35
Αλλα, μη μεγαλύνεο δακτυλίω πέρι.
Foolish woman, pride not thyself on a ring.
Preserved by Herodian the grammarian, who lived about 160 A.D.
36
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.
37
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.
38
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.
39
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.'
40
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.
41
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.
42
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.
43
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.
44
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.
45
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.
46
Κἀπάλαις ὑποθύμιδας
πλέκταις ἀμπ' ἀπάλᾳ δέρα.
And tender woven garlands round tender neck
From Athenaeus.
47
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.
48
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.
49
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.
50
Ἔγω δ' ἐπὶ μαλθάκαν
τύλαν σπολέω μέλεα.
But I upon a soft cushion dispose my limbs.
From Herodian.
51
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.
52
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.
53
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.
54
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.
55
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.
56
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 macronmacronmacronmacronmacronmacron
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.
57
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.)
58
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.
59
Ψάπφοι, τί τὰν πολύολβον Ἀφρόδιταν;
Sappho, why [celebrate] blissful Aphrodite?
60
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.
61
Πάρθενον ἀδύφωνον.
A sweet-voiced maiden.
From Attilius Fortunatianus.
62
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.
63
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.
64
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.
65
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.
66
macronmacronmacron 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.
67
macronmacronmacronmacronmacronmacronmacronmacronmacronmacron Πόλλα δ' ἀνάριθμα
ποτήρια καλαίφις.
Many thousand cups thou drainest.
Quoted by Athenaeus when descanting on drinking-cups.
68
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.
69
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.
70
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.
71
Ἤρων ἐξεδίδαξ' εκ Γυάρων τὰν τανυσίδρομον.
I taught Hero of Gyara, the swift runner.
Quoted by Choeroboscus, to show the Aeolic accusative.
72
macronmacron Ἀλλά τις οὐκ ἔμμι παλιγκότων
οργαν, ἀλλ' ἀβάκην τὰν φρέν' ἔχω macronmacron