萨福诗残篇 · 萨福 / 文脉

中文导读与文本说明

萨福没有一部像《伊利亚特》那样完整传下来的“诗集”。古代传说她的作品曾按九卷编排，但今天能读到的，主要是后世语法学家、修辞学家引用的短句，以及近现代从纸草、羊皮纸残片中辨认出的断行。所以这里的“全文”，准确说是：Wharton 1908 年公版底本所能汇集的萨福现存残篇全文。

这个底本有三点好处：第一，它已经进入公有领域；第二，它同时给出古希腊语文本和英文直译；第三，它保留了许多古典学注释，能看出每个残篇从哪里被引用出来。它的局限也很明显：编号沿用 19 世纪 Bergk 系统，和今天常用的 Lobel-Page / Voigt / Campbell 编号不完全一致；而 20—21 世纪新公布的纸草残篇，比如“提托诺斯诗”和“兄弟诗”，不在 Wharton 的主体残篇系统里。

阅读时不要把这些碎片当成“残缺版小诗集”。更合适的读法是：把它们看成从古代大海里打捞出来的亮片。有的几乎完整，如《阿佛洛狄忒颂》；有的只有一句，却足以改写爱情诗史。萨福真正惊人的地方，不在故事，而在她把身体反应、羞怯、嫉妒、祈求、失落写成第一人称诗歌事件。

说明：以下正文摘自 Wharton 1908 公版底本，从 “IN SAPPHIC METRE” 至 “THE FAYUM FRAGMENTS” 为止；未收入其后 Pope 翻译的 Ovid《萨福致法翁》，因为那是奥维德托名书信，不是萨福作品本身。

Fragments of Sappho — Greek text, literal translation, notes

IN SAPPHIC METRE

Ποικιλόθρον', ἀθάνατ' Ἀφρόδιτα,
παῖ Δίος, δολόπλοκε, λίσσομαί σε
μή μ' ἄσαισι μήτ' ὀνίαισι δάμνα,
πότνια, θῦμον·
ἀλλὰ τυῖδ' ἔλθ', αἴποτα κἀτέρωτα
τᾶς ἔμας αὔδως ἀΐοισα πήλυι
ἒκλυες, πάτρος δὲ δόμον λίποισα
χρύσιον ἦλθες
ἄρμ' ὐποζεύξαισα· κάλοι δέ σ' ἆγον
ὤκεες στροῦθοι περὶ γᾶς μελαίνας
πύκνα δινεῦντες πτέρ' ἀπ' ὠράνω αἴθε-
ρας διὰ μέσσω.
αἶψα δ' ἐξίκοντο· τὺ δ', ὦ μάκαιρα,
μειδιάσαισ' ἀθανάτῳ προσώπῳ,
ἤρε', ὄττι δηὖτε πέπονθα κὤττι
δηὖτε κάλημι,
κὤττι μοι μάλιστα θέλω γένεσθαι
μαινόλᾳ θύμῳ· τίνα δηὖτε Πείθω
μαῖς ἄγην ἐς σὰν φιλότατα, τίς σ', ὦ
Ψάπφ', ἀδικήει;
καὶ γὰρ αἰ φεύγει, ταχέως διώξει,
αἰ δὲ δῶρα μὴ δέκετ' ἀλλὰ δώσει,
αἰ δὲ μὴ φίλει, ταχέως φιλήσει
κωὐκ ἐθέλοισα.
ἔλθε μοι καὶ νῦν, χαλεπᾶν δὲ λῦσον
ἐκ μεριμνᾶν, ὄσσα δὲ μοι τελέσσαι
θῦμος ἰμέρρει, τέλεσον· σὺ δ' αὔτα
σύμμαχος ἔσσο.

Immortal Aphrodite of the broidered throne, daughter of Zeus, weaver of
wiles, I pray thee break not my spirit with anguish and distress, O Queen.
But come hither, if ever before thou didst hear my voice afar, and listen,
and leaving thy father's golden house camest with chariot yoked, and fair
fleet sparrows drew thee, flapping fast their wings around the dark earth,
from heaven through mid sky. Quickly arrived they; and thou, blessed one,
smiling with immortal countenance, didst ask What now is befallen me, and
Why now I call, and What I in my mad heart most desire to see. 'What Beauty
now wouldst thou draw to love thee? Who wrongs thee, Sappho? For even if
she flies she shall soon follow, and if she rejects gifts shall yet give,
and if she loves not shall soon love, however loth.' Come, I pray thee, now
too, and release me from cruel cares; and all that my heart desires to
accomplish, accomplish thou, and be thyself my ally.

A HYMN TO VENUS.

O Venus, beauty of the skies,
To whom a thousand temples rise,
Gaily false in gentle smiles,
Full of love-perplexing wiles;
O goddess, from my heart remove
The wasting cares and pains of love.

If ever thou hast kindly heard
A song in soft distress preferred,
Propitious to my tuneful vow,
O gentle goddess, hear me now.
Descend, thou bright immortal guest,
In all thy radiant charms confessed.

Thou once didst leave almighty Jove
And all the golden roofs above;
The car thy wanton sparrows drew,
Hovering in air they lightly flew;
As to my bower they winged their way
I saw their quivering pinions play.

The birds dismissed (while you remain)
Bore back their empty car again:
Then you, with looks divinely mild,
In every heavenly feature smiled,
And asked what new complaints I made,
And why I called you to my aid?

What frenzy in my bosom raged,
And by what cure to be assuaged?
What gentle youth I would allure,
Whom in my artful toils secure?
Who does thy tender heart subdue,
Tell me, my Sappho, tell me who?

Though now he shuns thy longing arms,
He soon shall court thy slighted charms;
Though now thy offerings he despise,
He soon to thee shall sacrifice;
Though now he freeze, he soon shall burn,
And be thy victim in his turn.

Celestial visitant, once more
Thy needful presence I implore.
In pity come, and ease my grief,
Bring my distempered soul relief,
Favour thy suppliant's hidden fires,
And give me all my heart desires.
AMBROSE PHILIPS, 1711.

TO THE GODDESS OF LOVE.

O Venus, daughter of the mighty Jove,
Most knowing in the mystery of love,
Help me, oh help me, quickly send relief,
And suffer not my heart to break with grief.

If ever thou didst hear me when I prayed,
Come now, my goddess, to thy Sappho's aid.
Orisons used, such favour hast thou shewn,
From heaven's golden mansions called thee down.

See, see, she comes in her cerulean car,
Passing the middle regions of the air.
Mark how her nimble sparrows stretch the wing,
And with uncommon speed their Mistress bring.

Arrived, and sparrows loosed, hastens to me;
Then smiling asks, What is it troubles thee?
Why am I called? Tell me what Sappho wants.
Oh, know you not the cause of all my plaints?

I love, I burn, and only love require;
And nothing less can quench the raging fire.
What youth, what raving lover shall I gain?
Where is the captive that should wear my chain?

Alas, poor Sappho, who is this ingrate
Provokes thee so, for love returning hate?
Does he now fly thee? He shall soon return;
Pursue thee, and with equal ardour burn.

Would he no presents at thy hands receive?
He will repent it, and more largely give.
The force of love no longer can withstand;
He must be fond, wholly at thy command.

When wilt thou work this change? Now, Venus free,
Now ease my mind of so much misery;
In this amour my powerful aider be;
Make Phaon love, but let him love like me.
HERBERT, 1713.

HYMN TO VENUS.

Immortal Venus, throned above
In radiant beauty, child of Jove,
O skilled in every art of love
And artful snare;
Dread power, to whom I bend the knee,
Release my soul and set it free
From bonds of piercing agony
And gloomy care.
Yet come thyself, if e'er, benign,
Thy listening ears thou didst incline
To my rude lay, the starry shine
Of Jove's court leaving,
In chariot yoked with coursers fair,
Thine own immortal birds that bear
Thee swift to earth, the middle air
With bright wings cleaving.
Soon they were sped—and thou, most blest,
In thine own smiles ambrosial dressed,
Didst ask what griefs my mind oppressed—
What meant my song—
What end my frenzied thoughts pursue—
For what loved youth I spread anew
My amorous nets—'Who, Sappho, who
'Hath done thee wrong?
'What though he fly, he'll soon return—
'Still press thy gifts, though now he spurn;
'Heed not his coldness—soon he'll burn,
'E'en though thou chide.'
—And saidst thou thus, dread goddess? Oh,
Come then once more to ease my woe:
Grant all, and thy great self bestow,
My shield and guide!
JOHN HERMAN MERIVALE, 1833.

HYMN TO APHRODITE.

Golden-throned beyond the sky,
Jove-born immortality:
Hear and heal a suppliant's pain:
Let not love be love in vain!

Come, as once to Love's imploring
Accents of a maid's adoring,
Wafted 'neath the golden dome
Bore thee from thy father's home;

When far off thy coming glowed,
Whirling down th' aethereal road,
On thy dove-drawn progress glancing,
'Mid the light of wings advancing;

And at once the radiant hue
Of immortal smiles I knew;
Heard the voice of reassurance
Ask the tale of love's endurance:—

'Why such prayer? And who for thee,
Sappho, should be touch'd by me;
Passion-charmed in frenzy strong—
Who hath wrought my Sappho wrong?

'—Soon for flight pursuit wilt find,
Proffer'd gifts for gifts declined;
Soon, thro' long reluctance earn'd,
Love refused be Love return'd.'

—To thy suppliant so returning,
Consummate a maiden's yearning:
Love, from deep despair set free,
Championing to victory!
F. T. PALGRAVE, 1854.

Splendour-throned Queen, immortal Aphrodite,
Daughter of Jove, Enchantress, I implore thee
Vex not my soul with agonies and anguish;
Slay me not, Goddess!
Come in thy pity—come, if I have prayed thee;
Come at the cry of my sorrow; in the old times
Oft thou hast heard, and left thy father's heaven,
Left the gold houses,
Yoking thy chariot. Swiftly did the doves fly,
Swiftly they brought thee, waving plumes of wonder—
Waving their dark plumes all across the aether,
All down the azure.
Very soon they lighted. Then didst thou, Divine one,
Laugh a bright laugh from lips and eyes immortal,
Ask me, 'What ailed me—wherefore out of heaven
'Thus I had called thee?
'What it was made me madden in my heart so?'
Question me, smiling—say to me, 'My Sappho,
'Who is it wrongs thee? Tell me who refuses
'Thee, vainly sighing.'
'Be it who it may be, he that flies shall follow;
'He that rejects gifts, he shall bring thee many;
'He that hates now shall love thee dearly, madly—
'Aye, though thou wouldst not.'
So once again come, Mistress; and, releasing
Me from my sadness, give me what I sue for,
Grant me my prayer, and be as heretofore now
Friend and protectress.
EDWIN ARNOLD, 1869.

Beautiful-throned, immortal Aphrodite,
Daughter of Zeus, beguiler, I implore thee,
Weigh me not down with weariness and anguish
O thou most holy!

Come to me now, if ever thou in kindness
Hearkenedst my words,—and often hast thou hearkened—
Heeding, and coming from the mansions golden
Of thy great Father,

Yoking thy chariot, borne by the most lovely
Consecrated birds, with dusky-tinted pinions,
Waving swift wings from utmost heights of heaven
Through the mid-ether;

Swiftly they vanished, leaving thee, O goddess,
Smiling, with face immortal in its beauty,
Asking why I grieved, and why in utter longing
I had dared call thee;

Asking what I sought, thus hopeless in desiring,
Wildered in brain, and spreading nets of passion—
Alas, for whom? and saidst thou, 'Who has harmed thee?
'O my poor Sappho!

'Though now he flies, ere long he shall pursue thee;
'Fearing thy gifts, he too in turn shall bring them;
'Loveless to-day, to-morrow he shall woo thee,
'Though thou shouldst spurn him.'

Thus seek me now, O holy Aphrodite!
Save me from anguish; give me all I ask for,
Gifts at thy hand; and thine shall be the glory,
Sacred protector!
T. W. HIGGINSON, 1871.

O fickle-souled, deathless one, Aphrodite,
Daughter of Zeus, weaver of wiles, I pray thee,
Lady august, never with pangs and bitter
Anguish affray me!

But hither come often, as erst with favour
My invocations pitifully heeding,
Leaving thy sire's golden abode, thou camest
Down to me speeding.

Yoked to thy car, delicate sparrows drew thee
Fleetly to earth, fluttering fast their pinions,
From heaven's height through middle ether's liquid
Sunny dominions.

Soon they arrived; thou, O divine one, smiling
Sweetly from that countenance all immortal,
Askedst my grief, wherefore I so had called thee
From the bright portal?

What my wild soul languished for, frenzy-stricken?
'Who thy love now is it that ill requiteth,
Sappho? and who thee and thy tender yearning
Wrongfully slighteth?

Though he now fly, quickly he shall pursue thee—
Scorns he thy gifts? Soon he shall freely offer—
Loves he not? Soon, even wert thou unwilling,
Love shall he proffer.'

Come to me then, loosen me from my torment,
All my heart's wish unto fulfilment guide thou,
Grant and fulfil! And an ally most trusty
Ever abide thou.
MORETON JOHN WALHOUSE, in The
Gentleman's Magazine, 1877.

Glittering-throned, undying Aphrodite,
Wile-weaving daughter of high Zeus, I pray thee,
Tame not my soul with heavy woe, dread mistress,
Nay, nor with anguish!

But hither come, if ever erst of old time
Thou didst incline, and listenedst to my crying,
And from thy father's palace down descending,
Camest with golden

Chariot yoked: thee fair swift-flying sparrows
Over dark earth with multitudinous fluttering,
Pinion on pinion, thorough middle ether
Down from heaven hurried.

Quickly they came like light, and thou, blest lady,
Smiling with clear undying eyes didst ask me
What was the woe that troubled me, and wherefore
I had cried to thee:

What thing I longed for to appease my frantic
Soul: and Whom now must I persuade, thou askedst,
Whom must entangle to thy love, and who now,
Sappho, hath wronged thee?

Yea, for if now he shun, he soon shall chase thee;
Yea, if he take not gifts, he soon shall give them;
Yea, if he love not, soon shall he begin to
Love thee, unwilling.

Come to me now too, and from tyrannous sorrow
Free me, and all things that my soul desires to
Have done, do for me, queen, and let thyself too
Be my great ally!
J. ADDINGTON SYMONDS, 1893.

Besides these complete versions—many others there are, but these are by far
the best—compare the following stanza out of Akenside's Ode on Lyric
Poetry (about 1745):—

But lo, to Sappho's melting airs
Descends the radiant queen of Love:
She smiles, and asks what fonder cares
Her suppliant's plaintive measures move:
Why is my faithful maid distressed?
Who, Sappho, wounds thy tender breast?
Say, flies he?—Soon he shall pursue.
Shuns he thy gifts?—He soon shall give.
Slights he thy sorrows?—He shall grieve,
And soon to all thy wishes bow.

And Swinburne's paraphrase—

For I beheld in sleep the light that is
In her high place in Paphos, heard the kiss
Of body and soul that mix with eager tears
And laughter stinging through the eyes and ears:
Saw Love, as burning flame from crown to feet,
Imperishable, upon her storied seat;
Clear eyelids lifted toward the north and south,
A mind of many colours, and a mouth
Of many tunes and kisses; and she bowed,
With all her subtle face laughing aloud,
Bowed down upon me, saying, 'Who doth thee wrong,
Sappho?' but thou—thy body is the song,
Thy mouth the music; thou art more than I,
Though my voice die not till the whole world die;
Though men that hear it madden; though love weep,
Though nature change, though shame be charmed to sleep.
Ay, wilt thou slay me lest I kiss thee dead?
Yet the queen laughed from her sweet heart and said:
'Even she that flies shall follow for thy sake,
And she shall give thee gifts that would not take,
Shall kiss that would not kiss thee' (yea, kiss me)
'When thou wouldst not'—when I would not kiss thee!
Anactoria, p. 67 f.

And his—

O thou of divers-coloured mind,[7] O thou
Deathless, God's daughter subtle-souled—lo now,
Now to the song above all songs, in flight
Higher than the day-star's height,
And sweet as sound the moving wings of night!
Thou of the divers-coloured seat—behold
Her very song of old!—
O deathless, O Gods daughter subtle-souled!
* * * * *
Child of God, close craftswoman, I beseech thee;
Bid not ache nor agony break nor master,
Lady, my spirit.
Songs of the Spring-tides: On the Cliffs.

As well as Frederick Tennyson's—

Come to me; what I seek in vain
Bring thou; into my spirit send
Peace after care, balm after pain;
And be my friend.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, writing at Rome about 25 B.C., quotes this,
commonly called The Ode to Aphrodite, as a perfect illustration of the
elaborately finished style of poetry, showing in detail how its grace and
beauty lie in the subtle harmony between the words and the ideas. Certain
lines of it, though nowhere else the whole, are preserved by Hephaestion
and other authors.

Φαίνεταί μοι κήνος ἴσος θέοισιν
ἔμμεν ὤνηρ, ὄστις ἐναντίος τοι
ἰζάνει, καὶ πλασίον ἆδυ φωνεύ-
σας ὑπακούει
καὶ γελαίσας ἰμερόεν, τό μοι μάν
καρδίαν ἐν στήθεσιν ἐπτόασεν·
ὡς γὰρ εὔιδον βροχέως σε, φώνας
οὐδὲν ἔτ' εἴκει·
ἀλλὰ κὰμ μὲν γλῶσσα ἔαγε, λέπτον δ'
αὔτικα χρῷ πῦρ ὐπαδεδρόμακεν,
ὀππάτεσσι δ' οὐδὲν ὄρημ', ἐπιρρόμ-
βεισι δ' ἄκουαι.
ἀ δέ μίδρως κακχέεται, τρόμος δέ
παῖσαν ἄγρει, χλωροτέρα δὲ ποίας
ἔμμι, τεθνάκην δ' ὀλίγω 'πιδεύης
φαίνομαι [ἄλλα].
ἀλλὰ πᾶν τόλματον, [ἐπεὶ καὶ πένητα].

That man seems to me peer of gods, who sits in thy presence, and hears
close to him thy sweet speech and lovely laughter; that indeed makes my
heart flutter in my bosom. For when I see thee but a little, I have no
utterance left, my tongue is broken down, and straightway a subtle fire has
run under my skin, with my eyes I have no sight, my ears ring, sweat pours
down, and a trembling seizes all my body; I am paler than grass, and seem
in my madness little better than one dead. But I must dare all, since one
so poor ...

The famous imitation of this ode by Catullus, li., Ad Lesbiam—

Ille mi par esse deo videtur,
Ille, si fas est, superare divos,
Qui sedens adversus identidem te
Spectat et audit
Dulce ridentem, misero quod omnis
Eripit sensus mihi: nam simul te,
Lesbia, aspexi, nihil est super mi
* * * * *
Lingua sed torpet, tenuis sub artus
Flamma demanat, sonitu suopte
Tintinant aures, gemina teguntur
Lumina nocte—

is thus translated by Mr. W. E. Gladstone:—

Him rival to the gods I place,
Him loftier yet, if loftier be,
Who, Lesbia, sits before thy face,
Who listens and who looks on thee;

Thee smiling soft. Yet this delight
Doth all my sense consign to death;
For when thou dawnest on my sight,
Ah, wretched! flits my labouring breath.

My tongue is palsied. Subtly hid
Fire creeps me through from limb to limb:
My loud ears tingle all unbid:
Twin clouds of night mine eyes bedim.

and recently by the late Sir R. F. Burton:—

Peer of a god meseemeth he,
Nay, passing gods (an that can be!),
Who all the while sits facing thee,
Sees thee and hears
Thy low sweet laughs which (ah me!) daze
Mine every sense, and as I gaze
Upon thee, Lesbia, o'er me strays
. . . . . .
My tongue is dulled, my limbs adown
Flows subtle flame; with sound its own
Rings either ear, and o'er are strown
Mine eyes with night.

Blest as the immortal gods is he,
The youth who fondly sits by thee,
And hears and sees thee all the while
Softly speak and sweetly smile.

'Twas this deprived my soul of rest,
And raised such tumults in my breast;
For while I gazed, in transport tost,
My breath was gone, my voice was lost:

My bosom glowed; the subtle flame
Ran quick through all my vital frame;
O'er my dim eyes a darkness hung;
My ears with hollow murmurs rung.

In dewy damps my limbs were chilled;
My blood with gentle horror thrilled;
My feeble pulse forgot to play;
I fainted, sank, and died away.
AMBROSE PHILIPS, 1711.

Thy fatal shafts unerring move,
I bow before thine altar, Love
I feel thy soft resistless flame
Glide swift through all my vital frame.

For while I gaze my bosom glows,
My blood in tides impetuous flows;
Hope, fear, and joy alternate roll,
And floods of transports whelm my soul.

My faltering tongue attempts in vain
In soothing murmurs to complain;
My tongue some secret magic ties,
My murmurs sink in broken sighs.

Condemned to nurse eternal care,
And ever drop the silent tear,
Unheard I mourn, unknown I sigh,
Unfriended live, unpitied die.
SMOLLETT, in Roderick Random, 1748.

Blest as the immortal gods is he,
The youth whose eyes may look on thee,
Whose ears thy tongue's sweet melody
May still devour.
Thou smilest too?—sweet smile, whose charm
Has struck my soul with wild alarm,
And, when I see thee, bids disarm
Each vital power.
Speechless I gaze: the flame within
Runs swift o'er all my quivering skin;
My eyeballs swim; with dizzy din
My brain reels round;
And cold drops fall; and tremblings frail
Seize every limb; and grassy pale
I grow; and then—together fail
Both sight and sound.
JOHN HERMAN MERIVALE, 1833.

Peer of gods he seemeth to me, the blissful
Man who sits and gazes at thee before him,
Close beside thee sits, and in silence hears thee
Silverly speaking,
Laughing love's low laughter. Oh this, this only
Stirs the troubled heart in my breast to tremble!
For should I but see thee a little moment,
Straight is my voice hushed;
Yea, my tongue is broken, and through and through me
'Neath the flesh impalpable fire runs tingling;
Nothing see mine eyes, and a noise of roaring
Waves in my ear sounds;
Sweat runs down in rivers, a tremor seizes
All my limbs, and paler than grass in autumn,
Caught by pains of menacing death, I falter,
Lost in the love-trance.
J. ADDINGTON SYMONDS, 1883.

Compare Lord Tennyson:—

  I watch thy grace; and in its place
My heart a charmed slumber keeps,
  While I muse upon thy face;
And a languid fire creeps
  Through my veins to all my frame,

Dissolvingly and slowly: soon
From thy rose-red lips my name
Floweth; and then, as in a swoon,
With dinning sound my ears are rife,
My tremulous tongue faltereth,
I lose my colour, I lose my breath,
I drink the cup of a costly death
Brimmed with delicious draughts of warmest life.
I die with my delight, before
I hear what I would hear from thee.
Eleänore, 1832.

And—

Last night, when some one spoke his name,
From my swift blood that went and came
A thousand little shafts of flame
Were shiver'd in my narrow frame.—Fatima.[8]

And with line 14, Swinburne's—

Paler than grass in summer.—Sapphics.

and—

Made like white summer-coloured grass.
Aholibah.

Longinus, about 250 A.D., uses this, The Ode to Anactoria, or To a
beloved Woman, or To a Maiden, as tradition variously names it, to
illustrate the perfection of the Sublime in poetry, calling it 'not one
passion, but a congress of passions,' and showing how Sappho had here
seized upon the signs of love-frenzy and harmonised them into faultless
phrase. Plutarch had, about 60 A.D., spoken of this ode as 'mixed with
fire,' and quoted Philoxenus as referring to Sappho's 'sweet-voiced songs
healing love.'

Ἄστερες μὲν ἀμφὶ κάλαν σελάνναν
αἶψ ἀπυκρύπτοισι φάεννον εἶδος,
ὄπποτα πλήθοισα μάλιστα λάμπῃ
γᾶν [ἐπὶ πᾶσαν]
ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ἀργυρία ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ·

The stars about the fair moon in their turn hide their bright face when
she at about her full lights up all earth with silver.

Planets, that around the beauteous moon
Attendant wait, cast into shade
Their ineffectual lustre, soon
As she, in full-orbed majesty arrayed,
Her silver radiance pours
Upon this world of ours.
J. H. MERIVALE.

The stars around the lovely moon
Their radiant visage hide as soon
As she, full-orbed, appears to sight,

Flooding the earth with her silvery light.
? FELTON.

The stars about the lovely moon
Fade back and vanish very soon,
When, round and full, her silver face
Swims into sight, and lights all space.
EDWIN ARNOLD, 1869.

Stars that shine around the refulgent full moon
Pale, and hide their glory of lesser lustre
When she pours her silvery plenilunar
Light on the orbed earth.
J. A. SYMONDS, 1883.

'As the stars draw back their shining faces when they surround the fair
moon in her silver fulness.' F. T. PALGRAVE.

Quoted by Eustathius of Thessalonica, late in the twelfth century, to
illustrate the simile in the Iliad, viii. 551:—

As when in heaven the stars about the moon
Look beautiful.
TENNYSON.

Julian, about 350 A.D., says Sappho applied the epithet silver to the
moon; wherefore Blomfield suggested its position here.

Ἀμφὶ δὲ ψῦχρον κελάδει δι' ὔσδων
μαλίνων, αἰθυσσομένων δὲ φύλλων
κῶμα καταρρεῖ

And round about the [breeze] murmurs cool through apple-boughs, and
slumber streams from quivering leaves.

Through orchard-plots with fragrance crowned
The clear cold fountain murmuring flows;
And forest leaves with rustling sound
Invite to soft repose.
J. H. MERIVALE.

All around through branches of apple-orchards
Cool streams call, while down from the leaves a-tremble
Slumber distilleth.
J. A. SYMONDS, 1883.

Professor F. T. Palgrave says:—

'We have three lines on a garden scene full of the heat and sleep of the
fortunate South:—

'"Round about the cool water thrills through the apple-branches, and sleep
flows down upon us in the rustling leaves."

'If there were any authority,' he adds in a note, 'I should like to
translate "through the troughs of apple-wood." That Eastern mode of
garden irrigation gives a much more defined, and hence a more Sappho-like,
image than "through the boughs."'

From the sound of cool waters heard through the green boughs
Of the fruit-bearing trees,
And the rustling breeze,
Deep sleep, as a trance, down over me flows.
FREDERICK TENNYSON, 1890.

Cited by Hermogenes, about 170 A.D., as an example of simple style, and to
show the pleasure given by description. The fragment describes the gardens
of the nymphs, which Demetrius, about 150 A.D., says were sung by Sappho.
Cf. Theocritus, Idyl vii. 135: 'High above our heads waved many a poplar,
many an elm-tree, while close at hand the sacred water from the Nymph's own
cave welled forth with murmurs musical' (A. Lang). And Ovid, Heroïd., xv.
157—

A spring there is whose silver waters show, etc.—

(cf. Pope's translation, infra, p. 194) probably refers to it.

ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˘ Ἔλθε Κύπρι
χρυσίαισιν ἐν κυλίκεσσιν ἄβρως
συμμεμιγμένον θαλίαισι νέκταρ
οἰνοχοεῦσα.

Come, goddess of Cyprus, and in golden cups serve nectar delicately mixed
with delights.

  Come, Venus, come

Hither with thy golden cup,
Where nectar-floated flowerets swim.
Fill, fill the goblet up;
These laughing lips shall kiss the brim,—
Come, Venus, come!
ANON. (Edin. Rev., 1832).

            Kupris, hither

Come, and pour from goblets of gold the nectar
Mixed for love's and pleasure's delight with dainty
Joys of the banquet.
J. A. SYMONDS, 1883.

Athenaeus, a native of Naucratis, who flourished about 230 A.D., quotes
these verses as an example of the poets' custom of invoking Aphrodite in
their pledges. Applying them to himself and his fellow-guests, he adds the
words τούτοισι τοῖς ἑταίροις ἐμοῖς γε καὶ σοῖς. Some scholars believe that
Sappho actually wrote—

ταῖσδε ταῖς ἔμαις ἐτάραισι καὶ σαῖς,

For these my companions and thine.

Aphrodite was called Cypris, 'the Cyprian,' because it was mythologically
believed that when she rose from the sea she was first received as a
goddess on the shore of Cyprus (Homeric Hymns, vi.). Sappho seems to be
here figuratively referring to the nectar of love.

Ἤ σε Κύπρος καὶ Πάφος ἤ Πάνορμος.

Or Cyprus and Paphos, or Panormus [holds] thee.

If thee Cyprus, or Paphos, or Panormos.
J. A. SYMONDS, 1883.

From Strabo, about 19 A.D. Panormus (Palermo) in Sicily was not founded
till after Sappho's time, but it was a common name, and all seaports were
under the special protection of Aphrodite.

7, 8

Σοὶ δ' ἔγω λεύκας ἐπὶ βῶμον αἶγος
ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘
κἀπιλείψω τοι ˘ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ·

But for thee will I [lead] to the altar [the offspring] of a white
goat ... and add a libation for thee.

Adduced by Apollonius of Alexandria, about 140 A.D., to illustrate
similarities in dialects. The fragment is probably part of an ode
describing a sacrifice offered to Aphrodite.

Αἴθ' ἔγω, χρυσοστέφαν' Ἀφρόδιτα,
τόνδε τὸν πάλον λαχόην.

This lot may I win, golden-crowned Aphrodite.

From Apollonius, to show how adverbs give an idea of prayer.

Αἴ με τιμίαν ἐπόησαν ἔργα
τὰ σφὰ δοῖσαι.

Who gave me their gifts and made me honoured.

From Apollonius, to illustrate the Aeolic dialect. Bergk thinks this
fragment had some connection with fr. 68, and perhaps with fr. 32. It seems
to refer to the Muses.

ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ Τάδε νῦν ἐταίραις
ταῖς ἔμαισι τέρπνα κάλως ἀείσω.

This will I now sing deftly to please my girl-friends.

Quoted by Athenaeus to prove that freeborn women and maidens often called
their girl associates and friends ἐταῖραι (Hetaerae), without any idea of
reproach.

ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˘ Ὄττινας γὰρ
εὖ θέω, κῆνοί με μάλιστα σίννον-
ται. ˘ ˘ ˉ ˘ ·

For they whom I benefit injure me most.

From the Etymologicum Magnum, a dictionary which was compiled about the
tenth century A.D.

ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ Ἔγω δὲ κήν' ὄτ-
τω τις ἔραται.

But that which one desires I ...

From Apollonius, to illustrate the use of the verb ἐράω. Bergk now reads
ἔραται instead of ἐρᾶται as formerly, on the analogy of διάκηται and
δύνᾶμαι in the Fayum fragments.

Ταῖς κάλαις υμμιν [τὸ] νόημα τῶμον
οἰ διάμειπτον.

To you, fair maids, my mind changes not.

From Apollonius, to show the Aeolic use of ὔμμιν for ὑμῖν, 'to you.'

ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ Ἔγων δ' ἰμαύτᾳ
τοῦτο σύνοιδα.

And this I feel in myself.

From Apollonius, to show Aeolic accentuation.

Ταῖσι [δὲ] ψῦχρος μὲν ἔγεντο θῦμος,
παρ δ' ἴεισι τὰ πτέρα. ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘

But their heart turned cold and they dropt their wings.

In Pindar, Pyth. i. 10, the eagle of Zeus, delighted by music, drops his
wings, and the Scholiast quotes this fragment to show that Sappho says the
same of doves.

ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ κατ' ἔμον στάλαγμον·
Τον δ' ἐπιπλάζοντες ἄμοι φέροιεν
καὶ μελεδώναις.

According to my weeping: it and all care let buffeting winds bear away.

Him the wanderer o'er the world
Far away the winds will bear,
And restless care.
FREDERICK TENNYSON.

From the Etymologicum Magnum, to show that the Aeolians used ζ in the
place of σσ. Ἄμοι is a guess of Bergk's for ἄνεμοι, 'winds.'

Ἀρτίως μ' ἀ χρυσοπέδιλλος Αὔως.

Me just now the golden-sandalled Dawn ...

Me but now Aurora the golden-sandalled.
J. A. SYMONDS, 1883.

Quoted by Ammonius of Alexandria, at the close of the fourth century A.D.,
to show Sappho's use of ἀρτίως.

ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˘ Πόδας δέ
ποίκιλος μάσλης ἐκάλυπτε, Λύδι-
ον κάλον ἔργον.

A broidered strap of fair Lydian work covered her feet.

Quoted by the Scholiast on Aristophanes' Peace, 1174; and also by Pollux,
about 180 A.D. Blass thinks the lines may have referred to an apparition of
Aphrodite.

ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ Παντοδάπαις μεμιγμέ-
να χροΐαισιν.

Shot with a thousand hues.

Quoted by the Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes, i. 727, in speaking of
Jason's double-folded mantle having been reddish instead of flame-coloured.
Some think, however, that Sappho here refers to Iris, i.e. the rainbow.

... Ἔμεθεν δ' ἔχεισθα λάθαν

Me thou forgettest.

From Apollonius, as is also the following, to show the Aeolic use of ἔμεθεν
for ἐμοῦ, 'of me.'

ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˘ Ἤ τιν' ἄλλον
[μᾶλλον] ἀνθρώπων ἔμεθεν φίλησθα.

Or lovest another more than me.

Ου τι μοι υμμες.

Ye are nought to me.

Quoted by Apollonius, as is also the following fragment, to show that ὑμεῖς
was in Aeolic ὔμμες 'you.'

Ας θέλετ' ὔμμες.

While ye will.

Καὶ ποθήω καὶ μαόμαι ˘ ˉ ˘

I yearn and seek ...

From the Etymologicum Magnum, to show that the Aeolians used ποθήω for
ποθέω, 'I yearn.'

Κεῖνον, ὦ χρυσόθρονε Μοῦσ', ἔνισπες
ὕμνον, ἐκ τᾶς καλλιγύναικος ἐσθλᾶς
Τήιος χώρας ὃν ἄειδε τερπνῶς
πρέσβυς ἀγαυός.

O Muse of the golden throne, raise that strain which the reverend elder of
Teos, from the goodly land of fair women, used to sing so sweetly.

O Muse, who sitt'st on golden throne,
Full many a hymn of dulcet tone
The Teian sage is taught by thee;
But, goddess, from thy throne of gold,
The sweetest hymn thou'st ever told
He lately learned and sang for me.
T. MOORE.

Athenaeus says 'Hermesianax was mistaken when he represented Sappho and
Anacreon as contemporaries, for Anacreon lived in the time of Cyrus and
Polycrates [probably 563-478 B.C.], but Sappho lived in the reign of
Alyattes the father of Croesus. But Chamaeleon, in his treatise on Sappho,
asserts that according to some these verses were made upon her by
Anacreon:—

"Spirit of Love, whose tresses shine
Along the breeze in golden twine,
Come, within a fragrant cloud
Blushing with light, thy votary shroud,
And on those wings that sparkling play
Waft, oh waft me hence away!
Love, my soul is full of thee,
Alive to all thy luxury.
But she, the nymph for whom I glow,
The pretty Lesbian, mocks my woe,
Smiles at the hoar and silvery hues
Which Time upon my forehead strews.
Alas, I fear she keeps her charms
In store for younger, happier arms."'
T. MOORE.

Then follows Sappho's reply, the present fragment. 'I myself think,'
Athenaeus goes on to say, 'that Hermesianax is joking concerning the love
of Anacreon and Sappho, for Diphilus the comic poet, in his play called
Sappho, has represented Archilochus and Hipponax as the lovers of
Sappho.'

Probably the whole is spurious, for certainly Sappho never saw Anacreon:
she must have died before he was born. Even Athenaeus says that it is clear
to every one that the verses are not Sappho's.

IN DACTYLIC METRE

Σκιδναμένας ἐν στήθεσιν ὄργας
μαψυλάκαν γλῶσσαν πεφύλαχθαι.

When anger spreads through the breast, guard thy tongue from barking
idly.

When through thy breast wild wrath doth spread
And work thy inmost being harm,
Leave thou the fiery word unsaid,
Guard thee; be calm.
MICHAEL FIELD, 1889.

Quoted by Plutarch, in his treatise On restraining anger, to show that in
wrath nothing is more noble than quietness. Blass thinks that Bergk is
wrong in his restoration of the verses; he considers their metre choriambic
(like fr. 64, ff.), and reads them thus:

≈ ≈ σκιδναμένας στήθεσιν ὄργας πεφυλαγμένα (?)
γλῶσσαν μαψυλάκαν ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ

He compares fr. 72 with them.

III

IN ALCAIC METRE

Αἰ δ' ἦχες ἔσλων ἴμερον η κάλων,
καὶ μή τι ϝείπην γλῶσσ' ἐκύκα κάκον,
αἴδως κέ σ' οὐ κίχανεν ὄππατ',
ἀλλ' ἔλεγες περὶ τῶ δικαίως.

Hadst thou felt desire for things good or noble, and had not thy tongue
framed some evil speech, shame had not filled thine eyes, but thou hadst
spoken honestly about it.

THE LOVES OF SAPPHO AND ALCAEUS.

Alcaeus.—I fain would speak, I fain would tell,
But shame and fear my utterance quell.

Sappho.—If aught of good, if aught of fair
Thy tongue were labouring to declare,
Nor shame should dash thy glance, nor fear
Forbid thy suit to reach my ear.
ANON. (Edin. Rev., 1832, p. 190).

Aristotle, in his Rhetoric, i. 9, about 330 B.C., says 'base things
dishonour those who do or wish them, as Sappho showed when Alcaeus said—

ἰόπλοκ' ἄγνα μελλιχόμειδε Σάπφοι,
θέλω τι ϝείπην, ἀλλά με κωλύει αἴδως.

"Violet-weaving, pure, softly-smiling Sappho, I would say something, but
shame restrains me"' (cf. supra, p. 8), and she answered him in the
words of the present fragment.

Blass (Rhein. Mus. 1879, xxix. p. 150) believes that these verses also
are Sappho's, not Alcaeus'. Certainly they were quoted as Sappho's by Anna
Comnena, about 1110 A.D., as well as by another writer whom Blass refers
to. Blass would read the last line περὶ ὦ δικαίως ('δικαίως) = περὶ οὗ
ἐδικαίους, about that which thou didst pretend.

IN MIXED GLYCONIC AND ALCAIC METRE

Στᾶθι κἄντα φίλος ...
καὶ τὰν ἐπ' ὄσσοις ἀμπέτασον χάριν.

Stand face to face, friend ... and unveil the grace in thine eyes.

Athenaeus, speaking of the charm of lovers' eyes, says Sappho addressed
this to a man who was admired above all others for his beauty. Bergk thinks
it may have formed part of an ode to Phaon (cf. fr. 140), or of a bridal
song; and A. Schoene suspects that it was possibly addressed to Sappho's
brother. The metre is quite uncertain.

IN CHORIAMBIC METRE

[This is a very unsatisfactory category. Some of the fragments, e.g.
30-43, are in Aeolian dactyls, wherein the second foot is always a dactyl;
44-49 are Glyconics; 50-54 are in the Ionic a majore metre; some others
are Asclepiads, etc. But where so much is uncertain, it seems to be the
simplest way to group them thus.]

Χρύσεοι δ' ἐρέβινθοι ἐπ' ἀϊόνων ἐφύοντο.

And golden pulse grew on the shores.

Quoted by Athenaeus, when he is speaking of vetches.

Λάτω καὶ Νιόβα μάλα μὲν φίλαι ἦσαν ἔταιπαι.

Leto and Niobe were friends full dear.

Quoted by Athenaeus for the same reason as fr. 11. Compare also fr. 143.

Μνάσεσθαί τινά φαμι καὶ ὔστερον ἄμμεων.

Men I think will remember us even hereafter.

Compare Swinburne's—

      Thou art more than I,

Though my voice die not till the whole world die.

and—

Memories shall mix and metaphors of me.

and—

I Sappho shall be one with all these things,
With all high things for ever.
Anactoria.

Dio Chrysostom, the celebrated Greek rhetorician, writing about 100 A.D.,
observes that Sappho says this 'with perfect beauty.'

To illustrate this use of φαμι, Bergk quotes a fragment preserved by
Plutarch, which may have been written by Sappho:

. . . . . ἔγω φᾶμι ἰοπλόκων
Μοισᾶν εὖ λάχεμεν.

I think I have a goodly portion in the violet weaving Muses.

Ηράμαν μὲν εγω σέθεν, Ἄτθι, πάλαι πότα.

I loved thee once, Atthis, long ago.

I loved thee,—hark, one tenderer note than all—
Atthis, of old time, once—one low long fall,
Sighing—one long low lovely loveless call,
Dying—one pause in song so flamelike fast—
Atthis, long since in old time overpast—
One soft first pause and last.
One,—then the old rage of rapture's fieriest rain
Storms all the music-maddened night again.
SWINBURNE, Songs of the Springtides, p. 57.

Quoted by Hephaestion, about 150 A.D., as an example of metre. The verse
stood at the beginning of the first ode of the second book of Sappho's
poems, which Hephaestion says was composed entirely of odes in this metre:
thus,

≈ ≈ ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ ˘ ≈ ·

Σμίκρα μοι πάϊς ἔμμεν ἐφαίνεο κἄχαρις.

A slight and ill-favoured child didst thou seem to me.

Quoted by Plutarch; and by others also.

Bergk thinks it is certain that this fragment belongs to the same poem as
does the preceding, judging from references to it by Terentianus Mauris,
about 100 A.D., and by Marius Victorinus, about 350 A.D.

Αλλα, μη μεγαλύνεο δακτυλίω πέρι.

Foolish woman, pride not thyself on a ring.

Preserved by Herodian the grammarian, who lived about 160 A.D.

Οὐκ οἶδ' οττι θέω· δύο μοι τα νοήματα.

I know not what to do; my mind is divided.

Quoted by the Stoic philosopher Chrysippus, about 220 B.C.

Ψαύην δ' οὐ δοκίμοιμ' ὀράνω δύσι πάχεσιν.

I do not think to touch the sky with my two arms.

Quoted by Herodian. Cf. Horace, Carm. I. i. 36, Sublimi feriam sidera
vertice,—

My head, exalted so, will touch the stars,

which some think a direct translation of this line of Sappho's.

Old Horace? 'I will strike,' said he,
'The stars with head sublime.'
TENNYSON, Tiresias, 1885.

Ὠς δὲ παῖς πεδα μάτερα πεπτερύγωμαι.

And I flutter like a child after her mother.

Like a child whose mother's lost,
I am fluttering, terror-tost.
M. J. WALHOUSE.

After my mother I flew like a bird.
FREDERICK TENNYSON.

Quoted in the Etymologicum Magnum as an example of Aeolic. It may have
related to a sparrow, and been imitated by Catullus, 3, 6 ff.:

Sweet, all honey: a bird that ever hailed her
Lady mistress, as hails the maid a mother.
Nor would move from her arms away: but only
Hopping round her, about her, hence or hither
Piped his colloquy, piped to none beside her.
ROBINSON ELLIS.

Ἦρος ἄγγελος ἰμερόφωνος ἀήδων.

Spring's messenger, the sweet-voiced nightingale.

The dear good angel of the spring,

The nightingale.
BEN JONSON, The Sad Shepherd, Act ii.

The tawny sweetwinged thing

Whose cry was but of Spring.
SWINBURNE, Songs of the Springtides, p. 52.

Quoted by the Scholiast on Sophocles, Electra, 149, 'the nightingale is
the messenger of Zeus, because it is the sign of Spring.'

Ἔρος δαὖτέ μ' ὀ λυσιμελης δόνει,
γλυκύπικρον ἀμάχανον ὄρπετον.

Now Love masters my limbs and shakes me, fatal creature, bitter-sweet.

Lo, Love once more, the limb-dissolving King,
The bitter-sweet impracticable thing,
Wild-beast-like rends me with fierce quivering.
J. ADDINGTON SYMONDS, 1883.

Compare—

O Love, Love, Love! O withering might!
TENNYSON, Fatima.

O bitterness of things too sweet!
SWINBURNE, Fragoletta.

Sweet Love, that art so bitter.
SWINBURNE, Tristram of Lyonesse.

and the song in Bothwel, act i. sc. 1:—

Surely most bitter of all sweet things thou art,
And sweetest thou of all things bitter, love.

Quoted by Hephaestion. Cf. fr. 125.

Ἄτθι, σοὶ δ' ἔμεθεν μεν ἀπήχθετο
φροντίσδην, ἐπὶ δ' Ἀνδρομέδαν πότῃ.

But to thee, Atthis, the thought of me is hateful; thou flittest to
Andromeda.

Quoted by Hephaestion together with fr. 40, but it seems to be the
beginning of a different ode.

Ἔρος δαὖτ' ἐτίναξεν ἔμοι φρένας,
ἄνεμος κατ' ὄρος δρύσιν ἐμπέσων.

Now Eros shakes my soul, a wind on the mountain falling on the oaks.

Love shook me like the mountain breeze
Rushing down on the forest trees.
FREDERICK TENNYSON.

Lo, Love once more my soul within me rends,
Like wind that on the mountain oak descends.
J. A. SYMONDS, 1883.

Quoted by Maximus Tyrius, about 150 B.C., in speaking of Socrates exciting
Phaedrus to Bacchic frenzy when he talked of love.

Ὄτα πάννυχος ἄσφι κατάγρει.

When all night long [sleep] holds their [eyes].

Quoted by Apollonius to show the Aeolic form of σφί. Bergk thinks that
Sappho may have written—

        ὄππατ' [ἄωρος,]

ὄτα πάννυχος ἄσφι κατάγρει,

therefore I translate it so.

Χειρόμακτρα δε καγγόνων
πορφυρᾶ ...
καὶ ταῦτα μὲν ἀτιμάσεις,
επεμψ' ἀπὺ Φωκάας
δῶρα τίμια καγγόνων.

And purple napkins for thy lap ... (even these wilt thou despise) I sent
from Phocaea, precious gifts for thy lap.

Quoted by Athenaeus out of the fifth book of Sappho's Songs to Aphrodite,
to show that χειρόμακτρα were cloths, handkerchiefs, for covering the head.
But the whole passage is hopelessly corrupt.

Ἄγε δὴ χέλυ δῖά μοι
φωνάεσσα γένοιο.

Come now, divine shell, become vocal for me.

Quoted by Hermogenes and Eustathius, of Sappho apostrophising her lyre.

Κἀπάλαις ὑποθύμιδας
πλέκταις ἀμπ' ἀπάλᾳ δέρα.

And tender woven garlands round tender neck

From Athenaeus.

Γέλλως παιδοφιλωτέρα.

Fonder of maids than Gello.

Quoted as a proverb by Zenobius, about 130 A.D.; said of those who die an
untimely death, or of those whose indulgence brings ruin on their children.
Gello was a maiden who died in youth, whose ghost, the Lesbians said,
pursued children and carried them off.

Μάλα δὴ κεκορημένας
Γόργως.

Of Gorgo full weary.

I am weary of all thy words and soft strange ways.
SWINBURNE, Anactoria.

Quoted by Choeroboscus, about the end of the sixth century A.D., to show
that the Aeolic genitive ended in -ως. Maximus Tyrius mentions this girl
Gorgo along with Andromeda (cf. fr. 41) as beloved by Sappho.

Βρενθείω βασιληΐω.

Of a proud (or perfumed, or flowery) palace.

Athenaeus says Sappho here mentions the 'royal' and the 'brentheian'
unguent together, as if they were one and the same thing; but the reading
is very uncertain.

Ἔγω δ' ἐπὶ μαλθάκαν
τύλαν σπολέω μέλεα.

But I upon a soft cushion dispose my limbs.

From Herodian.

Κῆ δ' ἀμβροσίας μὲν κράτηρ ἐκέκρατο,
Ἐρμᾶς δ' ἔλεν ὄλπιν θέοις οἰνοχόησαι.
κῆνοι δ' ἄρα παντες καρχησιά τ' ἦχον
κἄλειβον, ἀράσαντο δὲ πάμπαν ἔσλα
τῷ γάμβρῳ.

And there the bowl of ambrosia was mixed, and Hermes took the ladle to
pour out for the gods; and then they all held goblets, and made libation,
and wished the bridegroom all good luck.

The first two lines are quoted by Athenaeus to show that in Sappho Hermes
was cupbearer to the gods; and in another place he quotes the rest to
illustrate her mention of carchēsia, cups narrow in the middle, with
handles reaching from the top to the bottom. Lachmann first joined the two
fragments. The verses appear to belong to the Epithalamia.

Δέδυκε μὲν ἀ σελάννα
καὶ Πληΐαδες, μέσαι δέ
νύκτες, πάρα δ' ἔρχετ' ὤρα,
ἔγω δὲ μόνα κατεύδω.

The moon has set, and the Pleiades; it is midnight, the time is going by,
and I sleep alone.

The silver moon is set;
The Pleiades are gone;
Half the long night is spent, and yet
I lie alone.
J. H. MERIVALE.

The moon hath left the sky;
Lost is the Pleiads' light;
It is midnight
And time slips by;
But on my couch alone I lie.
J. A. SYMONDS, 1883.

Quoted by Hephaestion as an example of metre.

Πλήρης μὲν ἐφαίνετ' ἀ σελάννα,
αἰ δ' ὡς περὶ βῶμον ἐστάθησαν.

The moon rose full, and the women stood as though around an altar.

Quoted by Hephaestion as an example of Praxilleian verses, i.e. such as
the Sicyonian poetess Praxilla (about B.C. 450) wrote in the metre known as
the Ionic a majore trimeter brachycatalectic. Blass thinks that the lines
are part of the same poem as that to which the succeeding fragment belongs.

Κρῆσσαί νύ ποτ' ὦδ' ἐμμελέως πόδεσσιν
ὠρχεῦντ' ἀπάλοις ἀμφ' ἐρόεντα βῶμον
πόας τέρεν ἄνθος μάλακον μάτεισαι.

Thus at times with tender feet the Cretan women dance in measure round the
fair altar, trampling the fine soft bloom of the grass.

Mr. Moreton J. Walhouse thus combines the previous fragment with this:—

Then, as the broad moon rose on high,
The maidens stood the altar nigh;
And some in graceful measure
The well-loved spot danced round,
With lightsome footsteps treading
The soft and grassy ground.

Quoted by Hephaestion as an example of metre, vv. 1 and 2 in one place and
v. 3 in another; Bergk says Santen first joined them.

Ἄβρα δηὖτε παχήᾳ σπόλᾳ ἀλλόμαν.

Then delicately in thick robe I sprang.

From Herodian, as an illustration of the Aeolic dialect. Bergk attributes
this to Sappho, but Cramer and others think that Alcaeus wrote the line.

Φαῖσι δή ποτα Λήδαν ὐακινθίνων
[ὐπ' ἀνθέων] πεπυκαδμένον
εὔρην ὤϊον.

Leda they say once found an egg hidden under hyacinth-blossoms.

From the Etymologicum Magnum, Athenaeus, and others. Bergk thinks fr. 112
may be continuous with this, thus—

εὔρην ὤϊον ὠΐω
πόλυ λευκότερον ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ

since Athenaeus quotes fr. 112 after fr. 56. It is uncertain what flower
the Greeks meant by 'hyacinth'; it probably had nothing in common with our
hyacinth, and it seems to have comprised several flowers, especially the
iris, gladiolus, and larkspur.

Ὀφθάλμοις δὲ μέλαις νύκτος ἄωρος.

And dark-eyed Sleep, child of Night.

From the Etymologicum Magnum, to show that the first letter of ἄωρος =
ὦρος, 'sleep,' was redundant.

57A

Χρυσοφάη θεράπαιναν Ἀφροδίτας.

Aphrodite's handmaid bright as gold.

Philodemus, about 60 B.C., in a MS. discovered at Herculaneum, says that
Sappho thus addresses Πειθώ, Persuasion. The MS. is, however, defective,
and Gomperz, the editor, thinks from the context that Hecate is here
referred to. Cf. frr. 132, 125. (Bergk formerly numbered this fr. 141.)

Ἔχει μὲν Ἀνδρομέδα κάλαν ἀμοίβαν.

Andromeda has a fair requital.

Quoted by Hephaestion together with the following, although the lines are
obviously out of different odes. Probably each fragment is the first line
of separate poems.

Ψάπφοι, τί τὰν πολύολβον Ἀφρόδιταν;

Sappho, why [celebrate] blissful Aphrodite?

Δεῦτέ νυν, ἄβραι Χάριτες, καλλίκομοι τε Μοῖσαι.

Come now, delicate Graces and fair-haired Muses.

Come hither, fair-haired Muses, tender Graces,
Come hither to our home.
FREDERICK TENNYSON.

Quoted by Hephaestion, Attilius Fortunatianus (about the fifth century
A.D.), and Servius, as an example of Sappho's choriambic tetrameters.

Πάρθενον ἀδύφωνον.

A sweet-voiced maiden.

From Attilius Fortunatianus.

Κατθνάσκει, Κυθέρη', ἄβρος Ἄδωνις, τί κε θεῖμεν·
Καττύπτεσθε κόραι καὶ κατερείκεσθε χίτωνας.

Delicate Adonis is dying, Cytherea; what shall we do? Beat your breasts,
maidens, and rend your tunics.

Quoted by Hephaestion, and presumed to be Sappho's from a passage in
Pausanias, where he says she learnt the name of the mythological personage
Oetolĭnus (as if οἶτος Λίνου, 'the death of Linus'), from the poems of
Pamphōs, a mythical poet of Attica earlier than Homer, and so to her Adonis
was just like Oetolinus. The Linus-song was a very ancient dirge or
lamentation, of which a version (or rather a late rendering, apparently
Alexandrian) has been preserved by a Scholiast on Homer (Iliad, xviii.
569), running thus: 'O Linus, honoured by all the gods, for to thee first
they gave to sing a song to men in clear sweet sounds; Phoebus in envy slew
thee, but the Muses lament thee.' A charming example of what the Linus-song
was in the third century B.C., remains for us in Bion's Lament for
Adonis.

The dirge was chiefly sung by the Greek peasants at vintage-time, and so
may have arisen from a mythical personification of Apollo, as the burning
sun of summer suddenly slaying the life and bloom of nature. It is said to
have been of Phoenician origin, and to have derived its name from the words
ai le nu, 'woe is us,' which may have been the burden of the song. The
word αἴλινος, so frequent a refrain in the mournful choral odes of the
Greek tragic poets, seems to indicate that the personality of Linus was the
invention of a time when the meaning of the burden had been forgotten.

Ὦ τὸν Ἄδωνιν.

Ah for Adonis!

From Marius Plotius, about 600 A.D. It seems to be the refrain of the ode
to Adonis. Cf. fr. 108.

Ah for Adonis! So
The virgins cry in woe:
Ah, for the spring, the spring,
And all fleet blossoming.
MICHAEL FIELD, 1889.

Ἐλθοντ' εξ ὀράνω πορφυρίαν [ἔχοντα] περθέμενον
χλάμυν.

Coming from heaven wearing a purple mantle.

    From heaven he came,

And round him the red chlamys burned like flame.
J. A. SYMONDS.

He came from heaven in purple mantle clad.
FREDERICK TENNYSON.

Quoted by Pollux, about 180 A.D., who says that Sappho, in her ode to Eros,
out of which this verse probably came, was the first to use the word
χλαμύς, a short mantle fastened by a brooch on the right shoulder, so as to
hang in a curve across the body.

Βροδοπάχεες ἄγναι Χάριτες, δεῦτε Δίος κόραι.

Come, rosy-armed pure Graces, daughters of Zeus.

Theocritus' Idyl 28, On a Distaff, according to the argument prefixed
to it, was written in the dialect and metre of this fragment. And
Philostrătus, about 220 A.D., says 'Sappho loves the rose, and always
crowns it with some praise, likening to it the beauty of her maidens; she
likens it also to the arms of the Graces, when she describes their elbows
bare.' Cf. fr. 146.

ˉ ˘ ˉ Ὀ δ' Ἄρευς φαῖσί κεν Ἄφαιστον ἄγην βίᾳ.

But Ares says he would drag Hephaestus by force.

From Priscian, late in the fifth century A.D.

ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ Πόλλα δ' ἀνάριθμα
ποτήρια καλαίφις.

Many thousand cups thou drainest.

Quoted by Athenaeus when descanting on drinking-cups.

Κατθάνοισα δὲ κείσεαι πότα, κωὐ μναμοσύνα σέθεν
ἔσσετ' οὔτε τότ' οὔτ' ὔστερον· οὐ γὰρ πεδέχεις βρόδων
τών ἐκ Πιερίας, ἀλλ' ἀφάνης κἠν Ἀΐδα δόμοις
φοιτάσεις πεδ' ἀμαύρων νεκύων ἐκπεποταμένα.

But thou shalt ever lie dead, nor shall there be any remembrance of thee
then or thereafter, for thou hast not of the roses of Pieria; but thou
shalt wander obscure even in the house of Hades, flitting among the shadowy
dead.

In the cold grave where thou shalt lie
All memory too of thee shall die,
Who in this life's auspicious hours
Disdained Pieria's genial flowers;
And in the mansions of the dead,
With the vile crowd of ghosts, thy shade,
While nobler spirits point with scorn,
Shall flit neglected and forlorn.
? FELTON.

Unknown, unheeded, shalt thou die,
And no memorial shall proclaim
That once beneath the upper sky
Thou hadst a being and a name.

For never to the Muses' bowers
Didst thou with glowing heart repair,
Nor ever intertwine the flowers
That fancy strews unnumbered there.

Doom'd o'er that dreary realm, alone,
Shunn'd by the gentler shades, to go,
Nor friend shall soothe, nor parent own
The child of sloth, the Muses' foe.
REV. R. BLAND, 1813.

Thee too the years shall cover; thou shalt be
As the rose born of one same blood with thee,
As a song sung, as a word said, and fall
Flower-wise, and be not any more at all,
Nor any memory of thee anywhere;
For never Muse has bound above thine hair
The high Pierian flowers whose graft outgrows
All Summer kinship of the mortal rose
And colour of deciduous days, nor shed
Reflex and flush of heaven about thine head, etc.
SWINBURNE, Anactoria.

Woman dead, lie there;
No record of thee
Shall there ever be,
Since thou dost not share
Roses in Pieria grown.
In the deathful cave,
With the feeble troop
Of the folk that droop,
Lurk and flit and crave,
Woman severed and far-flown.
WILLIAM CORY, 1858.

Thou liest dead, and there will be no memory left behind
Of thee or thine in all the earth, for never didst thou bind
The roses of Pierian streams upon thy brow; thy doom
Is writ to flit with unknown ghosts in cold and nameless gloom.
EDWIN ARNOLD, 1869.

Yea, thou shalt die,
And lie
Dumb in the silent tomb;
Nor of thy name
Shall there be any fame
In ages yet to be or years to come:
For of the flowering Rose,
Which on Pieria blows,
Thou hast no share:
But in sad Hades' house,
Unknown, inglorious,
'Mid the dim shades that wander there
Shalt thou flit forth and haunt the filmy air.
J. A. SYMONDS, 1883.

When thou fallest in death, dead shalt thou lie, nor shall thy memory
Henceforth ever again be heard then or in days to be,
Since no flowers upon earth ever were thine, plucked from Pieria's
spring,
Unknown also 'mid hell's shadowy throng thou shalt go wandering.
ANON., Love in Idleness, 1883.

From Stobaeus, about 500 A.D., as addressed to an uneducated woman.
Plutarch quotes the fragment as written to a certain rich lady; but in
another work he says the crown of roses was assigned to the Muses, for he
remembered Sappho's having said to some unpolished and uneducated woman
these same words. Aristīdes, about 150 A.D., speaks of Sappho's boastfully
saying to some well-to-do woman, 'that the Muses made her blest and worthy
of honour, and that she should not die and be forgotten;' though this may
refer to fr. 10.

Οὐδ' ἴαν δοκίμοιμι προσίδοισαν φάος ἀλίω
ἔσσεσθαι σοφίαν πάρθενον εἰς οὐδένα πω χρόνον
τοιαύταν.

No one maiden I think shall at any time see the sunlight that shall be as
wise as thou.

Methinks no maiden ever
Will live beneath the sun
Who is as wise as thou art,—
Not e'en till Time is done.

Quoted by Chrysippus. It is probably out of the same ode as the preceding.

Τίς δ' ἀγροιῶτίς τοι θέλγει νόον,
οὐκ ἐπισταμένα τὰ βράκε' ἔλκην ἐπὶ τῶν σφύρων;

What country girl bewitches thy heart, who knows not how to draw her dress
about her ankles?

What country maiden charms thee,
However fair her face,
Who knows not how to gather
Her dress with artless grace?

Athenaeus, speaking of the care which the ancients bestowed upon dress,
says Sappho thus jests upon Andromeda. Three other authors quote the same
lines.

Ἤρων ἐξεδίδαξ' εκ Γυάρων τὰν τανυσίδρομον.

I taught Hero of Gyara, the swift runner.

Quoted by Choeroboscus, to show the Aeolic accusative.

ˉ ˘ Ἀλλά τις οὐκ ἔμμι παλιγκότων
οργαν, ἀλλ' ἀβάκην τὰν φρέν' ἔχω ˘ ˉ

I am not of a malignant nature, but have a quiet temper.

Quoted in the Etymologicum Magnum to show the meaning of ἀβάκης,
'childlike, innocent.'

ˉ ˘ Αὐτὰρ ὀραῖαι στεφανηπλόκευν.

But charming [maidens] plaited garlands.

Quoted by the Scholiast on Aristophanes Thesmophoriazusae 401, to show
that plaiting wreaths was a sign of being in love.

ˉ ˘ ˉ Σύ τε κἄμος θεράπων Ἔρος.

Thou and my servant Love.

Quoted by Maximus Tyrius to show that Sappho agreed with Diotima when the
latter said to Socrates (Plato, Sympos., p. 328) that Love is not the
son, but the attendant and servant, of Aphrodite. Cf. fr. 132.

Ἀλλ' ἔων φίλος ἄμμιν [ἄλλο]
λέχος ἄρνυσο νεώτερον·
οὐ γὰρ τλάσομ' ἔγω ξυνοίκην
νέῳ γ' ἔσσα γεραιτέρα.

But if thou lovest us, choose another and a younger bed-fellow; for I will
not brook to live with thee, old woman with young man.

From Stobaeus' Anthology, and Apostolius.

Εὐμορφοτέρα Μνασιδίκα τᾶς ἀπάλας Γυρίννως.

Mnasidica is more shapely than the tender Gyrinno.

Quoted by Hephaestion as an example of metre (cf. p. 24).

Ἀσαροτέρας ὄυδαμ' ἐπ', ὦ ῎ραννα, σέθεν τύχοισα.

Scornfuler than thee, Eranna, have I nowhere found.

Quoted by Hephaestion with the foregoing. The MSS. do not agree; perhaps ὦ
῎ραννα is an adjective, for ὢ ἐρατεινή, O lovely—.

Σὺ δὲ στεφάνοις, ὦ Δίκα, περθέσθ' ἐράταις φόβαισιν,
ὄρπακας ἀνήτοιο συνέρραισ' ἀπαλάισι χέρσιν·
εὐάνθεσιν ἔκ γὰρ πέλεται καὶ χάριτος μακαιρᾶν
μᾶλλον προτέρην· ἀστεφανώτοισι δ' ἀπυστρέφονται.

Do thou, Dica, set garlands round thy lovely hair, twining shoots of dill
together with soft hands: for those who have fair flowers may best stand
first, even in the favour of Goddesses; who turn their face away from those
who lack garlands.

Here, fairest Rhodope, recline,
And 'mid thy bright locks intertwine,
With fingers soft as softest down,
The ever verdant parsley crown.
The Gods are pleased with flowers that bloom
And leaves that shed divine perfume,
But, if ungarlanded, despise
The richest offered sacrifice.
J. H. MERIVALE.

But place those garlands on thy lovely hair,
Twining the tender sprouts of anise green
With skilful hand; for offerings and flowers
Are pleasing to the Gods, who hate all those
Who come before them with uncrowned heads.
C. D. YONGE.

Of foliage and flowers love-laden
Twine wreaths for thy flowing hair,
With thine own soft fingers, maiden.
Weave garlands of parsley fair;

For flowers are sweet, and the Graces
On suppliants wreathed with may
Look down from their heavenly places,
But turn from the crownless away.
J. A. SYMONDS, 1883.

Mr. J. A. Symonds has also thus expanded the lines into a sonnet (1883):—

Bring summer flowers, bring pansy, violet,
Moss-rose and sweet-briar and blue columbine;
Bring loveliest leaves, rathe privet, eglantine,
Brown myrtles with the dews of morning wet:
Twine thou a wreath upon thy brows to set;
With thy soft hands the wayward tendrils twine;
Then place them, maiden, on those curls of thine,
Those curls too fair for gems or coronet.

Sweet is the breath of blossoms, and the Graces,
When suppliants through Love's temple wend their way,
Look down with smiles from their celestial places
On maidens wreathed with chaplets of the may;
But from the crownless choir they hide their faces,
Nor heed them when they sing nor when they pray.

Athenaeus, quoting this fragment, says:—'Sappho gives a more simple reason
for our wearing garlands, speaking as follows ... in which lines she
enjoins all who offer sacrifice to wear garlands on their heads, as they
are beautiful things and acceptable to the Gods.'

Ἐγὼ δὲ φίλημ' ἀβροσύναν, καὶ μοι τὸ λάμπρον
ἔρος ˘ ἀελίω καὶ τὸ κάλον λέλογχεν.

I love delicacy, and for me Love has the sun's splendour and beauty.

In speaking of perfumes, Athenaeus, quoting Clearchus, says:—'Sappho, being
a thorough woman and a poetess besides, was ashamed to separate honour from
elegance, and speaks thus ... making it evident to everybody that the
desire of life that she confessed had brilliancy and honour in it; and
these things especially belong to virtue.'

Κὰμ μέν τε τύλαν κασπολέω.

And down I set the cushion.

Quoted by Herodian, along with fr. 50.

Ὠ πλοῦτος ἄνευ σεῦ γ' ἀρέτα 'στ' οὐκ ἀσίνης πάροικος
[ἤ δ' ἐξ ἀμφοτέρον κρᾶσις εὐδαιμονίας ἔχει τὸ ἄκρον].

Wealth without thee, Worth, is no safe neighbour [but the mixture of
both is the height of happiness].

Wealth without virtue is a dangerous guest;
Who holds them mingled is supremely blest.
J. H. MERIVALE.

From the Scholiast on Pindar. The second line appears to be the gloss of
the commentator, though Blass believes it is Sappho's.

IN VARIOUS METRES

Αὔτα δὲ σὺ Καλλιόπα.

And thou thyself, Calliope.

Quoted by Hephaestion when he is analysing a metre invented by Archilochus.

Δαύοις ἀπάλας ἐτάρας
ἐν στήθεσιν ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ .

Sleep thou in the bosom of thy tender girlfriend.

From the Etymologicum Magnum. Blass thinks that the proper place for this
fragment is among the Epithalamia.

Δεῦρο δηὖτε Μοῖσαι, χρύσιον λίποισαι.

Hither now, Muses, leaving golden ...

Quoted by Hephaestion as an example of a verse made of two Ithyphallics.

Ἔστι μοι κάλα πάϊς, χρυσίοισιν ἀνθέμοισιν
ἐμφέρην ἔχοισα μόρφαν, Κλῆϊσ' ἀγαπάτα,
ἀντί τᾶς ἔγω οὐδὲ Λυδίαν παῖσαν οὐδ' ἔρανναν.

I have a fair daughter with a form like a golden flower, Cleïs the
beloved, above whom I [prize] nor all Lydia nor lovely [Lesbos]....

I have a child, a lovely one,
In beauty like the golden sun,
Or like sweet flowers of earliest bloom;
And Claïs is her name, for whom
I Lydia's treasures, were they mine,
Would glad resign.
J. H. MERIVALE.

A lovely little girl is ours,
Kleïs the beloved,
Kleïs is her name,
Whose beauty is as the golden flowers.
FREDERICK TENNYSON.

Quoted and elaborately scanned by Hephaestion, although Bergk regards the
lines as merely trochaic.

          Πόλλα μοι τὰν

Πωλυανάκτιδα παῖδα χαῖρην.

All joy to thee, daughter of Polyanax.

From Maximus Tyrius. It seems to be addressed to either Gorgo or Andromeda.

VII

IN THE IONIC A MINORE METRE

Ζὰ δ' ἐλεξάμαν ὄναρ Κυπρογενήᾳ.

In a dream I spake with the daughter of Cyprus.

I.e. Aphrodite. From Hephaestion.

Τί με Πανδίονις ὦ ῎ραννα χελίδων;

Why, lovely swallow, daughter of Pandīon, [weary] me?

From Hephaestion, who says Sappho wrote whole songs in this metre. Ὦ ῎ραννα
is Is. Vossius' emendation; ὠράνα is the ordinary reading, which Hesychius
explains as perhaps an epithet of the swallow 'dwelling under the roof.'

Ah, Procne, wherefore dost thou weary me?
Thus flitting out and flitting in ...
Tease not the air with this tumultuous wing.
MICHAEL FIELD, 1889.

... Ἀμφὶ δ' ἄβροις λασίοις εὖ ϝε πύκασσεν.

She wrapped herself well in delicate hairy ...

From Pollux, who says the line refers to fine closely-woven linen.

Γλύκεια μᾶτερ, οὔτοι δύναμαι κρέκην τὸν ἴστον,
πόθῳ δάμεισα παῖδος βραδίναν δι' Αφρόδιταν.

Sweet Mother, I cannot weave my web, broken as I am by longing for a boy,
at soft Aphrodite's will.

[As o'er her loom the Lesbian maid
In love-sick languor hung her head,
Unknowing where her fingers strayed
She weeping turned away and said—]

'Oh, my sweet mother, 'tis in vain,
I cannot weave as once I wove,
So wildered is my heart and brain
With thinking of that youth I love.'
T. MOORE, Evenings in
Greece, p. 18.

Mother, I cannot mind my wheel;
My fingers ache, my lips are dry:
Oh, if you felt the pain I feel!
But oh, who ever felt as I?
W. S. LANDOR, Simonidea, 1807.

Sweet mother, I can spin no more,
Nor ply the loom as heretofore,
For love of him.
FREDERICK TENNYSON.

Sweet mother, I the web
Can weave no more;
Keen yearning for my love
Subdues me sore,
And tender Aphrodite
Thrills my heart's core.
M. J. WALHOUSE.

Cf. Mrs. John Hunter's 'My mother bids me bind my hair,' etc.

From Hephaestion, as an example of metre.

VIII

EPITHALAMIA, BRIDAL SONGS

Ἴψοι δὴ τὸ μέλαθρον
᾿Υμήναον
ἀὲρρετε τέκτοντες ἄνδρες·
᾿Υμήναον
γάμβρος ἔρχεται ἶσος Ἄρευϊ,
[᾿Υμήναον]
ἄνδρος μεγάλω πόλυ μείζων·
[᾿Υμήναον]

Raise high the roof-beam, carpenters. (Hymenaeus!) Like Ares comes the
bridegroom, (Hymenaeus!) taller far than a tall man. (Hymenaeus!)

Artists, raise the rafters high!
Ample scope and stately plan—
Mars-like comes the bridegroom nigh,
Loftier than a lofty man.
ANON., Edinb. Rev., 1832, p. 109.

High lift the beams of the chamber,
Workmen, on high;
Like Arés in step comes the Bridegroom;
Like him of the song of Terpander,
Like him in majesty.
F. T. PALGRAVE, 1854.

Quoted by Hephaestion as an example of a mes-hymnic poem, where the
refrain follows each line. The hymenaeus or wedding-song was sung by the
bride's attendants as they led her to the bridegroom's house, addressing
Hymen the god of marriage. The metre seems, says Professor Mahaffy (Hist.
of Class. Greek Lit., i., p. 20, 1880), to be the same as that of the
Linus song; cf. fr. 62.

Πέρροχος, ὠς ὄτ' ἄοιδος ὀ Λέσβιος ἀλλοδάποισιν.

Towering, as the Lesbian singer towers among men of other lands.

Quoted by Demetrius, about 150 A.D. It is uncertain what 'Lesbian singer'
is here referred to; probably Terpander, but Neue thinks it may mean the
whole Lesbian race, from their pre-eminence in poetry.

Οἶον τὸ γλυκύμαλον ἐρεύθεται ἄκρῳ ἐπ' ὔσδῳ
ἄκρον ἐπ' ἀκροτατῳ· λελάθοντο δὲ μαλοδρόπηες,
οὐ μὰν ἐκλελάθοντ', ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐδύναντ' ἐπίκεσθαι.

As the sweet-apple blushes on the end of the bough, the very end of the
bough, which the gatherers overlooked, nay overlooked not but could not
reach.

    —O fair—O sweet!

As the sweet apple blooms high on the bough,
High as the highest, forgot of the gatherers:
So thou:—
Yet not so: nor forgot of the gatherers;
High o'er their reach in the golden air,
—O sweet—O fair!
F. T. PALGRAVE, 1854.

Quoted by the Scholiast on Hermogenes, and by others, to explain the word
γλυκύμαλον, 'sweet-apple,' an apple grafted on a quince; it is used as a
term of endearment by Theocritus (Idyl xi. 39), 'Of thee, my love, my
sweet-apple, I sing.' Himerius, writing about 360 A.D., says: 'Aphrodite's
orgies we leave to Sappho of Lesbos, to sing to the lyre and make the
bride-chamber her theme. She enters the chamber after the games, makes the
room, spreads Homer's bed, assembles the maidens, leads them into the
apartment with Aphrodite in the Graces' car and a band of Loves for
playmates. Binding her tresses with hyacinth, except what is parted to
fringe her forehead, she lets the rest wave to the wind if it chance to
strike them. Their wings and curls she decks with gold, and drives them in
procession before the car as they shake the torch on high.' And
particularly this: 'It was for Sappho to liken the maiden to an apple,
allowing to those who would pluck before the time to touch not even with
the finger-tip, but to him who was to gather the apple in season to watch
its ripe beauty; to compare the bridegroom with Achilles, to match the
youth's deeds with the hero's.' Further on he says: 'Come then, we will
lead him into the bride-chamber and persuade him to meet the beauty of the
bride. O fair and lovely, the Lesbian's praises appertain to thee: thy
play-mates are rosy-ankled Graces and golden Aphrodite, and the Seasons
make the meadows bloom.' These last words especially—

Ὦ κάλα, ὦ χαρίεσσα.

O fair, O lovely ...

seem taken out of one of Sappho's hymeneal odes, although they also occur
in Theocritus, Idyl xviii. 38.

Οἴαν τὰν ὐάκινθον ἐν οὔρεσι ποίμενες ἄνδρες
πόσσι καταστείβοισι, χάμαι δ' ἐπιπορφύρει ἄνθος.

As on the hills the shepherds trample the hyacinth under foot, and the
flower darkens on the ground.

Compare Catullus, xi. 21-24:—

Think not henceforth, thou, to recall Catullus'
Love; thy own sin slew it, as on the meadow's
Verge declines, un-gently beneath the ploughshare
Stricken, a flower.
(ROBINSON ELLIS.)

And Vergil, Aeneid, ix. 435, of Euryalus dying:—

And like the purple flower the plough cuts down
He droops and dies.

Pines she like to the hyacinth out on the path by the hill top;
Shepherds tread it aside, and its purples lie lost on the herbage.
EDWIN ARNOLD, 1869.

ONE GIRL.

(A combination from Sappho.)

Like the sweet apple which reddens upon the topmost bough,
A-top on the topmost twig,—which the pluckers forgot, somehow,—
Forgot it not, nay, but got it not, for none could get it till now.

II.

Like the wild hyacinth flower which on the hills is found,
Which the passing feet of the shepherds for ever tear and wound,
Until the purple blossom is trodden into the ground.
D. G. ROSSETTI, 1870;

in 1881 he altered the title to Beauty. (A combination from Sappho.)

Quoted by Demetrius, as an example of the ornament and beauty proper to a
concluding sentence. Bergk first attributed the lines to Sappho.

Ϝέσπερε, πάντα φέρων, ὄσα φαίνολις ἐσκέδασ' αὔως,
φέρεις οἶν, φέρες αἶγα, φέρεις ἄπυ ματέρι παῖδα.

Evening, thou that bringest all that bright morning scattered; thou
bringest the sheep, the goat, the child back to her mother.

Thus imitated by Byron:—

O Hesperus, thou bringest all good things—
Home to the weary, to the hungry cheer,
To the young bird the parent's brooding wings,
The welcome stall to the o'erlaboured steer;
Whate'er of peace about our hearthstone clings,
Whate'er our household gods protect of dear,
Are gathered round us by thy look of rest;
Thou bring'st the child too to its mother's breast.
Don Juan, iii. 107.

And by Tennyson:—

The ancient poetess singeth, that Hesperus all things bringeth,
Smoothing the wearied mind: bring me my love, Rosalind.
Thou comest morning or even; she cometh not morning or evening.
False-eyed Hesper, unkind, where is my sweet Rosalind?
Leonine Elegiacs, 1830-1884.

Hesperus brings all things back
Which the daylight made us lack,
Brings the sheep and goats to rest,
Brings the baby to the breast.
EDWIN ARNOLD, 1869.

Hesper, thou bringest back again
All that the gaudy daybeams part,
The sheep, the goat, back to their pen,
The child home to his mother's heart.
FREDERICK TENNYSON, 1890.

Evening, all things thou bringest
Which dawn spread apart from each other;
The lamb and the kid thou bringest,
Thou bringest the boy to his mother.
J. A. SYMONDS, 1883.

Hesper, whom the poet call'd the Bringer home of all good things.
TENNYSON, Locksley Hall Sixty Years After, 1886.

From the Etymologicum Magnum, where it is adduced to show the meaning of
αὔως, 'dawn.' The fragment occurs also in Demetrius, as an example of
Sappho's grace. One cannot but believe that Catullus had in his mind some
such hymeneal ode of Sappho's as that in which this fragment must have
occurred when he wrote his Vesper adest, juvenes, consurgite: Vesper
Olympo, etc. (lxii.), part of which was imitated in the colloquy between
Opinion and Truth in Ben Jonson's The Barriers.

Ἀϊπάρθενος ἔσσομαι.

I shall be ever maiden.

From a Parisian MS. edited by Cramer, adduced to show the Aeolic form of
ἀεί, 'ever.'

Δώσομεν, ησι πάτηρ.

We will give, says the father ...

From a Parisian MS. edited by Cramer.

Θυρώρῳ πόδες ἐπτορόγυιοι,
τὰ δὲ σάμβαλα πεμπεβόηα,
πίσυγγοι δὲ δέκ' ἐξεπόνασαν.

To the doorkeeper feet seven fathoms long, and sandals of five bulls'
hides, the work of ten cobblers.

From Hephaestion, as an example of metre. Demetrius says: 'And elsewhere
Sappho girds at the rustic bridegroom and the doorkeeper ready for the
wedding, in prosaic rather than poetic phrase, as if she were reasoning
rather than singing, using words out of harmony with dance and song.'

Ὄλβιε γάμβρε, σοὶ μὲν δὴ γάμος, ὠς ἄραο,
ἐκτετέλεστ', ἔχης δὲ πάρθενον, ἂν ἄραο.

Happy bridegroom, now is thy wedding come to thy desire, and thou hast the
maiden of thy desire.

Happy bridegroom, thou art blest
With blisses far beyond the rest,
For thou hast won
The chosen one,
The girl thou lovest best.
FREDERICK TENNYSON.

Quoted by Hephaestion, along with the following, to exemplify metres; both
fragments seem to belong to the same ode.

100

Μελλίχιος δ' ἐπ' ἰμέρτῳ κέχυται προσώπῳ.

And a soft [paleness] is spread over the lovely face.

In the National Library of Madrid there is a MS. of an epithalamium by
Choricius, a rhetorician of Gaza, who flourished about 520 A.D., in which
the lamented Ch. Graux (Revue de Philologie, 1880, p. 81) found a
quotation from Sappho which is partly identical with this fragment
preserved by Hephaestion. H. Weil thus attempts to restore the passage:—

Σοὶ χάριεν μὲν εἶδος, ὄππατα δ' ˉ ˘ ˉ ≈
μέλλιχρ', ἔρος δ' ἐπ' ἰμέρτῳ
κέχυται προσώπῳ·
ˉ ˘ τετίμακ' ἐξοχά σ' Ἀφροδίτα.

Well favoured is thy form, and thine eyes ... honeyed, and love is spread
over thy fair face ... Aphrodite has honoured thee above all.

Two apparent imitations by Catullus are quoted by Weil to confirm his
restoration of Sappho's verses; viz., mellitos oculos, honeyed eyes (48,
1), and pulcher es, neque te Venus negligit, fair thou art, nor does
Venus neglect thee (61, 194).

101

Ὀ μὲν γὰρ κάλος, ὄσσον ἴδην, πέλεται [ἄγαθος],
ὀ δὲ κἄγαθος αὔτικα καὶ κάλος ἔσσεται.

He who is fair to look upon is [good], and he who is good will soon be
fair also.

Beauty, fair flower, upon the surface lies;
But worth with beauty e'en in aspect vies.
? FELTON.

Galen, the physician, writing about 160 A.D., says: 'It is better
therefore, knowing that the beauty of youth is like Spring flowers, its
pleasure lasting but a little while, to approve of what the Lesbian [here]
says, and to believe Solon when he points out the same.'

102

Ἦρ' ἔτι παρθενίας ἐπιβάλλομαι;

Do I still long for maidenhood?

Quoted by Apollonius, and by the Scholiast on Dionysius of Thrace, to
illustrate the interrogative particle ἆρα, Aeolic ἦρα, and as an example of
the catalectic iambic.

103

Χαίροισα νύμφα, χαιρέτω δ' ὀ γάμβρος.

The bride [comes] rejoicing; let the bridegroom rejoice.

From Hephaestion, as a catalectic iambic.

104

Τίῳ σ', ὦ φίλε γάμβρε, κάλως ἐϊκάσδω;
ὄρπακι βραδίνῳ σε κάλιστ' ἐϊκάσδω.

Whereunto may I well liken thee, dear bridegroom? To a soft shoot may I
best liken thee.

From Hephaestion, as an example of metre.

105

... Χαῖρε, νύμφα,
χαῖρε, τίμιε γάμβρε, πόλλα.

Hail, bride! noble bridegroom, all hail!

Quoted by Servius, about 390 A.D., on Vergil, Georg. i. 31; also referred
to by Pollux and Julian.

106

Οὐ γαρ ἦν ἀτέρα πάϊς, ὦ γάμβρε, τοιαύτα.

For there was no other girl, O bridegroom, like her.

From Dionysius of Halicarnassus.

107, 108

Ἐσπετ' ᾿Υμήναον.
Ὦ τὸν Ἀδώνιον.

Sing Hymenaeus!
Ah for Adonis!

From Plotius, about the fifth or sixth century A.D., to show the metre of
Sappho's hymeneal odes. The text is corrupt; the first verse is thus
emended by Bergk, the second by Scaliger. Cf. fr. 63.

109

A. Παρθενία, παρθενία, ποῖ με λίποισ' ἀποίχῃ;
B. Οὐκέτι ἥξω πρὸς σε, οὐκέτι ἥξω.

A. Maidenhood, maidenhood, whither art thou gone away from me?
B. Never again will I come to thee, never again.

'Sweet Rose of May, sweet Rose of May,
Whither, ah whither fled away?'
'What's gone no time can e'er restore—
I come no more, I come no more.'
J. H. MERIVALE.

From Demetrius, who quoted the fragment to show the grace of Sappho's style
and the beauty of repetition.

110

Ἄλλαν μὴ καμεστέραν φρένα.

Fool, faint not thou in thy strong heart.

From a very corrupt passage in Herodian. The translation is from Bergk's
former emendation—

Ἄλλα μὴ κάμε τὺ στερέαν φρένα.

111

Φαίνεταί ϝοι κῆνος.

To himself he seems ...

From Apollonius, to show that the Aeolians used the digamma, ϝ. Bergk says
this fragment does not belong to fr. 2.

112

Ὠΐω πόλυ λευκότερον.

Much whiter than an egg.

From Athenaeus; cf. frs. 56 and 122.

113

Μήτ' ἔμοι μέλι μήτε μέλισσα

Neither honey nor bee for me.

A proverb quoted by many late authors, referring to those who wish for good
unmixed with evil. They seem to be the words of the bride. This, and the
second line of fr. 62, and many other verses, show Sappho's fondness for
alliteration; frs. 4 and 5, among several others, show that she did not
ignore the charm of assonance.

114

Μὴ κίνη χέραδας.

Stir not the shingle.

Quoted by the Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius to show that χεράδες were
'little heaps of stones.'

115

Ὄπταις ἄμμε.

Thou burnest us.

Compare Swinburne's—

My life is bitter with thy love; thine eyes
Blind me, thy tresses burn me, thy sharp sighs
Divide my flesh and spirit with soft sound, etc.
Anactoria.

Quoted by Apollonius to show the Aeolic form of ἡμᾶς, 'us.'

116

Ἠμιτύβιον σταλάσσον.

A napkin dripping.

From the Scholiast on Aristophanes' Plutus, quoted to show the meaning of
ἡμιτύβιον, 'a half worn out shred of linen with which to wipe the hands.'

117

Τὸν ϝὸν παῖδα κάλει.

She called him her son.

Quoted by Apollonius to show the Aeolic use of the digamma.

EPIGRAMS

All three are preserved only in the Greek Anthology. The authenticity of
the last, fr. 120, is doubtful. To none of them does Bergk restore the form
of the Aeolic dialect.

118

Παῖδες, ἄφωνος ἐοῖσα τόδ' ἐννεπω, αἴ τις ἔρηται,
φωνὰν ἀκαμάταν κατθεμένα πρὸ ποδῶν·
Αἰθοπίᾳ με κόρᾳ Λατοῦς ἀνέθηκεν Ἀρίστα
Ἑρμοκλειδαία τῶ Σαοναϊάδα,
σὰ πρόπολος, δέσποινα γυναικῶν· ᾇ σὺ χαρεῖσα
πρόφρων ἁμετέραν εὐκλέϊσον γενεάν.

Maidens, dumb as I am, I speak thus, if any ask, and set before your feet
a tireless voice: To Leto's daughter Aethopia was I dedicated by Arista
daughter of Hermocleides son of Saonaïades, thy servant, O queen of women;
whom bless thou, and deign to glorify our house.

ON A PRIESTESS OF DIANA.

Does any ask? I answer from the dead;
A voice that lives is graven o'er my head:
To dark-eyed Dian, ere my days begun,
Aristo vowed me, wife of Saon's son:
Then hear thy priestess, hear, O virgin Power,
And thy best gifts on Saon's lineage shower.
R.

The goddess here invoked as the 'queen of women' appears to have been
Artĕmis, the Diana of the Romans.

119

Τιμάδος ἅδε κόνις, τὰν δὴ πρὸ γάμοιο θανοῦσαν
δέξατο Φερσεφόνας κυάνεος θάλαμος,
ἇς καὶ ἀποφθιμένας πᾶσαι νεοθᾶγι σιδάρῳ
ἄλικες ἱμερτὰν κρατὸς ἔθεντο κόμαν.

This is the dust of Timas, whom Persephone's dark chamber received, dead
before her wedding; when she perished, all her fellows dressed with
sharpened steel the lovely tresses of their heads.

This dust was Timas'; ere her bridal hour
She lies in Proserpina's gloomy bower;
Her virgin playmates from each lovely head

Cut with sharp steel their locks, their strewments for the dead.
SIR CHARLES A. ELTON.

This is the dust of Timas, whom unwed
Persephone locked in her darksome bed:
For her the maids who were her fellows shore
Their curls, and to her tomb this tribute bore.
J. A. SYMONDS.

120

Τῷ γριπεῖ Πελάγωνι πατὴρ ἐπέθηκε Μενίσκος
κύρτον καὶ κώπαν, μνάμα κακοζοΐας.

Over the fisherman Pelagon his father Meniscus set weel and oar, memorial
of a luckless life.

ON A FISHERMAN.

This oar and net and fisher's wickered snare
Meniscus placed above his buried son—
Memorials of the lot in life he bare,
The hard and needy life of Pelagon.
SIR CHARLES A. ELTON.

Here, to the fisher Pelagon, his sire Meniscus laid
A wicker-net and oar, to show his weary life and trade.
LORD NEAVES.

Above a fisher's tomb

Were set his withy-basket and his oar,
The tokens of his doom,
Of how in life his labour had been sore:
A father put them up above his son,
Meniscus over luckless Pelagon.
MICHAEL FIELD, 1889.

Bergk sees no reason to accept the voice of tradition in attributing this
epigram to Sappho.

MISCELLANEOUS

121

Athenaeus says:—

'It is something natural that people who fancy themselves beautiful and
elegant should be fond of flowers; on which account the companions of
Persephone are represented as gathering flowers. And Sappho says she saw—

ἄνθε' αμέργουσαν παῖδ' ἄγαν ἁπαλάν,

'A maiden full tender plucking flowers.'

122, 123

Πόλυ πάκτιδος ἀδυμελεστέρα, χρύσω χρυσοτέρα.

Far sweeter of tone than harp, more golden than gold.

Quoted by Demetrius as an example of hyperbolic phrase. A commentator on
Hermogenes the rhetorician says: 'These things basely flatter the ear, like
the erotic phrases which Anacreon and Sappho use, γάλακτος λευκοτέρα
whiter than milk, ὕδατος ἁπαλωτέρα fresher than water, πηκτίδων
ἐμμελεστέρα more musical than the harp, ἵππου γαυροτέρα more skittish
than a horse, ῥόδων ἁβροτέρα more delicate than the rose, ἱματίου ἑανοῦ
μαλακωτέρα softer than a fine robe, χρυσοῦ τιμιωτέρα more precious than
gold.'

124

Demetrius says:—

'Wherefore also Sappho is eloquent and sweet when she sings of Beauty, and
of Love and Spring and the Kingfisher; and every beautiful expression is
woven into her poetry, besides what she herself invented.'

125

Maximus Tyrius says:—

'Diotima says that Love flourishes in prosperity, but dies in adversity; a
sentiment which Sappho comprehends when she calls Love γλυκίπικρος
bitter-sweet [cf. fr. 40] and ἀλγεσίδωρος giver of pain. Socrates calls
Love the wizard, Sappho μυθοπλόκος the weaver of fictions.'

126

Τὸ μέλημα τοὐμόν.

My darling.

Quoted by Julian, and by Theodoras Hyrtacenus in the twelfth century A.D.,
as of 'the wise Sappho.' Bergk says Sappho would have written τὸ μέλημα
ὦμον in her own dialect.

127

Aristides says:—

Το γάνος the brightness standing over the whole city, οὐ διαφθεῖρον τὰς
ὄψεις not destroying the sight, as Sappho says, but developing at once
and crowning and watering with cheerfulness; in no way ὑακινθίνω ἄνθει
ὅμοιον like a hyacinth-flower, but such as earth and sun never yet showed
to men.'

128

Pollux writes:—

'Anacreon ... says they are crowned also with dill, as both Sappho [cf.
fr. 78] and Alcaeus say; though these also say σελίνοις with parsley.'

129

Philostratus says:—

'Thus contend [the maidens] ῥοδοπήχεις καὶ ἑλικώπιδες καὶ καλλιπάρῃοι καὶ
μελίφωνοι with rosy arms and glancing eyes and fair cheeks and honeyed
voices—this indeed is Sappho's sweet salutation.'

And Aristaenĕtus:—

'Before the porch the most musical and μειλιχόφωνοι soft-voiced of the
maidens sang the hymeneal song; this indeed is Sappho's sweetest
utterance.'

Antipater of Sidon, Anthol. Pal. ix. 66, and others, call Sappho
sweet-voiced.

130

Libanius the rhetorician, about the fourth century A.D., says:—

'If therefore nought prevented Sappho the Lesbian from praying νύκτα αὐτῇ
γενέσθαι διπλασίαν that the night might be doubled for her, let me also
ask for something similar. Time, father of year and months, stretch out
this very year for us as far as may be, as, when Herakles was born, thou
didst prolong the night.'

Bergk thinks that Sappho probably prayed for νύκτα τριπλασίαν a night
thrice as long as an ordinary night, in reference to the myth of Jupiter
and Alcmene, the mother of Hercules.

131

Strabo says:—

'A hundred furlongs further (from Elaea, a city in Aeolis) is Cané, the
promontory opposite to Lectum, and forming the Gulf of Adramyttium, of
which the Elaïtic Gulf is a part. Canae is a small city of the Locrians of
Cynus, over against the most southerly extremity of Lesbos, situated in the
Canaean territory, which extends to Arginusae and the overhanging cliff
which some call Aega, as if "a goat," but the second syllable should be
pronounced long, Aegā, like ἀκτά and ἀρχά, for this was the name of the
whole mountain which at present is called Cané or Canae ... and the
promontory itself seems afterwards to have been called Aega, as Sappho
says the rest Canē or Canae.'

132

The Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius says:—

'Apollonius calls Love the son of Aphrodite, Sappho of Earth and Heaven.'

But the Argument prefixed to Theocritus, Idyl xiii., says:—

'Sappho called Love the child of Aphrodite and Heaven.'

And Pausanias, about 180 A.D., says:—

'On Love Sappho the Lesbian sang many things which do not agree with one
another.' Cf. fr. 74.

133

Himerius says:—

'Thou art, I think, an evening-star, of all stars the fairest: this is
Sappho's song to Hesperus.' And again: 'Now thou didst appear like that
fairest of all stars; for the Athenians call thee Hesperus.'

Bergk thinks Sappho's line ran thus:—

Ἀστέρων πάντων ὁ κάλιστος ...

Of all stars the fairest.

Elsewhere Himerius refers to what seems an imitation of Sappho, and says:
'If an ode had been wanted, I should have given him such an ode as this—

Νύμφα ῥοδέων ἐρώτων βρύουσα, Νύμφα Παφίης ἄγαλμα κάλλιστον, ἴθι πρὸς εὐνήν,
ἴθι πρὸς λέχος μείλιχα παίζουσα, γλυκεῖα νυμφίῳ· Ἕσπερος σ' ἑκοῦσαν ἄγοι,
ἀργυρόθρονον ζυγίαν Ἥραν θαυμάζουσαν.'

Bride teeming with rosy loves, bride, fairest image of the goddess of
Paphos, go to the couch, go to the bed, softly sporting, sweet to the
bridegroom. May Hesperus lead thee rejoicing, honouring Hera of the silver
throne, goddess of marriage.

Bride, in whose breast haunt rosy loves!
Bride, fairest of the Paphian groves!
Hence, to thy marriage rise, and go!
Hence, to thy bed, where thou shalt show
With honeyed play thy wedded charms,
Thy sweetness in the bridegroom's arms!
Let Hesper lead thee forth, a wife,
Willing and worshipping for life,
The silver-throned, the wedlock dame,
Queen Hera, wanton without shame!
J. A. SYMONDS, 1883.

134

The Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius says:—

'The story of the love of Selēnē is told by Sappho, and by Nicander in the
second book of his Europa; and it is said that Selene came to Endymion in
the same cave' (on Mount Latmus in Caria).

135

The Scholiast on Hesiod, Op. et D., 74, says:—

'Sappho calls Persuasion Ἀφροδίτης θυγατέρα Daughter of Aphrodite.' Cf.
fr. 141.

136

Maximus Tyrius says:—

'Socrates blames Xanthippe for lamenting his death, as Sappho blames her
daughter—

Οὐ γὰρ θέμις ἐν μουσοπόλων οἰκίᾳ θρήνον εἶναι· οὐκ ἄμμι πρέπει τάδε.

For lamentation may not be in a poet's house: such things befit not us.'

In the home of the Muses 'tis bootless to mourn.
FREDERICK TENNYSON.

137

Aristotle, in his Rhetoric, ii. 23, writes:—

ἢ ὥσπερ Σαπφώ, ὅτι το ἀποθνήσκειν κακόν· οἱ θεοὶ γὰρ οὕτω κεκρίκασιν·
ἀπέθνησκον γὰρ ἄν.

Gregory, commenting on Hermogenes, also quotes the same saying:—

οἷον φησιν ἡ Σαπφώ, ὅτι τὸ ἀποθνήσκειν κακόν· οἱ θεοὶ γὰρ οὕτω κεκρίκασιν·
ἀπέθνησκον γὰρ ἄν, εἴπερ ἦν καλὸν τὸ ἀποθνήσκειν.

Several attempts have been made to restore these words to a metrical form,
and this of Hartung's appears to be the simplest:—

Τὸ θνάσκειν κακόν· οὕτω κεκρίκασι θεοί·
ἔθνασκον γὰρ ἄν εἴπερ κάλον ἦν τόδε.

Death is evil; the Gods have so judged: had it been good, they would die.

The preceding fragment (136) seems to have formed part of the same ode as
the present. Perhaps it was this ode, which Sappho sent to her daughter
forbidding her to lament her mother's death, that Solon is said to have so
highly praised. The story is quoted from Aelian by Stobaeus thus: 'Solon
the Athenian [who died about 558 B.C.], son of Execestĭdes, on his nephew's
singing an ode of Sappho's over their wine, was pleased with it, and bade
the boy teach it him; and when some one asked why he took the trouble, he
said, ἵνα μαθὼν αὐτὸ ἄποθανω. 'That I may not die before I have learned
it.'

138

Athenaeus says:—

'Naucratis has produced some celebrated courtesans of exceeding beauty; as
Dōricha, who was beloved by Charaxus, brother of the beautiful Sappho, when
he went to Naucratis on business, and whom she accuses in her poetry of
having robbed him of much. Herodotus calls her Rhodōpis, not knowing that
Rhodopis was different from the Doricha who dedicated the famous spits at
Delphi.'

Herodotus, about 440 B.C., said:—

'Rhodopis came to Egypt with Xanthes of Samos; and having come to make
money, she was ransomed for a large sum by Charaxus of Mitylene, son of
Scamandronymus and brother of Sappho the poetess. Thus Rhodopis was made
free, and continued in Egypt, and being very lovely acquired great riches
for a Rhodopis, though no way sufficient to erect such a pyramid [as
Mycerīnus'] with. For as any one who wishes may to this day see the tenth
of her wealth, there is no need to attribute any great wealth to her. For
Rhodopis was desirous of leaving a monument to herself in Greece, and
having had such a work made as no one ever yet devised and dedicated in a
temple, to offer it at Delphi as a memorial of herself: having therefore
made from the tenth of her wealth a great number of iron spits for roasting
oxen, as far as the tenth allowed, she sent them to Delphi; and they are
still piled up behind the altar which the Chians dedicated, and opposite
the temple itself. The courtesans of Naucratis are generally very lovely:
for in the first place this one, of whom this account is given, became so
famous that all the Greeks became familiar with the name Rhodopis; and in
the next place, after her another whose name was Archidĭce became
celebrated throughout Greece, though less talked about than the former. As
for Charaxus, after ransoming Rhodopis he returned to Mitylene, where
Sappho ridiculed him bitterly in an ode.'

And Strabo:—

'It is said that the tomb of the courtesan was erected by her lovers:
Sappho the lyric poet calls her Dōricha. She was beloved by Sappho's
brother Charaxus, who traded to the port of Naucratis with Lesbian wine.
Others call her Rhodopis.'

And another writer (Appendix Prov., iv. 51) says:—

'The beautiful courtesan Rhodopis, whom Sappho and Herodotus commemorate,
was of Naucratis in Egypt.'

139

Athenaeus says:—

'The beautiful Sappho in several places celebrates her brother, Larĭchus,
as cup-bearer to the Mitylenaeans in the town-hall.'

The Scholiast on the Iliad, xx. 234, says:—

'It was the custom, as Sappho also says, for well-born and beautiful youths
to pour out wine.'

Cf. fr. 5.

140

Palaephătus, probably an Alexandrian Greek, says:—

'Phaon gained his livelihood by a boat and the sea; the sea was crossed by
a ferry; and no complaint was made by any one, since he was just, and only
took from those who had means. He was a wonder among the Lesbians for his
character. The goddess—they call Aphrodite "the goddess"—commends the man,
and having put on the appearance of a woman now grown old, asks Phaon about
sailing; he was swift to wait on her and carry her across and demand
nothing. What thereupon does the goddess do? They say she transformed the
man and restored him to youth and beauty. This is that Phaon, her love for
whom Sappho several times made into a song.'

The story is repeated by many writers. Cf. fr. 29.

141

[Fr. 141 now appears as fr. 57A, q.v.]

142

Pausanias says:—

'Yet that gold does not contract rust the Lesbian poetess is a witness, and
gold itself shows it.'

And the Scholiast on Pindar, Pyth., iv. 407:—

'But gold is indestructible; and so says Sappho,

Διὸς παῖς ὁ χρυσός, κείνον οὐ σης οὐδε κὶς δάπτει,

Gold is son of Zeus, no moth nor worm devours it.'

Sappho's own phrase is lost.

143

Aulus Gellius, about 160 A.D., writes:—

'Homer says Niobe had six sons and six daughters, Euripides seven of each,
Sappho nine, Bacchylides and Pindar ten.'

Cf. fr. 31, the only line extant from the ode here referred to.

144

Servius, commenting on Vergil, Aeneid, vi. 21, says:—

'Some would have it believed that Theseus rescued along with himself seven
boys and seven maidens, as Plato says in his Phaedo, and Sappho in her
lyrics, and Bacchylides in his dithyrambics, and Euripides in his
Hercules.'

No such passage from Sappho has been preserved.

145

Servius, commenting on Vergil, Eclog., vi. 42, says:—

'Prometheus, son of Iapĕtus and Clymĕne, after he had created man, is said
to have ascended to heaven by help of Minerva, and having applied a small
torch [or perhaps 'wand'] to the sun's wheel, he stole fire and showed it
to men. The Gods being angered hereby sent two evils upon the earth, fevers
and disease [the text is here obviously corrupt; it ought to be 'women and
disease' or 'fevers and women'], as Sappho and Hesiod tell.'

146

Philostratus says:—

'Sappho loves the Rose, and always crowns it with some praise, likening
beautiful maidens to it.'

This remark seems to have led some of the earlier collectors of Sappho's
fragments to include the 'pleasing song in commendation of the Rose' quoted
by Achilles Tatius in his love-story Clitophon and Leucippe, but there is
no reason to attribute it to Sappho. Mrs. E. B. Browning thus translated
it:—

SONG OF THE ROSE.

If Zeus chose us a king of the flowers in his mirth,
He would call to the Rose and would royally crown it,
For the Rose, ho, the Rose, is the grace of the earth,
Is the light of the plants that are growing upon it.

For the Rose, ho, the Rose, is the eye of the flowers,
Is the blush of the meadows that feel themselves fair—
Is the lightning of beauty that strikes through the bowers
On pale lovers who sit in the glow unaware.

Ho, the Rose breathes of love! Ho, the Rose lifts the cup
To the red lips of Cypris invoked for a guest!
Ho, the Rose, having curled its sweet leaves for the world,
Takes delight in the motion its petals keep up,
As they laugh to the wind as it laughs from the west!

And Mr. J. A. Symonds (1883):—

THE PRAISE OF ROSES.

If Zeus had willed it so
That o'er the flowers one flower should reign a queen,
I know, ah well I know
The rose, the rose, that royal flower had been!
She is of earth the gem,
Of flowers the diadem;
And with her flush
The meadows blush:
Nay, she is beauty's self that brightens
In Summer, when the warm air lightens!
Her breath's the breath of Love,
Wherewith he lures the dove
Of the fair Cyprian queen;
Her petals are a screen
Of pink and quivering green,
For Cupid when he sleeps,
Or for mild Zephyrus, who laughs and weeps.

'Sappho loves flowers with a personal sympathy,' writes Professor F. T.
Palgrave. "Cretan girls," she says, "with their soft feet dancing lay flat
the tender bloom of the grass" [fr. 54]: she feels for the hyacinth "which
shepherds on the mountain tread under foot, and the purple flower is on the
ground" [fr. 94]: she pities the wood-doves (apparently) as their "life
grows cold and their wings fall" before the archer' [fr. 16].

147

Himerius says:—

'These gifts of yours must now be likened to those of the leader of the
Muses himself, as Sappho and Pindar, in an ode, adorn him with golden hair
and lyres, and attend him with a team of swans to Helicon while he dances
with Muses and Graces; or as poets inspired by the Muses crown the
Bacchanal (for thus the lyre calls him, meaning Dionȳsos), when Spring has
just flashed out for the first time, with Spring flowers and ivy-clusters,
and lead him, now to the topmost heights of Caucasus and vales of Lydia,
now to the cliffs of Parnassus and the rock of Delphi, while he leaps and
gives his female followers the note for the Evian tune.'

148

Eustathius says:—

'There is, we see, a vagabond friendship, as Sappho would say, καλὸν
δημόσιον, a public blessing.'

This appears to have been said against Rhodopis. Cf. fr. 138.

149

The Lexicon Seguerianum defines—

'Ἄκακος one who has no experience of ill, not, one who is good-natured.
So Sappho uses the word.'

150

The Etymologicum Magnum defines—

Ἀμαμαξύς a vine trained on long poles, and says Sappho makes the plural
ἀμαμάξυδες. So Choeroboscus, late in the sixth century A.D., says 'the
occurrence of the genitive ἀμαμαξύδος [the usual form being ἀμαμάξυος] in
Sappho is strange.'

151

The Etymologicum Magnum says of Ἀμάρα, a trench for watering meadows,
'because it is raised by a water-bucket, ἄμη being a mason's
instrument'—that it is a word Sappho seems to have used; and Orion, about
the fifth century A.D., also explains the word similarly, and says Sappho
used it.

152

Apollonius says:—

'And in this way metaplasms of words [i.e., tenses or cases formed from
non-existent presents or nominatives] arise, like ἐρυσάρματες
[chariot-drawing], λῖτα [cloths], and in Sappho τὸ αὔα, Dawn.'

And the Etymologicum Magnum says:—

'We find παρὰ τὴν αὔαν [during the morning] in Aeolic, for "during the
day."'

153

The Etymologicum Magnum says:—

'Αὔως or ἠώς, that is, the day; thus we read in Aeolic. Sappho has—

πότνια αὔως,

Queen Dawn.'

The solemn Dawn.
FREDERICK TENNYSON.

154

Athenaeus says:—

'The βάρωμος [baromos] and σάρβιτος [sarbĭtos], both of which are
mentioned by Sappho and Anacreon, and the Magădis and the Triangles and the
Sambūcae, are all ancient instruments.'

Athenaeus in another place, apparently more correctly, gives the name of
the first as βάρμος [barmos].

What these instruments precisely were is unknown. Cf. p. 46.

155

Pollux says:—

'Sappho used the word βεῦδος for a woman's dress, a kimberĭcon, a kind
of short transparent frock.'

156

Phrynĭchus the grammarian, about 180 A.D., says:—

'Sappho calls a woman's dressing-case, where she keeps her scents and
such things, γρύτη.'

157

Hesychius, about 370 A.D., says Sappho called Zeus Ἕκτωρ, Hector, i.e.
'holding fast.'

158

A Parisian MS. edited by Cramer says:—

'Among the Aeolians ζ is used for δ, as when Sappho says ζάβατον for
διάβατον, fordable.'

159

A Scholiast on Homer quotes ἀγαγοίην, may I lead, from Sappho.

160

Eustathius, commenting on the Iliad, quotes the grammarian Aristophanes
[about 260 B.C.] saying that Sappho calls a wind that is as if twisted up
and descending, a cyclone, ἄνεμον κατάρη, a wind rushing from above.

Nauck would restore the epithet to verse 2 of fr. 42.

161

Choeroboscus says:—

'Sappho makes the accusative of κίνδυνος danger κίνδυν.'

Another writer, in the Codex Marc., says:—

'Sappho makes the accusative κίνδυνα.'

162

Joannes Alexandrinus, about the seventh century A.D., says:—

'The acute accent falls either on the last syllable or the last but one or
the last but two, but never on the last but three; the accent of Μήδεϊα
[Medeia the sorceress, wife of Jason] in Sappho is allowed by supposing
the ει to form a diphthong.'

163

An unknown author, in Antiatticista, says:—

'Sappho, in her second book, calls σμίρνα myrrh μύρρα.'

164

A treatise on grammar edited by Cramer says:—

'The genitive plural of Μοῦσα is Μωσάων among the Laconians, Μοισάων of
the Muses in Sappho.'

165

Phrynichus says:—

Νίτρον natron (carbonate of soda) is the form 'an Aeolian would use, such
as Sappho, with a ν; but,' he goes on, 'an Athenian would spell it with a
λ, λίτρον.'

166

A Scholiast on Homer, Iliad, iii. 219, says:—

'Sappho said πολυΐδριδι of much knowledge as the dative of πολύϊδρις.'

167

Photius, in his Lexicon, about the ninth century A.D., says:—

'Θάψος is a wood with which they dye wool and hair yellow, which Sappho
calls Σκυθικόν ξύλον Scythian wood.'

And the Scholiast on Theocritus, Idyl ii. 88, says:—

'Θάψος is a kind of wood which is also called σκυθάριον or Scythian wood,
as Sappho says; and in this they dip fleeces and make them of a
quince-yellow, and dye their hair yellow; among us it is called χρυσόξυλον
gold-wood.'

Ahrens thinks that here the Scholiast quoted Sappho, and he thus restores
the verses:—

ˉ ˘ ˉ Ζκύθικον ξύλον,
τῷ βάπτοισί τε τἤρια
ποΐεισι δὲ μάλινα
ξανθίσδοισί τε τὰς τρίχας.

Scythian wood, in which they dip fleeces and make them quince-coloured,
and dye their hair yellow.

Thapsus may have been box-wood, but it is quite uncertain.

168

The Etymologicum Magnum says:—

'The Aeolians say Τίοισιν ὀφθάλμοισιν with what eyes ... [using τίοισι
for τίσι, the dative plural of τίς] as Sappho does.'

169

Orion of Thebes, the grammarian, about 450 A.D., says:—

'In Sappho χελώνη is χελύνη a tortoise'; which is better written χελύνα,
or rather χέλυνα, as other writers imply.

170

Pollux says:—

'Bowls with a boss in the middle are called βαλανειόμφαλοι,
circular-bottomed, from their shape, χρυσόμφαλοι, gold-bottomed, from the
material, like Sappho's χρυσαστράγαλοι, with golden ankles.'

Some few other fragments are attributed to Sappho, but Bergk admits none as
genuine. Above is to be seen every word which he considered hers. An
account of some which have recently been brought to light is given on the
succeeding pages.

THE FAYUM FRAGMENTS

In the Egyptian Museum at Berlin there are some ancient manuscripts which
were bought in the summer of 1879, and which are believed to have come from
Medînet-el-Fayûm in Central Egypt, near the ancient Arsinoë or
Crocodilopolis. A tiny scrap of parchment among these was deciphered by
Professor F. Blass of Kiel, and described by him with much minuteness in
the Rheinisches Museum for 1880, vol. xxxv. pp. 287-290. Through the
kindness of Dr. Erman, the Director of the Museum, and Professor of
Egyptian Archæology in the University, I have been favoured with
photographs of each side of this piece of parchment, exactly the size of
the original. These have been reproduced in facsimile by the Autotype
Company upon the accompanying plate. Some of the minutiæ of the manuscript
are lost in the copy, but it gives a fair general idea of the precious
relic, and exhibits the manner in which it has been torn and perforated and
defaced. It also shows some of the difficulties with which those who
decipher ancient manuscripts have to contend. Few, at the first glance,
would guess how much could be made out of so little.

The letters on each side of the parchment are clearly written, punctuated,
and accented. They appear to belong to the eighth century A.D., so that the
writing is at least a thousand years old. The actual letters are these,
those which are not decipherable with certainty being marked off by
brackets:—

(A.) δωσην
ύτωνμέντ' επ
άλων κἄσλων· (σ
· λοις. λυτης τε μ
5 μ' ονειδος
οιδήσαις. επι τ (α
ἰα(νἄσαιο. το γαρ
μ) ονουκ' ούτω (μ
διάκηται·
10 μ (ηδ

(B.) θεθυμομ
μιπάμπαν
δύναμαι

5  ασκενῆμοι
   ς) αντιλάμπην
   λονπροσωπον

   γχροΐσθεις

10 ... (ρος

The two fragments, distinguished by Blass as A. and B., occur, the one on
the front, the other on the back of the scrap of parchment. They were
edited by Bergk, in the fourth (posthumous) edition of his Poetae Lyrici
Graeci, 1882, vol. iii. pp. 704, 705. Blass ascribed the verses to Sappho,
and he is still of opinion that they are hers, from the metre, the dialect,
and 'the colour of the diction,' to use his own expression in a letter to
me.

[Illustration]

Indeed, every word of them makes one feel that no poet or poetess save
Sappho could have so exquisitely combined simplicity and beauty. Bergk,
however, prints them as of uncertain origin, fragmenta adespota (56 A.,
56 B). He agrees with Blass that they are in the Lesbian dialect and the
Sapphic metre, but he thinks that they may have been written by Alcaeus.
Bergk's decision partly rests upon the statement of Suidas, that Horapollo,
the Greek grammarian, who first taught at Alexandria and afterwards at
Constantinople, in the reign of Theodosius, about 400 A.D., wrote a
commentary on Alcaeus; but he gives no reason for believing that these
Fayum manuscripts necessarily come from Alexandria: their history is very
uncertain. Blass thinks that the greater fame, especially in later times,
of Sappho, strongly favours his own view. To my mind there is little doubt
that we have herein none but her very words.

A restoration of such imperfect fragments must needs be guess-work. Bergk
has, however, attempted it in part, and he has accepted the emendations of
Blass in lines 3-5 of fragment A. Bücheler, one of the editors of the
Rheinisches Museum, has also expressed his views with regard to some of
the lines; but they are not endorsed by the authority of Bergk. According
to the latter distinguished scholar, fragment A may have run thus:—

1 ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ δοκιμοις χαριν μοι ουκ απυδωσην·
ˉ κλυτων μεν τ' επτερυγης ˘ ˉ ˘
ˉ καλων κασλων ˘ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘
φιλοις, λυπης τε με καποριπτης
5 εις εμ' ονειδος.
η κεν οιδησαις, επι τ' αιγ' αμελγων
Σκυριαν ασαιο· το γαρ νοημα
τωμον ουκ ουτω μαλακοφρον, εχθρως
τοις διακηται.
10 ˉ ˘ μηδ' ˘ ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘

In which case it might have had this meaning:—

Thou seemest not to care to return my favour; and indeed thou didst fly
away from famous ... of the fair and noble ... to thy friends, and
painest me, and castest reproach at me. Truly thou mayst swell, and
sate thyself with milking a goat of Scyros. For my mood is not so
soft-hearted to those soever to whom it is disposed unfriendly ... nor
....

The words which are here italicised are those which alone are extant in
full in the manuscript; the others are only plausible guesses, though some
of them are indicated by the existence of accents and portions of letters.

Bergk's ingenious restoration of lines 6 and 7 is founded on a fragment of
Alcaeus (fr. 110), wherein Chrysippus explains αἴξ Σκυρία, a goat of
Scyros, as a proverb of those who spoil kindness (ἐπὶ τῶν τὰς εὐεργεσίας
ἀνατρεπόντων), as a goat upsets her milking pail (ἐπειδὴ πολλάκις τὰ ἀγγεῖα
ἀνατρέπει ἡ αἴξ). Blass would, however, complete the phrase thus:—

      ἐπὶ τ (ᾷ τε λώβᾳ

καρδ) ίαν ἄσαιο,

And with the outrage sate thy heart.

Disappointing as this is, the restoration of fragment B. is yet more
hopeless. Authorities are agreed as to the position of the words in the
Sapphic stanza, thus:—

 ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ θε θῦμον
 ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ μι πάμπαν
 ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ δύναμαι
     ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ ˘

5 ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˘ ἆς κεν ἦ μοι
ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˘ ἀντιλάμπην
ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ κά) λον πρόσωπον
ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ ˘
ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˘ συ) γχροΐσθεις
10 ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˉ ˘ ˘ ˉ ἔται) ρος.

The only additions hazarded by Bergk, or accepted by him from Blass, are
given on the left of the brackets. Bergk says that δύναμαι (as if ˘ ˉ ˉ ;
cf. fr. 13) is an old form of the conjunctive for δύνωμαι. He reads line 5,
ἆς κεν ἦ μοι, comparing Theocritus, 29, 20, ἆς κεν ἔρης, 'as long as thou
lovest': Bergk and Blass alike consider ἠ as a later form of ᾖ. The words
may mean:

... soul ... altogether ... I should be able ... as long indeed as to me
... to flash back ... fair face ... stained over ... friend.

But in the absence of any context the very meaning of the separate words is
uncertain.

Bergk thinks that the fragments belong to different poems, unless we read
fragment A. after fragment B.; there is nothing on the parchment to
indicate sequence.

In fragment B. it will be seen that a space occurs in each place where the
last (or Adonic) verses of each Sapphic stanza would have been, as if they
had been written more to the left in the manuscript; they probably
therefore ranged with the long lines, of which we have only some of the
last syllables preserved. Indenting the shorter verses is a modern fashion;
the ancient way was to begin each one at the same distance from the margin.