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Context: Ancient Romans (and Greeks), like us, were very fond of their pets. Going so far as to write elaborate epitaphs on their graves.
Here are some more:
“Thou who passest on this path, If haply thou dost mark this monument, Laugh not, I pray thee, though it is a dog’s grave. Tears fell for me, and the dust was heaped above me By a master’s hand.”
“Here the stone says it holds the white dog from Melita, the most faithful guardian of Eumelus; Bull they called him while he was yet alive; but now his voice is prisoned in the silent pathways of night.”
“Myia never barked without reason, but now he is silent.”
“Surely even as thou liest dead in this tomb I deem the wild beasts yet fear thy white bones, huntress Lycas; and thy valour great Pelion knows, and splendid Ossa and the lonely peaks of Cithaeron.”
They certainly had a gravitas with language that we just don’t have in the modern day.
Thanks for sharingI don’t want to sound argumentative, but are you saying there are no modern poets who can write as eloquently as this? Sure, these are better than most people speak or write today, but it’s also a small selection of particularly good epitaphs, not a representative sample. We have some incredibly good writers today who can easily put these to shame, though they’ll be written in modern English. (Presumably these were translated from Latin though, but for some reason they chose to use thou instead of singular you, as is the norm for today.)
I’m going to take this opportunity to tangent off:
Here is an example for anyone who thinks singular they is wrong. You is (rather it was) plural, and thou is singular. If you’re fine using you as singular instead of thou then you don’t have a logical argument for refusing to use singular they, which is hundreds of years old.
Equal and Opposite reactions.