Greek poet (fl. 100 B.C.)
Arrogance is a great obstruction to wisdom.
BION
attributed, Day's Collacon
A good leader makes a good follower.
BION
attributed, Day's Collacon
Let Eros call the Muses, let the Muses bear Eros.
BION OF SMYRNA
fragment
Of all evil things the least quantity is to be borne, but of learning and knowledge, the more a man hath, the better he can bear it.
BION
attributed, Day's Collacon
It is not seemly for mortals to judge the works of the gods, for all of them are holy and gratifying.
BION OF SMYRNA
fragment
Happy is love or friendship when returned--
The lovers whose pure flames have equal burned.
BION OF SMYRNA
"Friendship"
If sweet these songs are not, what profit more
Have I to labour at them o'er and o'er?
BION OF SMYRNA
"Life to Be Enjoyed"
Sleep no more, Cypris, beneath thy purple coverlet, but awake to thy misery; put on the sable robe and fall to beating thy breast, and tell it to the world: The beauteous Adonis is dead.
BION OF SMYRNA
"The Lament for Adonis"
From a constant dripping forever running, as the story goes, even stone is hollowed into a cleft.
BION OF SMYRNA
fragment
But since Heaven wills one life to man should fall,
And this is very brief--too brief for all
We think to do, why should we fret and moil,
And vex ourselves with never-ending toil?
BION OF SMYRNA
"Life to Be Enjoyed"
I to the sandy shore and seaward slope
Will go, and try with murmured song to bend
The cruel Galatea. My sweet hope
I'll cast away--when life itself doth end.
BION OF SMYRNA
"The Cruel Galatea"
How brief the life allotted us by Fate!
BION OF SMYRNA
"Life to Be Enjoyed"
Winter is cruel to bear; I fear snow and chills.
Let spring, thrice-desired to me, be here all year round, when neither frost nor sun oppresses us.
In spring everything burgeons, everything pleasant blossoms in spring,
and night and day are equal for humans.
BION OF SMYRNA
fragment
May Love the Muses evermore invite,
The Muses bring me Love! And to requite
My passion may they give sweet song to me,
Than which no sweeter remedy can be.
BION OF SMYRNA
"The Muses"
If Saturn's son, and changeful Fate, assigned
A double life-time to our mortal kind,
That one in joys and one in woes be past,
Who had his woes first would have joys at last.
BION OF SMYRNA
"Life to Be Enjoyed"