dainty-ankled

Updated: May 8, 2025

For the mothers of lambs in the meadows might twice be shorn of their wool in the year, with her goodwill, the dainty-ankled Theugenis, so notable is she, and cares for all things that wise matrons love. Nay, not to houses slatternly or idle would I have given thee, distaff, seeing that thou art a countryman of mine.

of Phlossa near Smyrna Bion - Theocritus Bion and Moschus Rendered into English Prose

But there is safety in a spinning instrument, and all the compliments to the lady, "the dainty-ankled Theugenis," turn on her skill, and industry, and housewifery. So Louis XIV., no mean authority, called this piece of vers de societe "a model of honourable gallantry."

Andrew Lang - Letters on Literature