Of the Jews
(A.D. 50)
Painter and poet, runner and discus-thrower,
beautiful as Endymion, Ianthis, son of Antonios.
From a family friendly to the synagogue.
“My most honourable days are those
when I forsake aesthetics pursuits,
when I abandon hellenism, with its
beauty and harshness, its overriding devotion
to perfectly formed and perishable white limbs,
when I become he whom I would wish
always to remain—of the Jews, of the holy Jews, a son.”
Very passionate his statement “always
to remain of the Jews, of the holy Jews—”
But he remained nothing of the sort.
The Hedonism and Art of Alexandria
kept him their devoted child.
Translated by Pavlos Andronikos
Published in Antipodes 21 (1987), p. 15.
© Pavlos Andronikos.
All Rights Reserved.
