The Poems and Fragments — Sappho
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ΣΑΠΦΟΥΣ ΜΕΛΗ
Translation/edition: Henry Thornton Wharton (1885)
Language: English
Read in Plato Scroll: https://plato-scroll.com/s/sappho-fragments/
This file: https://plato-scroll.com/text/sappho-fragments.txt
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  - Greek text: https://plato-scroll.com/text/sappho-fragments-e.txt
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Numbers in [brackets] are the edition's reference loci (Stephanus, Bekker, book.line, page...). Superscript numerals refer to the Notes at the end.


## The Poems and Fragments


### I. In Sapphic Metre

[1] 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.
[1] 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.
[2] 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 ...
[2] 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.'
[3] 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.
[3] Quoted by Eustathius of Thessalonica, late in the twelfth century, to illustrate the simile in the Iliad, viii. 551. Julian, about 350 A.D., says Sappho applied the epithet silver to the moon; wherefore Blomfield suggested its position here.
[4] And round about the [breeze] murmurs cool through apple-boughs, and slumber streams from quivering leaves.
[4] 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.
[5] Come, goddess of Cyprus, and in golden cups serve nectar delicately mixed with delights.
[5] 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.
[6] Or Cyprus and Paphos, or Panormus [holds] thee.
[6] From Strabo, about 19 A.D.
[7-8] But for thee will I [lead] to the altar [the offspring] of a white goat ... and add a libation for thee.
[7-8] Adduced by Apollonius of Alexandria, about 140 A.D., to illustrate similarities in dialects.
[9] This lot may I win, golden-crowned Aphrodite.
[9] From Apollonius, to show how adverbs give an idea of prayer.
[10] Who gave me their gifts and made me honoured.
[10] From Apollonius, to illustrate the Aeolic dialect.
[11] This will I now sing deftly to please my girl-friends.
[11] Quoted by Athenaeus to prove that freeborn women and maidens often called their girl associates and friends ἐταῖραι (Hetaerae), without any idea of reproach.
[12] For they whom I benefit injure me most.
[12] From the Etymologicum Magnum, a dictionary which was compiled about the tenth century A.D.
[13] But that which one desires I ...
[13] From Apollonius, to illustrate the use of the verb ἐράω.
[14] To you, fair maids, my mind changes not.
[14] From Apollonius, to show the Aeolic use of ὔμμιν for ὑμῖν, 'to you.'
[15] And this I feel in myself.
[15] From Apollonius, to show Aeolic accentuation.
[16] But their heart turned cold and they dropt their wings.
[16] 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.
[17] According to my weeping: it and all care let buffeting winds bear away.
[17] 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.'
[18] Me just now the golden-sandalled Dawn ...
[18] Quoted by Ammonius of Alexandria, at the close of the fourth century A.D., to show Sappho's use of ἀρτίως.
[19] A broidered strap of fair Lydian work covered her feet.
[19] Quoted by the Scholiast on Aristophanes' Peace, 1174; and also by Pollux, about 180 A.D.
[20] Shot with a thousand hues.
[20] 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.
[21] Me thou forgettest.
[21] From Apollonius, as is also the following, to show the Aeolic use of ἔμεθεν for ἐμοῦ, 'of me.'
[22] Or lovest another more than me.
[23] Ye are nought to me.
[23] Quoted by Apollonius, as is also the following fragment, to show that ὑμεῖς was in Aeolic ὔμμες 'you.'
[24] While ye will.
[25] I yearn and seek ...
[25] From the Etymologicum Magnum, to show that the Aeolians used ποθήω for ποθέω, 'I yearn.'
[26] 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.
[26] 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:— ...' Then follows Sappho's reply, the present fragment. 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.

### II. In Dactylic Metre

[27] When anger spreads through the breast, guard thy tongue from barking idly.
[27] Quoted by Plutarch, in his treatise On restraining anger, to show that in wrath nothing is more noble than quietness.

### III. In Alcaic Metre

[28] 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.
[28] 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— "Violet-weaving, pure, softly-smiling Sappho, I would say something, but shame restrains me"', and she answered him in the words of the present fragment.

### IV. In Mixed Glyconic and Alcaic Metre

[29] Stand face to face, friend ... and unveil the grace in thine eyes.
[29] Athenaeus, speaking of the charm of lovers' eyes, says Sappho addressed this to a man who was admired above all others for his beauty.

### V. In Choriambic Metre

[30] And golden pulse grew on the shores.
[30] Quoted by Athenaeus, when he is speaking of vetches.
[31] Leto and Niobe were friends full dear.
[31] Quoted by Athenaeus for the same reason as fr. 11.
[32] Men I think will remember us even hereafter.
[32] Dio Chrysostom, the celebrated Greek rhetorician, writing about 100 A.D., observes that Sappho says this 'with perfect beauty.'
[33] I loved thee once, Atthis, long ago.
[33] 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.
[34] A slight and ill-favoured child didst thou seem to me.
[34] Quoted by Plutarch; and by others also.
[35] Foolish woman, pride not thyself on a ring.
[35] Preserved by Herodian the grammarian, who lived about 160 A.D.
[36] I know not what to do; my mind is divided.
[36] Quoted by the Stoic philosopher Chrysippus, about 220 B.C.
[37] I do not think to touch the sky with my two arms.
[37] Quoted by Herodian.
[38] And I flutter like a child after her mother.
[38] Quoted in the Etymologicum Magnum as an example of Aeolic.
[39] Spring's messenger, the sweet-voiced nightingale.
[39] Quoted by the Scholiast on Sophocles, Electra, 149, 'the nightingale is the messenger of Zeus, because it is the sign of Spring.'
[40] Now Love masters my limbs and shakes me, fatal creature, bitter-sweet.
[40] Quoted by Hephaestion.
[41] But to thee, Atthis, the thought of me is hateful; thou flittest to Andromeda.
[41] Quoted by Hephaestion together with fr. 40, but it seems to be the beginning of a different ode.
[42] Now Eros shakes my soul, a wind on the mountain falling on the oaks.
[42] Quoted by Maximus Tyrius, about 150 B.C., in speaking of Socrates exciting Phaedrus to Bacchic frenzy when he talked of love.
[43] When all night long [sleep] holds their [eyes].
[43] 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.
[44] And purple napkins for thy lap ... (even these wilt thou despise) I sent from Phocaea, precious gifts for thy lap.
[44] 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.
[45] Come now, divine shell, become vocal for me.
[45] Quoted by Hermogenes and Eustathius, of Sappho apostrophising her lyre.
[46] And tender woven garlands round tender neck
[46] From Athenaeus.
[47] Fonder of maids than Gello.
[47] 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.
[48] Of Gorgo full weary.
[48] Quoted by Choeroboscus, about the end of the sixth century A.D., to show that the Aeolic genitive ended in -ως.
[49] Of a proud (or perfumed, or flowery) palace.
[49] 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.
[50] But I upon a soft cushion dispose my limbs.
[50] From Herodian.
[51] 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.
[51] 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.
[52] The moon has set, and the Pleiades; it is midnight, the time is going by, and I sleep alone.
[52] Quoted by Hephaestion as an example of metre.
[53] The moon rose full, and the women stood as though around an altar.
[53] 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.
[54] Thus at times with tender feet the Cretan women dance in measure round the fair altar, trampling the fine soft bloom of the grass.
[54] 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.
[55] Then delicately in thick robe I sprang.
[55] From Herodian, as an illustration of the Aeolic dialect. Bergk attributes this to Sappho, but Cramer and others think that Alcaeus wrote the line.
[56] Leda they say once found an egg hidden under hyacinth-blossoms.
[56] From the Etymologicum Magnum, Athenaeus, and others.
[57] And dark-eyed Sleep, child of Night.
[57] From the Etymologicum Magnum, to show that the first letter of ἄωρος = ὦρος, 'sleep,' was redundant.
[57A] Aphrodite's handmaid bright as gold.
[57A] 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. (Bergk formerly numbered this fr. 141.)
[58] Andromeda has a fair requital.
[58] 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.
[59] Sappho, why [celebrate] blissful Aphrodite?
[60] Come now, delicate Graces and fair-haired Muses.
[60] Quoted by Hephaestion, Attilius Fortunatianus (about the fifth century A.D.), and Servius, as an example of Sappho's choriambic tetrameters.
[61] A sweet-voiced maiden.
[61] From Attilius Fortunatianus.
[62] Delicate Adonis is dying, Cytherea; what shall we do? Beat your breasts, maidens, and rend your tunics.
[62] 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.
[63] Ah for Adonis!
[63] From Marius Plotius, about 600 A.D. It seems to be the refrain of the ode to Adonis.
[64] Coming from heaven wearing a purple mantle.
[64] 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.
[65] Come, rosy-armed pure Graces, daughters of Zeus.
[65] 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.'
[66] But Ares says he would drag Hephaestus by force.
[66] From Priscian, late in the fifth century A.D.
[67] Many thousand cups thou drainest.
[67] Quoted by Athenaeus when descanting on drinking-cups.
[68] 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.
[68] 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.
[69] No one maiden I think shall at any time see the sunlight that shall be as wise as thou.
[69] Quoted by Chrysippus. It is probably out of the same ode as the preceding.
[70] What country girl bewitches thy heart, who knows not how to draw her dress about her ankles?
[70] Athenaeus, speaking of the care which the ancients bestowed upon dress, says Sappho thus jests upon Andromeda. Three other authors quote the same lines.
[71] I taught Hero of Gyara, the swift runner.
[71] Quoted by Choeroboscus, to show the Aeolic accusative.
[72] I am not of a malignant nature, but have a quiet temper.
[72] Quoted in the Etymologicum Magnum to show the meaning of ἀβάκης, 'childlike, innocent.'
[73] But charming [maidens] plaited garlands.
[73] Quoted by the Scholiast on Aristophanes Thesmophoriazusae 401, to show that plaiting wreaths was a sign of being in love.
[74] Thou and my servant Love.
[74] 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.
[75] 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.
[75] From Stobaeus' Anthology, and Apostolius.
[76] Mnasidica is more shapely than the tender Gyrinno.
[76] Quoted by Hephaestion as an example of metre.
[77] Scornfuler than thee, Eranna, have I nowhere found.
[77] Quoted by Hephaestion with the foregoing. The MSS. do not agree; perhaps ὦ ῎ραννα is an adjective, for ὢ ἐρατεινή, O lovely—.
[78] 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.
[78] 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.'
[79] I love delicacy, and for me Love has the sun's splendour and beauty.
[79] 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.'
[80] And down I set the cushion.
[80] Quoted by Herodian, along with fr. 50.
[81] Wealth without thee, Worth, is no safe neighbour [but the mixture of both is the height of happiness].
[81] From the Scholiast on Pindar. The second line appears to be the gloss of the commentator, though Blass believes it is Sappho's.

### VI. In Various Metres

[82] And thou thyself, Calliope.
[82] Quoted by Hephaestion when he is analysing a metre invented by Archilochus.
[83] Sleep thou in the bosom of thy tender girlfriend.
[83] From the Etymologicum Magnum.
[84] Hither now, Muses, leaving golden ...
[84] Quoted by Hephaestion as an example of a verse made of two Ithyphallics.
[85] 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]....
[85] Quoted and elaborately scanned by Hephaestion, although Bergk regards the lines as merely trochaic.
[86] All joy to thee, daughter of Polyanax.
[86] From Maximus Tyrius. It seems to be addressed to either Gorgo or Andromeda.

### VII. In the Ionic a minore Metre

[87] In a dream I spake with the daughter of Cyprus.
[87] From Hephaestion.
[88] Why, lovely swallow, daughter of Pandīon, [weary] me?
[88] 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.'
[89] She wrapped herself well in delicate hairy ...
[89] From Pollux, who says the line refers to fine closely-woven linen.
[90] Sweet Mother, I cannot weave my web, broken as I am by longing for a boy, at soft Aphrodite's will.
[90] From Hephaestion, as an example of metre.

### VIII. Epithalamia, Bridal Songs

[91] Raise high the roof-beam, carpenters. (Hymenaeus!) Like Ares comes the bridegroom, (Hymenaeus!) taller far than a tall man. (Hymenaeus!)
[91] Quoted by Hephaestion as an example of a mes-hymnic poem, where the refrain follows each line.
[92] Towering, as the Lesbian singer towers among men of other lands.
[92] Quoted by Demetrius, about 150 A.D.
[93] 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.
[93] Quoted by the Scholiast on Hermogenes, and by others, to explain the word γλυκύμαλον, 'sweet-apple,' an apple grafted on a quince.
[94] As on the hills the shepherds trample the hyacinth under foot, and the flower darkens on the ground.
[94] Quoted by Demetrius, as an example of the ornament and beauty proper to a concluding sentence. Bergk first attributed the lines to Sappho.
[95] Evening, thou that bringest all that bright morning scattered; thou bringest the sheep, the goat, the child back to her mother.
[95] 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.
[96] I shall be ever maiden.
[96] From a Parisian MS. edited by Cramer, adduced to show the Aeolic form of ἀεί, 'ever.'
[97] We will give, says the father ...
[97] From a Parisian MS. edited by Cramer.
[98] To the doorkeeper feet seven fathoms long, and sandals of five bulls' hides, the work of ten cobblers.
[98] 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.'
[99] Happy bridegroom, now is thy wedding come to thy desire, and thou hast the maiden of thy desire.
[99] Quoted by Hephaestion, along with the following, to exemplify metres; both fragments seem to belong to the same ode.
[100] And a soft [paleness] is spread over the lovely face.
[100] 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.
[101] He who is fair to look upon is [good], and he who is good will soon be fair also.
[101] 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] Do I still long for maidenhood?
[102] 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] The bride [comes] rejoicing; let the bridegroom rejoice.
[103] From Hephaestion, as a catalectic iambic.
[104] Whereunto may I well liken thee, dear bridegroom? To a soft shoot may I best liken thee.
[104] From Hephaestion, as an example of metre.
[105] Hail, bride! noble bridegroom, all hail!
[105] Quoted by Servius, about 390 A.D., on Vergil, Georg. i. 31; also referred to by Pollux and Julian.
[106] For there was no other girl, O bridegroom, like her.
[106] From Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
[107-108] Sing Hymenaeus!
Ah for Adonis!
[107-108] 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.
[109] A. Maidenhood, maidenhood, whither art thou gone away from me?
B. Never again will I come to thee, never again.
[109] From Demetrius, who quoted the fragment to show the grace of Sappho's style and the beauty of repetition.
[110] Fool, faint not thou in thy strong heart.
[110] From a very corrupt passage in Herodian. The translation is from Bergk's former emendation— Ἄλλα μὴ κάμε τὺ στερέαν φρένα.
[111] To himself he seems ...
[111] From Apollonius, to show that the Aeolians used the digamma, ϝ. Bergk says this fragment does not belong to fr. 2.
[112] Much whiter than an egg.
[112] From Athenaeus.
[113] Neither honey nor bee for me.
[113] 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.
[114] Stir not the shingle.
[114] Quoted by the Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius to show that χεράδες were 'little heaps of stones.'
[115] Thou burnest us.
[115] Quoted by Apollonius to show the Aeolic form of ἡμᾶς, 'us.'
[116] A napkin dripping.
[116] 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] She called him her son.
[117] Quoted by Apollonius to show the Aeolic use of the digamma.

### IX. Epigrams

[118] 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] 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.
[119] 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.
[120] Over the fisherman Pelagon his father Meniscus set weel and oar, memorial of a luckless life.
[120] Bergk sees no reason to accept the voice of tradition in attributing this epigram to Sappho.

### X. 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—'
[121] A maiden full tender plucking flowers.
[122-123] Far sweeter of tone than harp, more golden than gold.
[122-123] 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:—
[124] '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:—
[125] '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] My darling.
[126] 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:—
[127] 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:—
[128] '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:—
[129] '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.'
[129] And Aristaenĕtus:—
[129] 'Before the porch the most musical and μειλιχόφωνοι soft-voiced of the maidens sang the hymeneal song; this indeed is Sappho's sweetest utterance.'
[130] Libanius the rhetorician, about the fourth century A.D., says:—
[130] '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.'
[131] Strabo says:—
[131] '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:—
[132] 'Apollonius calls Love the son of Aphrodite, Sappho of Earth and Heaven.'
[132] But the Argument prefixed to Theocritus, Idyl xiii., says:—
[132] 'Sappho called Love the child of Aphrodite and Heaven.'
[132] And Pausanias, about 180 A.D., says:—
[132] 'On Love Sappho the Lesbian sang many things which do not agree with one another.'
[133] Himerius says:—
[133] '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.'
[133] Bergk thinks Sappho's line ran thus:—
[133] Of all stars the fairest.
[134] The Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius says:—
[134] '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:—
[135] 'Sappho calls Persuasion Ἀφροδίτης θυγατέρα Daughter of Aphrodite.'
[136] Maximus Tyrius says:— 'Socrates blames Xanthippe for lamenting his death, as Sappho blames her daughter—'
[136] For lamentation may not be in a poet's house: such things befit not us.
[137] Aristotle, in his Rhetoric, ii. 23, writes:— ἢ ὥσπερ Σαπφώ, ὅτι το ἀποθνήσκειν κακόν· οἱ θεοὶ γὰρ οὕτω κεκρίκασιν· ἀπέθνησκον γὰρ ἄν.
[137] 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.
[137] Several attempts have been made to restore these words to a metrical form, and this of Hartung's appears to be the simplest:—
[137] Death is evil; the Gods have so judged: had it been good, they would die.
[138] Athenaeus says:—
[138] '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.'
[138] Herodotus, about 440 B.C., said:—
[138] '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.'
[138] And Strabo:—
[138] '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.'
[138] And another writer (Appendix Prov., iv. 51) says:—
[138] 'The beautiful courtesan Rhodopis, whom Sappho and Herodotus commemorate, was of Naucratis in Egypt.'
[139] Athenaeus says:—
[139] 'The beautiful Sappho in several places celebrates her brother, Larĭchus, as cup-bearer to the Mitylenaeans in the town-hall.'
[139] The Scholiast on the Iliad, xx. 234, says:—
[139] 'It was the custom, as Sappho also says, for well-born and beautiful youths to pour out wine.'
[140] Palaephătus, probably an Alexandrian Greek, says:—
[140] '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.'
[140] The story is repeated by many writers.
[141] [Fr. 141 now appears as fr. 57A, q.v.]
[142] Pausanias says:—
[142] 'Yet that gold does not contract rust the Lesbian poetess is a witness, and gold itself shows it.'
[142] And the Scholiast on Pindar, Pyth., iv. 407:— 'But gold is indestructible; and so says Sappho,'
[142] Gold is son of Zeus, no moth nor worm devours it.
[142] Sappho's own phrase is lost.
[143] Aulus Gellius, about 160 A.D., writes:—
[143] 'Homer says Niobe had six sons and six daughters, Euripides seven of each, Sappho nine, Bacchylides and Pindar ten.'
[143] Cf. fr. 31, the only line extant from the ode here referred to.
[144] Servius, commenting on Vergil, Aeneid, vi. 21, says:—
[144] '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.'
[144] No such passage from Sappho has been preserved.
[145] Servius, commenting on Vergil, Eclog., vi. 42, says:—
[145] '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:—
[146] 'Sappho loves the Rose, and always crowns it with some praise, likening beautiful maidens to it.'
[147] Himerius says:—
[147] '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:—
[148] 'There is, we see, a vagabond friendship, as Sappho would say, καλὸν δημόσιον, a public blessing.'
[148] This appears to have been said against Rhodopis.
[149] The Lexicon Seguerianum defines—
[149] 'Ἄκακος one who has no experience of ill, not, one who is good-natured. So Sappho uses the word.'
[150] The Etymologicum Magnum defines—
[150] 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:—
[152] '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.'
[152] And the Etymologicum Magnum says:—
[152] '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—'
[153] Queen Dawn.
[154] Athenaeus says:—
[154] '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.'
[154] Athenaeus in another place, apparently more correctly, gives the name of the first as βάρμος [barmos].
[155] Pollux says:—
[155] '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:—
[156] '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:—
[158] '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.
[161] Choeroboscus says:—
[161] 'Sappho makes the accusative of κίνδυνος danger κίνδυν.'
[161] Another writer, in the Codex Marc., says:—
[161] 'Sappho makes the accusative κίνδυνα.'
[162] Joannes Alexandrinus, about the seventh century A.D., says:—
[162] '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:—
[163] 'Sappho, in her second book, calls σμίρνα myrrh μύρρα.'
[164] A treatise on grammar edited by Cramer says:—
[164] 'The genitive plural of Μοῦσα is Μωσάων among the Laconians, Μοισάων of the Muses in Sappho.'
[165] Phrynichus says:—
[165] 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:—
[166] 'Sappho said πολυΐδριδι of much knowledge as the dative of πολύϊδρις.'
[167] Photius, in his Lexicon, about the ninth century A.D., says:—
[167] 'Θάψος is a wood with which they dye wool and hair yellow, which Sappho calls Σκυθικόν ξύλον Scythian wood.'
[167] And the Scholiast on Theocritus, Idyl ii. 88, says:—
[167] '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.'
[167] Ahrens thinks that here the Scholiast quoted Sappho, and he thus restores the verses:—
[167] Scythian wood, in which they dip fleeces and make them quince-coloured, and dye their hair yellow.
[168] The Etymologicum Magnum says:—
[168] '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:—
[169] 'In Sappho χελώνη is χελύνη a tortoise'; which is better written χελύνα, or rather χέλυνα, as other writers imply.
[170] Pollux says:—
[170] '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.'

### The Fayum Fragments

[A] 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 ....
[A] 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. 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. 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. Bergk, however, prints them as of uncertain origin, fragmenta adespota (56 A., 56 B). 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.
[B] ... soul ... altogether ... I should be able ... as long indeed as to me ... to flash back ... fair face ... stained over ... friend.
[B] But in the absence of any context the very meaning of the separate words is uncertain. The only additions hazarded by Bergk, or accepted by him from Blass, are given on the left of the brackets.