Posting has been somewhat sporadic of late–for which, my apologies.

But I have another Greek epigram for you, the forty-first from Book 1 of the Greek Anthology. This one is on the magi who come to worship the newborn Christ.

As was the case with the last several epigrams I’ve translated, this one too is only two lines–though they are both dactylic hexameters (i.e., rather than an elegiac couplet). My translation, on the other hand, is five lines of iambic pentameter. Below, I give the Greek text (from the Loeb edition), the Loeb translation, and my metrical version.

The Greek text:

Εἰς τοὺς μάγους

Οὐκέτι δῶρ᾽ ἀνάγουσι μάγοι πυρὶ ἠελίῳ τε·

ἠέλιον γὰρ ἔτευξε τόδε βρέφος, ὡς πυρὸς αὐγάς.

The Loeb translation:

No longer do the magi bring presents to fire and the sun, for this child made sun and fire.

Trans. W.R. Paton, rev. by Michael A. Tueller

My translation:

On the Magi

No more do magi bring their pagan gifts

To offer them to fire and to sun:

The Son of God who has become the Son

Of Man made light of fire and of sun;

Alone he should receive the gifts of men.