Scythians at the Tomb of Ovid, Johann Heinrich Schönfeld, ca. 1640

Scythians at the Tomb of Ovid, Johann Heinrich Schönfeld, ca. 1640

The Immortality of Virtue

Anthologia Palatina 7.225 (author and date unknown) The long passage of time wears down even stone; Nor does it spare iron, but it destroys all things With the same sickle.  So too this tomb-mound Of Laertes, set a little ways back from the headland, Is being melted away by the chilly rains. And yet the hero’s name is ever fresh. For Time Lacks the power to make songs faint, Even if it wishes to. Ψήχει καὶ πέτρην ὁ πολὺς χρόνος οὐδὲ σιδήρου   φείδεται, ἀλλὰ μιῇ πάντ’ ὀλέκει δρεπάνῃ· ὣς καὶ Λαέρταο τόδ’ ἠρίον, ὃ σχεδὸν ἀκτᾶς   βαιὸν ἄπο, ψυχρῶν λείβεται ἐξ ὑετῶν. οὔνομα μὴν ἥρωος ἀεὶ νέον· οὐ γὰρ ἀοιδὰς   ἀμβλύνειν αἰών, κἢν ἐθέλῃ, δύναται.

Allegory of Time (Chronos and Eros), Johann Heinrich Schönfeld, 1630s