Oppian

thumb|I sing the Natives of the boundless Main,And tell what Kinds the wat'ry Depths contain...What various Arts the finny Herds beguile,And each cold Secret of the Fishers' Toil. Oppian (Ancient Greek: Ὀππιανός; Latin: Oppianus) was a 2nd-century Greco-Roman poet during the reign of the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, who composed the Halieutica, a five-book didactic epic on fishing. Quotes Ἔθνεά τοι πόντοιο πολυσπερέας τε φάλαγγαςπαντοίων νεπόδων, πλωτὸν γένος Ἀμφιτρίτης,ἐξερέω, γαίης ὕπατον κράτος, Ἀντωνῖνε·ὅσσα τε κυματόεσσαν ἔχει χύσιν, ᾗχί θ’ ἕκασταἐννέμεται, διερούς τε γάμους διεράς τε γενέθλαςκαὶ βίον ἰχθυόεντα καὶ ἔχθεα καὶ φιλότηταςκαὶ βουλάς, ἁλίης τε πολύτροπα δήνεα τέχνηςκερδαλέης, ὅσα φῶτες ἐπ’ ἰχθύσι μητίσαντοἀφράστοις· ἀΐδηλον ἐπιπλώουσι θάλασσαντολμηρῇ κραδίῃ, κατὰ δ’ ἔδρακον οὐκ ἐπίοπταβένθεα καὶ τέχνῃσιν ἁλὸς διὰ μέτρα δάσαντοδαιμόνιοι. I sing the Natives of the boundless Main,And tell what Kinds the wat'ry Depths contain.Thou, Mighty Prince, whom farthest Shores obey,Favour the Bard, and hear the humble Lay;While the Muse shows the liquid Worlds below,Where throng'd with busie Shoals the Waters flow;Their diff'ring Forms and Ways of Life relates;And sings their constant Loves, and constant Hates;What various Arts the finny Herds beguile,And each cold Secret of the Fishers Toil.Intrepid Souls! who pleasing Rest despise,To whirl in Eddies, and on Floods to rise;Who scorn the Safety of the calmer Shore,Drive thro' the working Foam, and ply the lab'ring Oar.Th' Abyss they fathom, search the doubtful Way,And through obscuring Depths pursue the Prey. Halieutica, bk. 1, proemium (ed. A. W. Mair, 1928; tr. William Diaper, 1722) External links Category:Poets from Greece