Epitaph for an Ecstatic Dancer
Anthologia Palatina 7.223 = Thyillus (date unknown)
Aristion, the dancer with her castanets, who was skilled
At tossing her hair around Cybele’s pine trees,
Who was carried away by the sound of horn-shaped flutes
And knew how to drink a cup of neat wine three times in succession,
Now rests here under the elms, no longer delighting
In love or in the exhaustion of all-night festivals.
Revelries and madness, a long farewell to you- for she who once
Was covered with crowns of flowers now lies beneath the earth.
Ἡ κροτάλοις ὀρχηστρὶς Ἀρίστιον, ἡ περὶ πεύκας
τὰς Κυβέλης πλοκάμους ῥῖψαι ἐπισταμένη,
ἡ λωτῷ κερόεντι φορουμένη, ἡ τρὶς ἐφεξῆς
εἰδυῖ’ ἀκρήτου χειλοποτεῖν κύλικα,
ἐνθάδ’ ὑπὸ πτελέαις ἀναπαύεται, οὐκέτ’ ἔρωτι,
οὐκέτι παννυχίδων τερπομένη καμάτοις.
κῶμοι καὶ μανίαι, μέγα χαίρετε· κεῖθ’ ὑπὸ γαίῃ
ἡ τὸ πρὶν στεφάνων ἄνθεσι κρυπτομένη.
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