The Utopian

By David Hayes.

A New Translation of Theognis 19 - 26.

_______________________________________________________________

With skill I placed a seal upon my words,

          Kurnus. They can’t be stolen — or if

They are, the truth will out. My lines will not

         Be changed from good to bad. Every

Man will say, “Look! Verses by Theognis,

         The world-famous Theognis of Megara!”

But here and now, some will like my poems,

         Others not. Don’t shake your head

And stand amazed my boy. Not even Zeus

         Is loved by all, if he checks the rain,

Or lets it fall.

Little is known of the ancient Greek poet Theognis. He was probably born between 590 and 570 BC, although the very existence of an individual poet called “Theognis” has been questioned by some scholars. He appears to have been a citizen of Megara on the isthmus of Corinth, or Megara in Sicily. He stars briefly in Friedrich Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals as the “mouthpiece” of Greek nobility.

David Hayes is an assistant professor at the European College of Liberal Arts in Berlin. He is currently at work on an article entitled “Piety as Gratitude in Plato’s Euthyphro.”