How beautifully our predecessors wrote

The van Bosch and van Lennep version of The Greek Anthology (in five vols., begun by Bosch in 1795, finished and published by Lennep in 1822). Photographed at The British Museum, London. Contains the metrical Latin version of Grotius's Planuedean (Planudes) version of the Anthology. Heavily illustrated. It also reprints the very error-prone Greek text of the Wechelian edition (1600) of the Anthology, which is itself simply a reprint of the 1566 Planudean edition by Henricus Stephanus. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Just happened on this wonderful line, describing a collection of archaizing poetry dating from the Byzantine period:

"There is much tenderness and beauty in many of the poems, but the writers wrote in a language which they did not command, but by which they were commanded, as all who try to write ancient Greek are."

(W.R. Paton, Greek Anthology v. 1, Harvard 1916: viii)

I wish we wrote or could write like this now.


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