eul_wid: siy-bn
DOI 10.5281/zenodo.20335421 PDFMarkdown

Declamations and Orations: Oration 37 (Epithalamium for Panathenaeus) by Himerius the Sophist

What survives of this wedding speech for Panathenaeus is a short descriptive passage. The Tiber comes down from Italy to Rome, where it divides round an island that the Romans dedicated to Asclepius after the god had come to their city; the speech then turns to the Thracian Bosporus, born of the Black Sea and widening through the Propontis into the Aegean.

Part of Declamations and Orations

Ἐπιθαλάμιος εἰς Παναθήναιον.

Θύμβρις δὲ ἄνωθεν ἐξ Ἰταλίας πολὺς φερόμενος μέχρι πρὸς τὴν πόλιν πελαγίζει, ἐπιπολάζων τῷ ῥεύματι· ἐπειδὰν δὲ ὁμιλήσῃ τῇ πόλει, σχίζων εἰς δύο πόρους τὰ ῥεύματα, εἶτα συνελθὼν αὖθις καὶ εἷς μετὰ τοῦτο γενόμενος, περὶ τὸ μέσον τῶν πόρων τὸ ῥεῦμα περιρρήγνυσι, καὶ νῆσον οὐκ ὀλίγην ἐργάζεται. τοῦτο τὸ χωρίον τέμενος Ἀσκληπιῷ παῖδες Ῥωμαίων ἀνέθεσαν ...

Ἀσκληπιὸς μετὰ τὸ δοῦναι πᾶσι τὴν τέχνην καὶ μετὰ τὸ τρισὶν ἠπείροις δοῦναι τὰ θαύματα τῆς τέχνης, εἰς πόλιν ἦλθε τοῦ Θύμβριδος ...

Βόσπορος δὲ ἐκεῖνος ὁ Θρᾴκιος, ἡ στενὴ καὶ ῥοώδης θάλασσα, ἣν γεννᾷ μὲν πόντος Εὔξεινος, σχίζων τὰς ἠπείρους τῷ ῥεύματι, διαχεῖται δὲ διὰ Προποντίδος, εὐρὺς Αἰγαῖος γινόμενος ...