Sappho: Memoir, text, selected renderings, and a literal translation
Part 6
IN MIXED GLYCONIC AND ALCAIC METRE
29
[Greek: Stathi kanta philos ...] [Greek: kai tan ep' ossois ampetason charin.]
_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.
V
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.]
30
[Greek: Chryseoi d' erebinthoi ep' aionôn ephuonto.]
_And golden pulse grew on the shores._
Quoted by Athenaeus, when he is speaking of vetches.
31
[Greek: Latô kai Nioba mala men philai êsan etaipai.]
_Leto and Niobe were friends full dear._
Quoted by Athenaeus for the same reason as fr. 11. Compare also fr. 143.
32
[Greek: Mnasesthai tina phami kai ysteron ammeôn.]
_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 [Greek: phami], Bergk quotes a fragment preserved by Plutarch, which may have been written by Sappho:
. . . . . [Greek: egô phami ioplokôn] [Greek: Moisan eu lachemen.]
_I think I have a goodly portion in the violet weaving Muses._
33
[Greek: Êraman men egô sethen, Atthi, palai pota.]
_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,
= = - v v - v v - v v - v = ;
34
[Greek: Smikra moi pais emmen ephaineo kacharis.]
_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.
35
[Greek: Alla, mê megalyneo daktyliô peri.]
_Foolish woman, pride not thyself on a ring._
Preserved by Herodian the grammarian, who lived about 160 A.D.
36
[Greek: Ouk oid' otti theô; duo moi ta noêmata.]
_I know not what to do; my mind is divided._
Quoted by the Stoic philosopher Chrysippus, about 220 B.C.
37
[Greek: Psauên d' ou dokimoim' oranô dysi pachesin.]
_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
[Greek: Ôs de pais peda matera pepterygômai.]
_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
[Greek: Êros angelos imerophônos aêdôn.]
_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
[Greek: Eros daute m' o lysimelês donei,] [Greek: glykypikron amachanon orpeton.]
_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
[Greek: Atthi, soi d' emethen men apêchtheto] [Greek: phrontisdên, epi d' Andromedan potê.]
_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
[Greek: Eros daut' etinaxen emoi phrenas,] [Greek: anemos kat' oros drysin empesôn].
_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
[Greek: Ota pannychos asphi katagrei].
_When all night long_ [sleep] _holds their_ [eyes].
Quoted by Apollonius to show the Aeolic form of [Greek: sphi]. Bergk thinks that Sappho may have written--
[Greek: oppat' [aôros],] [Greek: ota pannychos asphi katagrei],
therefore I translate it so.
44
[Greek: Cheiromaktra de kangonôn] [Greek: porphyra ...] [Greek: kai tauta men atimaseis,] [Greek: epemps' apy Phôkaas] [Greek: dôra timia kangonôn.]
_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 [Greek: cheiromaktra] were cloths, handkerchiefs, for covering the head. But the whole passage is hopelessly corrupt.
45
[Greek: Age dê chely dia moi] [Greek: phônaessa genoio.]
_Come now, divine shell, become vocal for me._
Quoted by Hermogenes and Eustathius, of Sappho apostrophising her lyre.
46
[Greek: Kapalais hypothymidas] [Greek: plektais amp' apala dera.]
_And tender woven garlands round tender neck_
From Athenaeus.
47
[Greek: Gellôs paidophilôtera.]
_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
[Greek: Mala dê kekorêmenas] [Greek: Gorgôs.]
_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 [Greek: -ôs]. Maximus Tyrius mentions this girl Gorgo along with Andromeda (cf. fr. 41) as beloved by Sappho.
49
[Greek: Brentheiô basilêiô.]
_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
[Greek: Egô d' epi malthakan] [Greek: tylan spoleô melea.]
_But I upon a soft cushion dispose my limbs._
From Herodian.
51
[Greek: Kê d' ambrosias men kratêr ekekrato,] [Greek: Ermas d' elen olpin theois oinochoêsai.] [Greek: kênoi d' ara pantes karchêsia t' êchon] [Greek: kaleibon, arasanto de pampan esla] [Greek: tô gambrô.]
_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 _carch[=e]sia,_ 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
[Greek: Dedyke men a selanna] [Greek: kai Plêiades, mesai de] [Greek: nyktes, para d' erchet' ôra,] [Greek: egô de mona kateudô].
_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
[Greek: Plêrês men ephainet' a selanna,] [Greek: ai d' hôs peri bômon estathêsan.]
_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
[Greek: Krêssai ny pot' ôd' emmeleôs podessin] [Greek: ôrcheunt' apalois amph' eroenta bômon] [Greek: poas teren anthos malakon mateisai.]
_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
[Greek: Abra dêute pachêa spola alloman.]
_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
[Greek: Phaisi dê pota Lêdan yakinthinôn] [Greek: [yp' antheôn] pepykadmenon] [Greek: eurên ôion.]
_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--
[Greek: eurên ôion ôiô] [Greek: poly leukoteron] - v v - v -
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
[Greek: Ophthalmois de melais nyktos aôros.]
_And dark-eyed Sleep, child of Night._
From the _Etymologicum Magnum_, to show that the first letter of [Greek: aôros] = [Greek: ôros], 'sleep,' was redundant.
57A
[Greek: Chrysophaê therapainan Aphroditas.]
_Aphrodite's handmaid bright as gold._
Philodemus, about 60 B.C., in a MS. discovered at Herculaneum, says that Sappho thus addresses [Greek: Peithô], _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
[Greek: Echei men Andromeda kalan amoiban.]
_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
[Greek: Psapphoi, ti tan polyolbon Aphroditan?]
_Sappho, why_ [celebrate] _blissful Aphrodite?_
60
[Greek: Deute nyn, abrai Charites, kallikomoi te Moisai.]
_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
[Greek: Parthenon adyphônon].
_A sweet-voiced maiden._
From Attilius Fortunatianus.
62
[Greek: Katthnaskei, Kytherê', abros Adônis, ti ke theimen;] [Greek: Kattyptesthe korai kai katereikesthe chitônas.]
_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 Oetol[)i]nus (as if [Greek: oitos Linou], 'the death of Linus'), from the poems of Pamph[=o]s, 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 [Greek: ailinos], 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
[Greek: Ô ton Adônin.]
_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
[Greek: Elthont' ex oranô porphyrian [echonta] perthemenon] [Greek: chlamyn.]
_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 [Greek: chlamys], a short mantle fastened by a brooch on the right shoulder, so as to hang in a curve across the body.
65
[Greek: Brodopachees agnai Charites, deute Dios korai.]
_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 Philostr[)a]tus, 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
- v - [Greek: O d' Areus phaisi ken Aphaiston agên bia.]
_But Ares says he would drag Hephaestus by force._
From Priscian, late in the fifth century A.D.
67
- v - v v - - v v - [Greek: Polla d' anarithma] [Greek: potêria kalaiphis.]
_Many thousand cups thou drainest._
Quoted by Athenaeus when descanting on drinking-cups.
68
[Greek: Katthanoisa de keiseai pota, kôu mnamosyna sethen] [Greek: esset' oute tot' out' ysteron; ou gar pedecheis brodôn] [Greek: tôn ek Pierias, all' aphanês kên Aida domois] [Greek: phoitaseis ped' amaurôn nekyôn ekpepotamena.]
_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. Arist[=i]des, 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
[Greek: Oud' ian dokimoimi prosidoisan phaos aliô] [Greek: essesthai sophian parthenon eis oudena pô chronon] [Greek: toiautan.]
_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
[Greek: Tis d' agroiôtis toi thelgei noon,] [Greek: ouk epistamena ta brake' elkên epi tôn sphyrôn?]
_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
[Greek: Êrôn exedidax' ek Gyarôn tan tanysidromon.]
_I taught Hero of Gyara, the swift runner._
Quoted by Choeroboscus, to show the Aeolic accusative.
72
- v [Greek: Alla tis ouk emmi palinkotôn] [Greek: organ, all' abakên tan phren' echô] v -
_I am not of a malignant nature, but have a quiet temper._
Quoted in the _Etymologicum Magnum_ to show the meaning of [Greek: abakês], 'childlike, innocent.'
73
- v [Greek: Autar oraiai stephanêplokeun.]
_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.
74
- v - [Greek: Su te kamos therapôn Eros.]
_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.
75
[Greek: All' eôn philos ammin [allo]] [Greek: lechos arnyso neôteron;] [Greek: ou gar tlasom' egô xynoikên] [Greek: neô g' essa geraitera.]
_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.
76
[Greek: Eumorphotera Mnasidika tas apalas Gyrinnôs.]
_Mnasidica is more shapely than the tender Gyrinno._
Quoted by Hephaestion as an example of metre (cf. p. 24).
77
[Greek: Asaroteras oudam' ep', ô ranna, sethen tychoisa.]
_Scornfuler than thee, Eranna, have I nowhere found._
Quoted by Hephaestion with the foregoing. The MSS. do not agree; perhaps [Greek: ô ranna] is an adjective, for [Greek: ô erateinê], _O lovely--_.
78
[Greek: Sy de stephanois, ô Dika, perthesth' eratais phobaisin,] [Greek: orpakas anêtoio synerrais' apalaisi chersin;] [Greek: euanthesin ek gar peletai kai charitos makairan] [Greek: mallon proterên; astephanôtoisi d' apystrephontai.]
_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._