Yiannis Ritsos / Praxiteles | Omens / Segni, 1968

Praxiteles🎨 (Πραξιτέλης) of Athens (4th century BC) | Apollo Sauroktonos (detail)

The statues were quickly hidden by weeds. We didn’t know

whether the statues had shrunk or whether the grasses had grown. Only

a large copper hand remained visible, like a terrible benediction,

above the tangle of unsightly shapes. Woodcutters

passed by on the road below - they never turned their heads.

Women no longer slept with their men. We could hear the night

dropping its apples into the river - one by one. And later on

the stars quietly sawing through that raised copper hand.

Praxiteles (Πραξιτέλης) of Athens (4th century BC) | Apollo Sauroktonos (head)

Praxiteles (Πραξιτέλης) of Athens (4th century BC) | The Resting Satyr

Più tardi le statue furono completamente nascoste dalle erbacce.

Non sapevamo s’erano rimpicciolite le statue o cresciute le erbe.

Solo un grande braccio di bronzo si distingueva al di sopra dei rovi

in atteggiamento di sconveniente, spaventosa benedizione.

I taglialegna passavano nella strada di sotto - non si voltavano affatto.

Le donne non giacevano con i loro uomini.

Le notti sentivano le mele cadere a una a nel fiume;

e poi le stelle che segavano tranquille quella mano di bronzo sollevata.

Praxiteles (Πραξιτέλης) of Athens (4th century BC) | Aphrodite of Cnidus

Praxiteles (Πραξιτέλης) of Athens (4th century BC) | Apollo Sauroktonos

Praxiteles (Πραξιτέλης) of Athens (4th century BC) | Hermes bearing the infant Dionysus (detail)| Archaeological Museum of Olympia