"Where Are My Roses?" Lyrics to a Slow Dance, Athenaeus, Deipn. 14.27

“Where are my Roses?” Lyrics to a Slow Dance

Name:   Athenaeus Date:   2nd century CE Region:   Naucratis [modern Egypt] Citation:    Deipnosophists 14.27

There is a slow dance for couples called “The Flowers,” where they act out a dance as they say,

“Where are my roses?

Where are my violets?

Where is my beautiful parsley?”

And the response is:

“Here are your roses,

Here are your violets,

Here is your beautiful parsley.”

“Where are my Roses?” Lyrics to a Slow Dance

ἦν δὲ καὶ παρὰ τοῖς ἰδιώταις ἡ καλουμένη ἄνθεμα. ταύτην δὲ ὠρχοῦντο μετὰ λέξεως τοιαύτης μιμούμενοι καὶ λέγοντες: ποῦ μοι τὰ ῥόδα, ποῦ μοι τὰ ἴα, ποῦ μοι τὰ καλὰ σέλινα; ποῦ μοι τὰδ’ τὰ ῥόδα; ταδὶ τὰ ἴα, ταδὶ τὰ καλὰ σέλινα.

Erat vero etiam apud privatos saltatio quae flores vocabatur. Hanc saltabant, cum mimico motu verba haec pronuntiantes: Ubi mihi rosae? Ubi mihi violae? Ubi mihi apia pulcra? Ubi mihi rosae hae? Violae hae? Apia haec pulchra? Translated into Latin by Johann Schweighäuser

Athenaeus of Naucratis [2nd century CE, modern Egypt] was a scholar who lived in Naucratis during the reign of the Antonines. His fifteen volume work, the Deipnosophists, are invaluable for the amount of quotations that preserve otherwise lost authors, including the poetry of Sappho.