But what life would there be, what joy, without golden Aphrodite?[lang_el]τίς δὲ βίος, τί δὲ τεÏπνὸν á¼„Ï„ÎµÏ Ï‡Ïυσῆς ἈφÏοδίτης;[/lang_el]
But what life would there be, what joy, without golden Aphrodite?
May I die when I be no more concerned with secret love
and honey-sweet gifts and the bed,
Such things as are the very flower of youth,
a delight to men and women alike.
But when dolorous Age comes,
which makes a man both ugly and worthless,
wretched worries wear his mind away.
The bright rays of the sun do not delight his eyes,
for he is despised by boys, and contemptible to women.
It’s a wretched thing that God made–Age.
[translation by Steve Hays]
[lang_it]In questa poesia di Mimnermo, poeta greco del VII secolo, troviamo un topos della poesia arcaica: il rimpianto della giovinezza, contrapposta ad una vecchiaia brutta e disonorevole. Gli effetti della vecchiaia, infatti, sono tali che rendono tutti gli uomini ripugnanti, annullando la differenza tra quanti in gioventù erano belli e quanti erano brutti (v.6). Per questo il poeta chiede di morire piuttosto di sopportare le pene della vecchiaia privato delle gioie dell'amore. Mirnermus is a Greek poet lived in the VII century B.C.. According to him, old age is filth and dishonourable because deprives us of the joys of love. This was a common opinion in the Greek society, so that death was preferred to getting old.
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