Antipater of Sidon
O Tomb, what symbol is this? A fierce-eyed cock stands on you holding a sceptre in its blue-green wings and clutching a wreath of victory in its claws. At the edge of the base lies a die on the verge of falling.
Do you hold some sceptre-bearing king, mighty in battle? But then why the die? And why this simple tomb?
It would suit a poor man who was awakened by the crowing of the bird of night. Yet I think not, for the sceptre contradicts it.
Do you hold a victor of the games who won the prize for swiftness? But that is wrong too, for what would a swiftfooted man be doing with a die?
Now I have the real meaning: the palm (Phaenix) does not denote victory but the proud mother-land of the Phaenicians, Tyre the many-peopled, and the cock means that he was a man of song, a poet varied in his Muse and first in the company of Love. His sceptre is a symbol of eloquence; the die which is on the verge of falling means that he died by falling means that he died by falling down when drunk.
These are the correct meanings. The stone speaks his name, ANTIPATER, sprung from mighty ancestors.
Do you hold some sceptre-bearing king, mighty in battle? But then why the die? And why this simple tomb?
It would suit a poor man who was awakened by the crowing of the bird of night. Yet I think not, for the sceptre contradicts it.
Do you hold a victor of the games who won the prize for swiftness? But that is wrong too, for what would a swiftfooted man be doing with a die?
Now I have the real meaning: the palm (Phaenix) does not denote victory but the proud mother-land of the Phaenicians, Tyre the many-peopled, and the cock means that he was a man of song, a poet varied in his Muse and first in the company of Love. His sceptre is a symbol of eloquence; the die which is on the verge of falling means that he died by falling means that he died by falling down when drunk.
These are the correct meanings. The stone speaks his name, ANTIPATER, sprung from mighty ancestors.
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