Ταὶ Μοῖσαι τὸν Ἔρωτα τὸν ἄγριον οὐ φοβέονται
ἐκ θυμῶ δὲ φιλεῦντι καὶ ἐκ ποδὸς αὐτῷ ἕπονται.
κἢν μὲν ἄρα ψυχάν τις ἔχων ἀνέραστον ἀείδῃ,
τῆνον ὑπεκφεύγοντι καὶ οὐκ ἐθέλοντι διδάσκειν·
5 ἢν δὲ νόον τις Ἔρωτι δονεύμενος ἁδὺ μελίσδῃ,
ἐς τῆνον μάλα πᾶσαι ἐπειγόμεναι προρέοντι.
μάρτυς ἐγών, ὅτι μῦθος ὅδἔπλετο πᾶσιν ἀλαθής.
ἢν μὲν γὰρ βροτὸν ἄλλον ἀθανάτων τινὰ μέλπω,
βαμβαίνει μοι γλῶσσα καὶ ὡς πάρος οὐκέτἀείδει·
10 ἢν δαὖτἐς τὸν Ἔρωτα καὶ ἐς Λυκίδαν τι μελίσδω,
καὶ τόκα μοι χαίροισα διὰ στόματος ῥέει αὐδά.
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An open-access project
Edmonds 1916
Loeb
Edmonds (eclectic), 1916 · 1916
The Editor

John Maxwell Edmonds (1875–1958) was a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, who produced the Loeb Classical Library editions of the Greek lyric poets, iambic and elegiac poets, and other fragmentary Greek poetry. A prolific but sometimes controversial editor, Edmonds was known for his willingness to supplement and restore fragmentary texts — an approach that drew criticism from more cautious scholars but made otherwise inaccessible fragments available to a wider audience.

About This Edition

Edmonds's Loeb editions present fragmentary Greek poetry with facing English translations. Following Loeb convention, the text is based on existing critical editions supplemented by Edmonds's own supplements and restorations. For fragmentary poetry, more reliable editions are now provided by later collections (e.g. D. L. Page, M. L. West, and the multi-volume Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum), but Edmonds's Loebs remain useful for their translations and accessibility.

Translator

J. M. Edmonds (Loeb Classical Library)

Text Basis

Edmonds's own eclectic text for the Loeb Classical Library.

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