speeches of celebrated persons on different occasions, with such
titles as "what Philomela would say to Procne," "what Ulysses would
say when he landed in Ithaca"; inscriptions for houses, baths,
gardens, temples, pictures, statues, gems, clocks, cups: such are
among the contents, though not exhausting them.

(5) {Protreptika}, hortatory pieces; the "criticism of life" in the
direct sense.

(6) {Sumpotika kai Skoptika}, convivial and humorous epigrams.

(7) The {Mousa paidike Stratonos} already spoken of. Along with these,
as we have seen, there was in all probability an eighth section now
lost, containing epigrams on works of art.

Within each of these sections, the principle of arrangement, where it
exists at all, is very loose; and either the compilation was
carelessly made at first, or it has been considerably disordered in
transcription. Sometimes a number of epigrams by the same author
succeed one another, as though copied directly from a collection where
each author's work was placed separately; sometimes, on the other
hand, a number on the same subject by authors of different periods
come together.[5] Epigrams occasionally are put under wrong headings.
For example, a dedication by Leonidas of Alexandria is followed in the
/Dedicatoria/ by another epigram of his on Oedipus;[6] an imaginary
epitaph on Hesiod in the /Sepulcralia/ by one on the legendary contest
between Hesiod and Homer;[7] and the lovely fragment of pastoral on
Love keeping Thyrsis' sheep[8] comes oddly in among epitaphs. The
epideictic section contains a number of epigrams which would be more
properly placed in one or another of all the rest of the sections; and