Damn, now I miss the Homer seminar :S.

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Glad you enjoyed this epigram. I cannot read Hebrew, but I am sure your version is more elegant than mine. I am not 100% sure that wlesan is really gnomic.

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It's in (the Hebrew syllabo-tonic approximation of) elegiac couplets, for what it's worth. :)

I am inclined to agree with you that wlesan is gnomic -- although the author mentions this one particular event, clearly a more general statement about the destructive potential of Eros clashing against Sophrosyne is intended.

And thanks again! This is in fact my very first artistic translation of Greek poetry! I've previously only translated into (rough) prose.

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I like most of it - but I think you weaken the last line by giving "innocent" to the boy instead of to Prudence, and by substituting a gentler verb for "slew" (at least, that's Liddell and Scott's translation of pheino).

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I mean, pephne.

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Hey, quite right! I didn't notice this more-specific (but here absolutely and unambiguously correct) meaning when I looked it up. Good catch! I'll rethink that line.

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