Epigrams at the Thermopylae

Short intro
Long ago, I self-taught Ancient Greek. After a number of translations of texts from my textbook into Latin, a number of translations the other way of texts taken from my Latin textbook, and a few translations of authors, in the summer of 2009 I found an appendix on dialects at the end of a textbook, and decided to translate something from each dialect. I started with loads of Herodotus for his Herodotean dialect, to then tackle Homeric with a few passages from the Iliad (less than I had planned, because then school started), which will be posted here very far in the future [update: 1 and 2 posts, these guys were from far later], and then for Aeolic, based on the false premise of easily recovering the texts from Greek Wikisource, I chose to translate all of Sappho (and yes, you will see a lot of Sappho posts in the future; be ready :)) [update: everything was posted, I'm not linking everything here because it's a billion posts, find them listed here under Ancient Greek - English], and then I was fed up, let Doric frick itself, and moved on to Japanese and Chinese.

1. Anyways, in the middle of Herodotus there is this passage with the epigrams of the famous soldiers of the Thermopylae (the 300 and those fighting with them), which are elegiac couplets, so of course I made them elegiac couplets in Latin too. And that was in that summer. The original versions below appear in files dated 11/8/09 13:45; I'd guess it was in August, given how many texts I translated before these epigrams; the diary, however, says I finished working on the text right before these epigrams on 28/7; it also iffily places these translations within 30/7, in that on that day apparently I finish working on the Thermopylae part, but I may have started with just a prose translation and then metric-ified it later, and a later diary entry mentions a translation into "Latæca" (Latreek), meaning a Latin translation from Greek which was too literal, so maybe that's what I did within 30/7 and then in August I did the "good" Latin translation with meter, which is what interests us here; the diary also reports, at the top of a page around 7/9/2009, the variant «c' ū́ltrā Spḗrchĕ' ĕrā́nt», which it doesn't ever mention so I can't date it; given the remakes that ended up here were done in December, which is two notebooks of diary ahead, I think it's safe to assume this was to be applied to these translations in place of «cum͜ ū́ltrā ĕrā́nt Spērché͞um», as I just did;
2. Then we have a prose text change in files 12/8 10:12, and more importantly a remake of the translations (presumably to make them scan better after I got to know the meter better) in files dated 28/12/09 16:46; I assume I remade them over the Christmas holidays; from the diary, on 26/12, we read «De epigrammatibus Lacædemoniis Thermopylarum cogito et conor traductionum mearum metrum, ubi male factum, reparare» (I think of the epigrams of the Spartans of the Thermopylae and try to fix the meter of my translations, where it is badly done), then we have manuscripts for the first one (only "tria" is written twice with the first instance strikethroughed), and for the last one, with a bunch of changes; let's make a few bullets for those:
   
   • L. 1 is written with no hesitations in the original form «Ī́llūstrī́s || mĕmŏrí͞a vātī́s, || quī tḗmpŏrĕ ī́llō»;
   • L. 2 starts with «Ū́ltrā Spḗrchēū́m» for its first half;
   • L. 3 appears as «Ī́lle' ^hic Quī́ tūm, vī́dīmssḗt cūm vḗntūrā́m bĕnĕ mṓrtĕm», presumably going for «Ī́ll' hīc, vīdīssḗt cūm vḗntūrā́m bĕnĕ mṓrtĕm»;
   • L. 4 is the messiest of all; first we have the start «Nṓn līquī́t căpĭtă», scratched out, then next to it «Lī́nquī á͞utem», with both words elided, then on the next line «Lī́nqu' a͞utḗm ēx Spārtǣ́, nṓn tĕtŭlī́t căpĭtắ», then finally the final version, with haud corrected to haut and tetulit written as tetulut as first;
   However, the last two lines are marked with a bracket that points to «Hos vero versus non scivi reparare et nunc, Philippo sonante post gitam diei VI a.Kal.Ian. ~16:12, reparavi. Nunc versionem finalem, ut plana sit comprensu, recopiabo» (Actually I was unable to repair these lines, and have fixed them now, while Filippo [my brother] is playing [piano] after the outing of 27/12 around 16:12. Now I will copy the final version, so that it be clear to understand», and then we have almost the version below, there is still «Ū́ltrā Spḗrchēū́m», which is corrected to its side; in fact, another correction is shown which somehow didn't get here, namely that l. 1, from vătī́s on, should read «vătĭs ī́lli͞us, tḗmpŏrĕ qu' ī́llō» rather than «Ī́llūstrī́s || mĕmŏrí͞a vātī́s, || quī tḗmpŏrĕ ī́llō»; I will now implement this change;
   This clearly leaves out the second epigram; indeed, turning the page, we read «Ultimum epigramma, "[quote text]", oblitus meæ traductionis nec conatus traducere sum» (As for the last epigram, "[quote text]", I forgot my translation and didn't try to translate it); so what do we make of the remake of the second epigram? The diary doesn't mention it, but it appears in that file, which was created 28/12 16:23 and edited 16:46 same day, so I think I copied the translations from the diary and then made the missing one on the spot;
3. But Latin isn't done yet, oh no; indeed, three more translations, one per epigram, popped up from a noteblock supposed to contain poems of mine, and are between something marked "7/6 noctu in lecto" (7/6 at night in bed) and something marked "8/6 noctu in lecto", so they were made between late 7/6 and 8/6/2010 (ah yes, I know the year of that noteblock is HS3 because I had no poems before HS3 and from HS4 on I had noteBOOKs for poems, and besides one of the poems there is about something that happened in the Learning Week I went to in June 2010), and they are labeled "remake 2" below; the only notable correction is the "hic" at the end of l. 1, overwritten with the "qui" you see below;
4. Later on, on 17/9/10 in the morning I make the first three lines of the Italian hendecasyllabics translation of the Megistia epigram. Not sure why I decided to go with rhyming Italian hendecasyllabics, but after school I finished the translation and did the one for everyone and the one for the Spartans, and then in the night between 18 and 19/9 I changed «Megistia: alle Termopili morì» to the below version.
5. So let's get into them, shall w… wait. Isn't something missing? A post in English with an Italian translation and no English? Well, this was originally planned before the last post, so I wanted to get back to English, so I translated the couplets into rhyming couplets of hendecasyllabics in English in a Facebook post dated around midnight of June 4, 2017. The prose part will be translated today, because that is supposed to be a quick and easy task. And at 22:43 on 5/1/23 I change «This is the memory» to «This is a memory», but of course, as I write this at 16:54 on the next day, I realize «This is in memory» is the correct solution, so down I go to implement it. So now we can finally get to it.

One last thing: Herodotus requires no critical note at the end. Only Sappho needs that.

Greek ΣΚΗ. Θαφθεῖσι δέ σφι αὐτοῦ ταύτῃ τῇ περ ἔπεσον, καὶ τοῖσι πρότερον τελευτήσασι ἢ ὑπὸ Λεωνίδεω ἀποπεμφθέντας οἴχεσθαι, ἐπιγέγραπται γράμματα λέγοντα τάδε· Μυριάσιν ποτὲ τῇδε τριηκοσίαις ἐμάχοντο Ἐκ Πελοποννάσου χιλιάδες τέτορες. Ταῦτα μὲν δὴ τοῖσι πᾶσι ἐπιγέγραπται, τοῖσι δὲ Σπαρτιήτῃσι ἰδίῃ· Ὦ ξεῖν’, ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε Κείμεθα τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι. Λακεδαιμονίοισι μὲν δὴ τοῦτο, τῷ δὲ μάντι τόδε· Μνῆμα τόδε κλεινοῖο Μεγιστία, ὅν ποτε Μῆδοι Σπερχειὸν ποταμὸν κτεῖναν ἀμειψάμενοι, Μάντιος, ὃς τότε κῆρας ἐπερχομένας σάφα εἰδώς Οὐκ ἔτλη Σπάρτης ἡγεμόνας προλιπεῖν. Ἐπιγράμμασι μέν νυν καὶ στήλῃσι, ἔξω ἢ τὸ τοῦ μάντιος ἐπίγραμμα, Ἀμφικτύονες εἰσί σφεας οἱ ἐπικοσμήσαντες· τὸ δὲ τοῦ μάντιος Μεγιστίεω Σιμωνίδης ὁ Λεωπρέπεός ἐστι κατὰ ξεινίην ὁ ἐπιγράψας. Italian 228. E a loro, sepolti nello stesso luogo ov’erano caduti{, e a quelli che caddero prima di andare mandati da Leonida,} fu scritto un epigramma che diceva questo: Qui con trenta milioni combattêro Peloponnesî quattromila invero. Questo invero è stato scritto per tutti, d’altro lato apposta per gli Spartani: O forestiero, agli Spartani di’ Ch’obbedïendo a lor morimmo qui. Agli Spartani dunque questo, al profeta invece: Quest’è a memoria dell’illustre vate Che i Medi ucciser oltre lo Spercheo: Vedendo ben Chere a lui preparate D’abbandonare il duce non fu reo. Di Sparta il generale non tradì Megistia: fra’ nemici ben morì. Con gli epigrammi e con le steli, salvo l’epigramma del profeta, li celebrarono gli Amfictioni; [dell’epigramma] del profeta Megistia invece è autore Simonide di Leoprepe per un vincolo d'ospitalità.

Original Remake Remake 2 Latin Sepultisque iis ibidem loci ubi ceciderant, et ante casis quam a Leonida missi issent,] scriptum est epigramma dicens hæc: Trī́bŭs ŏlī́m || mīlí͞um mīlĭbū́s || pūgnā́sse͜ ĭbĭ nṓvī Ḗx Pĕlŏpṓnnēsṓ || quā́ttu͞or mī́lja͜ hŏmĭnū́m. Hæc cum quidem omnibus scripta, tum Lacedæmoniis præcipus: Nṓs nūnti͞á || Lăcĕdǽ̄mŏnĭī́s || iăcŭī́sse͜ ŏlĭm ṓmnēs Dī́ctīs ī́llōrū́m, || ḗxtērne,͜ ĭbi͜ á͞udi͞entḗs. Lacedæmoniis cum quidem hoc, tum prophetæ hoc: Ī́llūstrī́s || mĕmŏriam͜ ā́d vātī́s, || quēm tḗmpŏrĕ ī́llō Cǽ̄dērḗ Mēdī́ || cum͜ ū́ltrā Spḗrchĕum͜ ĕrā́nt, Quī́ tūm mṓrtēm cū́m || vēntū́rām plā́nē vĭdī́ssēt Spā́rtǣ Mĕgī́sti͞a dḗ||lī́nquĭ dŭcḗm nōn tŭlīt. Epigrammatibus cum nunc et stelis, extra prophetæ epigrammate, Amphictyones sunt qui eos celebrarint; tum prophetæ Megistiæ Simonides Leoprepis est secundum hospitalitatem qui inscripserit. Latin CCXXVIII. Sepultisque iis ibidem loci ubi ceciderant, et illis qui antequam a Leonida missi ivissent cecidere, scriptum est epigramma dicens hæc: Pū́gnārū́nt strĕnŭḗ || ŏlĭm ī́n trĭă mī́lĭă mī́li͞um Ḗx Pĕlŏpṓnnēsṓ || mī́lĭă quā́ttŭŏr hī́c. Hæc cum quidem omnibus scripta, tum Lacedæmoniis præcipus: Nṓs Lăcĕdǽ̄mŏnĭī́s || nūnti͞á, ēxtḗrne, ͜ ŏlĭm ṓmnēs Dī́ctīs á͞udi͞entḗs || hī́c iăcŭī́ssĕ ĕû́̆m. Lacedæmoniis cum quidem hoc, prophetæ autem hoc: Ī́llūstrī́s mĕmŏrí͞a || vătĭs ī́lli͞us, tḗmpŏrĕ qu' ī́llō Trā́nsītṓ Spērché͞o || hṓstĭbŭs ā́bcĕcĭdĭ́t, Quī́ tūm, vī́dīssḗt || cūm vḗntūrā́m bĕnĕ mṓrtēm Līnquĭ (Mĕgī́sti͞a) Spā́rtæ || há͞ud tĕtŭlī́t căpĭtắ. Epigrammatibus et stelis, extra prophetæ epigrammate, Amphictyones eos celebrare; prophetæ autem Megistiæ [epigrammatis] Simonides Leoprepis est secundum hospitalitatem inscriptor. Latin CCXXVIII. Sepultisque iis ibidem loci ubi ceciderant, et illis qui antequam a Leonida missi ivissent cecidere, scriptum est epigramma dicens hæc: Mī́lĭbŭ' trībŭs ŏlī́m || mīli͞um pūgnā́sse ĭbĭ nṓvī Ḗx Pĕlŏpṓnnēsṓ || mī́lĭă bī́năquĕ bĭ́s. Hæc cum quidem omnibus scripta, tum Lacedæmoniis præcipus: Nṓs nūnti͞á Lăcĕdǽ̄mŏnĭī́s, || ēxtḗrne, sĕquḗntēs Dī́cta ăb ĕī́s īpsī́s || hī́c iăcŭī́ssĕ ŏlĭ́m. Lacedæmoniis cum quidem hoc, prophetæ autem hoc: Hǣ́c īllū́strĭ' Mĕgī́stĭa || ădḗst vātī́s mĕmŏrí͞á, quī Spērché͞o trā́nsītṓ || ṓccĭdĭt hṓstĭbŭs ắb: Ā́dvĕnĭḗntĕm cū́m || vīdī́ssĕt ĕī́ bĕnĕ mṓrtēm Dū́cēs ḗx Spārtā́ | lī́nquĕrĕ há͞ud tĕtŭlī́t. Epigrammatibus et stelis, extra prophetæ epigrammate, Amphictyones eos celebrare; prophetæ autem Megistiæ [epigrammatis] Simonides Leoprepis est secundum hospitalitatem inscriptor. English 228. To them buried in the same place they had died, and to those who fell before they were sent by Leonidas, there was written an epigram saying this: Against three million Persians, long ago, 3000 Greeks did here to battle go. This indeed was written for them all, on the other hand just for the Spartans: O stranger, tell the Spartans that we died As we here by their orders did abide. This then to the Spartans, to the prophet instead: This is in memory of the renowned Prophet Megistïa, whom the Medës found And killed when the Spercheus they had just crossed. While he knew well that he would then be tossed Into the arms of death, he still did not Abandon Spartan leaders to their lot. With the epigrams and with the steles, save for the epigram for the prophet, the Amphyctions celebrated them; [of the epigram] for the prophet Megistia the author is instead Simonid of Leoprepe for a bond of hospitality.