Athenaeus, The Learned Banqueters (Deipnosophistae) 601d · 601d
Theoxenus
Read the full text in our reader
Timon, quoted by Myrtilus — ἡνίκ’ ἐχρῆν δύνειν, νῦν ἄρχεται ἡδύνεσθαι.
Myrtilus — μνησθεὶς δὲ καὶ τοῦ Τενεδίου Θεοξένου ὁ Πίνδαρος, ὃς ἦν αὐτοῦ ἐρώμενος, τί φησιν;’
Pindar, quoted by Myrtilus — χρῆν μὲν κατὰ καιρὸν ἐρώτων δρέπεσθαι, θυμέ, σὺν ἡλικίᾳ· τὰς δὲ Θεοξένου ἀκτῖνας προσώπου μαρμαριζοίσας δρακεὶς ὃς μὴ πόθῳ κυμαίνεται, ἐξ ἀδάμαντος ἢ σιδάρου κεχάλκευται μέλαιναν καρδίαν— ψυχρᾷ φλογί, πρὸς δ’ Ἀφροδίτας ἀτιμασθεὶς ἑλικοβλεφάρου ἢ περὶ χρήμασι μοχθίζει βιαίως ἢ γυναικείῳ θράσει ψυχρὰν
“when he ought to be setting, now he begins to take his pleasure.” And when Pindar mentions Theoxenus of Tenedos, who was his beloved, what does he say? “One ought to pluck loves in season, my heart, in youth. But whoever has seen the rays flashing from Theoxenus' face and does not swell with longing has a black heart forged from adamant or iron with a cold flame, and, slighted by quick-eyed Aphrodite, he either toils by force for money or, with a woman's boldness, is borne along every cold road…
Word by word
The setting
Timon's line on the late starter, then Pindar's poem for Theoxenus of Tenedos, the boy he loved. Pindar was born about 518 BC; the Suda says he died in the theatre at Argos, leaning on Theoxenus' knees.
A note on this passage
We have this poem from Athenaeus. It opens with Pindar's own rule from the last page, love at the right age, and then breaks it for Theoxenus. Anyone who can look at that face and feel nothing has a heart of iron, and Aphrodite has given him up. Such a man, Pindar says, will spend his strength on money instead. The line about the woman's boldness is hard Greek, and editors still argue over what it means.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Athenaeus, The Learned Banqueters (Deipnosophistae) 601d in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
From the Great Library
You are reading a page of the Athenaeus, The Learned Banqueters (Deipnosophistae) — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Athenaeus, The Learned Banqueters (Deipnosophistae) 601d — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/deipnosophistae/601d/