scripit sensus mihi: nam simul te,
Lesbia, aspexi, nihil est super mi
lingua sed torpet, tenuis sub artus
flamma demanat, sonitu suopte
tintinant aures, gemina teguntur
lumina nocte.
otium, Catulle, tibi molestum est:
otio exsultas nimiumque gestis:
otium et reges prius et beatas
perdidit urbes.
To me that man seems like a god,
greater than a god, if that can be,
who sitting beside you steadily
watches you,
hearing your soft laughter that rips
my senses away, hopeless, for as soon
as I gaze at you, Lesbia, nothing is left
of me,
my tongue is broken, a thin fire
spreads through my limbs, my ears ring
inside, and my eyes are covered
in darkness!
but Catullus your laziness hurts you,
you exult in laziness and lust.
In old times sloth has ruined kings
and rich cities.
A recent tradition of scholarship holds Sappho’s poem to be a wedding song to be sung before a bride and groom. There is no internal evidence of this, and these verses of violent personal passion would be inappropriate at the ceremony. The poem is a marvel of candor and power in which Sappho states her hurt before the calm godlike man and describes with striking objectivity and detachment the physical symptoms of her passionate love for the girl. A few decades earlier, Archilochos, the first poet to speak of the passions of the outsider and individual, had written:
I lie here miserable and broken with desire,
pierced through to the bones by the bitterness
of this god-given painful love.
O comrade, this passion makes my limbs limp
and tramples over me. (frag. 104 Diehl.)1
32 Apollonios Dyskolos Pronouns 144a (1.113 Schneider).
“Aiolic has the forms ἀμμέτεος and ἀµµος for ‘our,’ὔµµος for ‘your,’ and σϕός See Sappho: [verse follows].”
Literally, “giving their works.”
33 Apollonios Dyskolos Syntax 3.247 (2.350 Uhlig).
The grammarian Apollonios Dyskolos writes, “There are the adverbs that indicate prayer as αἶθε: [verse follows].”
34 Eustathios 729.21, on the Iliad 8.555.
The grammarian Eustathios writes: “In the expression ‘around the shining moon,’ one should not interpret this as the full moon, for then the stars are dim because they are outshone, for as Sappho says somewhere: [verse follows].”
Probably Sappho’s lines refer to the notion that one of her companions outshone all the others in beauty. As Ann Carson and others note, the Roman emperor Julian writes in a letter to his instructor the sophist Hekebolios: “Sappho says the moon is silver and so conceals all other stars from view” (Letters, 387a).
36 Etymologicum Genuinum (p. 31 Calame) = Etymologicum Magnum 485.41.
“The Aiolic writers use ποθήϖ for ποθέϖ, ‘I long for.’”
These five words in Greek crystallize one essential mood of Sappho.
37 Etymologicum Genuinum (p. 36 Calame) = Etymologicum Magnum 576.23ss.
“It is noted is changed to that Aiolic writers call σταλαγµός [pain] ‘a dripping,’ as if a pain ‘wounds.’ For in Aiolic σσ is changed to is changed to ζ. ἐπιπλήσσω. becomes ἐπιπλαζω [Verse follows.]”
38 Apollonios Dyskolos Pronouns 127a (1100 Schneider).
Aiolic writers use ᾄµµε, “us.” While “you burn us” is a close translation of the Greek, some scholars argue that instead of “us,” the singular pronoun “me” is intended. See Anne Carson, If Not Winter: Fragments of Sappho (New York: Vintage Books, 2002), pp. 365–66, for her elaboration of the pronoun usage and the entire sentence.
39 Scholiast on Aristophanes’ Peace 1174 (p. 205 Dübner).
“For the Lydian dyes differ . . . and Sappho says: [lines follow].”
Pollux identifies Sappho’s word with a type of sandal.
40 Apollonios Dyskolos Pronouns 104c (1.81 Schneider) + incert 13.
“σοί, ‘to you,’ the Attic form, is used also in Ionic and Aiolic. See Sappho: [verses follow].”
Other texts give a sequel to the LP 40 fragment, so it would read:
I leave you
the flesh of a white goat
and will pour wine over it
The words refer to a sacrifice. Both lines are found in Apollonios Dyskolos’s Pronouns 104c. Here, as in Voigt, the first line, 40, and 40 incert. are gathered together. The extra line spacing is to indicate that it is uncertain where in the original text that line was.
41 Apollonios Dyskolos Pronouns 124c.
A comment on the Aiolic form of the pronoun “to you.”
42 Scholiast on Pindar’s Pythian Odes 1.0 (2.10 Drachmann).
The scholiast on Pindar writes: “Pindar has described a picture of an eagle perched on Zeus’s scepter and lulled to sleep by music, letting both wings lie still. . . . On the other hand Sappho says of pigeons: [verse follows].”
43 Papyri Oxyrhynchus 1232 frag. 1 col. 1.5–9. Voigt is followed.
The reference is to a party or a night festival.
44 Papyri Oxyrhynchus 1232 frag. 1 col. 2–3, frag. 2 + m2076 col. 2.
Lobel and Page do not include this fragment. The poem ends with “End of the Second Book of Sappho’s Poems.” This hymeneal song, from the book of epithalamia, is more narratively epic and Homeric in word and idea than any other existing fragment of Sappho’s. Because of these qualities not normally found in Sappho, Page casts some doubt as to her authorship. David A. Campbell and most scholars affirm her authorship. Campbell observes, “Sappho’s authorship is confirmed by quotations in Athinaeus, Bekker’s Anecdota Graeca and Ammonios.” Here is another voice, a Homeric voice, which reveals her breadth.
Paean is Paon in Sappho’s Aiolic Greek and is Apollo’s title. In addition, the word paean can mean a joyful song or hymn of praise and thanksgiving.
44a Campbell = Alkaios 304 LP. Papyri Fouad 239.
This substantial fragment was copied in the second or third century C.E. and attributed to Alkaios, with uncertainty, by Lobel, and then by Lobel and Page. Other scholars assign it to Sappho. Max Treu made a strong and convincing case for Sappho’s authorship in his Sappho. He cites the phrase “I shall always be a virgin” as Sappho’s speech and rejects the Page argument. More recently Campbell includes it among Sappho’s poems, while recognizing Lobel and Page’s ascription to Alkaios. This poem, which has the élan and grandeur of Homer, adds a major woman deity to those whom Sappho admired. In its way it is a perfectly self-contained fragment, giving Artemis’s origin, her own exuberant oath describing who she is, the name she has acquired among the gods and worshipers, and how in her life Artemis resisted the intrusions of Eros.
45 Apollonios Dyskolos Pronouns 119b (1.93 Schneider).
The grammarian Apollonios Dyskdolos says that Sappho spells the word ὑµεῖς, “you” (pl.) as ὔµµες in Aiolic.
46 Herodianos On Anomalous Words b39 (2.945 Lentz).
The comment concerns the word τύλη (cushion), that was not used by Attic writers but by Sappho in Book 2.
47 Maximus of Tyre Orations 18.9.
The rhetorician Maximus of Tyre writes, “Socrates says Eros is a sophist, Sappho a weaver of tales. Eros makes Socrates mad for Phaidros, and Eros shook Sappho’s heart like a wind felling an oak tree on a mountain.”
48 Julian Letter 183 (p. 240s Bidez-Cumont).
In his letter to Iamblihus (who is actually dead by the time Julian writes him), Julian refers to these words by Sappho. His playful letter begins: “You came, yes, you came. Your letter came even though you were absent.”
49 Hefaistion, Handbook of Meters 7.7 (p. 23 Consbruch).
“Among the types belonging to Aiolic dactylic v
erse, the pentameter is called the Sapphic 14-syllable, in which all of Sappho’s Book 2 is written: [line follows].”
Plutarch, 751d (4.343 Hubert).
In his Dialogue on Love, Plutarch puts the above line cited by Hefaistion together with a second line, which might, or more likely might not, have followed. Plutarch writes:
“Speaking to a girl who was still too young for marriage, Sappho says: [both lines of fragment follow].”
50 Galinos Exhortation to Learning 8.16s (1.113 Marquardt).
The author Galinos, who wrote on medicine, philosophy, and grammar, says of Sappho, “Since we know that the time of youth is like spring flowers and its pleasures do not last long, it is better to praise the Lesbian poet when she says:[verse follows].”
51 Hrysippos On Negatives 23 (S.V.F. 2.57 Arnim).
Sappho introduces a quandary with a negative, thereby affirming her uncertainty. Her tone is that of mischievous gravity.
52 Herodianos On Anomalous Words 7 (2.912 Lentz).
“Sappho [uses the form of ὄανος, ‘sky.’]: [verse follows].”
53 Scholiast on Theokritos 28 arg. (p. 334 Wendel).
The cited line appears in a comment by the scholiast concerning Sappho’s use of the sixteen-syllable meter in the Aiolic dialect.
54 Pollux Vocabulary 10.124 (2.227 Bethe).
The lexicographer Pollux writes: “It is said that Sappho was the first to use the word χλάµυν, ‘mantle,’ when she said of Eros [verse follows].”
55 Stobaios Anthology (On Folly) 3.4.12 (3.221ls Wachsmuth-Hense).
The fragment is from a poem in Stobaios’s Anthology (On Folly), prefaced with the phrase “Sappho to a woman of no education.” Plutarch says that the verse is addressed to a rich woman, but he also says to “an ignorant, uneducated woman.”
56 Hrysippos On Negatives frag. 13 col. 8 (S.V.F. 2.55 Arnim).
57 Athinaios Scholars at Dinner 21bc (1.46 Kaibel).
“Sappho derides Andromeda in this way: [poem follows].” Fragment 57 is a good example where the source information yields essential information, which enters the title.
58b Campbell. 58b (lines 11–22) + Martin West (TLS 6.24.05).
The earlier segment of this poem was first published in 1922. All, or perhaps most of the rest of the poem was published in 2004 from a third-century B.C.E. papyrus found in the Cologne University archives. Martin. L. West first published the find in Greek in the Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 151 (2005), 1–9, and in Greek along with his English translation in the Times Literary Supplement, June 21, 2005, 1.
The English translation here, by Willis Barnstone and William McCulloh, differs substantially from the version deciphered by Professor West. The appearance of this “second” complete poem is a literary event, and, with the probability of more texts revealed through infra-ray technology, it is reasonable to believe that there will be more significant finds, through the spade and through improved reading technology of papyri and later parchments.
Dawn (Eos) carried off Tithonos, who was the brother of Priamos (Priam) and Dawn’s lover. Dawn asked Zeus to make Tithonos immortal, but she forgot to ask also for the gift of eternal youth. Tithonos became older and older and began to shrink, though he had the range of her palace, and Dawn could hear his weak voice. When he could not walk she locked him in a chamber and eventually turned him into a grasshopper. Because Tithonos did not retain his youth, the mention of his name evokes a decrepit old man.
58c Papyri Oxyrhynchus 1787 frag. 1. 4–25, frag. 2.1 + frag. nov. (Lobel, 26).
Commenting on the last lines of the poem, Athinaios in Scholars at Dinner 15.687, writes: “So you think that refinement without virtue is desirable? But Sappho, who was a real woman and poet, was loath to separate good from refinement, saying, ‘Yet I love refinement, and beauty and light are for me the same as desire for the sun.’ It is therefore clear that the desire to live included for Sappho both the bright and the good, and these belong to virtue.”
It is said that 58c may be from a separate poem or a part of 58b. However, 58c is contained as lines 25 and 26 in the earlier found Oxyrhynchus 1787 frag. 1. 4–25, frag. 2.1 + frag. nov. (Lobel Σ. µ.), which confirms that the lines were part of a major ancient papyrus containing Sappho’s poems. However, since West’s new 58b does not contain these in the text he has published, they make a fine sequel as a separate fragment. I should note that both Treu’s and Campbell’s guesses in their translations of 58 have proved to be remarkably close to the full lines which are now disclosed in the discovery of the more coherent 58b.
60 Papyri Oxyrhynchus 1787.
Fragmentary text is from the right column, lines 1–9.
62 Papyri Oxyrhynchus 1787 frag. 3 col. 2.3–14.
63 Papyri Oxyrhynchus 1787 frag. 3 col. 2.15–24.
65 Papyri Oxyrhynchus 1787 frag. 4. Treu p. 62.
Aheron (Acheron), the river of death, runs through Hades.
67a Papyri Oxyrhynchus 1787 frag. 5.
For Sappho and Homer, the Greek word for daimon (daemon) meant a god. In later Greek, daimon meant a daemon or demon. Only these four lines of the fragment are intelligible.
68a Papyri Oxyrhynchus 1787 frag. 7 + frag. nov. (Lobel S. M., p. 32 + Papyri Oxyrhynchus 21.135).
The poem is obscurely fragmentary. The sons of Tyndareus are Kastor and Polydeukis. See “Tyndareus” in the glossary. Megara is a friend of Sappho.
70 Papyri Oxyrhynchus 1787 frag. 13. Voigt.
Here hóron means “dance” and also “chorus” or “choir” (from horós). The Greek chorus in a play danced as they chanted. The word horós persists in modern Greek (and also in Romanian and Turkish, for “round dance”). Greek Jews took their horós to Israel, where it became the national dance, called the hora or horah.
“Harmony” may be the notion of harmony or Harmona, goddess of harmony and concord, closely associated with Afroditi.
71 Treu p. 64, Papyri Oxyrhynchus 1787 frag. 6 + frag. 21 Addenda, p. 135.
Mika (or Mnasis) may be a shortened form for Sappho’s friend Mnasidika. The house of Penthilos may refer to a rival school (thiasos) or, more likely, a rival political party and enemy of Sappho’s family. Pittakos, the tyrant of Lesbos, married into the house of Penthilos, wedding the sister of a former leader, Drakon, son of Penthilos. It cannot be known what Sappho’s intended word was in line 7. Ernst Diehl and Max Treu venture the reading of ἄη[δοι for nightingale, and Campbell reads ἄη[ται, “breezes.”
73a Papyri Oxyrhynchus 1787 frag. 11.
In so few words left of a longer poem, the most certain and constant message one gathers from these clean and striking remnants is that of the nearness, constancy, and elusiveness of eros—love and desire.
74 Papyri Oxyrhynchus 1787 frag. novum; Voigt 74a (lines 2, 4), 74b (line 2), 74c (line 2).
From three columns of a fragment. The fragment makes sense in the way that haphazard words in a poetry word game may work together, but in this instance the fragments fit as a poignantly Sapphic description of the shepherd.
76 Papyri Oxyrhynchus 1787 frag. 12.
78 Papyri Oxyrhynchus 1787 frag. 10.
A short column of words, with no certainty of person or connections. Among many such incoherent splashes of words, this one is representative and delightful.
81 Athinaios Scholars at Dinner 15.674e (3.491 Kaibel) (see 4–7) + Papyri Oxyrhynchus 1787 frag. 33 (see 1–5).
“Sappho gives a more simple reason for wearing garlands [her lines follow] in which she urges all who offer sacrifice to wreathe their heads, since being adorned with flowers makes them more pleasing to the gods.”
82a Hefaistion Handbook of Meters 11.5 (p. 36 Consbruch).
84 Papyri Oxyrhynchus 1787 frags. 37, 41. Voigt.
Fragment 84 also resembles Ezra Pound’s imitation of Sappho, which brought the Greek poet into his approved modernity. See fragment 4.
85 Papyri Oxyrhynchus 1787 frag. 35 and 38. 85A + 85B in Voigt.
A
lot of scraps.
86 Papyri Oxyrhynchus 1787 frag. postmodo repertum = 2166(d)1.
This fragment is probably a prayer to Afroditi, though Zeus of the Aegis (a goatskin shield or breast plate) is also mentioned in line two.
87e, f Voigt = 87 LP (16), (17); Papyri Oxyrhynchus 2166.
88b, a Papyri Oxyrhynchus 2290.
I’ve translated just words and phrases that have sense. Somehow, even the slightest words and phrases of Sappho yield her voice.
91 Hefaistion Handbook of Meters 11.5.
Irana may be understood as “peace,” or as a person’s name, the English version of which would be “Irena” or “Irene.”
92 Papyri Berlin 9722 fol. 1; Berliner Klassikertexte 5.2, p. 12 + Diehl Anthologia Lyrica Graeca 1.4, p. 57s.
Only line beginnings are preserved.
94 Papyri Berlin 9722 fol. 2; Berliner Klassikertexte 5.2, p. 12ss + Lobel, p. 70.
One of Sappho’s longer and more important personal statements, here she invents her way of bringing herself, through a dialogue with a friend, into a poem, evoking exquisite love and sexual memories of an idealized youth. Again, the parallel with Cavafy is striking: recollection of youth, now gone. Of course, Constantine Cavafy knew Sappho’s poems, as he did all ancient Greek poetry, but his re-creation of antiquity was usually of late Hellenism, with certain obvious exceptions, such as his most famous poem, “Ithaki,” which retells, as a metaphor of instruction, Homer’s tale of Odysseus the adventurer and his return to his island, which, though poor, gave him the reason for his long adventures and his return. In all their parallel sensual poems, whether of immediacy or recollection, Sappho and Cavafy are utterly candid. But Sappho makes no excuses and reveals no self-consciousness of illicit or immoral behavior for her love of women, in contrast to Cavafy, who was daringly candid, always with an awareness that his poems carried a dangerous message, which in his lifetime was sorrowfully epitomized by the nature of his publications, all private pamphlets and small collections for friends, not for a general public, which would in his lifetime (1863–1933) have been an unforgivable scandal. Though Sappho herself a century after her death became a stock figure of Greek and later Roman comedy and satire because of her lesbianism, her homoerotic preference did not inhibit or color her own writing. And despite her detractors, she was still the favorite of Plato—that may be more tale than history—and certainly of all important Greek poets and all historians. She was universally seen as the greatest lyric poet of Greek and Roman antiquity.
The Complete Poems of Sappho Page 10
