Together 'til the end: Greek Anthology VII.473

 

Note: This text is problematic. Earlier versions of this text state Damo & Methymna's companion is a man, Euphron, and change the text to make him a devotee of *Dionysus,* not Hera. Modern texts use feminine endings and change the name to the feminine form Euphro. We cannot know definitively if Euphron, a man, was allowed to participate in the rites of Hera, or the nature of the relationship between these three people but we do know that this event was considered important enough to preserve in literature. 

When Damo & Mathymna learned that Euphro[n], the passionate follower of Hera, had died,

They turned their girdles into nooses

And took their own lives.

Damo et Mathymna illum in triennalibus *Herae* ludis

Euphronem sacro-furore-concitum ubi-accepere mortuum

a-vita se-abdicarunt, et ex zonis lato-plexu

manibus collum pressuros suspenderunt laqueos.

 

Δαμὼ καὶ Μάθυμνα τὸν ἐν τριετηρίσιν Ἥρας

Εὔφρονα λυσσατὰν ὡς ἐπύθοντο νέκυν,

ζωὰν ἀρνήσαντο, τανυπλέκτων δ᾽ ἀπὸ μιτρᾶν

χερσὶ δεραιούχους ἐκρεμάσαντο βρόχους.

--Aristodicus, Greek Anthology VII.473; Translated into Latin by Hugo Grottius

The Greek Anthology is a modern collection of Greek lyric poetry compiled from various sources over the course of Greco-Roman literature. The current collection was created from two major sources, one from the 10^th century CE and one from the 14^th century CE. The anthology contains authors spanning the entirety of Greek literature, from archaic poets to Byzantine Christian poets.