Own Voices: A Fragment of Cleomachus, Poetae Lyrici Graeci 32

Cleomachus in Their Own Words: The Only Extant Line of Cleomachus’ poetry

Name:   Cleomachus Date:       4th century BCE    Region:   [modern Greece]    Citation: Greek Lyric Poets, Fragment 2.32

 

Who took my cup? I was still drinking that…

Τίς τὴν ὑδρίην ἡμῶν ἐψόφησ; ἐγὼ πίνων...

Quis mihi calicem ademit?  Ego bibens… Translated into Latin by Kris Masters

Cleomachus [4th century BCE] According to Strabo, Cleomachus was an Olympic boxer who became a poet after falling in love with a man. The Christian author Tertullian adds more information to this transformation, adding that the poet “covered the scars of their gauntlets with bangles, and exchanged their athletic jersey for a dress.”