LIFE OF SAPPHO

Plutarch Dinner-Lable Problems [on what is the
best sort of entertainment during dinner]: We were
the first to fall foul of the new fashion when it came
to Rome, and to deprecate the use of Plato as an
after-dinner diversion and his dialogues as things
to be listened to over the wine and the dessert.
Why, even when they recite us Sappho or Anacreon
I feel I must put down my cup for very shame,

The Same .Jimalorius : Sappho fully deserves to be
counted among the Muses. The Romans tell how
Cacus son of Vulcan sent forth fire and flames from
his mouth; and Sappho utters words really mingled
with fire, and gives vent through her song to the
heat that consumes her heart, thus ‘healing’ in
the words of Philoxenus ‘the pain of love with
the melodies of the Muse.’ 1

The Same Dinner-Lable Problems: One day at
Sossius’s, after the singing of some songs of Sappho’s,
a diseussion aruse of the line ‘ Love makes a poet of
the veriest boor.’

Aulus Gellius .fflic Nights: When the chief courses
were disposed of and the time was come for wine
and conversation, Antonius expressed a wish that
we might be favoured with a performance by the
first-rate singers and players of both sexes whom he
knew our young friend to have at command. In
due time the young musicians were summoned, and
proceeded to give delightful renderings not only of
a number of the songs of Anacreon and Sappho but
also of some charming crotic elegies, as they are
ealled, of modern composers.

1 see fr. 2

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