Part 8

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--

[Greek: anthe' amergousan paid' agan hapalan,]

'_A maiden full tender plucking flowers._'

122, 123

[Greek: Poly paktidos adymelestera, chrysô chrysotera.]

_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, [Greek: galaktos leukotera] _whiter than milk_, [Greek: hydatos hapalôtera] _fresher than water_, [Greek: pêktidôn emmelestera] _more musical than the harp_, [Greek: hippou gaurotera] _more skittish than a horse_, [Greek: rhodôn habrotera] _more delicate than the rose_, [Greek: himatiou heanou malakôtera] _softer than a fine robe_, [Greek: chrysou timiôtera] _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 [Greek: glykipikros] _bitter-sweet_ [cf. fr. 40] and [Greek: algesidôros] giver of pain. Socrates calls Love the wizard, Sappho [Greek: mythoplokos] _the weaver of fictions_.'

126

[Greek: To melêma toumon.]

_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 [Greek: to melêma ômon] in her own dialect.

127

Aristides says:--

[Greek: To ganos] _the brightness_ standing over the whole city, [Greek: ou diaphtheiron tas opseis] _not destroying the sight_, as Sappho says, but developing at once and crowning and watering with cheerfulness; in no way [Greek: hyakinthinô anthei homoion] _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 [Greek: selinois] _with parsley_.'

129

Philostratus says:--

'Thus contend [the maidens] [Greek: rhodopêcheis kai helikôpides kai kalliparêoi kai meliphônoi] _with rosy arms and glancing eyes and fair cheeks and honeyed voices_--this indeed is Sappho's sweet salutation.'

And Aristaen[)e]tus:--

'Before the porch the most musical and [Greek: meilichophônoi] _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 [Greek: nykta autê genesthai diplasian] _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 [Greek: nykta triplasian] _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, Aeg[=a], like [Greek: akta] and [Greek: archa], 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 Can[=e] 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:--

[Greek: Asterôn pantôn ho kalistos ...]

_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--

[Greek: Nympha rhodeôn erôtôn bryousa, Nympha Paphiês agalma kalliston, ithi pros eunên, ithi pros lechos meilicha paizousa, glykeia nymphiô; Hesperos s' hekousan agoi, argyrothronon zygian Hêran thaumazousan.']

_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 Sel[=e]n[=e] 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 [Greek: Aphroditês thygatera] _Daughter of Aphrodite_.' Cf. fr. 141.

136

Maximus Tyrius says:--

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

[Greek: Ou gar themis en mousopolôn oikia thrênon einai; ouk ammi prepei tade.]

_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:--

[Greek: ê hôsper Sapphô, hoti to apothnêskein kakon; hoi theoi gar houtô kekrikasin; apethnêskon gar an.]

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

[Greek: hoion phêsin hê Sapphô, hoti to apothnêskein kakon; hoi theoi gar houtô kekrikasin; apethnêskon gar an, eiper ên kalon to apothnêskein.]

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

[Greek: To thnaskein kakon; houtô kekrikasi theoi;] [Greek: ethnaskon gar an eiper kalon ên tode.]

_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 Execest[)i]des, 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, [Greek: hina mathôn auto apothanô]. 'That I may not die before I have learned it.'

138

Athenaeus says:--

'Naucratis has produced some celebrated courtesans of exceeding beauty; as D[=o]richa, 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 Rhod[=o]pis, 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 Mycer[=i]nus'] 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 Archid[)i]ce 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 _D[=o]richa_. 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, Lar[)i]chus, 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

Palaeph[)a]tus, 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,

[Greek: Dios pais ho chrysos, keinon ou sês oude kis daptei],

_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 Iap[)e]tus and Clym[)e]ne, 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 Dion[=y]sos), 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, [Greek: kalon dêmosion], _a public blessing_.'

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

149

The _Lexicon Seguerianum_ defines--

'[Greek: Akakos] _one who has no experience of ill_, not, one who is good-natured. So Sappho uses the word.'

150

The _Etymologicum Magnum_ defines--

[Greek: Amamaxys] _a vine trained on long poles_, and says Sappho makes the plural [Greek: amamaxydes]. So Choeroboscus, late in the sixth century A.D., says 'the occurrence of the genitive [Greek: amamaxydos] [the usual form being [Greek: amamaxyos]] in Sappho is strange.'

151

The _Etymologicum Magnum_ says of [Greek: Amara], _a trench for watering meadows_, 'because it is raised by a water-bucket, [Greek: amê] 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 [Greek: erysarmates] [chariot-drawing], [Greek: lita] [cloths], and in Sappho [Greek: to aua], Dawn.'

And the _Etymologicum Magnum_ says:--

'We find [Greek: para tên auan] [during the morning] in Aeolic, for "during the day."'

153

The _Etymologicum Magnum_ says:--

'[Greek: Auôs] or [Greek: êôs], that is, the day; thus we read in Aeolic. Sappho has--

[Greek: potnia auôs],

_Queen Dawn_.'

The solemn Dawn. FREDERICK TENNYSON.

154

Athenaeus says:--

'The [Greek: barômos] [_baromos_] and [Greek: sarbitos] [_sarb[)i]tos_], both of which are mentioned by Sappho and Anacreon, and the Mag[)a]dis and the Triangles and the Samb[=u]cae, are all ancient instruments.'

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

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

155

Pollux says:--

'Sappho used the word [Greek: beudos] for _a woman's dress_, a _kimber[)i]con_, a kind of short transparent frock.'

156

Phryn[)i]chus the grammarian, about 180 A.D., says:--

'Sappho calls _a woman's dressing-case_, where she keeps her scents and such things, [Greek: grytê].'

157

Hesychius, about 370 A.D., says Sappho called Zeus [Greek: Hektôr], _Hector_, _i.e._ 'holding fast.'

158

A Parisian MS. edited by Cramer says:--

'Among the Aeolians [Greek: z] is used for [Greek: d], as when Sappho says [Greek: zabaton] for [Greek: diabaton], _fordable_.'

159

A Scholiast on Homer quotes [Greek: agagoiên], _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, [Greek: anemon katarê], _a wind rushing from above_.

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

161

Choeroboscus says:--

'Sappho makes the accusative of [Greek: kindynos] _danger_ [Greek: kindyn].'

Another writer, in the _Codex Marc._, says:--

'Sappho makes the accusative [Greek: kindyna].'

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 [Greek: Mêdeia] [_Medeia_ the sorceress, wife of Jason] in Sappho is allowed by supposing the [Greek: ei] to form a diphthong.'

163

An unknown author, in _Antiatticista_, says:--

'Sappho, in her second book, calls [Greek: smirna] _myrrh_ [Greek: myrra].'

164

A treatise on grammar edited by Cramer says:--

'The genitive plural of [Greek: Mousa] is [Greek: Môsaôn] among the Laconians, [Greek: Moisaôn] _of the Muses_ in Sappho.'

165

Phrynichus says:--

[Greek: Nitron] _natron_ (carbonate of soda) is the form 'an Aeolian would use, such as Sappho, with a [Greek: n]; but,' he goes on, 'an Athenian would spell it with a [Greek: l], [Greek: litron].'

166

A Scholiast on Homer, _Iliad_, iii. 219, says:--

'Sappho said [Greek: polyidridi] _of much knowledge_ as the dative of [Greek: polyidris].'

167

Photius, in his _Lexicon_, about the ninth century A.D., says:--

'[Greek: Thapsos] is a wood with which they dye wool and hair yellow, which Sappho calls [Greek: Skythikon xylon] _Scythian wood_.'

And the Scholiast on Theocritus, _Idyl_ ii. 88, says:--

'[Greek: Thapsos] is a kind of wood which is also called [Greek: skytharion] 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 [Greek: chrysoxylon] _gold-wood_.'

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

- v - [Greek: Zkythikon xylon,] [Greek: tô baptoisi te têria] [Greek: poieisi de malina] [Greek: xanthisdoisi te tas trichas.]

_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 [Greek: Tioisin ophthalmoisin] _with what eyes_ ... [using [Greek: tioisi] for [Greek: tisi], the dative plural of [Greek: tis]] as Sappho does.'

169

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

'In Sappho [Greek: chelônê] is [Greek: chelynê] _a tortoise_'; which is better written [Greek: chelyna], or rather [Greek: chelyna], as other writers imply.

170

Pollux says:--

'Bowls with a boss in the middle are called [Greek: balaneiomphaloi], circular-bottomed, from their shape, [Greek: chrysomphaloi], gold-bottomed, from the material, like Sappho's [Greek: chrysastragaloi], _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.) [Greek: dôsên] [Greek: ytônment' ep] [Greek: alôn kaslôn; (s] [Greek: ; lois. lytês te m] 5 [Greek: m' oneidos] [Greek: oidêsais. epi t (a] [Greek: ia(nasaio. to gar] [Greek: m) onouk' outô (m] [Greek: diakêtai;] 10 [Greek: m (êd]

(B.) [Greek: thethymom] [Greek: mipampan] [Greek: dynamai]

5 [Greek: askenêmoi] [Greek: s) antilampên] [Greek: lonprosôpon]

[Greek: nchroistheis] 10 [Greek: ... (ros]