James Romm Translates Classical Greek Poetry In the 5th century AD, a father in the Balkan city of Stobi was educating his son. Stobaeus (as we now call him, “the man from Stobi”) compiled quotes from Greek texts to use as a teaching tool, drawing especially on the plays of ancient Athens, many of which later became extinct. The passages he gathered, the last remains of the lost plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, remind us that our lives are beset by troubles, yet happiness remains within our grasp. The ethical wisdom of classical Greece is preserved for all time in these quotes, expressed in lines of elegant, metrical verse. * Our life is like wine: When there’s only a little left, it turns to vinegar. –Antiphanes Its name is “life” but really it’s toil and pain. –Euripides The finest thing is being just by nature; the best, living free from illness; the most pleasant, getting what one desires day by day. –­Sophocles, Creusa Living’s a fine thing, provided one learns how to do it.…