Temethos, Antiochian, A.D. 400

Lines written by young Temethos, madly in love. The tile: 'Emonidis' -the favourite of Antiochos Epiphanis; a very good-looking young man from Samosata. But if the lines come out ardent, full of feeling, it's because Emonidis (belonging to another, much older time: the 137th year of the Greek kingdom, maybe a bit earlier) is in the poem merely as a name -a suitable one nevertheless. The poem gives voice to the love Temethos feels, a beautiful kind of love, worthy of him. We the initiated his intimate friends- we the initiated know about whom those lines were written. The unsuspecting Antiochians read simply 'Emonidis'.