I found this remarkable poem while researching for my own book, House of the Muses. It strikes me as possible that this is a love poem from one Megaklys mourning for his Brotachos. Whoever this Megaklys was, he was a poet--a dreamer full of gentle sentiments, fascination for handsome men and unusual notions for a man of his time-period. Read this beautiful, dreamy poem of longing, companionship and the wish to go back in time to seek what was lost and tell me if you don't think it fascinating. This poem is thought to have been written about the 4th Century BC.....

& Alexandra PAPADITSAS from The Miseries of Poetry: Traductions from the Greek, Skanky Possum, 2003

THE SEVEN MUSES OF THE BOAT-MAKING DISTRICT1

If I ever see a ghost, I hope it is Brotachos of Alkmena2 .
Because I wouldn't be afraid. I would look at him
Floating there in his lily-shaped bubble, and then I would
Fall asleep and pick up exactly where I'd stopped in
My dream, just as if I'd never left it.

If I ever go to the Cyclades, I hope it is
Samos, in the last century.
Because Ibykos3 lives there.
And I would track him down

To offer him a bottle of liqueur from the future,
So to drink with him and gaze at his incredibly strange face,
Which is remarkably like Brotachos'.
And I would look at this face
And think, all at once, about the whole
Constellation of Dioskouroi. 4

And if I ever go to heaven, I wish there to be more
Hummingbirds there than there are here.
And I hope there is a tiny golden kind.
Because when this kind beats its impossible wings so fast,

The sound of Brotachos' voice comes out, making every poet-angel
Want so much to be so good to every other one.
And if I could ever do something all over again in the City of Athens,
It would be to go to Brotachus' apartment in the
Boat-making District.

Because it is like a boat, and Korax and Markos5 and the one whose
Name on the list is number thirty are also there.
And we will read Poetry to the music of Demostratis, sure in the knowledge that
Storms and other dangerous weathers will not harm us.

Page 21

And if I should ever give someone flowers again,
I hope to give them to Brotachos of Alkmena.
Because once when I brought him flowers, he put them
In a vase in the middle of his seven bronze muses,
And he closed his eyes and bent towards them, as if in prayer,

For a long time, and I saw two tears fall into the flowers.
Therefore, if I ever give him flowers again,
I hope their Aroma to be like a drug, unbounded by time.
Because we will sit together on his goatskin-covered

Couch, and look at a long scroll of Antimenidas' etchings.
And Brotachos will move his hand over all the parallel worlds curled
Up in there, making me want to fall asleep, and pick up exactly
Where I'd stopped in my dream, just as if I'd never left it.

And because I hope that when I wake, my head will be on
His shoulder, and his sleeping head will be resting
Lightly upon mine. And the scroll will still be open. - Megaklys.

The provenance and dates of the author of this extraordinary poem are unknown, though the reference to Ibykos "in the last century" would date it ca. fourth century. Intact papyrus discovered in Alexandria in the Montazah Palace find of 1998. No other works by him are known to exist. 1. Of course, the classical number of Muses is nine. 2. Nothing is known of this figure Brotachos.
3. Great court poet of the tyrant Polykrates, from sixth/fifth century, BC. 4. The constellation of good fortune for sailors, suggesting that Megaklys may have been a fisherman or mariner of some kind. 5. Neither of these two figures is known, nor are Demostratis or Antimenidas.

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:kvVIYx3hVDEJ:www.cccp-online.org/2004/CCCP14-review.pdf+Antimenidas&hl=en