In this ingenious tomb entirely of syenite stone,
that so many violets, so many lilies cover,
the handsome Erion lies buried.
An Alexandrian boy, twenty-five years of age.
On his father's side, of an old stock of Macedonians;
of a line of magistrates on his mother's side.
He was a student of Aristocleitus in philosophy,
of Paros in rhetoric.
In Thebes he studied sacred letters.
He wrote a history of the province of Arsinoe.
That at least will remain.
But we have lost the most precious-his form,
that was an Apollonian vision.
Cavafy