Sculptor of Tyana
As you'll have heard, I'm no beginner.
I've handled a lot of stone in my time,
and in my own country, Tyana, I'm really quite famous.
Actually, a number of senators here
have also commissioned works of mine.
Let me show you
a few of them. Notice this Rhea:
reverential, all fortitude, most primitive.
Notice Pompey. And Marius here,
and Paulus Aemilius, and Scipio Africanus.
The likeness as close as I could make it.
And Patroklos (I still have to touch him up a bit).
Near those pieces of yellowish marble there
stands Kaisarion.
And for some time now I've been busy
working on a Poseidon. I'm studying
his horses in particular: how to shape them exactly.
They have to be made so light
that it's clear their bodies, their legs,
aren't touching the earth but galloping over water.
But here's my favourite work,
created with the most care and feeling.
This one -it was a hot summer day
and my mind rose to ideal things-
this one came to me in a vision, this young Hermes.
poem by Constantine P. Cavafy
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