Prayer to Hygieia

A paean to Hygieia — Health — composed by Ariphron of Sicyon. Athenaeus, who quotes it, names the author outright, and so the name survives, though of Ariphron himself almost nothing is known.

The proof that Health comes first is built as a priamel: if there is joy in wealth, or in children, or in "kingly rule that makes men equal to gods", or in "the desires we hunt with Aphrodite's secret nets", or any other delight — all of it flourishes only with you, and without you no one is happy. The greatest goods a Greek could name are listed, and all are declared dependent.

Σύνοικος — housemate, one who lives under the same roof. Not "come" and not "grant": Hygieia is asked to move in and stay to the end. Of all the prayers in this corpus it is the only one that asks not for an action but for cohabitation.

Κρυφίοις Ἀφροδίτας ἄρκυσιν θηρεύομεν — we hunt with Aphrodite's hidden nets. Desire is described as a hunt in which the hunter is also the quarry.

How this text was obtained. It was taken from the text layer of Meineke's edition and needed appreciable repair: Ὑγίεια was restored from a doubled capital, πόθων from "zó9ov", Ἀφροδίτας from "AqooÓírag". Running heads and hyphenation were removed. The line division on the card is a working one, made in the course of assembly — it is not Meineke's, and has not been checked against a printed page.