26 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



It may be translated : 



' The man whom, sleeping, Fortune has not blessed, 

 Shall run in vain, though Ladas he outran.' 



The style of these lines is pointed and pithy ; their structure is rhyth- 

 mically perfect, and the composition undoubtedly belongs to the best 

 age of the new comedy. The Greek word Tuxv does not mean exactly 

 Chance or Fortune, but rather the secret power which allots to mortals 

 their varied faculties and conditions in life. The thought conveyed in 

 the passage is, that without natural gifts or endowments no great thing 

 can be accomplished. Unless it is in a man, achievement, success, can- 

 not come out of him. The word misspelled in the copies is 8pa[iiTai for 

 Bpafieirai, which shows that when this was written ei and i were pro- 

 nounced alike. I assign the composition of the lines to a period much 

 earlier than that to which the handwriting of the copies belongs, but I 

 would not venture to attribute them to any particular poet. Ladas was 

 a Spartan runner who gained the victory in the BoXixos 8p6pos, or long 

 race, and soon afterwards died. The precise period when he lived is 

 nowhere recorded ; but as a bronze statue of him, by the sculptor 

 Myron, was well known to the ancients, and as Myron flourished in 

 the fifth century before Christ, Ladas must have gained his victory at 

 least as early as the middle of that century. 



" Among the Greek epigrams, there are two in which the name of 

 Ladas is commemorated ; both are ahkfr-nora, or anonymous. The 

 first consists of a hexameter and pentameter, as follows : — 



AaSaj TO (TTaSiov eiB" rjXaTO etre hienTrj, 

 Aaiixoviov TO Td)(os, ov8e (ppdcrai dwuTOV. 



Whether Ladas leaped or jlew through the stadium 

 It is impossible to say ; his speed was divine. 



" The second is on the statue of Ladas by Myron. It consists of 

 eight lines, hexameters and pentameters alternately, as follows : — 



Oios erjs (pevycov tov vnrjvepov, efnrvoe AaSa 



Qiipov, eV aKpoTOTca nvevpaTi 6e\s owxa 

 Toiov exa\Kev(rep ae Mvpav, eVi iravTi x^po^cs 



Sco/xart Ilicraiov irpodhoKiav (TT€(pavov. 

 ItXrjprjs eXTTiSos ccttIv, ciKpois fi cttI ;)(f''^fw"' dadp-a 



Ep(j}alveL KoiXcov i'vdodev e/c Xayoi/cov. 

 Uridfjaei Taxa x^iXKOi enl (TTeCJjos, ov8e Kade^ei 



'a ^aais • o) Tex"^ itvtvp.aTOS a>KVTepa. 



