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Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

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140 THEOCRITUS—GREEK EPIGRAMMATISTSAgathias gives us one of <strong>the</strong> very few, perhaps <strong>the</strong> only,fisher epigram with a love motive. " A fisherman was employedin catching fish. Him did a damsel of property see,and was affected in her heart with desire, and made him <strong>the</strong>partner of her bed. But he, after a life of poverty, took onhimself <strong>the</strong> swell of all kinds of high bearing, — and Fortune witha smile was standing by, and said to Venus, ' This is not yourcontest, but mine.' " ^Lastly it is of interest to note that one of <strong>the</strong> few Greekpoetesses concerned herself with a love-tale of <strong>the</strong> sea. Hedyle,who came of a poetic stock (for she was daughter of Moschine<strong>the</strong> iambist and mo<strong>the</strong>r of Hedylus <strong>the</strong> epigrammatist) ,penneda poem on Glaucus' love for Scylla. In it she told how <strong>the</strong>love-sick swain would repair to <strong>the</strong> cavern of his mistress" Bearing a gift of love, a mazy shell.Fresh <strong>from</strong> <strong>the</strong> Erythrean rock, and with it tooThe offspring, yet unfledged, of Alcyon,To win <strong>the</strong> obdurate maid. He gave in vain.Even <strong>the</strong> lone Siren on <strong>the</strong> neighbouring islePitied <strong>the</strong> lover's tears." 2^ Anth. Pal., IX. 442. Trs. <strong>from</strong> <strong>the</strong> Greek Anthology as selected forWestminster, Eton, etc.^ A<strong>the</strong>n., Vll.. 48.

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