134 THEOCRITUS— GREEK EPIGRAMMATISTS 



The threshold had never a door, nor a watch-dog ; all things, 

 all to them seemed superfluity, for poverty was their sentinel. 

 They had no neighbour by them, but ever against their cabin 

 floated up the sea. 



" The chariot of the moon had not yet reached the mid- 

 point of her course, but their familiar toil awakened the fisher- 

 men ; from their eyelids they cast out slumber, and roused 

 their souls with speech." 



Asphalion, after complaining that even the nights in 

 summer are too long— for " already have I seen ten thousand 

 dreams, and the dawn is not yet " — is somewhat comforted by 

 the thought that thus " we have time to idle in, for what could 

 a man find to do lying on a leafy bed beside the waves and 

 slumbering not ? Nay, the ass is among the thorns, the 

 lantern in the town haU, for they say it is always sleepless." * 



Then he begs his friend to interpret to him the dream he 

 has just dreamt. 



" As I was sleeping late, amid the labours of the salt sea, 

 (and truly not too full fed, for we supped early, if thou dost 

 remember, and did not overtax our bellies), I saw myself busy 

 on a rock, and there I sat and watched the fishes and kept 

 spinning the bait with the rods. 



" And one of the fishes nibbled, a fat one ; for, in sleep, 

 dogs dream of bread, and of fish dream 1. 2 Well, he was 

 tightly hooked, and the blood was running, and the rod I 

 grasped was bent with his struggle. 



^ The meaning is as follows : Asphalion is complaining of wakefulness, and 

 he compares his condition to two things ; to a donkey in a furze-bush (as we 

 might say), and to the light of the town-hall, whose sacred flame was perpetual 

 (Snow). 



' Mr. Lang adopts the reading &pTov, bread ; Ahrens substitutes UpKrov, 

 bear, which seems to fit the context far better, as it keeps up the whole spirit of, 

 " I dreamed of large-sized fish, and a lively fight, just as a sleeping dog dreams 

 of chasing bears." Cf. Tennyson's Locksley Hall — 



" Like a dog he hunts in dreams," 

 and his Lucretius — 



" As the dog 

 With inward yelp and restless forefoot plies 

 His function of the woodland," 

 passages alike inspired by the lines in which Lucretius (iv. 991 f.) proves that 

 waking instincts are reflected in dreams — 



" venantumque canes in molli saepe quiete 

 jactant crura tamen subito." 



