Grammar and Medicine (Agathias)

A THRIVING doctor sent his son to school

To gain some knowledge, should he prove no fool;

But took him soon away with little warning,

On finding out the lesson he was learning—

How great Pelides’s wrath, in Homer’s rime,

Sent many souls to Hades ere their time.

“No need for this my boy should hither come;

That lesson he can better learn at home;

For I myself, now, I make bold to say,

Sent many souls to Hades ere their day,

Nor e’er found want of grammar stop my way.”