Anthologia Palatina

Wilhelm von Gloeden. Italien Aufnahmen

Published as a postcard by Adolph Engel, Berlin, 1905

(my collection)

"Do not hide your love, Philocrates. The god himself

Is able to trample on my heart.

But give me joy by giving me kisses. A time will come

When you too will ask for these favors from others"

(Strato, Anthologia Palatina, XII, 16)

"If you boast of your beauty, know that the rose also blooms,

But suddenly withers and is thrown out with the refuse.

For flower and beauty are of equal duration.

Envious time causes them to wither together"

(Strato, Anthologia Palatina, XII, 234)

"Perhaps someone in the future, on hearing these my trifles,

Will think that all this suffering in love was my own.

But I inscribe letters for many other boy-lovers,

Since this gift some god granted to me"

(Strato, Anthologia Palatina, XII, 258)

Translations from: Thomas K. Hubbard

Homosexuality in Greece and Rome.

A Textbook of Basic Documents

University of California Press

Berkeley - Los Angeles, 2003