ABSTRACT

The lines are a translation of the first 47 lines of Bion's Lament for Adonis. Their source is a rough draft on two leaves, which also contain the rough draft of S'. s translation of Moschus's idyll v. The date of S'. s translation is not known, but it is probably contemporary with the translation from Moschus in the same MS, like that poem may conceivably be as early as at least 1816, and could certainly date from the period December 1817-July 1818 when S. made several translations, mainly from Gk. In general terms S'. s translation of the 'Lament' uses more varied and less obvious repetitions than the Gk, which is more mannered and patterned in style; and he tends to a more highly-coloured and expressive vocabulary than the relatively plain diction of Bion's Gk. There are instances where S. appears to have preferred variant readings rejected by Valckenaer.