schools and universi o ties . Union with art will give t scholarship those bolder aims and higher purposes which alone can save it from decay . For in the end , scholarship does not mean raking among the dust of a dead language for relics of roots or atoms of grammar ; it is rather the study of of living beauty in shapes speech , and its highest result is not the knowledge of tenses and particles , but the power of understanding and loving what is beautiful in the writings of great writers and in the world of nature . Every artist would be better for being first a scholar : xiii P R E F A C E I believe a right study of the language in con n exion with the art of Hellas is the best train ing an artist could have ; that nothing else can in the same way refine the sense of form and colour and develop artistic power . Quite a contrary result must come from the old style of scholarship , which would grope among the cobwebs instead of admiring the architecture , or would pound the gems in a mortar in order to analyse their powder . As the artist is a of student beautiful forms in nature , so the scholar is a student of beautiful forms in lan guage ; and as n o art can be permanent that so lacks ideal meaning , conversely no language can be permanent that lacks artistic interest . It is n o mere chance coincidence that Greek art and the Greek language each attained an ex c ellence unrivalled in human history . The of beauty a statue , a coin , or a flower is the same thing as the beauty of a phrase or sen tence : it requires the same taste to feel pleasure in the lines of a sea - shell or a fir - cone as to enj oy the mould of a fine sonnet or the build of a great poem . But in art and in literature alike one desires to go back beyond the mere si n ifi results , however fully their worth and g cance be understood . The deeper we see into of to the spirit the work , the more we wish r know the spirit of the artist o writer, to know XIV P R E F A C E how w as the mind of the maker made , the stars that met at his b irth , the ways of thought and feeling and action of the world in which he moved . f The Anthology , rom which the poems in this volume are borrowed , may fairly claim the double interest of possessing at once para mount artistic and antiquarian value . There is no book like it for the student who wishes to understand the motives and conditions of Greek life , yet it is little known or read even among scholars . In publishing these verses , I venture to hope that more of those who can read Greek will turn to the perusal of the original and that some of those w h o cannot may find pleasure in the copies .

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