Part 9

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.

Indeed, every word of them makes one feel that no poet or poetess save Sappho could have so exquisitely combined simplicity and beauty. Bergk, however, prints them as of uncertain origin, _fragmenta adespota_ (56 A., 56 B). He agrees with Blass that they are in the Lesbian dialect and the Sapphic metre, but he thinks that they may have been written by Alcaeus. Bergk's decision partly rests upon the statement of Suidas, that Horapollo, the Greek grammarian, who first taught at Alexandria and afterwards at Constantinople, in the reign of Theodosius, about 400 A.D., wrote a commentary on Alcaeus; but he gives no reason for believing that these Fayum manuscripts necessarily come from Alexandria: their history is very uncertain. Blass thinks that the greater fame, especially in later times, of Sappho, strongly favours his own view. To my mind there is little doubt that we have herein none but her very words.

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. Bücheler, one of the editors of the _Rheinisches Museum_, has also expressed his views with regard to some of the lines; but they are not endorsed by the authority of Bergk. According to the latter distinguished scholar, fragment A may have run thus:--

1 - v - v - [Greek: dokimois charin moi ouk apydôsên;] - [Greek: klytôn men t' epterygês] v - v - [Greek: kalôn kaslôn] v v - v - v [Greek: philois, lypês te me kaporiptês] 5 [Greek: eis em' oneidos.] [Greek: ê ken oidêsais, epi t' aig' amelgôn] [Greek: Skyrian asaio; to gar noêma] [Greek: tômon ouk outô malakophron, echthrôs] [Greek: tois diakêtai.] 10 - v [Greek: mêd'] v - v v - v - v

In which case it might have had this meaning:--

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_ ....

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.

Bergk's ingenious restoration of lines 6 and 7 is founded on a fragment of Alcaeus (fr. 110), wherein Chrysippus explains [Greek: aix Skyria], a goat of Scyros, as a proverb of those who spoil kindness ([Greek: epi tôn tas euergesias anatrepontôn]), as a goat upsets her milking pail ([Greek: epeidê pollakis ta angeia anatrepei hê aix]). Blass would, however, complete the phrase thus:--

[Greek: epi t (a te lôba] [Greek: kard) ian asaio],

_And with the outrage sate thy heart._

Disappointing as this is, the restoration of fragment B. is yet more hopeless. Authorities are agreed as to the position of the words in the Sapphic stanza, thus:--

- v - v - v v - [Greek: the thymon] - v - v - v v - [Greek: mi pampan] - v - v - v v - [Greek: dynamai] - v v - v 5 - v - v - v v [Greek: as ken ê moi] - v - v - v v [Greek: antilampên] - v - v - v [Greek: ka) lon prosôpon] - v v - v - v - v - v v [Greek: sy) nchroistheis] 10 - v - v - v v - [Greek: etai) ros].

The only additions hazarded by Bergk, or accepted by him from Blass, are given on the left of the brackets. Bergk says that [Greek: dynamai] (as if v - - ; cf. fr. 13) is an old form of the conjunctive for [Greek: dynômai]. He reads line 5, [Greek: as ken ê moi], comparing Theocritus, 29, 20, [Greek: as ken erês], 'as long as thou lovest': Bergk and Blass alike consider [Greek: ê] as a later form of [Greek: ê]. The words may mean:

_... soul ... altogether ... I should be able ... as long indeed as to me ... to flash back ... fair face ... stained over ... friend._

But in the absence of any context the very meaning of the separate words is uncertain.

Bergk thinks that the fragments belong to different poems, unless we read fragment A. after fragment B.; there is nothing on the parchment to indicate sequence.

In fragment B. it will be seen that a space occurs in each place where the last (or Adonic) verses of each Sapphic stanza would have been, as if they had been written more to the left in the manuscript; they probably therefore ranged with the long lines, of which we have only some of the last syllables preserved. Indenting the shorter verses is a modern fashion; the ancient way was to begin each one at the same distance from the margin.

SAPPHO TO PHAON

A TRANSLATION OF OVID'S HEROIC EPISTLE, XV. BY ALEXANDER POPE, 1707

Say, lovely youth that dost my heart command, Can Phaon's eyes forget his Sappho's hand? Must then her name the wretched writer prove, To thy remembrance lost as to thy love? Ask not the cause that I new numbers choose, The lute neglected and the lyric Muse: Love taught my tears in sadder notes to flow, And tuned my heart to elegies of woe. I burn, I burn, as when through ripened corn By driving winds the spreading flames are borne. Phaon to Aetna's scorching fields retires, While I consume with more than Aetna's fires. No more my soul a charm in music finds; Music has charms alone for peaceful minds: Soft scenes of solitude no more can please; Love enters there, and I'm my own disease. No more the Lesbian dames my passion move, Once the dear objects of my guilty love:[9] All other loves are lost in only thine, Ah, youth ungrateful to a flame like mine! Whom would not all those blooming charms surprise, Those heavenly looks and dear deluding eyes? The harp and bow would you like Phoebus bear, A brighter Phoebus Phaon might appear. Would you with ivy wreathe your flowing hair, Not Bacchus' self with Phaon could compare: Yet Phoebus loved, and Bacchus felt the flame; One Daphne warmed and one the Cretan dame; Nymphs that in verse no more could rival me Than e'en those gods contend in charms with thee. The Muses teach me all their softest lays, And the wide world resounds with Sappho's praise. Though great Alcaeus more sublimely sings, And strikes with bolder rage the sounding strings, No less renown attends the moving lyre Which Venus tunes and all her Loves inspire. To me what Nature has in charms denied Is well by wit's more lasting flames supplied. Though short my stature, yet my name extends To heaven itself and earth's remotest ends: Brown as I am, an Aethiopian dame Inspired young Perseus with a generous flame: Turtles and doves of different hue unite, And glossy jet is paired with shining white. If to no charms thou wilt thy heart resign But such as merit, such as equal thine, By none, alas, by none thou canst be moved; Phaon alone by Phaon must be loved. Yet once thy Sappho could thy cares employ; Once in her arms you centred all your joy: No time the dear remembrance can remove, For oh how vast a memory has love! My music then you could for ever hear, And all my words were music to your ear: You stopt with kisses my enchanting tongue, And found my kisses sweeter than my song. In all I pleased, but most in what was best; And the last joy was dearer than the rest: Then with each word, each glance, each motion fired, You still enjoyed, and yet you still desired, Till all dissolving in the trance we lay, And in tumultuous raptures died away.

The fair Sicilians now thy soul inflame: Why was I born, ye gods, a Lesbian dame? But ah, beware, Sicilian nymphs, nor boast That wandering heart which I so lately lost; Nor be with all those tempting words abused: Those tempting words were all to Sappho used. And you that rule Sicilia's happy plains, Have pity, Venus, on your poet's pains.

Shall fortune still in one sad tenor run And still increase the woes so soon begun? Inured to sorrow from my tender years, My parent's ashes drank my early tears: My brother next, neglecting wealth and fame, Ignobly burned in a destructive flame: An infant daughter late my griefs increased, And all a mother's cares distract my breast. Alas, what more could Fate itself impose, But thee, the last and greatest of my woes? No more my robes in waving purple flow, Nor on my hand the sparkling diamonds glow; No more my locks in ringlets curled diffuse The costly sweetness of Arabian dews; Nor braids of gold the varied tresses bind That fly disordered with the wanton wind. For whom should Sappho use such arts as these? He's gone whom only she desired to please! Cupid's light darts my tender bosom move; Still is there cause for Sappho still to love; So from my birth the Sisters fixed my doom, And gave to Venus all my life to come: Or, while my Muse in melting notes complains, My yielding heart keeps measure to my strains. By charms like thine, which all my soul have won, Who might not--ah, who would not be undone? For those, Aurora Cephalus might scorn, And with fresh blushes paint the conscious morn: For those, might Cynthia lengthen Phaon's sleep, And bid Endymion nightly tend his sheep: Venus for those had rapt thee to the skies, But Mars on thee might look with Venus' eyes. O scarce a youth, yet scarce a tender boy! O useful time for lovers to employ! Pride of thy age, and glory of thy race, Come to these arms and melt in this embrace! The vows you never will return, receive; And take at least the love you will not give. See, while I write, my words are lost in tears: The less my sense, the more my love appears.

Sure 'twas not much to bid one kind adieu: At least, to feign was never hard to you. 'Farewell, my Lesbian love,' you might have said; Or coldly thus, 'Farewell, O Lesbian maid.' No tear did you, no parting kiss receive, Nor knew I then how much I was to grieve. No lover's gift your Sappho could confer; And wrongs and woes were all you left with her. No charge I gave you, and no charge could give But this--'Be mindful of our loves, and live.' Now by the Nine, those powers adored by me, And Love, the god that ever waits on thee;-- When first I heard (from whom I hardly knew) That you were fled and all my joys with you, Like some sad statue, speechless, pale I stood; Grief chilled my breast and stopt my freezing blood; No sigh to rise, no tear had power to flow, Fixed in a stupid lethargy of woe. But when its way the impetuous passion found, I rend my tresses and my breasts I wound; I rave, then weep; I curse, and then complain; Now swell to rage, now melt in tears again. Not fiercer pangs distract the mournful dame Whose first-born infant feeds the funeral flame. My scornful brother with a smile appears, Insults my woes, and triumphs in my tears; His hated image ever haunts my eyes;-- 'And why this grief? thy daughter lives,' he cries. Stung with my love and furious with despair, All torn my garments and my bosom bare, My woes, thy crimes, I to the world proclaim; Such inconsistent things are love and shame. 'Tis thou art all my care and my delight, My daily longing and my dream by night.-- O night, more pleasing than the brightest day, When fancy gives what absence takes away, And, dressed in all its visionary charms, Restores my fair deserter to my arms! Then round your neck in wanton wreath I twine; Then you, methinks, as fondly circle mine: A thousand tender words I hear and speak; A thousand melting kisses give and take: Then fiercer joys; I blush to mention these, Yet, while I blush, confess how much they please. But when with day the sweet delusions fly, And all things wake to life and joy, but I; As if once more forsaken, I complain, And close my eyes to dream of you again: Then frantic rise; and, like some fury, rove Through lonely plains, and through the silent grove, As if the silent grove and lonely plains, That knew my pleasures, could relieve my pains. I view the grotto, once the scene of love, The rocks around, the hanging roofs above, That charmed me more, with native moss o'ergrown, Than Phrygian marble or the Parian stone: I find the shades that veiled our joys before; But, Phaon gone, those shades delight no more. Here the pressed herbs with bending tops betray Where oft entwined in amorous folds we lay; I kiss that earth which once was pressed by you, And all with tears the withering herbs bedew. For thee the fading trees appear to mourn, And birds defer their song till thy return: Night shades the groves, and all in silence lie,-- All but the mournful Philomel and I: With mournful Philomel I join my strain; Of Tereus she, of Phaon I complain.

A spring there is whose silver waters show, Clear as a glass, the shining sands below: A flowery lotus spreads its arms above, Shades all the banks and seems itself a grove; Eternal greens the mossy margin grace, Watched by the sylvan genius of the place: Here as I lay, and swelled with tears the flood Before my sight a watery virgin stood: She stood and cried,--'O you that love in vain, Fly hence and seek the fair Leucadian main: There stands a rock from whose impending steep Apollo's fane surveys the rolling deep; There injured lovers, leaping from above, Their flames extinguish and forget to love. Deucalion once with hopeless fury burned; In vain he loved, relentless Pyrrha scorned. But when from hence he plunged into the main, Deucalion scorned, and Pyrrha loved in vain. Haste, Sappho, haste, from high Leucadia throw Thy wretched weight, nor dread the deeps below.' She spoke, and vanished with the voice: I rise, And silent tears fall trickling from my eyes. I go, ye nymphs, those rocks and seas to prove: How much I fear, but ah, how much I love! I go, ye nymphs, where furious love inspires; Let female fears submit to female fires: To rocks and seas I fly from Phaon's hate, And hope from seas and rocks a milder fate. Ye gentle gales, beneath my body blow, And softly lay me on the waves below. And thou, kind Love, my sinking limbs sustain, Spread thy soft wings and waft me o'er the main, Nor let a lover's death the guiltless flood profane. On Phoebus' shrine my harp I'll then bestow, And this inscription shall be placed below:-- 'Here she who sung, to him that did inspire, Sappho to Phoebus consecrates her lyre: What suits with Sappho, Phoebus, suits with thee; The gift, the giver, and the god agree.'

But why, alas, relentless youth, ah, why To distant seas must tender Sappho fly? Thy charms than those may far more powerful be, And Phoebus' self is less a god to me. Ah, canst thou doom me to the rocks and sea, O far more faithless and more hard than they? Ah, canst thou rather see this tender breast Dashed on these rocks that to thy bosom pressed? This breast, which once, in vain! you liked so well; Where the Loves played, and where the Muses dwell. Alas, the Muses now no more inspire: Untuned my lute, and silent is my lyre: My languid numbers have forgot to flow, And fancy sinks beneath the weight of woe.

Ye Lesbian virgins and ye Lesbian dames, Themes of my verse and objects of my flames, No more your groves with my glad songs shall ring; No more these hands shall touch the trembling string: My Phaon's fled, and I those arts resign: (Wretch that I am, to call that Phaon mine!) Return, fair youth, return, and bring along Joy to my soul and vigour to my song. Absent from thee, the poet's flame expires; But ah, how fiercely burn the lover's fires! Gods, can no prayers, no sighs, no numbers move One savage heart, or teach it how to love? The winds my prayers, my sighs, my numbers bear; The flying winds have lost them all in air. Or when, alas, shall more auspicious gales To these fond eyes restore thy welcome sails? If you return, ah, why these long delays? Poor Sappho dies while careless Phaon stays. O launch the bark, nor fear the watery plain: Venus for thee shall smooth her native main. O launch thy bark, secure of prosperous gales: Cupid for thee shall spread the swelling sails. If you will fly--(yet ah, what cause can be, Too cruel youth, that you should fly from me?) If not from Phaon I must hope for ease, Ah, let me seek it from the raging seas: To raging seas unpitied I'll remove; And either cease to live or cease to love.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The following list comprises most of the books and articles in Sapphic literature which I have consulted. I have added a few to which I have had reference, but which I have not succeeded in seeing: many of them are mere curiosities. I could have still further extended the bibliography, if I had taken more on trust. I have not generally thought it necessary to quote well-known histories of Greece and Greek literature, nor such translations as throw no light upon her beyond what this list contains.

ADDISON, JOHN: The Works of Anacreon translated into English Verse; with Notes explanatory and poetical. To which are added the Odes, Fragments, and Epigrams of Sappho. With the original Greek placed opposite to the Translation. 8vo, London, 1735.

ADDISON, JOSEPH: Spectator, No. 223, Nov. 15, 1711 and No. 233, Nov. 27, 1711.

AHRENS, HEINRICH LUDOLF: De Graecae Linguae Dialectis, Sapphus fragmenta, pp. 256-274 of Lib. I. 8vo, Göttingen, 1839.

AHRENS, HEINRICH LUDOLF: Conjecturen in Alcäus und Sappho, Rheinisches Museum, 1842, pp. 388-401.

Anacreontis Carmina, cum Sapphonis et Alcaei fragmentis. Glasgow, 1744, 1757, 1761 and 1783.

Anacreontis et Sapphonis Carmina. Cum virorum doctorum notis et emendationibus, in usum juventutis Academiae Salfordiensis, Com. Lancastriae. 8vo, London, 1754.

ANDREAS, ELIAS: Anacreontis Teii antiquissimi poëtae Lyrici Odae, ab Helia Andrea Latinae factae. 16mo, Lutetiae, 1556.

ANDREAS, ELIAS: Anacreontis, Sapphus, et Erinnae Carmina interpretibus Henrico Stephano et Elia Andrea. 64mo, Edinburgh, 1766.

ARNOLD, DR. BERNHARD: Sappho. Vortrag, gehalten zu München am 25. März 1870. Aus Sammlung gemeinverständlicher Vorträge herausg. v. Rud. Virchow und Fr. von Holtzendorff. Berlin, 1871.

ARNOLD, EDWIN, M.A., C.S.I.: The Poets of Greece [pp. 105-118]. 8vo, London, 1869.

BAXTER, WILLIAM: see Vossius, Isaac (1695).

BAXTER, WILLIAM: Anacreontis Teii Carmina Graece e Recensione Guilielmi Baxteri cum ejusdem Henr. item Stephani atque Tanegvidi Fabri notis accesserunt duo Sapphus Odaria [pp. 167-172; 249-254] et Theocriti Anacreonticum in mortuum Adonin. Iterum edidit varietatemque lectionibus cum suis animadversionibus et Anacreontis fragmenta adjecit Joh. Frider. Fischerus. 8vo, Leipzig, 1776.

BEAU, GABRIEL: La Grèce Poétique. Anacréon--Sappho [pp. 81-97]--Bion--Moschus--Théocrite. 12mo, Paris, 1884.

BENTLEY, RICHARD, D.D.: in Graevius' Callimachi Fragmenta, 8vo, Utrecht, 1697, ad. fr. 417, de Sapphus fragm. 118.

BERGK, THEODOR: De aliquot fragmentis Sapphonis et Alcaei. Rheinisches Museum für Philologie, 8vo, Bonn, 1835, pp. 209-231.

BERGK, THEODOR: Anthologia Lyrica. 8vo, Leipzig, 1854, pp. 261-273 (text only).

BERGK, THEODOR: Poetae Lyrici Graeci, ed. 4, vol. 3, pp. 82-140. 8vo, Leipzig, 1882.

Bibliothèque Universelle des Dames; _alias_ Bibliothèque de Mesdemoiselles Eulalie, Félicité, Sophie, Emilie De Marcilly. Mélanges. Tom. viii. pp. 95-130. 24mo, Paris, 1787.

BLAND, REV. ROBERT: see Merivale, J. H.

BLASS, FRIEDRICH, of Kiel: Zu den Griechischen Lyrikern. Rhein. Mus., vol. xxix., 1874: Sappho, pp. 149-151.

BLASS, FRIEDRICH, of Kiel: Neue Fragmente ... der Sappho. Rhein. Mus., vol. xxxv. 1880; pp. 287-290.

BLOMFIELD, CHARLES JAMES, Bishop of London: Cambridge Museum Criticum, vol. i., pp. 1-31, 250-252, 421, 422. 8vo, 1826.

BLOMFIELD, CHARLES JAMES: see Gaisford.

BLUM, JOHANN CHRISTIAN: in Olearius' De Poetriis Graecis. 4to, Leipzig, 1712.

BOETTICHER, K.: Zwei Hermenbildnisse der Sappho; with a photograph. Archäologische Zeitung, 4to, Berlin, 1872, pp. 83-86.

BORN, FRIEDRICH GOTTLIEB, PH.D.: Anacreontis et Sapphus [pp. 219-227] Carmina Graece recensuit notisque illustravit ex optimis interpretibus, quibus et suas adjecit. 8vo, Leipzig, 1789.

BOTHE, FRIDERICUS HENRICUS: Anacreontica Graece recensuit notisque criticis instruxit. [Greek: Sapphous leipsana] pp. 77-81. 16mo, Leipzig, 1805.

BRAUN, G. C.: Die Fragmente der Sappho, übersetzt von G. C. B[raun]. 8vo, Wetzlar, 1815.

BROCKHAUSEN, R.: Sappho's Lieder in deutschen Versen nachgebildet. Lemgo, 1827.

BRUNCK, RICHARD FRANÇOIS PHILIPPE: Analecta veterum poetarum Graecorum: i., pp. 54-57; ii., p. 8. 8vo, Strassburg, 1772.

BRUNCK, RICHARD FRANÇOIS PHILIPPE: Anacreontis Carmina: accedunt quaedam e lyricorum reliquiis pp. 82-86. Ed. 2, 12mo, Strassburg, 1786.

BRUNCK, RICHARD FRANÇOIS PHILIPPE: see Weise, G. H. (1844).

BÜRGER, EDUARD: Anacreon und andere lyrische Dichter Griechenlands in deutschen Reimen. 32mo, Stuttgart, 1855.

BUSTELLI, GIUSEPPE: Vita e Frammenti di Saffo de Mitilene. Discorso e versione (prima intera). Pp. 104. 8vo, Bologna, 1863.

CAPPONE, FRANCESCO ANTONIO: Liriche Parafrasi di D. Francesco Antonio Cappone, Academico ozioso. Sopra tutte l'Ode d'Anacreonte, e sopra alcune altre Poesie di diversi Lirici Poeti Greci. Secundo la preposta version Latina de'l'or più celebri Traduttori. pp. 190-200. 24mo, Venice, 1670.

COMPARETTI, PROFESSOR DOMENICO: Saffo e Faone dinanzi alla critica storia, in the Nuova Antologia di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, anno xi., seconda serie, vol. i., fasc. ii., pp. 253-288. 8vo, Florence, Febr. 1876.

COMPARETTI, PROFESSOR DOMENICO: Sulla Epistola Ovidiana di Saffo a Faone, studico critio. Published by the R. Istituto di Studi Superiori pratici e di perfezionamento in Firenze, Sezione di Filosofia e Filologia, vol. ii., dispensa prima, 8vo, pp. 53, Florence, 1876.

COMPARETTI, PROFESSOR DOMENICO: Sappho nelle Antiche Rappresentanze Vascolari. Published in the Museo Italiano di Antichita Classica, pp. 41-80, with 4 plates, 4to, Firenze, 1886.

COUPIN: see Girodet de Roussy.

COURIER, P.-L.: Daphnis et Chloé, traduit par P.-L. Courier. Suivi des Poésies d'Anacréon et de Sappho [Odes I. and II. in French prose, pp. 45-49] traduction nouvelle d'après un Manuscrit de l'école d'Athènes. 8vo, Paris, 1878.

CRAMER, JOHN ANTONY, D.D.: Anecdota Graeca e codd. manuscriptis Bibliothecarum Oxoniensium descripsit. Frag. 95, vol. i., p. 444; frag. 158, vol. ii., p. 325. 2 vols. 8vo, Oxford, 1835-6.

CRAMER, J. CHR.: Diatribe chronologico-critica de patriâ Sapphus. 4to, Jena, N.D.

CRAMER, J. CHR.: Diatribe chronologico-critica de [Greek: sygphronismô] Sapphus et Anacreontis. 4to, Jena, 1755.

DACIER, ANNE LEFÈVRE [10]: Les Poésies d'Anacréon et de Sapho, traduites de Grec en François, avec des Remarques. Les Poésies de Sapho de Lesbos, pp. 387-429. 12mo, Paris, 1681.

DACIER, ANNE LEFÈVRE: Les Poésies d'Anacréon et de Sapho traduites de Grec en François, avec des Remarques par Mademoiselle Le Fèvre, pp. 387-429, 12mo, Lyons, 1696.