Theognis of Megara was a Greek lyric poet active in approximately the sixth century BC. The work attributed to him consists of gnomic poetry quite typical of the time, featuring ethical maxims and practical advice about life. He was the first Greek poet known to express concern over the eventual fate and survival of his own work and, along with Homer, Hesiod and the authors of the Homeric Hymns, he is among the earliest poets whose work has been preserved in a continuous manuscript tradition . In fact more than half of the extant elegiac poetry of Greece before the Alexandrian period is included in the approximately 1,400 lines of verse attributed to him . Some of these verses inspired ancient commentators to value him as a moralist yet the entire corpus is valued today for its "warts and all" portrayal of aristocratic life in archaic Greece.The verses preserved under Theognis' name are written from the viewpoint of an aristocrat confronted by social and political revolution typical of Greek cities in the archaic period. Part of his work is addressed to Cyrnus, who is presented as his erōmenos. The author of the poems celebrated him in his verse and educated him in the aristocratic values of the time, yet Cyrnus came to symbolize much about his imperfect world that the poet bitterly resented:
In spite of such self-disclosures, almost nothing is known about Theognis the man: little is recorded by ancient sources and modern scholars question the authorship of most of the poems preserved under his name.
Wikipedia
“Adopt the character of the twisting octopus, which takes on the appearance of the nearby rock.”
Source: Elegies, Line 215.
Context: Adopt the character of the twisting octopus, which takes on the appearance of the nearby rock. Now follow in this direction, now turn a different hue.
“Unless the gods deceive my mind,
That man is forging fetters for himself.”
Source: Elegies, Lines 539-540, as translated by Dorothea Wender.
Source: Elegies, Lines 421-423, as translated by Dorothea Wender.
“Even to a wicked man a divinity gives wealth, Cyrus, but to few men comes the gift of excellence.”
Source: Elegies, Line 149-150
πολλοί τοι πλουτοῦσι κακοί, ἀγαθοὶ δὲ πένονται:
ἀλλ᾽ ἡμεῖς τούτοις οὐ διαμειψόμεθα
τῆς ἀρετῆς τὸν πλοῦτον, ἐπεὶ τὸ μὲν ἔμπεδον αἰεί,
χρήματα δ᾽ ἀνθρώπων ἄλλοτε ἄλλος ἔχει.
Source: Elegies, Lines 315-318, also attributed to Solon
“Ploutos, no wonder mortals worship you:
You are so tolerant of their sins!”
Source: Elegies, Lines 523-524, as translated by Dorothea Wender.
Source: Elegies, Lines 303-305, as translated by Dorothea Wender.
“The deckhands are in control, and the base have the upper hand over the noble.”
Source: Elegies, Line 667
“No man takes with him to Hades all his exceeding wealth.”
Source: Elegies, Line 725, comparable to: "For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away, his glory shall not descend after him", Psalm xlix, 17.
“The lucky man is honored …
But earnest striving wins no praise at all.”
Source: Elegies, Lines 169-170, as translated by Dorothea Wender.
Source: Elegies, Lines 137-139, as translated by J. Banks, The Works of Hesiod, Callimachus, and Theognis (1856), p. 464 http://books.google.com/books?id=QqFaP-4DExEC&pg=PA464
