Chaeremon

Chaeremon (Greek: Χαιρήμων, gen.: Χαιρήμονος) was an Athenian dramatist of the first half of the fourth century BC. Quotes Τύχη τὰ θνητῶν πράγματ᾽, οὐκ εὐβουλία. Man’s ways are chance and not sagacity. Quoted by Plutarch, De Fortuna, i. 1 Babbitt, p. 75; Nauck, p. 782. Cf. Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes, v. 9 (25) Καὶ ὑμῖν δέ, ὦ ἑταῖροι, λέγω ὅτι οὐδέν ἐστιν ὀφθαλμῶν οὕτως εὐφραντικὸν ὡς γυναικὸς κάλλος. ὁ γοῦν τοῦ τραγικοῦ Χαιρήμονος Οἰνεὺς περὶ παρθένων τινῶν διηγούμενος ὧν ἐθεᾶτό φησιν ἐν τῷ ὁμωνύμῳ δράματι:Ἔκειτο γὰρ ἡ μὲν λευκὸν εἰς σεληνόφωςφαίνουσα μαστὸν λελυμένης ἐπωμίδος,τῆς δ᾽ αὖ χορεία: λαγόνα τὴν ἀριστερὰνἔλυσε: γυμνή δ᾽ αἰθέρος θεάμασινζῶσαν γραφὴν ἔφαινε: χρῶμα δ᾽ ὄμμασιλευκὸν μελαίνης ἔργον ἀντηύγει σκιᾶς.ἄλλη δὲ ἐγύμνου καλλίχειρας ὠλένας,ἄλλης προσαμπέχουσα θῆλυν αὐχένα:ἡ δ᾽ ῥαγέντων χλανιδίων ὑπὸ πτύχαςἔφαινε μηρόν, κἀξεπεσφραγίζετοὥρας γελώσης χωρὶς ἐλπίδων ἔρως.ὑπνωμέναι δ᾽ ἔπιπτον ἑλενίων ἔπι,ἴων τε μελανόφυλλα συγκλῶσαι πτερὰκρόκον θ᾽, ὃς ἡλιῶδες εἰς ὑφάσματαπέπλων σκιᾶς εἴδωλον ἐξωμόργνυτο,ἕρσῃ δὲ θαλερὸς ἐκτραφεὶς ἀμάρακοςλειμῶσι μαλακοὺς ἐξέτεινεν αὐχένας. And to you, my companions, I say that there is nothing so likely to delight the eyes as a woman’s beauty. The tragic poet Chaeremon’s Oeneus, at any rate, in describing some girls whom he was gazing at, says in the play which bears his name:"One lay there displaying to the moonlight her white breast, her tunic slipped from her shoulder; of another girl, again, the left side had been loosed to view by the dance; bared to the eyes of the sky, it showed a living picture; its colour, so white to my eyes, out-shone the effect of the shadowy darkness.Another girl had bared her fair arms and shoulders as she clasped the delicate neck of her companion; she, meanwhile, her robes all torn, showed her thigh from beneath its folds, and desire for that smiling loveliness was stamped upon my mind, but without hope.Fordone with sleep they lay where they had thrown themselves, on beds of calamint, after twining together the darkling petals of violets and the crocus, which had rubbed its sunny likeness into the woven texture of their robes, and there sweet marjoram, lush-grown by the dew, stretched forth its tender stalks in the meadows." Fragment of Oeneus, as quoted by Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, xiii. 87 (608 b) Gurlick, p. 277; Nauck, p. 786 Greek Anthology Eὔβουλόν τέκνωσεν Ἀθηναγόρης περὶ πάντωνἥσσονα μὲν μοίρᾳ, κρέσσονα δ᾽ εὐλογίᾳ. Athenaeus begot Eubulus, excelled by all in fate, excelling all in good report. Anthologia Graeca, vii. 469 Paton, p. 255 Κλεύας Οὑτυμοκλεῖος, ὑπὲρ Θυρεᾶν δόρυ τείνας,κάτθανες ἀμφίλογον γᾶν ἀποτεμνόμενος. Cleuas, the son of Etymocles, who didst wield the spear for Thyreae, thou didst die allotting to thyself the disputed land. Anthologia Graeca, vii. 720 Paton, p. 383 Tοῖς Ἄργει Σπάρτηθεν ἶσαι χέρες, ἶσα δὲ τεύχη  συμβάλομεν Θυρέαι δ᾽ ἦσαν ἄεθλα δορός.ἄμφω δ᾽ ἀπροφάσιστα τὸν οἴκαδε νόστον ἀφέντες  οἰωνοῖς θανάτου λείπομεν ἀγγελίαν. We from Sparta engaged the Argives equal in number and in arms, Thyreae being the prize of the spear, and both abandoning without seeking for pretexts our hope of return home, we leave the birds to tell of our death. Anthologia Graeca, vii. 721 Paton, p. 383 Bibliography F. C. Babbitt, tr. Pluarch's Moralia, Vol. 2, LCL 222 (1928) C. B. Gurlick, tr. The Deipnosophists, Vol. 6, LCL 327 (1937) W. R. Paton, tr. Greek Anthology, Vol. 2, LCL 68 (1917) A. Nauck, ed. Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta (1888) Category:Playwrights from Greece Category:People from Athens