Athenaeus, The Learned Banqueters (Deipnosophistae) 601c · 601c
In due season
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Ibycus, quoted by Myrtilus — Θρηίκιος βορέας, ἀίσσων παρὰ Κύπριδος ἀζαλέαις μανίαισιν ἐρεμνὸς ἀθαμβὴς ἐγκρατέως παιδόθεν φυλάσσει ἡμετέρας φρένας.
Myrtilus — καὶ Πίνδαρος δ’ οὐ μετρίως ὢν ἐρωτικός φησιν·
Pindar, quoted by Myrtilus — εἴη καὶ ἐρᾶν καὶ ἔρωτι χαρίζεσθαι κατὰ καιρόν· μὴ πρεσβυτέραν ἀριθμοῦ δίωκε, θυμέ, πρᾶξιν.
Myrtilus — διόπερ καὶ ὁ Τίμων ἐν τοῖς Σίλλοις ἔφη·
Timon, quoted by Myrtilus — ὥρη ἐρᾶν, ὥρη δὲ γαμεῖν, ὥρη δὲ πεπαῦσθαι,
Myrtilus — καὶ μὴ ἀναμένειν ἔστ’ ἂν ἐκεῖνό τις φθέγξηται κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν τοῦτον φιλόσοφον
…the Thracian north wind, rushing from Cypris with parching madness, dark and fearless, keeps watch on my heart with a strong grip since boyhood.” And Pindar too, a man given to love and not mildly, says: “May it be mine both to love and to gratify love in due season. Do not chase, my heart, a deed older than your years.” That is why Timon said in his Lampoons: “Time to love, time to marry, time to have stopped”, and not to wait until someone says that line, in the words of this same philosopher:
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The setting
Ibycus' storm of love ends, and Myrtilus brings in Pindar, the great choral poet of the 5th century BC, and Timon of Phlius, a 3rd-century BC philosopher who wrote mocking verses about other philosophers.
A note on this passage
Ibycus' love comes from Aphrodite like a winter gale out of Thrace, and it has held him since he was a boy. Kaibel prints <i>παιδόθεν φυλάσσει</i>, keeps watch since boyhood; most later editors read <i>πεδόθεν τινάσσει</i>, and in their text the wind shakes his heart to its roots.<br><br>Pindar's advice is the opposite: love, but at the right age. Timon puts it in one dry line, a season to love, a season to marry and a season to be done. The next line is his too, and it is aimed at a man who started late.
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