c. 305 BC / Athens

Dust to Dust

Tags:: fame game,; life after death,; time

When you’re moved to find out who you are,
study the graves you encounter as you pass by.
Inside rest the bones and weightless dust
of men once kings and tyrants, wise men, and those
who took pride in their noble birth or wealth,
their fame, or their beautiful bodies.
Yet what good was any of that against time?
All mortals come to know Hades in the end.
Look toward these to know who you are.

Single page /
Email

Get one free trial issue of Lapham's Quarterly!

Fill out this order form.
If you like the magazine, get the rest of the year for just $49 (4 issues in all).
If not, simply write cancel on the bill, return it, and owe nothing.

First Name Please enter a first name.

Last Name Please enter a last name.

Address Please enter an address.

Apt./Suite

City Please enter a city.

State Please select a state.

Postal/ZIP Code Please enter a valid
zip code.

Email Address Please enter a valid email address.

Country Please select a country.

Canadian subscribers add $10; All other international subscribers add $40.

More Voices in Time

Post a Comment

Name
Email
Remember personal info?

Comments (You may use HTML tags for style)
Verification

Note: Several minutes will pass while the system is processing and posting your comment. Do not resubmit during this time or your comment will post multiple times.

Published In

The Future

About the Author

Menander, from a fragment. Little is known of Menander’s life, although he is believed to have come from a wealthy Athenian family and studied under the philosopher Theophrastus, a pupil of Aristotle’s. His first of some one hundred plays, Anger, was produced in 321 bc; he won eight first-place prizes at the dramatic festivals beginning with The Dyscolus in 316 BC. Considered a leader of the New Comedy—the last wave in the history of the Greek stage—Menander influenced the Roman writers Plautus and Terence.

O fortune, fortune, thou art a bitch!