Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Greece and Turkey in Europe: Vol. XIX. 1876–79. | | | | Introductory to Greece | | On Homer’s Birthplace | | Antipater of Sidon (fl. c. 100 B.C.) |
| | Translated by J. H. Merivale
FROM Colophon some deem thee sprung, | |
| From Smyrna some, and some from Chios; | |
| These noble Salamis have sung, | |
| While those proclaim thee born in Ios; | |
| And others cry up Thessaly | 5 |
| The mother of the Lapithæ. | |
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| Thus each to Homer has assigned | |
| The birthplace just which suits his mind. | |
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| But, if I read the volume right, | |
| By Phœbus to his followers given, | 10 |
| I ’d say they ’re all mistaken quite, | |
| And that his real country ’s heaven; | |
| While for his mother, she can be | |
| No other than Calliope. | | | | |
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