lament.  As a horse’s jaw grinds, so let the kiln grind to powder all the pots inside.  And you, too, daughter of the Sun, Circe the witch, come and cast cruel spells; hurt both these men and their handiwork.  Let Chiron also come and bring many Centaurs —­ all that escaped the hands of Heracles and all that were destroyed:  let them make sad havoc of the pots and overthrow the kiln, and let the potters see the mischief and be grieved; but I will gloat as I behold their luckless craft.  And if anyone of them stoops to peer in, let all his face be burned up, that all men may learn to deal honestly.

XV. (13 lines) (7) (ll. 1-7) Let us betake us to the house of some man of great power, —­ one who bears great power and is greatly prosperous always.  Open of yourselves, you doors, for mighty Wealth will enter in, and with Wealth comes jolly Mirth and gentle Peace.  May all the corn-bins be full and the mass of dough always overflow the kneading-trough.  Now (set before us) cheerful barley-pottage, full of sesame....

((LACUNA))

(ll. 8-10) Your son’s wife, driving to this house with strong-hoofed mules, shall dismount from her carriage to greet you; may she be shod with golden shoes as she stands weaving at the loom.

(ll. 11-13) I come, and I come yearly, like the swallow that perches light-footed in the fore-part of your house.  But quickly bring....

XVI. (2 lines) (ll. 1-2) If you will give us anything (well).  But if not, we will not wait, for we are not come here to dwell with you.

XVII.  HOMER:  Hunters of deep sea prey, have we caught anything?

FISHERMAN:  All that we caught we left behind, and all that we did not catch we carry home. (8)

HOMER:  Ay, for of such fathers you are sprung as neither hold rich lands nor tend countless sheep.

ENDNOTES: 

(1) “The Epigrams” are preserved in the pseudo-Herodotean “Life
     of Homer”.  Nos.  III, XIII, and XVII are also found in the
     “Contest of Homer and Hesiod”, and No.  I is also extant at
     the end of some MSS. of the “Homeric Hymns”.
(2) sc. from Smyrna, Homer’s reputed birth-place.
(3) The councillors at Cyme who refused to support Homer at the
     public expense.
(4) The `better fruit’ is apparently the iron smelted out in
     fires of pine-wood.
(5) Hecate:  cp.  Hesiod, “Theogony”, l. 450.
(6) i.e. in protection.
(7) This song is called by pseudo-Herodotus EIRESIONE.  The word
     properly indicates a garland wound with wool which was worn
     at harvest-festivals, but came to be applied first to the
     harvest song and then to any begging song.  The present is
     akin the Swallow-Song (XELIDONISMA), sung at the beginning
     of spring, and answered to the still surviving English May-
     Day songs.  Cp.  Athenaeus, viii. 360 B.
(8) The lice which they caught in their clothes they left
     behind, but carried home in their clothes those which they
     could not catch.