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Date: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The Poems of Sappho, Part IISacred-Texts Classical Paganism Index Index of

First Lines Greek Transliteration

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The Poems of Sappho, Part II

19

… Po`das de’

poi’kilos ma’slhs e?ka’lupte, Lu’dion ka’lon e?‘rgon.

A broidered strap of beautiful Lydian work covered her feet.

Her shining ankles clad in fairest fashion

In broidered leather from the realm of Lydia,

So came the Goddess.

This fragment is very likely from an invocation to Aphrodite. It is from the

Scholiast on Aristophanes’ “Peace,” 1174; Pollux about A.D. 180 also mentions
it.

20

… Pantoda’pais memigme’na xroi’aisin.

Shot with innumerable hues.

Quoted by the Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes, i, 727. Sappho’s reference may
be to the rainbow.

21

E?‘međen d? e?‘xeisđa la’đan.

Thou forgettest me.

22

… H?’ tin? a?‘llon

[ma^llon] a?nđrw’pwn e?‘međen filhsđa.

Or lovest another more than you do me.

Both from Apollonius to show the Aeolic e?‘methen for e?‘mou^.

23

Ou?’ ti moi u?‘mmes.

You are nought to me.

As đelet? u?‘mmes.

While you will.

These are quoted by Apollonius to show the Aeolic form u?‘mmes.

24
kai` pođh’w kai` ma’omai.

I yearn and I seek.

From the “Etymologicum Magnum” to show the Aeolic form pođe’w, “I yearn.”

25

Skidname’nas e?n sth’đesin o?‘rgas
mapsula’kan glw^ssan pefula’xđai.

When anger spreads through the breast keep thy tongue from barking foolishly (or
idly).

When anger surges through thy heart

Let not thy foolish tongue take part.

This piece of somewhat sentenious advice is of an unusual type amongst the

Sapphic fragments. It is quoted by Plutarch in his essay “On Restraining Anger.”

26

Ai? d? h?^xes e?‘slwn i?‘meron h?’ ka’lwn,
kai` mh’ ti vei’pen glw^ss? e?ku’ka ka’kon,
ai?‘dws ke’ s? ou? ki’xanen o?‘ppat?

a?‘ll? e?‘leges peri` tw^ dikai’ws.

Hadst thou wished for things good or noble and had not thy tongue formed evil
speech, shame would not have shown from they eyes, but thou hadst spoken frankly
about it.

Aristotle (“Rhetoric”, i, 9), about 330 B.C., says “base things dishonour those
who do or wish them, as Sappho showed when Alcaeus said:

?io’plok? a?‘gna mellixo’meide Sa’pfoi
đe’lw ti vei’pen a?‘lla’ me kwlu’ei ai?‘dws.

“‘Violet-weaving, chaste sweetly smiling Sappho, I would speak but bashfulness
restrains me.’”

And she answered him in the words of the present fragment. Blass thinks that
these two lines assigned to Alcaeus are also by Sappho, and about A.D. 1110 Anna

Comnena certainly suggested the same authorship.

27

Sta^đi ka?‘nta fi’los,….

kai` ta`n e?‘p? o?‘ssois a?mpe’tason xa’rin.

Face me, my dear one…and unveil the grace in thine eyes.

Turn to me, dear one, turn thy face,

And unveil for me in thine eyes, their grace.

Athenaeus says that Sappho addressed this poem, of which this is a fragment, to
a man famous for his physical beauty. It has also been suggested that the lines
may have been addressed to Sappho’s brother. It need not, however, necessarily
be assumed that any particular person is meant.

28

Xru’seoi d? e?re’binđoi e?p? ai?o’nwn e?fu’onto.

And golden pulse grew along the shores.

From Athenaeus.

29

La’tw kai` Nio’ba ma’la me`n fi’lai h?^san e?‘tairai.

Lato and Niobe were most dear friends.

From Athenaeus.

30

Mna’sesđai’ tina’ fami kai` u?‘steron a?mme’wn.

I think men will remember us even hereafter.

From Dio Chrysostom, who, writing about A.D. 100, remarks that this is said

“with perfect beauty.”

31

H?ra’man me`n e?‘gw se’đen, A?‘tđi, pa’lai po’ta.

I loved thee Atthis, once long ago.

From Hephaestion, about A.D. 150, quoted as an example of metre.

32

Smi’kra moi` pai^s e?‘mmen e?fai’neo ka?‘xaris.

To me thou didst seem a small and ungraceful child.

Quoted by Plutarch and others.

33

A?‘ll? o?‘nmh` magalu’nneo daktuli’w pe’ri.

Foolish woman! Have no pride about a ring.

Mentioned by Herodian about A.D. 160.

34

Ou?k oi?^d? o?‘tti đe’w, du’o moi ta` noh’mata.

I know not what to do: I have two minds.

In doubt I am, I have two minds,

I know not what to do.

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

35

Psau’hn d? ou? doki’moim? o?ra’nw du’si p’axesin.

With my two arms, I do not aspire to to touch the sky.

Quoted by Herodian.

36

W?‘s de` pai^s pe’da ma’tera pepteru’twmai.

So, like a child after its mother, I flutter.

From the “Etymologicum Magnum.”

37

H?^ros ?‘aggelos i?mero’fwnos a?‘h’dwn.

The messager of spring, the sweet voiced nighingale.

Quoted by the Scholiast on the Electra of Sophocles, 149, “the nightingale is
the messager of Zeus, because it is the sign of spring.”

Compare Ben Johnson’s “The Sad Shepherd,” Act II, Scene vi: “The dear good angel
of the Spring, the nightingale.”

38

E?‘ros dau?^te’ m? o? lusime’les do’nei,
gluku’pikron a?ma’xanon o?‘rpeton.

Now Love, the ineluctable, dominates and shakes my being, and fills me with
bitter-sweetness.

Now Love, the ineluctable, with bitter sweetness

Fills me, overwhelms me, and shakes my being.

Quoted by Hephaestion.

39

A?‘tđi soi` d e?‘međe’n men a’ph’xđeto
fronti’sden, e?‘pi d? A?ndrome’dan po’thj.

But to thee, Athis, the thought of me is hateful; thou fliest to Andromeda.

Quoted by Hephaestion with the preceding, to which it does not appear really to
belong.

40

E?‘ros dau?^t? e`ti’naksen e?‘moi fre’nas,
a?‘nemos kat o?‘ros dru’sin e?mpe’swn.

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

Now like a mountain wind the oaks o’erwhelming,

Eros shakes my soul.

Quoted by Maximus Tyrius about 150 B.C. He speaks of Socrates exciting Phaedus
to madness, when he speaks of love.

41

O?‘ta pa’nnuxos a?‘sfi kata’grei.

When all night long [sleep] holds them.

Bergk suggest that the words o?‘ppat? a?‘wros may have preceeded these words.

The fragment quoted by Apollonius, and its sense may be “when all night long
sleep holds their eyes,”

42

A?‘ge dh` xe’lu di^a’ moi fwna’essa ge’noio.

Come, O divine shell, yield thy resonances to me.

Come, O come, divinest shell,

And in my ear all thy secrets tell.

Quoted by Hermogenes and Eustathius. Sappho is apparently addressing her lyre.

The legend is that Hermes is supposed to have made the first lyre by stretching
the strings across the cavity of a tortise’s shell.

43

Ka?pa’lais u?pođu’midas
ple’ktais a?mp? a?palaj de’raj

And delicately woven garlands round tender neck.

Quoted by Athenaeus

Next: Part III