Scientific Surgery, Nicarchus

The Greek Anthology
Introduction

Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V

XXXI
SCIENTIFIC SURGERY
NICARCHUS

Agclaus killed Acestorides while operating; for, "Poor man," he said, "he would have been lame for life."

The Wise Prophet, Lucilius

XXXII
THE WISE PROPHET
LUCILIUS

All the astrologers as from one mouth prophesied to my father that his brother would reach a great old age; Hermocleides alone said he was fated to die early; and he said so, when we were mourning over his corpse in-doors.

The Greek Anthology

Soothsaying, Nicarchus

XXXIII
SOOTHSAYING
NICARCHUS

Some one came inquiring of the prophet Olympicus whether he should sail to Rhodes, and how he should have a safe voyage; and the prophet replied, "First have a new ship, and set sail not in winter but in summer; for if you do this you will travel there and back safely, unless a pirate captures you at sea."

The Greek Anthology

The Astrologer's Forecast, Agathias

XXXIV
THE ASTROLOGER'S FORECAST
AGATHIAS

Calligenes the farmer, when he had cast his seed into the land, came to the house of Aristophenes the astrologer, and asked him to tell whether he would have a prosperous summer and abundant plenty of corn. And he, taking the counters and ranging them closely on the board, and crooking his fingers, uttered his reply to Calligenes: "If the cornfield gets sufficient rain, and does not breed a crop of flowering weeds, and frost does not crack the furrows, nor hail flay the heads of the springing blades, and the pricket does not devour the crop, and it sees no other injury of weather or soil, I prophesy you a capital summer, and you will cut the ears successfully: only fear the locusts."

The Greek Anthology

A School of Rhetoric

XXXV
A SCHOOL OF RHETORIC
AUTHOR UNKNOWN

All hail, seven pupils of Aristides the rhetorician, four walls and three benches.

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XXXVI
CROSS PURPOSES
NICARCHUS

A deaf man went to law with a deaf man, and the judge was a long way deafer than both. The one claimed that the other owed him five months' rent; and he replied that he had ground his corn by night; then the judge, looking down on them, said, "Why quarrel? she is your mother; keep her between you."

The Greek Anthology

XXXVII
THE PATENT STOVE
NICARCHUS

You have bought a brass hot-water urn, Heliodorus, that is chillier than the north wind about Thrace; do not blow, do not labour, you but raise smoke in vain; it is a brass wine-cooler you have bought against summer.

The Greek Anthology

XXXVIII
THE WOODEN HORSE
LUCILIUS

You have a Thessalian horse, Erasistratus, but the drugs of all Thessaly cannot make him go; the real wooden horse, that if Trojans and Greeks had all pulled together, would never have entered at the Scaean gate; set it up as an offering to some god, if you take my advice, and make gruel for your little children with its barley.

The Greek Anthology

XXXIX
A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE
LUCILIUS

Antiochus once set eyes on Lysimachus' cushion, and Lysimachus never set eyes on his cushion again.

The Greek Anthology

XL
CINYRAS THE CILICIAN
DEMODOCUS

All Cilicians are bad men; among the Cilicians there is one good man, Cinyras, and Cinyras is a Cilician.

The Greek Anthology