Fr. 96
I shall be ever maiden.
H. T. Wharton
From a Parisian MS. edited by Cramer, adduced to show the
Aeolic form of aei, 'ever.'
Fr. 97
We will give, says the father . . .
H. T. Wharton
From a Parisian MS. edited by Cramer.
Fr. 98
To the doorkeeper feet seven fathoms long, and sandals of five
bulls' hides, the work of ten cobblers.
H. T. Wharton
From Hephaestion, as an example of metre. Demetrius says:
'And elsewhere Sappho girds at the rustic bridegroom and the
doorkeeper ready for the wedding, in prosaic rather than poetic
phrase, as if she were reasoning rather than singing, using words out
of harmony with dance and song.'
Fr. 99
Happy bridegroom, now is thy wedding come to thy desire, and thou
hast the maiden of thy desire.
H. T. Wharton
Happy bridegroom, thou art blest
With blisses far beyond the rest,
For thou hast won
The chosen one,
The girl thou lovest best.
Frederick Tennyson
Quoted by Hephaestion, along with the following, to
exemplify metres; both fragments seem to belong to the same ode.
Fr. 100
And a soft [paleness] is spread over the lovely face.
H. T. Wharton
In the National Library of Madrid there is a MS. of an
epithalamium by Choricius, a rhetorician of Gaza, who flourished
about 520 A.D., in which the lamented Ch. Graux (Revue de
Philologie, 1880, p. 81) found a quotation from Sappho which is
partly identical with this fragment preserved by Hephaestion. H.
Weil thus attempts to restore the passage:--[Greek omitted]
Well favoured is thy form, and thine eyes . . .
honeyed, and love is spread over thy fair face . . .
Aphrodite has honored thee above all.
Two apparent imitations by Catullus are quoted by Weil to
confirm his restoration of Sappho's verses; viz., mellitos oculos,
honeyed eyes (48, 1), and pulcher es, neque te Venus negligit, fair
thou art, nor does Venus neglect thee (61, 194).
Fr. 101
He who is fair to look upon is [good], and he who is good will soon
be fair also.
H. T. Wharton
Beauty, fair flower, upon the surface lies;
But worth with beauty e'en in aspect vies.
Felton?
Galen, the physician, writing about 160 A.D., says: 'It is
better therefore, knowing that the beauty of youth is like Spring
flowers, its pleasure lasting but a little while, to approve of what the
Lesbian [here] says, and to believe Solon when he points out the
same.'
Fr. 102
Do I still long for maidenhood?
H. T. Wharton
Quoted by Apollonius, and by the Scholiast on Dionysius of
Thrace, to illustrate the interrogative particle ara, Aeolic êra and as
an example of the catalectic iambic.
Fr. 103
The bride [comes] rejoicing; let the bridegroom rejoice.
H. T. Wharton
From Hephaestion, as a catalectic iambic.
Fr. 104
Whereunto may I well liken thee, dear bridegroom?
To a soft shoot may I best liken thee.
H. T. Wharton
From Hephaestion, as an example of metre.
Fr. 105
Hail, bride! noble bridegroom, all hail!
H. T. Wharton
Quoted by Servius, about 390 A.D., on Vergil, Georg. i. 31;
also referred to by Pollux and Julian.
Fr. 106
For there was no other girl, O bridegroom, like her.
H. T. Wharton
From Dionysius of Halicarnassus.
Fr. 107, 108
Sing Hymenaeus!
Ah for Adonis!
H. T. Wharton
From Plotius, about the fifth or sixth century A.D., to show
the metre of Sappho's hymeneal odes. The text is corrupt; the first
verse is thus emended by Bergk, the second by Scaliger. Cf. fr. 63
EPITHALAMIA, BRIDAL SONGS
Fr. 109
A. Maidenhood, maidenhood, whither art thou gone away from me!
B. Never again will I come to thee, never again.
H. T. Wharton
'Sweet Rose of May, sweet Rose of May,
Whither, ah whither fled away?'
'What's gone no time can e'er restore--
I come no more, I come no more.'
J. H. Merivale
From Demetrius, who quoted the fragment to show the grace
of Sappho's style and the beauty of repetition.
Fr. 110
Fool, faint not thou in thy strong heart.
H. T. Wharton
From a very corrupt passage in Herodian. The translation is
from Bergk's former emendation--
'Alla mê kame sterean phrena.
Fr. 111
To himself he seems . . .
H. T. Wharton
From Apollonius, to show that the Aeolians used the
digamma. Bergk says this fragment does not belong to fr. 2.
Fr. 112
Much whiter than an egg.
H. T. Wharton
From Athenaeus; cf. frs. 56 and 122.
Fr. 113
Neither honey nor bee for me.
H. T. Wharton
A proverb quoted by many late authors, referring to those
who wish for good unmixed with evil. They seem to be the words of
the bride. This, and the second line of fr. 62, and many other verses,
show Sappho's fondness for alliteration; frs. 4 and 5, among several
others, show that she did not ignore the charm of assonance.
Fr. 114
Stir not the shingle.
Quoted by the Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius to show that
cherades were 'little heaps of stones.'
Fr. 115
Thou burnest us.
H. T. Wharton
Compare Swinburne's--
My life is bitter with thy love; thine eyes
Blind me, thy tresses burn me, thy sharp sighs
Divide my flesh and spirit with soft sound, etc.
Swinburne'sAnactoria.
Quoted by Apollonius to show the Aeolic form of hêmas, 'us.'
Fr. 116
A napkin dripping.
H. T. Wharton
From the Scholiast on Aristophanes' Plutus, quoted to show
the meaning of hêmitubion, 'a half worn out shred of linen with which
to wipe the hands.'
Fr. 117
She called him her son.
H. T. Wharton
Quoted by Apollonius to' show the Aeolic use of the digamma.
EPIGRAMS
All three are preserved only in the Greek Anthology. The authenticity
of the last, fr. 120, is doubtful. To none of them does Bergk restore
the form of the Aeolic dialect.
Fr. 118
Maidens, dumb as I am, I speak thus, if any ask, and set
before your feet a tireless voice: To Leto's daughter Aethopia was I
dedicated by Arista daughter of Hermocleides son of Saonaiades, thy
servant, O queen of women; whom bless thou, and deign to glorify
our house.
H. T. Wharton
ON A PRIESTESS OF DIANA.
Does any ask? I answer from the dead;
A voice that lives is graven o'er my head:
To dark-eyed Dian, ere my days begun,
Aristo vowed me, wife of Saon's son:
Then hear thy priestess, hear, O virgin Power,
And thy best gifts on Saon's lineage shower.
R.
The goddess here invoked as the 'queen of women' appears to have been Artemis, the Diana
of the Romans.
Fr. 119
This is the dust of Timas, whom Persephone's dark chamber received, dead before her
wedding; when she perished, all her fellows dressed with sharpened steel the lovely tresses
of their heads.
H. T. Wharton
This dust was Timas'; ere her bridal hour
She lies in Proserpina's gloomy bower;
Her virgin playmates from each lovely head
Cut with sharp steel their locks, their strewments for the dead.
Sir Charles Elton
This is the dust of Timas, whom unwed
Persephone locked in her darksome bed:
For her the maids who were her fellows shore
Their curls, and to her tomb this tribute bore.
J. A. Symonds
Fr. 120
Over the fisherman Pelagon his father Meniscus set weel and oar, memorial of a luckless life.
H. T. Wharton
ON A FISHERMAN.
This oar and net and fisher's wickered snare
Meniscus placed above his buried son--
Memorials of the lot in life he bare,
The hard and needy life of Pelagon.
Sir Charles A. Elton.
Here, to the fisher Pelagan, his sire Meniscus laid
A wicker-net and oar, to show his weary life and trade.
Lord Neaves
Above a fisher's tomb
Were set his withy-basket and his oar,
The tokens of his doom,
Of how in life his labour had been sore:
A father put them up above his son,
Meniscus over luckless Pelagon.
Michael Field, 1889.
Bergk sees no reason to accept the voice of tradition in attributing this epigram to Sappho.
|
