LIFE OF SAPPHO

Greek couplet inscribed upon the base, which this
cultured Grecian who can really criticise such things,
who is the only man who understands such things,
would never have dreamt of leaving behind if he
had known a single letter of the Greek alphabet.
For the inscription on the empty base declares
to-day what the statue was, thus proclaiming the
theft.t

Dionysius of Halicarnassus? Demosthenes: Next
comes the finished or decorative style, the style
which makes for elegance rather than grandeur.
In the first place it invariably prefers the smoothest
and gentlest words, seeking euphony and melodious-
ness and their resultant charm. Secondly, it does
not put its words just as they come or combine them
without consideration, but first decides what elements
will combine to give the most musical effect, and
what arrangement will produce the most taking
combinations, paying very great attention to the
coherence of the parts and the perfection of the
joinery. . Such appear to me to be the charac-
teristics of εἰμί style. For examples of it I may
mention, in poetry, Hesiod, Sappho, and Anacreon,
and in prose, Isocrates the Athenian and his school.

Demetrius on S/y/le: The forms, then, of literary
charm are many and various. But charm may also
reside in the subject. For instance, it may be the
Gardens of the Nymphs, a wedding, a love-affair, in
short the entire subject-matter of the poetry of
Sappho. Such themes are charming even if treated

1 Plin, V7. 35, St mentions a picture of S. by Leon, on
Which (7) ef. dath. Pun, 410; see also Tat. ade. Gr. 190
2 see also Comp. 19, 23

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