also by anne carson
The Beauty of the Husband
Men in the Off Hours
Autobiography of Red
Plainwater: Essays and Poetry
Glass, Irony and God
Eros the Bittersweet: An Essay
Economy of the Unlost
I F N O T, W I N T E R
I F N O T, W I N T E R
F R A G M E N T S
O F
S A P P H O
t r a n s l a t e d
b y
ANNE CARSON
vintage books
a division of random house, inc.
new york
FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, AUGUST 2003
Copyright © 2002 by Anne Carson
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc.,
New York. Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 2002.
Vintage and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Em. Querido’s Uitgeverij B.V. for permission to
reprint excerpts from Sappho et Alcaeus by Eva-Maria Voigt. Reprinted by permission
of Em. Querido’s Uitgeverij B.V., Amsterdam.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the Knopf edition as follows:
Sappho.
If not, winter : fragments of Sappho / translated by Anne Carson.—1st ed.
p.
cm.
Poetry in English and Greek.
isbn 0-375-41067-8 (alk. paper)
1. Sappho—Translations into English. 2. Lesbos Island (Greece)—Poetry.
3. Women—Greece—Poetry. I. Carson, Anne, 1950– II. Title.
pa4408.e5 c37 2002
884'.01—dc21
2001050247
Vintage ISBN: 0-375-72451-6
Book design by Carol Devine Carson and Gabriele Wilson
www.vintagebooks.com
Printed in the United States of America
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
for emmet robbins,
beloved teacher
contents
introduction
On Sappho
ix
O n t h e Te x t
x
On Marks and Lacks
xi
if not, winter
notes
who’s who
1
357
384
appendix:
some exemplary testimonia
393
with special thanks to
dorota dutsch
introduction
ON SAPPHO
Sappho was a musician. Her poetry is lyric, that is, composed to be sung to the
lyre. She addresses her lyre in one of her poems (fr. 118) and frequently mentions
music, songs and singing. Ancient vase painters depict her with her instrument.
Later writers ascribe to her three musical inventions: that of the plectron, an
instrument for picking the lyre (Suda); that of the pektis, a particular kind of lyre
(Athenaios Deipnosophistai 14.635b); and the mixolydian mode, an emotional
mode also used by tragic poets, who learned it from Sappho (Aristoxenos cited by
Plutarch On Music 16.113c). All Sappho’s music is lost.
Sappho was also a poet. There is a fifth-century hydria in the National Museum
of Athens that depicts Sappho, identified by name, reading from a papyrus. This is
an ideal image; whether or not she herself was literate is unknown. But it seems
likely that the words to her songs were written down during or soon after her lifetime and existed on papyrus rolls by the end of the fifth century B . C . On a papyrus
roll the text is written in columns, without word division, punctuation or lineation.
To read such a text is hard even when it comes to us in its entirety and most papyri
don’t. Of the nine books of lyrics that Sappho is said to have composed, one poem
has survived complete. All the rest are fragments.
Sappho lived in the city of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos from about 630 B . C .
It is not known when she died. Her exile to Sicily sometime between 604 and 595
B . C . is mentioned in an ancient inscription (the Parian Marble) but no reason for it
is given. Biographical sources mention a mother, a father, a daughter, a husband
and three brothers of Sappho. She appears to have devoted her life to composing
songs; scholars in Alexandria collected them in nine books, of which the first book
alone had 1320 lines. Most of this is lost. Her face was engraved on the coinage of
Mytilene (see G. M. A. Richter, Portraits of the Greeks, I.70–72) and Hellenistic
poets called her “the tenth Muse” or “the mortal Muse” (see Palatine Anthology
9.506 and 7.14). The general tenor of ancient opinion on her work is summarized
by a remark of Strabo:
ix
Sappho [is] an amazing thing. For we know
in all of recorded history not one woman
who can even come close to rivaling her
in the grace of her poetry.
(13.2.3)
Controversies about her personal ethics and way of life have taken up a lot of
people’s time throughout the history of Sapphic scholarship. It seems that she
knew and loved women as deeply as she did music. Can we leave the matter there?
As Gertrude Stein says:
She ought to be a very happy woman. Now we are able to recognize a photograph. We are able to get what we want.
—“Marry Nettie,” Gertrude Stein Writings 1903–1932
(New York, 1999), 461
ON THE TEXT
Breaks are always, and fatally, reinscribed in an old cloth that must continually, interminably be undone.
—J. Derrida, Positions (Chicago, 1981), 24
In general the text of this translation is based on Sappho et Alcaeus: Fragmenta,
edited by Eva-Maria Voigt (Amsterdam, 1971). I include all the fragments printed
by Voigt of which at least one word is legible; on occasion I have assumed variants
or conjectures from her apparatus into my translation and these are discussed
below (see Notes). In translating I tried to put down all that can be read of each
poem in the plainest language I could find, using where possible the same order of
words and thoughts as Sappho did. I like to think that, the more I stand out of the
way, the more Sappho shows through. This is an amiable fantasy (transparency of
self) within which most translators labor. If light appears
not ruining the eyes (as Sappho says)
but strengthening, nourishing and watering
—Aelius Aristides Orations 18.4
we undo a bit of the cloth.
x
ON MARKS AND LACKS
Sappho’s fragments are of two kinds: those preserved on papyrus and those
derived from citation in ancient authors. When translating texts read from papyri, I
have used a single square bracket to give an impression of missing matter, so that
] or [ indicates destroyed papyrus or the presence of letters not quite legible somewhere in the line. It is not the case that every gap or illegibility is specifically
indicated: this would render the page a blizzard of marks and inhibit reading.
Brackets are an aesthetic gesture toward the papyrological event rather than an
accurate record of it. I have not used brackets in translating passages, phrases or
words whose existence depends on citation by ancient authors, since these are
intentionally incomplete. I emphasize the distinction between brackets and no
brackets because it will affect your reading experience, if you allow it. Brackets are
exciting. Even though you are approaching Sappho in translation, that is no reason
you should miss the drama of trying to read a papyrus torn in half or riddled with
holes or smaller than a postage stamp—brackets imply a free space of imaginal
adventure.
A duller load of silence surrounds the bits of Sappho cited by ancient scholiasts, grammarians, metricians, etc., who want a dab of poetry to decorate some
proposition of their own and so adduce exempla without context. For instance, the
second-century- A . D . grammarian Apollonios Dyskolos, who composed a treatise On
Conjunctions in which he wished to make a point about the spelling of the interrogative particle in different dialects of ancient Greek, cites from Sappho this
verse:
Do I still long for my virginity?
—Apollonios Dyskolos On Conjunctions 490 = Sappho fr. 107 Voigt
Whose virginity? It would be nice to know whether this question comes from a wedding song (and so likely an impersonation of the voice of the bride) or not (and so
possibly a personal remark of Sappho’s). Apollonios Dyskolos is not interested in
such matters. Or consider the third-century-B . C . philosopher Chrysippos whose
treatise On Negatives includes this negation from Sappho:
Not one girl I think who looks on the light of the sun will ever have wisdom
like this.
—Chrysippos On Negatives 13 = Sappho fr. 56 Voigt
xi
Wisdom like what? And who is this girl? And why is Sappho praising her? Chrysippos is not concerned with anything except Sappho’s sequence of negative adverbs.
There is also the second-century- A . D . lexicographer Pollux whose lexicon includes
the following entry:
A word beudos found in Sappho is the same as the word kimberikon which
means a short transparent dress.
—Pollux 7.49 = Sappho fr. 177 Voigt
Who would not like to know more about this garment? But the curiosity of Pollux is
strictly lexical. In translating such stranded verse I have sometimes manipulated
its spacing on the page, to restore a hint of musicality or suggest syntactic
motion. For example the sentence cited by Chrysippos becomes:
not one girl I think
who looks on the light of the sun
will ever
have wisdom
like this
This is a license undertaken in deference to a principle that Walter Benjamin calls
“the intention toward language” of the original. He says
The task of the translator consists in finding that intended effect upon the
language into which he is translating which produces in it the echo of the
original. . . . Unlike a work of literature, translation does not find itself in
the center of the language forest but on the outside; it calls into it without
entering, aiming at that single spot where the echo is able to give, in its own
language, the reverberation of the work in the alien one.
—W. Benjamin, “Die Aufgabe des Übersetzers,”
originally a preface to Benjamin’s translation
of Baudelaire (Heidelberg, 1923), 77
I am never quite sure how to hear Sappho’s echo but, now and again, reading these
old citations, there is a tingle.
So far we have looked at examples of citation without context. Still more haunting are instances of context without citation. Some wonderful night of Sappho’s
life, not to say the prayer that it evoked, survives only as an allusion of the fourthcentury- A . D . orator Libanius:
xii
So if nothing prevented the Lesbian Sappho from praying that her night be
made twice as long, let it be permitted me too to pray for something like this.
—Libanius Orations 12.99 = Sappho fr. 197 Voigt
Some song of Sappho’s that Solon heard sung by a boy is mentioned in an anecdote
of Stobaios but Stobaios omits to tell us what song it was:
Solon of Athens heard his nephew sing a song of Sappho’s over the wine and
since he liked the song so much he asked the boy to teach it to him. When
someone asked why he said, So that I may learn it then die.
—Stobaios Florilegium 3.29.58
Some shrewd thinking of Sappho’s about death is paraphrased by Aristotle:
Sappho says that to die is evil: so the gods judge. For they do not die.
—Aristotle Rhetoric 1398b = Sappho fr. 201 Voigt
As acts of deterrence these stories carry their own kind of thrill—at the inside
edge where her words go missing, a sort of antipoem that condenses everything
you ever wanted her to write—but they cannot be called texts of Sappho’s and so
they are not included in this translation.
xiii
I F N O T, W I N T E R
1
PoÕiki lv ofroõn ajqanavt∆Afrovdita,
v omai v ıe,
paiÕ' Dõi Õv oı dolõovploke, liıı
mhv mæÕ a[ıaiıi õmhdæ ojni av iıi davmna,
povtnÕia, qu'õmon,
ajllÕa; tui dv æ e[lõqæ, ai [ pota kajtevrwta
ta;Õı e[maı au[õdaı aji ov iıa phvloi
e[kÕlueı, pavtroõı de; dovmon li pv oiıa
cÕruvıion h\lqõe ı
a[rÕmæ ujpaıdeõuvxaiıa: kavloi dev ıæ a\gon
w[Õkee ı ıtrou'õqoi peri ; ga'ı melai nv aı
puvÕkna di nv õnente ı ptevræ ajpæ wjravnw ai q[ eroÕ ı dia; mev ııw:
ai \Õya dæ ejxi kv oõnto: ıu; dæ, w\ mavkaira,
meidiai õv ıai ıæ ajqanavtwi pro ıwvpwi
h[Õreæ o[ttõi dhu\te pevponqa kw[tti
dhÕu\te kõavlÕhõmmi
kÕw[tti õmoi mavliıta qevlw gevne ıqai
mÕainovlai õquvmwi: ti nv a dhu\te pei qv w
¥Õ ¥ı¥ avghn õejı ıa;n filovtata… ti ıv ıæ, w\
YavÕpfæ, õajdi kv hıi…
2
1
Deathless Aphrodite of the spangled mind,
child of Zeus, who twists lures, I beg you
do not break with hard pains,
O lady, my heart
but come here if ever before
you caught my voice far off
and listening left your father’s
golden house and came,
yoking your car. And fine birds brought you,
quick sparrows over the black earth
whipping their wings down the sky
through midair—
they arrived. But you, O blessed one,
smiled in your deathless face
and asked what (now again) I have suffered and why
(now again) I am calling out
and what I want to happen most of all
in my crazy heart. Whom should I persuade (now again)
to lead you back into her love? Who, O
Sappho, is wronging you?
3
kaÕi ; gõa;r ai j feuvgei, tacevwı diwvxei,
ai j de; dw'ra mh; devketæ, ajlla; dwvıei,
ai j de; mh; fi lv ei, tacevw ı filhvıei
kwujk ejqevloi ıa.
e[lqe moi kai ; nu'n, calevpan de; lu'ıon
ejk meri mv nan, o[ııa dev moi tevle ııai
qu'moı i mj evrrei, tevle ıon, ıu; dæ au[ta
ıuvmmacoı e[ııo.
4
For if she flees, soon she will pursue.
If she refuses gifts, rather will she give them.
If she does not love, soon she will love
even unwilling.
Come to me now: loose me from hard
care and all my heart longs
to accomplish, accomplish. You
be my ally.
5
2
º
∂∂anoqen katiouªı|deurummekrhteı≥ ip≥ª∂ºrµª
a[gnon o[pp≥ªai
º|∂ nau'on
º| cavrien me;n a[l ıoı
mali ªv anº,| b≥w'moi dæ e[ãnÃi qumiavme—
noi ªliº|b≥anwvtwãiÃ:
ejn dæ u[dwr yu'croõnÕ| kelavdei diæ u[ ıdwn
mali vnwn,| brovdoiıi de; pai ı' oj cw'roı
ejıki|v aıtæ, aiqj uııomevnwn de; fuvllwn|
kw'ma katairion:
ejn de; lei vmwn| i pj ≥p≥ovbotoı tevqale
tw≥t∂∂∂(∂)rin|noiı a[nqe ıin, ai j ãdæà a[htai
mevlli|ca pnªevoºi ıin ª
ª
º
e[nqa dh; ıu; ıu.an| e[loi ıa Kuvpri
cruıi vaiıin ejn ku|li kv e ııin a[brwı
ãojÃmãmeÃmei |v cmenon qali av iıi| nevktar
oinj ocovei ıa
6
2
]
here to me from Krete to this holy temple
where is your graceful grove
of apple trees and altars smoking
with frankincense.
And in it cold water makes a clear sound through
apple branches and with roses the whole place
is shadowed and down from radiant-shaking leaves
sleep comes dropping.
And in it a horse meadow has come into bloom
with spring flowers and breezes
like honey are blowing
[
]
In this place you Kypris taking up
in gold cups delicately
nectar mingled with festivities:
pour.
7
3
ºdwvıhn
klºuvtwn mevntæ ejpª
kºavlwn ka[ılwn, ıªµ
∂vºloiı, luvphı tevmª
ºmæ o[neidoı
ºoidhvıaiı∂ ejpita≥ª
º∂van, a[ıaio∂ to; ga;r ∂ª
ºmon oujkou[tw m≥ª
º diavkhtai,
ºmh≥d≥ª
º∂aze,
ºcµiı, ıuni vhmªi
º∂hı kakovtatoªı
ºmen
ºn ajtevraiı meª
ºh frevnaı, eu[ª
ºa≥toiı makaª
º
ºa≥ª
8
3
]to give
]yet of the glorious
]of the beautiful and good, you
]of pain
[me
]blame
]swollen
]you take your fill. For [my thinking
]not thus
]is arranged
]nor
all night long] I am aware
]of evildoing
]
]other
]minds
]blessed ones
]
]
9
4
ºq≥e qu'mon
ºmi pavmpan
º duvnamai,
º
ºaı ken h\ moi
ºıµantilavmphn
ºl≥on provıwpon.
º
ºgµcroiı? qeiı,
º vª∂∂ºroıµ
10
4
]heart
]absolutely
]I can
]
]would be for me
]to shine in answer
]face
]
]having been stained
]
11
5
Kuvpri kai º; Nhrhvi d> eı, ajblavbhªn moi
to;n kaıi vºgnhton dªovºte tui dv æ i k[ eıqaªi
kw[ııa Ûºo≥i ≥ quvmwãià ke qevlh gevneıqai
pavnta teºlevıqhn,
o[ııa de; prºovıqæ a[mbrote pavnta lu'ıaªi
kai ; fi lv oiıºi Ûoiı' i cavran gevneıqai
∂∂∂∂∂∂∂ e[ºcqroiıi, gevnoito dæ a[mmi
∂∂∂∂∂∂mºhdæ ei\ı:
ta;n kaıigºnhvtan de; qevloi povhıqai
ºti mv aı, ªojnºi av n de; luvgran
ºotoiıi pªavºroiqæ ajceuvwn
º∂na
º∂eiıai ?wªnº to; kevgcrw
ºlepagµª∂∂(∂v)ºai poli tv an
ºllwıµª∂∂∂ºnhke dæ au\tæ ouj
ºkrwª º
ºonaikª ºeoª º∂i
º∂∂ª∂ºn: ıu; ªdºe; ≥ Kuvp≥ªriº∂∂ª∂∂(∂)ºna
ºqemªevnºa kavkan ª
ºi.
12
5
O Kypris and Nereids, undamaged I pray you
grant my brother to arrive here.
And all that in his heart he wants to be,
make it be.
And all the wrong he did before, loose it.
Make him a joy to his friends,
a pain to his enemies and let there exist for us
not one single further sorrow.
May he willingly give his sister
her portion of honor, but sad pain
]grieving for the past
]
]millet seed
]of the citizens
]once again no
]
]
]but you Kypris
]setting aside evil [
]
13
6
wjı da∂ª
kak≥k≥ª
atriª
kta≥∂ª
∂º∂ª
qaª
Çtei 'cª
wjı idj w≥ª
t a≥ ;ı ejt∂ª
potnia∂ª
cruıop≥ª
kappoª
∂anmª
k≥a'ra∂ª
º∂ª
14
6
so
]
]
]
]
]
Go
[
so we may see [
]
lady
of gold arms [
]
]
doom
]
15
7
Dwri ºv cµaı∂ª∂∂∂∂∂º∂ª
ºkhn kevl ≥et≥ æ, ouj g aµ rµ ª
ºa≥iı
ºkavnhn ajgeµ r≥ wci av ≥ª
ºmmenæ o[an ne ov≥ ≥iıiª
º∂an fªiºlª∂∂∂∂∂∂º∂ª
ºm≥a∂ ª
16
7
]Doricha’s
]gives orders, for not
]
]top pride
]like young men
]beloved
]
17
8
º∂n∂o≥∂ª
ºa≥≥mf∂ª
ıo∂ª
Aºtqi:
[
º∂nevfª
º
ª
18
8
]
]
]Atthis for you
]
]
19
9
ºa≥rkµ aleioitaıe∂ª
ºpan oujkechª
ºer ejovrtan
ºman ª H
[ ºrai teleª
º∂wnevmª
º∂∂ a\ı a[∂ª
ºuıai ª
º∂oıde ≥ª
ºn∂ª
20
9
]invites
]all not
]feast
]for Hera
]
]as long as
]
]
]
21
12
º∂∂∂ª
ºıqµ e∂ª
º
ª
ºn o≥ ≥hm≥ª
º∂apedª
∂vº∂hneoª
º
ª
º∂∂rµiı∂ª
º∂i¥fª
22
12
]
]
]
]thought
]barefoot
]
]
]
]
23
15a and 15b
ºa≥ mavkai ≥ªr
ºeu≥ plo∂:ª
º∂atoıkaª
º
ºoıqæª
ºbrotekhª
ºataiıµª
ºne≥ m≥ª
º∂uvcai li∂ª
ºen≥ oı klª
º∂ª
º
Kuvºpri kaªi v ıºe piªkrot∂v∂ºa≥n ejpeuvrªoi
mhºde; kaucavıªaºi¥to tovdæ ejnnevªpoiıa
Dºw≥ri vca to; deuvªtºeron wjı poqeª
ºeron h\lqe.
24
15a and 15b
]blessed
]
]
]
to loose all the wrongs he did before
]
]by luck of the harbor
]
Kypris, and may she find you very bitter
and not go boasting—that Doricha—
how he came a second time
]to love’s desire.
25
16
Oºi j me;n ipj phvwn ıtrovton, oi j de; pevıdwn,
oi j de; navwn fai ı' æ ejpªiº; ga'n mevlaiªnºan
e[ºmmenai kavlliıton, e[gw de; kh'næ o[t—
tw tiı e[ratai:
pavºgcu dæ eu[mareı ıuvneton povhıai
pºavnti tªoºu t≥' æ, aj ga;r povlu perıke qv≥ o≥ ≥i¥ıaµ
k≥avl ≥lo≥ıµ ªajnqºrµwvpwn ∆Elevna ªto;ºn a[ndra
t o≥ ;n ≥ ª
arºi¥ıton
k≥allªi pv oiºıæµ e[ba æı Troi a? n plevoi¥ªıaµ
kwujdªe; paº i d' oı oujde; fi lv wn toªkºhvwn
p≥avªmpanº ejmnavıqãhÃ, ajlla; paravg µa≥g µæ a≥u[tan
;
ºıan
ºampton ga;r ª
º∂∂∂kouvfwıtª
ºoh∂ª∂ºn ≥
∂∂ºm≥e ≥ nu'n ∆Anaktori ªv aı ojºn e≥ v≥mnaiıæ oujº pareoi ıv aı,
26
16
Some men say an army of horse and some men say an army on foot
and some men say an army of ships is the most beautiful thing
on the black earth. But I say it is
what you love.
Easy to make this understood by all.
For she who overcame everyone
in beauty (Helen)
left her fine husband
behind and went sailing to Troy.
Not for her children nor her dear parents
had she a thought, no—
]led her astray
]for
]lightly
]reminded me now of Anaktoria
who is gone.
27
ta'º ı ãkÃe bolloi vman e[ratovn te ba'ma
kajmavrucma lavmpron i d[ hn proıwvpw
h] ta; Luvdwn a[rmata kajn o[ploiıi
peıdomºavcentaı.
º∂men ouj duvnaton gevne ıqai
º∂n ajnqrwpª∂∂(∂) pºedevchn dæ a[ra ıqai
ª
º
ª
º
ª
º
ª
º
ª
º
proıª
wj≥ ıdª
∂∂º∂ª
∂º∂ª∂ºw≥l ≥∂ª
tæ ejx ajdokhvªtw.
28
I would rather see her lovely step
and the motion of light on her face
than chariots of Lydians or ranks
of footsoldiers in arms.
]not possible to happen
]to pray for a share
]
]
]
]
]
toward[
]
]
]
out of the unexpected.
29
17
Plavıion dh mª
\Hra ıa; cª
Povtniæ
ta;n ajravtan ∆Atªrevidai
klh~-º
toi baıi lv he ı:
ejktelevııanteı mª
prw'ta me;n peri¥∂ª
tui dv æ ajpormavqenªte ı
oujk ejduvnanto
prin; ıe; kai ; Di væ ajntª
kai ; Quwvnaı imj e ≥ª
nu'n de; kª
ka;t to; pal≥ª
a[gna kai ; ka≥ª
pºarqªen
ajºmfi∂ª
ª
º
ª
º
∂ª∂º∂nilª
e[mmena≥ªi
ª?ºrµ( j) ajpi kv eªıqai.
30
17
Close to me now as I pray,
lady Hera, may your gracious form appear,
to which the sons of Atreus prayed,
glorious kings.
They won very many prizes
first at Troy then on the sea
and set out for here but
could not complete the road
until they called on you and Zeus of suppliants
and Thyone’s lovely child.
Now be gentle and help me too
as of old[
Holy and beautiful
maiden
around[
]
]
]
to be
]to arrive.
31
18
ãPÃavn kedª
ãejÃnnevphnª
glw' ııa mª
muqologh≥ª
ka\ndri ∂ª
meıdonª
32
18
Pan
to tell[
tongue[
to tell tales[
and for a man
greater[
33
19
º
ºmenoiıaª
ºqæ ejn quvoiıiª
º e[coiıan e[ılª
º
ºei de; baiıaª
ºuj ga;r i[dmenª
ºin e[rgwn
º
ºdæ ujpi ıv ıw ª
kºajpikudª
ºtodæ eip[ hª
34
19
]
]waiting
]in sacrifices
]having good
]
]but going
]for we know
]of works
]
]after
]and toward
]says this
35
20
ºepi ≥eı≥ maª
ºe, gavnoı de; kai¥ ∂∂ª
º
tºuvcai ıu;n e[ılai
li ºv m≥enoı krevthıai
gºa'ı melai nv aı
º
ºevloiıi nau'tai
º m≥egavlaiı ajhvtaiªı
ºa kajpi ; cevrıw
º
ºv≥ moqen plevoi∂ª
ºde ta; fovrtiæ eikj ª
ºnatimæ ejpei ; k∂ª
º
ºrevonti povll ≥∂∂ª
ºaidevka≥ª
ºei
º
º i¥n e[rga
º cevrıw ª
º∂a
º
∂vº∂∂ª
36
20
]
]gladness and
]
]with good luck
]to gain the harbor
]of black earth
]
]sailors
]in big blasts of wind
]upon dry land
]
]sail
]the freight
]when
]
]many
]
]
]
]works
]dry land
]
]
]
37
21
º
º∂epabolhıµª
ºa≥ndæ o[lofun ª∂∂∂∂ºe ≥∂
º tromevroiı p∂ª∂∂ºa≥lla
º
º crova gh'raı h[dh
ºn ajmfibavıkei
ºı pevtatai diwvkwn
º
ºtaı ajgauvaı
ºea≥ , lavboiıa
ºõa[eiıon a[mmi
õta;n i oj vkolponÕ
º
ºrµwn mavliıta
ºaı pªlºavnatai
38
21
]
]
]pity
]trembling
]
]flesh by now old age
]covers
]flies in pursuit
]
]noble
]taking
]sing to us
the one with violets in her lap
]mostly
]goes astray
39
22
ºbla∂ª
ºergon, ∂∂læa∂∂ª
ºn rjevqoı dokim≥ª
ºhıqai
ºn ≥ aujavdhn c∂ª
dºe; mhv, cei vmwnª
º∂oiıanalgea∂ª
ºde
∂º∂e ≥∂ª∂∂∂∂º∂ª∂∂∂kºevlomai ı∂ª
∂∂º∂gula∂ª∂∂∂ºa≥nqi lavboi ıa∂a∂ª
pa'ºktin, a\ıµ ıe dhu\te povqoı t¥∂ª
ajmfipovtatai
ta;n kavlan: aj ga;r katavgwgiı au[t a≥ ª
ejptovai ıæ i d[ oi ıan, e[gw de; cai rv w,
kai ; gµa;r au[t¥a dhv po≥ªtæº ejmemfª
Kºuprogevnªha
wj≥ı a[rama≥ªi
tou'to tw'ª
bºovlloma≥ªi
40
22
]
]work
]face
]
]
if not, winter
]no pain
]
]I bid you sing
of Gongyla, Abanthis, taking up
your lyre as (now again) longing
floats around you,
you beauty. For her dress when you saw it
stirred you. And I rejoice.
In fact she herself once blamed me
Kyprogeneia
because I prayed
this word:
I want
41
23
ºe[rwtoı hj l ≥p ≥ª
º
anºtion eiıj i dv wıª
º ∆Ermiovna teauªta
º xavnqai dæ ∆Elevnai ıæ eij ıv ªkºhn
ºkeı
º∂iı qnavtaiı, tovde dæ iı[ ªqi,º ta;i ıa'i
ºpai ıv an kev me ta;n meri vmnan
ºl≥aiıæ ajntidª∂∂º vª∂ºa≥qoiı de;≥
º
ºtaı o[cqoiı
ºtain
panºnuci ıv ªdºhn
º ª
42
23
]of desire
]
]for when I look at you
]such a Hermione
]and to yellowhaired Helen I liken you
]
]among mortal women, know this
]from every care
]you could release me
]
]dewy riverbanks
]to last all night long
] [
43
24a
ºanavga≥ª
º∂ª
ºemnavıeıqæ ajª
kºai ; gµa;r a[mmeı ejn neovªtati
tau~ t≥ ¥ æ ªejºpovhmmen:
po≥vl≥l≥a≥ ªmºe;n ga;r kai ; kavªla
∂∂∂h≥∂ª ºmen, poliª
∂mme ≥ª∂ºoª∂ºei av iı d≥ª
∂º∂∂ª∂º∂∂ª
24c
ºnqaª
zºwvomªen
ºw≥: n∂∂ª
ºenantª
ºa≥pavppª
tºovlmanª
ºanqrwª
ºonecª
ºpaiıa≥ª
44
24a
]
]you will remember
]for we in our youth
did these things
yes many and beautiful things
]
]
]
24c
]
]we live
]
the opposite
]
daring
]
]
]
45
24d
º∂evdafoª
ºa≥ikateª
ºanevlo≥ª
º
º∂ ª
º∂ai
lºeptofwvnª
º∂ea≥∂ª
46
24d
]
]
]
]
]
]in a thin voice
]
47
25
ºgme∂ª
ºprolipª
ºnua'ıepª
a[ºbra:
ejºglavqanæ ejıªµ
ºhımeqa≥ª
ºn≥unqalaª
48
25
]
]quit
]
]luxurious woman
]
]
]
49
26
ºqamevwª
o[Õttinaõı ga;r
eu\ qevw, kh'noi v me mavÕl≥iıta pavªntwn
ıi nv ontaÕi ≥
º ajlemavtª
º ≥gonwm≥ª
º∂i ≥mæ ouj prª
ºai
º ıev, qevlwª
ºto pavqhª
º∂an, e g[ w dæ em[ æ õau[tai
tou'to ıuvÕnoida
º∂ª∂º∂toiıª∂∂∂º∂ª
ºenamª
º∂ª∂º∂ ª
50
26
]frequently
]for those
I treat well are the ones who most of all
]harm me
]crazy
]
]
]
]you, I want
]to suffer
]in myself I am
aware of this
]
]
]
51
27
ºk≥aip≥ª
º∂ª∂º∂ª∂ºn≥oıª
ºıi:
∂∂∂º ≥ kai ; ga;r d≥h; ıu; paviı potª
∂∂∂ºi¥kh≥ ı mevlpeıqæ a[gi tau'taª
∂∂º zavlexai, ka[mmæ ajpu; twdekª
a[ºdra cavriııai:
ıºtei cv omen ga;r ejı gavmon: eu\ deª
kaºi ; ıu; tou'tæ, ajllæ o[tti tavciıtaª
paºrµªqºevnoiı a[pªpºempe, qevoiª
ºen e[coien
º o[doıµ mªevºgan eiıj [Olªumpon
ajºnqrwªp
52
ºai kv ∂ª
27
]
]
]
]yes you a child once
]come sing these things
]talk to us, give us your
grace
for we go to a wedding: and surely
you know this, but as soon as possible
send the girls away, may gods
have
]road to great Olympos
]for men
53
29a
º∂i¥w≥nª
ºm≥etv riaka≥ª
bºa≥vqu dou∂ª
ºa≥n ≥ª
29b
º
ºantame ª≥
º∂i¥ povtniaª
ºa≥yatª
ºo≥n
54
29a
]
]
deep sound
]
29b
]
]
lady
]
]
55
29c
ºpeplª
º∂iª∂ºorµm≥oiıª∂ºt e≥ ≥ª
º∂ª∂∂∂º∂ª∂ºw≥
º∂aª∂∂∂º∂ª∂∂ºa≥p≥oi¥ª
º∂wª∂∂∂∂ºt ª≥
º∂i¥g µo≥ª∂∂∂º∂∂ª∂∂∂∂∂∂º∂ª
º∂
º∂ª∂ºlm≥ª
º∂ª∂º∂ª
ºnt≥ e G≥ov≥rµg µo≥i¥ ∂ª∂º∂ª
ºde: ª
º∂∂ª∂∂º∂ª
º∂m∂ª
56
29c
]robes
]necklaces
]
]
]
]
]
]
]for Gorgo
]
]
57
29h
º ª
º∂oiıa≥ª∂º.
Gºuvrinnoi
º∂autan
º
ºıæ eo[ iıan
ºloiıa
º∂ª
58
29h
]
]
for Gyrinno
]
]
]
]
]
59
30
nuvktª∂∂∂º∂ª
pavrqenoi dª
pannuciıv doi¥ªıºa≥i¥ª
ıa;n ajei dv oiıµªiºn fªilovtata kai ; nuvm—
faı ioj kovlpw.
ajllæ ejgevrqei≥ ¥ ı, hji q> ªe
ıtei 'ce ıoi ı; ujmavlik≥ªaı
h[per o[ııon aj ligµuvfw≥ªnoı
u[pnon ªi º[ dwmen.
60
30
night[
girls
all night long
might sing of the love between you and the bride
with violets in her lap
wake! and go call
the young men so that
no more than the bird with piercing voice
shall we sleep
61
31
Fai nv etai v moi kh'noı iı[ oı qevoiıin
e[mmenæ w[nhr, o[ttiı ejnavntiovı toi
iıj davnei kai ; plavıion a\du fwnei -v
ıaı ujpakouvei
kai ; gelai ıv aı imj evroen, tov mæ h\ ma;n
kardi van ejn ıthvqeıin ejptovaiıen:
wjı ga;r ãe[ıÃ ıæ i d[ w brovceæ w[ı me fwvnhıæ oujde;n et[ æ ei [kei,
ajlla; kam me;n glw'ııa e[age, levpton
dæ au[tika crw'i pu'r ujpadedrovmaken,
ojppavteııi dæ oujde;n o[rhmmæ, ejpibrovmeiıi dæ a[kouai,
evkade mæ i d[ rwı kakcevetai, trovmoı de;
paiı' an a[grei, clwrotõevra de; pÕoi av ı
e[mmi, teqõnavkhn dæ ojÕli gv w æpideõuvhı
faÕi vnomæ e[mæ au[t ª≥ ai.
ajlla; pa;n tovlmaton, epj ei ; kai ; pevnhta
62
31
He seems to me equal to gods that man
whoever he is who opposite you
sits and listens close
to your sweet speaking
and lovely laughing—oh it
puts the heart in my chest on wings
for when I look at you, even a moment, no speaking
is left in me
no: tongue breaks and thin
fire is racing under skin
and in eyes no sight and drumming
fills ears
and cold sweat holds me and shaking
grips me all, greener than grass
I am and dead—or almost
I seem to me.
But all is to be dared, because even a person of poverty
63
32
ai [ me timi av n ejpovhıan e[rga
ta; ıfa; doiı' ai
64
32
who honored me
by giving their works
65
33
aiq[ æ e[gw, cruıoıtevfanæ ∆Afrovdita,
tovnde to;n pavlon lacoi vhn
66
33
if only I, O goldcrowned Aphrodite,
could win this lot
67
34
a[ıtereı men; ajmfi ; kavlan ıelavnnan
a]y ajpukruvptoiıi favennon ei\doı
o[ppota plhvqoiıa mavliıta lavmph
ga'n
ajrguri av
68
34
stars around the beautiful moon
hide back their luminous form
whenever all full she shines
on the earth
silvery
69
35
h[ ıe Kuvproı h] Pavfoı h] Pavnormoı
70
35
you either Kypros or Paphos or Panormos
71
36
kai ; poqhvw kai ; mavomai
72
36
I long and seek after
73
37
ka;t e[mon ıtavlugmon
to;n dæ ejpiplavzontæ a[nemoi fevroien
kai ; melevdwnai
74
37
in my dripping (pain)
the blamer may winds and terrors
carry him off
75
38
o[ptaiı a[mme
76
38
you burn me
77
39
povdaãıÃ de;
poi kv iloı mavılhı ejkavlupte, Luvdion kavlon e[rgon
78
39
the feet
by spangled straps covered
beautiful Lydian work
79
40
ıoi ; dæ e g[ w leuvkaı epidwmon ai \goı
kajpilei yv w toi
80
40
but I to you of a white goat
and I will pour wine over
81
41
taiı; kavlaiıæ u[mmin ãto;Ã novhmma tw\mon
ouj diavmeipton
82
41
for you beautiful ones my thought
is not changeable
83
42
taiı' i yu'croı men; eg[ ento qu'moı
pa;r dæ i [eiıi ta; ptevra
84
42
their heart grew cold
they let their wings down
85
43
ºa≥i ≥:
º
ºl≥et≥ ≥ai¥
º ·k‚aloı
º∂ a[kala klovnei
º kavmatoı frevna
ºe ≥ k≥atiıdavneªiº
º ajllæ a[gitæ, w\ fi lv ai,
º, a[gci ga;r ajmevra.
86
43
]
]
]
]beautiful he
]stirs up still things
]exhaustion the mind
]settles down
]but come O beloveds
]for day is near
87
44
Kupro≥∂ª
ka'rux h\lqe ≥ qe ª≥
ºaıµ:
ºele ª≥ ∂∂∂º∂qeiı
“Idaoı tadeka∂∂∂fª∂∂º∂iı tavcuı a[ggeloı
tavı tæ a[llaı ∆Aıi av ı ∂ª∂ºde∂an klevoı a[fqiton:
“Ektwr kai ; ıunevtairµªoºi a[goµ i¥ ı æ ejlikwvpida
Qhvbaı ejx iej vraı Plaki av ı tæ ajp≥æ ªaji º> nãnÃavw
a[bran ∆Andromavcan ejni ; nau'ıin ejpæ a[lmuron
povnton: povlla dæ ªejli ºv gmata cruvıia ka[mmata
porfuvrªaº katau?tªmeºna, poi kv≥ i≥ ¥ læ ajquvrmata,
ajrguvra≥ tæ≥ ajnav≥rõiÕq≥ma õpothvÕrõiaÕ kajlevfaiı.
w]ı ei\pæ: ojtralevwı dæ ajnovrouıe pavtªhºrµ fi lv oı:
favma dæ h\lqe kata; pt o≥ vlin eujruvco≥rµo≥n fi lv oiı.
au[tikæ ∆Ili av dai ıati nv aiªıº ujpæ ejutrovcoiı
a\gon aimj iovnoiı, ej≥p≥ªevºbaine de; pai ı' o[cloı
gunai kv wn tæ a[ma parqeni kv aªnº t∂∂ª∂∂º∂ıfuvrwn,
cw'riı dæ au\ Peravmoio qugªaºtreıª
i[ppªoiıº dæ a[ndreı u[pagon ujpæ a[rµªmata
pª
ºeı hji qv e≥ oi, megavlwªıºti d≥ª
dª
º∂ ajni ov coi fª∂∂∂∂∂º∂ª
p≥ª
vºxa∂oª
88
44
Kypros
herald came
Idaos
swift messenger
]
and of the rest of Asia
imperishable fame.
Hektor and his men are bringing a glancing girl
from holy Thebe and from onflowing Plakia—
delicate Andromache on ships over the salt
sea. And many gold bracelets and purple
perfumed clothes, painted toys,
and silver cups innumerable and ivory.
So he spoke. And at once the dear father rose up.
And news went through the wide town to friends.
Then sons of Ilos led mules beneath
fine-running carts and up climbed a whole crowd
of women and maidens with tapering ankles,
but separately the daughters of Priam
[
And young men led horses under chariots
[
]in great style
]charioteers
]
89
i º[ keloi qevoiªı
º a[gnon ajolªle
ºnon ejı I[ lioªn
õo[≥rµmat ≥a≥i¥Õª
õau\loı dæ ajduªmºevlhıÕµ ª
ºtæ ojnemi gv nuªto
õkai ; yªovºfoªı kºrotavlÕªwn
ºwı dæ a[ra pavrªqenoi
õa[eidon mevloı a[gn≥Õªon, i[kaºne dæ ejı a≥i q[¥ ª≥ era
õa[cw qeıpeıi av ≥ gel≥Õª
õpavntai dæ h\ı ka;t o[doÕªiı
õkravthreı| fi av lai v tæ ojÕª∂∂∂ºuedeª∂∂º∂∂eakª∂º∂ª
õmuvrra ka|i ; kaıi av li bv Õanovı tæ ojnemei vcnuto
õguvnaikeı dæ ejlevluıdoÕn o[ıai progenevıteraªi
õpavnteı dæ a[ndreı ejpÕhvraton ia[ con o[rqion
õpavonæ ojnkalevonteıÕ jEkavbolon eujluvran
õu[mnhn dæ E
[ ktora kæ AnÕdromav
j
can qeoãeÃikevloªiı.
90
]like to gods
]holy all together
set out
for Ilios
and sweetflowing flute and kithara were mingled
with the clip of castanets and piercingly then the maidens
sang a holy song and straight up the air went
amazing sound
[
and everywhere in the roads was [
bowls and cups
[
myrrh and cassia and frankincense were mingled.
And all the elder women shouted aloud
and all the men cried out a lovely song
calling on Paon farshooting god of the lyre,
and they were singing a hymn for Hektor and Andromache
like to gods.
91
44Aa
ºıanoreıµ∂∂ª
Foi bv wi cruıokovºv m≥ai to;n e[tikte Kovw ∂ª
mi gv eiı(a)
Krºoni dv ai megalwnuvmw≥ãi Ã.
ı de; qevwnº mevgan o[rkon ajpwvmoıe
Artemi
[
kefavºlan: a[i > pavrqenoı e[ııomai
º∂wn ojrevwn koruvfa≥iı≥ æ ep[ i
ºd≥e neu'ıon e[man cavrin:
evneuºıeµ qevwn makavrwn pavthr:
ejlafavbºolon ajgrotevran qevo≥i
º∂ıin ejpwnuvmion mevga:
ºeroı oujdavma pi lv natai:
º∂ª∂º∂∂∂m≥a≥fovbeª∂∂ºev≥rµw:
44Ab
e≥jmmª
kai¥∂ª
rµ∂e∂ª
w∂∂∂ ª
Moiıan ajglaª
povei kai ; Cari tv wn≥ ª
bradi nv oiı ejpeb.ª
j qe.ª
o[rgaı mh; pilav
q≥na≥ vtoiıin: ped. vcª
ºd≥ali wv ª
92
44Aa
]
for goldhaired Phoibos whom Koos’ daughter bore
after she mingled with Kronos’ highnamed son.
But Artemis swore the great oath of the gods:
By your head! forever virgin shall I be
]untamed on solitary mountains
]Come, nod yes to this for my sake!
So she spoke. Then the father of blessed gods nodded yes.
Virgin deershooter wild one the gods
call her as her name.
]Eros comes nowhere near her
]
44Ab
[
[
[
[
of the Muses
[
makes and of the Graces
[
with slender
[
for mortals: there is a share [
]
93
45
a\ı qevletæ u[mmeı
94
45
as long as you want
95
46
e[gw dæ ejpi ; molqavkan
tuvlan ãkaÃıpolevw mevlea: ka]n me;n tetuvlagkaı ajıpovlea
96
46
and I on a soft pillow
will lay down my limbs
97
47
“Eroı dæ ejti nv axev ãmoi Ã
frevnaı, wjı a[nemoı ka;t o[roı druvıin ejmpevtwn
98
47
Eros shook my
mind like a mountain wind falling on oak trees
99
48
h\lqeı e[gw dev ıæ ejmaiovman,
o]n dæ e[yuxaı e[man frevna kaiomevnan povqwi
100
48
you came and I was crazy for you
and you cooled my mind that burned with longing
101
49
jHravman me;n e[gw ıevqen, “Atqi, pavlai potav
ımi kv ra moi paviı e[mmenæ ejfai nv eo ka[cariı
102
49
I loved you, Atthis, once long ago
a little child you seemed to me and graceless
103
50
oj me;n ga;r kavloı o[ııon i d[ hn pevletai ãkavloıÃ,
oj de; ka[gaqoı au[tika kai ; kavloı e[ıãıe Ãtai.
104
50
For the man who is beautiful is beautiful to see
but the good man will at once also beautiful be.
105
51
oujk oi\dæ o[tti qevw: duvo moi ta; nohvmata
106
51
I don’t know what to do
two states of mind in me
107
52
yauvhn dæ ouj doki mv wmæ ojravnw duıpaceva
108
52
I would not think to touch the sky with two arms
109
53
Brodopavceeı a[gnai Cavriteı, deu'te Di ov ı kovrai
110
53
pure Graces with arms like roses
come here daughters of Zeus
111
54
e[lqontæ ejx ojravnw porfuri av n perqevmenon clavmun
112
54
having come from heaven wrapped in a purple cloak
113
55
katqavnoiıa de; kei ıv hi oujdev pota mnamoıuvna ıevqen
eı[ ıetæ oujde; pokæ u[ıteron: ouj ga;r pedevchiı brovdwn
tw;n ejk Pieri av ı, ajllæ ajfavnhı kajn ∆Ai dv a dovmwi
foitavıhiı pedæ ajmauvrwn nekuvwn ejkpepotamevna.
114
55
Dead you will lie and never memory of you
will there be nor desire into the aftertime—for you do not
share in the roses
of Pieria, but invisible too in Hades’ house
you will go your way among dim shapes. Having been breathed out.
115
56
oujdæ ia[ n doki mv wmi proıi dv oiıan favoı ajli wv
eı[ ıeıqai ıofi av n pavrqenon eiıj oujdevna pw crovnon
teauvtan
116
56
not one girl I think
who looks on the light of the sun
will ever
have wisdom
like this
117
57
ti ıv dæ ajgroi ?wtiı qevlgei novon
ajgroi ?wtin ejpemmevna ıtovlan
oujk ejpiıtamevna ta; bravkeæ e[lkhn ejpi ; tw;n ıfuvrwn…
118
57
what country girl seduces your wits
wearing a country dress
not knowing how to pull the cloth to her ankles?
119
58
º∂ª
º∂daª
º
º∂a
ºuv≥goiıa≥ª
º∂ª∂∂º∂∂ª
ºi¥davcqhn
ºcµu qª∂vºo≥i¥ª∂ºallª∂∂∂∂∂∂∂ºuvtan
º∂cqo∂ª∂ºati ∂v ª∂∂∂∂∂ºeiıa
ºmevna tanª∂∂∂∂wvºnumovn ıe ≥
ºni qh'tai ıtªuvºmaªtiº prov≥koyin
ºpwn kavla dw'ra pai 'deı
∂ºfilavoidon liguvran celuvnnan
pavºnta crova gh'raı h[dh
leu~kai v tæ ejgevnoºnto tri cv eı ejk melai nv an
ºa≥i¥, govna dæ ªoºuj fevroiıi
ºhıqæ iı[ a nebri ov iıin
ajºl≥la; ti v ken poei vhn…
º ouj duvnaton gevneıqai
º brodovpacun Au[wn
e[ıºcata ga'ı fevroiıaª
ºo≥n u[mwı e[maryeª
ºavtan a[koitin
ºi¥mevnan nomiıv dei
ºaiı ojpavıdoi
õe[gw de; fi lv hmmæ ajbroıuvnan,Õ
º tou'to kai v moi
to; lavõmpron e[rwı ajeli wv kai ; to; kavÕlon levõlÕogce.
120
º
58
]
]
]
]
]running away
]bitten
]
]
]you
]makes a way with the mouth
]beautiful gifts children
]songdelighting clearsounding lyre
]all my skin old age already
hair turned white after black
]knees do not carry
]like fawns
]but what could I do?
]not possible to become
]Dawn with arms of roses
]bringing to the ends of the earth
]yet seized
]wife
]imagines
]might bestow
But I love delicacy
and this to me—
the brilliance and beauty of the sun—desire has allotted.
121
59
jEpinª
º∂ª∂∂∂ºn≥ov∂ª
fi lv ei∂ª
kainª
122
59
]
loves
new
123
60
ºtuvcoiıa
º qevlæ wntapaiıv an
tevºl≥eıon novhmma
ºevtwn kavlhmi
º peda; qu'mon ai \ya
o[ºııµ a tuvchn qelhvıhªı
ºr e[moi mavceıqaªi
cºlidavnaãi à pi vqeiıaª
ºi, ıu; dæ eu\ ga;r oi ı\ qa
ºevtei taª∂º∂le∂∂
ºkl≥aıª
124
60
]having encountered
]wants
]accomplish the plan
]I call out
]to the heart at once
]all that you wish to win
]to fight for me
]by the wanton one persuaded
]but yes you know well
]
]
125
61
eg[ ent¥ ∂ª
ouj gavr kªe
126
61
they became [
for not
127
62
jEptavxateª≥
davfnaı o[ta≥ª
pa;n dæ a[dionª
h] kh'non ejloª
kai ; taiı' i me;n aj≥ª
ojdoi pv oroı a[nª∂∂∂∂º∂∂ª
muvgiı dev potæ eiıj avion: ejkl≥ª
yuvca dæ ajgapavtaıu∂ª∂v
tevauta de; nu'n e[mm≥ª
i k[ eıqæ ajganaª
ef[ qate: kavlanª
tav tæ e[mmata ka≥ª
128
62
You cowered
[
laurel tree
[
but everything sweeter
[
than that
[
and for them
[
traveler
[
But I scarcely ever listened
[
soul beloved
[
and such now
[
to arrive kindly
[
You got there first: beautiful
[
and the clothes
[
129
63
“Onoire melainaª
fªoºi vtaiı, o[ta tæ u[pnoı ª
gluvkuıµ q≥ªevºo≥ı, h\ dei 'næ ojni vaı mª
za; cw'riı e[chn ta;n dunamª
e[lpiı dev mæ ec[ ei mh; pedevchªn
mhde;n makavrwn ejl ≥ª
o≥uj≥ gavr kæ eo[ n ou[twª∂∂v
ajquvrmata ka∂ª
gevnoito dev moiª
toiı; pavntaª
130
63
dream of black
[
you come roaming and when sleep
[
sweet god, terribly from pain
[
to hold the strength separate
[
but I expect not to share
[
nothing of the blessed ones
[
for I would not be like this
[
toys
[
but may it happen to me
[
all
[
131
64a
64b
ºl≥ak≥ª
º
º∂aª
ºni ∂v ª
ºai gv aª
aºli kv eııµ iª
º∂do∂ª
º
º
ºpai vdwnª
ºdho≥n
º
º
ºqentª
º∂qevoiıªµ
ºn ai ı[ crª
º
ºa moi ª'
ºtetiª
132
ª
64a and b
]
]
]
goat
]for comrades
]
]of children
]
]
]
]
]to gods
]ugly
]
]Muse
]
133
65
∂∂∂∂∂º∂∂∂aª
∂∂∂∂∂ºromeª
∂∂∂∂∂º∂elaı≥ª
∂rot ≥hvnnemeª
Yavpfoi, ıefi lv ª
Kuvprwi¥ b≥ªaºıi lv ª
k≥ai vtoi mevga d∂ª
o[ºııoiı faevqwn ≥ ª
pavntai klevoı ª
kai v ıæ enj n ∆Acevrªont
∂∂ª∂∂∂∂∂∂ºn p≥ ≥ª
134
65
]
]
]
]
to Sappho, you
[
in Kypros queen
[
and yet greatly
[
to all on whom the blazing
[
everywhere glory
[
and you in Acheron’s
]
135
67a
∂∂ºwn ma∂ª
kºai ; tou'tæ epj ike∂ª
dºai vmwn ojlof∂ª
ouj ma;n ejfi lv hıªµ
nu'n dæ en[ nekaª
to; dæ ait[ ion oujtª
o≥ujde;n povluª∂º∂ª
≥ºudæ ª∂[
67b
º∂oudeª
ºt ≥auta∂ª
ºlaiıimª
ºplhvoni ≥ª
ºæ ajmfª
º∂ıqeo∂ª
ºevr≥ wı∂ª
136
67a
]
and this
[
ruinous god
[
I swear did not love
[
but now because
[
and the reason neither
[
nothing much
[
[
67b
]nor
]these
]
]more
]around
]
]desire
137
68a
ºi ≥ gavr mæ ajpu; ta;ı e∂j ª
u[ºmwı dæ eg[ enªto
º iı[ an qevoiıin
ºaıan ajli tv raª
∆Anºdromevdanª∂º∂axª
ºarª∂∂∂º∂a m≥av≥ka≥ªirºa
ºeo≥ n de; trovpon aª∂º∂uvnhª
º k≥ovro≥n ouj katiıcµe∂ª
ºk≥aª∂∂∂∂∂º∂ Tundari dv aiªı
ºaıuª∂º∂∂∂kaª∂º cari ventæ aj∂ª
ºkæ a[dolon ªmºhkevti ıunª
º Megavra∂ª∂∂ºn a≥ ª∂∂∂ºaª
68b
º∂∂∂∂fª
º∂ª∂ºæquvra∂ª
ºm≥oi cavle∂ª
ºdekuvª
º∂opavlhn o[l≥ª
ºeª
138
68a
]for me away from
]yet turned out to be
]her like gods
]sinful
]Andromeda
]blessed one
]way
]did not restrain excess
]Tyndarids
]gracious
]innocent no longer
]Megara
68b
]
]playing
]for me harsh
]
]
]
139
69
ºe∂∂ª∂ºt ≥egamª
ºaı ajli vtraª
ºevtæ aujª
140
69
]
]sinful
]
141
70
ºa≥m≥∂l∂ª
ºnamª
ºn ≥ dæ ei \mæ eª
ºrµıomevnª
ºlikæ ujpaª
º∂∂∂ª∂ºbaª
ºıµ gµa;r ejp≥ auª
º mavn kæ ajpu≥qu≥ ıªµ
ºarmoni av ı d≥ª
ºaqhn covron, a[aª
ºd≥e li gv ha∂ª
ºatovn ıfi ≥ª
º pavnteııiª
ºepª∂º∂ª
142
70
]
]
]I will go
]
]
]
]for
]
]of Harmonia
]dance
]clearsounding
]
]to all
]
143
71
ºmiııe Mi kv a
ºelaª∂ ∂ajlºlav ıæ e g[ wujk
ejavıw
ºn ≥ filovtªatæº h[leo Penqilhvan ª≥
ºda ka≥ªkovºtropæ, a[mmaª
º mevl≥ªoıº ti gluvkeron∂ª
ºa mellicovfwnªoı
ºdei, li vgurai dæ a[hª
º droıªovºeııaª
144
71
]you Mika
]but I will not allow you
]you chose the love of Penthelids
]evilturning
]some sweet song
]in honey voice
]piercing breezes
]wet with dew
145
73a
ºnb≥ ∂ª∂º∂ª∂ºu≥
ºa
ºan ∆Afrodiªta
ajºduvlogoi dæ ejrª
ºb≥alloi
aºiıµ e[coiıa
º∂evn≥ a qaaıªı
ºavllei
ºaı eej vrıaı ª
146
73a
]
]
]Aphrodite
]sweetworded desires
]throw
]holding
]sits
]
]dews
147
74a
ºwn e[kaª
74b
ºaª
74c
º∂ª
ºaipovlª
ºpoqo≥ª
ºaı id[ rwª
ºm∂ª
º∂wvba≥ª
º∂uzaµ d∂ª
ºbrodoª
ºi ≥nª
ºo≥nqª
ºfµaimª
148
74a
74b
74c
]
]
]
]goatherd
]longing
]sweat
]
]
]
]roses
]
]
]
149
76
ºan ≥ pa≥ª
teºlevıeie k≥ª
ºi vh lelaª
ºe qevlwª
ºechnª
ºh≥: e[fa∂ª
ºali kv ª
150
76
]
]might accomplish
]
]I want
]to hold
]said
]
151
78
º∂onauª
ºhn oujdeª
ºhı im[ erª
º∂ai dæ a[maª
º∂anqoı:ª
i º[ meronª
ºeterpª
152
78
]
]nor
]desire
]but all at once
]blossom
]desire
]took delight
153
80
º∂ª
º∂t o≥ ıeı∂ª
ºpantaª
ºi ≥ dæ ajtevraª
ºlokaª
º∂ª
154
80
]
]
]all
]but different
]hair
]
155
81
ºapuvqeı∂ª
ºciıtal≥ª
ºem≥ ≥pª
ıu; de; ıtefavnoiı, w\ Di kv a, pÕevrqeıõqæ ejravtoiı fovbaiıin
o[rpakaı ajnhvtw ıunãaÃÕevõrrÕaiıµõæ ajpavlaiıi cevrıin:
eujavnqea ga;r pevletai kai ; Cavriteı mavkairaãi Ã
ma'llon proterhn, ajıtefanwvtoiıi dæ ajpuıtrevfontai.
156
81
]despise
]quick as possible
]
But you, O Dika, bind your hair with lovely crowns,
tying stems of anise together in your soft hands.
For the blessed Graces prefer to look on one who wears flowers
and turn away from those without a crown.
157
82a
Eujmorfotevra Mnaıidi kv a ta;ı ajpavlaı Guri nv nwı
82b
kai vtæ eªj
mhdenª
nu'n dæ ajª
mh; bovlle ª≥
eujºmorfo≥ªtevra
158
82a
Mnasidika more finely shaped than soft Gyrinno
82b
and if
[
nothing
[
but now
[
don’t
[
more finely shaped
159
83
º∂ai ∂v ª
ºlæ au\qi meª
ºnwvmeqæ ojª
º dhu\tæ ejpitª
ºevnthdem≥ª
º∂a ga;r ejkavª
º∂ª∂º∂ª
160
83
]
]right here
]
](now again)
]
]for
]
161
84
º∂aiıª
º∂ikipª
ºw≥n kª∂∂º∂ª∂?ºi vnaª
ºtonovne∂ª ∂? º∂≥oıe ª≥
ºavbroiı ejpicª?ºh≥mª
ºan ∆Artemi¥ ª
ºnablª
162
84
]
]
]
]reproach
]delicate
]Artemis
]
163
85a
85b
º∂∂
ºpavmena≥ª
ºt æ≥ w[ıtæ oj pevlhª
∂;ºlbon
ºakan ıµov≥ª
ºakouvhn
ºa≥utv an ≥
164
85a
85b
]
]
]prosperous
]like an old man
]to listen
]
]
165
86
º∂akavla∂ª
º a≥i gj≥ iovcw l≥a≥ª
º∂ K≥ u≥qevrhæ eu≥ jc≥ µomª
ºo≥n e[coiıa qu'mo≥ªn
klºu'qi v m≥æ a[raı ai [ pªota kajtevrwta
ºaı p≥rµoli pv oiıµa kª
º∂ pedæ e[man iwj vª
º∂n ca≥levpai∂ª
166
86
]quiet
]with an aegis
]Kytherea I pray
]holding the heart
]hear my prayer if ever at other times
]forsaking
]toward my
]harsh
167
87a
ºamm≥ª
ºi ≥ka∂ª
ºpoiıv aiª
ºk≥lehdon≥ª
º∂plokamª
ºeı≥ dæ aj≥maª
º ajnqrwvpª
º∂umainª
ºt ≥ek≥aip≥ª
87b
mºerimnaª
ºgµhn
ª
ºa≥i ≥ko≥ª
ºai
ª
87c
ª∂ºdw∂ª
t ≥ov≥lmª
168
87a
]
]
]
]rumor
]hair
]at the same time
]man
]
]
87b
]anxiety
]ground
]
]
87c
]
]daring
169
87d
º
º
ºeı≥ qa
ºrpon a[ban
º
ºeıqai:
º
º∂
º
º
170
87d
]
]
]
] youth
]
]
]
]
]
]
171
87e
ºefi ≥∂ª
bºa≥ıilhµ∂ª
ºegad∂ª
º∂oı∂ª
87f
∂vºdhª
∂vºk≥wıaª
ºn: ıoiª
º∂dhk∂ª
ºeıiµ ≥p≥p≥ª
º∂a≥l∂ª
º∂eııaª
º∂ª∂º∂ª
172
87e
]
]queen
]
]
87f
]
]
]to you
]
]horse
]
]
]
173
88a
º∂ª
ºn≥ prµo≥∂∂ª
ºnwı pro;ı povt ≥ª
º∂aton cavlaª
º∂qevl≥ oiı: oujdu≥ª
º∂aıdoiıæ ojligaª
º∂evna fevreıqaªi
88b
º∂fi ≥a≥ tiıµ∂∂∂ª
ejmª
to≥u '≥ª
kª
º∂dæ a[dion eiıj orª
oº iı\ qa kau[ta:
levºl≥aqæ ajlloniavª
ıeª
º∂an: ti ≥radª
hjª
ºa≥i v≥ tiı ei [poi
ajª
º∂ıan: e g[ w te garª
filh≥ª
ºm≥æ a\ı ken e[nh mæª
ka'l∂ª
eıj t∂ª
∂ºcµa≥ª
ºa≥i melhvıhn:
ºfi lv a fai 'mæ ejcuvra ge ª≥v neıqai
ºenaª∂ºaiı: ajt ª≥
º∂∂dæ ojni av rµªoºıµ ª
174
88a
]
]in front
]toward
]loosen
]you would be willing
]slight
]to be carried
88b
]someone
]me
]more sweetly
]
]and you yourself know
]
]forgot
]you
]
]
]someone would say
]
]and yes I
shall love
]as long as there is in me
]
]will be a care
]
]I say I have been a strong lover
]
]
]painful
175
º∂pi kv roı u[mª
º∂ª∂ºta≥∂qa'd≥ª
º∂a≥ tovde dæ iı[ µ ªq(i)
º∂w[tti ıæ e∂j ª
ºa filhvıwª
ºt ≥w t ≥i¥ loª
ºııon ga;r ∂ª
ºıqµ ai belevwªn
º∂∂ª
176
]bitter
]
]and know this
]whatever you
]I shall love
]
]for
]of weapons
]
177
91
ajıarotevraı oujdavma pw Eir[ ana, ıevqen tuvcoiıan
178
91
never more damaging O Eirana have I encountered you
179
92
ª
ª
p≥e ª≥
krª∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂ºperª
pevplonª∂∂∂ºp≥u≥ıµcµª
kai ; kl≥eª≥ ∂∂ºıawª
krokoentaª
pevplon porfuªr∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂ºd≥exw≥ª∂º
clainai perıªµ
ıtevfanoi perª
kalª∂ºo≥ııµ aµ ≥m≥ª
fruª
porfªur
t ≥a≥p≥a≥ª
ª
pª
180
92
]
]
]
]
robe
and
colored with saffron
purple robe
cloaks
crowns
beautiful
]
purple
rugs
]
]
181
93
ºiı∂∂∂eg
ºw
ºmoiı
ºa≥li av n ≥ e[c≥ w
º parqevnw≥n ≥
182
93
]
]
]
]I have
]of girls
183
94
teqnavkhn dæ ajdovlwı qevlw:
a[ me yiıdomevna kateli vmpanen
povlla kai ; tovdæ ee[ ipev≥ ªmoi:
w[imæ wjı dei n' a pepªovnqºamen,
Yavpfæ, h\ mavn ıæ ajevkoiıæ ajpulimpavnw.
ta;n dæ e g[ w tavdæ ajmeibovman:
cai rv oiıæ e[rceo ka[meqen
mevmnaiıæ, oiı\ qa ga;r w[ı ãıÃe pedhvpomen:
ai j de; mhv, ajllav ıæ e g[ w qevlw
o[mnaiıai ª∂∂∂(∂)º∂ª∂∂(∂)º∂ea≥ i
oj≥ıµª
º kai ; kavlæ epj avıcomen:
pov≥ªlloiı ga;r ıtefavnºoiı iw[ n
kai ; brªovdwn ∂∂∂ºki wv n tæ u[moi
ka ≥ ≥ª
º pa;r em[ oi pãeÃreqhvkaão Ã
kai ; pov≥õllaiı ujpaÕquvmidaı
plevkõtaiı ajmfæ ajÕpavlai devrai
ajnqevwn ejª≥
º pepohmevnaiı.
184
94
I simply want to be dead.
Weeping she left me
with many tears and said this:
Oh how badly things have turned out for us.
Sappho, I swear, against my will I leave you.
And I answered her:
Rejoice, go and
remember me. For you know how we cherished you.
But if not, I want
to remind you
]and beautiful times we had.
For many crowns of violets
and roses
]at my side you put on
and many woven garlands
made of flowers
around your soft throat.
185
kai ; p∂∂∂∂∂ª
º∂ muvrwi
brenqei vwi ∂≥ ª
ºrµuª∂∂ºn
exj alãeÃiVyao ka≥ªi ; õbaıÕºi ≥lhi vwi
kai ; ıtrwvmnªan ejºpi ; molqavkan
ajpavlan parµª
ºo≥nw≥ n
exj i vhı povqo≥ªn
º∂ni dv wn
kwu[te tiıª
ou[ºt e≥ ≥ ti
i \ron oujdæ ujª
º
e[pletæ o[pp≥ªoqen a[mºmeı ajpevıkomen,
oujk a[lıoı ∂ª
º∂roı
ºyofoı
º∂∂∂oidiai
186
And with sweet oil
costly
you anointed yourself
and on a soft bed
delicate
you would let loose your longing
and neither any[
]nor any
holy place nor
was there from which we were absent
no grove[
]no dance
]no sound
[
187
95
∂ouª
h\≥ræ ajª
dhrat∂ª
Goggula∂ª
h\ ti ıa'mæ ejqe∂ª
paiıi mavliıta∂ª
maı gæ ei≥ ı[ ≥ hlqæ ejp∂ª
ei \pon: w\ devıpotæ, ejp∂ª
oºuj ma; ga;r mavkairan ≥ ª
oºujde;n a[domæ e[parqæ ajgaª
katqavnhn dæ im[ erovı tiı ªe[cei me kai ;
lwti nv oiı droıoventaı ªo[cµªqºoiı id[ hn ∆Acerª
≥º∂∂deıaid∂ª
∂º∂nd≥ etonª≥
mhtiıµeª≥
188
95
not
]
]
Gongyla
surely a sign
for children mostly
came in [
I said, O master
I swear no
I take no pleasure
but a kind of yearning has hold of me—to die
and to look upon the dewy lotus banks
of Acheron
]
]
]
189
96
ºıard∂ª∂∂º
povlºlaki tui vde ≥ ª∂ºwn e[coiıa
wjıp∂ª∂∂∂º∂wvomen, ∂ª∂∂∂º∂∂cª∂∂º
ıe qeaıikelan ajri-
gnwta, ıa'i de; mavliıtæ e[caire movlpai ≥:
nu'n de; Luvdaiıin ejmprevpetai gunai -v
keııin w[ı potæ ajeli wv
duvntoı aj brododavktuloı ãıelavnnaÃ
pavnta perãrÃevcoiıæ a[ıtra: favoı dæ ejpi -v
ıcei qavlaııan ejpæ ajlmuvran
iı[ wı kai ; poluanqevmoiı ajrouvraiı:
aj dæ ãej Ãevrıa kavla kevcutai, teqavlaiıi de; brovda ka[palæ a[nqruıka kai ; meli lv wtoı ajnqemwvdhı:
povlla de; zafoi tv aiıæ ajgavnaı ejpimnavıqeiıæ “Atqidoı imj evrwi
levptan poi frevna kª∂ºr∂∂∂ bovrhtai:
190
96
]Sardis
often turning her thoughts here
]
you like a goddess
and in your song most of all she rejoiced.
But now she is conspicuous among Lydian women
as sometimes at sunset
the rosyfingered moon
surpasses all the stars. And her light
stretches over salt sea
equally and flowerdeep fields.
And the beautiful dew is poured out
and roses bloom and frail
chervil and flowering sweetclover.
But she goes back and forth remembering
gentle Atthis and in longing
she bites her tender mind
191
kh'qi dæ e l[ qhn ajmm∂ª∂∂º∂∂iıa tov≥dæ ouj
nwntaª∂∂ºuıto≥num≥ª∂∂(∂)º povluı
garuvei ≥ ª∂∂(∂)ºalonª≥ ∂∂∂∂∂(∂)ºt ≥o≥ mevııon:
eºu[≥marªeı mºe;n≥ ouj∂a∂mi qevaiıi movrfan ejphvªratºon ejxiıv wıq≥ai ıuª∂∂ºrµo≥ı e[chãiÃıqaª∂∂∂º∂ni dv hon
ª
ºto≥ª∂∂∂(∂)ºratimalª
º∂eroı
kai ; dª∂ºm≥ª
kam≥ª
ºoı ∆Afrodi tv a
º nevktar e[ceuæ ajpu;
cruıi av ı ª
ºn≥an
º cevrıi Pei vqw
∂∂∂(∂)ºapourµª
ª
ºqª∂∂ºh≥ıenh
ª
ºakiı
ª
ª
º∂∂∂∂∂∂ai
ºeı to; Geraiıv tion
ª
ºn ≥ fi lv ai
ºu≥ıton oujdenoª
ª
ª
ºeron ixj oªm
192
But to go there
]much
talks[
Not easy for us
to equal goddesses in lovely form
]
]
]desire
and[
]Aphrodite
]nectar poured from
gold
]with hands Persuasion
]
]
]
]into the Geraistion
]beloveds
]of none
]into desire I shall come
193
98a
∂∂º∂qoı: aj gavr m ej gj evnna≥ªt
ıºf a~µ ı ejpæ ajliki av ı mevgªan
kºovımon ai [ tiı e[ch fovbaãiÃıªµ
p≥orfuvrµwi katelixamevªna
e[m≥ menai mav≥la tou'to∂ª
aj≥lla xanqotevraãi Ãı e[chª
t ≥aãi ;Ãı kovmaãi Ãı davi d> oı profªµ
ıºtefavnoiıin ejparti av ªiı
aj≥nqevwn erj iqalevwn: ª
mºi ≥travnan dæ ajrti wv ı klª
p≥oiki lv an ajpu; Çardi wv ªn
∂∂∂º∂aoni av ı povl{e}iı ª
194
98a
]for my mother
in her youth it was a great
ornament if someone had hair
bound with purple—
a very great ornament indeed
But for the one who has hair yellower
than a pinetorch
crowns
of blooming flowers
and just lately a headbinder
spangled from Sardis
]cities
195
98b
ıoi ; dæ e g[ w Klevi poiki lv an ª
oujk e[cw — povqen e[ııetai… — ª
mitravnãanÃ: ajlla; tw;i Mutilhnavwi ª
º∂ª
pai∂a∂eion e[chn po∂ª
ai kj e∂≥ h≥ poikilaık∂∂∂(∂) ª
tau'ta ta;ı Kleanaktida≥ª
fuvgaı∂µ ∂iı≥ apoliıecei
mnavmatæ: ≥id[ e ga;r ai \na dievrrue≥ªn
196
98b
but for you Kleis I have no
spangled—where would I get it?—
headbinder: yet the Mytilinean[
][
]to hold
]spangled
these things of the Kleanaktidai
exile
memories
terribly leaked away
197
100
ajmfi ; dæ a[broiıæ ã à laıi ov iıæ eu\ ãÛæà ejpuvkaııen
198
100
and with delicate woven cloths covered her up well
199
101
cerrovmaktra de; kaggovnwn
porfuvrai katautamenajtatimavıeiı e[pemyæ ajpu; Fwkavaı
dw'ra ti vmia kaggovnwn
200
101
handcloths
purple
she sent from Phokaia
valuable gifts
201
102
Gluvkha ma'ter, ou[ toi duvnamai krevkhn to;n iı[ ton
povqwi davmeiıa pai d' oı bradi vnan diæ ∆Afrodi vtan
202
102
sweet mother I cannot work the loom
I am broken with longing for a boy by slender Aphrodite
203
103
º∂en to; ga;r ejnnepeª∂ºh pro≥bª≥
º∂ate ta;n eu[poda nuvmfan ª
ºt ≥a pai d' a K≥rµo≥ni vda ta;n ioj vkªolpºon ª
º∂ıµ o[rgan qemevna ta;n ioj vkªolºp≥oı aª
º∂∂a[gnai Cavriteı Pievridevªı teº Moi ª' ıai
º∂ª∂ o[º µp≥p≥otæ ajoidai fre nv ≥ ª∂∂∂ºan∂ª
ºıµaioiıa liguvran ªajoi ºv dan
gavºmbron, a[ıaroi gµa;rµ u≥mj ali¥ kª
ºıe fovbaiıiãnà qemevna≥ luvra∂ª
º∂∂h cruıopevdi¥ l ≥ªoºı Au[wı ª
204
103
]yes tell
]the bride with beautiful feet
]child of Kronos with violets in her lap
]setting aside anger the one with violets in her lap
]pure Graces and Pierian Muses
]whenever songs, the mind
]listening to a clear song
]bridegroom
]her hair placing the lyre
]Dawn with gold sandals
205
103Aa
º
ımikrª
ºqhn
ta;n ıfª
ºoiı
pollaª
º
prig; ga≥ª
ºoi
povllaiıªµ
º
tw;n ıfw'ªn
º
wjdamel≥ª
º
cei ≥ª
º
Govrg µ
103Ab
eiıj≥ µ Kupª
i¥ — —∂ª
— — — tª
— — — wgµª
—
206
103Aa
]small
]
]many
]
]many
]their
]
]
]
]Gorgo
103Ab
to Kypris
]
]
]
]
207
103B
ºrhon qalavmw t ≥wdeı≥ª
ºi ı≥ eu[poda nuvmfan ajbª≥
º∂nundª
ºn moi:ª
ºaı ge∂≥ ª
208
103B
]of the chamber
]bride with beautiful feet
]now
]for me
]
209
103Ca
ºprolª
ºferhnª≥
º∂ideqelª
Arºcµ
j
eavnaııaª
ºdhvpotæ ojnaª
ºnaıamevnª
ºen ejphratª
ºnª
103Cb
ºa∂ª
e[ºkluon eª
ºrµann∂≥ ∂deı dª
paºrqenikaiı∂ª
º∂mª
º∂ª
210
103Ca
]
]to carry
]
]Archeanassa
]once
]
]in lovely
]
103Cb
]
]they heard
]
]maidens
]
]
211
104a
“Eıpere pavnta fevrhiı o[ıa fai vnoliı ejıkevdaıæ Au[wı,
fevrhiı o[in, fevrhiı ai \ga, fevrhiı a[pu mavteri pai d' a.
104b
ajıtevrwn pavntwn oj kavlliıtoı
212
104a
Evening
you gather back
all that dazzling dawn has put asunder:
you gather a lamb
gather a kid
gather a child to its mother
104b
of all stars the most beautiful
213
105a
oi \on to; glukuvmalon ejreuvqetai a[krwi ejpæ u[ıdwi,
a[kron ejpæ ajkrotavtwi, lelavqonto de; malodrovpheı:
ouj ma;n ejklelavqontæ, ajllæ oujk ejduvnantæ ejpi kv eıqai
105b
oia[ n ta;n ujavkinqon ejn w[reıi poi vmeneı a[ndreı
povııi kataıtei vboiıi, cavmai dev te povrfuron a[nqoı
214
105a
as the sweetapple reddens on a high branch
high on the highest branch and the applepickers forgot—
no, not forgot: were unable to reach
105b
like the hyacinth in the mountains that shepherd men
with their feet trample down and on the ground the purple
flower
215
106
pevrrocoı, wjı o[tæ a[oidoı oj Levıbioı ajllodavpoiıin
216
106
outstanding as the Lesbian singer compared to those
elsewhere
217
107
h\ræ et[ i parqeni vaı ejpibavllomai…
218
107
do I still yearn for my virginity?
219
108
w\ kavla, w\ cari veııa kovra
220
108
O beautiful O graceful one
221
109
dwvıomen, h\ıi pavthr
222
109
we shall give, says father
223
110
Qurwvrwi povdeı ejptorovguioi,
ta; de; ıavmbala pempeboveia,
piıı
v uggoi de; devkæ ejxepovnhıan
224
110
the doorkeeper’s feet are seven armlengths long
five oxhides for his sandals
ten shoemakers worked on them
225
111
I[ yoi dh; to; mevlaqron,
ujmhvnaon:
ajevrrete, tevktoneı a[ndreı:
ujmhvnaon.
gavmbroı (eiıj )evrcetai iı\ oı “Areui,
ãujmhvnaon,Ã
a[ndroı megavlw povlu mevıdwn.
ãujmhvnaon.Ã
226
111
up with the roof !
Hymenaios—
lift it, carpenters!
Hymenaios—
the bridegroom is coming in
equal to Ares,
Hymenaios—
much bigger than a big man!
Hymenaios!
227
112
[Olbie gavmbre, ıoi ; me;n dh; gavmoı wjı a[rao
ejktetevleıtæ, e[chiı de; pavrqenon, a]n a[rao.
ıoi ; cavrien me;n ei d\ oı, o[ppata ãdæ ∂∂∂∂Ã
mevllicæ, er[ oı dæ ejpæ imj evrtwi kevcutai proıwvpwi
ã∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂à teti vmakæ e[xocav ıæ ∆Afrodi vta
228
112
blest bridegroom, your marriage just as you prayed
has been accomplished
and you have the bride for whom you prayed
gracious your form and your eyes
as honey: desire is poured upon your lovely face
Aphrodite has honored you exceedingly
229
113
ouj ga;r
ajtevra nu'n paviı, w\ gavmbre, teauvta
230
113
for no
other girl
O bridegroom
such as this one now
231
114
parqeni va, parqeni va, poi ' me li vpoiıæ ajãp Ãoi vchi…
oujkevti h[xw pro;ı ıev, oujkevti h[xw
232
114
virginity
virginity
where are you gone leaving me behind?
no longer will I come to you
no longer will I come
233
115
Ti wv i ıæ, w\ fi vle gavmbre, kavlwı ejikavıdw…
o[rpaki bradi vnwi ıe mavliıtæ ejikavıdw
234
115
to what
O beloved bridegroom
may I compare you?
to a slender sapling
most of all
do I compare you
235
116
cai 're, nuvmfa, cai 're, ti vmie gavmbre, povlla
236
116
farewell
bride
farewell
much-honored bridegroom
237
117
cai vroiı aj nuvmfa, cairevtw dæ oj gavmbroı
117A
xoavnwn proquvrwn
117B
E
[ ıperæ uÔmhvnaon
w\ to;n Adwv
j nion
238
117
may you fare well
bride
and let the bridegroom fare well
117A
of polished doors
117B
evening, sing Hymenaios
O the song of Adonis
239
118
a[gi dh; cevlu di a' moi levge
fwnaveııa de; gi vnew
240
118
yes! radiant lyre speak to me
become a voice
241
119
aimj ituvbion ıtavlaııon
242
119
cloth dripping
243
120
ajllav tiı oujk e[mmi paligkovtwn
o[rgan, ajllæ ajbavkhn ta;n frevnæ e[cw
244
120
but I am not someone who likes to wound
rather I have a quiet mind
245
121
ajllæ e[wn fi lv oı a[mmin levcoı a[rnuıo newvteron:
ouj ga;r tlavıomæ e[gw ıuvn ãtæà oik[ hn e[ııa geraitevra
246
121
but if you love us
choose a younger bed
for I cannot bear
to live with you when I am the older one
247
122
a[nqeæ ajmevrgoiıan pai d' æ a[gan ajpavlan
248
122
gathering flowers so very delicate a girl
249
123
ajrti vwı me;n aj cruıopevdiloı Au[wı
250
123
just now goldsandaled Dawn
251
124
au[ta de; ıu; Kalliovpa
252
124
and you yourself Kalliope
253
125
autaovra ejıtefanaplovkhn
254
125
I used to weave crowns
255
126
dauvoiı( æ ) ajpavlaı etj aãi Ãv raı enj ıthvqeıin
256
126
may you sleep on the breast of your delicate friend
257
127
Deu'ro dhu\te Moiı' ai cruvıion li pv oiıai
258
127
here (once again)
Muses
leaving the gold
259
128
Deu'tev nun a[brai Cavriteı kalli vkomoi v te Moi ı' ai
260
128
here now
tender Graces
and Muses with beautiful hair
261
129a
e[meqen dæ e[chiıqa lavqan
129b
h[ tinæ a[llon ajnqrwvpwn e[meqen fi lv hıqa
262
129a
but me you have forgotten
129b
or you love some man more than me
263
130
“Eroı dhu\tev mæ oj luıimevlhı dovnei,
glukuvpikron ajmavcanon o[rpeton
264
130
Eros the melter of limbs (now again) stirs me—
sweetbitter unmanageable creature who steals in
265
131
“Atqi, ıoi ; dæ e[meqen me;n ajphvcqeto
frontiıv dhn, ejpi ; dæ ∆Andromevdan povthãi Ã
266
131
Atthis, to you it has become hateful
to think of me and you fly to Andromeda
267
132
E
[ ıti moi kavla paviı cruıi voiıin ajnqevmoiıin
ejmfevrhãnà e[coiıa movrfan Kleviı ã à ajgapavta,
ajnti ; ta'ı e[gwujde; Ludi van paiı' an oujdæ ejravnnan
268
132
I have a beautiful child who is like golden flowers
in form, darling Kleis
in exchange for whom I would not
all Lydia or lovely
269
133
E
[ cei me;n ∆Andromevda kavlan ajmoi vban
Yavpfoi, ti v ta;n poluvolbon ∆Afrodi vtan∂∂∂∂…
270
133
Andromeda has a fine exchange
Sappho, why?
Aphrodite giver of blessings
271
134
Za; ã.Ã ejlexavman o[nar Kuprogenha
272
134
I conversed with you in a dream
Kyprogeneia
273
135
Ti v me Pandi ov niı, w\ Eir[ ana, celi vdwn∂∂∂∂…
274
135
why does Pandion’s daughter
O Eirana
the swallow
275
136
h\roı a[ggeloı imj erovfwnoı ajhvdwn
276
136
messenger of spring
nightingale with a voice of longing
277
137
qevlw ti v tæ eip[ hn, ajllav me kwluvei
aid[ wı ∂∂∂
∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂
ªai j dæ h\ceı e[ılwn im[ eron h] kavlwn
kai ; mhv ti v tæ eip[ hn glw'ııæ ejkuvka kavkon,
aid[ wı kevn ıe oujk h\cen o[ppatæ,
~ dikai vwº
ajllæ e[legeı peri ; tw
278
137
I want to say something but shame
prevents me
yet if you had a desire for good or beautiful things
and your tongue were not concocting some evil to say,
shame would not hold down your eyes
but rather you would speak about what is just
279
138
ıta'qi ka[nta fi lv oı
kai ; ta;n ejpæ o[ııoiıæ ojmpevtaıon cavrin
280
138
stand to face me beloved
and open out the grace of your eyes
281
140
Katqnavıkei, Kuqevrhæ, a[broı “Adwniı: ti v ke qei 'men…
kattuvpteıqe, kovrai, kai ; katerei kv eıqe ci vtwnaı
282
140
delicate Adonis is dying
Kythereia
what should we do?
strike yourselves
maidens
and tear your garments
283
141
kh' dæ ajmbroıi vaı me;n
kravthr ejkevkratæ
“Ermaiı dæ e[lwn o[lpin qevoiıæ ejoinocovhıe.
kh'noi dæ a[ra pavnteı
karcavıiæ h\con
ka[leibon: ajravıanto de; pavmpan e[ıla gavmbrwi
284
141
but there a bowl of ambrosia
had been mixed
and Hermes taking the jug poured wine for
the gods
and then they all
held cups
and poured libation and prayed every
good thing for the bridegroom
285
142
Lavtw kai ; Niovba mavla me;n fi lv ai h\ıan e[tairai
286
142
Leto and Niobe were beloved friends
287
143
cruvıeioi ãdæà ejrevbinqoi ejpæ aji o> vnwn ejfuvonto
288
143
and gold chickpeas were growing on the banks
289
144
mavla dh; kekorhmevnoiı
Govrgwı
290
144
to those who have quite had their fill
of Gorgo
291
145
mh; ki nv h cevradoı
292
145
do not move stones
293
146
mhvte moi mevli mhvte mevliııa
294
146
neither for me honey nor the honey bee
295
147
mnavıe ıqai v tina faã i 'Ãmi kai ; e{teron ajmmevwn
296
147
someone will remember us
I say
even in another time
297
148
oj plou'toı a[neu ajrevtaı oujk ajıi vnhı pavroikoı
aj dæ ajmfotevrwn kra'ıiı eujdaimoni vaı e[cei to; a[kron
298
148
wealth without virtue is no harmless neighbor
but a mixture of both attains the height of happiness
299
149
o[ta pavnnucoı a[ıfi katavgrei
300
149
when all night long
it pulls them down
301
150
ouj ga;r qevmiı ejn moiıopovlwn ãdovmwi Ã
qrh'non e[mmenæ ã∂∂∂∂∂∂∂à ou[ kæ a[mmi prevpoi tavde
302
150
for it is not right in a house of the Muses
that there be lament
this would not become us
303
151
ojfqavlmoiı de; mevlaiı nuvktoı a[wroı
304
151
and on the eyes
black sleep of night
305
152
pantodavpaiıãi à memãeÃicmevna croi av iıin
306
152
mingled with all kinds of colors
307
153
pavrqenon ajduvfwnon
308
153
girl sweetvoiced
309
154
Plhvrhı me;n ejfai nv etæ aj ıelavnãnÃa,
ai j dæ wjı peri ; bw'mon ejıtavqhıan
310
154
full appeared the moon
and when they around the altar took their places
311
155
povlla moi ta;n Pwluanavktida pai d' a cai rv hn
312
155
a very long farewell to the child of Polyanaktides
313
156
povlu pavktidoı ajdumeleıtevra
cruvıw cruıotevra
314
156
far more sweetsounding than a lyre
golder than gold
315
157
povtnia Au[wı
316
157
lady Dawn
317
158
ıkidnamevnaı ejn ıthvqeıin o[rgaı
mayulavkan glw'ııan pefuvlacqai
318
158
with anger spreading in the chest
to guard against a vainly barking tongue
319
159
ıuv te ka\moı qeravpwn “Eroı
320
159
both you and my servant Eros
321
160
tavde nu'n ejtai rv aiı
taiı; e[maiı tevrpna kavlwı ajeiıv w
322
160
these things now for my companions
I shall sing beautifully
323
161
tandefulavııete ejnneª∂∂ºoi gµavmbroi ª∂∂∂∂∂ºu≥ poli vwn baıi vlheı
324
161
guard her
bridegrooms
kings of cities
325
162
ti voiıin ojfqavlmoiıi(n)…
326
162
with what eyes?
327
163
to; mevlhma tw\mon
328
163
my darling one
329
164
to;n Ûo;n pai d' a kavlei
330
164
she summons her son
331
165
fai vnetai v Ûoi kh'noı
332
165
that man seems to himself
333
166
faiı' i dhv pota Lhvdan ujaki vnqinon
ã∂∂∂à w[i o> n eu[rhn pepukavdmenon
334
166
they say Leda once found a hyacinth-colored
egg hidden
335
167
wji vw povlu leukovteron
336
167
whiter by far than an egg
337
168
w\ to;n “Adwnin
338
168
O for Adonis
339
168A
Gevllwı paidofilwtevra
340
168A
who loves children more than Gello
341
168B
Devduke me;n aj ıelavnna
kai ; Plhi ?adeı: mevıai de;
nuvkteı, para; dæ e[rcetæ w[ra,
e[gw de; movna kateuvdw.
342
168B
Moon has set
and Pleiades: middle
night, the hour goes by,
alone I lie.
343
168C
poiki lv letai me;n
gai a' poluıtevfanoı
344
168C
spangled is
the earth with her crowns
345
169
ajgagoi vhn
169A
ajqrhvmata
170
Aig[ a
171
a[kakoı
172
ajlgeıi dv wroı
346
169
I would lead
169A
wedding gifts
170
Aiga
171
non-evil
172
paingiver
347
173
ajmamavxud(-oı, -eı)
174
ªajmavraº
175
au[a
176
bavrbitoı. bavrwmoı. bavrmoı.
177
beu'doı
348
173
a vine that grows up trees
174
channel
175
dawn
176
lyre lyre lyre
177
transparent dress
349
179
gruvta
180
“Ektwr
181
zavbaton
182
i oj i vhn
183
katwvrhı / katavrhı
350
179
makeup bag
180
holder
181
crossable
182
I might go
183
downrushing
351
184
ki vndun
185
meli vfwnoı
186
mhvdei >a
187
Moiıavwn
188
muqovplokoı
352
184
danger
185
honeyvoiced
186
Medeia
187
of the Muses
188
mythweaver
353
189
ni vtron
190
polui vdridi
191
ıevlinãnÃa
192
cruıaıtravgaloi fi valai
354
189
soda
190
manyskilled
191
celery
192
gold anklebone cups
355
NOTES
1.1 “of the spangled mind”: two different readings of the first word of Sappho’s
first fragment have descended to us from antiquity: poikilothron’ (printed by Lobel,
Page, Campbell and Voigt) and poikilophron (printed here). The word is a compound adjective, used as an epithet of Aphrodite to identify either her “chair”
(thron-) or her “mind” (phron-) as poikilos: “many-colored, spotted, dappled, variegated, intricate, embroidered, inlaid, highly wrought, complicated, changeful,
diverse, abstruse, ambiguous, subtle.” Now certainly the annals of ancient furniture include some fancy chairs, especially when gods sit on them; and initial mention of her throne provides an elegant point of departure for the downrush of
Aphrodite’s next motion. On the other hand, it is Aphrodite’s agile mind that seems
to be at play in the rest of the poem and, since compounds of thron- are common
enough in Greek poetry to make this word predictable, perhaps Sappho relied on
our ear to supply the chair while she went on to spangle the mind.
Other examples of the adjective poikilos or its compounds occur in Sappho frr.
39.2, 44.9, 98a11, 98b1, 98b6; cf. also Alkaios fr. 345.2 (of a bird’s throat) and fr.
69.7 (of a man with a mind like a fox).
1.15, 16, 18 “(now again)”: the parentheses are not Sappho’s but I want to mark
her use of the temporal adverb dēute. It is probably no accident that, in a poem
about the cyclical patterns of erotic experience, this adverb of repetition is given
three times. (Also repeated are the adjective that characterizes Aphrodite’s
relation to time—“deathless,” occurring twice; Aphrodite’s questions to Sappho,
refracted four ways; and Aphrodite’s final erotic rule, given three formulations.)
The adverb is a compound of two words, dē and aute, contracted for euphonic reasons into dēute. Dē is a particle signifying vividly that some event is taking place
in the present moment; it strikes a note of powerful alert emotion (sometimes with
a tinge of irony or skepticism), like English “Well now!” Aute is an adverb that
peers past the present moment to a series of repeated actions stretching behind; it
intercepts the new and binds it into history, as if to say “Not for the first time!”
Sappho’s “(now again)” does more than mark repetition as a theme of her poem, it
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instantiates the difference between mortal and immortal perspectives on this
painful feature of erotic life: Sappho is stuck in the pain of the “now,” Aphrodite
calmly surveys a larger pattern of “agains.”
For other instances of the adverb dēute in Sappho see frr. 22.11; 83.4; 127;
130.1.
1.18–24 Sappho’s reverie goes transparent at the center when she shifts midverse
to direct speech of Aphrodite. There is an eerie casualness to the immortal voice
simply present within Sappho’s own, which some translators modify with quotation
marks or italics. This poem is cast in the form of a hymn or prayer, how straightforwardly is hard to say. Hymnic features include the opening catalogue of divine epithets, central reverie concerned with former epiphanies of the god, repetition of a
plea at the beginning and the end (“come here . . . come to me”). For other literary
examples of prayers see Homer Iliad 5.116ff; 10.284ff; 16.233ff; Pindar Isthmians
6.42ff; Sophokles Oedipus the King 163ff; Aristophanes Thesmophoriazousai 1156ff.
2.1 “here”: adverb of place that means “hither, to this place” with verbs of motion
or “here, in this place” with verbs of rest, often used as an interjection “Come on!
Here now!” when followed by an imperative verb. Notice that the imperative verb
evoked by this adverb, for which the whole poem with its slow weight of onomatopoeically accumulating clauses seems to be waiting, does not arrive until the
very last word: “pour” (16). Arrival is the issue, for it sanctifies waiting: attente de
Dieu. The poem is a hymn of the type called “kletic,” that is, a calling hymn, an
invocation to god to come from where she is to where we are. Such a hymn typically
names both of these places, setting its invocation in between so as to measure the
difference—a difference exploded as soon as the hymn achieves its aim. Inherent
in the rationale of a kletic hymn, then, is an emptiness or distance that it is the
function of the hymn to mark by an act of attention. Sappho suspends attention
between adverb at the beginning and verb at the end: the effect is uncanny—as if
creation could be seen waiting for an event that is already perpetually here. There
is no clear boundary between far and near; there is no climactic moment of god’s
arrival. Sappho renders a set of conditions that at the beginning depend on
Aphrodite’s absence but by the end include her presence—impossible drop that
saturates the world. “God can only be present in creation under the form of
absence,” says Simone Weil, in Gravity and Grace, translated by Arthur Wills (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1997), 162.
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2.8 “sleep”: kōma is a noun used in the Hippokratic texts of the lethargic state
called “coma” yet not originally a medical term. This is the profound, weird, sexual
sleep that enwraps Zeus after love with Hera (Homer Iliad 14.359); this is the punishing, unbreathing stupor imposed for a year on any god who breaks an oath
(Hesiod Theogony 798); this is the trance of attention induced by listening to
music of the lyre (Pindar Pythians 1.12); this is the deep religious stillness
described by Gregory of Nazianzus in a Christian poem from the fourth century A . D .
that appears to be modeled on Sappho’s, for Gregory imagines himself awaiting
his god in a garden:
Breezes whispered . . .
lavishing beautiful sleep [koma] from the tops of the trees
on my heart so very weary.
—Patrologia graeca 37, ed. J. P. Migne (Paris, 1862), 755ff.
Otherworldliness is intensified in Sappho’s poem by the synaesthetic quality of her
kōma—dropping from leaves set in motion by a shiver of light over the tree: Sappho’s adjective aithussomenon (“radiant-shaking,” 7) blends visual and tactile
perceptions with a sound of rushing emptiness.
2.14 “gold cups”: not mortal tableware, nor is nectar a beverage normally enjoyed
by any but gods (along with ambrosia, e.g., Odyssey 5.92–4).
3.11 “all night long”: if this reading (Diehl’s 1923 conjecture) is correct, Sappho
may be pursuing her own night thoughts (Diehl thinks these thoughts concern her
brother: cf. frr. 5, 7, 15) or else participating in a nocturnal ritual. Allnight rites
(pannuchides) were a feature of ancient Greek worship and turn up in literature,
for example, Euripides describes a chorus invoking Athena:
On the windy mountain ridge
shrill voices of girls
echo to the beat all night
of feet dancing.
—Heraklaidai 777–8.
See also Sappho frr. 23.13, 30.3, 149; and H. W. Parke, Festivals of the Athenians
(London, 1977), 49.
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Secular reasons for insomnia may also be part of the Sapphic tradition, according to the fourth-century A . D . orator Libanius:
So if nothing prevented the Lesbian Sappho from praying that her night
be made twice as long, let it be permitted me too to pray for something
like this.
—Libanius Orations 12.99 = Sappho fr. 197 Voigt
Libanius doesn’t say why Sappho made this prayer but it brings to mind a passage
of Homer’s Odyssey, where Athene “slows down the night” for the newly reunited
Odysseus and Penelope by stalling the horses of Dawn on the edge of Ocean
(23.242–6; cf. also the battle of Amorites and Israelites in Joshua 10.13).
4.9 “having been stained”: depending on how the first letter of this word is
restored it may mean also “having been touched on the surface, caressed” or
“having been tainted, defiled.”
5.2 “brother”: ancient sources name three brothers of Sappho, of whom the eldest, Charaxos, made himself notorious by his pursuit of a courtesan (Rhodopis) not
mentioned in this poem but see below frr. 7 and 15.
7.1 “Doricha”: ancient sources suggest this is one name of a courtesan favored by
Sappho’s brother Charaxos. Herodotos relates:
Rhodopis arrived in Egypt . . . to ply her trade but was redeemed at a high
price by a man from Mytilene—Charaxos, brother of the poet Sappho. . . . And
when Charaxos returned to Mytilene after liberating Rhodopis Sappho rebuked him severely in a poem.
(2.134ff)
Strabo adds:
The woman whom Herodotos calls Rhodopis is named Doricha by Sappho.
(17.1.33)
So too Athenaios:
Naukratis attracted celebrity prostitutes, like Doricha, who was the beloved
of Sappho’s brother Charaxos and whom Sappho attacked in verse on the
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grounds that she got a lot of money out of Charaxos. . . . But Herodotos calls
her Rhodopis.
(13.596b–d)
And an epigrammatist of the Hellenistic period wrote this poem about her:
Doricha, your bones fell asleep long ago
and your hair and the perfume-breathing cloth
in which you once wrapped graceful Charaxos,
close by his flesh, when you drank the dawn.
But the singing white pages of Sappho’s love songs live on
and will live on.
Blessed is your name which Naukratis is to guard
so long as a Nile boat sails the salt sea.
—Posidippos xvii The Greek Anthology Gow-Page
Rhodopis (“face like a rose”) could be a professional name that Sappho scruples
to use.
8.3 “Atthis”: Sappho’s relationship with Atthis was controversial, according to the
ancient lexicographer:
Sappho had three companions and friends, Atthis, Telesippa, Megara. Through
her relations with them she got a reputation for shameful love.
—Suda s.v. Sappho
Maximus of Tyre reads the matter philosophically:
The eros of the Lesbian woman—what else could it be than the Sokratic art
of love? For they seem to me to have practiced love each after their own fashion, she the love of women and he the love of men. They both said they loved
many and were captured by all things beautiful. What Alkibiades and Charmides and Phaidros were to Sokrates, Gyrinna and Atthis and Anaktoria were
to the Lesbian woman. And what the rival artists Prodykos and Gorgias and
Thrasymachos and Protagoras were to Sokrates, Gorgo and Andromeda were
to Sappho. Sometimes she rebukes them, sometimes she interrogates them
and she makes use of irony just like Sokrates.
—Orations 18.9
See also Sappho frr. 49, 96, 131.
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16.1–4 “some men say . . . some men say . . . some men say . . . but I say”:
Sappho begins with a rhetorical device called a priamel, whose function is to focus
attention and to praise. The priamel’s typical structure is a list of three items followed by a fourth that is different and better. Sappho’s list marshals three stately
masculine opinions, then curves into dissent. Her dissent will solidify as Helen in
the next stanza.
On the priamel see B. Snell, The Discovery of the Mind, translated by T. G.
Rosenmeyer (Cambridge, Mass., 1953), 47–50; A. P. Burnett, Three Archaic Poets:
Archilochus, Alcaeus, Sappho (Cambridge, Mass., 1983), 281–5; W. H. Race, The
Classical Priamel from Homer to Boethius (Leiden, 1982); J. J. Winkler, The Constraints of Desire (New York, 1990), 176–7; and cf. Bakkhylides 3.85–92; Pindar
Olympians 1.1–7; Plato Lysis 211d–e; Tyrtaios 9.1–14 West.
16.12–16 Because of the corruption of these central verses it is impossible to say
who led Helen astray (could be Aphrodite, Eros, or some principle of delusion like
Atē) or how Sappho managed the transition from Helen to Anaktoria “who is gone.”
It is a restless and strangely baited poem that seems to gather its logic into itself
rather than pay it out. Rather like Helen. Beauty comes out of unexpectedness, and
stares at us, “as though we were the ones who’d made a mistake,” as Yannis Ritsos says in a poem “Expected and Unexpected” in Ritsos in Parentheses, translated by E. Keeley (Princeton, 1979), 160–1.
17.2 Hera, sister and wife of Zeus, was worshipped on Lesbos at a sanctuary in
or near Mytilene. The poet Alkaios, Sappho’s contemporary and fellow-Lesbian,
also mentions this shrine and its trinitarian worship of Zeus, Hera and Dionysos
(=Thyone’s child): see Alkaios fr. 129. According to a Homeric scholiast (on Iliad
9.129) the shrine of Hera was the site of an annual beauty contest for Lesbian
women, to which Alkaios refers in fr. 130. There is also an anonymous epigram in
the Palatine Anthology that praises this site:
Come to the radiant precinct of bullfaced Hera,
Lesbian women, make your delicate feet turn.
There set up beautiful dancing and your leader will be
Sappho with a gold lyre in her hands.
Lucky ones in the glad dance: surely you will think
you hear Kalliope’s own sweet singing.
—Palatine Anthology 9.189
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18.1 “Pan”: capitalized, the first word of this fragment is Pan the god of goats,
wild space, pipes and the silence of noon. Uncapitalized it is pan, which can be
a noun (“everything”) or an adjective (“every, all”) or an adverb (“altogether,
wholly”). Capitalization is an editorial decision: codices before the ninth century
were generally written entirely in majuscule script.
21.6 “old age”: Sappho treats this theme also in fr. 58 below. Commentators differ
on whether to understand the speaker’s chagrin as erotic, or as a professional
worry on the part of a chorus leader no longer able to whirl about with the choirs of
girls (as Alkman complains in his fr. 26), or as a mythic topos elaborated for its
own sake.
21.13 “with violets in her lap”: I do not know what this adjective means exactly. It
is composed of the word ion, “violet” (which can also mean “purple” or “dark” or
“like violets”) and the word kolpos, “bosom, lap, womb; fold formed by a loose garment; any hollow.” In Sappho it is an epithet of brides and of a goddess: see frr.
30.5, 103.3 and 103.4.
22.10 The name Gongyla is missing its first two letters at the beginning of this
verse but appears in full in fr. 95.4 and also shows up in a second-century- A . D .
papyrus commentary on Sappho that identifies Gongyla as “yoke-mate” (synzyx) of
a woman named Gorgo (see fr. 213, 213a and 214a Voigt). No one knows what a
yoke-mate is precisely. Yoking is a common figure for marriage; there is a cognate
verb (syndyazein) that means “to unite in wedlock” and a cognate noun that
means “wife” when used of females but simply “comrade” when applied to males.
There is also an abstract noun (syzygia) used by Euripides of a collaboration
between Muses and Graces in choral song (Herakles Mad 673). Gongyla of Kolophon is named by the Suda as a pupil of Sappho along with Anagora of Miletos and
Eunika of Salamis.
22.11 “(now again)”: See above fr. 1 and below fr. 130.
31.9 “tongue breaks”: the transmitted text contains a hiatus (conjunction of two
open vowels) between “tongue” (glōssa) and “breaks” (eage) that contravenes the
rules of Greek metrics and convinces most editors to mark the verse as corrupt. On
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the other hand, the hiatus creates a ragged sound that may be meant to suggest
breakdown.
For various ways of reading Sappho’s broken tongue, see G. Nagy, Comparative
Studies in Greek and Indic Meter (Cambridge, Mass., 1974), 45; D. O’Higgins,
“Sappho’s Splintered Tongue,” American Journal of Philology 111 (1990), 156–67;
Y. Prins, Victorian Sappho (Princeton, 1999), 28–73; J. Svenbro, Phrasikleia, translated by J. Lloyd (Ithaca, 1993), 152.
31.17 The poem has been preserved for us by the ancient literary critic Longinus
(On the Sublime 10.1–3), who quotes four complete Sapphic stanzas, then the first
verse of what looks like a fifth stanza, then breaks off, no one knows why. Sappho’s
account of the symptoms of desire attains a unity of music and sense in vv. 1–16,
framed by verbs of seeming (“he seems to me,” “I seem to me”), so if the seventeenth verse is authentic it must represent an entirely new thought. It is worth noting that Catullus’ translation of the poem into Latin includes, at just this point, an
entirely new thought.
Longinus’ admiration for Sappho’s poem is keen. He finds in it an example of a
certain mode of sublimity, which is able to select the most extreme sensations of
an event and combine these together “as if into one body,” as he says (On the Sublime 10.1). He elaborates:
Are you not amazed at how she researches all at once the soul the body the
ears the tongue the eyes the skin all as if they had departed from her and
belong to someone else? And contradictorily in one instant she chills, she
burns, is crazy and sensible, for she is in terror or almost dead. So that no
single passion is apparent in her but a confluence of passions. And her
selection (as I said) of the most important elements and her combination of
these into a whole achieves excellence.
—On the Sublime 10.3
Sappho’s body falls apart, Longinus’ body comes together: drastic contract of the
sublime.
34.5 “silvery”: the adjective is not part of the text of this poem as quoted (vv.
1–4) by the grammarian Eustathios in his commentary on Iliad 8.555, but has
been added because the Roman emperor Julian refers to the poem in a letter to the
sophist Hekebolios:
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Sappho . . . says the moon is silver and so hides the other stars from view.
—Julian Epistles 387a
On Julian cf. frr. 48, 163 and note to fr. 140 below.
37 These two bits of text are cited as Sappho’s by the Etymologicum Genuinum in a
discussion of words for pain: “And the Aeolic writers call pain a dripping . . .
because it drips and flows.” For “dripping” Sappho has the noun stalygmon, cognate with the verb stazei (“drips”) used by Aeschylus in a passage of Agamemnon
where the chorus is describing its own nocturnal anxiety:
And it drips in sleep before my heart
the grief-remembering pain.
(179–80)
We might compare this physiology of pain with the sensations noted by Hamm in
Beckett’s Endgame:
There’s something dripping in my head.
(Pause.)
A heart in my head.
There’s something dripping in my head, ever since the fontanelles.
(Stifled hilarity of Nagg.)
Splash, splash, always on the same spot.
—Samuel Beckett, Endgame (New York, 1958), 18 and 50.
38 Translation of this fragment raises the problem of pronouns in Sappho. Her
Greek text actually says “us” not “me.” Slippage between singular and plural in
pronouns of the first person is not uncommon in ancient poetry; the traditional
explanation is that much of this poetry was choral in origin, that is, performed by
a chorus of voices who collectively impersonate the voice that speaks in the
poem. A glance at Sappho’s fragments 5, 21, 24a, 94, 96, 147, 150, all of which
employ a first-person-plural pronoun where the modern ear expects singular, will
show the extent of the phenomenon. I translate “us” as “us” in all those other examples. But the fragile heat of fr. 38 seems to me to evaporate entirely without a
bit of intervention.
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On the other hand, I may be reading this sentence all wrong. Erotic fire has a
history, not only in Sappho (see fr. 48) but also in later lyric poets (e.g., Anakreon
fr. 413 PMG and Pindar Pythians 4. 219). The verb I have rendered as “burn” can
also be translated “bake, roast, broil, boil” and so suggest a concrete figure for
the “cooking” of passion that is to be found in Hellenistic literature, e.g., in an
epigram of Meleager who pictures Eros as “cook of the soul” (Palatine Anthology
12.92.7–8; cf. also Theokritos Idylls 7.55 and Kallimachos Epigrams 43.5). If
burning means cooking and “you” is Eros, this becomes a very different poem—a
cry to the god who plays with fire from the community of souls subjected to
its heat.
Further on the phenomenology of desire in Sappho see G. Lanata “Sul linguaggio
amoroso di Saffo,” Quaderni urbinati di cultura classica 2 (1966), 63–79, translated by W. Robins in E. Greene, ed., Reading Sappho (Berkeley, 1996), 11–25.
44 In narrating a story from the Trojan War saga Sappho chooses an episode not
included in the Iliad—the homecoming of Hektor with his bride Andromache. She
adopts a version of Homer’s (dactylic) meter as well as certain epic features of
diction, spelling, scansion and syntax, mingling these with real details from the
Lesbos of her own time like myrrh, cassia, frankincense and castanets. Some
editors have thought this song about a wedding was composed to be sung at a
wedding.
See C. Calame, Les choeurs de jeunes filles en Grèce archaïque (Rome, 1977),
1.160–3; H. Fränkel, Early Greek Poetry and Philosophy, translated by M. Hadas
and J. Willis (New York, 1973), 174–6; F. Lasserre, Sappho, une autre lecture
(Padua, 1989), 26–36.
44Aa and 44Ab Originally Lobel thought these fragments from a papyrus written in
the second or third century A . D . should be assigned to Alkaios; other editors detect
Sappho.
46 This fragment is cited by Herodian in his treatise On Anomalous Words because
it contains a perky word for “cushion.”
47 This fragment has been reconstructed by Lobel from a paraphrase in Maximus
of Tyre, who compares Sappho to Sokrates as an eroticist (Orations 18.9).
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48 The Roman emperor Julian cites this sentence in a letter that begins:
You came yes you did—thanks to your letter you arrived even though you were
absent.
—Epistles 240 b–c
Julian’s letter is addressed to Iamblichos, chief exponent of the Syrian school of
neoplatonism, and is regarded as apocryphal because Iamblichos will have died
when Julian was a child. More interesting is the problem of erotic temperature
raised by emendations to the text of the main verb in the second line, which
appears as ephylaxas (“you guarded, kept safe”) in the codices—a reading that is
unmetrical and therefore emended either to ephlexas (“you inflamed”: Wesseling)
or epsyxas (“you cooled”: Thomas).
49 The first verse is cited by Hephaistion in his Handbook on meters (7.7) as an
example of dactylic pentameter, the second verse by Plutarch in his treatise
On Love (751d) as an example of a remark to a girl too young for marriage. A
third citation by the grammarian Terentianus Maurus suggests the two verses go
together.
50 Galen commends this sentiment in his Exhortation to Learning (8.16):
So since we know the ripeness of youth is like spring flowers and brings brief
pleasure, admire Sappho for saying . . .
51 Chrysippos cites this sentence in his treatise On Negatives (23). Bruno Snell’s
by now notorious discovery of The Discovery of the Mind in this Sapphic fragment is
still worth considering for its irritant value. The Discovery of the Mind, translated
by T. G. Rosenmeyer (Cambridge, Mass., 1953).
52 Herodian’s citation of this sentence in his treatise On Anomalous Words ends
with some letters no longer legible that may be something like “with my two arms.”
53 The Graces (Charites in Greek, derived from charis: “grace”) are three in number, embodiments of beauty or charm, companions of the Muses and attendants of
Aphrodite.
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54 Pollux cites this phrase in his Onomastikon (10.124) for its use of a new word
for “cloak” (chlamys) and also reports that Sappho is talking here about Eros.
55.2–3 “the roses of Pieria”: Pieria is a mountainous region in northern Greece
which was believed to be the birthplace of the Muses; the works of the Muses—
music, dance, poetry, learning, culture—are symbolized by their roses. Plutarch
tells us this poem was addressed to a woman wealthy but amousos (“without the
Muses,” indifferent to their works). But the works of the Muses are also the substance of memory. Sappho’s poem threatens the woman with an obliteration which
it then enacts by not naming her.
55.3 “too”: Sappho’s word kan is a contraction of kai + en for metrical purpose (to
save a beat of time) but its effect is also conceptual—to syncopate some woman’s
posthumous nonentity upon her present life without roses.
55.1–4 “Dead. . . . Having been breathed out”: a participle in the aorist tense
(katthanoisa) begins the poem and a participle in the perfect tense (ekpepotamena) ends it. The aorist tense expresses past action as a point of fact; the perfect
tense renders past action whose effect continues into the future; so does Sappho’s
poem softly exhale some woman from the point of death into an infinitely featureless eternity. Cognate with words for wings, flying, fluttering and breath, the participle ekpepotamena, with its spatter of plosives and final open vowel, sounds
like the escape of a soul into nothingness.
56 Chrysippos cites these lines (as prose) in his treatise On Negatives (13). The
word translated “wisdom” (sophia) may connote “skill” or “learning” of any
kind—possibly poetic skill.
57 Amid a collection of sartorial anecdotes Athenaios cites the first and third lines
of this fragment, informing us that Sappho is making fun of Andromeda as Plato
does of “men who do not know how to throw their cloak over their shoulder from
left to right nor how to put words together in proper harmony for praising gods
and men” (Theaetetus 175e; Deipnosophistai 21b–c). The second verse of the
fragment comes from Maximus of Tyre (Orations 18.9), who compares Sappho’s
comment on Andromeda with Sokrates’ satire of the sophists’ fashion sense
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(schēma) and habit of reclining (kataklisis). For Andromeda see fr. 68a and note
on fr. 8 above.
58.25 “delicacy” (abrosynē): could also be translated “fineness,” “luxuriance,”
“daintiness” or “refined sensuality.” In the late sixth century B . C . the word came to
designate a certain kind of luxurious “eastern” lifestyle cultivated by an aristocratic elite that wished to distinguish itself this way. In other poems Sappho uses
the cognate adjective or adverb to describe Adonis (fr. 140), the Graces (fr. 128),
Andromache (fr. 44.7), linen (fr. 100), a woman (25.4), the action of pouring nectar
(2.14). See L. Kurke, “The Politics of aJ b rosuv n h in Archaic Greece,” Classical
Antiquity 11 (1992), 90–121.
58.25–6: These words may also be construed to mean:
But I love delicacy [ ] this
and desire for the sun has won me brilliance and beauty.
The question remains, What is the relevance of either “desire for the sun” or
“beauty of the sun” here? It has been suggested that the poem refers to the myth
of Tithonos, a young man so desirable that the goddess of Dawn (Auos or Eos) fell
in love with him and rapt him away to the ends of the earth. She then asked Zeus
to give him immortal life but forgot to request immortal youth, so Tithonos aged
forever.
See E. Stehle, “Sappho’s Gaze: Fantasies of a Goddess and a Young Man,” differences 2 (1990), 88–125; G. Nagy, “Phaethon, Sappho’s Phaon and the White
Rock of Leukas,” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 77 (1973), 137–77.
68a.5 and 68a.12 For Andromeda and Megara see note on fr. 8 above.
81 Parts of three verses at the beginning are transmitted on papyrus; the rest is
cited by Athenaios in a discussion of the use of garlands (Deipnosophistai
15.674e).
82a and 82b In his metrical Handbook of the second century A . D . Hephaistion cites
the phrase “Mnasidika more finely shaped than soft Gyrinno” as an example of
acatalectic tetrameter (=82a). About a thousand years later this same phrase
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turned up on a papyrus along with the beginnings of four other verses (=82b). For
Gyrinno (if she is the same person as Gyrinna) see note on fr. 8 above.
91 Some editors think these words cited by Hephaistion in his metrical Handbook
(11.5) are actually the first verse of fr. 60 above.
Eirana is either a woman’s name or the word for “peace.” If it is “peace” Sappho
is presumably talking about erotic warfare (note fr. 60 contains the verb “to
fight”).
94.1 “to be dead” or “to have died”: the poem’s first word is a perfect active
infinitive denoting a past action (death) that slides into the present (as death
wish). Sliding from past to present, from present to past, is Sappho’s method in
this poem and she seems to offer it (the sliding screen of memory) as a consolation
to the woman who weeps while going. Because the beginning of the poem is lost,
as the metrical scheme indicates, it remains unclear whether it is Sappho or the
weeping woman who wishes for death.
See G. Lanata, “Sul linguaggio amoroso di Saffo,” Quaderni urbinati di cultura
classica 2 (1966), 63–79, translated by W. Robins in E. Greene, ed., Reading Sappho (Berkeley, 1996), 19–20; T. McEvilley, “Sappho Fr. 94,” Phoenix 25 (1971),
1–11; E. Robbins, “Who’s Dying in Sappho Fr. 94?” Phoenix 44 (1990), 111–21;
J. M. Snyder, The Woman and the Lyre (Carbondale, 1989), 26.
95.7 In between “mostly” and “came in” are traces of letters that might be reconstructed to form the name of Hermes, who traditionally guided souls to the land of
the dead.
95.11–13 “yearning . . .”: Sappho associates desire with death in fr. 31.15–16
and fr. 94.1 above; cf. also Anakreon’s erotic complaint “may I die as I can find no
other loosening from these pains” (fr. 411 PMG); Alkman’s description of desire
as a “more melting than sleep or death” (fr. 3.61–2 PMG); Oedipus’ “longing to
look upon the hearth of my father underground” (Sophokles Oedipus at Colonus
1725–7).
96.1 “Sardis”: capital city of the rich kingdom of Lydia in Asia Minor, Sardis was a
commercial center and said to be the place where coinage was invented.
370
96.3 “you”: compare this triangular reverie of moonlit women with that of Emily
Dickinson’s letter to Susan Gilbert, October 9, 1851:
I wept a tear here, Susie, on purpose for you—because this “sweet silver
moon” smiles in on me and Vinnie, and then it goes so far before it gets to
you—and then you never told me if there was any moon in Baltimore—and
how do I know Susie—that you see her sweet face at all? She looks like a fairy
tonight, sailing around the sky in a little silver gondola with stars for gondoliers. I asked her to let me ride a little while ago—and told her I would get out
when she got as far as Baltimore, but she only smiled to herself and went
sailing on.
I think she was quite ungenerous—but I have learned the lesson and
shant ever ask her again. To day it rained at home—sometimes it rained so
hard that I fancied you could hear it’s patter—patter, patter, as it fell upon
the leaves—and the fancy pleased me so, that I sat and listened to it—and
watched it earnestly. Did you hear it Susie—or was it only fancy? Bye and bye
the sun came out—just in time to bid us goodnight, and as I told you sometime, the moon is shining now.
It is such an evening Susie, as you and I would walk and have such pleasant musings, if you were only here—perhaps we would have a “Reverie” after
the form of “Ik Marvel”, indeed I do not know why it would’nt be just as
charming as of that lonely Bachelor, smoking his cigar—and it would be far
more profitable as “Marvel” only marvelled, and you and I would try to make a
little destiny to have for our own.
—Letters of Emily Dickinson 1.143–4
More explicitly than Sappho, Emily Dickinson evokes the dripping fecundity of daylight as foil for the mind’s voyaging at night. Almost comically, she personifies the
moon as chief navigator of the liquid thoughts that women like to share in the
dark, in writing. And perhaps Ik Marvel (a ...
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