Introduction
The Seikilos Epitaph is the oldest surviving song to be completely written down, text and music. It has made it through almost two-thousand years by the skin of its teeth.
‘WHAT is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.’*
At about the same time that St James wrote this, a man named Seikilos, from a village near Ephesus, lost his wife. She must have been fondly remembered, for in her tomb he hid a cylinder of stone engraved with a little song, complete with music. It runs something like this:
While thou livest, radiant be,
Grieve not, nay not for a moment;
Our life appeareth for but a little time,
And Time demands his
toll.
After it was discovered in 1883, the stone survived being sawn down to make a pedestal for a flower-pot, but it was leading a charmed life, only narrowly escaping the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922. Fortunately, the world’s oldest song ended up in the safest of places, a museum in Copenhagen, and the haunting melody of Seikilos’s last goodbye is still being heard today.
See James 4:4
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Below is the Greek text, and a literal translation.
Ὅσον ζῇς φαίνου,
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ.
πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν,
τὸ τέλος ὁ xρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.
As long as you live, shine,
Grieve not at all.
Life is for a short time,
Time demands its toll.
Archive
Word Games
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Last. Safe. Write.
2 Escape. Life. Moment.
3 Her. Pedestal. Time.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Homophones Find in Think and Speak
In each group below, you will find words that sound the same, but differ in spelling and also in meaning. Compose your own sentences to bring out the differences between them.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
Verb and Noun Find in Think and Speak
Many words can serve as noun or verb depending on context: see if you can prove this with the examples below. Nouns go well with words such as the/a, or his/her; verbs go well after I/you/he etc..
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Lead. 2 Time. 3 Demand. 4 End. 5 Make. 6 War. 7 Escape. 8 Flower. 9 Name.
Variations: 1.if possible, use your noun in the plural, e.g. cat → cats. 2.use your verb in a past form, e.g. go → went. 3.use your noun in a sentence with one of these words: any, enough, fewer, less, no, some.
Add Vowels Find in Think and Speak
Make words by adding vowels to each group of consonants below. You may add as many vowels as you like before, between or after the consonants, but you may not add any consonants or change the order of those you have been given. See if you can beat our target of common words.
rnt (6+1)
orient. ornate. rant. rent. reunite. runt.
urinate.
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