Opening Hymns and Epigrams — Callimachus in Plato Scroll… Continue →
Callimachus · J. Banks (1856)
At the libations to Jove, what else can be better to celebrate, than the god himself, ever mighty, ever king, driver of the earthborn, justice-dealer to the Celestials? How, then, shall we celebrate him, as Dictæan, or Lycæan: much in doubt is my mind; since his birth-place is disputed. Thou, Jove, men say, wast born on the mountains of Ida: and thou, Jove, others affirm in Arcadia: which of the twain, O father, have uttered-falsehood. The Cretans are ever liars: for a tomb to thee, O king, the Cretans have constructed. But thou art not dead. For thou existest ever. Thee Rhea bare on the Parrhasian height where the mountain is most screened with bushes. Thence is the spot sacred, neither doth any-thing-that-moveth-on-the-earth, when in need of Ilithyia, nor any woman, draw nigh to it; but the Apidanes call it the olden child-bed of Rhea. There when thy mother had laid thee down from her …
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