lionofchaeronea:

On a Bronze Statue of Alexander the Great

Anthologia Planudea 120, variously attributed to Asclepiades or Archelaus

Alexander’s daring, Alexander’s entire form –
These Lysippus has copied; what power’s in this bronze!
The metal man seems about to speak as he looks up to the sky:
“The earth I place beneath my feet; Zeus, you may keep Olympus.”

τόλμαν Ἀλεξάνδρου καὶ ὅλαν ἀπεμάξατο μορφὰν
Λύσιππος: τίν᾽ ὁδὶ χαλκὸς ἔχει δύναμιν;
αὐδασοῦντι δ᾽ ἔοικεν ὁ χάλκεος ἐς Δία λεύσσων:
‘γᾶν ὑπ᾽ ἐμοὶ τίθεμαι: Ζεῦ, σὺ δ᾽ Ὄλυμπον ἔχε.’

Alexander the Great. Marble copy by an unknown artist of the 3rd century BCE, after a lost bronze original by the sculptor Lysippus. From Alexandria, Egypt; now in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen. Photo credit: Carole Raddato.