k Library 


it-Krauss-McCormic 


Robinson, 


Sappho and her influence 


f 


DALI: cT 9290 
MNEGS 2 
Che Virginia Library 


MrCurniick 


Chenlogiral Seminary 
uf the 


Preshyterian Church, Chiragn 


826 Relien Avenue 


Srom 


| Received /\ |a R ot a 2 


Mur Debt to Greece and Rome 
EDITORS 
GeorcE Depue Haopzsits, Pu.D. 
University of Pennsylvania 
Davip Moore Rosinson, Px.D., LL.D. 
The Fohns Hopkins University 


CONTRIBUTORS TO THE “OUR DEBT TO 
GREECE AND ROME FUND,” WHOSE 
GENEROSITY HAS MADE POSSIBLE 
THE LIBRARY 


Mut Debt to Greece and Rome 


Philadelphia 

Dr. AsTLEY P. C. ASHHURST 
Joun C. BELL 
Henry H. BONNELL 
JASPER YEATES BRINTON 
GEORGE BuURNHAM, Jr. 
JOHN CADWALADER 
Miss CLARA COoMEGYS 
Miss Mary E. CONVERSE 
ARTHUR G. DICKSON 
Wi11aM M. ELKINS 
H. H. Furness, Jr. 
WitiiAmM P. GEST 
JOHN GRIBBEL 
SAMUEL F. Houston 
CHARLES EDWARD INGERSOLL 
JoHN Story JENKS 
ALBA B. JoHNSON 
Miss Nina LEA 
Grorce McFappEN 
Mrs. JoHN MARKOE 
Jutes E. Mastsaum 
J. VAUGHAN MERRICK 
EFFINGHAM B. Morris 
Wittram R. Murpuy 
Joun S. NEwBOoLD 
S. Davis Pace (memorial) 
OwEN J. RoBERTS 
JosEpH G. RoSENGARTEN 
Wrtam C. Sprout 
Joun B. Stetson, Jr. 
Dr. J. Witttam WHITE 

(memorial) 
GrorcE D. WmENER 
Mrs. JAMEs D. Winsor 
OWEN WISTER 

The Philadelphia Society 
for the Promotion of Liberal 
Studies. 


Boston 
Ortc BATES (memorial) 
FREDERICK P. FIsH 
Wi1iAmM Amory GARDNER 
JosEPH CLARK Hoppin 

Chicago 
HERBERT W. WOLFF 

Cincinnati 

CHARLES PHELPS TAFT 


Cleveland 
SAMUEL MATHER 


Detroit 
Joun W. ANDERSON 
DeExTER M. FERRY, Jr. 


Doylestown, Pennsylvania 
‘(A LOVER OF GREECE AND 

RoME”’ 

New York 

Joun Jay CHAPMAN 
WILtaRD V. KING 
Tuomas W. LAMONT 
Dwicut W. Morrow 
Mrs. D. W. Morrow 
Exisu Root 
Mortimer L. SCHIFF 
WILLIAM SLOANE 
GrEoRGE W. WICKERSHAM 
And one contributor, who 

has asked to have his name 

withheld: 
Maecenas atavis edite regibus, 
O et praesidium et dulce decus 
meum. 

Washington 

The Greek Embassy at 
Washington, for the Greek 
Government. 


| 


The following lovers of Greek literature, and 
of Sappho in particular, have kindly consented 
to act as patrons and have made possible, by 
generous contributions, the larger size of this 
volume in the Series “Our Debt to Greece 
and Rome”: 


Mr. Cuarves H. Carey 

Mr. JAmMEs CAREY 

Miss Litt1e Detrick 

PROFESSOR JOSEPH CLARK HopPPiIN 
Mrs. Harry C. Jones 

Mrs. GarpDINER M. Lane 

Miss Emma MarsurG 

Dr. JoHn RaTHBONE OLIVER 
Miss Jutta R. RocErs 

ProFEssorR HERBERT WEIR SMYTH 
Dr. HucH H. Younec 


Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2025 


https://archive.org/details/sapphoherinfluenO000davi 


aiounyeg ‘Aray[ey) Wy SioyeM oy} UT 
OHddVS S.VWWHUACVL VWIV 2 S1v1d 


SAPPHO 
AND HER INFLUENCE 


BY 
DAVID M. ROBINSON, PrDS LL.D: 


W. H. Collins Vickers Professor of Archaeology and 
Epigraphy and Lecturer on Greek Literature 
The Johns Hopkins University 


MARSHALL JONES COMPANY 
BOSTON - MASSACHUSETTS 


MCCORMICK THEOLOGICAL 


COPYRIGHT: 1924-BY MARSHALL JONES COMPANY 


All rights reserved 


Printed December, 1924 


THE PLIMPTON PRESS- NORWOOD: MASSACHUSETTS 
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 


$290 
Ress 


To 


THE MEMORY OF 


BASIL LANNEAU GILDERSLEEVE 
MASTER, COLLEAGUE, AND FRIEND 


AND TO MY FORMER TEACHERS 


EDWARD CAPPS 
PAUL SHOREY 
ULRICH von WILAMOWITZ-MOELLENDORFF 


b@pov ’avtl peyadou opLKkpov 
A trifling gift in return for much. 


Erepos 2 érépov aodds TO TE Todat TO TE Viv. 
ott yap paotov appytwy eréwy rbAas 
eEevpetv. 
Poet is heir to poet, now as of yore; for in 
sooth ’tis no light task to find the gates of 
virgin song. 

Jess, Bacchylides, p. 413, frag. 4 


Immortat Sappho, maid divine, 
Thou sharest with the heavenly nine 
All honor. Shout through all the town 
That on her head we place a crown. 
Hasten with the chaplet green, 
Greet her one and all as queen; 
The Lesbian, a tenth muse we name, 
And prophesy that her bright fame 
Shall spread o’er all the world. 
This title till the stars do fall, 
Nations yet unborn shall call 
And glorify her name. 

(LUCY MILBURN) 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 


tf 


II. 


III. 


IV. 
V3 
Vi} 


VII. 


VIII. 


CONTRIBUTORS TO THE FunD.. . 


Some APPRECIATIONS, ANCIENT AND 
MODERNE ant. ame? 


SaPpHo’s Lire, Lessus, Her Love- 
Arrairs, HER PERSONALITY AND 
PUPILS 0% oe 


THE LEGENDARY FRINGE. ... . 
Sappho’s Physical Appearance, 
The Phaon Story, The Vice Idea 


THe WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 
SAPPHO IN ART 


SappHo’s INFLUENCE ON GREEK 
AND RoMAN LITERATURE . 


SAPPHO IN THE MippLE AGES AND 
THE RENAISSANCE . 


SAPPHO IN ITALY IN THE I8TH AND 
19TH CENTURIES. 


SApPpHO IN LaTIN TRANSLATIONS, 
IN SPANISH, AND IN GERMAN . 


SAPPHO IN FRENCH LITERATURE 


[ix ] 


14 
34 


46 


134 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER ; PAGE 
XI. SappHo 1n EnciisH anp AMERICAN 
LITERATURE . . - 183 
An Addendum on ylis an 
Russtgngeps Ra ee 234 
XII. Sappuo’s es, GN: NIUSIC aman aa st 
XIII. Epttocue anp Conciusion. . . . 237 
NOTES Raia Baa ion Ges oo et 


BIBLIOGRAPHY | Shee ee 


[x] 


PLATE 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


1. ALMA TADEMA’S SAPPHO . . . . Frontispiece 


(At end of Volume) 
Bust oF PItTTacus 


MYTILENE 
THE StTorRY oF PHAON ON A VASE IN 


FLORENCE 
PHAON ON A GREEK VASE IN PALERMO 


. THE LEUCADIAN PROMONTORY 


RoMAN FRESCO IN AN UNDERGROUND 


BUILDING 


. A PAPYRUS OF THE THIRD CENTURY A.D. 


A Cyuirx By SOTADES 


. GREEK COIN FROM MYTILENE 
. IMPERIAL COINS 

. A GREEK VASE IN MUNICH 

. SAPPHO ON A VASE IN CRACOW 


SAPPHO SEATED BEFORE A WINGED Eros 


. GREEK ARYBALLUS AT RUvOo 


[ xi ] 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PLATE 
16. A GREEK HypriA IN ATHENS 


17. PHAON IN His Boat 

18. A PoMPEIAN FRESCO 

19. A Bust oF SAPPHO IN THE VILLA ALBANI 
20. THE OxForpD Bust 

21. A Bust IN THE BORGHESE PALACE 

22. STATUE OF SAPPHO BY MAGNI 

23. STATUE OF SAPPHO BY PRADIER 

24. RAPHAEL’S PARNASSUS 


[ xii ] 


SAPPHO 
AND HER INFLUENCE 


RYE Yo “EVE Rk wr 9 SS aa eS lL le 


SAPPHO AND HER 
INFLUENCE 


I. SOME APPRECIATIONS, 
_.ANCIENT AND MODERN 


HE NAME of Sappho will never die. 

But it lives in most of the minds that 

know it at all to-day as hardly more 
than the hazy nucleus of a ragged fringe sug- 
gestive of erotic thoughts or of sexual perver- 
sion. Very seldom does it evoke the vision of 
a great and pure poetess with marvellous 
expressions of beauty, grace, and power at her 
command, who not only haunts the dawn of 
Grecian Lyric poetry but lives in scattered and 
broken lights that glint from vases and papyri 
and from the pages of cold grammarians and 
warm admirers, whose eulogies we would gladly 
trade for the unrecorded poems which they 
quote so meagerly. Sappho has furnished the 
title of such a novel as Daudet’s Sapho. It 
figures in suggestive moving pictures.’ The 


33 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


name will answer prettily as that of a bird or 
even a boat such as the yacht with which Mr. 
Douglas defended the American cup in 1871. 
The modern idea of Sappho truly seems to be 
based mainly on Daudet, who with Pierre 
Louys in recent times has done most to de- 
grade her good character and who goes so far 
as to say that “‘the word Sappho itself by the 
force of rolling descent through ages is en- 
crusted with unclean legends and has degener- 
ated from the name of a goddess to that of a 
malady.” But to the lover of lyrics, who is 
also a student of Greek Literature in Greek, 
this poetess of passion becomes a living and 
illustrious personality, who of all the poets of 
the world, as Symonds says, is the ‘‘one whose 
every word has a peculiar and unmistakable 
perfume, a seal of absolute perfection and 
inimitable grace.” “Sappho,” says Tennyson in 
The Princess, “in arts of grace vied with any 
man.” She is one whose fervid fragments, as the 
great Irish translator of the Odes of Anacreon 
and the Anacreontics, Thomas Moore, says in 
his Evenings in Greece, 


Still, like sparkles of Greek Fire, 
Undying, even beneath the wave, 
Burn on thro’ time and ne’er expire, 


[4] 


SOME APPRECIATIONS 


a prophecy still true even in this material- 
istic day. Sappho, herself, had intimations 
of immortality, for she writes with perfect 
beauty and modesty: 


Mvdceobal rd dam Kal bortepov Gupmewy 
I say some one will think of us hereafter. 


This brief, pellucid verse Swinburne in his 
Anactoria has distorted into the gorgeous emo- 
tional rhetoric of fourteen verses. But its own 
quiet prophecy stands good to-day. <A frag- 
ment first published in 1922” also seems to 
make her say: 


and yet great 

glory will come to thee in all places 
where Phaéthon [shines | 

and even in Acheron’s halls 


[thou shalt be honored. | 


In general, antiquity thought of her as “‘the 
poetess”” xar’éfox 7, 7 rountpia,® just as Professor 
Harmon has recently shown‘ that “the poet” 
in ancient literature means Homer. Down to 
the present day Sappho has kept the definite 
article which antiquity gave her and has been 
called the poetess, though we must be careful to 
test a writer’s use of the term. Therefore, we 


bis] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


must not understand by the absence of any 
added epithet, as Wharton does, that Tennyson 
rates her higher than all other poets, merely 
because in Locksley Hall, Sixty Years After he 
speaks of Sappho as ‘‘The Poet,” having called 
her in his youth ‘The Ancient Poetess,” ° — 
for he also speaks of Dante as “The Poet,” 
when in Locksley Hall he says, “this is truth 
the poet sings,” and then cites verse 121 of the 
Inferno. It is rare, however, even in modern 
times to find Sappho classed with any other 
poet as a peer, as in the beautiful tribute To 
Christina Rossetti of William Watson, one of 
the best modern writers of epigrams, where 
Mrs. Browning and Sappho are the two other 
women referred to: 


Songstress, in all times ended and begun, 
Thy billowy-bosom’d fellows are not three. 
Of those sweet peers, the grass is green o’er one; 
And blue above the other is the sea. 


In ancient days Pinytus (1st cent. A.D.) com- 
posed this epigram: ° 


This tomb reveals where Sappho’s ashes lie, 
But her sweet words of wisdom ne'er will die. 


(Lorp NAEVES) 


[ 6 ] 


SOME APPRECIATIONS 


Tullius Laureas, who wrote both in Greek and 
Latin about 60 B.c., puts into her mouth the 
following: ‘‘When you pass my Aeolian grave, 
stranger, call not the songstress of Mytilene 
dead. For ’tis true this tomb was built by the 
hands of men, and such works of humankind 
sink swiftly into oblivion; yet if you ask after 
me for the sake of the holy Muses from each 
of whom I have taken a flower for my posy of 
nine, you shall know that I have escaped the 
darkness of Death, and no sun shall ever rise 
that keepeth not the name of the lyrist Sappho.” 
(Edmonds, with variations.) 
Posidippus 7 (250 B.C.) says: 
Sappho’s white, speaking pages of dear song 
Yet linger with us and will linger long. 


(T. Davipson) 


Horace ® says: 


vivuntque commissi calores 
Acoliae fidibus puellae. 


That inadequate and misleading metaphor of 
fire, as Mackail says, recurs in all her eulogists. 
Mewypeva mpl pbeyyerat, “her words are 
mingled with fire,” writes Plutarch,? but the 
“fre” of the burning Sappho is not raging hot, 
it ig an unscorching calm, brilliant lustre that 


LF 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


makes other poetry seem cold by comparison. 
No wonder that Hermesianax ! (about 290 B.c.) 
called her ‘‘that nightingale of hymns” and 
Lucian @ “the honeyed boast of the Lesbians.” 
Strabo (1 A.D.) said: “Sappho is a marvellous 
creature (avuacrév re xpfua), in all history you 
will find no woman who can challenge compari- 
son with her even in the slightest degree.” 
Antipater of Thessalonica (10 B.c.) named 
Sappho as one of the nine poetesses who were 
god-tongued and called her one of the nine 
muses: ‘‘The female Homer: Sappho pride 
and choice of Lesbian dames, whose locks have 
earned a name.” ” In another epigram in the 
Anthology, probably from the base of a lost 
‘statue of Sappho in the famous library at Per- 
gamum,'4 and which Jucundus and Cyriac were 
able to cite many hundreds of years later, 
Antipater says, 


Sappho my name, in song o’er women held 
As far supreme as Homer men excelled. 


(NEAVES) 


Some thoughtlessly proclaim the muses nine; 
A tenth is Lesbian Sappho, maid divine, 


are the words of Plato in Lord Neaves’ transla- 
tion of an epigram of which Wilamowitz ® now 


[8 ] 


SOME APPRECIATIONS 


timidly defends the genuineness. Antipater of 
Sidon (150 B.c.) * in his encomium on Sappho 
tells how 

Amazement seized Mnemosyne 

At Sappho’s honey'd song: 

‘What, does a tenth muse,’ then, cried she, 

‘To mortal men belong!’ 

(WELLESLEY) 
He also speaks” of Sappho as “one that is 
sung for a mortal Muse among Muses immortal 
..a delight unto Greece.” Dioscorides * 

(180 B.c.) says: ‘Sappho, thou Muse of Aeolian 
Eresus, sweetest of all love-pillows unto the 
burning young, sure am I that Pieria or ivied 
Helicon must honour thee, along with the 
Muses, seeing that thy spirit is their spirit.” 
Again, in an anonymous epigram ™ it is said: 
“her song will seem Calliope’s own voice.” 
Another writer,2® also anonymous, discussing 
the nine lyric poets, says: 

Sappho would make a ninth; but fitter she 


Among the Muses, a tenth Muse to be. 
(NEAVES) 


Catullus 2! speaks of the Sapphica Musa, and 
Ausonius in Epigram XXXII calls her Lesbia 
Pieriis Sappho soror addita M usis.” 

If we turn now from the praise of the an- 


[9] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


cients to modern literary critics of classic lore 
we shall not find any depreciation but rather 
an enhancing of that ancient praise. The classic 
estimate of Sappho holds its own and more 
than holds it to-day. J. A. K. Thomson in his 
Greeks and Barbarians ® says: ‘Landor is not 
Greek any more than Leconte de Lisle is Greek. 

. they have not the banked and inward- 
burning fire which makes Sappho so different.” 
Mackail speaks of ‘‘the feeling expressed in 
splendid but hardly exaggerated language by 
Swinburne, in that early poem where, alone 
among the moderns, he has mastered and all 
but reproduced one of her favourite metres, the 
Sapphic stanza which she invented and to which 
she gave her name”? — 


Ah the singing, ah the delight, the passion! 

All the Loves wept, listening; sick with anguish, 

Stood the crowned nine Muses about A pollo; 
Fear was upon them, 


While the tenth sang wonderful things they knew not. 

Ah, the tenth, the Lesbian! the nine were silent, 

None endured the sound of her song for weeping; 
Laurel by laurel, 


Faded all their crowns; but about her forehead 


Shoda a light of Hee as a crown ae ever. 


[ 10 ] 


SOME APPRECIATIONS 


Swinburne himself was thoroughly steeped 
in Sappho whom he considered “the supreme 
success, the final achievement of the poetic art.” 
He laid abounding tribute at her feet both in 
verse and prose. In an appreciation first pub- 
lished posthumously in 1914 in The Living Age,” 
he says: “Judging even from the mutilated 
fragments fallen within our reach from the 
broken altar of her sacrifice of song, I for one 
have always agreed with all Grecian tradition 
in thinking Sappho to be beyond all question 
and comparison the very greatest poet that ever 
lived. Aeschylus is the greatest poet who ever 
was also a prophet; Shakespeare is the greatest 
dramatist who ever was also a poet, but Sappho 
is simply nothing less — as she is certainly 
nothing more —than the greatest poet who 
ever was at all. Such at least is the simple and 
sincere profession of my lifelong faith.’ Alfred 
Noyes recognizes in Swinburne’s praise of 
Sappho a spirit which would make them con- 
genial companions in another world, when in 
the poem In Memory of Swinburne he writes: 


THEE, the storm-bird, nightingale-souled, 
Brother of Sappho, the seas reclaim! 
Age upon age have the great waves rolled 

Mad with her music, exultant, aflame; 


[11] 


poets? 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


Thee, thee too, shall their glory enfold, 
Lit with thy snow-winged fame. 


Back, thro’ the years, fleets the sea-bird’s wing: 
Sappho, of old time, once, — ah, hark! 

So did he love her of old and sing! 
Listen, he flies to her, back thro’ the dark! 

Sappho, of old time, once . . . Yea, Spring 
Calls him home to her, hark! 


Sappho, long since, in the years far sped, 
Sappho, I loved thee! Did I not seem 
Fosterling only of earth? I have fled, 
Fled to thee, sister. Time is a dream! 
Shelley is here with us! Death lies dead! 
Ah, how the bright waves gleam. 


Wide was the cage-door, idly swinging; 
April touched me and whispered ‘Come.’ 

Out and away to the great deep winging, 
Sister, I flashed to thee over the foam, 

Out to the sea of Eternity, singing 
‘Mother, thy child comes home.’ 


J. W. Mackail echoes Swinburne’s high 


praise: “Many women have written poetry 
and some have written poetry of high merit 
and extreme beauty. But no other woman can 
claim an assured place in the first rank of 
. .. “The sole woman of any age or 


[12 ] 


SOME APPRECIATIONS 


country who gained and still holds an unchal- 
lenged place in the first rank of the world’s 
poets, she is also one of the few poets of whom 
it may be said with confidence that they hold 
of none and borrow of none, and that their 
poetry is, in some unique way, an immediate 
inspiration.” | 

Many another modern critic ranks Sappho as 
supreme. Typical are such eulogies as “Sappho, 
the most famous of all women” (Aldington), or 
‘Sappho, incomparably the greatest poetess the 
world has ever seen” (Watts-Dunton in ninth 
ed. Encyclopedia Britannica). 


[13] 


II. SAPPHO’S LIFE, LESBUS, HER 
LOVE-AFFAIRS, HER PERSONALITY 
AND PUPILS 


T IS my purpose in the limited space at my 
disposal to show in a general way, since it 
will not be possible to go into details, the 

truth of Sappho’s prophecy that men would 
think of her * in after-times: to show her im- 
portance as a woman and poetess and our debt 
to her, and also to give my readers some ac- 
quaintance with the real and the unreal Sappho 
so that they can judge how much is fact and 
how much is fancy in what they hear and read 
about Sappho, thus proving again that the warp 
and woof of literature cannot be understood with- 
out a knowledge of the original Greek threads. 
This chapter will consider Sappho’s Life. 

Unfortunately we know little of Sappho her- 
self, and about that little there is doubt. Even 
the ancient lives of Sappho are lost. If we had 
Chamaeleon’s work on Sappho,” or the exegesis 
of Sappho and Alcaeus ?’ by Callias of Mytilene, 
or the book on Sappho’s metres by Dracon of 
Stratonicea, we should not be left so in the dark; 


[14] 


SAPPHO’S LIFE 


but all these have perished or, what comes to 
the same thing, are undiscovered. Like Homer, 
Sappho gives us almost no definite information 
about herself, and we must depend on late lexicog- 
raphers, commentators, and imitators. Villain- 
ous stories arose about her and gathered added 
vileness till they reached a climax in the licentious 
Latin of Ovid, especially as seen in Pope’s trans- 
lation of the epistle of Sappho to Phaon. 

Sappho came of a noble family belonging to 
an Aeolian colony in the Troad. Though Suidas 
gives eight possibilities for the name of Sappho’s 
father, the most probable is Scamandronymus, 
a good Asia Minor name vouched for by Herodo- 

tus, Aelian and other ancient writers and By 
confirmed by a recently discovered papyrus." 
He was rich and noble and probably a wine- 
merchant. He died, according to Ovid,” when 
Sappho’s eldest child was six years of age. 

Her mother’s name, says Suidas, was Cleis.” 
Commentators assume that she was living when 
Sappho peeen to write poetry because of the 
reference to “mother” in the “Spinner in 
Love”; but this may be an impersonal poem. 
According to the Greek custom of naming the 
child after a grandparent the poetess called her 
only daughter Cleis. 

[15] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


The poetess had three brothers, Charaxus, 
Larichus, who held the aristocratic office of cup- 
bearer in the Prytaneum to the highest officials 
of Mytilene, and, according to Suidas, a third 
brother, Eurygyius,*! of whom nothing is known. 

Athenaeus tells us that the beautiful Sappho 
often sang the praises of her brother Larichus; 
and the name was handed down in families of 
Mytilene, for it occurs in a Priene inscription 
as the name of the father of a friend of Alexan- 
der who was named Eurygyius. This shows the 
family tradition and how descendants of Sappho’s 
family attained high ranks in Alexander’s army. 

Charaxus, the eldest brother as we now know, 
“sailed to Egypt and as an associate with a 
certain Doricha spent very much money on 
her,” according to the recently found late papy- 
rus biography. Charaxus had strayed from 
home about 572 and sailed as a merchant to 
Naucratis, the great Greek port colony estab- 
lished in the delta of the Nile under conditions 
similar to those of China’s treaty-ports. There 
he was bartering Lesbian wine, Horace’s inno- 
centis pocula Lesbii, for loveliness and pleasures, 
when he fell in love with and ransomed the 
beautiful Thracian courtesan, the world-re- 
nowned demi-mondaine. She was called Doricha 


[ 16 | 


SAPPHO’S LIFE 


by Sappho according to the Augustan geogra- 
pher, Strabo, but Herodotus names her Rho- 
dopis, rosy-cheeked,* and evidently thought she 
had contributed to Delphi** the collection of 
obeliskot or iron spits, the small change of 
ancient days before coin money was used to 
any great extent. Herodotus, the only writer 
preserved before 400 B.c. who gives us any 
details about Sappho tells the story and how 
the sister roundly rebuked her brother in a 
poem. Some four hundred years later Strabo, 
adding a legend which recalls that of Cinderella, 
repeats the story and it is retold by Athenaeus 
after another two hundred years. In our own 
day it has slightly influenced William Morris 
in the Earthly Paradise. Except for archaeology, 
however, we should never have heard Sappho’s 
own words. About 1898 the sands of Egypt 
gave up five mutilated stanzas of this poem 
which scholars had for many a year longed to 
hear, but the beginnings of the lines are gone 
and only a few letters of the last stanza remain. 
My own interest in Sappho dates from that very 
year when I wrote for Professor Edward Capps, 
then of the University of Chicago, a detailed 
seminary paper on The Nereid Ode, and for the 
twenty-five years since I have been gathering 


fz 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


material about Sappho. We must be careful 
not to accept as certainly Sappho’s, especially 
the un-Sapphic idea of the last stanza, the 
restorations of Wilamowitz, Edmonds, and a 
host of other scholars, who have changed their 
own conjectures several times. Wilamowitz 
goes so far as to think that the words apply to 
Larichus, but most critics have restored them 
with reference to Charaxus. I give a version 
which I have based on Edmonds’ latest and 
revised text, taking a model from the stanza 
used by Tennyson in his Palace of Art. 

In offering a new translation of such songs 
as these it should be fully realized that no 
translation of a really beautiful poem can pos- 
sibly represent the original in any fair or com- 
plete fashion. Unfortunately languages differ; 
and in translating a single word of Sappho into 
a word of English which fairly represents its 
meaning, one may easily have lost the musical 
charm of the original, and still further he may 
have broken up the general charm or spirit 
which the word has because of its associations 
with the spirit of the whole song. It ought to 
be clear that in preserving the literal meanings 
of the words in a song the translator may be 
compelled to part in large measure with the 


[ 18 ] 


SAPPHO’S LIFE 


musical note that comes from assonance, allit- 
eration, and association; or again that in ren- 
dering the music as Swinburne could do, he may 
have diluted or even lost the real meaning and 
spirit of the poem; and finally that, though the 
spirit of the poem may be seized ever so effec- 
tively, the working out of the details of music 
and meaning may fail to respond to those of 
the original. Of course a slight measure of 
successful representation may be attained. But 
whatever poetical value anyone senses in these 
translations must be almost indefinitely height- 
ened by imagination, if the beauty, grace, and 
power of the original are to be realized. Why 
then translate at all? Well, just because of a 
desire to make an English reader share even in 
a small measure the pleasure the translator feels 
in the original and to furnish him with paths 
along which his imagination may lawfully climb 
toward the height reached by this strangely 
gifted woman’s pen. 


TO THE NEREIDS 


O at ye Nereids crowned with golden hawr 
My brother bring, back home, I pray. 

His heart’s true wish both good and fair 
Accomplished, every way. 


[19 | 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


May he for former errors make amend — 
If once to sin his feet did go — 
Become a joy, again, to every friend, 
A grief to every foe. 
O may our house through no man come to shame, 
O may he now be glad to bring 
Some share of honor to his sister’s name. 
Her heart with joy will sing. 
Some bitter words there were that passed his lip, — 
For me the wrath of love made fierce 
And him resentful, — just as he took ship, 
When to the quick did pierce 
My song-shaft sharp. He sought to crush my 
heart, — 
Not distant be the feasting day 
When civic welcome on his fellows’ part, 
Shall laugh all wrath away! 
And may a wife, if he desires, be found 
In wedlock due, with worthy rite — 
But as for thee, thou black-skinned female hound, 
Baleful and evil sprite, 
Set to the ground thy low malodorous snout 
And let my brother go his way 
Whilst thou, along thy low-lived paths, track out 
The trail of meaner prey. 
(D. M. R.) 


In this letter, handed perhaps to Charaxus 
on his return from Egypt, the tone is that of 


[ 20 ] 


SAPPHO’S LIFE 


reconciliation rather than that of rebuke, and 
the rebuke itself may be found in a fragment 
of another letter, if Edmonds’ restoration is 
- anywhere near the truth.» 


You seck the false and shun the true, 
And bid your friends go hang for you, 
And grieve me in your pride and say 
I bring you shame. Go, have your way, 
And flaunt me till you've had your fill; 
I have no fears and never will 

For the anger of a child. 

(EDMONDS) 


“Sappho,” or ‘‘Sapho,”’* as the name appears 
on vases and papyri, or “Psappho,” as coins 
and vases have it, or ‘‘Psappha,” as she herself 
spelled it in her soft Aeolic dialect, is perhaps 
a nom de plume, — the word meaning lapis laz- 
uli. According to Athenaeus *’ (who wrote at 
the beginning of the third century a.p.) she 
lived in the time of the father of Croesus, Alyat- 
tes, who reigned over Lydia from 628 to 560 B.c. 
Jeremiah, Nebuchadnezzar, and at Rome Tar- 
quinius Priscus were her contemporaries. Sui- 
das, a Greek lexicographer of the tenth century 
A.D., says that she flourished about the 42nd 
Olympiad (612-608 B.c.),38 along with Alcaeus and 
Stesichorus and Pittacus,*® (Pl. 2) the latter, one 


[ 21 | 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


of the seven wise men of Greece and lord of Les- 
bus.. This would indicate that she was then in 
her poetic prime. If so, she must have been born 
about 630 B.c. or earlier. Mackail dates her 
birth as far back as the middle of the seventh 
century. These early dates given above are 
amply confirmed by her explicit reference to 
Sardis and by her descriptions of the luxurious 
life of the Lydians (E.” 20, 38, 86, 130, etc.) 
which have lately been made so realistic by the 
American excavations with their finds of gold 
staters of Croesus, beautiful Lydian seals, 
jewelry, pottery, and inscriptions. 

In the seventh century after the founding of 
Naucratis, about 650 B.c., many Mytilenaeans 
migrated to Naucratis and engaged in trade in 
wine and other products.“ Among these was 
included, as Herodotus’ story shows, Sappho’s 
brother Charaxus; the mention of his name 
furnishes a further confirmation of the date we 
have assumed, and proves that Sappho lived at 
least after 572 B.c., the year of the accession to 
the throne of Egypt of Amasis, in whose reign 
Herodotus” says that Rhodopis flourished. 
This would make Sappho’s age at the time about 
sixty and justify the epithet of “old” which 
she applies to herself in the poem given in 


[ 22 ] 


SAPPHO’S LIFE 


Edmonds 99. Fragment 42 in Edmonds seems to 
say ‘age now causeth a thousand twisted wrin- 
kles to make their track along my face.’”’* Sto- 
baeus “ tells how one evening over the wine 
Solon’s nephew, Execestides, sang to him a song 
by Sappho, and Solon requested him to teach it 
to him that he might learn it before he died. 
Now Solon was one of the seven to whom 
Pittacus also belonged. He died about 559 B.C. 
at the age of eighty, and the incident serves to 
indicate that Sappho’s poems were coming into 
vogue among the young Athenians in Solon’s 
old age. 

Sappho’s birthplace was Eresus,” the birth- 
place also of Aristotle’s famous pupil Theo- 
phrastus. She early moved to Mytilene (Pl. 3), 
chief city of Lesbus. Lesbus had been renowned 
for lovely ladies from Homer’s day, when beauty 
contests were held there, as they have been 
down to the present time. It had also been 
famous from early days for its sweet wine. 
Many an ancient author speaks of this whole- 
some tipple, and to-day a thirsty traveller is 
delighted to sit in a café on the quay and drink 
a glass of the fine modern xpact ris Murvanrns. 

Lesbus was so near to Lydia that it could not 
help absorbing some of the Ionian and Lydian 


[231 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


luxury. No one has better described the 
position of Lesbus in Greek literature than 
Symonds: 


‘For a certain space of time the Aeolians occu- 
pied the very foreground of Greek literature, and 
blazed out with a brilliance of lyrical splendor that 
has never been surpassed. There seems to have 
been something passionate and intense in their 
temperament, which made the emotions of the 
Dorian and the Ionian feeble by comparison. 
Lesbos, the centre of Aeolian culture, was the 
island of overmastering passions: the personality 
of the Greek race burned there with a fierce and 
steady flame of concentrated feeling. The energies 
which the Ionians divided between pleasure, poli- 
tics, trade, legislation, science, and the arts, and 
which the Dorians turned to war and statecraft and 
social economy, were restrained by the Aeolians 
within the sphere of individual emotions, ready to 
burst forth volcanically. Nowhere in any age of 
Greek history, or in any part of Hellas, did the love 
of physical beauty, the sensibility to radiant scenes 
of nature, the consuming fervor of personal feeling, 
assume such grand proportions and receive so illus. 
trious an expression as they did in Lesbos. At 
first this passion blossomed into the most exquisite 
lyrical poetry that the world has known; this was 
the flower-time of the Aeolians, their brief and 
brilliant spring. But the fruit it bore was bitter 
and rotten. Lesbos became a byword for corrup- 
tion. The passions which for a moment had flamed 
into the gorgeousness of art, burning their envelope 
of words and images, remained a mere furnace of 
sensuality, from which no expression of the divine 


[24 ] 


SAPPHO’S LIFE 


in human life could be expected. In this the Lesbian 
poets were not unlike the Provencal troubadours, 
who made a literature of love, or the Venetian 
painters, who based their art upon the beauty of 
color, the voluptuous charms of the flesh. In each 
case the motive of enthusiastic passion sufficed to 
produce a dazzling result. But as soon as its fresh- 
ness was exhausted there was nothing left for art to 
live on, and mere decadence to sensuality ensued.” 

“Several circumstances contributed to aid the 
development of lyric poetry in Lesbos. The cus- 
toms of the Aeolians permitted more social and 
domestic freedom than was common in Greece. 
Aeolian women were not confined to the harem 
like Ionians, or subjected to the rigorous discipline 
of the Spartans. While mixing freely with male 
society, they were highly educated, and accustomed 
to express their sentiments to an extent unknown 
elsewhere in history — until, indeed, the present 
time. The Lesbian ladies applied themselves suc- 
cessfully to literature. They formed clubs for the 
cultivation of poetry and music. They studied the 
arts of beauty, and sought to refine metrical forms 
and diction. Nor did they confine themselves to 
the scientific side of art. Unrestrained by public 
opinion, and passionate for the beautiful, they 
cultivated their senses and emotions, and indulged 
their wildest passions. All the luxuries and ele- 
gancies of life which that climate and the rich 
valleys of Lesbos could afford were at their dis- 
posal; exquisite gardens, where the rose and hya- 
cinth spread perfume; river-beds ablaze with the 
oleander and wild pomegranate; olive-groves and 
fountains, where the cyclamen and violet flowered 
with feathery maiden-hair; pinetree-shadowed coves, 


p28] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


where they might bathe in the calm of a tideless 
sea; fruits such as only the southern sun and sea- 
wind can mature; marble cliffs, starred with jonquil 
and anemone in spring, aromatic with myrtle and 
lentisk and samphire and wild rosemary through 
all the months; nightingales that sang in May; 
temples dim with dusky gold and bright with 
ivory; statues and frescoes of heroic forms. In 
such scenes as these the Lesbian poets lived, and 
thought of love. When we read their poems, we 
seem to have the perfumes, colors, sounds, and 
lights of that luxurious land distilled in verse. 
Nor was a brief but biting winter wanting to give 
tone to their nerves, and, by contrast with the 
summer, to prevent the palling of so much luxury 
on sated senses. The voluptuousness of Aeolian 
poetry is not like that of Persian or Arabian art. 
It is Greek in its self-restraint, proportion, tact. 
We find nothing burdensome in its sweetness. All 
is so rhythmically and sublimely ordered in the 
poems of Sappho that supreme art lends solemnity 
and grandeur to the expression of unmitigated 
passion.” 


A young woman of good birth in such sur- 
roundings would be sure to have her love-affairs. 
When Sappho was at the height of her fame in 
young womanhood, the poet Alcaeus, her towns- 
man, was also in his glory. We are not told 
whether he was older or younger than she, but 
probably Sappho was the older and lived before 
the political disorders which led to her exile from 
Lesbus. Alcaeus was said, perhaps wrongly, to 


[26 ] 


SAPPHO’S LIFE 


be her lover. The story is based on the verses 
quoted by Aristotle in his Rhetoric,’ ‘pure 
Sappho, violet-weaving and gently smiling, I 
would fain tell you something did not shame 
prevent me,” to which Sappho replied, “If your 
desire were of things good or fair, and your 
tongue were not mixing a draught of ill words, 
then would not shame possess your eye, but 
you would make your plea outright” (Ed- 
monds). Tradition even in classic times repre- 
sented her as beloved by Anacreon also,** but 
the bard of Teos flourished at least fifty years 
after the Lesbian poetess. Archilochus and 
Hipponax, the famous iambic satiric poets, the 
former dead before Sappho was born, the latter 
born after she was dead, were also represented 
as her lovers by Diphilus,** the Athenian comic 
playwright in his play Sappho. But as Athe- 
naeus in the third century A.D. said, “I rather 
fancy he was joking.” 

Mackail says that “she was married and had 
one or more children,” and many of the new 
fragments, as well as Ovid, indicate this. A 
fragment long known says: 

I have a maid, a bonny maid, 


As dainty as the golden flowers, 
My darling Cleis. Were I paid 


27] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


All Lydia, and the lovely bowers 
Of Cyprus, ’*twould not buy my maid. 
(TucKER) 


Professor Prentice *® translates this fragment 
(E. 130), ‘there is a pretty little girl named 
Cleis whom I love,” etc., and says that it does 
not refer to her own daughter. But there is 
no word for love in the Greek passage, and the 
ancient interpretation of Maximus of Tyre ™ is 
preferable, especially as Cleis is definitely men- 
tioned by Suidas and as the name reappears as 
that of a young woman in another of the old 
fragments and in one of the new pieces. “The 
matter seems now to be settled by the recent 
discovery on a papyrus (about 200 A.D.) of a 
new late prose biography of Sappho which is 
so important a source for her life that a literal 
translation of it is here given, especially as it 
is not in Edmonds’ Lyra Graeca.® | 
“Sappho by birth was a Lesbian and of the 
city of Mytilene and her father was Scamandrus 
or according to some Scamandronymus. And 
she had three brothers, Eurygyius, Larichus, 
and the eldest, Charaxus, who sailed to Egypt 
and as an associate with a certain Doricha spent 
very much on her; but Sappho loved more 


[ 28 ] 


SAPPHO’S LIFE 


Larichus, who was young. She had a daughter 
Cleis with the same name as her own mother. 
She has been accused by some of being dis- 
orderly in character and of being a woman-lover. 
In shape she seems to have proved contemptible 
and ugly, for in complexion she was dark, and 
in stature she was very small; and the same 
has happened in the case of ... who was 
undersized.”’ 

The man whom Sappho married, she herself 
also being a person of some means, was said to 
be Cercylas, a man of great wealth from the 
island of ‘Andrus. Cercylas sounds like con- 
cocted comic chaff, but we can believe enough 
of the tradition to say that she was married. A 
Russian scholar *! made her a widow at thirty- 
five®® Thereafter she sought for love and 
companionship among the girls ‘whom she made 
members of her salon and instructed in the arts. 

Sappho must have had a wonderful person- 
ality or she could not have attracted so many pu- 
pils and companions whom she trained to chant 
or sing in the choruses for the marriage ceremony 
and for other occasions. She was president of 
the world’s first woman’s club. It was a thiasos 
or a kind of sacred sorority to which the mem- 
bers were bound by special ties and regulations. 


[ 29 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


We have a long list of the members who were 
her friends and pupils, not only from Lesbus 
but from Miletus, Colophon, Pamphylia, and 
even Salamis and Athens. For some of them 
she had an ardent passion. When they left her, 
she missed them terribly (E. 43, 44, 46). ‘‘Is 
it possible for any maid on earth to be far apart 
from the woman she loves?” She was so jeal- 
ous at times that she spited her wrath on her 
rivals, especially Gorgo and Andromeda. She 
“had enough of Gorgo,”’ and she scolds Atthis 
for having come to hate the thought of her and 
for flitting after Andromeda in her stead (E. 55, 
81). Suidas tells us that she had three com- 
panions or friends, Atthis, Telesippa, and Meg- 
ara, to whom she was slanderously declared to 
be attached by an impure affection; and that 
her pupils or disciples were Anagora (Anactoria) 
of Miletus, Gongyla (the dumpling) of Colo- 
phon, Euneica of Salamis. Ovid mentions 
Atthis, Cydro, and Anactoria, the name which 
Swinburne took for his poem in which he welded 
together many of Sappho’s fragments with fine 
expression and passionate thought. Maximus 
of Tyre (xxiv, 9) says: ‘‘What Alcibiades, 
Charmides, and Phaedrus were to Socrates, 
Gyrinna, Atthis and Anactoria were to Sappho, 


[ 30 ] 


SAPPHO’S LIFE 


and what his rival craftsmen, Prodicus, Gorgias, 
Thrasymachus and Protagoras were to Socra- 
tes, that Gorgo and Andromeda were to Sappho, 
who sometimes takes them to task and at others 
refutes them and dissembles with them exactly 
like Socrates’? (Edmonds). Philostratus in his 
Life of Apollonius of Tyana® tells of Sappho’s 
brilliant pupil Damophyla of Pamphylia who is 
said to have had girl-companions like Sappho 
and to have composed love-poems and hymns 
just as she did, with adaptations from the lec- 
tures of her professor. Her own fragments 
mention Anactoria, Atthis, Gongyla, Gyrinno 
(which perhaps means _ Little Tadpole), 
“Mnasidica, of fairer form than the dainty 
Gyrinno” (E. 115), and possibly Eranna.%? 
One fragment says, “Well did I teach Hero of 
Gyara, the fleetly-running maid” (E. 73). If 
this is the famous Hero of the Hero and Leander 
story so often pictured in Greek art and on coins 
of Abydus, Sappho knew the story of two king’s 
children who loved one another long before the 
days of the painter Apelles.** Sappho’s school 
of poetry in modern times has been prettily 
pictured in a painting by Hector Leroux (peT1s), 
but the best representation of what her school 
may have been is given by Alma Tadema (PI. 1) 


aie 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


in his academic and learned classical painting 
“Sappho” in the Walters’ Art Gallery in Balti- 
more. Archaic Greek inscriptions, of interest 
to the specialist in epigraphy, can be read on 
the marble seats of the theatre at Mytilene 
represented in the picture, — the names of Erinna 
of Telos, Gyrinno, Anactoria of Miletus, Atthis, 
Gongyla of Colophon, Dika (short for Mnasi- 
dica), and others. I quote the beautiful ap- 
preciation which Professor Gildersleeve has 
published: °° 


““A semi-circle of marble seats, veined and 
stained, a screen of olive trees that fling their 
branches against the sky, and against the sapphire 
seas, a singing man, a listening woman, whose 
listening is so intense that nothing else in the 
picture seems to listen — not the wreathed girl in 
flowered robe who stands by her and rests her hand 
familiarly on her shoulder. Not she, for though 
she holds a scroll in her other hand, the full face, 
the round eyes, show a soul that matches wreathed 
head and flowered robe. She is the pride of life. 
Nor she on the upper seat, who props her chin with 
her hand and partly hides her mouth with her fingers 
and lets her vision reach into the distance of her 
own musings. Nor her neighbor whose composed 
attitude is that of a regular church-goer who has 
learned the art of sitting still and thinking of 
nothing. Nor yet the remotest figure — she who 
has thrown her arms carelessly on the back of the 
seat and is looking out on the waters as if they 


[a325 | 


SAPPHO’S LIFE 


would bring her something. A critic tells us that 
the object of the poet is to enlist Sappho’s support 
in a political scheme of which he is the leader, if 
not the chief prophet, and he has come to Sappho’s 
school in Lesbos with the hope of securing another 
voice and other songs to advocate the views of his 
party. The critic seems to have been in the artist’s 
secret, and yet Alma Tadema painted better than 
he knew. Alkaios is not trying to win Sappho’s 
help in campaign lyrics. The young poet is singing 
to the priestess of the Muses a new song with a 
new rhythm, and as she hears it, she feels that 
there is a strain of balanced strength in it she has 
not reached: it is the first revelation to her of the 
rhythm that masters her own. True, when Alkaios 
afterwards sought not her help in politics, but her 
heart in love, and wooed her in that rhythm, she 
too had caught the music and answered him in his 
own music.” 


[33] 


Ill. THE LEGENDARY FRINGE 


SApPHO’S PHYSICAL APPEARANCE, THE PHAON 
Story, THE VicE IDEA 


O FAR we have been dealing with 
ascertained facts, reasonable inferences as 
to other facts, and strong probabilities: 

in a word, with the real Sappho so far as her 
history can be made out with at least some 
measure of certainty. There is, however, a 
legendary fringe attaching to every great out- 
standing personality. It is one of the penalties 
of personal or literary greatness to become the 
centre of fanciful stories, personal detraction, 
misrepresentation, and wild legends often con- 
ceived in a most grotesque and improbable 
fashion. To all this Sappho is no exception. 
First the question will be discussed whether she 
was a dwarf. The famous and far-flung story 
of Phaon and the Leucadian Leap will then 
claim our mention, and thirdly a word must be 
said about her character. 

According to Damocharis® Sappho had a 
beautiful face and bright eyes. The famous 


L 34 | 


THE LEGENDARY FRINGE 


line of Alcaeus refers to her gentle smile. So 
Burns in his Pastoral Poetry says, ‘In thy sweet 
voice, Barbauld, survives even Sappho’s flame.” 
Plato calls her beautiful as does many another 
writer, though the epithet may refer, as Maximus 
of Tyre says, to the beauty of her lyrics, one of 
which practically says long before Goldsmith, 
“handsome is that handsome does” (E. 58). 
The word which Alcaeus employs does not nec- 
essarily mean that she had violet tresses as 
Edmonds translates it. It has generally been 
rendered as violet-weaving, and it is to be re- 
gretted that P. N. Ure without evidence, in his 
excellent book entitled The Greek Renaissance 
(London, 1921), tells us that Sappho had black 
hair, even if Mrs. Browning does speak of 
“Sappho, with that gloriole of ebon hair on 
calméd brows.” ‘Tall blondes were popular in 
ancient days and Sappho was neither divinely 
tall nor most divinely fair. But the ancient 
busts, the representations of her as full-sized, 
on coins of Lesbus and on many Greek vases, 
belie the idea of the rhetorical Maximus of 
Tyre who in the second century A.D. labelled 
her “small and dark,” an idea that occurs also 
in the new papyrus which we have already 
quoted. Some have even interpreted her name 


[35] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


as derived from Wades, “Little Pebble,” 1e., 
short of stature. Undoubtedly the epithet of 
Maximus reflects the Roman perverted idea 
which finds expression in Ovid’s apology 
for her appearance. The scholiast on Lucian’s 
Portraits ™ is repeating the same source when 
he says “ physically, Sappho was very ill- 
favored, being small and dark, like a nightingale 
with ill-shapen wings enfolding a tiny body.” 
The famous fragment, 


This little creature, four feet high, 
Cannot hope to touch the sky, 


(EpDMoNDs) 


may not refer to Sappho, and if it does, we must 
remember, that Edmonds’ new reading is doubt- 
ful. Perhaps Horace was thinking of this line 
when he wrote™ 


sublimi feriam sidera vertice, 


which recalls Tennyson’s 
Old Horace! I will strike, said he, 
The stars with head sublime. 


(EPILOGUE) 


Edmonds forces the meaning of the Greek to 
get even four feet out of his new restoration. 


[ 36 | 


THE LEGENDARY FRINGE 


Sappho was surely taller than that and there is 
no evidence earlier than Roman days to justify 
even Swinburne’s 


The small dark body’s Lesbian loveliness 
That held the fire eternal. 


In any case Sappho was no dwarf, otherwise 
her deformity would not have escaped the 
notice of the Athenian comic mud-slingers and 
scandal-mongers who did so much to spoil her 
good name. Such is the traditional, not the 
real, human, historical Sappho of the sixth 
century B.C. 

The story of Sappho’s love for Phaon is 
patently mythological, as indicated by the 
legend of his transformation by Aphrodite from 
an old man into a handsome youth. There can 
be only slight historic foundation for connect- 
ing Sappho with him and making Sicily the 
scene of their first meeting. An inscription on 
the Parian marble in Oxford says: “When Cri- 
tius the First was archon at Athens Sappho 
fled from Mytilene and sailed to Sicily.” The 
date is uncertain as there is a lacuna in the 
inscription, but it is between 604 and 594 B.C., 
perhaps about 598. The recently discovered 
hymn to Hera, Longing for Lesbus, lends support 


374 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


to this story of exile. She may have been 
banished by Pittacus for engaging like Alcaeus 
in political intrigues. She probably returned 
to Lesbus under the amnesty of 581, as her grave 
is often mentioned as in Lesbus. There is even 
a tradition preserved by the English traveller 
Pococke that her own sepulchral urn was once 
in the Turkish mosque of the castle of Mytilene. 
We have already cited one or two fragments 
which seem to show that she had more than 
reached middle age. She was old enough to feel 
that she should not re-marry, especially if she 
had to choose one younger than herself.* Frag- 
ment (E. 99) is in the style of Shakespeare’s 
“Crabbed age and youth cannot live together.” 
Nowhere in her poems is there any evidence © 
that she committed suicide for love of Phaon, 
but as her name has started this legend we must 
speak of it in some detail. The famous frag- 
ment (E. 108), to judge from the context 
where it is quoted in connection with Socrates’ 
death, seems to give her last words: “It is 
not right that there be mourning in the house 
of poetry; this befits us not.” 

Now let us discuss the supposititious love 
affair, to which we have referred, about which 
I share the ancient and modern Lesbian doubt. 


[ 38 ] 


THE LEGENDARY FRINGE 


The ancients tell of Sappho’s unrequited love 
for the ferryman prototype of St. Christopher, 
the beautiful Phaon. The story is well given 
in Servius’ précis of Turpilius’ Latin paraphrase 
of Menander, * though he does not mention 
Sappho by name: “Phaon, who was a ferry- 
man plying for hire between Lesbus (others 
say he was from Chios ®) and the mainland, 
one day ferried over for nothing the God- 
dess Venus in the guise of an old woman, and 
received from her for the service an alabaster 
box of unguent, the daily use of which made 
women fall in love with him. Among those who 
did so was one who in her disappointment is 
said to have thrown herself from Mount Leu- 
cates, and from this came the custom now in 
vogue of hiring people once a year to throw them- 
selves from that place into the sea.”’ (Edmonds). 
But neither Phaon nor anything connected with 
Phaon is mentioned in any of Sappho’s frag- 
ments, though Francis Fawkes and others have 
connected Phaon’s name with the Hymn to | 
Aphrodite. A writer of the second century B.C., 
Palaephatus,® makes the very inconsistent 
statement that “this is the Phaon in whose 
honor as a lover many a song has been written 
by Sappho.” Nor is there any allusion to 


[39 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


Sappho’s curing her passion by leaping from the 
white Leucadian cliff. Athenaeus ® and Suidas 
go so far as to say that the victim was another 
Sappho, and even in the late lists of Leucadian 
leapers, in Photius, Sappho is not included. 
Who first conjured up a Phaon, we know not, 
but the story belongs to folk-lore, and Phaon 
appears on Greek vases of the time and style 
of Meidias, who is dated by most archaeolo- 
gists toward the end of the fifth century B.c., 
much earlier than Plato’s play (392 B.c.). His 
indifference to the many ladies who are making 
love to him is well portrayed, especially on 
vases (Pl. 4,5) in Florence and Palermo (p. 107) ®. 
The fair Phaon, Aphrodite’s shining star (¢4wv = 
shining), is only another avatar of Adonis, who 
appears in similar style on similar vases, 
one even found in the same grave with 
a Phaon vase. Phaon, I believe, is as 
old as the fifth century; but the story of 
Sappho’s leap transferred to the white cliffs in 
the south of the white island of Leucas, 
the modern Cape Ducato, is later. The Cape 
is also called Santa Maura, some two hundred 
feet high, and even to-day this rock of despera- 
tion is haunted by Sappho’s ghost and known as 
Sappho’s Leap (Pl. 6). The legend of the Les- 


[ 40 | 


THE LEGENDARY FRINGE 


bian’s leap first occurs in the poet of the Old 
Comedy, Plato, who wrote the play called Phaon. 
Later in the New Comedy, Menander was proba- 
bly adorning an old tale to point a contemporary 
moral when he produced his Leucadia of which 
Turpilius, a contemporary of Terence, wrote a 
Latin paraphrase. A few anapaestic lines are 
preserved by Strabo, who speaks of the Leuca- 
dian Cliff: 

Where Sappho ’tis said the first of the world 

In her furious chase of Phaon so haughty 


All maddened with longing plunged down fromthe height 


Of the shimmering rock. 
(D. M. R,) 


Antiphanes probably told the story in both his 
Leucadius and his Phaon; and Cratinus must 
have mentioned Phaon, for Athenaeus °° tells us 
that he told how Aphrodite, beloved by Phaon, 
concealed him among the fair wild lettuce, just 
as other writers say Adonis was hidden. 

The practice of abandoned lovers taking the 
leap may possibly have been known even in 
Sappho’s day, for Stesichorus tells of a girl 
throwing herself from a cliff near Leucas be- 
cause a youth had scorned her. By the time 
of Anacreon (550 B.c.), the leap had become the 


[ 41 J 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


symbol of a love passion that could no longer 
be borne; “Lifted up from the Leucadian rock, 
I dive into the hoary wave, drunk with Love.” 
It is the same old story told at every summer 
resort about some place called Lover’s Leap, but 
in Anacreon nothing is said about drowning. 
And legend” says that sometimes wings or 
feathers were attached to the person jumping 
off the cliff to lighten the fall. In any case the 
leap, legendary or not, was not suicide but a 
desperate remedy, killing or curing, for hopeless 
love. We hear of many who survived the 
expiatory leap. 

In a stucco fresco” (Pl. 7) (not later than 4o 
A.D.) in the half dome of the apse at one end of the 
underground building in Rome near the Porta 
Maggiore, which served for the cult of some se- 
cret neo-Pythagorean sect or possibly as a temple 
of the Muses or possibly only as the under- 
ground summer abode of an enthusiast over Greek 
poets like the newly discovered underground 
rooms of the Homeric enthusiast at Pompeii, 
we have possibly an illustration of the Leuca- 
dian leap, at least in symbolism, as personifying 
the parting of the image of the soul. Sappho, 
lyre in hand, is springing from the misty cliff, 
which Ausonius mentions in his sixth idyl (cf. 


[ 42 ] 


THE LEGENDARY FRINGE 


p. 131), and below in the sea is a Triton spread- 
ing out a garment to break her fall. Opposite 
on a height stands Apollo, who had a temple 
on the spot and to whom according to Ovid’s 
Fifteenth Heroic Epistle Sappho promised to 
dedicate her lyre if he was propitious. Ovid is 
the first writer from whom we have the story in 
detail. It was often used in later literature, 
as we shall see in a succeeding chapter. 
Many know Pope’s translation of Ovid,” but 
if my readers desire to read an imaginative and 
humorous circumstantial account of Sappho’s 
leap, on which the modern popular idea is 
mostly based, they may find it in Addison’s 
Spectator, No. 233, November 27, 1711. . 

The moral purity of Sappho shines in its own 
light. She expresses herself, no doubt, in very 
passionate language, but passionate purity is a 
finer article than the purity of prudery, and 
Sappho’s passionate expressions are always 
under the control of her art. A woman of bad 
character and certainly a woman of such a 
variety of bad character as scandal (chp sas 
and note 147) has attributed to Sappho might 
express herself passionately and might run on 
indefinitely with erotic imagery. But Sappho 
is never erotic. There is no language to be 


[ 43 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


found in her songs which a pure woman might 
not use, and it would be practically impossible 
for a bad woman to subject her expressions to 
the marvellous niceties of rhythm, accent, and 
meaning which Sappho everywhere exhibits. 
Immorality and loss of self-control never subject 
themselves to perfect literary and artistic taste. 
It is against the nature of things that a woman 
who has given herself up to unnatural and in- 
ordinate practices which defy the moral instinct 
and throw the soul into disorder, practices which 
harden and petrify the soul, should be able to 
write in perfect obedience to the laws of vocal 
harmony, imaginative portrayal, and arrange- 
ment of the details of thought. The nature of 
things does not admit of such an inconsistency. 
Sappho’s love for flowers, moreover, affords 
another luminous testimony. A bad woman as 
well as a pure woman might love roses, but a 
bad woman does not love the small and hidden 
wild flowers of the field, the dainty anthrysc 
and the clover, as Sappho did. There is, more- 
over, in a life of vice something narrowing as 
well as coarsening. An imagination which like 
Sappho’s sees in a single vision the moonlight 
sweeping the sea, breaking across the shore and 
illuminating wide stretches of landscape with 


[ 44 ] 


THE LEGENDARY FRINGE 


life-giving light, and in the midst of all this far- 
spreading glory sees and personifies the spirit 
of the night, listening to the moanings of home- 
sickness and repeating them with far-flung voice 
to those across the sea, — an imagination with 
such a marvellous range as this is never given 
to the child of sodden vice. Here once more is 
a woman who made it her life business to adorn 
and even to glorify lawful wedlock, and carried 
on this occupation in a sympathetic and de- 
lightful strain of dance and song which, however 
passionate in their expression, contain no im- 
pure words. It is simply unthinkable that such 
a woman should be perpetually destroying the 
very foundations of her own ideals. 


[45] 


IV. THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


HE NUMBER of poems or fragments 

(Pl. 8) of Sappho has increased from a 
hundred and twenty in Volger’s edition 

(1810) toa hundred and ninety-one in Edmonds. 
“Though few they are roses,’”’ and a marvellous 
vitality and mentality permeates their mangled 
and marred members. Sappho probably had 
her own collection of her poems, but they were 
surely not published in a large edition as has 
sometimes been said. An introductory poem is 
possibly preserved on an Attic vase, but even 
of that we cannot be sure. In Roman days 
there were two editions, one arranged according 
to subject and the other according to metre, 
both based on some Alexandrian source much 
earlier than the book On the Metres of Sappho, 
published by Dracon of Stratonicea about 
180 A.D. Sappho wrote many forms of litera- 
ture in many different metres, cult hymns or 
odes, marriage songs, scolia or drinking songs, 
songs of love and friendship, besides her nine 
books of lyrics, epigrams, elegies, none of which 
has survived or been described by any other 


L 46 ] 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


author, iambics, monodies, and funeral songs 
like that for Adonis. The Athenian dramatists 
even pictured her as proposing puzzles and 
riddles. Colombarius, as quoted by Meursius in 
his notes on Hesychius, called Sappho the poet- 
ess of the Trojans, the meaning of which has 
recently been made clear by the discovery of the 
Marriage of Hecior and Andromache. 

The first poem is the Ode to Aphrodite which 
was cited by Dionysius of Halicarnassus for its 
finished and brilliant style, — the style used by 
Euripides among the tragedians and by Isocrates 
among the orators. Though the rhythm, ardor, 
terseness, and noble simplicity can be given in no 
translation,” nearly every lover of Greek lyrics 
has tried his hand at it. Ambrose Philips made 
thirty-four words out of the first stanza which 
in the Greek has only sixteen; Merivale found 
forty-three words necessary; but Tucker and 
Leonard with strict compression and simplicity 
manage to translate with twenty-three; Gilder- 
sleeve in an unpublished version which I also 
quote here, and Fairclough use twenty-four: 

BROIWERED-THRONED goddess, O Aphrodite, 

Child of Zeus, craft-weaving, I do beseech thee, 

Do not crush my soul with distress and sorrow, 

Wholly my mistress. 


[ 47] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


Rather come, if ever didst come aforetime, 

Hearkening to my cry from afar in mercy; 

And didst leave the palace of thine own father 
Golden and gorgeous; 


And didst yoke thy chariot, swift thy sparrows 
Drew thee, beauteous sparrows, to earth’s dark 
surface, 
Moving quick their wings from the height of heaven 
Through the mid ether. 


Soon their journey’s end was attained and smiling 
Blessed goddess, smiling with heavenly visage, 
Thou didst ask of me what it was I suffer’d, 

Why I invoked thee, 


What it was I wished to receive of all things, 
Maddened in my soul, ‘Who is he thou seekest, 
Whom shall I ensnare for my darling S appho ? 

Who 1s it grieves thee?’ 


‘Nay, if thou but flee he will soon pursue thee, 
If he get no presents, he'll give thee presents, 
If thou love him not, he will love thee quickly, 
E’en if thou wilt not.’ 
Come then now again and relieve me, goddess, 
From my carking cares and whate’er my spirit 
Longeth for accomplish, and on my side do 
Battle, my mistress; 
(GILDERSLEEVE) 


or, with the translation of doves for sparrows: 
[ 48 ] 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


GuILE-wEAVvinG child of Zeus, who art 
Immortal, throned in radiance, spare, 
O Queen of Love, to break my heart 
With grief and care. 
But hither come, as thou of old, 
When my voice reached thine ear afar, 
Didst leave thy father’s hall of gold, 
And yoke thy car, 
And through mid air their whirring wing 
Thy bonny doves did swiftly ply 
O’er the dark earth, and thee did bring 
Down from the sky. 
Right soon they came, and thou, blest Queen, 
A smile upon thy face divine, 
Didst ask what ail’d me, what might mean 
That call of mine. 
‘What would’ st thou have, with heart on fire, 
Sappho?’ thou saidst. ‘Whom pray’st thou me 
To win for thee to fond desire? 
Who wrongeth thee? 
Soon shall he seek, who now doth shun; 
Who scorns thy gifts, shall gifts bestow; 
Who loves thee not, shall love anon, 
Wiilt thou or no.’ 
So come thou now, and set me free 
From carking cares; bring to full end 
My heart’s desire; thyself O be 
My stay and friend! 
(Tucker) ™ 


[ 49 | 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


Here follow two translations where ‘“‘he”’ is 
changed to ‘‘she” in the sixth stanza. The 
controversy as to the sex of the belovéd turns 
on the admission or omission of a single letter 
in the Greek. 


DEATHLESS A phrodite, throned in flowers, 

Daughter of Zeus, O terrible enchantress, 

With this sorrow, with this anguish, break my spirit, 
Lady, not longer ! 


Hear anew the voice! O hear and listen! 

Come, as in that island dawn thou camest, 

Billowing in thy yokéd car to Sappho 
Forth from thy father’s 


Golden house in pity! . . . . I remember: 

Fleet and fair thy sparrows drew thee, beating 

Fast their wings above the dusky harvests, 
Down the pale heavens, 


Lighting anon! And thou, O blest and brightest, 

Smiling with immortal eyelids, asked me: 

‘Maiden, what betideth thee? Or wherefore 
Callest upon me? 


What is hers the longing more than others, 

Here in this mad heart? And who the lovely 

One beloved thou wouldst lure to loving? 
Sappho, who wrongs thee?’ 


[ 50 ] 


PUB VaR LNiGions OFBen s:A PPP FEL © 


‘See, if now she flies, she soon must follow; 

Yes, if spurning gifts, she soon must offer; 

Yes, if loving not, she soon must love thee, 
Howso unwilling. . . 


Come again to me! O now! Release me! 
End the great pang! And all my heart desireth 
Now of fulfilment, fulfil! O Aphrodite, 
Fight by my shoulder! 
(W. E. Leonarp, unpublished) 


Ricuty throned, O deathless one, Aphrodite, 

Child of Zeus, enchantress-queen, I beseech thee 

Let not grief nor harrowing anguish master, 
Lady, my spirit. 


Ah! come hither. Erstwhile indeed thou heardest 
When afar my sorrowful cry of mourning 
Smote thine ears, and then from thy father’s 
mansions 
Golden thou camest, 


Driving forth thy chariot, and fair birds bore thee 

Speeding onward over the earth's dark shadows, 

Waving oft their shimmering plumes thro’ heaven’s 
Ether encircling. 


Quickly drew they nigh me, and thou, blest presence, 

Sweetest smile divine on thy face immortal, 

Thou didst seek what sorrow was mine to suffer, 
Wherefore I called thee. 


[i524 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


What my soul, too, craved with intensest yearning, 

Frenzy’s fire enkindling. ‘Now whom,’ thou criest, 

‘“Wouldst thou fain see led to thy love, or who, my 
Sappho, would wrong thee?’ 


‘Though she flees thee now, yet she soon shall woo 
thee, 
Though thy gifts she scorneth, she soon shall bring 
gifts; 
Though she loves thee not, yet she soon shall love thee, 
Yea, though unwilling.’ 


Come, ah! come again, and from bitter anguish 

Free thy servant. All that my heart is craving, 

That fulfil, O goddess. Thyself, my champion, 
Aid in this conflict. 


(H. RusHtTon FarrcLoucn) 


The second ode, quoted in a mutilated con- 
dition by the treatise On the Sublime, is even 
more difficult to translate. As Wordsworth 
says, here 


the Lesbian Maid 
With finest touch of passion swayed 
Her own Aeolian lute. 


In its rich Aeolian dialect the ode glows with 
true Greek fire. Sappho’s words are clear but 
far from cold. They are a sea of glass, but a 


[ 52 ] 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


sea of glass mingled with fire such as the Patmos 
seer saw from his island not far from Sappho’s 
Lesbian home. They enable us to understand 
why Byron in Don Juan speaks of “the isles of 
Greece where burning Sappho loved and sung.” 
This is what Swinburne means, when he speaks 
of the fire eternal and in his Sapphics says that 
about her “‘ shone a light of fire as a crown for 
ever.” We know from Plutarch” that an 
ancient physician, Erasistratus, included this 
ode (which has influenced realistic descriptions 
of passion from Euripides and Theocritus to 
Swinburne and Sara Teasdale) in his book 
of diagnoses as a compendium of all the symp- 
toms of corroding emotions. He applied this 
psychological test whenever Antiochus looked on 
Stratonice. ‘‘There appeared in the case of 
Antiochus all those symptoms which Sappho 
mentions: the choking of the voice, the feverish 
blush, the obscuring of vision, profuse sweat, 
disordered and tumultuous pulse and finally, 
when he was completely overcome, bewilder- 
ment, amazement and pallor.” Perhaps Sappho 
was influenced by Homer’s ” description of fear 
and she herself surely suggested such symptoms 
to Lucretius.”7 We must regard the ode prima- 
rily as a literary product, but its pathological 


[53 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


picture of passion is hardly secondary. Even 
if the symptoms seem appalling to our cold and 
unexpressive northern blood, we must remember 
that this physical perturbation, as Tucker calls 
it, was in no way strange to the ancients. Gil- 
dersleeve put it well in his unpublished lecture 
on Sappho, which he so kindly placed at my 
disposal and to which I am greatly indebted: 
“if a Greek melted, he melted with a fervent 
heat, and if this is true of the average Greek 
how much more was it true of an Aeolian and 
an Aeolian woman, and of Sappho most Aeolian 
of all.’ Byron refers to this ode when he says 
in Don Juan: 


Catullus scarcely has a decent poem, 
I don’t think Sappho’s Ode a good example, 
Although Longinus tells us there is no hymn 
Where the sublime soars forth on wings more ample. 


With regard to Catullus’ rendering (LI), Swin- 
burne in his Notes on Poems and Reviews, 
speaking of his poem Anactoria, says: “‘Catullus 
translated or as his countrymen would now say 
‘traduced’ the Ode to Anactoria; a more beau- 
tiful translation there never was and will never 
be; but compared with the Greek, it is colour- 
less and bloodless, puffed out by additions and 


[ 54 | 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


enfeebled by alterations. Let anyone set against 
each other the two first stanzas, Latin and Greek, 
and pronounce . . . Where Catullus failed I could 
not hope to succeed; I tried instead to repro- 
duce in a diluted and dilated form the spirit 
of a poem which could not be reproduced in 
the body.” 

Tennyson has given the best paraphrase in 
Eleanore: 

I watcu thy grace; and in its place 

My heart a charmed slumber keeps, 

While I muse upon thy face; 
And a languid fire creeps 

Thro’ my veins to all my frame, 
Dissolvingly and slowly: soon 

From thy rose-red lips my name 
Floweth; and then, as in a swoon, 
With dinning sound my ears are rife, 

My tremulous tongue faltereth, 

I lose my color, I lose my breath, 

I drink the cup of a costly death, 

Brimm’d with delirious draughts of warmest life. 

I die with my delight, before 
I hear what I would hear from thee. 

The following version I have based mainly on 
Edmonds’ recent text,’ with a conjectural resto- 
ration of the last stanza, of which only a few 
words are preserved in the Greek: 


[55] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


O LIFE divine! to sit before 

Thee while thy liquid laughter flows 
Melodious, and to listen close 

To rippling notes from Love’s full score. 


O music of thy lovely speech! 

My rapid heart beats fast and high, 
My tongue-tied soul can only sigh, 
And strive for words 1t cannot reach. 


O sudden subtly-running fire! 

My ears with dinning ringing sing, 
My sight is lost, a blinded thing, 
Eyes, hearing, speech, in love expire, 


My face pale-green, like wilted grass 

Wet by the dew and evening breeze, 

Yea, my whole body tremblings seize, 
Sweat bathes me, Death nearby doth pass, 


Such thrilling swoon, ecstatic death 
Is for the gods, but not for me, 
My beggar words are naught to thee, 
Far-off thy laugh and perfumed breath. 
(D.M.R.) 
As J. A. K. Thomson says in his recent fas- 


cinating book Greeks and Barbarians (London 
and New York, 1921), “Sappho, in the most 
famous of her odes, says that love makes her 
‘sweat’ with agony and look ‘greener than 


[ 56 ] 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


grass.’ Perhaps she did not turn quite so green 
as that, although (commentators nobly observe) 
she would be of an olive complexion and had 
never seen British grass. But, even if it con- 
tain a trace of artistic exaggeration, the ode as 
a whole is perhaps the most convincing love- 
poem ever written. It breathes veracity. It 
has an intoxicating beauty of sound and sug- 
gestion, and it is as exact as a physiological 
treatise. The Greeks can do that kind of thing. 
Somehow we either overdo the ‘beauty’ or we 
overdo the physiology. The weakness of the 
Barbarian, said they, is that he never hits the 
mean. But the Greek poet seems to do it every 
time. We may beat them at other things, but 
not at that. And they do it with so little effort; 
sometimes, it might happen, with none at all.” 

The passion of love is the supreme subject of 
Sappho’s songs, as shown by these first two and 
many a short fragment, as for example (E. 81) 
where Love is called for the first time in liter- 
ature ‘‘sweet-bitter.” Some scholars have 
credited it to the much later Posidippus, but 
he and Meleager took the word from Sappho, 
though it may not have been original even with 
her. Sappho’s order of the compound word is 
generally reversed in translation, but Sir Edwin 


[57] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


b) 


Arnold says “‘sweetly bitter, sadly dear,’ and 
Swinburne in Tristram of Lyonesse speaks of 
“Sweet Love, that are so bitter.’ Tennyson 
also has the same order in Lancelot and Elaine 
(pp. 205-206). To Sappho love is a second death, 
and in the second ode death itself seems not 
very far away. The Greek words for swooning 
are mostly metaphors from death, and so we 
are not surprised when we read that like death 
love relaxes every limb and sweeps one away in 
its giddy swirling, a sweet-bitter resistless wild 
beast. Here is Sir Sidney Colvin’s translation 
(John Keats, 1917, p. 332): “Love the 
limb-loosener, the bitter-sweet torment, the 
wild beast there is no withstanding, never 
harried a more helpless victim.” Another 
fragment (E. 54) also shows the power of love: 


Love tossed my heart as the wind 
That descends on the mountain oaks. 
(EDMONDs) 


Sappho’s range of subjects is much greater 
than the personal emotions of love, though very 
personal and individual feelings predominate. 
She touches almost every field of human ex- 
perience, so that there is much in her scant frag- 
ments to bring her near to us. The wail against 


[58 ] 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


ingratitude comes home to those high-strung 
natures who do good to others but are sensitive 
to every wrong when they have the unfortunate 
experience of learning that one’s friends are 
sometimes one’s own worst enemies. ‘‘ Those 
harm me most. by whom I have done well” 
(Mackail). But she is not one of those who 
bear a grudge long, her heart is for peace. One 
of the few ethical fragments, as Mackail says, 
“is a speech of delicate self-abasement, spoken 
with the effect of a catch in the voice and 
tears behind the eyes;”’ ‘No rancour in this 
breast runs wild, I have the heart of a child.” 
Sappho’s love of sermonizing is seen in her 
commandment: “when anger swells in the 
heart, restrain the idly barking tongue.” From 
Aristotle’s Rhetoric Edmonds (91) reconstructs 
another fragment: 


Death is an ill; the Gods at least think so, 
Or else themselves had perished long ago. 


In another fragment of a different nature (E. 
120) we read: “Stand up, look me in the face 
as friend to friend and unveil the charm that 
is in thy eyes.” In other fragments we enter 
a Lesbian lady’s home and see woman’s love 
of dress, —no short skirt for her, for they 


[59 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


‘wrapped her all around with soft cambric” 
(E. 105). “A motley gown of fair Lydian work 
reached down to her feet”? (E. 20), or, if we 
believe Pollux (VII. 93), it is the Greek love of 
fine shoes. No Lesbian butchery for her tender 
feet, but she must wear soft luxurious Lydian 
slippers: “A broidered strap of fair Lydian 
work covered her feet.’”’ Punning on the name 
of Timas (precious), another fragment, which 
perhaps refers to a statue of Aphrodite in 
Sappho’s home, seems to dote on fancy hand- 
kerchiefs; ‘‘and hanging on either side thy face 
the purple handkerchief which Timas sent for 
thee from Phocaea, a precious gift from a pre- 
cious giver’ (E. 87).79 The fragment (E. 21), 
“shot with a thousand hues,” refers to dress 
rather than to the rainbow. The sight of 
beautiful gowns thrilled her: ‘‘Come you back, 
my rosebud Gongyla, in your milk-white gown.” 
Again she says: ‘‘Many are the golden brace- 
lets and the purple robes, aye and the fine 
smooth broideries, indeed a richly varied bride- 
gift; and without number also are the silver 
goblets and the ornaments of ivory” (E. 66). 
She coined new words for women; she calls the 
chest in which women keep their perfumes and 
like things a gruté or hutch (E. 180). Again 


[ 60 | 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


she uses (E. 179) the word Beudos for a short 
diaphanous frock or blouse. She is the first to 
use the word Chlamys, where she speaks of Love 
as “coming from Heaven and throwing off his 
purple mantle” (E. 69). Blondes were much 
admired among the fair-haired Lesbians, though 
Sappho herself was a brunette, and so she her- 
self mentions (E. 189) a kind of box-wood or 
scytharium-wood with which women dye their 
hair a golden color. She is fond of cassia and 
frankincense (E. 66), and she dotes on myrrh 
and royal perfumes (E. 83). She rebukes the 
foolish girl who prides herself on her ring.°? 
With “a keen swift flicker of woman’s jealousy,” 
and well acquainted with the philosophy of 
clothes and with the new Ionic dresses intro- 
duced into Lesbus during her own lifetime 
at the beginning of the sixth century B.C. 
from Asia Minor, she jests about her rival 
Andromeda, the country girl who knows not 
how to manage the train of her new gown a 
(E. 98): 
What rustic hoyden ever charmed the soul, 
That round her ankles could not kilt her coats! 


(THomas Davipson in Warner's Library 
of the World’s Best Literature) 


[ 61] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


There is an intimate love of the loveliness of 
nature in Sappho, as we should expect of one 
resident on an island under Ionian skies where, 
as Herodotus (I. 142) says, “the climate and 
seasons are the most beautiful of any cities in 
the world.” “The many garlanded earth puts 
on her broidery” (E. 133). “Thus of old 
did the dainty feet of Cretan maidens dance 
pat to the music beside some lovely altar, 
pressing the soft smooth bloom of the grass 
(E. 114). As Thomas Davidson has so well 
said: “every hour of the day comes to 
Sappho with a fresh surprise.” We lie down for 
a noonday siesta in ‘‘a murmurous, blossomy 
June,” as Stebbing puts it, in the orchard of 
the nymphs where (E. 4), 

around 

Through boughs of the apple 

Cool waters sound. 

From the rustling leaves 

Drips sleep to the ground. 

(Unpublished, Ruys Carpenter) ® 

In the Greek, as Edwin Cox says, “the sound of 
the words, the repetition of long vowels partic- 
ularly omega, the poetic imagery of the whole 
and the drowsy cadence of the last two words 
give this fragment a combination of qualities 


[ 62 ] 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


probably not surpassed in any language.’ The 
beautiful verses about the pippin on the topmost 
branch we shall quote below. In another frag- 
ment (E. 3) Sappho sees the stars in a way 
which Tennyson echoes when he writes: “As 
when in heaven the stars about the moon Look 
beautiful.” Or again Sappho’s love of nature 
appears in the line (E. 112): “the moon rose 
full and the maidens took their stand about the 
altar.”? In the new Ode to Atthis the moon is not 
silver (as in E. 3) but rosy-fingered: “after sun- 
set the rosy-fingered moon beside the stars 
that are about her, when she spreads her light 
o’er briny sea and eke o’er flowery field, while 
the dew lies so fair on the ground and the roses 
revive and the dainty anthrysc and the melilot 
with all its blooms” (E. 86). Recently (1922) 
A. C. Benson in The Reed of Pan has combined 
fragment (E. 3) with the beautiful half stanza 
quoted above, under the title Moonrise: 


The moon high-hung in the hollow night 
Resistless pours her silver tide; 

Swift, swift the stars withdraw their light, 
And their diminished glories hide. 


And where cool streams through reed-beds slip, 
The breeze through the orchard alley stirs, 


[ 63 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


And slumber well-nigh seems to drip 
From the dark arms of dusky firs. 


In another fragment, which we quote below, 
Sappho pictures a spring midnight with almost 
astronomical exactness. She loves the sun: 
“T have loved daintiness [from childhood ] 
and for me love possesses the brightness and 
beauty of the sun.” William Stebbing in his 
Minstrel of Love expands the two verses into 
ten, the last ‘Dazzling my brain with gazing 
on the Sun.” Sappho knows the golden-san- 
dalled and queenly dawn (E. 19, 177). She wrote 
an ode to Hesperus, the Evening Star, of which 
we have only the tantalizing beginning, “fairest 
of all the stars that shine” (E. 32). Another 
graceful fragment quoted in antiquity to show 
the charm of repetition (E. 149) ® on the 
Evening Star, which comes in Catullus too, has 
influenced not only Byron in Don Juan but 
Andrew Lang in Helen of Troy (II. 4) and 
especially Tennyson (see p. 206). ‘That Greek 
blockhead,” as Sir Walter Scott was called, 
though he knew more Greek than most under- 
graduate students of Greek to-day, even if he 
didn’t know the Sappho fragment, expresses 
the same idea in the Doom of Dever Girl, “ All 
meet whom day and care divide.” 


[ 64 ] 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


Sappho is fond of birds, the dove, the lovely 
or heavenly swallow (E. 122), the nightingale. 
The doves drive Aphrodite’s car in the first ode 
and in E. 16 “their heart grows light and they 
slacken the labor of their pinions.”” Ben Jonson 
took from Sappho (E. 138) his line in The Sad 
Shepherd, “the dear good angel of the spring, 
The nightingale,” and Swinburne, “The tawny 
sweet-winged thing Whose cry was but of 
spring.” A fragment published even since 
Edmonds’ book speaks of the “clear-voiced 
nightingales.” She knows exactly what crickets 
do at noon of a summer’s day. Listen to their 
song (E. 94), rescued from Alcaeus, to whom 
Bergk had wrongly ascribed it: 

And clear song from beneath her wings doth raise 
When she shouts-down the perpendicular blaze 
Of the outspread sunshine of noon. 

(Epmonps) * 

We see the woman also in her love of flowers 
as well as of birds. Flowers are her favorites and 
she worships them with almost the modern 
reverence of the Japanese, whom I have some- 
times seen saying their morning prayers to a 
beautiful bouquet. Take, for example, this 
simple but pretty flower-picture of Sappho’s 
(E. 107): 

[ 65 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


I saw one day a-gathering flowers 
The daintiest litile maid. 
(EpMonDs) 

She sympathizes with the hyacinth (E. 151), 
which the shepherd tramples under foot on the 
mountain, and uses it in one of the most attrac- 
tive flower-similes in all literature. Listen to 
this aubade which has been recently found and 
very tentatively restored (E. 82). It gives a 
delightful glimpse also of Sappho’s ménage: 


‘Sappho, I swear if you come not forth I will 
love you no more. O rise and shine upon us and 
set free your beloved strength from the bed, and 
then like a pure lily beside the spring hold aloof 
your Chian robe and wash you in the water. And 
Cleis shall bring down from your presses saffron 
smock and purple robe; and let a mantle be put 
over you and be crowned with a wreath of flowers 
tied about your head; and so come, sweet with all 
the beauty with which you make me mad. And do 
you, Praxinoa, roast us nuts, so that I may make 
the maidens a sweeter breakfast; for one of the Gods, 
child, has vouchsafed us a boon. This very day 
has Sappho the fairest of all women vowed that she 
will surely return unto Mytilene the dearest of all 
towns —return with us, the mother with her 
children.’ 

Dearest Atthis, can you then forget ali this that 
happened in the old days? ... (EpMonps) 


Or take this other example of Sappho’s love of 
flowers which Symonds has expanded into a son- 


[ 66 ] 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


net too long to quote here. I give Tucker’s new 
version: 
Take sprigs of anise fair 
With soft hands twined, 
And round thy bonny hair 
A chaplet bind; 
The Muse with smiles will bless 
Thy blossoms gay, 
While from the garlandless 
She turns away. 


Sappho speaks of the golden pulses (E. 130): 


[It was summer when I found you 
In the meadow long ago, | 
And the golden vetch was growing 
By the shore. 
(Briss CARMAN) 


Sappho knows the little and common flowers, 
the dainty anthrysc and melilot, the violets and 
the lilies (E. 86, 83, 82), but, like Pindar, she 
especially loves the rose. Meleager’s garland of 
song assigned the rose to Sappho. She says in 
one of the new fragments (E. 83): “with many 
a garland of violets and sweet roses mingled, you 
have decked my flowing locks as I stood by your 
side, and with many a woven necklet made of a 
hundred blossoms you have adorned my dainty 


[ 67 | 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


throat.’’ Philostratus in his Letiers (51) says: 
“Sappho loves the rose and always crowns 
it with a meed of praise, likening beautiful 
maidens to it; and she compares it to the bared 
fore-arms of the Graces.” Fragment E. 68 
says: “‘Hither pure rose-armed Graces, daugh- 
ters of Zeus.” Sappho’s love of the rose has led 
earlier collectors of Sappho’s fragments to in- 
clude among her verses the famous song in 
praise of the rose quoted by Achilles Tatius in 
his love romance on Clitophon and Leucippe, 
which Elizabeth Barrett Browning has trans- 
lated: 


Ir Zeus chose us a King of the Flowers in his mirth, 
He would call to the Rose and would royally crown it, 
For the Rose, ho, the Rose, is the grace of the earth, 
Ts the light of the plants that are growing upon it. 


For the Rose, ho, the Rose, is the eye of the flowers, 
Is the blush of the meadows that feel themselves 
faw — 
Is the lightning of beauty that strikes through the 
bowers . 
On pale lovers who sit in the glow unaware. 


Ho, the Rose breathes of love! Ho, the Rose lifts the 
cup 
To the red lips of Cypris invoked for a guest! 


[ 68 ] 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


Ho, the Rose, having curled its sweet leaves for the 
world, 
Takes delight in the motion its petals keep up, 
As they laugh to the wind as it laughs from the west! 


Sappho, however, does mention the roses of 
Pieria in the famous lines spoken with charac- 
teristic teacher’s tone, almost in the manner of 
Mrs. Poyser. According to Plutarch, in one 
passage, the verses are addressed to a wealthy 
woman, in another passage,® to a woman of no 
refinement or learning; according to Stobaeus,™ 
to a woman of no education; probably it was 
some rich but uncultured Lesbian girl, who 
would not go to the Lesbian Smith or Vassar 
or Bryn Mawr: 


Thou shalt die and be laid low in the grave, hidden 


from mortal ken 

Unremembered, and no song of the Muse wakens thy 
name again; 

No Pierian rose brightens thy brow, lost in the name- 


less throng, 
Thy dark spirit shall flit forth like a dream, bodiless 


ghosts among. 
(SHOREY) 


For another expanded version by Swinburne in 
his Anactoria I must refer to Wharton. Sappho 


[ 69 | 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


had known and loved the wee wee maiden 
Atthis when she was an awkward school girl, 
but now in the bloom of beauty after a sad 
parting the fickle Atthis has flitted away to an- 
other woman’s college and clean forgotten 
Sappho for a rival teacher, Andromeda; “TI 
loved you, Atthis, long ago, when my own girl- 
hood was still all flowers, and you — you 
seemed to me a small ungainly child” (E. 48).°7 
““So you hate to think of me, Atthis; ’Tis all 
Andromeda now” (Edmonds). 

Lesbus was a land of flowers, of the rose and 
the violet, ‘‘a land rich in corn and oil and wine, 
in figs and olives, in building-wood and tinted 
marble,” as Tucker says. But this triangular 
island (about thirty-five by twenty-five miles) 
had mountains rising from two to three thousand 
feet at its corners and two deep fiords on its 
southern coast. From the northern coast 
Sappho must often have looked across the short 
seven miles of laughing sea upon Troyland and 
thought of the Homeric poems in which Lesbus 
played such an important réle.88 The air like 
that of Athens as described by Pindar, with a 
glamor wreathing such cities as Smyrna, was 
so translucent that in the northeast across the 
dividing sea many-fountained Ida could easily 


L 70 | 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


be seen. It is perhaps an accident that there is 
so little mention of mountain or sea in Sappho. 
But she was no “landlubber,” as Professor 
Allinson would have us believe.®® Pindar and the 
other lyric poets were acquainted with the sea 
and so must Sappho have known it, as she daily 
saw the ships fly in and out of their haven on 
white wings (cf. first stanza of poem on p. 82). 
In one of the new fragments (E. 86) we 
have a marvellous picture of the sea in 
the last stanza of a poem which otherwise, 
with its love of flowers, with the beautiful simile 
of the rosy-fingered moon, is one of the most 
perfect things in literature. The telepathic and 
telegraphic sympathy of Sappho startles us and 
the wireless message sent by night across the 
severing sea, whose sigh you can hear in the 
original Greek, anticipates the modern radio.* 
As this is a memory poem, and Anactoria, like 
Hallam, is “lost,” for the time being at least, 
I have followed as a model Tennyson’s In 
Memoriam in metre, stanza, and rhyming. The 
first ine seems to be “remembered” in rhyme 
as it were after the interval during which the 
second and third lines have been made and 
rhymed. 


[71] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


SAPPHO’S GIRL FRIEND ACROSS 
THE SEA 


Attuis, in Sardis far away 
Anactoria dear to thee 
And dear indeed alike to me 
Now dwells, but hither often stray 


Her thoughts sent usward by the power 

That lives anew the life she loved 

When thou her glorious goddess proved, — 
Thy songs her joy at every hour. 


You were her sun, now set too soon; 
Among the Lydian dames she shines 
As, after sunset, glow the lines 

Of light the rosy-fingered moon 


Throws on her retinue of stars 
Spreading a far-flung lane of beams 
That gleams the salt sea o’er and streams 
Across the rocky shore that bars 


In vain the light that floods its gloom, 
And leaping landward bathes the fields 
Where many a flower its beauty yields 

With fragrant variegated bloom. 


Full fair the dew springs forth and holds 
The light, the roses lift their heads, 
The dainty anthryscs quit their beds, 

The clover, honey-rich, unfolds. 


[ 72 ] 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


Through all this beauty, hard unrest 
And longing crushing like a stone 
Her tender heart, ofttimes alone 

She wanders with a weighted breast. 


She cannot calm her quivering lip 
And through the balmy, scented dark 
She cries aloud we must embark 
And thither come on some swift ship. 


Full clear her words to thee and me, 
For night with all her many ears 
Their ardent sound full gladly hears 
And sends us o’er the severing sea. 
(D. M. R.) 


This ode alone marks Sappho as a great poet- 
ess. The reasons are: (1) the loving notice of 
little and common flowers, (2) the comparison of 
Anactoria when surrounded by other women to 
the moon in the midst of her surrounding stars, 
the bold personification of the moon secured by 
the use of the single figure “ rosy-fingered,” 
(3) sudden and masterful survey of land and 
sea, (4) the successful centering of attention 
upon Anactoria’s homesickness even in the 
midst of such far-reaching beauty of land and 
sea, (5) the remarkably forceful portrayal of 
what in our day we call thought-transference as 


[73 | 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


seen, for example, in Tennyson’s Aylmer’s Field 
or Enoch Arden, (6) and not least important, 
the simplicity and sharpness of outline displayed 
in the imagery. ‘“‘Night” is a vague, widely 
diffused, mystic thing, but Sappho makes us see 
her a thing of many ears and one of them close 
to Anactoria’s face. Night does not send a 
mystic intimation such as Tennyson’s vibration 
of light might indicate. But she speaks right 
out in a clear voice that carries far enough to 
reach across the sea to Sappho. A seventh 
reason is the strange, hot emotion of love and 
sorrow and longing that throbs like a pulse in 
every line and makes the whole letter a living 
creature. Milton said and lovers of poetry have 
always agreed that poetry must be simple, 
sensuous, and passionate. By sensuous he of 
course meant expressed in images involving the 
use of the bodily senses. Is there anything in 
poetry, ancient or modern, that more exactly 
meets Milton’s requirements than these few 
lines of Sappho’s letter to her girl friend? Now 
if this is evident to the reader of an English 
translation, it is vastly more so to one who 
knowing the meaning of the words has read them 
in the Greek and then read them again because 
they were so sweet, and read them a third time 


[ 74 ] 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


and many times until the music haunts him 
like the face of alover. This will rank with 
Matthew Arnold’s verses To Marguerite in no. 5 
of his series of little poems on Switzerland: 


Yes! in the sea of life enisled, 
With echoing straits between us thrown 


Now round us spreads the watery plain — 
Oh might our marges meet again! 

Who order’d that their longing’s fire 
Should be, as soon as kindled, cool’d? } 
Who renders vain their deep desire? 

A God, a God their severance ruled! 

And bade betwixt their shores to be 

The unplumb’d, salt, estranging sea. 


Sappho’s last verse also reminds us of Horace’s 
Oceano dissociabili® and Tennyson’s ‘“‘bond- 
breaking sea.”” Fragment E. 41 refers to the 
mariner at sea in a storm; and E. 66 pictures 
a beautiful scene on the sea, where “‘ Hector 
and his comrades bring from sacred Thebe and 
everflowing Placia, by ship upon the briny sea, 
the dainty Andromache of the glancing eye.” 
(Edmonds) 

Sappho’s verses are full of color, of bright and 
beautiful things. She ranks with Pindar in her 
special devotion to gold, not for its value but 


i754 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


for its fine amber lustre and its permanency 
(E. tro). The Cyprian queen of love sits on a 
throne of rich color and splendor, with inlaid 
wood or metal (E. 1); she “dispenses the nectar 
of love in beakers of gold’’ in what was perhaps 
the introductory poem of Sappho’s Wedding- 
Songs (E. 6): 


Come thou, foam-born Kypris, and pour in dainty 

Cups of amber gold thy delicate nectar 

Subily mixed with fire that will swiftly kindle 
Love in our bosoms. 


(O’Hara’s Love’s Banquet) 


Aphrodite wears a golden coronal (E. 9), is 
herself golden (E. 157), and her handmaid is 
golden-shining (E. 24). The Muses are golden 
(E. 11), perhaps also the Nereids (E. 36). They 
have a golden house (E. 129): 


Hither now, O Muses, leaving the golden 
House of God, unseen in the azure spaces. 
(O’Hara’s Muses) 


The dawn is golden-slippered (E. 19); something 
or somebody is more golden than gold (E. 60). 
“Gold is pure of rust” (E. 109); “Gold is a 
child of Zeus; no moth nor worm devours it; 
and it overcomes the strongest of mortal hearts” 


[ 76 | 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


(E. 110).°? Sappho’s daughter Cleis looks like 
a golden flower (E. 130); ‘‘Golden pulse grew 
on the shore” (E. 139, cf. O’Hara’s poem 
Golden Pulse). One of many fragments of in- 
terest to the student of Greek life and antiq- 
uities speaks of “gold-knuckle bowls” (E. 191). 
Sappho was cited by Menaechmus of Sicyon in 
his Treatise on Artists as the first to use a lyre 
called the pectis, and she invented the Mixo- 
Lydian mode, particularly sensual or emotional, 
which the Greek tragedians copied from her. 

Sappho makes allusions to children which are 
natural and tender (E. 130). In similes she 
uses children simply and directly as in The Ode 
to Hesperus (E. 149) and in the verse, which 
may refer to a sparrow and which Catullus 
imitated, “I flutter like a child after her mother” 
(He 142). 

Sappho from her tender years was inured to 
the sorrows as well as the joys of love. Two 
of her fragments (E. 111, 135), the first perhaps 
a complete poem, represent the loneliness of a 
long night spent in vain waiting for a lover. 
Cipollini (890) and others have often set these 
to music. They are popular ballads which 
Sappho must have used just as Burns did in 
writing Auld Lang Syne. As Tucker says: elt 


(97741 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


is probable that she is setting one such pre- 
historic lyrical idea to new words or recasting 
one such vagrom ditty.” He is thinking, I 
imagine, of such a Scottish ballad as: 


Yestreen I made my bed fu’ brade 
The night P’ll make it narrow: 
For a’ the livelong winter's night 
Tl lie twin’d of my marrow. 


There are a score of versions in Italian, some far 
from Sappho, and Ronsard’s good French version; 
and many an American or English poet has tried 
his hand at translating the lines,“ which in the 
Greek toll like a curfew bell. All too little 
known is the rendering by Alan Seeger, the poet 
who was killed in battle on July 4, 1916, in his 
poem, Do You Remember Once? 


Under the western-seas 

The pale moon settles and the Pleiades. 

The firelight sinks: outside the night-winds moan — 
The hour advances, and I sleep alone. 


For the Greek silence of nature Seeger substitutes 
the sympathy of nature in the moaning of the 
night winds. A more literal translation is: 

Sunk is the moon 

The Pleiades are set; 

Tis midnight; soon 


[ 78 | 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


The hour is past: and yet 
I lie alone — 
(TUCKER) 


Sappho’s verses are purer, simpler than the frank 
poem of Hester Bancroft on an August Night: ® 


God, the night will never end 
And I, alone discordant and forlorn, 
Unmated, on this love-night of the year! 


The other popular song about a girl in love, in a 
metre which Horace imitated in the twelfth ode 
of the third book, is as imaginative a description 
as anything in Coleridge or Keats with whom the 
Maryland poet, Father Tabb, so aptly compares 
Sappho. It reminds one of Gretchen’s weaving- 
song in Faust, and of the English folksong, “O 
mother, put my wheel away; I cannot spin 
to-night.” It is beautifully translated by 
Thomas Moore, in his Evenings in Greece: 


[As o’er her loom the Lesbian maid 
In love-sick languor hung her head, 
Unknowing where her fingers strayed, 
She weeping turned away, and said, | 


‘Oh, my sweet mother, ’tis in vain, 
I cannot weave, as once I wove, 

So wildered is my heart and brain 
With thinking of that youth I love.’ 


[79 J 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


Many fragments deal with the Greek myths. 
Sappho is one of the first to tell the story of 
Adonis, who has his analogy in Phaon. ‘‘ Woe 
for Adonis” (E. 25); “Woe for him of the four 
months’ sojourn, Woe for Adonis” (E. 136 un- 
certain restoration). Another fragment is pre- 
sumed to be Sappho’s and, probably, to be part 
of a song sung at the Mytilenaean spring-festival 
of the marriage of Adonis and Aphrodite, of 
whose counterpart at Alexandria we have an 
example in the fifteenth idyl of Theocritus, so 
well translated by Matthew Arnold: 


MAIDENS. Sweet Adonis lies a-dying, Cytherea; 
what's to do? 

CYTHEREA. Beat your breasts and rend your gar- 
ments, maids, is my behest to you. 


(EpMonDs) 


O’Hara, Bliss Carman, and many another have 
expanded this lament for Adonis which we know 
so well from Bion’s Lament for Adonis and from 
Shelley’s Adonais. I quote the poet laureate of 
Canada: 


What shall we do, Aphrodite? 
Lovely Adonis is dying. 
Ah but we mourn him! 


[ 80 ] 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


Will he return when the Autumn 
Purples the earth, and the sunlight 
Sleeps in the vineyard? 


Will he return when the Winter 
Huddles the sheep, and Orion 
Goes to his hunting? 


Ah, for thy beauty, Adonis 
With the soft springs and the South wind, 
Love and desire! 

(Briss CARMAN) 


Sappho’s knowledge of literature and legend 
is also not little. She is well acquainted with 
Homer, who very much influenced Sappho’s 
language. She knows Helen (E. 38) and her 
daughter Hermione (E. 44); ‘Hermione was 
never such as you are, and just it is to liken you 
rather to Helen than to a mortal maid.” Or 
take this complete letter to Anactoria (E. 38), 
who has eloped with a soldier to Sardis, as 
beautiful a poem as any of Sappho’s, if not 
spoiled in the last stanza by the wrong restora- 
tion of some scholars. The news of its discovery 
caused Mr. Osborn to leap out of bed and say 
he would fight for Sappho to the last with a pen 
dipt in poison. It reminds one of The Song 
of Solomon I. 9, “I have compared thee, O my 


[ 81 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh’s char- 
iots,” or VI. 10, “Who is she that looketh 
forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as 
the sun, and terrible as an army with banners ?” 
Osborn, Mark Telfair, Marion Mills Miller, 
T. E. R., and others have given poetic 
versions in Sapphics of this new poem. An- 
other rendering seems superfluous, but I 
could not resist the pleasure of adding it, 
even though in the main less happy than its 
predecessors. In some of the lines the love of 
far-off Sappho’s meaning has lured me astray 
from the nearer English anapaest: 


‘FarrestT of sights on the dull black earth,’ some say, 
‘Is a host of horse in battle array.’ 

‘A phalanx on foot,’ another will cry, 

‘Or a navy full sail athwart the sky.’ 


‘But nay! ’Tis the lover’s beloved,’ I ween 
And easy the proof and plain to be seen; 
For the sum of all beauty had Helen surveyed, 
Yet of him, as fairest, her choice she made, 


Who all the honor of Troy’s towers destroyed. 

No thought of child or parent dear alloyed 

Her love. Its distant dearness led her far astray; 
For ever ’tis easy to bend a woman’s way, 


[ 82 ] 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


If only she hold lightly what is near. 

See to it thou, Anactoria dear, 

That, parted, we thy memory still shall share 
Of her whose silent footfall’s music fair 


Sounds sweeter, and whose face sheds beams more 
bright 

Than the noisy flash of the chariot-fight, 

Or tramp of footmen on their glittering way 

When Lydia’s force deploys in full display. 

Too well we know ’tis not for man to gain 

His heart’s desive, — yet sweeter the pain, 

Longing for love we once have shared, 


Than forgetting how happily then we fared. 
(D. M. R.) 


Agamemnon is mentioned in one of the new 
fragments (tentatively restored E. 85), which is 
an especially beautiful dialogue between Sappho 
and her dumpling pupil Gongyla, which might 
be called Intimations of Immortality: 


INTIMATION OF COMING DEATH 
SAPPHO 
My cominc death I plainly now foresee; 
Long to the end of life at cannot be. 
GONGYLA 
How dost thou such a sad event divine? 
Unto thy dear ones pray reveal the SIgn. 


[ 83 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 
SAPPHO 


In dream to me Death’s angel, Hermes, came 
Within my chamber; calling me by name, 
‘Come,’ said he, and he touched me with his wand. 
And I, of life and strife no longer fond, 
Replied: ‘I go with gladness, for I swear 

By blessed Cypris that no more I care 

To live, since love is passing from me. Fain 
Am I to die despite my other gain 

In wealth and honor. Only do I plead 

To field Elysian, whither thou didst lead 
Atrides Agamemnon and the flower 

Of the Achaeans, take me in my hour, 

And set me in that dewy vale to bloom, 
Perchance again with beauty and perfume 
That love. invite, although with kindlier fate — 
Not of ignoble souls, but of the great.’ 


(Adaptation by Marion Mitts MItteEr) 


Sappho knows the story of Leda and the egg. 
Edmonds (E. 97) reads a new text: “They say 
that once upon a time Leda found hidden an 
egg of hyacinthine hue.” But I prefer the older, 
better version, which O’Hara renders: 


Once on a time 

They say that Leda found 
Beneath the thyme 

An egg upon the ground. 


[ 84 ] 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


Sappho makes a sarcastic reference to Leto 
and Niobe as very dear comrades (E. 140), and 
gives Niobe nine children of either sex (E. 168). 
She knows the love of the Moon for Endymion 
in the cave on Mt. Latmus (E. 167); she wrote 
about Theseus (E. 169), Prometheus (E. 170), 
Medea (E. 185), and Philomela and Procne, 
“the heavenly swallow, Pandion’s daughter” 
(E. 122). Perhaps Sappho pictured the 
story of Hero and Leander (cf. p. 31). Steb- 
bing changes the sex of Hero and makes a 
long poem on Champion, Athlete, and Harpist: 


“Hero” of Gyaros; Hellas cannot forget hs name. 
The lovely, gallant youth, a paragon in women’s eyes. 


The divinities in Sappho are primarily Aphro- 
dite, Peitho, Ares, Hecate, Hera, Hermes, He- 
phaestus, and the Muses. There is much rever- 
ence in the beautiful Hymn to Hera, the latter half 
of which Edmonds (E. 40) has so very tentatively 
restored on the hypothesis that this was written 
in Syracuse before Sappho embarked to return to 
Mytilene on hearing of the amnesty of Pittacus. 

Sappho was not only the poet of ardent 
love, as we have seen, but the greatest composer 
of wedding-songs of antiquity, and much of such 
poetry in later days is nothing but a translation 


[ 85 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


or a transfusion of Sappho. Her Epithalamia 
were written for actual wedding ceremonies, 
but I cannot agree with a great German critic 
who says that they were not literary productions. 
I do not mean to say that she published these 
songs, for I believe that they were not collected 
into a ninth book until later days. We have 
already quoted what may be an introductory 
poem to the Epithalamies; perhaps even some 
of the other fragments which we have mentioned, 
such as that perfect weaving-song, which may 
reflect the awakening of love in the heart of the 
bride, and certainly the verses on the Evening 
Star (p. 64) belong to her Epithalamies. The 
wonderful new poem (E. 66) with its Homeric 
genitives and datives and its Homeric forms of 
words on the Marriage of Hector and Androm- 
ache could be used as a wedding-song at any 
wedding: 


HOME-COMING OF HECTOR WITH 
HIS BRIDE 


(Recitation for “The Wedding Day’’) 
SUSTAINED by sturdy limbs a herald came 
Swiftly to folk of Ida. Quick as flame 


The rumor ran, ere he the tidings told, 
Through wide-wayed Ilium that Hector bold 


[ 86 | 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


And his fair bride Andromache, so dear 
Already to the town for fame as peer 

In beauty of the woman that with hate 

They passed upon the street with eyes avert 

(The Grecian Helen, whom, as seers assert, 

Her name had doomed to be the torch of Troy — 
‘Destroyer’), and more dear because the joy 

She was of Priam’s most beloved son, 

Were at the landing. All the people run 

Out of the gates; the young men yoke their steeds 
To chariots, and each his charges speeds, 

With harness jingling, to be first, and bring 
Hector and Hector’s bride to Priam king. 


And so like gods to Ilium they came 
Attended by the people’s wild acclaim, 
Nor knew that even then across the sea 
Sailed swift Achilles, born their bane to be: 
To drag dead Hector round the walls of Troy, 
And doom to slavery his wife and boy. 
(Marion Mitts MILLER) 


I do not feel that this poem was cold and super- 
ficial as Miss De Courten and some other 
critics say, for to me it is a dignified and simple 
epic narrative, like the messengers’ speeches in 
Greek tragedy, introduced into the midst of 
lyrics. It is almost perfect and well worthy of 
Sappho. It makes us realize that Sappho’s 


[ 87 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


activity was broader than we had supposed 
and brings her nearer to her predecessors and 
successors. It is a unique example, hitherto 
unknown, of a lyric narrative with epic intona- 
tions, throwing new light on the history of the 
ancient wedding-songs. % 

A rhetorician of the fourth century A.D., 
Himerius,*’ has an interesting passage which 
bears on Sappho’s wedding-songs and helps us 
interpret the fragments which are preserved: 


“So it is time for us, my children, since we are 
summoning our Muses to marriage-dance and 
marriage-love, to relax the graveness of our music, 
so that we may the better trip it with the maidens 
in honour of Aphrodite. How hard it is to find a 
tune gentle enough to please the Goddess, we may 
judge from the poets themselves, most of whom, 
though past masters in love-poetry, went as bravely 
to the description of Hera as any boy or girl, but 
when it came to the rites of Aphrodite, left the 
song for the lyre and the making of the epithalamy 
entirely to Sappho, who when the contests are over 
enters the chamber, weaves the bower, makes the 
bride-bed, gathers the maidens into the bride- 
chamber, and brings Aphrodite in her Grace-drawn 
car with a bevy of Loves to be her playfellows; 
and her she adorns with hyacinths about the hair, 
leaving all but what is parted by the brow to float 
free upon the wayward breeze, and them she decks 
with gold on wing and tress and makes to go on before 
the car and wave their torches on high.” 

(EpmonpDs) 


[ 88 ] 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


Himerius refers to the mock contests which 
were a part of the wedding ceremonies. There 
was always an agon or sham fight, as in Greek 
comedy, running through the hymenaeal, to be 
succeeded in many cases by a real fight after- 
wards. The wedding echoed with noise which 
suggested the conflicts of prehistoric days when 
brides were captives of bow and spear, and all 
sorts of characters figured in this drama of real 
life. There was place for satire and ridicule as 
well as for praise. Even in recent years I have 
witnessed in a neighboring island, “Scio’s 
rocky isle,” the semblance of predatory warfare 
which the Chians keep up during their bridal 
ceremonies. And in 1902 I attended a three 
days’ Turkish wedding at Chiblak, near the site 
of ancient Troy. On that occasion the frequent 
shooting and fighting, which resulted even in 
injuries to Turks and Greeks, made the noisy 
ceremony seem like a battle. In Sappho’s day, 
as to-day in the Orient, a wedding was not a 
brief benedictory reading by a clergyman. It 
was a long-drawn celebration, a prolonged 
process rather than a precise pronouncement, 
with torchlight processions, dance, and song.*° 
All these features emerge very clearly in 
Sappho, where we can trace the whole ceremony 


[ 89 | 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


from the weaving of the bridal bower (pastas = 
portico or bower in Himerius as cited above) 
to the aubade song of the next morning. Here 
is the charming song, sung, in the same metre as 
the famous Linus Song, by the bridesmaids as 
they led the bride to the bridegroom’s bed, 
proud of their island and of their Sappho: °° 


Up with the rafters high, 
Ho for the wedding! 
Raise them high, ye joiners, 
Ho for the wedding! 
The bridegroom’s as tall as Ares, 
Ho for the wedding! 
Far taller than a tall man, 
Ho for the wedding! 
Towering as the Lesbian poet 
Ho for the wedding! 
Over the poets of other lands, 
Ho for the wedding! 
(EpMonDs 148) 


Then follows a kind of lyrical marriage drama, 
the bridesmaids representing the tribe of the 
bride, the youths the clan of the bridegroom, 
in this respect foreshadowing Catullus’ double 
choir. The maidens answer the young men’s 
praise by chiding Hesperus, the evening star, 
whose coming heralds the union. The young 


L 90 ] 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


men in turn reply with the famous words already 
quoted, to which the sequel probably was “even 
so bring home the bride to the bridegroom.” 
We think of Edmund Spenser’s Prothalamion 
and Epithalamion which have many of the 
motives of the Greek epithalamium, with their 
reference to Hesper, with their beautiful de- 
scriptions of bride and bridegroom. I quote the 
lines about Hymen, which is Sappho’s Greek 
refrain, rendered by the word “ wedding” in 
Edmonds’ version: 


Hymen, i6 Hymen, they do shout; 
That even to the heavens theyr shouting shrill 
Doth reach, and all the firmament doth fill. 


The men praise marriage bliss; the maidens, 
virginity (E. 152, “I shall be ever-maiden,”’ 
E. 159, “Can it be that I still long for my 
virginity?”’). The bride says, ‘Maidenhead, 
maidenhead, whither away?” and the reply is, 
“Where I must stay, bride, where I must stay” 
(E. 164) ™; a wonderful example of the way in 
which Sappho treats abstractions and inanimate 
things (cf. also E. 80, “Up, my lute divine and 
make thyself a thing of speech”’). Sappho is 
the first to use such a personification 1% and it 
recalls Théophile Gautier in his reverse appli- 


[91 J 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


cation in Mademoiselle de Maupin. At least 
it is difficult to think of the young Gautier 
independently conceiving the striking figure 
that is so characteristic of the genius of the 
Lesbian poetess. This is the Frenchman’s pas- 
sage. It describes the fair heroine going out 
into the world dressed in masculine habili- 
ments to test men’s fidelity in love: 


“And, as I rode away down the alley of chestnut 
trees, all the puerilities of my girlhood ran along 
by the roadside, blowing me farewell kisses from 
the tips of their tapering fingers. And one little 
spirit in white, in a clear, silvery voice, cried: 
‘Madeleine, where are you going? I am your vir- 
ginity, dear, but you look so fierce in your boots 
and hose, with your plumed hat and long sword, 
that I am not sure whether I should go with you.’ 


“I replied: ‘Go home, sweet thing, if you are 
afraid. Water my flowers and care for my doves. 
But in sooth you are wrong. You would be safer 
with me in these garments of stout cloth than in 
airy gauze. My boots prevent it being seen that 
I have a little tempting foot; this sword is my 
defense against dishonor; and the feather waving 
in my hat is to frighten away all the nightingales 
who would come and sing false love into my ear.’” 


In amoebean or antiphonic hexameter verses 
(E. 150 and 151), as exquisite as Heine’s Du 
bist wie eine Blume, the maidens liken the virgin 


[ 92 | 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


state to the unplucked pippin, the married 
woman to the hyacinth or columbine, with 
which Aphrodite is also adorned in the passage 
from Himerius. As Tucker says: “a band of 
girls mock the men with failure to win some 
dainty maiden, and the men reply with a taunt 
at the neglected bloom of the unprofitable vir- 
gin. Say the maids (Pl. 9): 


On the top of the topmost spray 
The pippin blushes red, 
Forgot by the gatherers — nay! 
Was it ‘forgot’ we said? 
’Twas too far overhead! 


Reply the men: 


The hyacinth so sweet 

On the hills where the herdsmen go 
Is trampled ’neath thew feet, 

And its purple bloom laid low; 


and there unhappily the record deserts us.” 
These lovely lines are about as well known as 
anything of Sappho’s, owing to Rossetti’s 
adaptation in his One Girl, a title altered in 
1881 to Beauty, which the reader can find in 
Wharton. In modern times, Maurice Thompson, 
Gamaliel Bradford, and others have been in- 


[ 93 J 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


fluenced by them, though often an un-Sapphic 
touch not in Sappho’s verses is given, as in 
Bradford’s Topmost Bough: 


Don’t you love me now, 
After I have set you 

On love’s topmost bough; 
God, then I’ll forget you. 


The bridegroom now bears off the bride while 
the chorus of youths praise the bride and the 
chorus of maidens the bridegroom: 


What may I best compare, 
Dear groom, with thee? 
A slender sapling, ere 
It is a tree. 
(EDMoONDs) 


But as to-day the bridegroom disappears in the 
society column of the newspaper behind the 
splendor of the elaborate description of the 
bride’s gown, so in Sappho the praise of the 
bride is far sweeter than that of the bridegroom. 
Recall the lines of Rossetti and these verses in 
the metre of one of Catullus’ epithalamia: 


Bride, thy shape is all delight 
And thine eyes shine soft and bright, 
O’er thy fair cheek desire is shed 


L 94 | 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


And honor showered on thy head 
From the Lady of Love in heaven. 


(EpmonpDs) 


Congratulations were offered also to the bride- 
groom: 


No other maiden lives to-day, 
Bridegroom, such as thine. 
(EpMonpDs) 


Himerius seems to be quoting such a song of 
greeting to bride and bridegroom: ‘Bride that 
teemest with rosy desires, bride the fairest 
ornament of the Queen of Paphos, hie thee to 
bed, hie thee to the couch whereon thou must 
sweetly sport in gentle wise with thy bridegroom. 
And may the Star of Eve lead thee full willingly 
to the place where thou shalt marvel at the silver- 
thronéd Lady of Wedlock” (Edmonds). Hime- 
rius also tells us that Sappho “brings Aphro- 
dite in her Grace-drawn car with a bevy of 
Loves” to the wedding. And the joy of the 
earthly festival is repeated far up among the 
clouds of Olympus where the celestial feast is 
described (E. 146) in verses the lilt of which 
Professor Gildersleeve has thus reproduced in 
his unpublished version: 


L95] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


The mixing bowl yonder 
Was filled with ambrosia, 
And Hermes ’gan ladle 

The drink to the gods all; 
The gods all uplifted 

Their beakers and pour’d out 
Libations and utter’d 

Fair wishes for bridegroom, 
[For fair bride fair wishes. ] 


Stebbing in his Friends of Man has the Gods 
descend to the modest hall wherein the mar- 
riage feast is spread. 


All the High Gods from Olympus, to bless the Two, 
descend. 


By an ample bowl Hermes, deftest of cupbearers, 
stands, 


Crowning the Gods’ goblets from the full flagon in his 
hands. 


The function of what we Americans used to call 
the first groomsman, in the primitive times of 
wife-stealing, was to protect the bridegroom from 
pursuit and the name “ best man ”’ perpetuates 
the tradition. In the Greek wedding, where the 
passing and closing of the door was so essential 
a part of the ritual, he was the door-keeper, and 


[96 ] 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


there was much bantering and chaffing at his 
personal appearance on the part of the maidens, 
who made much use of the same jokes which 
have since been applied to the feet of maidens 
of Chicago. The feet of the porter were put in 
the laughing stocks somewhat after this fashion 


(E. 154): 


Full seven fathoms stretch the feet of the porter, 

Full five ox-hides were used for his shoe-soles, 

Ten stout cobblers were needed to make them, 
(D. M. R.) 


to which Edmonds would make the ingenious 
but doubtful addition based on Synesius ‘“‘[and 
his father lived in other ways an honest life, 
but claimed to be better born than Cecrops].” 
The door is shut and the mocking subsides, as 
all chant for the groom, ‘‘Happy bridegroom, 
the marriage is accomplished, as you prayed it 
should be, and the maiden you prayed for is 
yours” (E. 155); and for the bride they sing, 
“OQ beauteous one, O lovely one, thine it is to 
sport with the rose-ankled Graces and Aphro- 
dite the golden” (E. 157). If Edmonds’ tenta- 
tive restoration of the end of the first book of 
1320 verses is correct, ‘the maidens spend all 
the night at this door, singing of the love that is 


[97] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


between thee, thrice happy bridegroom, and a 
bride whose breast is sweet as violets. But get 
thee up and go when the dawn shall come, and 
may great Hermes lead thy feet where thou 
shalt find just so much ill-luck as we shall see 
sleep to-night” (E. 47). Evidently the maidens 
saw little sleep that night, but finally silence falls 
and in the early dawn is heard the last song of 
the serenaders: ‘Farewell the bride, farewell 
the bridegroom” (E. 160, 162). 

This chapter should not close without a men- 
tion of the epigrams. Many have been attrib- 
uted to Sappho, but three especially (E. 143, 
144, 145) have been included in most of the 
translations. They are, however, written in 
normal epic language without any essential 
traces of Sappho’s Aeolic dialect. One, which 
Wilamowitz would date as late as 4oo B.C., 
according to Edmonds was inscribed on the 
base of a statue of a nameless infant, dedicated 
to Artemis in gratitude for her birth by her 
priestess-mother. I prefer the older interpreta- 
tion: 

Maidens, that pass my tomb with laughter sweet, 

A voice unresting echoes at your feet; 

Pause, and if any would my story seek, 

Dumb as I am, these graven words will speak; 


L 98 ] 


THE WRITINGS OF SAPPHO 


‘Once in the vanished years it chanced to please 

Arista, daughter of Hermocleides, 

To dedicate my life in virgin bliss 

To thee, revered of women, Artemis! 

O Goddess, deign to bless my grandsire’s line, 

For Saon was a temple priest of thine; 

And grant, O Queen, in thy benefic grace, 

Unending fame and fortune to his race.’ 
(O’HaARa’s adaptation) 


The epigram on the fisherman (E. 145) is most 
unlike Sappho. Fawkes, Elton, Neaves, and 
many a modern poet have put it into verse: 


Above the lowly grave of Pelagon, 

Ill-fated fisher lad, Meniscus’ son, 

His father placed as sign of storm and strife 

The weel and oar, memorial of his life. 
(O’Hara) 


The two elegiac couplets on The Dust of Timas, 
who died before her wedding day, are rather flat 
and hardly worthy of Sappho’s genius (E. 144); 
but if Edmonds’ restoration of one of Sappho’s 
fragments as referring to Timas is correct (p. 60 
above), it may be genuine and in that case one 
of the very few surviving early metrical epitaphs. 
I give you the recent rendering by one of our 


[99 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


best modern American poets, Edwin Arlington 
Robinson: 


This dust was Timas; and they say 
That almost on her wedding day 

She found her bridal home to be 

The dark house of Persephone. 

And many maidens, knowing then 

That she would not come back again, 
Unbound their curls; and all in tears, 
They cut them off with sharpened shears. 


[ 100 ] 


V. SAPPHO IN ART 


HE HIGH regard of the ancients and 
moderns for Sappho appears especially 
in art. In olden days she was honored 

in town-hall and library. Many a statue and 
bust of her was erected and she was one of the 
few historical characters who were painted on 
Greek vases, which even quote her verses. She 
was sculptured also in terra-cotta and bronze.!% 
It is well established 1 that her image was en- 
graved on coins of Eresus and Mytilene, —a 
unique honor in early Greek days. Many (PI. 10, 
11) in the British Museum, in Paris, and else- 
where ! bear representations sometimes of her 
head on the obverse with the lyre on the reverse, 
and sometimes her full figure standing or sitting. 
They differ much in the manner of the arrange- 
ment of her coiffure, some even showing the 
hair covered by a kerchief, a fashion still preva- 
lent in modern Lesbus. They may be traced 
back to different types. Those which bear her 
name date from Roman Imperial times. In 
general Furtwangler! is right in contending 


[ ror ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


that it was not the custom to honor distinguished 
persons in such a manner before the days of 
Alexander. But the beautiful head which 
appears on early Greek coins of Mytilene of the 
fifth and fourth centuries B.c. may easily be 
Sappho and not her patron Aphrodite, even in 
cases where the type is adapted to that of the 
goddess of love. The lyre on the reverse and the 
individual features which resemble some of the 
busts of Sappho point that way. The beautiful 
face on the old coins was copied from some 
statue, perhaps one that was even earlier than 
that of Silanion. Farnell well says:’” “the 
later hero cults of Homer at Smyrna, Sappho at 
Lesbus, and Aristotle at Stageira reveal the deep 
conviction of the Hellenic spirit that science and 
art are divine powers.” If the head on these 
Mytilenaean coins is really Sappho, it is a silent 
but eloquent testimony to the reverence her 
name acquired after her death and to the per- 
fection of her living work. 

The oldest possible representation of Sappho 
with which I am acquainted is an archaic terra- 
cotta relief from Melos in the British Museum.!% 
It dates only a few years after Sappho’s time, 
and though not inscribed it may represent 
Sappho and Alcaeus. Sappho appears as a 


102%] 


SAPPHO IN ART 


slender lady of average height (not of short 
stature as Ovid says), dressed in a long Ionic 
woven tunic and wearing sandals. She sits with 
lyre in left hand and plectrum in right, and the 
bearded Alcaeus stands before her with bowl 
in left and extending his right hand. He seems 
to be expressing with a smile his admiration 
of her new poetry, so different from his own 
archaic measure. There is probably no reference, 
as in the case of the Munich vase from Sicily,’ 
to the famous lines which we have quoted 
(p. 27). On this vase the names Sapho (so 
spelt) and Alcaeus are painted beside the tall 
and stately figures who appear with lyre and 
plectrum. Sappho seems to be rebuking with 
almost a pouting expression her fellow-towns- 
man Alcaeus, who bows his head as she speaks 
to him the famous lines. This pictorial trans- 
Jation of her verses and other representations 
show her great popularity in Athens in the fifth 
century B.c. This Munich psycter or cooling 
mixing-bowl (Pl. 12) for wine may date as late 
as 460 B.C. and has been attributed to a fictitious 
lady painter of the Free Style by Hauser, but 
his attribution has not been generally ac- 
cepted.¥° Furtwangler was probably right in 
connecting the vase with the Brygus painter. 


[ 103 | 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


My learned friend, the great Oxford expert on 
vases, Mr. J. D. Beazley writes me that very 
likely it was not by the Brygus painter himself, 
but surely in his manner. On an earlier vase, now 
in the Czartoryski collection in Cracow (PI. 13), 
dating from the end of the sixth or the beginning 
of the fifth century B.c., according to Beazley 
a vase roughly related in style to the Nicoxenus 
painter, a contemporary of Euthymides, we 
have the earliest certain representation of 
Sappho." She is a tall, draped figure with 
smiling countenance, walking to right and hold- 
ing a seven-stringed lyre in her left hand and 
a plectrum in her right. She appears on only 
this one black-figured vase, which would seem 
to indicate that she did not become popular in 
Athens till long after her death, when red- 
figured vases were the vogue. The story of 
Solon adds testimony to the same effect, and 
probably a corpus or collection of her writings 
used by the later Alexandrian editions was in 
the book-stalls at Athens even in the last years 
of the sixth century. Otherwise it is difficult to 
account for her frequent portrayal on Attic red- 
figured vases. Thelost Middleton vase," (Pl. 14), 
probably of the South Italian (Lucanian) Style, 
shows Sappho, whose name is now thus spelt, 


[ 104 ] 


SAPPHO IN ART 


seated on a four-legged stool while a nude winged 
Eros hastens towards her with a wreath. The 
painter probably knew the poems of Sappho 
which pictured Eros as _ bitter-sweet, and 
Sappho’s other word-pictures of the sorrows of 
love, for he has labelled Eros ‘‘wretched.”? One 
thinks of Horace’s querentem Sappho puellis de 
popularibus. Mr. Beazley, however, suspects 
the inscription falas, and thinks that kalos 
(beautiful) was written. It is greatly to be 
hoped that the vase will soon be found again 
so that we can have a rereading of the letters. 
On the Michaelis vase in late Polygnotan style,’ 
which is in the Jatta collection at Ruvo in Italy 
(Pl. 15), we possibly have an apotheosis of 
Sappho. Aphrodite is painted with a cupid on 
her right shoulder like the Aphrodite of the Par- 
thenon frieze, judging the contest of Thamyris. 
Near Apollo are three Muses, and near Thamyris 
are four. Sappho is evidently leaning for support 
on Aphrodite, receiving a little dove from a 
little Eros, and is pictured as a Muse herself, 
as in Plato’s epigram. On another red-figured 
vase 44 in private possession, Sappho is in the 
midst of her pupils. 

Several vases even show knowledge of her 
writings. The most important is the hydria or 


[ 105 | 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


water-jar in Athens (Pl. 16), dating about 430 
B.c.,25 which Mr. Beazley would put in the group 
of Polygnotus, somewhat in the style of the 
Hector painter, though not by him. Sappho is 
seated on a light-backed chair or klismos; she is 
reading from a papyrus roll, while Nicopolis 
behind holds a wreath over her head. Two 
maidens stand in front, one, Callis, holding a 
lyre. Scholars have long tried to make sense out 
of the letters on the papyrus, and several, such 
as Comparetti and Aly, have considered them 
un-Sapphic; but Edmonds, the great English 
expert on Sappho, has got a new reading for the 
last word and thinks this is column 1 of a book 
entitled Winged Words, a phrase borrowed from 
Homer. The verses are an introductory poem 
to Sappho’s works with an invocation to the 
Gods, after which follows the verse: ‘The 
words I begin are words of air, but for all that, 
good to hear.”’ I do not feel that the solution is 
satisfactory or Sapphic, and an examination of 
the vase itself proves that Edmonds’ reading will 
not stand; but no one has yet made a better pro- 
posal. On another vase, in the Louvre, attrib- 
uted to Euphronius "° we have an echo of Sap- 
pho in the words (E. 23), “‘I long and I yearn.” 
A beautiful fifth century cylix (Pl. 9) by the 


[ 106 | 


SAPPHO IN ART 


erudite and versatile Sotades,!’ whose wonderful 
signed terra-cotta horse, mounted by an Amazon, 
has recently been brought to Boston from Meroe 
in Egypt, pictures a girl on tiptoe trying to 
pluck the sweet apple which is reddening on 
the topmost bough. I have no doubt that 
Sotades was illustrating Sappho’s song. 

Possibly on the so-called Steinhauser terra- 
cotta fragment "8 the seated figure is Sappho; 
she is nude above the waist and holds her lyre 
in her right hand. She is looking into the air 
enraptured and sublimely inspired. 

Many vases have been interpreted as portray- 
ing Sappho and Phaon,"* but in every case there 
is uncertainty about the interpretation. On 
two beautiful vases (PI. 4, 5), the hydria in Flor- 
ence certainly by the Meidias painter himself, 
and the crater in Palermo of the school of the 
Meidias painter, the beautiful Phaon is definitely 
pictured. The inscription on the latter, 
‘“‘Phaon is beautiful,”’ leaves no doubt in the 
matter. But the girl called Chryse or Philomele 
is perhaps wrongly interpreted as Sappho. 
These vases are probably older than the comedy 
on Phaon, by Plato (not to be confused with the 
philosopher). Phaon is painted as handsome; 
all the girls are adorning themselves and making 


[ 107 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


love to him, but he has had too much attention 
from the ladies and is sick of them (cf. p. 40 
above). On another crater,!” in Bologna (Pl. 17), 
in style not far removed from the vase-painter 
Polygnotus, Phaon appears seated at the oar 
in a boat, about to take aboard the tall goddess, 
who was to give him a perennial antidote against 
old age. 

Before we leave ancient painting we ought to 
mention a picture of Sappho in a garb as a lutist 
which the encyclopaedic Pliny assigns to Leon.’ 
We know nothing about him, but he was 
probably one of the numerous second rate 
artists of Hellenistic times. An epigram in the 
Anthology and the Christian Father Tatian ™ 
seem to have referred to this portrait. Several 
Pompeian frescoes, and one from Herculaneum 
representing a lady with a stilus about to write 
her thoughts on a tablet, have been named 
Sappho. Only in the case of one ™ do I feel 
that there is any probability at all that Sappho 
was meant, and in that one Alcaeus appears 
standing by the side of the seated Lesbian 
poetess (Pl. 18). 

There must have been statues and busts of 
Sappho, but so many have been called Sappho 
without definite evidence that it is difficult to 


[ 108 ]} 


SAPPHO IN ART 


know where to stop. We must always bear in 
mind that early Greek art in Sappho’s day did 
not believe in realistic portraiture and that all 
representations of Sappho are “study heads,” 
conceptions of later artists. The most famous 
statue mentioned in literature is that by Sila- 
nion, the Greek sculptor of the fourth century 
B.c., who was so noted for his Plato and 
Corinna.’> We learn from Cicero’s Oration 
against Verres ° and from Tatian’s Complaint 
against the Greeks or Pagans that this bronze 
statue, on the base of which Cicero was still 
able to read the epigram, stood in the prytaneum 
at Syracuse, perhaps a memorial of Sappho’s 
sojourn in Sicily. Cicero tells us that it was 
stolen by Verres and praises it highly: “Could 
this work of Silanion, so perfect, so refined, so 
finished, be in fitter hands public or private 
than those of a man so refined and cultured 
as Verres?. . . And how sorely this stolen 
Sappho was missed is almost more than words 
can tell. Not only was the poetess exquisitely 
portrayed, but there was a world-famous Greek 
couplet inscribed upon the base . . . For the 
inscription on the empty base declares to- 
day what the statue was, thus proclaiming the 
theft”? (Edmonds). 


[ 109 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


We know from literature of the existence of 
two other later statues. We have spoken 
(p. 34) of the epigram of Damocharis which 
refers to a portrait of Sappho with bright eyes 
and mixed expression of gaiety and graveness. 
An epigram by Antipater ?’ (p. 8) is thought to 
come from a statue at Pergamum and since part 
of an inscription found at Pergamum ”* men- 
tions Alcaeus, it is a plausible conjecture that 
the lost portion contained the name of Sappho. 
This is probably the same bronze seated statue 
which in the fifth century A.D. stood in the 
gymnasium of Zeuxippus at Constantinople and 
which is described by Christodorus in his 
Greek Anthology: ?° ‘‘She seemed to be weav- 
ing a well-hymned song, concentrating her 
thought on the silent Muses.” 

No full-size statue which we can certainly 
identify as Sappho’s has been preserved. The 
seated lady in the Vatican holding a volume in 
her left hand is hardly Sappho, and it is not safe 
to call the standing lady with lyre in New York 
in the Metropolitan Museum by her name. 
It would be interesting to believe, as some do, 
that the famous maiden of Anzio in the National 
Museum in Rome was Sappho, but some 
scholars of repute even go so far as to say that 


[{rr0 7] 


SAPPHO IN ART 


it is not even a maiden but rather a boy. Others 
say that a priestess, not a poetess, is portrayed. 
After repeated examination of the original I 
have no doubt of her sex and believe the statue 
to be that of a poetess, but whether of Praxilla 
or Sappho or some other cannot be definitely 
stated. We have, however, many Roman busts 
of different types ° which have been conjectured 
to represent Sappho. One type in all probability 
is copied from Silanion, as it resembles closely 
in the features of the face and the arrangement 
of the hair, especially the little curls in front of 
the face and in the covering of the head, the 
portrait of Sappho on the early coins of Mytilene. 
The best example of this type is the bust in the 
Villa Albani in Rome (Pl. 19). It has the per- 
fection, refinement, and finish to which Cicero 
referred, and Sappho is “‘exquisitely portrayed.” 
In the Biscari collection at Catania, Sicily, there 
is a Roman copy of a head meant to be inserted 
in a bust or statue. It is so poorly finished that 
it was probably placed in a niche or chapel to be 
seen from a distance. The oval face is young 
but placid and cold, a characteristic partly due 
to the Roman copyist. With its corkscrew 
curls and in other respects it is similar enough 
to the busts in the Villa Albani and the Galleria 


bias) | 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


Geographica of the Vatican to be classed with 
them. If they represent Sappho, the Sicilian 
bust also does. If Rizzo is right that this is a 
muse or nymph, then a copy of Silanion’s 
statue still remains to be found. 

The so-called head of Sappho in the Pitti in 
Florence is of a different type, more dream-like, 
and may not be Sappho at all. More likely to 
represent Sappho are the busts in Oxford (PI. 20) 
and the Vatican. Other busts about which there 
is considerable doubt are in Naples, in the Ric- 
cardi Palace, in the Uffizi at Florence, and there 
is a double herm in Madrid which has been 
called Sappho and Phaon. Of the so-called 
Phaon in Madrid, Amelung has recently found 
in the storerooms of the Vatican a beautiful 
replica, and he has also discovered there another 
Sappho bust of the type on coins. In the sum- 
mer of 1922 I photographed a bust, which is in 
the Borghese Palace, and I think that it may 
represent Sappho (Pl. 21). It resembles a colos- 
sal head from Smyrna in Constantinople, the 
bust in Naples, and the double bust in Madrid in 
its energetic and individualized features, such as 
the large nose and thick lips, and in the curl on 
the forehead beneath the middle of the fillet. 
Rizzo would trace the Naples bust back to about 


[err) | 


SAPPHO IN ART 


420 B.c. and call it an ideal representation of a 
mortal or perhaps even a courtesan. But 
Sappho might easily have been represented in 
the type of a courtesan or even a muse. The 
large bronze bust in New York which has been 
published as a portrayal of Sappho can hardly 
represent the poetess, even if the bronze is 
genuine and has the sanction of great authorities 
such as Eisen,'*! Babelon, and André, since it 
resembles none of the known portraits of her. 
The Romans as well as the Greeks were un- 
doubtedly very fond of statues of Sappho, and 
some day excavators will turn up for us more 
authenticated portraits. The recently dis- 
covered Roman stucco relief which we have 
already described (p. 42) shows what we may 
expect from future discoveries. Even such 
articles of every-day-use as scales have weights 
in the form of a Sappho head, such as that 
recently discovered.” 

What we have said about the uncertainty of 
representations of Sappho in ancient sculpture 
applies equally to the portrait of her on gems. 
Cipollini has listed and illustrated many ancient 
and modern gems and miniatures, but even if 
those called ancient are forgeries or are from 
Renaissance times, the great number of them 


[113 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


shows the unusual influence of Sappho on the 
glyptic art in precious stones. 

After Roman days Sappho was often pictured 
and sculptured in various ideal ways.’* Space 
fails us to discuss the almost endless works of 
later art influenced by her name and traditions; 
and it seems idle to detain the reader with a 
detailed catalogue. But to leave no doubt that 
Sappho has had a vast and powerful influence 
on art of all ages, I may mention some of the 
more important. During the last sixty years 
especially, sculpture has paid a frequent and 
international tribute to her. Now she is repre- 
sented as sad and pensive, now meditating 
suicide, now about to make the fatal leap from 
the Leucadian rock as in Pietro Magni’s Saffo 
(1866), now even as a corpse on the surface of the 
sea. Magni’s statue (Pl. 22) was much admired 
during his lifetime and it reminds one of the 
Roman stucco relief, since it likewise represents 
Sappho, lyre in hand and with head wreathed, 
standing on the edge of the rock. She is holding 
back her skirts with her left hand and looking 
seriously at the waters below, with the intention 
of stepping off at the next moment. In 1878 
the illustrious Lombard sculptor, Francesco 
Confalonieri, influenced it may be by the 


[114 ] 


SAPPHO IN ART 


Vatican Agrippina, made a seated statue which 
represents Sappho in profile with sad and bowed 
head, clasping her hands on her left side, her 
lyre abandoned on the floor. France did not 
approve of this statue because some years be- 
fore Pradier also had sculptured a draped and 
dreaming Sappho who was seated on the 
Leucadian rock with bowed head and hands 
clasped about her raised crossed left leg, her lyre 
lying neglected on the rock (Pl. 23). Pradier had 
also sculptured a standing, draped Sappho with 
bowed head holding her lyre in her left hand, 
and supporting her right on an Ionic column on 
which rest the rolls of her divine poetry. 

The great German sculptor Danneker, who 
was so fond of classical subjects and was the 
sculptor of the famous Ariadne, chiselled a charm- 
ing marble statuette of Sappho (1796). The 
beautiful bas-relief in Greek style in the Vienna 
Volksgarten, which R. Weyr sculptured for the 
Grillparzer Monument, represents Sappho’s fare- 
well. She stands in drapery like that of the 
Erechtheum Caryatids. She is holding a lyre 
and kissing good-bye to a girl friend who gives 
her a last embrace. A shepherd kneels nearby 
and others in the background are recoiling in 
fear. She herself stands at the edge of the 


[115 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


steps in front of Apollo’s temple, and there is 
much other Greek architecture in this relief. 

In France, Claude Ramey (1801) exhibited a 
seated statue; Duret (1806), a Sappho writing 
to Phaon; Beauvallet (1817), a_bust; Diebolt 
(1848), a dying Sappho of noble and poetical 
expression. Other statues of Sappho were 
made and exhibited in the Salon by Laurent 
(1849), Grootaers (1852), Travaux (1852, now 
in the Louvre), Aizelin (1853, bronze), Loison 
(1859), Grabowski (1859), Clésinger (1859, 
three statues, “‘Sappho singing her last song, 
Seated on the Leucadian rock,” ‘‘The youth of 
Sappho,” and a polychrome statue), Robinet 
(1861), Doriot (1872), and Signora Maraini. 
In America, too, from the days of Story and 
Hezekiah Augur to the bronze doors of the new 
Detroit Public Library Sappho has been a sub- 
ject for sculpture. Many are the busts which are 
inscribed to-day with the name of Sappho, such 
as that by A. Gennai in the possession of Mrs. 
W. B. Hill of Baltimore, or that by Sheldon. 

In painting, though not often a subject for 
the greatest painters, Sappho was represented in 
Greek and Roman days and ever since right 
down to the most famous modern picture of her 
and her pupils by Alma Tadema, of which we 


[ 116 | 


SAPPHO IN ART 


have given a description above (p. 32). Sev- 
eral pictures, such as Titian’s Sacred and Pro- 
fane Love, have been supposed by great critics 
to represent Sappho, but it is difficult to agree 
with Poppelreuter that Titian really meant to 
paint a Naiad counselling Sappho, who is lament- 
ing her love in the forest, to take the Leucadian 
leap."* In some cases fortunately the painters 
themselves have labelled them. Raphael is per- 
haps the greatest painter who pictured her. He 
brings her significantly in his Parnassus (Pl. 24) 
into juxtaposition with Petrarch, who dedicated 
four verses of his tenth eclogue to her (see p. 136). 
She is represented prominently to the left of 
the doorway, resting her left arm on it and hold- 
ing in her left hand a papyrus roll with the name 
Sappho upon it. Other minor painters who 
have painted Sappho are Treshain (1683, ‘The 
Adventures of Sappho”), Ansiaux (1801), Ducis 
(1812), Vafflard (1819, “Sappho rescued from 
the water by a stranger”), Girodet (1828, a 
series of compositions from her first love affair 
to the legendary leap), Lafond (1831), Vien 
(1833, “Sappho playing the lyre,” and ‘Sappho 
reciting to Phaon”’), Chasseriau (1850), Chau- 
tard (1855), Agneni (1857, “‘Sappho rescued 
from the water by the Nereids”’), Credés (1859), 


[117 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


Kauffmann (two beautiful pictures, “Sappho 
inspired by love” and “Sappho talking with 
Homer;’” these like many of the other pictures 
were also engraved). Barrias painted a sleeping, 
nude Sappho, with her lyre by her side, and 
represents her perhaps repeating the words: 
‘‘The silver moon is set; The Pleiades are gone; 
Half the long night is spent, and yet I lie alone” 
(Merivale). Other painters of Sappho are 
Fragonard, Gros, Devosge, Bartolazzi, Picou 
(1863), Loir (1864), Chifflart (1865), Bertrand 
(1867, “Death of Sappho”), Gastaldi (1873, 
‘Sappho meditating suicide’’), Gleyre (“Couch 
of Sappho”). Hector Leroux in his “School of 
Sappho” represents her standing in the atrium 
of a Roman house, with lyre in her left hand, on 
a platform inscribed with the name of the 
Lesbian Sappho, evidently giving instruction 
to her many friends and pupils who stand and 
sit in various postures in the audience. 

This is only a partial list and could easily be 
extended, but enough has been said to show that 
a knowledge of the real Sappho and her writings 
and the legends connected with her will help one 
to be a sound and intelligent critic of much in 
the realm of art. 


[ 118 | 


VI. SAPPHO’S INFLUENCE ON 
GREEK AND ROMAN 
LITERATURE 


F SAPPHO’S influence on art has been con- 
] siderable, her place in literature has been 

far more remarkable. Nearly every thought 
in her fragments, which were known before the 
recent papyrus additions, has been borrowed or 
adapted by some ancient Greek or Roman poet 
or some modern poet in English, Italian, French, 
German, or modern Greek. Even the Spanish, 
Scandinavians, and Russians (p. 233) know her, 
though not so well acquainted with her as the 
authors of other nations. A very remarkable 
thing is that her writings have in all the ages 
been almost never unfavorably criticized from 
a literary point of view, no matter how her 
character was regarded. We have already, in 
giving a résumé of Sappho’s writings, cited many 
an echo, many a translation, many a dilation or 
dilution, but have seen that the real flavor of 
Sappho’s Greek cannot be transferred to any 
other language. In this and succeeding chapters, 


[ 119 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


however, some of the names of writers who owe 
much to her will be brought together. She 
herself was original and coined many a new idea, 
many a new word, and perfected a new form of 
metre. Just as a modern poet, Tennyson for 
example, is indebted to his predecessors, Keats, 
Shelley, Shakespeare, for images and ideas, 
she was somewhat indebted in language and 
thought to Homer,’ who filled the fancy of 
the Lesbians and was himself, probably, born at 
the neighboring Smyrna. She took little from 
Hesiod, although we find a few echoes of him 
which I cite in a note.“* On the other hand, 
succeeding poets of the next hundred years 
seem to have taken little from her. Mimner- 
mus probably knew the second ode, and his 
lines are included in the Corpus of Theognis.'*’ 
If the fragment “Gold is Zeus’ child, no moth 
nor worm devours it (E. 110)” is Sappho’s and 
not originally written by Pindar himself, then 
Pindar took that idea from Sappho."* Herodo- 
tus tells the story of Rhodopis, and Plato, who 
would exclude poets from his ideal state, makes 
Socrates speak in the Phaedrus of the beautiful 
Sappho as one of the wise ancients, and he calls 
her the Tenth Muse in his famous epigram. 
Aristotle, who refers to her three times, is the 


[ 120 | 


ON GREEK AND ROMAN LITERATURE 


first one definitely to quote her verses and that 
twice in the Rhetoric (E. 91, 119, and p. 150). 
Aristotle’s pupil Theophrastus, who was also 
born in Eresus cites her (epi Néfews, Mayer, 1910) 
as the representative of charm in all its forms. 
That essential element of charm is emphasized 
by Plutarch and by Demetrius, the rhetorician 
of the first century A.D., in his Essay on 
Style. Another pupil of Aristotle, Chamaeleon 
(310 B.C.), wrote a book about her. 

Sappho’s influence was not great in the field 
of Greek and Roman tragedy. Aeschylus and 
Sophocles betray no acquaintance with her, 
but Euripides was considerably affected by her 
verses on love. When he writes in Electra (1.67), 
“T consider you a friend equal to the gods,” 
he is thinking of the first verse of Sappho’s 
second song. Plutarch cites Aristoxenus as 
saying that the tragedians learned the mixed 
Lydian mode from her. In comedy Aristoph- 
anes had a slight acquaintance with her, and 
he was thinking of Sappho’s first hymn in his 
suffragette play Lysistrata (ll. 723 ff.), where 
a love-sick devotee of Aphrodite endeavors to 
escape from the Acropolis on the back of the 
sparrow, Aphrodite’s bird. Epicrates dealt 
with Sappho in his comedy, Anti-Lais, before 


[a2 rs | 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


the year 392 B.c.; and Athenaeus applies the 
words of Epicrates to himself: 


And all the songs that Sappho sang so sweetly, 
Breathing of love, I know by heart completely. 


Sappho was the title of plays by six different 
Greek comedians, Ameipsias, Amphis, Anti- 
phanes, Diphilus, Ephippus, and Timocles. Of 
those by Ameipsias and Amphis we have only 
a single word, and the fragments of the others 
throw little light on the question as to how much 
was taken from Sappho herself. To the plays 
of Plato, Menander, and Antiphanes on the 
legends of Phaon and the Leucadian Leap, we 
have already referred (p. 41). 

In the Hellenistic Age, after the time of Alex- 
ander, Sappho was very popular. Clearchus, 
the Peripatetic philosopher (300 B.c.) drew on 
her for his Treatise on Love Matters.°® In the 
third book of his Biographies Aristoxenus, a 
writer on music (320 B.c.), classes her among 
inventors as did Menaechmus of Sicyon in his 
treatise On Artists. He says that “her books 
were her companions.” “° The third century 
B.c. showed a serious interest in the Lesbians, 
and Theocritus has many imitations of Sappho 
in dialect,“! metre, and content. In the second 


[r22\) 


ON GREEK AND ROMAN LITERATURE 


idyl Simaetha’s description of her feelings is 
taken from Sappho. In the seventh idyl, the 
picture of the farm to which two friends walked 
out from Syracuse in order to attend a harvest 
home festival, Theocritus is imitating Sappho’s 
Garden of the Nymphs, especially in ll. 135 ff.: 
“Close at hand the sacred water from the 
nymphs’ own cave welled forth with murmurs 
musical”? (Lang). Probably the eighteenth 
idyl on Helen and Menelaus borrowed much 
from Sappho, since the first lines seem to be 
cited as Sappho’s by Himerius. Line 38, “O 
maid of beauty, maid of grace,” is lifted bodily 
from Sappho. The twenty-eighth idyl on 
A Distaff undoubtedly employed Sappho as a 
model, and likewise the twenty-ninth and 
thirtieth idyls. 

Callimachus (270 B.c.) in his first hymn 
(Il. os ff.) echoes the fragment which influenced 
Pindar (E. 100): “Wealth without virtue cannot 
make men happy, nor virtue without wealth, 
therefore grant both virtue and wealth.” It 
was about the same time that a fellow townsman, 
Callias, interpreted her poems as well as those 
of Alcaeus. Apollonius of Rhodes (260 B.C.) 
knew her, and so did the Lament for Bion, 
which has been attributed doubtfully to 


[ 123 | 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


Moschus (150 B.c.): “‘Oh, Bion, Mytilene be- 
wails thy song evermore instead of Sappho’s” 
(III. 91). Bion (100 B.c.?) in his Lament for 
Adonis was probably influenced by Sappho’s 
words about the dying Adonis (E. 103) and used 
in 1. 44 the same word as Sappho did in E. 29. 
The philosopher Chrysippus (240 B.c.) mentions 
her (fr. 36, 69), as does Cicero’s contemporary, 
the poet-philosopher Philodemus (60 B.c.). In 
fragment 57a he speaks of her, and in an epigram 
he uses as an “‘intelligence test” of an educated 
woman a knowledge of the poems of Sappho. 
Alexander the Sophist gave a university exten- 
sion course of lectures on her poems. A little 
later in the Augustan Age the great literary 
critic and grammarian, Dionysius of Halicarnas- 
sus (20 B.Cc.), quotes the hymn to Aphrodite, 
and Strabo calls her a marvel. Living probably 
sometime in the first century A.D., the anony- 
mous author of the Treatise on the Sublime 
quotes the second ode. A little later, about 
85 A.D., the golden-tongued orator, Dio, cites 
her, and his contemporary Plutarch often refers 
to her, in his Essay on Love, 18; in his Dinner- 
table Problems, VII. 8, 2; in his Moralia, 243b, 
622c, and 406a, where there is a comparison with 
the practice of Pazderastia of Socrates. Plu- 


[ 124 ] 


ON GREEK AND ROMAN LITERATURE 


tarch prefers Anacreon, but refers to at least 
four of the fragments which are preserved from 
Sappho (E. 2, 48, 71, 137). 

Among the Romans Sappho was flattered 
abundantly, if imitation is the sincerest flattery. 
As Tucker says: “‘the most genuine lyric poet 
of Rome, Catullus, and its most skilful artificer 
of odes, Horace, both freely copied her. They 
did more than imitate; they plagiarised, they 
translated, sometimes almost word for word.” 
The flattery does not begin until the time of 
Cicero, for Latin comedy, unlike Greek comedy, 
paid little heed to the Lesbian poetess. Cicero re- 
fers to Silanion’s statue (p.1og). Lucretius must 
have taken his description at second hand, per- 
haps from some medical source, if he did not take 
the verses of the second ode of Sappho direct as 
his model for his description of fear.” Catullus 
(84-54 B.c.), who caught the Greek rhythm 
even better than Horace, translated the same ode 
in his famous fifty-first poem, addressed to Lesbia, 
and adapted the fragments on the hyacinth and 
the evening star in his epithalamia, the sixty- 
first and sixty-second songs in the Catullian 
collection. Probably in the sixty-second he is 
imitating a lost poem of Sappho. The verse of 
Sappho (E. 142), “I flutter like a child after her 


[ 125 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


mother,” referring perhaps to a wounded bird, 
has been used by Catullus in his well-known 
third poem, on the Passer, which probably also 
imitated a poem of Sappho. 

In XI. 22-24, Catullus was perhaps thinking 
of Sappho’s stricken hyacinth, although some 
rustic proverb may also have been in his mind: 


Qui illius culpa cecidit velut pratt 
Vitimi flos, praetereunte postquam 
Tactus aratro est. 


Think not henceforth, thou, to recall Catullus’ 
Love; thy own sin Slew it, as on the meadow’s 
Verge declines, un-gently beneath the ploughshare 
Stricken, a flower. 
(RoBINSON ELLIs) 


From these lines and not from Sappho herself, 
of whom there is no echo in Virgil, Virgil took 
his description of the dying Euryalus: 


And like the purple flower the plough cuts down 
He droops and dies. 
(Aeneid, TX. 435) 


We are reminded of Robert Burns’ To A 
Mountain Daisy: 


But now the share uptears thy bed, 
And low thou lies! 


[ 126 ] 


ON GREEK AND ROMAN LITERATURE 


Stern Ruin’s ploughshare drives, elate, 
Full on thy bloom, 

Till crushed beneath the furrow’s weight, 
Shall be thy doom! 


We refer on p.o to Catullus’ allusion to 
Sappho in XXXV. 17. 

In the age of Augustus, even if Virgil neglects 
Sappho, in Horace (65-8 B.c.) she is reborn. 
If Edmonds ™ is right in his analysis of a pass- 
age in Dio’s Corinthian Oration, two fragments 
(E. 76, 77) of Sappho are incorporated there 
from a poem which Horace imitated in the 
same metre: 


Exegi monumentum aere perennius. 


Edmonds even goes so far as to suggest that 
Horace imitated not only the poem written by 
Sappho, but its position. For he thinks that 
this poem of Sappho was an epilogue to her 
collection; and Horace placed his imitation at 
the end of the third book, when he probably 
thought it would be his last. Horace seems to 
be adapting Sappho in the twelfth ode of the 
third book (see Landor’s imitation, p. 202). 
He composed twenty-six or more odes in the 


ee 7a 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


Sapphic metre, which he fitted to Italian meas- 
ures, and he does them well, though in colder 
Latin. In him 


Still breathed the love, still lived the fire 
To which the Lesbian tuned her lyre. 1*° 


He pictures her in Hades’ home: 


Aecoliis fidibus querentem 
Sappho puellis de popularibus. 


The meaning is simply that she is “singing 
plaintively (or complaining) about the girls of 
her country,” perhaps because they did not all 
return her love, as Atthis deserted her for 
Andromeda (E. 81); not that she complained 
of her fellow-maidens for not loving Phaon. 
Unconsciously Horace helped to defame Sap- 
pho’s character, for the epithet “mascula,” in 
the Epistle I. 19, 28, repeated by Ausonius, 
Idyl, VI. 21, has led to gross abuse of Sappho’s 
good fame.” It has no relation to mascu'a 
libido and should be interpreted in the light of 
Statius “8 as referring simply to the fact that 
she was an imitator of the measures of Archil- 
ochus and the equal of men poets. Of elegiac 
writers, Tibullus and Propertius (II. 8, 33) were 
influenced only in a general way by the personal 
and ardent poetry of Sappho’s lyrics. Ovid in the 


[ 128 | 


ON GREEK AND ROMAN LITERATURE 


fifteenth epistle of the Heroides pictured Sappho 
as a passionate and voluptuous hetaera who 
could not win the love of the beautiful Phaon. 
With passion she burns “as when through 
ripened corn By driving winds the spreading 
flames are borne,” and seeks release and ease, 
‘from the raging seas.” Ovid (43 B.c.-18 A.D.) 
in this letter and also in the Tristia (II. 365, 
Lesbia quid docuit Sappho nist amare puellas) 
completed the Roman defamation of Sappho’s 
good name begun by Horace, and so led the way 
for the modern idea. From this disgrace she 
has been rescued by Madame Anne Le Févre 
Dacier (1681), by Welcker (1816), the bachelor 
who loved Sappho’s genius and who by his 
chivalrous vindication made himself her knight, 
and by Wilamowitz (1896), — her three great 
defenders. 

Seneca (circa 4 B.C.—65 A.D.) in his Letters to 
Lucilius (88) quotes a book of the grammarian 
Didymus on the question Whether Sappho was 
a prostitute. In the Flavian period, Statius in 
his miscellaneous poems, called Silvae, mentions 
heres 


saltusque ingressa viriles 
Non formidata temeraria Leucade Sappho, 
Quosque alios dignata chelys. 


[ 129 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


About the same time Martial (c. 40-104 A.D.) 
cites a poem ° of Canius on Sappho: ‘‘Sappho 
the lover praised a poetess: more pure is 
Theophila, yet Sappho was not more learned” 
(Ker). 

In the second century A.D. Sappho was 
especially popular. In the time of Hadrian, 
Dracon of Stratonicea wrote a book about 
Sappho’s metres. In the days of Plutarch 
the songs of Sappho were often sung at dinner 
parties. And Aulus Gellius (170 A.D.) in his 
Attic Nights *' shows us that Sappho was all 
the rage in his day as in the time of Plutarch. 
It was the custom ‘‘after the chief courses were 
disposed of and the time was come for wine 

. to have delightful renderings of a number 
of the songs of Anacreon and Sappho.” In the 
second century many writers on grammar, such 
as Apollonius Dyscolus and his son Herodian, 
Hephaestion (on metre), Demetrius (perhaps 
first century A.D.), Hermogenes, Maximus of 
Tyre, and Aristides (on rhetoric), Aelian, Pausa- 
nias, and Pollux quote Sappho abundantly. 
The great satirist Lucian (c. 120-c. 200 AD;) 
calls her “the delicious glory of the Lesbians,” 1 
makes her the standard for ladies of learning who 
write poems, and has her contribute to one 


[ 130 ] 


ON GREEK AND ROMAN LITERATURE 


of his pictures ‘‘the elegance of life.” In 
Loves (I, p. 905) he uses almost the very first 
words of the second ode. That Galen, another 
writer of the second century A.D., who knew not 
only medicine but also the popularity of Sappho, 
was speaking with authority on literature when 
he said that Sappho was “‘the poetess,” is shown 
by the fact that most of the papyri with quota- 
tions from Sappho date from his time or from 
the third century, the century when Athenaeus 
and Philostratus, who cited much from Sappho, 
were living. 

In the fourth century Eusebius, Themistius, 
and the Emperor Julian, as well as Himerius, 
often quote her. Ausonius in Jdyl VI says: 


Et de nimboso saltum Leucate minatur 
Mascula Lesbiacis Sappho peritura sagittis. 


Claudian in his work on the Marriage of 
Honorius and Mary (ll. 229-235) makes Mary 
“never cease under her mother’s guidance to 
unroll the writers of Rome and Greece, all that 
old Homer sang, or Thracian Orpheus, or that 
Sappho set to music with Lesbian quill” 
(Platnauer). In the fifth century the Christian 
writer Synesius and that compiler of chresto- 
mathies Stobaeus often quote from Sappho. 


[ 131 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


There is nothing to be gained by giving a long 
list of the writers on technical subjects to whom 
we owe so many fragments of Sappho not found 
on papyrus or parchment. Enough have been 
cited to prove that Sappho was much read in 
the first four and even the fifth centuries A.D. 
Himerius !* especially proves her popularity in 
the fourth century, for he rewrites many of her 
songs in poetic prose and makes much use of 
Sapphic epithets and repetitions of words. The 
fragments (E. 68, 101) have influenced him in 
his Orations,**’ and in the epithalamium,® 
which he dedicated to his friend Severus in 
354 A.D., Sappho’s influence is very apparent 
(see above pp. 88 ff.). The bride is likened to an 
apple and the bridegroom to Achilles, although 
in the fragments preserved we have no Achilles 
but rather Ares. 

The many epigrams’?’ referring to Sappho, 
from Plato’s couplet written in the fourth 
century B.c. to the time of Paul the Silentiary 
(who died 575 A.D.), some of which we have 
quoted above, bear out the testimony for Sap- 
pho’s continuous influence through these thou- 
sand years; and now we can trace the reading 
of Sappho down to the seventh century, thanks 
to the finding in Egypt of two manuscripts of 


[ 132 ] 


ON GREEK AND ROMAN LITERATURE 


that century (E. 34, 82-86). Probably, how- 
ever, Sappho’s works were not much read even as 
early as the end of the sixth century. If so, Paul 
the Silentiary would never have written the 
epigram that appears in the Greek Anthology.” 
I give a literal translation: ‘Soft Sappho’s 
kisses; soft the embraces of her snowy limbs, 
soft every part of her, but her soul is of un- 
yielding adamant. For her love stops at her 
lips; the rest belongs to her virginity. And who 
could endure this? Perhaps one who has borne 
it, will endure the thirst of Tantalus easily.” 
As Professor Gildersleeve % says: ‘Could 
Paulus have ever read anything of burning 
Sappho? We often envy the Byzantines their 
richer stores, but they seem to have been more 
familiar with Menander than with the early 
lyrists . . . Tell us, Pothos and Himeros, 
why has Paulus taken the name of Sappho in 
vain? We forgive him for playing with Theoc- 
ritus’ Galatea but he ought to have let Sappho 
sleep alone.” Perhaps Paulus had heard of the 
question debated in school and society ever 
since the days of Didymus; and so he came to her 
defence with an interesting compromise on her 
tantalizing chastity. 


[ 133 ] 


VII. SAPPHO IN THE MIDDLE 
AGES AND THE RENAISSANCE 


OW LONG after the seventh century 

Sappho was read we cannot say, but 

in mediaeval days men were either en- 

tirely ignorant of her or had erroneous ideas. 
By the ninth century she seems to have become 
almost unknown, otherwise the critic and com- 
piler Photius '° would have preserved some of 
her works. He refers only to the tradition of her 
love for Phaon and the Leucadian Leap, and 
to the hypothesis that she was different from 
Sappho the courtesan, as she had been branded 
by that father of the church, Tatian (about 
140 A.D.), who called her a female harlot, love- 
mad, ytvaov ropyixdv ‘epwrouavés. That idea 
undoubtedly led to the burning of her books, 
according to Cardan, under Gregory Nazianzen, 
about 380 A.D. According to Scaliger, the burn- 
ing took place in Constantinople and Rome in 
1073. In any case, no manuscript has survived 
in Europe; and it is strange that now not even 
her legendary adventures with Phaon appear 


[ 134 ] 


IN THE MIDDLE AGES 


in the popular literature. The Etymologicum 
Magnum (1000 A.D.?) mentions her only five 
times, but in that way preserves for us five 
fragments. After the time of that lexicon and 
Suidas, the mediaeval encyclopaedias and the 
Speculum Historiale of Vincent de Beauvais of 
the thirteenth century make no mention of her, 
though they cite many another Greek poet. 
Georgius Cedrenus (1015 A.D.?), a Greek monk, 
who in his Compendium Historiarum said that 
she was “‘the first of the Muses,” is about the 
only one of this time who notices her. Anna 
Comnena,! daughter of the Emperor Com- 
nenus I, quotes as Sappho’s the verses sup- 
posed to be addressed to Sappho by Alcaeus 
(E. 119). And the archbishop Eustathius pre- 
serves a few fragments. Dante makes no 
reference to her, unless possibly very faintly 
in the verse ‘“‘le muse lattar pid ch’ altri 
mai.” Boccaccio (1313-1375), Who seems to 
have been forgotten by modern writers on 
Sappho, includes her among his Delle Donne 
Famose, “ma confortata da pit caldo fervore 
d’animo (i suoi versi sono famosi) ... e 
certamente non sono pitii famose che la sua 
corona le corone dei re, né le mitre de’ sacer- 
doti, né le lauree de’ trionfanti.”’ Petrarch 


ass 4 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


(1304-1374) mentions Sappho in his Triumph 
of Lovet LVe 25) 33% 


Una giovane Greca a paro a paro 
Coi nobili poeti gid cantando 
Ed aveva un suo stil leggiadro e raro. 


In his Tenth Eclogue he dedicated four verses 
to her: 


Altera sollicitt laqueos cantabit amoris 

Docta puella, choris doctorum immuiata virorum 
Cinnameus roseo calamus cut semper ab ore 
Pendulus et dulces mulcebant astra querelae. 


Petrarch’s friend, Domenico di Bandino of 
Arezzo (1340-c. 1415), professor at Bologna, 
gave her a brief article in his encyclopaedic 
Fons Memorabilium Universt. The other com- 
mentators on Petrarch ignore her. Giorgio 
Merula (1424-1494), Poliziano’s adversary, ac- 
cepts the whole Ovidian legend as historical 
fact and even adds a new item to Sappho’s life 
by giving her a son Didas by her wealthy 
Andrian husband, Cercylas. 

THE RENAISSANCE. There was now a second 
“‘floruit”’ of Sappho’s fame, but like her previous 
popularity among the Romans the second renais- 
sance was not favorable to Sappho, and there 
was no true understanding of the historical 


[ 136 ] 


IN THE MIDDLE AGES 


Sappho. It was in the fifteenth century that 
Ovid’s perverse epistle was discovered and from 
that time on it biased all Sapphic literature. 
The great humanist Poliziano knew her slightly 
and has left a Latin version of the epigram on 
Timas. Domizio Calderini (1447-1477), the 
learned though not overcritical humanist, based 
his little knowledge of Sappho on an uncritical 
use of Suidas. He even falsified Horace’s 
querentem by forging in its place gaudentem, 
and transformed Sappho from the leader of a 
sacred sorority into a tribade ™ or lover of her 
pupils, even of the famous poetess Erinna. The 
result was that the great injustice done Sappho 
by Horace and especially by Ovid was much 
aggravated. Thanks to Tatian and Calderini, 
working at different times and in different fields, 
Sappho was even more misjudged in the seven- 
teenth century. It would be idle to cite the 
many authors who mention or malign her but 
who give us little material of literary importance: 
Giraldi (1489-1552), Ludovico di Castelvetro 
(1sos-1571), Giorgio Carraria (1514 A.D.), 
Iacopo Filippo Pellenagra (1517 4.D.), Francesco 
Anguillac (1572), who well renders the second 
ode, “Parmi quell’uomo equale essere 4 i Dei,” 
Lorenzo Crasso (1625?), Ugo Foscolo (1776- 


[ 137 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


1827), and many another.“ One needs only to 
read the long account with many references in 
the famous Dictionnaire historique et critique 
(1696) by that learned compiler, Pierre Bayle 
(1647-1706), who because of his scepticism 
lost his professorship of philosophy three years 
before (1693). In his ignorance he assumed 
that Sappho must have been bad and repeated 
the usual errors about her. I quote what he 
says ironically with regard to the charity of 
Madame Dacier: ‘‘charité de Mlle Le Févre 
qui a taché pour V’honneur de Sappho de rendre 
le fait incertain; mai je la crois trop raison- 
nable pour se facher que nous en croyons nos 
propres yeux.”” Anne Le Févre in 1681 had 
made the first real defense of Sappho’s charac- 
ter, long before Wilhelm Heinse’s Ardinghello, 
and one hundred and thirty-five years before 
Johannes Friedrich Welcker,’® who so influenced 
Goethe and Comparetti and Wilamowitz. 


[ 138 ] 


VIII. SAPPHO IN ITALY IN THE 
18ta AND 19Ta CENTURIES 


URING the eighteenth and nineteenth 
centuries Sappho was rehabilitated 
and countless works of literature and 

art show her influence. Though the old perverse 
idea pervades all forms of literature and art in 
many insidious ways and Sappho loses her real 
personality and becomes a heroine of Romance, 
and although the legends connected with her 
are given a prominent place in the sunlight, yet 
even this proves her great potentiality in 
modern times. 

The romantic Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837), 
who translated passages from the Odyssey and 
wrote an interesting essay on the Popular 
Errors of the Ancients, composed also a Last 
Song of Sappho. In this poem, drawn from 
Ovid, he has given the modern reader a strong 
impression for better or worse of the stormy 
and passionate soul of the great poetess. As 
in his Brutus, Leopardi is giving his own views 
of life, which are biased by his physical affliction; 


[ 139 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


but he blends his sorrow with that of nature and 
rises, especially in the third stanza, almost to the 
heights attained by Aeschylus in his Prometheus. 
He ends his song with beautiful mysterious 
pathos: 


Placida notte, e verecondo raggio 
Della cadente luna... 


Bello il tuo manto, o divo cielo; e bella 
Sei tu, rorida terra. Ahi di cotesta 
Infinita belta parte nessuna 
Alla misera Saffo 1 numi eV empia 
Sorte non fenno. 


Thou peaceful night, thou chaste and silver ray 
Of the declining Moon; 


Fair is thy sight, O sky divine, and fair 
Art thou, O dewy earth! Alas, of all 
This beauty infinite, no slightest part 

To wretched Sappho did the Gods or Fate 
Inexorable give... 


(F. H. Cuirre) 


One is reminded of Sappho’s silver moon in 
Leopardi’s calm first lines, and also of Sappho’s 
autumn fragment in the lines ‘‘ where in shade 
Of drooping willows doth a liquid stream 


[ 140 ] 


IN ITALY 


Display its pure and crystal course... .” 


Leopardi also translated the famous midnight 
song (p. 78) and imitated the third fragment in 
La Impazienza. Carducci’s (1888) comment on 
Leopardi is worth quoting: “la poetessa di 
Lesbo non fu né brutta né infelice come il Leo- 
pardi l’accolse a imagine sua da una tarda 
tradizione, e che della bellezza e dell’amore 
intese gustd, e cantd pid non potesse il Leo- 
pardi.”’ Leopardi believed in two Sapphos, as 
did Zannoni (1822), following the judgment 
of Visconti. About 1793, Pagnini (Pilenejo), 
wishing to praise Teresa Bandettini Landucci, 
likened her to Sappho in genius but not in 
habit: 


Te rediviva Saffo ognuno estima 
Pari @ingegno, e d’arte a quella prima: 
Ma per costumi e voglie in tutto set 
(Vanto maggior) dissimile da lei! 


Parini about 1777 dedicated an ode to Lady 
Pellegrina Amoretti d’Oneglia on her graduation 
from the University of Padua, La Laurea, in 
which he said that if instead of studying law she 
had given herself to literature she would have 
been the equal of Sappho. In 1782 Verri pub- 
blished Le Avventure di Saffo, in which there is a 


[ 141 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


paraphrase of the second ode. This romance was 
written in good literary style and had some fine 
thoughts and considerable Greek atmosphere. 
It went through more than a dozen editions, 
and was twice translated into French. In 1787 
Parini celebrated the seductive qualities of a 
Venetian Signora Cecilia Tron in a poem of 
which I quote the first two stanzas: 


Che pin dalla vivace 
Mente, lampi scoppiavano 
Di poetica face, 

Che tali mat non arsero 
L’amica di Faon; 


Né quando al coro intento 
Delle fanciulle lesbie 
Lerrante violento 
Per le midolla fervide 
Amoroso velen; 


One evening in 1827, as the story goes, the great 
Manzoni in the presence of Lamartine called 
La Palli, the happy-hearted Italian poetess, a 
“Saffo novella.” Eurica Dionigi was called the 
“Saffo Lazia,”’ and Anassilide was named “Saffo 
campestre”’ by the inhabitants on the Piave. 
Their verses, however, fall far short of the real 


[ 142 ] 


IN ITALY 


Sappho. In 1857 Giovanni Meli published 
La Morti di Saffu; and many another Italian 
writer has published poems in her honor, Gemma, 
Cipolla, Botti, etc. 

Tragedies on the subject of Sappho in Italy 
have been few, among others those of Luigi 
Scevola (1815) and Salvatore Cammarono 
(1842); that of Leopoldo Marenco (1880) 
pictured Sappho as one of the Furies who was 
rejected by Phaon when he became enamored 
of another woman. Giovanni Pacini (Naples, 
1840) first produced an opera on the theme, but 
changed the figure of Phaon to one who fell in 
love with Sappho and became jealous of Alcaeus, 
but was ready to die with him. 

In recent years Carducci, in his Primavere 
Elleniche, makes Sappho and Alcaeus follow 
Apollo across the Aegean in a boat drawn by 
two white swans: 


D’INTORNO girano come in leggera 

Danza le Cicladi patria del nume, 

Da lungi plaudono Cipro e Citera 
Con bianche spume. 


E un lieve il séguita pel grande Egeo 
Legno, a purpuree vele, canoro: 
Armato réggelo per V onde Alceo 

Da’! plettro d’ oro: 


[ 143 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


Saffo da’l candido petio anelante 

A laura ambrosia che da’! dio vola, 

Da’! riso morbido, da I’ ondeggiante 
Crin di viola, 


In mezzo assidest. 


The influence of Sappho on Italian literature 
is also seen in the many Italian translations of 
some or all of the fragments; Cappone (1670), 
Rogati (1783), Pilenejo (1793), Broglio d’Ajano 
(1804), Leopardi (1816), Benedetti da Cortona 
(1819), Foscolo (1822), Milani (1824), Zanotto 
(1844), Jacopo d’Oria (1845), Nievo (1858), 
Viani (1858), Bustelli (1863), Canini (1885), 
and others have translated the famous folk-song 
(see p. 78). Giovambattista Possevini (156s), 
Francesco Anguilla (1572), Pinelli (1639), Cap- 
pone (1670), Corsini (1700), Conti (1739), Verre 
(1780), Pindemonte (1781), Rogati (1783), 
Vincenzo Imperiale (1784), Pilenejo (1793), 
Tommaseo (1827), Comparetti (1876), Ardiz- 
zone (1876), Fraccaroli (1878), Ambrosoli (1878), 
Gemma (1879), Cavallotti (1883), De Guberna- 
tis (1883), Canini (1885) have translated the 
Hymn to Aphrodite. Rogati (1783), Gori 
(1801), Montalti (1804), Broglio d’Ajano (1804), 
Sabbione (1817), Venini (1818), Caselli (1819), 


[ 144 ] 


TENG EAT: 


Foscolo (1823), Milani (1824), Costa (1825), 
Accio (1830), Monti (1832), Leone (1843), 
Nievo (1858), Canna (1871), Fraccaroli (1878), 
Canini (1885) have translated or adapted the 
second ode. D’Ajano (1804) gave the first com- 
plete version of all the old fragments, and in 
1863 Bustelli did likewise, — neither of a high 
order of merit. In 1890 Cipollini published his 
verse translation of the first two odes and of 
the fragment about the Pleiades, which his 
brother set to music. The latest translation I 
have seen is by Latini (1914) and it is an excel- 
lent piece of work. Italy has had for the last 
hundred or more years a high regard for Sappho. 
Cipolla, thinking perhaps of Meleager’s com- 
parison of Sappho’s poems to roses, says: 
Ma i fior pir bell 

Eran, Saffo, i tuoi canti, e ben sapevt 

Destinato a durar presso 7 futurt, 

Tra i pin cari, il gentil nome di Saffo. 


And Zanotto says: 


Le corde Lesbie risuonar d’amore 
Per te, donna gentil, vanto di Grecia; 
Et il tuo lamento ancor discende al cuore. 


Many of the fragments besides those men- 
tioned have been translated into Italian or 


L145 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


imitated by Italian writers, as for example 
Zanella’s famous imitation, A donna ignorante: 


Tutta il sepolcro di accorra: memoria 
Non fia che di te resti, 

Perché le rose, del bel colle Aonio 
Le rose, non cogliesti: 

Tu senza nome scendarai dell’ Erebo 
A’tenebrost portt, 

E fatua larva fra le larve ignobilt 
Vagolerai dei morti. 


Montalti (1804) imitated the fragment on vir- 
ginity (p. 91), adding, however, much mate- 
rial of his own; and D’Oria (1845) expanded 
Sappho’s ten words on the evening star into: 


EsPERO amabile, 
Tu sempre apporti 
A not vivissime 
Giote e confortt. 


Tu splendi, e subito 
Le tazze, piene 
Di licor, vuotansi 
A liete cene. 


Gli armenti all’umile 
Ovil riduce 
La soavissima 
Tua bianca luce; 


[ 146 } 


IN ITALY 


E rende al tenero 
Seno di quella, 
Ond’ebbe il nascere, 
La pastorella. 


Zanella (1887) says in his Volo in Ellade, which 
Cipollini quotes at length, that it is sweet to 


Salutar le riviere a cui fedele 
L’eco dell’Ellesponto ancor ripete 
L’ardente inno di Saffo e le querele. 


There is not space to speak further of Sappho’s 
influence in Italy; we have said enough to show 
that Italian poetry has many echoes of Sappho 
and that Italy still takes an interest in the 
Lesbian lyrist. Ada Negri with her fiery pic- 
tures of passion is to-day called the modern 
Italian Sappho. 


[ 147 ] 


IX. SAPPHO IN LATIN TRANS- 
LATIONS, IN SPANISH, AND 
IN GERMAN 


E HAVE spoken of Sappho’s in- 
fluence on the ancient Latin authors 
and especially of Catullus’ transla- 


tion and elaboration of the second ode. Horace 
also may have translated whole odes, but we 
have only Catullus’ preserved. In later days 
many of the editions of Athenaeus, Dionysius, 
Pseudo-Longinus, Hephaestion, and of the 
Anthology included Latin versions, and many 
other writers have Latinized the fragments of 
Sappho, especially Ausonius, Stephanus, Thomas 
Venatorius, Lubinus, Poliziano, and Thomas 
Moore. One of Moore’s two versions of Plato’s 
epigram is quoted here: 


Musas esse novem referunt, sed prorsus aberrant. 
Lesbia jam Sappho Pieriis est decima. 


Among the Latin translators of the odes have 
been Elias Andreas, Simone Bircovio, Professor 
Le Févre (Tanaquillus Faber), Zacharias Pearce, 


| 148 ] 


IN TRANSLATIONS 


Valentini, Barbagallo and Allucci, Ambrocio, 
Emilio Porto and Birkow, etc. Gorsse, A. 
Stace, Vossius, and Henri Etienne and others 
have rendered the second ode into Latin. 

SPANISH. In Spain in 1794 there was a trans- 
lation of Sappho and many other Greek lyric 
poets into Castilian verse by D. Jos. y D. 
Bernabé Canga Arguelles; and in 1832 appeared 
a prose and verse translation of Anacreon, 
Sappho, and Tyrtaeus by D. Jose del Castilla 
y Ayensa. Recently in Paris (1913) has been 
printed a modern Spanish version by T. Meabe. 
But in general Sappho has had but little in- 
fluence on Spanish and German literatures, as 
compared with her great effect on Italian, 
French, and English. Mention, however, must 
not be omitted of the account of Sappho by 
A. Fernandez Merino. It is written in Spanish 
and discusses many of the Sapphic problems, 
giving full references. 

German. In 1710 Philander von der Linde 
translated the second ode, and in 1732 Hude- 
mann translated a few of the fragments, and 
there were good German editions of all Sappho’s 
fragments as early as the careful one by Chris- 
tian Wolf (1734). In 1744 appeared Neukirch’s 
translation of the first two odes, and in 1746 


[ 149 | 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


Gétz published his translation in rhymeless 
verse. In the same year appeared Stahlin’s 
translations. In 1764 “the German Sappho,” 
Die Karshin, mentions Sappho five or six times 
and Phaon, but has no direct echoes. In 1776 
Meinecke put Sappho into verse; in 1782 Ram- 
ler; in 1783 Giinther Wahl. In 1787 verse 
translations were published at Berlin and Lie- 
bau, and in 1793 Conz published his translation 
of the fragment, To an Ignorant Girl. In 1809 
Friedrich Gottlieb Born edited an edition for 
schools; in the same year C. Braun translated 
the fragments; in 1810 Volger published his 
very important and rare edition with commen- 
tary and musical schemes. He was soon fol- 
lowed by Welcker’s defense (1816), which 
Goethe mentions four times. But Sappho’s 
poetry remained a closed book to Goethe. 
There were many succeeding editions or transla- 
tions: Degen (1821), Neue (1827), Brockhausen’s 
verse imitations (1827), Richter (1833), Jager 
(1836), Gerhard’s free rendering for German stu- 
dent songs (1847), Kéchly (1851), Hartung 
(1857), Weise (1878), Theodor Bergk’s great 
edition of 1882 reprinted in 1914; Schultz- 
Geffcken’s Aligriechische Lyrik im deutschen 
Reim (1895), Stowasser, Griechenlyrik in deutsche 


[ 150 ] 


IN GERMAN 


Verse iibertragen (1910); and Wilamowitz, Sap- 
pho und Simonides (x91 3). There is a good 
German account of Sappho by Paul Brandt 
in his Sappho, ein Lebensbild aus den Frihlings- 
tagen altgriechischer Dichtung (1905). In Grie- 
chische Lyrik (1920) Erich Bethe in a good 
chapter on Sappho translates into rhymed verse 
the first two odes and several of the fragments 
(E. 99, 119, 135, 114, 54, 71, as well as the new 
papyrus fragments E. 83, 149, 150, 148, 154). 
I can quote here only the new fragment 83: 


Weinend hat sie Abschied genommen, 
Immer wieder sprach sie so: 

‘Hartes, Sappho, muss ich leiden, 
Muss dich lassen, muss nun scheiden.’ 
Und ich hab zu ihr gesprochen: 

‘Lebe wohl und denke mein! 

Wisse, dass dich treu geleite 

Meine Liebe in die Weite!l’ 


Denn stets werde ich gedenken, 
Auch wenn du es einst vergisst, 
Wieviel Schines wir genossen, 
Wie du oft um schlanke Sprossen 


Veilchen wandest, Rosen bandest 
Und du mich damit bekranzt, 


[151 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


Und die duft'gen Purpurbliiten 
Deinen zarten Hals umgliihten .. . 


There are only a few distinct cases of Sappho’s 
influence on the great German poets, and so I 
limit myself to comparing Grillparzer’s melo- 
dramatic adaptation of the Aphrodite ode with 
the beautiful rendering by the German lyric 
poet of modern times, Geibel, who as a tutor 
in Athens learned to love Lesbian lyrics and 
Greek literature, though he could not reproduce 
the wonderful soft sound of the Aeolic Greek: 


GOLDEN-THRONENDE A phrodite, 
Listenersinnende Tochter des Zeus, 
Nicht mit Angst und Sorgen belaste, 
Hocherhabne! dies pochende Herz! 


Sondern komm, wenn jemals dir lieblich 
Meiner Leter Saiten getént, 
Deren Kléngen du ofters lauschtest, 
Verlassend des Vaters goldenes Haus. 


Du bespanntest den schimmernden Wagen, 
Und deiner Sperlinge frohliches Paar, 
Munier schwingend die schwdrzlichen Fliigel, 
Trug dich vom Himmel zur Erde herab. 


Und du kamst; mit lieblichem Lécheln, 
Gotiliche! auf der unsterblichen Stirn, 


[ 152 ] 


IN GERMAN 


Fragtest du, was die Klagende quale, 
Warum erschalle der Flehenden Ruf? 


Was das schwirmende Herz begehre, 
Wen sich sehne die klopfende Brust 
Sanft zu bestricken im Netz der Liebe; 
‘Wer ist’s, Sappho, der dich verletzt? 


Flieht er dich jetzt, bald wird er dir folgen; 
Verschmaht er Geschenke, er gibt sie noch selbst, 
Liebt er dich nicht, gar bald wird er lieben, ~ 
Folgsam gehorchend jeglichem Wink!” 


Komm auch jetzt und lose den Kummer, 
“Der mir lastend den Busen beengt, 
Hilf mir erringen, nach was ich ringe, 
Sei mir Gefahrtin im lieblichen Streit! 
(GRILLPARZER) 


Dre du thronst auf Blumen, o schaumgeborne 
Tochter Zeus’, listsinnende, hor’ mich rufen, 
Nicht in Schmach und bitterer Qual, o Gottin, 

Lass mich erliegen. 


Sondern huldvoll neige dich mir, wenn jemals 
Du mein Flehn willfihrigen Ohrs vernommen, 
Wenn du je, zur Hilfe bereit, des Vaters 

Halle verlassen. 


Raschen Flugs auf goldenem Wagen 208 dich 
Durch die Luft dein Taubengespann, und abwirts 


[153 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


Floss von ihm der Fittiche Schatten dunkelnd 
Uber den Erdgrund. 


So dem Blitz gleich, stiegst du herab und fragtest, 
Sel’ge, mit unsterblichem Antlitz lichelnd: 
‘Welch ein Gram verzehrt dir das Herz, warum doch 
Riefst du mich, Sappho? 


Was beklemmt mit sehnlicher Pein so sttirmisch 
Dir die Brust? Wen soll ich ins Netz dir schmeicheln? 
Welchem Liebling schmelzen den Sinn? Wer wagt es, 

Deiner zu spotten? 


Flieht er: wohl, so soll er dich bald verfolgen; 
Wehrt er stolz der Gabe, so soll er geben; 
Liebt er nicht, bald soll er fiir dich entbrennen, 
Selbst ein Verschméhter.’ 


Komm denn, komm auch heute, den Gram zu losen! 
Was so heiss mein Busen ersehnt, o lass es 
Mich empfahn, Holdselige, sei du selbst mir 
Bundesgenossin! 
(GEIBEL) 


In 1793, Franz von Kleist at the age of twenty- 
four had written a tragedy Sappho, a typical 
eighteenth century play of intrigue, an imma- 
ture performance, however, lacking in clear 
portrayals of character and in dramatic develop- 
ment. In 1816 F. W. Gubitz had published an 
unimportant monodrama Sappho, which was 


L154 | 


IN GERMAN 


almost a caricature of what a dramatic work of 
art should be. In these dramas there was little 
of the real Sappho, but the case is different with 
Grillparzer’s Sappho, which was given April 21, 
1818, in Vienna with great success. Some of the 
motives of von Kleist reappear in Grillparzer, 
and there are resemblances in language and 
thought. He may have used Amalie vom 
Imhoft’s Die Schwestern von Lesbos (1801), where 
there is a reference to the Leucadian Leap. 
But he rises to higher heights, and if he did 
use the above authors, their “crude ore,” as 
one critic has expressed it, “yields pure gold.” 
Grillparzer tells us himself in his autobiogra- 
phy 1” how he conceived the idea of the drama. 
On June 29, 1817, he was strolling along the 
banks of the Danube when at the entrance 
to the Prater, the great park of Vienna, he met 
Dr. Joél, who remarked that Weigel, the orches- 
tra-leader, wanted a libretto. Dr. Joél stated 
that Sappho would be a good subject, and 
Grillparzer immediately replied that it certainly 
would make a good tragedy. They parted com- 
pany, and Grillparzer walked deep into the 
Prater, and when he returned home late in the 
evening the plan of Sappho was complete. The 
next day he went to the Imperial Library and 


[155 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


secured a copy of the extant fragments of 
Sappho, in which he found one of the two 
complete poems, which is addressed to the god- 
dess of love, entirely suited to his purpose. He 
translated it at once, and the very next morning 
began work on the drama. The spirit of the 
play is German, not Greek, and takes some 
motives from Goethe’s Tasso. But Sappho is 
depicted as a woman rather than a poetess, and 
the story of the tragedy is really that of an un- 
happy woman disappointed in love. While it 
is a genuine love-tragedy, it also portrays the 
hard lot of the poet and the struggle between 
art and life even more vigorously than Goethe’s 
Tasso did. At the very beginning of the play 
Sappho has been crowned with the wreath of 
victory at the Olympic games and meets Phaon, 
who is represented as only slightly younger. 
Carried away by her triumph, he throws himself 
into her arms, only to spurn her later. To 
Phaon she sings (Act I, vi) Sappho’s hymn to 
Aphrodite, which we have just quoted, with a 
few changes to adapt it to the situation. Of 
course there were no such contests at Olympia 
in Sappho’s day, and Sappho’s victory is a pure 
invention. Neither was the original hymn 
addressed to Phaon, nor did the usual legend 


[ 156 ] 


IN GERMAN 


say that Sappho cast herself from a Lesbian cliff; 
but Grillparzer must preserve the three unities, 
and such dramatic licenses and many an- 
achronisms, such as the mention of Croesus who 
lived after Sappho’s time, are permissible to a 
master of dramatic technique. What interests 
us is that Grillparzer actually studied Sappho’s 
fragments and was much assisted by them. 
In Act I, lines 173 ff., he seems to be referring to 
the Adonis fragments, including the one on the 
loneliness of midnight, and to the verses which 
name Andromeda and Atthis: 


vom schinen Jiingling, 
Der Liebesgottin liebegliih'nden Sang, 
Die Klage einsam hingewachter Nacht, 
Von Andromedens und von Atthis’ Spielen. 


The fragment (E. 74) is echoed in lines 671-2: 


Denn, wenn auch heftig manchmal, rasch und bitter, 
Doch gut ist Sappho, wahrlich eb und gut. 


While Grillparzer is one of the few German 
poets who has imitated the content of Sappho’s 
songs, many have tried the Sapphic strophe 
with success, especially Wilbrandt in the Adonis 
song, in Der Meister von Palmyra: 


[157] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


Also will’s der ewige Zeus; du musst nun 
Niedersteigen unter die bliih’nde Erde, 
Musst die dunkle Persephoneia kiissen, 
Schoner Adonis. 


Many a German novel refers to Sappho, but 
without any special knowledge of her fragments. 
One of the most interesting, which adapts with 
many changes the Rhodopis story, has been 
translated into English, An Egyptian Princess, 
by George Ebers (A. L. Burt Co., New York, 
second German edition 1868). Here Charaxus 
actually marries Rhodopis and names their child 
Cleis, who in turn has a child Sappho whose love- 
scenes with Bartja make up most of the novel. 


““Alcaeus, the greatest poet of his day, and 
Charaxus, the brother of that Sappho whose odes 
it was our Solon’s last wish to learn by heart, came 
here to Naukratis, which had already long been the 
flourishing center of commercial communication 
between Egypt and the rest of the world. Charaxus 
saw Rhodopis, and soon loved her so passionately 
that he gave an immense sum to secure her from the 
mercenary Xanthus, who was on the point of return- 
ing with her to his own country; Sappho wrote some 
biting verses, derisive of her brother and his pur- 
chase, but Alcaeus on the other hand, approved, and 
gave expression to this feeling in glowing songs on 
the charms of Rhodopis. And now Sappho’s brother, 
who had till then remained undistinguished among 
the many strangers at Naukratis, became a noted 


[ 158 | 


IN GERMAN 


man through Rhodopis. His house was soon the 
center of attraction to all foreigners, by whom she 
was overwhelmed with gifts. The king Hophra, 
-hearing of her beauty and talent, sent for her to 
Memphis, and offered to buy her of Charaxus, but 
the latter had already long, though secretly, given 
Rhodopis her freedom, and loved her far too well 
to allow of a separation. She, too, loved the hand- 
some Lesbian and refused to leave him despite the 
brilliant offers made to her on all sides. At length 
Charaxus made this wonderful woman his lawful 
wife, and continued to live with her and her little 
daughter Kleis in Naukratis, until the Lesbian 
exiles were recalled to their native land by Pittakus. 
He then started homeward with his wife, but fell ill 
on the journey, and died soon after his arrival at 
Mitylene. Sappho, who had derided her brother 
for marrying one beneath him, soon became an 
enthusiastic admirer of the beautiful widow and 
rivaled Alcaeus in passionate songs to her praise.” 


We may mention also in closing this chapter 
the lyrics, published in a small volume, called 
Stiirme, by Carmen Sylva, the nom de plume 
of Rumania’s late queen, because in these lyrics 
the tragedy of Sapphic love has a German polit- 
ical rather than a Lesbian setting. 


[ 159 ] 


xX. LOAPPHOSINSERENCH 
LITERATURE "8 


HE POETESS of passion, perfect in 
expression, is more akin to French 
literature than to German, and so it 

is not surprising to discover Sapphic echoes in 
every period of the former from that of the 
erudite and artistic poetry of the Pléiade in the 
sixteenth century to the present day of Maurice 
Donnay. In the sixteenth century Louise Labé 
was composing sonnets which burned like an ode 
of Sappho, and in 1556 Remy Belleau in his 
Anacréon published the first French translation 
of Sappho. Only three years later (1559), 
another of the Pléiade, Pierre de Ronsard, who 
turned from his admiration of Homer and Pindar 
to Horace, Anacreon, and Sappho, gave in the 
second book of his Amours, a translation of the 
second ode of Sappho: 


Je suis un demy-dieu quand, assis vis-a-vis 
De toy, mon cher souct, j’escoute des devis, 
Devis entre-rompus d’un gracieux sourire, 

Souris qui me retient le coeur emprisonné: 


[| 160 | 


IN FRENCH LITERATURE 


Car, en voyant tes yeux, je me pasme étonné 

Et de mes pauvres flancs un seul vent je ne tire. 
Ma langue s’engourdit, un petit feu me court 
Fretillant sous la peau; je suis muet et sourd 

Ei une obscure nuit dessus mes yeux demeure; 
Mon sang devient glacé, l’esprit fuit de mon corps, 
Je tremble tout de crainte, et peu s’en faut alors 
Qu’a tes pieds estendu sans ame je ne meure. 


Ronsard also translated the famous folk-song, 
which has been so much imitated in all litera- 
tures, wrongly calling it an epigram: '® 


Desia la Lune est couchée, 
La poussiniere est cachée, 
Et ia la my-nuit brunette 
Vers V Aurore s’est panchée, 
Et ie dors au lict seulette. 


In the second book of his Poémes a Christophile 
de Choiseul (Edition Laumonier V, 186), Ron- 
sard (1556) said: 


Le doux Anacreon me plaist et ie voudrois que la 


douce Saphon 
Qui si bien resueilloit la lyre Lesbienne, 
En France accompaignast la Muse Teienne! 


Early in the seventeenth century Malherbe 
wrote the following stanzas for le Duc de Belle- 


[ 161 | 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


garde “‘to a lady who imagined that he was in 
love with her,’’ in which he copied from the 
Lesbian poetess certain symptoms of love: 


Philis, qui me voit le teint bléme, 
Les sens ravis hors de moi-méme, 
Et les yeux trempés tout le jour, 
Cherchant la cause de ma peine, 
Se figure, tant elle est vaine, 
Quw’elle m’a donné de Vamour ... 
En quelle école nonpareille 
Auroit-elle appris la merveille 

De si bien charmer ses appas, 
Que je pusse la trouver belle, 
Palir, transir, languir pour elle. 
Et ne m’en apercevoir pas? 


In 1620 Colletet published a prose imitation of 
Ovid, entitled Lettre de Saphon a Phaon (Les 
Epistres d’Ovide. Traduites en prose frangotse. 
Par les sieurs Du Perron, Des Portes, de la 
Brosse, de Lingendes, Hedelin et Colletet. 
Paris, 1620). In 1660 Le Sieur Du Four trans- 
lated the two odes, the first in prose, the second 
in verse. In 1674 that great classicist, Nicholas 
Boileau, who ranked the ancient writers above 
the modern because they had been tested 
through hundreds of years and because they 
agreed with nature and reason, included a 


[ 162 | 


IN FRENCH LITERATURE 


beautiful and truly classical rendering of the 
second ode, in his translation of the Treatise on 
the Sublime: 


Je sens de veine en veine une subtile flamme 
Courir par tout mon corps sitét que je te vois; 

Et dans les doux transports ou s’égare mon ame 
Je ne saurais trouver de langue mi de voix. 

Un nuage confus se répand sur ma vue; 

Je n’entends plus, je tombe en de douces langueurs,; 
Et pale, sans haleine, interdite, éperdue, 

Un frisson me saisit, je tremble, je me meurs. 


In 1677 Boileau’s intimate friend, Jean Racine, 
produced his great tragedy in five acts, Phédre, 
based mainly on Euripides and Seneca, but 
including a translation of Sappho’s second ode, 
in Act I, scene 3, where Phaedra says about 
Hippolytus: 

Je le vis, je rougis, je palis a sa vue; 

Un trouble s’éleva dans mon ame éperdue; 

Mes yeux ne voyoient plus, je ne pouvois parler; 

Je sentis tout mon corps et transir et briler; 

Je reconnus Vénus et ses feux redoutables, 

D’un sang qu'elle poursuit tourments inévitables. 


Racine’s comment was that he had ‘‘rien vu de 
F228} 


plus vif ni de plus beau dans toute l’antiquité. 
In 1649 Mlle de Scudéry in her Artameéne ou le 


[ 163 | 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


Grand Cyrus and also in her letters calls herself 
Sappho, perhaps thinking of Sappho as a great 
literary writer and with a reference to Platonic 
friendship but no conception of Sappho as a bad 
character. Bayle rather objects to giving the 
name Sappho to a “‘fille qui écrivoit parfaitement 
bien en vers et en prose, et dont la vertu étoit 
admirée.” Perhaps Anne Dacier was not then 
the first to defend Sappho. In any case, Mlle de 
Scudéry gives the wrong idea of the historical 
Sappho, for in the tenth volume of le Grand 
Cyrus she gives a tedious recital of the loves of 
Sappho and Phaon. What could be farther 
from the real burning Sappho than desiring 
“un amant sans vouloir un mari, mais un amant 
qui, se contentant de la possession de son coeur, 
aime avec respect jusqu’a la mort.” The later 
French romance, entitled Les Amours de Sapho 
et de Phaon, also has nothing to do with the real 
Sappho. In 1680 Hilaire-Bernard de Requeleyne 
(cf. Baillet, Jugemens des Savans, IV. 392-393) 
gave with the Greek a poetical version, and 
in the next year Professor Le Févre of the 
University of Saumur, the Greek scholar and 
translator of Virgil, made another French 
translation, which was disloyal to the Greek 
and did not deserve the praise which has 


| 164 | 


IN FRENCH LITERATURE 


been bestowed upon it. On December 1, 
1681,1"° his daughter, Anne (Madame Dacier) 
published Les Poésies d’Anacreon et de Sapho 
with notes and a life of Sappho. She believed 
in the Phaon story and that Sappho followed 
Phaon to Sicily and there composed the ‘‘plus 
beaux vers du monde,” including the hymn 
to Venus; ‘‘Tout le monde scait qu’elle aima 
Phaon et quelle Vaima d’une maniére fort 
violente.”’ 


“Ce qui me fait croire qu’il ne faut pas ajotiter 
foy a tout ce que l’on trouve écrit contre elle. Si 
elle avoit esté de l’-humeur dont on l’a dépeinte, il 
n’y a point d’apparence qu’elle efit eu tant de 
chagrin de l’amour de Caraxus, ni qu’elle efit osé 
Ven reprendre avec tant d’éclat. Il ne faut pas 
douter que son merite ne luy ett fait bien des 
ennemis; car elle surpassoit en s¢avoir, non seule- 
ment toutes les femmes, quoi que de son temps 
il y en efit en Grece d’extrémement scavantes; 
mais elle estoit méme fort au dessus des plus ex- 
cellens Poétes. Je crois donc que ceux dont les 
vers auroient esté trouvez incomparables, si Sapho 
n’en efit jamais fait, ne furent pas de ses amis, et 
que l’envie a fait écrire les calomnies dont on a 
taché de la noircir. Je ne puis méme m’imaginer 
que les Mityleniens eussent eu tant de veneration 
pour une personne si décriée, et qu’aprés sa mort, 
ils eussent fait graver son image sur leur monoye.” 


Sappho’s name was in vogue at this time 
wherever love was the subject of conversation 


[ 165 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


or of writing. In 1683 Bernard le Bovier de 
Fontenelle in his Dialogues des morts, a title 
taken from Lucian, has Sapho and Laure dis- 
cuss which sex should be the aggressor in love- 
making. Fontenelle displays no knowledge of 
Sappho herself, but has chosen her name, like 
so many writers even down to the time of 
Alphonse Daudet, to lend importance to a story 
which has already been conceived and for which 
an attractive title must be found. We can only 
quote the latter part of the dialogue: 


LAvRE. Quoi! auriez-vous voulu qu’on ett établi 
que les femmes attaqueraient les hommes? 

SapHo. Eh! quel besoin y a-t-il que les uns 
attaquent, et que les autres se défendent? Qu’on 
s’aime de part et d’autre autant que le cceur en dira. 

Laure. Oh! les choses iraient trop vite, et 
l’amour est un commerce si agréable, qu’on a bien 
fait de lui donner le plus de durée que l|’on a pu. 
Que serait-ce, si l’on était recu des que l’on s’offri- 
rait? Que deviendraient tous ces soins qu’on prend 
pour plaire, toutes ces inquiétudes que l’on sent, 
quand on se reproche de n’avoir pas assez plu, tous 
ces empressemens avec lesquels on cherche un 
moment heureux, enfin tout cet agréable mélange 
de plaisirs et de peine qu’on appelle amour? Rien 
ne serait plus insipide, si l’on ne faisait que s’entr’- 
aimer. 

SAPHO. Hé bien, s’il faut que l’amour soit une 
espéce de combat, j’aimerais mieux qu’on eit obligé 
les hommes a se tenir sur la défensive. Aussi-bien, 


[ 166 | 


IN FRENCH LITERATURE 


ne m’avez-vous pas dit que les femmes avaient plus 
de penchant qu’eux 4 la tendresse? A ce compte, 
elles attaqueraient mieux. 

Laure. Oui, mais ils se défendraient trop bien. 
Quand on veut qu’un sexe résiste, on veut qu'il 
résiste autant qu’il faut pour faire mieux gotiter la 
victoire 4 celui qui attaque, mais non pas assez 
pour la remporter. Il doit n’étre ni si faible, qu’il 
se rende d’abord, ni si fort, qu’il ne se rende jamais. 
C’est IA notre caractére, et ce ne serait peut-étre 
pas celui des hommes. Croyez-moi, aprés qu’on a 
bien raisonné ou sur Vamour, ou sur telle autre 
matiére qu’on voudra, on trouve au bout du compte 
que les choses sont bien comme elles sont, et que 
la réforme qu’on prétendrait y apporter gaterait 
tout. 


In 1684 une Demoiselle de qualité de la Pro- 
vince de Guienne, only eighteen years of age, 
published a French prose translation of the two 
odes in the Mercure for July. In the same year 
appeared a metrical translation with Greek text, 
philological notes, and a life of Sappho in which 
are repeated the stories of disgraceful love, 
infatuation for Phaon, and the Leucadian Leap, 
Les Poésies d’Anacreon et de Sapho traduttes de 
Grec en vers Francois. In 1692 we have another 
verse rendering by Baron de Longuepierre, who 
added a feeble poem in which Apollo vainly 
defends Sappho against the arrows of love. In 
1694 Despréaux in his edition of the Treatise on 


[ 167 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


the Sublime gave a poetical version of the second 
ode which was so artistic that French critics 
in their enthusiasm pronounced it superior to 
the original, but its rhetorical phrases are far 
from the simplicity of Sappho’s Greek. Toward 
the end of the grand siécle La Fare, the Epi- 
curean and inseparable friend of the Abbé de 
Chaulieu, translated the famous second ode. 
In 1704 appeared a verse translation by De la 
Fosse; in 1712 Gacon’s verse translation of 
Sappho’s two odes and Father Bougeant’s An- 
acréon &@ Sapho, Dialogue en Vers Grecs; and in 
1713 appeared in French verse an imaginary 
epistle of Sappho to Phaon (Mercure for April). 
In 1716 La Fosse published his verses based on 
those of the Le Févres. In 1758 Poinsinet de 
Sivry produced his good verse translations. 
Voltaire (1694-1778) made an elegant adapta- 
tion of the second ode, with his eye also on 
Theocritus’ second idyl: 


Reine des nuits, dis quel fut mon amour, 
Comme en mon sein les frissons et la flamme 
Se succédaient, me perdaient tour a tour; 
Quels doux transports égarérent mon dame; 
Comment mes yeux cherchaient en vain le jour. 
Comme j’aimais et sans songer a plaire, 

Je ne pouvais ni parler ni me taire. 


[ 168 ] 


IN FRENCH LITERATURE 


In 1766 appeared Blin de Sainmore’s Lettres de 
Sapho a Phaon with an account of Sappho’s 
life and verse translations of her poems. In 
1773 appeared a new version of Sappho in prose 
by Moutonnet de Clairfons which proved so 
popular that it went through at least seven 
editions. In 1798 Mérard de Saint-Just pub- 
lished his verse translations of Sappho and 
Anacreon. ‘Toward the end of the eighteenth 
century,!” an imaginary Greek manuscript, 
said to have been found at Herculaneum, trans- 
lated by de Lantier, was published under the 
title Voyages d’Antenor en Gréce et en Asie, a most 
interesting and learned story of an imaginary 
trip to Grecian lands. Antenor and Phanor 
in the first chapter of the second volume meet 
Sappho and two unfortunate Greeks. An ac- 
count is given in chapter three of the love 
of Sappho and Phaon, and the hymn to 
Aphrodite, quoted in the notes in Boileau’s 
translation, is addressed to Phaon: “C’est pour 
cet ingrat qu’un jour dans l’enthousiasme de 
la poésie et de l’amour, je composai cette 
ode qui a circulé dans toute la Gréce, et que 
sans doute la postérité répétera encore.” In 
the fourth chapter Antenor and his friend 
attend the funeral of Sappho and see the ashes 


[ 169 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


deposited in an urn. On the cippus is carved 
a lyre with this epitaph: 


Ci-git Sapho, la gloire de nos jours; 
Muses, pleurez, pleurez, Amours. 


In the seventh chapter an account is given of 
Sappho’s last days, and Theagenes is revealed 
as her rival, to whom Phaon has united himself 
by a solemn bond. To Sappho is attributed a 
long ode in which she invokes Venus and all the 
infernal deities against her lover. She ends, 
however, by returning to the sweetness and 
generosity which had originally characterized 
her. I quote only the last two stanzas: 


A 


Et tot, mes amours, 6 ma lyre, 
Douce compagne de mes jeux, 
Repose toi, ma muse expire; 
Regois ict mes longs adieux. 


Mourons; allons au noir rivage: 
Heureuse, si, dans mon ennui, 
De Phaon emportant Vimage, 

Je peux aux morts parler de lui. 


The author evidently was fond of Sappho and 
would compare with her Louise Labbé, Ja belle 
Cordiére (1526-1566), a woman of tender heart 
and with a taste for passion, who wrote verses 


[ 170 ] 


IN FRENCH LITERATURE 


on love in Greek, Latin, Italian, French, and 
Spanish. At this time Sappho was held in high 
esteem and it was a compliment to call a writer 
‘‘a modern Sappho.” So for example in the 
preface to L’Abbé Le Roy, Le Paradis perdu, 
poéme traduit de l’Anglais de Milton en vers 
francois (Rouen, 1775) we read: ‘Aussi a-t-on 
fait le plus favorable et le plus juste accueil a 
la charmante esquisse du Paradis Terrestre, que 
daigna nous donner une femme célébre, dont le 
nom seul fait l’éloge, M™ du Boccage, cette 
Sappho moderne, qui fait d’honneur a la Evances 

In 17772 Sauvigny published his Poésies de 
Sapho, composed of eighteen odes, four scolies 
morales, four epigrams, the epitaphs of Timas 
and Pelagon, some fragments, a letter of Sappho 
to Phaon, and a hymn to Venus. There are 
many pretty uses of Sappho, though in no sense 
can the poems be said to be those of Sappho. 
The third ode is an echo of the fragment on 
the Evening Star: 


Belle étoile du soir, digne ornement des cieux, 


Tu fais rentrer le paisible troupeau, 
Qui du loup ravisseur craint la dent meurirvére; 
La fille qui, joyeuse, a quilté le hameau, 

Tu la raménes a sa mere. 


lan7idl 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


Ces timides amans que Vénus a touchés, 
Qui brilent d’étre unis ensemble, 

Et que Véclat du jour avait tenus cachés, 
C’est ton retour qui les rassemble. 


The fifth ode renders the fragment on virginity: 


La Jeune Epousée. 
Rose de la pudeur que l'amour a cueillie, 
Votre premier éclat me sera-t-il rendu? 
La Virginité. 
Ingrate, vous Vavez perdu; 
Vous avez perdu pour la vie. 


The sixth ode is simply Boileau’s translation of 
the Aphrodite hymn. The thirteenth, addressed 
to Atthis, combines two fragments: 


La lune au front d'argent et sa cour lumineuse 
Echappent & mes yeux; 

D’un voile plus obscur la nuit silencieuse 
Enveloppe les cieux. 


Heure que j’attendais, qui dut m’étre si chére, 
Tu es évanouie, et je suis seule, 6 dieux! 


The fifteenth ode is a dialogue between Alcaeus 
and Sappho, and the note interprets as Sappho’s 
refusal of Alcaeus the famous fragment of which 
a Latin version is given: 


[172 ] 


IN FRENCH LITERATURE 


Si nobis amicus es, torum accipe junior; 
Non enim sustinebo convescere cum seniore, 
Dum junior sim. 


Other writers of the end of the eighteenth 
century who paid tribute to Sappho were Bernis 
in his ode Harmonie, Lebrun in his epigrams, 
Parny in his Journée champétre, La Harpe, who 
knew only ode IJ, and M. Legouvé who writes: 


Vois Sapho; par Phaon trahie 
Elle rendit son art confident de ses pleurs 
Et merita la gloire en chantant ses malheurs. 


Other French translators of about this time are 
Regnier Desmarais, Ricard, Langeac, Deguerle, 
Marchena, Blin de Sainmore, Abbé Batteux, 
and Gorsse in Journal des Muses III. 

In the nineteenth century the echoes and trans- 
lations of Sappho are even more numerous. The 
first of the neo-classicists, André Chénier, follower 
of Boileau, owed much of his enthusiasm for the 
Greeks to his Greek mother, and imitated Sappho 
in the ode which he wrote for his love, the ode 
so admired by Alfred de Musset, the charming 
poet who also knew the sufferings of love: 


Fanny, V’heureux mortel qui prés de toi respire 
Sait, a te voir parler, et rougir, et sourire 
De quels hétes divins le ciel est habtié.. . 


[734 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


He also used the fragment about Virginity 
(Latouche edition I, p. 64). Jacques Delille, 
the famous translator of Virgil, and the great 
representative of didactic and descriptive 
poetry, in his Poésies fugitives (1802) made a 
good literal translation. In the same year 
Vanderbourg published some verses camou- 
flaged as the Poésies de Madame Clotilde 
de Surville, who was supposed to have lived 
1405-1495. He gives a translation of the 
famous second ode, of which I quote only the 
last stanza: 


S’ennuagent mes yeux: n’oy plus quwennuy, rumeurs, 
Je brile, je languis; chauds frissons dans ma veine 
Circulent: je palis, je palpite, V haleine 

Me manque, je me meurs. 


The two great initiators of Romanticism also 
knew Sappho. Madame de Staél wrote (1811) a 
drama published 1821, Sapho, in which Phaon 
is divided between love for two different women. 
Chateaubriand in 1809 in Les Martyrs !"* makes 
Cymodocée, who was on the point of becoming 
a Christian and already betrothed to Eudore, 
a fervent disciple of Christ, say to her fiancé: 
“Dis-moi, puisqu’on peut aimer dans ton culte, 
il y a donc une Vénus chrétienne? . . . Le 


L174 | 


IN FRENCH LITERATURE 


colére de cette déesse est-elle redoutable? Force- 
t-elle la jeune fille 4 chercher le jeune homme 
dans la palestre, 4 l’introduire furtivement sous 
le toit paternel? Ta Vénus rend-elle la langue 
embarrassée? Répand-elle un feu brilant, un 
froid mortel dans les veines?”’ Chateaubriand 
adds here (and also in Revolutions Anciennes) 
Boileau’s translation and in the same place he 
cites the passage from Racine’s Phédre which we 
have quoted, p.163. In 1805 L. Gorsse published 
Sapho, poéme en dix chants. He defends 
Sappho’s character (eleven years before the 
German Welcker) but believes that her love for 
Phaon was “‘un fait incontestable, dont tous 
les genres de littérature ont le droit, de s’em- 
parer.”’ He speaks of the Abbé Barthélemy, who 
in Voyage d’Anacharsis paints “les transports 
et l’ardeur de Sapho;”’ also of Lantier, Voyages 
d’Anténor, who had placed Sappho in such a 
bright light that he has brought out new beau- 
ties in the subject, which had not been seen 
previously. Both quote Boileau’s translation. 
Gorsse also praises, as possessing a grace which 
men can never attain, the fragments of poetry 
which two ladies, Mesdames de Beaufort-d’Haut- 
poul and Caroline Wougne, published under the 
name of Sapho. On pages 181-187 (Vol.II) he 


[175 | 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


quotes a romance by each, attributed to Sap- 
pho, which deals with her love for Phaon. In 
that of Caroline Wougne Sappho meets Phaon 
on his return from Sicily during a stormy 
night in a country house where he is asking 
for hospitality. Gorsse has also consulted 
Madame Pipelet de Salm, who presented Sappho 
on the lyric stage with grace and dignity. He 
himself unites the legends of her love with those 
of her writings, and drawing also on Tibullus, 
Propertius, Virgil, Lucretius, and especially 
Ovid, makes Sappho speak as poetess and lover 
fifty expanded elegies. There are five in each of 
the ten cantos besides a prologue and epilogue. 
In view of the fact that none of Sappho’s elegies 
are extant, the reconstruction, though fanciful, 
is extremely interesting. The first five songs 
picture Sappho’s desire, contentment, happiness, 
fear, and calmness. Phaon is jealous of Alcaeus 
and proposes to leave Lesbus to dwell in the 
Vale of Tempe, but Sappho asks Phaon to share 
in her poems, which will immortalize their love, 
and then reveals to him the origin of music. The 
second five represent her suspicion, grief, tor- 
ment, and pursuit of Phaon to Sicily, her despair 
and the Leucadian Leap, after she sees Phaon 
making eyes at Telesilla. In the fifth elegy of 


[ 176 ] 


IN FRENCH LITERATURE 


the first canto is an adaptation of Sappho’s 
second ode, in which the first verse addressed 
to Phaon is taken without acknowledgment 
from André Chénier’s Fanny. Phaon seems to 
be the principal figure, and the legends about 
him are tremendously expanded with the help 
of many Greek myths. As in so many other 
writers he becomes a great athlete and must 
overcome his opponents in the stadium. The 
Italian author of Avventure di Saffo had done 
likewise and made Phaon win with the same 
throw which Ulysses used in Homer. The Voy- 
ages d’Anténor had made Phaon first appear to 
Sappho after winning in the gymnasium. Like- 
wise Gorsse has Sappho see Phaon for the first 
time in the stadium at Mytilene. There she 
describes the impression Phaon made on her, 
when he won the athletic prize. All these 
writers forget, however, that women in Sappho’s 
day were not allowed to witness the nude ath- 
letic contests. Gorsse shows his wide acquaint- 
ance with the ancient accounts of Sappho when 
in the fourth elegy of the second canto he 
mentions: “un foible enfant, Cléis, qui t’est 
si chére!” With only a few errors he represents 
all the many friends and pupils of Sappho, — 
to whom he gives classical epithets, — as help- 


geal 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


ing Sappho to preserve Phaon’s love. He is as 
keen as the modern critics when he says in a 
note that Erinna cannot be the famous poet, 
but he is wrong in picturing Brune Androméde 
and Blonde Gorgo as friends or pupils rather 
than rivals of Sappho. 


O vous, pourtant, qui faites mes délices, 
Du noeud sacré qui vous attache & moi, 
J attends encor les plus tendres offices, 
Je les réclame au nom de votre foi. 


Blanche Cydno, délicate Amynthone, 
Douce Pyrine, intéressante Athis, 
Brune Androméde, agréable Gellone, 
Blonde Gorgo, séduisante Mnais! 


Par vos attraits, par vos graces naives, 
Auprés de moi captives mon amant; 

Pour qwil y trouve un doux enchantement, 
Soyez sans cesse @ lui plaire attentives. 


Vous dont Euterpe anime les accens, 
Belle Mégare, adorable Gyrinne, 

Docte Gougile, ingénieuse Erinne, 

Pour le charmer adressez-lui vos chants. 


Vous qui brillez dans V’art de Therpsycore, 
Aimable Eunique, élégante Anagore, 
Devant ses yeux, avec agilité, 

Formez les pas qu’aime la volupté. 


[ 178 ] 


IN FRENCH LITERATURE 


Toi, Damophile, ornement de la Gréce, 
Dis a Phaon qu’au milieu des neuf Soeurs 
Jai quelquefois, sur les bords du Permesse, 
Respiré Vair qu’y parfument les fleurs. 


Et toi, surtout, sensible Télésile, 
Accorde-moi ton bienfaisant secours, 
Pour conserver Phaon a@ mes amours, 
Que ton esprit en moyens soit fertile. 


Dans ses regards interroge ses gotts, 

De ses desirs occupe-tot sans cesse, 

Pour que mon coeur par tes soins les connoisse, 
Et qu’aisément i les prévienne tous. 


Parmi les sons dont retentit ma lyre, 
Répéte-lui ceux que Venus m’inspire; 
Et, par Vobjet dont il est adoré, 
Qw’il ait Vorgueil de se voir honoré. 


Toutes, enfin, 6 mes tendres amies! 
A mon amant composez une cour; 

Le doux lien dont nous sommes unies 
S’affermira par les noeuds de amour. 


The second elegy in the fourth canto has a 
pretty imitation of the famous third fragment. 
Sappho dissuades Phaon from his jealousy of 
Alcaeus, which of course is not an ancient 
legend, in the following words: 


[179 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


Comme un léger brouillard fuit aux rayons du jour, 
Que ton soupcon expire @ la voix de l'amour! 

Sois sans crainte, Phaon! Contre un sexagénaire 
Est-ce @ toi de lutter dans Vart heureux de plaire? 
A toi dont la jeunesse et les riants attratts 

Du chantre de Lesbos effacent les succes, 

Autant qu’on voit Diane effacer la lumiére 

De ces astres dorés dont se pare la nuit, 

Quand Véclat argenté du char quelle conduit 
Annonce que des cieux elle ouvre la barriére? 


In the third elegy of the same canto is an elab- 
oration of the fragment on the power of love, 
the bitter-sweet irresistible creature, and in the 
first elegy of the fifth canto there is an echo 
of the fragment about wealth without virtue. 
In long notes on the second elegy of the fifth 
book Gorsse cites de Sivry’s or Sauvigny’s verse 
translations or paraphrases in French, and Latin 
versions of a score of other fragments and of the 
Pelagon and Timas epitaphs. In the first elegy 
of the sixth canto the Sun symptoms of 
love are used: 


Je sens mes cheveux se dresser, 
Mon sang briller dune flamme rapide, 
Ou dans mes veines se glacer. 


The third elegy of the same canto is an adapta- 
tion of the hymn to Aphrodite and in the notes 


[ 180 | 


IN FRENCH LITERATURE 


are given Latin versions by Gorsse himself, 
Elias Andreas, and Birkow. 

Not many have written elegies on Sappho, but 
Gorsse was followed in 1812 by Touzet, who 
wrote Sapho, poéme élégiaque. It was in 1816 
that Lamartine wrote his mediocre imitation of 
Sappho’s great hymn, calling it L’élégie antique. 
It is in the cold restored pseudo-classical style 
of Casimir Delavigne: 


Dieux, quels transports nouveaux! 6 dieux, comment 
décrire 

Tous les feux dont mon sein se remplit a la fois? 

Ma langue se glaga, je demeurai sans VOIX, 

Ei ma tremblante main laissa tomber ma lyre. 


Here is Lamartine’s own comment: ‘Un soir, 
en rentrant d’une de ces excursions, pendant 
laquelle nous avions relu la strophe unique, mais 
bralante, de Sapho, sorte de Vénus de Milo, 
pareille 4 ce débris découvert par M. de Mar- 
cellus, qui contient plus de beauté dans un frag- 
ment qu’il n’y en a dans tout un musée de 
statues intactes, je m’enfermai, et j’écrivis le 
commencement grec de cette élégie ou de cette 
héroide. . .’? In one of his Nouvelles M éditations 
poétiques (not printed till 1823) he describes the 
suffering of the abandoned Sappho and her last, 


[ 181 | 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


farewell words to the world and to life, before 
her suicide; the last line is: ‘‘adieu chére Les- 
bos 4 Vénus consacrée.”’ Lamartine was fol- 
lowed in his idea of Sappho by Verlaine (1844—- 
1896), the prince of the French poets after the 
death of Leconte de Lisle. Verlaine speaks of 
Sappho as “‘furieuse, les yeux caves et les seins 
roides.” In writing to his friend Virieu, April 8, 
1819, Lamartine mentions the fact that he has 
planned an opera on Jephté and adds that he 
is thinking of writing one on Sappho, which, 
however, was never written: ‘‘J’en ai un qui 
me brile, c’est une Sapho, superbe sujet d’un 
opéra pareil.”’ 

In 1815 came Sapho, poéme en trois chants 
par C.T. In 1820 Lazare Carnot published an 
excellent verse translation of the second ode, 
Les Symptomes @’ Amour, and in 1827 E. Veissier- 
Descombes, a translator also of Anacreon, pub- 
lished his classic rendering. In 1828 followed 
the poetical version of Cousin and Girodet; in 
1835, Breghot du Lut., in prose and poetry; in 
1836 Alexandre Hope’s Sapho, a poem of about 
ten pages; in 1843, prose renderings in Mi- 
chaud’s Biographie Universelle; in 1847, Mar- 
ullot et Grosset, in verse. In 1842, in the 
Cartiatides, Théodore de Banville, one of the last 


[ 182 ] 


IN FRENCH LITERATURE 


of the Romantic poets, that Greek ‘“‘clown”’ of 
France, wrote these verses on Sappho: 


Er Tot, grande Sappho, reine de Mityléne! 
Lionne que ’ Amour furieux enchaina. 

Prés de la mer grondante, avec son Erinna, 
Elle enseignait le rhythme et ses délicatesses 

Au troupeau triomphal des jeunes poétesses, 

Et glacée et brilante, au bruit amer des flots 
Elle mélait ses cris de rage et ses sanglots. 

O toi qui nous atteins avec des fléches stires, 
De quels feux tu brilas et de quelles blessures 
Son chaste sein meurtri par le baiser du vent! 
Mais comme rien ne meurt de ce qui fut vivant, 
Sa colére amoureuse et de souffrance avide, 
Plus tard devait dicter sa plainte au fier Ovide, 
Qui, choisissant Vamour, eut la meilleure part, 
Et frémir dans les vers d’Horace et de Ronsard. 


Baudelaire (1821-1867), the morbid realist, 
uses the story of the Leucadian Leap in his 
Lesbos: 


—Loeil d’azur est vaincu par Voeil noir que tachéte 
Le cercle ténébreux tracé par les douleurs 

De la male Sapho, Vamante et le poéte! 

Plus belle que Vénus se dressant sur le monde. 


In a literary fragment (1845), entitled Sapho, 
he refers to a famous and remarkable tragedy 


[ 183 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


on Sappho which was to be published soon 
afterwards by Arséne Houssaye. He quotes 
some verses which are reminiscent of Sappho’s 
second ode: 


Oui, Phaon, je vous aime; et, lorsque je vous vois, 
Je perds le sentiment et la force et la voix. 

Je souffre tout le jour le mal de votre absence, 

Mal qui n’égale pas Vheur de votre présence; 

Si bien que vous trouvant, quand vous venez le soir, 
La cause de ma joie et de mon désespotr, 

Mon dme les compense, et sous les lauriers roses 
Etouffe Vellébore et les soucis moroses. 


In 1873 we have a translation by Etienne 
Prosper Dubois-Gucham, La Grecque Pléiade; 
in 1878 that of P. L. Courier; in 1882, the verses 
of de la Roche. About this time J. Richepin 
published in his undated romance, Grandes 
Amoureuses, prose translations of several frag- 
ments, and in 1889 Paul Lenois made a prose 
version. In 1884, Alphonse Daudet, after 
writing a novel on French life and customs 
as a warning to young men, and picturing 
a courtesan carried upstairs in the arms 
of her lover, gave the courtesan and the 
novel the title of Sapho. Soon afterwards 
appeared anonymously Madame E. Caro’s 


[ 184 | 


IN FRENCH LITERATURE 


Sapho: In 1895 were heard the songs of Pierre 
Louys, who in Les chansons de Bilitis traduites 
du Grec pour la premiére fois transforms 
Mytilene into a modern Sodom and Sappho into 
the mistress of a band of hetaerae. He pretends 
that he is translating Greek poems that were 
found in excavating the poetess’ grave on 
Amathus. He even represents them as published 
by a Doctor Heim of Leipzig. Further to 
mystify the reader Louys tells of some of the 
poems that have not been translated and marks 
restorations in the text, as if these songs had 
actually been found marred and mutilated and 
as if the archaeologist had restored the missing 
words. He even uses, to give a Greek atmos- 
phere, many Greek expressions such as Kypris 
Philommeidés. Many of his Greek forms, such 
as Dzeus, are absurd. Charming as are these 
Bucoliques en Pamphylie, Elégies a Mitylene, 
Epigrammes dans Vile de Chypre, they belong 
rather to pornographic literature, as does his 
romance called Aphrodite, in which the pseudo- 
Lesbian idea of two girls marrying one another 
is to be found. Such bits of perverted Sap- 
phism as appear in many other French writers 
have no place in the literature of the real Sap- 
pho, who can now, after the discovery of all 


[ 185 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


the new papyri, easily be distinguished from 
the Sappho of romance and legend. Unfor- 
tunately the last French translation by Meunier 
(z911) does not include these recent relics. 

One of the latest French imitations of 
Sappho is by that great reviver of Aristophanes, 
Maurice Donnay, whose comedies have at- 
tracted such large audiences in Europe. In his 
Lysistrata (Act I, scene II), Donnay makes the 
pretty Hirondelle as she walks along the shore 
of the violet sea recite to the accompaniment 
of the music of the waves the song which divine 
Sappho composed for the Egyptian courtesan 
Rhodopis, although we have no evidence for 
such a song: 


RHODOPIS, fon amant est comme 

Un dieu: son bonheur me courrouce. 
Quand je pense que cest un homme 
Pour qui ta voix se fait st douce, 
Et que c’est Charaxos, mon frére, 
Qui posséde ta chair superbe, 

Et ta Beauté dont 7’étais fiére, 

Je deviens plus verte que Vherbe. 
Mes yeux se troublent, mes oreilles 
S’emplissent de murmures vagues 

Et de grandes rumeurs pareilles 

Au bruit que fait le choc des vagues. 


[ 186 | 


IN FRENCH LITERATURE 


Et voila qu’une sueur froide 
Inonde tout mon corps qui tremble, 
Puis, je reste sans souffle, et froide 
Ainsi qu’un cadavre, 1 me semble 
Que je meurs! que je meurs! 


This, of course, is an echo of the famous second 
ode of Sappho which has influenced all ages and 
countries and continues so to do. Hardly a 
year passes without some translation or remi- 
niscence of it in Greece or Italy, in France or 
Germany, in England or America. 


[ 187 | 


XI. SAPPHO IN ENGLISH AND 
AMERICAN LITERATURE 


APPHO was little read in England and as 
S a writer of poetry probably did not exist, 
except for a few Englishmen of great 
learning, before the sixteenth century. Even in 
the seventeenth century Thomas Stanley, a man 
of considerable culture, omitted Sappho from his 
translation of Anacreon (1650). In the six- 
teenth and seventeenth centuries the imitations 
limit themselves to the Sapphic metre,!”” with 
the exception of the famous line in Ben Jon- 
son’s pastoral drama, The Sad Shepherd (Act II, 
2): “But best the dear good angel of the spring, 
The nightingale,” and of Sir Philip Sidney, who 
seems to have been entirely forgotten by modern 
writers on Sappho. But it is interesting to 
note, in the movement led by Gabriel Harvey 
in pre-Shakesperian days to write English poetry 
in classical metres, that sapphics were attempted 
by Harvey’s friend, Sir Philip Sidney, in The 
Countesse of Pembroke’s Arcadia, which was 
begun in 1580. One stanza will suffice to show 


[ 188 | 


IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 


how strained were the strophes thus manu- 
factured; 


If mine eyes can speak to do hearty errand, 
Or mine eyes’ language she do hap to judge of, 
So that eyes’ message be of her received, 

Hope we do live yet. 


It is rather strange that Sir Philip did not use 
this metre in his translation of the second ode 
of Sappho, but employed anacreontics. 


My Muse, what ailes this ardor? 
Mine eyes be dim, my limbs shake, 
My voice is hoarse, my throat scorch’d, 
My tongue to this my roof cleaves, 

My fancy amaz’d, my thoughts dull’d, 
My heart doth ake, my life faints, 
My soul begins to take leave. 


This being a wholly iambic measure does not 
appear so exotic as the sapphics. Indeed, the 
youthful experimenter achieved a noteworthy 
success in rhythmic effect by ending each line 
with a foot composed of one strong syllable. 
Most of the knowledge there was of Sappho 
in the Elizabethan and Jacobean times, how- 
ever, seems to have been superficially based 
mainly on the Ovidian legend. Such a wonder- 


[ 189 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


ful story told by such a wonderful story-teller 

interested the early classicists in England, and 

the Phaon myth permeated much literature. 
Ben Jonson (Under-Woods, No. 45) says: 


Did Sappho, on her seven-tongw’d lute, 
So speak (as yet it is not mute) 
Of Phaon’s form ? 


Thomas Nashe in his novel, The Unfortunate 
Traveller (1594), is a typical example: ‘‘ Golde 
easily bends, the most ingenious minds are 
easiest moved, Ingenium nobis molle Thalia 
dedit, said Psapho to Phao.” It is just possible 
that Robert Herrick (1591-1674), who published 
so many poems to or upon Sapho, the name of 
his own love, knew from Athenaeus the frag- 
ment (E. 62) ‘‘much whiter than an egg,” 
when he published in Hesperides, No. 350 
(1648) the verses: 


Fain would I kiss my Julia’s dainty leg, 
Which is as white and hair-less as an egge. 


John Lyly made Sappho an allegorical image 
of the Virgin Queen: “TI will ever be virgin,” 
says Sappho. The play, Sapho and Phao, was 
produced in 1584 in the presence of Queen 
Elizabeth. Lyly makes Sappho a princess of 


[ 190 | 


IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 


Syracuse and takes many liberties with the 
historical Sappho. Lyly’s Sappho resembles the 
Queen, and Phao is supposed to be the Duke of 
Leicester, but in such an allegory all reference 
to the Leucadian Leap has to be omitted, and 
there are no echoes of Sappho’s own fragments. 
When Phaon comes, Sappho soliloquizes: ‘Wilt 
thou open thy love? Yea? No, Sapho, but 
staring in his face till thine eyes dazzle and thy 
spirits faint, die before his face; then this shall 
be written on thy tomb, that though thy love 
were greater than wisdom could endure, yet 
thine honour was such as love could not vio- 
late.’ Aphrodite interrupts their love and 
Phaon says: ‘‘ This shall be my resolution, where- 
ever I wander, to be as I were kneeling before 
Sapho; my loyalty unspotted, though unre- 
warded . . . My life shall be spent in sighing 
and wishing, the one for my bad fortune, the 
other for Sapho’s good.” Even Robert Burton 
in that famous storehouse of quotations, his 
Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), does not know 
Sappho as a poetess, and refers only to the 
Leucata Petra: ‘Here leaped down that Lesbian 
Sappho for Phaon on whom she miserably doted, 
hoping thus to ease herself and to be freed of 
her love pangs.”’ The first English translation 


[ 191 | 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


of Sappho’s second ode (1652), quoted by Edwin 
Cox, is John Hall’s version in his translation 
of the Treatise on the Sublime. He does not 
mention Sidney, and Addison did not know even 
Hall’s translation or that of Pulteney, for he 
says that the versions by Ambrose Philips in 
1711 were the first. In 1675 Edward Phillips 
in his Theatrum Poetarum devoted a chapter to 
Ancient Poetesses and Sappho. He knew the 
tradition of a second Sappho, but quoted no 
fragments. In 1680 Pulteney, who had a knowl- 
edge of small Latin and less Greek, gave a 
filtered translation from the French of the 
Treatise on the Sublime and the second Sapphic 
ode. In 1695 appeared another translation by 
an unknown author, but it was not till 1711 that 
any detailed study of Sappho began. In that 
year, in the Spectator (nos. 223, 229, and 233), 
Joseph Addison discussed Sappho at length. 
Even then we have only the namby-pamby 
verses of Ambrose Philips, so overpraised by 
Addison. Soon followed translations by Herbert 
in 1713, in his edition of Petronius (pp. 325-328); 
and in 1719, by Green. In 1735 John Addison 
published the works of Anacreon with Sappho 
added, in which the Loeb Classical Library idea 
of putting the Greek text on one page and the 


[ 192 | 


IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 


translation on the opposite page was antici- 
pated. Philips’ version of the Aphrodite hymn 
was forty-two lines long, but Addison gives one 
of his own in twenty-eight lines, which is the 
number in the original Greek. His own render- 
ing is as good as that of Philips, which perhaps 
is damning it with faint praise. His transla- 
tions of the eight fragments which he includes 
are also not remarkable. In 1748, we have 
Tobias Smollett’s version of the second ode in 
Roderick Random. About 1745, Mark Akenside 
in his tenth Ode on Lyric Poetry based a stanza 
on Sappho’s first ode. In 1760, ‘“‘a Gentle- 
man of Cambridge” published his verse trans- 
lations. In some publications he is considered 
to be different from Francis Fawkes, who un- 
doubtedly is the gentleman referred to. In 
1768 appeared E. B. Greene’s free and mediocre 
translation, in which Aphrodite’s doves become 
‘feathered steeds,” and which ignores the Sap- 
phic metre. In 1796, Mrs. Mary Robinson pub- 
lished Sappho and Phaon, but these sonnets of 
hers are not, as she claims, legitimate descendants 
of the real Sappho. 

It was not till the nineteenth century, how- 
ever, that the actual literary remains of Sappho 
were scientifically studied. In 1814, we have the 


[ 193 | 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


translations of Elton, in 1815 of Egerton, in 
1833 the Sapphics by Merivale, in 1854 
Palgrave, in 1877 Walhouse. In 1869, Edwin 
Arnold’s Poets of Greece gave one of the 
best renderings of the Aphrodite hymn in Sap- 
phic metre and included pretty translations of 
nine of her fragments. Edwin Arnold called 
her: ‘‘that exquisite poetess . . . whose genius 
among all feminine votaries of singing stands 
incontestably highest.” He protests against 
Swinburne’s repetition of the scandal against 
her sweet name which gossiping generations 
have invented; he rejects the Leucadian Leap 
and the Phaon myth. In 1871 T. W. Higginson 
wrote his important article on Sappho for The 
Atlantic Monthly, which can now be found in 
his Aélantic Essays. He translated several of 
the fragments and the hymn than which, he 
says, “there is not a lyrical poem in Greek 
literature nor in any other which has by its 
artistic structure inspired more enthusiasm.” 
He subjects to many a hard blow that paltry 
Scot soul, Colonel Mure, whose history of Greek 
literature ought to be tabooed. He repudiates 
the calumnies of the comedians and scandal- 
mongers. His appreciation of Sappho is one of 
the best that has been written. 


[ 194 ] 


IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 


In 1883 J. A. Symonds published his transla- 
tions, and some of them were made for and in- 
cluded in that charming little book of Wharton’s, 
which appeared in its first edition in 1885. Even 
before Wharton, Swinburne had given his high 
estimate of Sappho and had melted together 
many of the fragments into his Anactoria. In 
1894, Maurice Thompson published in The 
Atlantic Monthly, ‘““The Sapphic Secret,” and 
gave a fine appreciation of Sappho with trans- 
lations of the shorter fragments. During the 
last thirty years the discovery of new papyri 
has stimulated interest in Sappho and many 
books and articles, scientific and popular, have 
been printed. For a discussion of the recovery 
of Greek literature from papyri and the diffi- 
culties involved in deciphering and restoring 
Sappho’s new fragments, I refer the reader to 
my introduction on the subject in Miller- 
Robinson, The Songs of Sappho. 1 refer the 
reader to the bibliography for some of the books 
and to a note 1’8 for references to some popular 
articles, and call special attention to the volumes 
of Easby-Smith, Miss Patrick, Petersen, Ed- 
monds, Cox, Tucker, and Edward Storer, most of 
whom give their own verse renderings of some, 
if not all, of Sappho’s fragments. Many mod- 


[ 195 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


ern poets, both British and American, have 
adapted or expanded Sappho’s fragments in 
English verse, Lucy Milburn, Bliss Carman, 
Percy Osborn, that pure Pelasgian, John Myers 
O’Hara. Recently Dr. Marion Mills Miller, 
formerly of Princeton University, has published 
metrical adaptations of all the old and new 
fragments, which are graceful and witty. He 
has also given the romance of Sappho’s life in 
verse and has made a new poetical translation 
of Ovid’s Sappho to Phaon. In the same volume 
(cf. Bibliography), I have published the Greek 
text of all Sappho with a literal translation and 
two introductions. One deals with the recovery 
and restoration of Sappho’s relics and shows 
the romance as well as the difficulties involved 
in deciphering and restoring her poems. The 
other discusses Sappho’s life and works. 

The influence of Sappho on English and 
American literature has been large. We have 
already shown this in our citations, as it seemed 
better to quote some of the great English writers 
when we were speaking of Sappho herself. Ad- 
dison was devoted to her, but his contemporary, 
Pope, by translating Ovid’s Sappho to Phaon, 
aggravated the ill-fame which Ovid had given 
her. Pope often mentions her, but without 


| 196 | 


IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 


knowledge of the true Sappho. In Moral Essays 
(Epistle III, 121) we have the line: ‘‘Why she 
(Phryne) and Sappho raise that monstrous 
sum?’’, referring to Lady Montague and to 
Miss Skerrett, the latter of whom was the mis- 
tress and later the second wife of Sir Robert 
Walpole. Lady Mary (Montague) is alluded 
to also in Epistle II, 24: 


As Sappho’s diamonds with her dirty smock; 
Or Sappho at her toilet’s greasy task, 
With Sappho fragrant at an evening mask. 


Also in the Prologue to the Satires, in the 
Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, 369, we read: ‘Sappho 
can tell you how this man was bit.” Sappho 
is mentioned again in Imitations of Horace (Sat- 
ire I, 1.83) and in Satires of Dr. John Donne 
(II, 6), in these words: ‘As who knows Sappho, 
smiles at other whores.” In his letters to Crom- 
well, Pope often mentions two Sapphos, one his 
own and the other Cromwell’s: ‘‘ My service, 
pray, to the other Sappho, who it is to be hoped, 
has not yet cast herself headlong from any of 
the Leucades about London, although her Phaon 
lately fled from her into Lincolnshire.” Even 
in the letter to Steele, when he makes acknowl- 
edgment to the “fine fragment of Sappho,” 


[ 197 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


Pope is disingenuous and affected, as he sup- 
presses the name of Flatman, to whom he was 
really indebted. 

Wordsworth, influenced probably by Welcker’s 
defense, had a good opinion of Sappho 
(cf. the quotation, p. 247). But his dear friend, 
Sir Walter Scott, seems to be ignorant of her, 
though the lines on the Evening Star, which we 
have quoted (p. 64), sound strikingly Sapphic. 
Coleridge seems to echo the famous fragment 
about the pippin on the topmost bough in his 
One Red Leaf on the Topmost Twig; but as 
he shows no other influence of Sappho this is 
probably an accidental resemblance. Thomas 
Moore, as a translator of Anacreon with whom 
Sappho was generally linked, knew Sappho well 
and translated some of her fragments into Latin 
as well as English. His rendering of the Weav- 
ing Song is especially charming (cf. p. 79). 
Another contemporary Irish poet, the Reverend 
George Croly, tells how: 


Passion gave the living breath 
That shook the chords of Sappho’s lyre. 


Of the post-Revolution poets the bombastic 
Byron, who may have learned something about 
Sappho from his friend and editor, Thomas 


[ 198 ] 


IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 


Moore, refers to her most. In Don Juan (III, 
107), he expands, none too well, into a stanza of 
eight the two lines in which Sappho has painted 
such a beautiful miniature landscape of re- 
united village life. As Livingstone says in 
The Legacy of Greece (p. 265): ‘‘the English 
genius is rich and lavish rather than restrained. 
It is less in its nature to write like Sappho.” 
Was Livingstone not thinking also of Swinburne 
and many another modern poet who plays so 
many indistinct, un-Greek variations on that 
divine line: “I loved thee once, Atthis, in the 
long ago,’ which Mackail has called “just one 
sliding sigh and whisper of sound.” There is an- 
other expansion by the poet laureate of Canada, 
which we have quoted in a note (p. 257). 
It is Byron who in Don Juan (III, 76) speaks of 


The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece! 
Where burning Sappho loved and sung; 


and in Don Juan (II) he speaks of “‘ Sappho, 
the sage bluestocking in whose grave All those 
may leap who rather would be neuter.” In the 
controversy between Byron and Boules with 
regard to the second ode, Byron says: “Ts not 
this sublime and fierce love for one of her own 
sex? And is not Philips’ translation of it in 


[ 199 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


the mouths of all your women? And are the 
English schools or the English women the more 
corrupt for all this?”” Byron echoes the element . 
of fire which has so often been noted in Sappho’s 
songs, by critics from Plutarch to Sara Teas- 
dale. He knows the story derived from Ovid 
and Maximus of Tyre that she was dark (p. 35) 
and also the legend of the Lover’s Leap (Childe 
Harold, 11, 39-41): 


Childe Harold sail’d, and pass’d the barren spot, 
Where sad Penelope o’erlook’d the wave; 

And onward view’d the mount, not yet forgot, 
The lover’s refuge, and the Lesbian’s grave. 

Dark Sappho! could not verse immortal save 
That breast imbued with such immortal fire? 


Childe Harold hail’d Leucadia’s cape afar; 


But when he saw the evening star above 
Leucadia’s far-projecting rock of woe, 

And hail’d the last resort of fruitless love, 
He felt, or deem’d he felt, no common glow. 


While Shelley and Keats do not have clear 
echoes of Sappho, they come nearer to her in 
spirit than any other modern poets; but, even 
so, Keats’ sensuousness removes him from 


[ 200 | 


IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 


Sappho. W. L. Courtney, in a very interesting 
article on Sappho and Aspasia,!" says: “Shelley 
has the true lyrical note, and Keats some of 
that chiselled loveliness which makes each Sap- 
phic stanza a masterpiece.” One might even 
suspect that Shelley knew the second ode, at 
least in some secondary source, when he com- 
posed To Constantia Singing. 

Women poets naturally have taken an interest 
in Sappho. Mrs. Hemans, the English lyrist 
(1793-1835), speaks of “Sappho’s fervent heart.” 
Elizabeth Barrett Browning seems to have 
known only the song of the rose to which we 
have referred above (p. 68). She is familiar 
with the Lover’s Leap legend, as was Byron, 
for she speaks in A Vision of Poets of 


\ —Sappho, with that gloriole 
Of ebon hair on calméd brows— 
O poet-woman! none foregoes 
The leap, attaining the repose. 


In Matthew Arnold there is much classical 
influence, but A Modern Sappho has nothing of 
ancient Sappho. Walter Savage Landor,'” who 
looked back to Greece from Rome and by his 
delightful dialogues made the ancient ages live 
again, is one of the few who decry Sappho. He 


[ 201 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


seems to be jealous when he says that “Sappho 
is not the only poetess who has poured forth 
her melodies to Hesperus, or who had reason to 
thank him.”” He composes ten verses himself 
entitled Sappho to Hesperus, which are not like 
Sappho’s at all. Likewise he takes eight lines 
to express the thought of the despair of the 
lovesick maiden over her faithless lover, which 
Sappho depicts in a better picture of a single 
couplet. Landor finds Sappho deficient in deli- 
cacy in her answer to Alcaeus and attributes 
to her an epigram about Alcaeus which she 
never wrote. He would obliterate no letter of 
the invocation to Hesperus by a tear of his. 
Among the poems of Sappho he finds one written 
in a different hand from the rest, which pleases 
him as much as any of them, but it reads like 
Landor and is inferior to what Sappho would 
have said. In Simonidea he tries his hand at 
the Weaving Song: 


Mother I cannot mind my wheel 
My fingers ache, my lips are dry, 
Oh if you felt the pain I feel! 
But oh, who ever felt as I? 


Charles Kingsley wrote a beautiful poem on 
Sappho, which well represents her mood; but 


| 20e 8 


IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 


there is hardly even a faint echo of Sappho’s 
own fragments unless the words “all her veins 
ran fever” are accidentally suggested by the 
second ode. 


SAPPHO 


SHE lay among the myrtles on the cli; 

Above her glared the noon; beneath, the sea, 
Upon the white horizon Atho’s peak 

Weltered in burning haze; all airs were dead; 
The cicale slept among the tamarisk’s hatr; - 
The birds sat dumb and drooping. Far below 
The lazy sea-weed glistened in the sun, 

The lazy sea-fowl dried their steaming wings; 
The lazy swell crept whispering up the ledge, 
And sank again. Great Pan was laid to rest; 
And Mother Earth watched by him as he slept, 
And hushed her myriad children for a while. 
She lay among the myrtles on the cliff; 

And sighed for sleep, for sleep that would not hear, 
But left her tossing still; for night and day 

A mighty hunger yearned within her heart, 
Till all her veins ran fever; and her cheek, 
Her long thin hands, and ivory-chamnelled feet, 
Were wasted with the wasting of her soul. 
Then peevishly she flung her on her face, 

And hid her eyeballs from the blinding glare, 
And fingered at the grass, and tried to cool 
Her crisp hot lips agawnst the crisp hot sward: 


[ 203 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


And then she raised her head, and upward cast 
Wild looks from homeless eyes, whose liquid light 
Gleamed out between deep folds of blue-black hair, 
As gleam twin lakes between the purple peaks 
Of deep Parnassus, at the mournful moon. 
Beside her lay her lyre. She snatched the shell, 
And waked wild music from its silver strings; 
Then tossed it sadly by. —‘Ah, hush!’ she cries, 
‘Dead offspring of the tortoise and the mine! 
Why mock my discords with thine harmonies? 
Although a thrice-Olympian lot be thine, 

Only to echo back in every tone 

The moods of nobler natures than thine own.’ 


(CHARLES KINGSLEY) 


William Cory, famous translator of the 
Heraclitus epigram, who published poems on 
Stesichorus and other classical subjects, prettily 
transformed one of the fragments into: 


Woman dead, lie there; 
No record of thee 

Shall there ever be, 

Since thou dost not share 
Roses in Pieria grown. 
In the deathful cave, 
With the feeble troop 

Of the folk that droop, 


[ 204 ] 


IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 


Lurk and flit and crave, 
Woman severed and far-flown. 

William Morris, a fine classical scholar, as shown 
in his Life and Death of Jason, in The Earthly 
Paradise (1868-1871), expands in avery readable 
form the story of the Egyptian courtesan, Rho- 
dopis, whom Sappho’s brother, Charaxus, ran- 
somed. About the same time (1870) Rossetti 
made the combination of two fragments which 
we have mentioned above (p. 93). Some tell 
us that Oscar Wilde’s heart goes out to Sappho, 
but so far as I have read I have not been able 
to find in him any trace of the real Sappho.’** 
On the other hand, Tennyson and Swinburne 
read her fragments over and over. Tennyson, 
who thought the Sapphics of Horace to be 
“much inferior to those of Sappho,” beautifully 
paraphrases the second ode in Eleanore (1832). 
In the original edition of Fatima (Dec. 1832), 
published under the title O Love, Love, Love, he 
prefixed the first line of this ode as a motto. 
Many as are the echoes of the sweet-bitter, 
bitter-sweet antithesis of Sappho (E. 81, above, 
p- 57) in Wharton and other critics, it seems 
strange that perhaps the most beautiful and 
deep-hearted of all, Elaine’s song in Tennyson’s 
Idyl is never cited, so far as I know.!®° 


[ 205 | 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


Love, art thou sweet? then bitter death must be: 
Love, thou art bitter; sweet is death to me. 
O Love, if death be sweeter, let me die. 


Tennyson echoes the third fragment, as we have 
seen (p. 63); and he re-echoes through Horace 
another fragment in his Epilogue (p. 36). In 
Fatima, ‘Love, O withering might” suggests 
another fragment. In Leonine Elegiacs we have 
a better adaptation than in Byron of the 
Hesperus hymn: 


The ancient poetess singeth, that Hesperus all 
things bringeth, 

Smoothing the wearied mind: bring me my 
love, Rosalind. 


In Locksley Hall Sixty Years After he again uses 
the same Sapphic fragment: “‘ Hesper, whom the 
poet call’d the Bringer home of all good things.” 
His brother, Frederick Tennyson, who was such 
a good Greek scholar that he won the medal at 
Trinity College for a Greek poem, in his Isles of 
Greece (1890) used several adaptations and trans- 
lations of Sappho, the prettiest being those 
about Sappho’s child Cleis, about Hesper and 
the summer noonday siesta by the cool waters. 
Many writers of lyrics in England and Scot- 
land have thought of Sappho, but generally of 


[ 206 ] 


IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 


the Phaon story, as recently did Thomas McKie 
in his Lyric on Love: 1"! 


Bewildered with her love and grief, 
From lone Leucadia’s stormy steep 
Distracted Sappho sought relief, 
By plunging in the whelming deep. 
The deep that closed upon her woes 
Not half so wild, impetuous flows. 


Swinburne is one of Sappho’s greatest ad- 
mirers, and we have quoted some of his praises 
among the appreciations of Sappho (pat). 
We have cited Noyes’ appreciation of 
Swinburne’s love of Sappho, and here are 
Thomas Hardy’s interesting lines to Swinburne: 


— His singing-mistress verily was no other 
Than she the Lesbian, she the music-mother 
Of all the tribe that feel in melodies; 
Who leapt, love-anguished, from the Leucadian steep 
Into the rambling world-encircling deep 
Which hides her where none sees. 


And one can hold in thought that nightly here 

His phantom may draw down to the water’s brim, 

And hers come up to meet it, as a dim 

Lone shine upon the heaving hydrosphere, 

And mariners wonder as they traverse near, 
Unknowing of her and him. 


[ 207 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


One dreams him sighing to her spectral form: 

“OQ teacher, where lies hid thy burning line; 

Where are those songs, O poetess divine 

Whose very arts are love incarnadine?”’ 

And her smile back: ‘Disciple true and warm, 
Sufficient now are thine.” . . 


(THomas Harpy, A Singer Asleep) 


While perhaps Swinburne exaggerates in his 
praise of Sappho, he owes much to the great 
poetess of love: : 


Love’s priestess, mad with pain and joy of song, 
Song’s priestess, mad with joy and pain of love. 
(On the Cliffs) 


He makes her say: 


My blood was hot wan wine of love, 
And my song’s sound the sound thereof, 
The sound of the delight of it. 


In Tristram of Lyonesse he speaks of ‘‘Sweet 
Love, that art so bitter,” and in Anactoria: 


My life is bitter with thy love; thine eyes 
Blind me, thy tresses burn me... 


His poems have many Sapphic echoes. In his 
youth he poured several of Sappho’s fragments 
into the melting pot of Anactoria, where she is 


[ 208 | 


IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 


a nerve-racked woman, torn by passion, sen- 
suous and lascivious, altogether too “Sapphic.” 
The rhetoric in his lines is gorgeous, but he loses 
much of Sappho’s emotional power. “That one 
low, pellucid phrase,” as Mackail calls the line, 
“T say that one will think of us even hereafter,” 
is expanded into: 


Yea, thou shalt be forgotten like spilt wine 
Except these kisses of my lips on thine 

Brand them with immortality; but me— 

Men shall not see bright fire nor hear the sea, 
Nor mix their hearts with music, nor behold 
Cast forth of heaven with feet of awful gold 
And plumeless wings that make the bright air blind, 
Lightning, with thunder for a hound behind 
Hunting through fields unfurrowed and unsown — 
But in the light and laughter, m the moan 

And music, and in grasp of lip and hand 

And shudder of water that makes felt on land 
The immeasurable tremor of all the sea, 
Memories shall mix and metaphors of me. 


The famous fragment of four lines which we 
have quoted above (p. 69) becomes: 

Thee too the years shall cover; thou shalt be 

As the rose born of one same blood with thee, 


As a song sung, as a word said, and fall 
Flower-wise, and be not any more at all, 


[ 209 | 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


Nor any memory of thee anywhere; 

For never Muse has bound above thine hair 
The high Pierian flower whose graft outgrows 
All Summer kinship of the mortal rose 

And colour of deciduous days, nor shed 

Reflex and flush of heaven above thine head, etc. 


The Aphrodite hymn which he paraphrased in 
Anactoria is used again in Songs of the Spring- 
tides: 
O thou of divers-coloured mind,’ O thou 
Deathless, God’s daughter subtle-souled 


Child of God, close craftswoman, I beseech thee; 
Bid not ache nor agony break nor master, 
Lady, my spirit. 
(On the Cliffs) 


In the same poem the mature Swinburne comes 
closer than in his youth to Sappho, when he 
says: “The tawny sweet-winged thing, Whose 
cry was but of spring.”’ But even in this poem 
he dilutes Sappho’s one line into six or more: 


‘I loved thee’ — hark, one tenderer note than all — 
‘Atthis, of old time once’— one low long fall, 
Sighing — one long low lovely loveless call, 
Dying — one pause in song so flamelike fast — 
‘Aithis, long since in old time overpast’? — 

One soft first pause and last. 


[ 210 | 


IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 


We cannot take leave of Swinburne without 
paying tribute to his Sapphics. English and 
American poets in general have not been suc- 
cessful with the Sapphic strophe, though in 
modern times Canning’s Needy Knife-grinder is 
a good specimen; and Tennyson caught the 
real Greek cadence in his specimen: 


Faded every violet, all the roses; 

Gone the glorious promise, and the victim 
Broken in this anger of Aphrodite 

Yields to the victor. 


Many have experimented with the Sapphic 
stanza, as recently Clinton Scollard and Thomas 
S. Jones, Jr., in their Sapphics. 


TO A HILL-TOWN 
(Last two stanzas) 


Sighing winds and crooning of gentle waters; 
Ilex boughs that tremble with tender music, — 
Nightingales that sing im the scented gloaming, — 
These for thee, Sappho! 


Immortelles and chaplets of crimson roses, — 
Roses loved of thee and beloved of Lesbos, — 
Plaintive notes of lyres and the tears of lovers, 
These for thee, Sappho! 

CUS ra] 2) 


[ 211 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


TO THE LESBIAN 


You, who first unloosed from the winds their burden 
On that lyre of magical trembling heart-strings, 
Merged within all sorrow and human gladness — 
So sang for all time: 


Do you never still through the drifting shadows 
Seek unseen the ways that you loved in Lesbos, — 
Or alone for song’s everlasting splendor 
2 
Were you made mortal? (T. S. JD 
Sara Teasdale (Mrs. Filsinger), who has been 
called one of the best of contemporary lyric poets 
and who is an ardent admirer of Sappho, has 
written the following striking lyric in the Sap- 
phic stanza: 


THE LAMP 


Ir I can bear your love like a lamp before me, 
When I go down the long steep Road of Darkness, 
I shall not fear the everlasting shadows, 

Nor cry im terror. 


If I can find out God, then I shall find Him; 

If none can find Him, then I shall sleep soundly, 

Knowing how well on earth your love sufficed me, 
A lamp in darkness. 


Marion Mills Miller 18 has written some good 
Sapphics, though his theory of the proper ren- 


[a2t2 3] 


IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 


dition of Sapphic metre will cause some contro- 
versy among scholars. We have not the space 
here to discuss the history of the Sapphic metre, 
which if not first used by Sappho was first per- 
fected by her. It has been employed extensively 
in all ages. Horace has it some twenty-six times. 
Elizabethan renderings can be found in Robin- 
son Ellis’ preface to his translation of Catullus. 
By Rhabanus (766-856) it was fitted to hymns 
such as those for the Feast of St. John the Baptist, 
for Candlemas, Michaelmas, and for the Feast 
of St. Benedict, and it was employed for his 
hymns in the Common of Confessors and the 
Common of Virgins. But no one else has ever 
caught the Sapphic rhythm and melody so well 
as Swinburne in his early poem called Sapphics: 


Att the night sleep came not upon my eyelids, 

Shed not dew, nor shook nor unclosed a feather, 

Yet with lips shut close and with eyes of iron 
Stood and beheld me. 


° 


Saw the reluctant 
Feet, the straining plumes of the doves that drew her, 
Looking always, looking with necks reverted, 

Back to Lesbos, back to the hills whereunder 

Shone Mitylene; 


° ° ° e ° se e 


[ 213 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


Ah the singing, ah the delight, the passion! 

All the Loves wept, listening; sick with anguish, 

Stood the crowned nine Muses about A pollo; 
Fear was upon them, 


While the tenth sang wonderful things they knew not. 

Ah the tenth, the Lesbian! the nine were silent, 

None endured the sound of her song for weeping; 
Laurel by laurel. 


Faded all their crowns; but about her forehead, 

Round her woven tresses and ashen temples 

White as dead snow, paler than grass in summer, 
Ravaged with kisses, 


Shone a light of fire as a crown for ever. 

Yea, almost the implacable Aphrodite 

Paused, and almost wept; such a song was that song, 
Yea, by her name too 


Called her, saying, ‘Turn to me, O my Sappho,’ 
Yet she turned her face from the Loves, she saw not 
Tears for laughter darken immortal eyelids, 

Heard not about her 


Clothed about with flame and with tears, and singing 

Songs that move the heart of the shaken heaven, 

Songs that break the heart of the earth with pity, 
Hearing, to hear them. 


[ 214 ] 


IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 


American. In America in early days little 
attention was paid to the content of Sappho, 
but the Phaon story is sometimes used, as for 
example by Philip Freneau of New Jersey, the 
“poet of the American Revolution,” the “crea- 
ture of the opposition” (1752-1832). In The 
Monument of Phaon, a poem published in 1795, 
in the form of a dialogue between Sappho and 
the traveller, Ismenius informs her that he saw 
the tomb of her deserter, Phaon, in Sicily, erected 
by another lady: 


Not distant far a monument arose 
Among the trees, and form’d of Parian stone, 


A sculptured Venus on the summit wept, 
A pensive Cupid dropt the parting tear. 


The last lines are: 


Vil go! and from the high Leucadian steep 

Take my last farewell in the lover's leap, 

I charge thee Phaon, by this deed of woe, 

To meet me in the Elysian shades below, 

No rival beauty shall pretend a share, 

Sappho alone shall walk with Phaon there. 

She spoke, and downward from the mountain’s 
height 

Plung’d in the plashy wave to everlasting night. 


[215 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) in the index to 
the first volume of the Southern Literary Mes- 
senger states that a stanza of Sappho’s second 
ode is embodied in his poem, To Sarah: 


In such an hour when are forgot 

The World, its cares and my own lot 
Thou seemest then to be 

A gentle guarding spirit given 

To guide my wandering thoughts to heaven 
If they should stray from thee. 


In Ulalume there is a possible echo of fragment 
(EAax6) 3 

In terror she spoke, letting sink her 

Wings till they trailed in the dust, 

In agony sobbed, letting sink her 

Plumes till they trailed in the dust. 


In Al Aaraaf, I, 43 ff., Poe says in a note that 
he is referring to Sappho in the lines: 


. . . Lilies such as rear’d the head 
On the fair Capo Deucato, and sprang 
So eagerly around about to hang 
Upon the flying footsteps — deep pride — 
Of her who lov’d a mortal — and so died. 


Dr. Thomas O. Mabbott of Columbia Univer- 
sity has called my attention to the fact that Poe 


[ 216 ] 


IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 


published a version of Sappho’s second ode by 
Mary E. Hewitt in Broadway Journal, I, no. 24 
(1845); that he knew ‘‘Udoch’s”’ note (Southern 
Literary Messenger, I, p. 454, April, 1835) where 
there is a reference to the Spectator, no. 229; 
and that the paper, Some Ancient Greek Authors, 
signed P. in the Southern Literary Messenger 
for April, 1836, where a conventional account of 
Sappho is given, was probably written by Poe. 

Later American literature, like that of other 
countries, is full of the name of Sappho, even 
if it does not show a profound knowledge of 
the fragments of the actual Sappho. In any 
case, such dramas and poems and novels reveal 
the tremendous potentiality of her name. We 
have referred to translations or adaptations by 
Easby-Smith, Lucy Milburn, J. M. O'Hara, Bliss 
Carman, Petersen, Storer, and Marion Mills 
Miller. There have been renderings of individual 
poems by Felton, Higginson, Gildersleeve, 
Shorey, Lawton, Appleton, Whicher, Horton, 
Drake, and others; the first ode has been well 
rendered in the metre of the original by Professor 
Appleton, Professor Fairclough, and others (cf. 
pp. 47-52 above).” We cannot list here all the 
American renderings of single songs or frag- 
ments, although we have incidentally in this 


[217 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


book mentioned many such, and an abundance 
of references will be found in the notes. Nor 
can we give the titles of all the tragedies and 
poems which have been inspired by the name 
of Sappho. We select only a few of the more 
important. There is an interesting tragedy in 
five acts called Sappho of Lesbos by Mrs. Estelle 
Lewis (‘‘Stella”’), whom Edgar Allan Poe called 
“the rival of Sappho.” The play was put on 
the stage in London in 1868 and afterwards 
was given on the Athenian stage in a modern 
Greek version. It reached a seventh edition. 
It should be credited to America, since 
Mrs. Lewis was Miss Anna Blanche Robinson, 
born near Baltimore in 1824. She translated 
Virgil’s Aeneid when a mere schoolgirl, and 
afterwards married Mr. Lewis of Brooklyn, 
New York. She travelled much abroad, but 
returned to America, where she wrote some 
of the plays before she went to live in London 
in 1865. In 1876 was published Ellen Froth- 
ingham’s translation of Grillparzer’s Sappho. 
In 1900-1913 H. V. Sutherland wrote his 
Sappho and Phaon, and in 1907 was pub- 
lished Percy Mackaye’s tragedy with the same 
title. Even when he was a student at Harvard, 
he wrote an entirely distinct lyric drama in 


[ 218 | 


IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 


verse, entitled Sappho, or Archilochus and Hip- 
ponax, in which he himself acted with a gather- 
ing of Harvard and Wellesley students in 
January, 1896. Unfortunately this drama has 
not been published. The published play is 
written mostly in iambic pentameter blank 
verse, with a few lyrics and some trochaic and 
dactylic lines; there are also several excellent 
Sapphics. It has never been very successful on 
the stage, although the music given with it is 
still so popular that it has been recently pub- 
lished by Professor Stanley (cf. bibliography). 
In the prologue a manuscript of Sappho’s 
poems is imagined to have been found in ex- 
cavating the theatre of Varius at Herculaneum, 
just as Lucy Milburn, who lived in Lesbus for 
a while, pretended that she procured her poems 
from papyri which she had discovered in a 
metal case in the Orient. The scene of the 
tragedy is an olive grove on a promontory over- 
looking the Aegean Sea. In the first act we 
have Atthis betrothed to Larichus, and Anac- 
toria deserted by Alcaeus for Sappho. Pittacus 
is one of Sappho’s suitors who quarrels with 
Alcaeus and in trying to strike him hits the 
slave Phaon. In the second act Sappho re- 
leases Phaon from his yoke and they flee from 


[ 219 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


Alcaeus after Phaon has struck him with his 
spear. In the third act Phaon again strikes at 
Alcaeus, but this time hits his own boy. Tha- 
lassa, his wife, shows him his own dead child 
and so he returns to her, and the rejected Sappho 
springs into the misty sea. There are inappro- 
priate prose interludes with a pantomime of the 
drunken Hercules. Sappho is here again not the 
real Sappho but the Sappho of tradition, which 
is rather strange, as several of Sappho’s frag- 
ments, by no means all that might have been 
suitable, are accurately and charmingly para- 
phrased. This shows that Mackaye knew the 
fragments of Sappho, but he has no real under- 
standing of Sappho herself, for his Sappho is 
given to unrestrained love and she rejects a 
great poet and statesman for the married slave 
into whom Mackaye has transformed Phaon. 
I can quote only the very dramatic hymn to 
Poseidon and Aphrodite: 


Gop of the generations, pain, and death, 

I bow to thee. Not for love’s sake is love’s 
Fierce happiness, but for the after-race. 

Yet, thou eternal Watcher of the tides, 

Knowing their passions, tell me! Why must we 
Rapturous beings of the spray and storm 

That, chanting, beat our hearts against thy shores 


[ 220 ] 


IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 


Of aspiration — ebb? ebb and return 
Into the songless deep? are we no more 
Than foam upon thy garment? 


Another wave has broken at your feet 

And, moaning, wanes into oblivion. 

But not its radiance. That flashes back 

Into the morning, and shall flame again 

Over a myriad waves. That flame am I, 

Nor thou, Poseidon, shalt extinguish me. 

My spirit is thy changeling, and returns 

To her, who glows beyond the stars of birth — 
To her, who is herself time’s passion star. 


Many individual American poems have also 
taken the title or themes from Sappho. Oliver 
Wendell Holmes refers to her in the fourth 
stanza of The Voiceless: 


Not where Leucadian breezes sweep 
O’er Sappho’s memory-haunted billow, 
But where the glistening night-dews weep 
On nameless sorrow’s churchyard pillow. 


(The Atlantic Monthly, Oct. 1858) 


Samuel Latham Mitchill (1764-1831) reflects 
Sappho’s love of the rose in an imaginary dia- 
logue between Sappho and her younger con- 
temporary from Samos, Pythagoras: 


[522 Le} 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


PYTHAGORAS AND SAPPHO, 
or 
THE DIAMOND AND THE ROSE 


Lonc time ago, tis well expressed, 
Pythagoras the seer 

This question artfully addressed 
To beauteous Sappho’s ear: 


“When hence thou shalt be forced to flee, 
By transmigration’s power, ' 

Wouldst thou indeed prefer to be 
A jewel or a flower?” 


The Lesbian maid these words returned 
To greet the Samian sage, 

“For gems my taste has never burned, 
And flowers my choice engage. 


“The glittering stones, though rich and rare, 
No animation know, 
While vegetables fine and fair 
With vital action glow. 


“The senseless gem no pleasure moves, 
Displayed in fashion’s use, 
But flowers enjoy their gentle loves, 
And progeny produce. 


“Then when I shall surmount,” she cried, 
“Rude dissolution’s storm, 


Ree 


IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 


Oh! let me not be petrified, 
But wear a living form. 


“Those matchless rays the diamond shows, 
With promptness I decline, 
That I may dwell within the rose 
And make its blossoms mine.” 


In recent years many poems have appeared on 
Sappho. For example, thinking perhaps of the 
story that Solon asked his nephew to teach him 
a song of Sappho before he died, and echoing 
the epithet of “sweetly smiling” in Alcaeus’ 
fragment, Richard Hovey (1864-1900) wrote in 
The Independent, April 30, 1896, A Dream of 
Sappho: 


I DREAMED of Sappho on a summer night, 
Her nightingales were singing im the trees 
Beside the castled river; and the wind 

Fell like a woman’s fingers on my cheek, 
And then I slept and dreamed and marked no change; 
The night went on with me into my dream, 
This only I remember, that I said: 

‘O Sappho! ere I leave this paradise, 

Sing me one song of those lost books of yours 
For which we poets still go sorrowing; 

That when I meet my fellows on the earth 

I may rejoice them more than many pearls,’ 


[ 223 | 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


And she, the sweetly-smiling, answered me, 
As one who dreams: ‘I have forgotten them.’ 


We have referred above to Gamaliel Bradford’s 
use of Sappho’s apple on the topmost bough; and 
Maurice Thompson, the author of Alice of Old 
Vincennes and the Sapphic Secret, published as 
his last song, Sappho’s A pple in The Independent, 
Feb. 21, 1901: 


SAPPHO’S APPLE 


A DREAMY languor lapsed along, 

And stirred the dusky-bannered boughs; 
With half a sigh and half a song 

The crooning tree did nod and drowse, 
While far aloft blush-tinted hung 

One perfect apple maiden-sweet, 
At which the gatherers vainly flung, 

And could not get to hoard or eat. 


“Reddest and best,” they growled and went 
Slowly away, each with his load 
Fragrant upon his shoulders bent, 
The hill-flowers darkening where they trode; 
“Reddest and best; but not for us; 
Some loafing lout will see it fall; 
The laborer’s prize —’twas ever thus — 
Is his who never works at alll” 


[ 224 ] 


IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 


Soon came a vagrant, loitering, 
His young face browned by wind and sun, 
Weary, yet blithe and prone to sing, 
Tramping his way to Avalon; 
Even I it was, who, long athirst 
And hungry, saw the apple shine; 
Then wondrous wild sweet singing burst 
Flame-like across these lips of mine. 


“O, ruby-flushed and flaring gold, 
Thou splendid lone one left for me, 
Apple of love to filch and hold, 
Fruit-glory of a kingly tree! 
Drop, drop into my hand, 
That I may hide thee in my breast, 
And bear thee far o’er sea and land, 
A captive, to the purple West.” 


Renée Vivien (1877-1909), an American 


poetess of great promise who died all too young 


and all too unknown to students of Sappho 


(see bibliography), made some very nice French 


verse translations of Sappho which were pub- 


lished under a pseudonym in 1903 and reprinted 
anonymously in 1909. She pays her tribute to 
Sappho in these two verses: 


Les siécles attentifs se penchent pour entendre 
Les lambeaux de tes chants ....- 


[ 225 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


The Maryland poet, Father John B. Tabb, the 
only American who with Emerson was admitted 
to the Oxford Garland Series on Epigrams, has 
two poems on Sappho, in the first of which 
Keats is appropriately classed with Sappho:!* 


KEATS — SAPPHO 


METHINKS, when first the nightingale 
Was mated to thy deathless song, 

That Sappho with emotion pale, 
Amid the Olympian throng, 

Again, as in the Lesbian grove, 
Stood listening with lips apart, 

To hear in thy melodious love 
The pantings of her heart. 


SAPPHO 


A LicHT upon the headland, flaming far, 
We see thee o’er the widening waves of time, 
Impassioned as a palpitating star, 
Big with prophetic destiny sublime: 
A momentary flash —a burst of song — 
Then silence, and a withering blank of pain. 
We wait, alas! in tedious vigils long, 
The meteor-gleam that cometh not again! 
Our eyes are heavy, and our visage wan: 
Our breath —a phantom of the darkness — glides 


2269) 


IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 


Ghostlike to swell the dismal caravan 

Of shadows, where thy lingering splendor hides, 
Till, with our tears and ineffectual sighs, 

We quench the spark a smouldering hope supplies. 


We have already referred to Alan Seeger’s use 
of the famous midnight fragment (p. 78). The 
magazines are fond of the subject of Sappho and 
Phaon and have countless poems which refer 
to Phaon and the Leucadian Leap. Buchanan 
has a poem called The Leucadian Rock; and 
Edward J. O’Brien in the Liberator says: 


Stir not the grasses here, 

O wandering zephyr, 

For Phaon travelled far over alien foam 
Before his footsteps turned in soft contentment 
Home to the green threshold 

He had forgotien. 


Sara Teasdale, the modern burning American 
Sappho, has a poem on Phaon and the Leucadian 
Leap in Scribner’s Magazine, for December, 1913, 
pp. 725-6. The poem is too long to quote entire, 
and I can give only a few lines: 


FAREWELL; across the threshold many feet 
Shall pass, but never Sappho’s feet again. 


[ 227 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


‘Whither goes Sappho lonely in the night?’ 

Whither goes Sappho? Whither all men go, 
But they go driven, straining back with fear, 
And Sappho goes as lightly as a leaf 

Blown from brown autumn forests to the sea. 


Yet they shall say: ‘It was for Cercolas — 

She died because she could not bear her love.’ 
Others shall say: ‘Grave Dica wrought her death.’ 
Ah, Dica, it is not for thee I go. 

And not for Phaon, tho’ his ship lifts sail 

Here in the windless harbor, for the south. 

How should they know that Sappho lived and died 
Faithful to love, not faithful to the lover, 

The gods have given life, I gave them song; 

The debt is paid and now I turn to go. 


Alfred Noyes, in his poem In Memory of 
Swinburne uses the fragment which Swinburne 
himself expanded (cf. p. 12). Edwin Arlington 
Robinson * has translated The Dust of Timas 
(cf. p. 100), which has recently been diluted 
by William Stebbing into twelve verses in his 
poem, A Bride in Death. Robinson’s rendering 


L228 | 


IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 


of Posidippus’ epigram on Doricha is also 
excellent: 


So Now the very bones of you are gone 
Where they were dust and ashes long ago; 
And there was the last ribbon you tied on 
To bind your hair, and that is dust also; 
And somewhere there is dust that was of old 
A soft and scented garment that you wore — 
The same that once till dawn did closely fold 
You in with fair Charaxus, fair no more. 


But Sappho, and the white leaves of her song, 
Will make your name a word for all to learn, 
And all to love thereafter, even while 

It’s but a name; and this will be as long 
As there are distant ships that will return 
Again to your Naucratis and the Nile. 


There is little of Sappho except in name in 
Agnes Kendrick Gray’s verses 1° or in those of 
William Alexander Percy. Harry Kemp is 
thinking of Byron rather than Sappho herself 
when he says that the lines, ‘‘the Isles of Greece 
where burning Sappho loved and sung,” went 
to his soul like a white hot iron. There is more 
in George Horton,!*” who in the last poem on 
Sappho which I have seen from his pen has a 
refrain on “‘bitter-sweet.”’ Mr. Horton forgets 


[229] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


that we do know that Pittacus, (see illustration 
(Pl. 2) was “lord of Lesbos’ isle,” but the 
general sentiment is true all the same: 


BALLADE OF SAPPHO’S FAME 


Ou, wHo was lord of Lesbos’ isle 
When Sappho sang for many a year, 
And great Apollo’s self the while, 
Ceased from the lyre and bent to hear? 
The titles to his heart so near, 

His lineage, who can now repeat? 

Yet she escaped oblivion drear 

Who said that love is “ bitter-sweet.” 


And who by wealth or selfish guile 

Became the island’s proudest peer ? 

What siren with voluptuous wile 

Was potent at the royal ear? 

Who gained renown with sword and spear? 
Their fame is dust beneath the feet 

Of Time, and she alone is dear 

Who said that love is “ bitter-sweet.” 


Our joy is sadder than the smile 
Of grief that cannot shed a tear; 
Our lives are like a little mile 
Marked on the orbit of a sphere; 
The wisdom that we most revere 
Is mixed with folly and defeat: 


[ 230 ] 


IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 


Her laurel never can grow sere 
Who said that love is “bitter-sweet.” 


ENVOI 


From out that pallid atmosphere 

Where dawn and darkness vaguely meet, 
Comes but her lark-nete cool and clear 
Who said that love is ‘‘bitter-sweet.” 


I have quoted enough to discredit ““The King 
of the Black Isles’? who in the Line O’T ype of 
the Chicago Tribune for November, 1922, pub- 
lishes a poem with the alliterative caption, A 
Lady Lived in Lesbos.8* The last of the three 
stanzas is: 


We have forgotten beauty and all our goods are good, 
And little we remember now the dryads and the wood, 
And only old philosophers and foolish dreamers know 
What lady lived in Lesbos a weary time ago. 


Even as this book goes to press, Tristram 
Tupper issues his novel, Adventuring (Doran Co., 
N. Y., 1923), in which Sappho is discovered 
even down in the valley of the Shenandoah: 


“On such a night Jay Singleton discovered the 
most beloved singer of all the ages. Not in the 
Lesbian starlit dusk, nor yet in the golden-sandaled 
dawn, but beneath a smoky lamp in the valley of 
the Shenandoah. Found her in a book. And he 


ete 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


liked the cut of her verses — three pentameters 
followed by a dipody; and he liked the cut of her 
clothes — sort of loose and careless before the 
Christian era. ‘No use falling in love,’ said Jay 
Singleton to himself. ‘She sang her songs six 
hundred years B.C.’ 

“But he pored over another fragment, translated 
another quatrain, looked up each word, strung 
them together, made a kind of rime. In a word, 
Jay Singleton tried to improve a bit on the in- 
imitable Sappho. And that night out on his porch 
where no one could hear, not even at the post 
office quarter of a mile away, he struck the strings 
of his guitar and he sang this surprising Sapphic: 


Man is peer of gods in those moments after 
Love has silenced song and has banished laughter; 
Then —to her who smiles at him softly through 
tears — 
He has no peers. 


“He laid aside his guitar and lit his pipe, that 
made a pink glow in the darkness. He tried to 
form in his mind an image of Sappho and of her 
Isle of Lesbos, tried to wander back through the 
labyrinthine ages, ages misty with music, dusky 
with gold, red with wars, and blushing with roses — 
forgotten wars, faded roses mingling to form the 
perfume of the centuries. He pulled on his pipe. 
‘Where is she now?’ Easy enough to imagine 
Sappho with her ivory throat, her violet eyes and 
sandals of golden dawn, back in the golden dawn 
of poetry. For, overhead, these were her stars. 
But he wondered about the form her singing soul 
had taken after she had leaped into the Ionian Sea. 


[ 232 ] 


IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 


Had the waters quenched the spark, or was her 
soul immortal — a flame that twenty-five hundred 
years had failed to extinguish? Again he asked: 
‘Where are you now? Where in this, the most 
cluttered up of all the ages?’ He tried to imagine 
her beside the Little Calfpasture — Sappho beside 
the Calfpasture Creek, sighing, laughing, singing 
her lyrics! ‘No use falling in love! Sang your songs 
twenty-five hundred years ago!’” 

In May, 1922, Miss Bertha Bennett of Carleton 
College produced an interesting pageant “A Grecian 
Festival’ on the Sappho and Phaon story, with adap- 
tations of Sappho’s first two odes and representing 
Sappho as leaping into Lyman lake. It ends with 
the union of Sappho and Phaon, after death, on Mt. 
Olympus. 


AN ADDENDUM ON SAPPHO IN RUSSIAN 


Many Russian writers mention Sappho, especially Vya- 
cheslav Ivanov; and in a volume republished in Berlin, 1923, 
(Zovy Drevnosti, Echoes of the Past) Konstantin Dmitriyevich 
Balmont has translated eight of Sappho’s fragments. The 
same poet (Zacharovanny Grot, T. he Enchanted Grotto, vol. Ill, 
1908) has published a poem on Sappho which my former 
student, now of Columbia University, Dr. Clarence Manning, 
has translated in the original metre: 


O Sappho, thou dost know alone 
How hard the poet strives revealing 
The secrets beauty once has shown 
In moments of immortal feeling. 


O Sappho, thou dost know alone — 

Thy name a perfume’s sweetness holy — 
The dreams that we one day have known 
But lost unspoken, faded wholly. 


O Sappho, thou dost know alone 

How clearly in uncounted masses 

Still unreached flowers yet are grown 

Where life through the charmed grotto passes. 


[ 233 ] 


XII. SAPPHO’S INFLUENCE ON 
MUSIC 


N THE operatic stage Sappho has had 
C) much influence; and above I have 
told how Lamartine said that Sappho 
was a superb subject for an opera, although he 
never wrote the opera, and how Grillparzer was 
asked to write an opera on Sappho. In French 
we have a lyrical tragedy, Sapho, by Empis 
and Courniol (1818), Delavault’s Sapho and 
Gounod’s Sapho (1851); and a few years ago 
(1897) Massenet produced his Sapho. In Italian 
there is Pacini’s Saffo (Naples 1840); in Dutch, 
Bree’s Sapho; in German, Schwartzendorf’s 
Sappho and Kanne’s Sappho; in Bohemian, 
there is Reicha’s Sappho; and in Russian, 
Lissenko’s Sappho. 

Brahms composed a Sapphic Ode, which is 
very familiar because it is often sung to-day and 
there is an English victrola record of it by 
Julia Clausen, but while it deals with Sappho’s 
favorite flower, the rose, it is Sapphic only in 
name and metre: 

Rosen brach ich nachts mir am dunklen Hage. 

Susser hauchten Duft sie, als je am Tage; 


[ 234 ] 


ON MUSIC 


Doch verstreuten reich die bewegten Aeste 
Thau, der mich nasste 
Auch der Kiisse Duft mich wie nie beriichte, 
Die ich nachts von Strauch deiner Lippen pfltickte; 
Doch auch dir bewegt ein Gemiith gleich jenen, 
Thauten die Thranen. 

(Words by Hans ScumiptT) 


From the time of the Schemata Musica printed 
in Volger’s edition of 1810, down to the music 
published by G. Cipollini in 1890 in his brother’s 
Saffo, many have put Sappho’s songs to music. 
Even in the last few years many have tried their 
hand at the task. Perhaps the most successful 
music, with a real touch of the old Greek flavor, 
is that which was composed by Professor Stanley 
for several of Sappho’s fragments in connection 
with Mr. Harrison Grey Fiske’s stage presenta- 
tion of Percy Mackaye’s Sappho and Phaon. 
This has been reprinted this year in a general 
treatment of Greek music by Professor Stanley 
of the University of Michigan. ‘The selec- 
tions published include “ Builders, Build the 
Roof-Beam High, Hymenaeon”; “Gath’rers, 
What Have We Forgot, Hymenaeon!”’; “What 
shall we do, Cytherea?”’; ‘‘Hollow Shell, Horny 
Shell”; ‘‘Akoue, Poseidon”; “Hesper, Eleleu”’, 
etc. Miss Pearl C. Wilson, of Miss Chandor’s 


[ 235 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


School in New York, a former student of Pro- 
fessor Perry of Columbia University, without 
making any pretense of reproducing the ancient 
music has composed musical accompaniments 
for several of the odes and also of the new frag- 
ments, which have been sung with much suc- 
cess. She tried to illustrate the metre of each 
fragment, but found it more satisfactory to 
write the music without the modern division 
into bars and rests, simply indicating the long 
and short syllables by notes of different values. 
This makes possible a lyric delivery of the poems, 
each line determined solely by the words and 
their meaning. In that way the simple melo- 
dies as expressions of the thought gain a great 
deal when sung. I can testify from my own 
public experiments in readings from Sappho that 
her fragments can be much better recited or 
chanted when accompanied by music, as I am 
convinced they were originally. 


[ 236 | 


XIII. EPILOGUE AND CONCLUSION 


VENTURE to hope that out of all I have 
| written in the preceding pages some fairly 
i clear idea of Sappho may have emerged. 
Yet the discussion has had to wander widely 
through literature which has, indeed, been in- 
fluenced strongly by her name but journeys far 
from the Lesbian lyrist herself. In closing this 
study it may be well, therefore, to return to 
the woman and the poet and add some final 
words. 

The fragments of many other ancient poets 
have been collected for merely scholastic rea- 
sons, but Sappho’s literary remains are more 
than antique specimens. They constitute a 
great and noble literature and some of the latest 
found are among the best. They often rank as 
highly as the completed poems of other writers 
— surely an unparalleled phenomenon. In them 
we recognize the creator’s genius as clearly as 
in a fragmentary torso of Phidias we see the 
sculptor’s art in every chiselled line. While we 
miss the fullness of her life, we can restore her 


[ 237 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


figure because the fragments are “the real blood 
of her heart and the real flame of her thought.” 
Nearly every line of them has been imitated, 
dilated or diluted, and, disgraceful to say, many 
who have drunk of her living water have 
poisoned it into stagnant and salacious slime. 
There is nothing like this in the history of litera- 
ture. Higginson in 1871 summarized the case: 


“What other woman played such a part in 
moulding the great literature that has moulded the 
world? Colonel Mure thinks that a hundred such 
women might have demoralized all Greece. But 
it grew demoralized at any rate; and even the 
island where Sappho taught took its share in the 
degradation. If, on the other hand, the view taken 
of her by more careful criticism be correct, a hun- 
dred such women might have done much to save 
it. Modern nations must again take up the prob- 
lem where Athens failed and Lesbos only pointed 
the way to the solution, — to create a civilization 
where the highest culture shall be extended to 
woman also. It is not enough that we should dream, 
with Plato, of a republic where man is free and 
woman but a serf. The aspirations of modern life 
culminate, like the greatest of modern poems, in 
the elevation of womanhood. ‘Die ewige Weibliche 
zieht uns hinan.’” 


Sappho, then, was a pure and good woman, 
busily and successfully engaged in the work of 
her chosen profession. She was a teacher of 


[ 238 ] 


EPILOGUE AND CONCLUSION 


singing and dancing and the technique of poetry, 
and to give her pupils the finest models she 
applied herself so seriously to the lyric art that 
she reached a perfection in it to which no other 
classic poet attained. If she ever collected her 
verse it was only to promote the idealization 
of marriage pageants, and not with the purpose 
of publishing a full edition of her songs. It 
would not be safe to deny that there was a 
practically useful collection of Sappho’s songs 
in the archives of her school or guild or in the 
Temple of Aphrodite, but no copies were sold 
at the bookstalls in her own day as certainly 
was later the case in fifth century Athens. 
Sappho, in fact, must be listed with two other 
names which, taken together, form a unique 
and astonishing group, a group whose peculiar 
and distinguishing feature is that their enduring 
thoughts and imperishable words were indis- 
pensable necessities in their life-work rather 
than productions as literature for the sake of 
literature. It is not because of the accidental 
alliteration that we rank Sappho with Socrates 
and Shakespeare. ‘These great exemplars of 
song, ethics, and drama, respectively, were alike 
in that it was not by their intention that their 
works became literature. Shakespeare as a 


[ 239 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


theatrical manager was obliged by his position 
to write plays that would attract audiences. 
He was compelled by his genius to make those 
dramas imperishable. But if he had had his 
way none of them would ever have been printed. 
Our gratitude must be given to prompters’ 
copies and to literary thieves. Socrates was a 
teacher whose purely oral lessons his pupils, 
Plato and Xenophon, committed to writing 
that the master’s inspiring thoughts might 
not die. 

Socrates’ love for his young disciples was a 
love passing the love of women. The myriad- 
minded man of Stratford,—‘“‘Gentle Will,” as 
his comrades called him, — had an affectionate 
sympathy with all sorts and conditions of his 
fellow-men. Sappho’s love for her girl friends 
was so intense that there are those who, not 
knowing how passionate the love of woman can 
be for woman, still fail, despite the evidence, to 
recognize a love more sublime even than that 
for man. 

How jealous she could be of her family’s good 
name! More than once she prays that no dis- 
honor may come to her house. How jealous 
also of those who sought to win away the love 
of her girls and of the girls themselves when any 


| 240 | 


EPILOGUE AND CONCLU SION 


of them seemed to have forgotten her! How in- 
tensely, too, she could hate, the outbursting 
passion against the “she-dog” at the close of 
fragment E 36, which we have translated on 
page 20, may serve to suggest. The fierceness 
of her satire is also incidentally shown in this 
as well as in other fragments. (See E 35, 37, 71, 
et al.) 

Like Socrates and Shakespeare Sappho had a 
planetary mind swinging in its orbit with ease 
_ through all realms, whether of nature, or human 
nature, or the divine nature of the unseen world. 
This need not be elaborated here, save in 
Sappho’s case. But it may be worth while to 
repeat some of the evidence as to Sappho’s wide 
range of thought as it is seen in a few typical 
instances. She loved the roses, the clover, and 
the anthrysc. She loved the doves and the 
nightingales, and knew their colorings and dis- 
cerned their ways. But the unplucked apple 
on the top of the topmost bough, the myriad 
ears of the listening night that hears what the 
girl across the sea says and relays it right over 
the waves, the rosy-fingered moon well above 
the horizon and launching light across the roll- 
ing sea and over the fields of flowers, reveal 
even in the fragments which are “small but 


[ 241 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


roses,’ how surpassing were her instincts for 
nature’s loftier meanings as well as its minute 
details and how exquisite were her comparisons. 
As for the phases of love — they were her daily 
business, —and each new couple whose wedding 
festivities she arranged in song gave her new 
material. Where in all literature is there a 
finer example of the union of human love along 
with insight into the soul of nature than in the 
ode, To Absent Anactoria? (See p.72) 

As we have said, she knew the heart of the 
Greek bride and her dread at the loss of her free 
virginity. Mother love, too, was never more 
exquisitely portrayed than in the song we 
have quoted on pp. 27-28. But the subject of 
woman’s love for woman is peculiarly her 
own. The finest lines in all Sappho’s poetry 
are those descriptive of Anactoria in a poem 
which we might call Old Love is Best (E. 38, 
pp. 82-83 above). 

Finished style, the yAagupés xapaxrhp, as 
the Greek critics called it, simple purity but 
effective luminosity and exquisite rarity of ex- 
pression, faultless constraint, fine taste in choos- 
ing appropriate subjects, marvellous verbal 
economy, comprehensive power in single words, 
fiery passion as well as austerity, richness and 


[ 242 ] 


EPILOGUE AND CONCLUSION 


beauty, good arrangement of words, assonance, 
alliteration, consonantal harmonies, lingering 
vowel music and melody, produced often by the 
repetition of long vowels, the soft Aeolic quality 
of the Greek sounds, swift changes of nature 
and enchanting images, varied metres, but 
above all else, charm, that greatest characteris- 
tic of Sappho so emphasized by the ancients 
and moderns,—all these qualities she used 
that her songs and hymns might be perfect. 
It is this simple natural perfection of her art, 
like the “nothing too much” of the Parthenon 
frieze, that makes her untranslatable, even 
though it is precisely the quality which modern 
literature lacks but needs. Her nature was so 
great and her genius so marvellous and her 
purposes so inexorable that, in attending with 
her whole soul to her business as the poetic 
and musical caterer for successive weddings 
upon an ancient and interesting island, she 
incidentally made word-music and created 
thought-images which sounded the depths and 
scaled the heights of human passion and which 
winged their way to distant shores. The strains 
of her songs are beginning to be heard every- 
where and are ever growing clearer and sweeter 
in this present timely century, the century of 


[ 243 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


woman’s exaltation and glorification. Her 
genius is concisely summed up by Watts-Dunton 
in his Essay on Poetry, as follows: “Never before 
these songs were sung, and never since, did the 
human soul, in the grip of a fiery passion, utter 
a cry like hers; and, from the executive point of 
view, in directness, in lucidity, in that high, im- 
perious verbal economy which only nature can 
teach the artist, she has no equal, and none worthy 
to take the place of second.” 

In the Lesbus and the Asia Minor of Sappho’s 
day as in those of Homer, women were at their 
zenith and were allowed greater freedom in life 
and speech than in later Athens where woman’s 
position had reached its nadir, even though 
literature and art had attained their highest 
bloom. In Athens women were cabin’d, cribb’d, 
confined. The more ancient Greeks in general, 
however, even if their law made the wife the 
property of her lord and master, appreciated 
their women and considered them close to the 
divine, else they would not have appointed them 
to important priesthoods and other offices and 
to be interpreters of the desires of the gods and 
counsellors of their own political troubles. 
Sappho was a twentieth century woman living 
in sixth century Lesbus, who could go about 


[ 244 ] 


EPILOGUE AND CONCLUSION 


town without a chaperon and take part in the 
most intellectual and religious meetings. Of 
course she was “‘ni une sainte ni surtout une 
prude,” as Reinach says. Rarely is a woman 
who is interesting a “‘saint.”’ Reinach com- 
pares her also to Madame de Sévigné, who wrote 
to her daughter ‘‘paroles de feu et de fiévre . . 

tout pareils 4 ceux de l’amour.” What with 
her teaching, with her own writings, and with 
the executive work of the hetairiai, those 
ancient Y. W. C. A.’s for the cultivation of 
poetry and music, which Mackail has so aptly 
compared with the Courts of Love which 
existed in Languedoc from the twelfth to the 
fourteenth century, she was too noble and too 
busy to be devoted to ignobler ways, falsely 
ascribed to her. But her love was deeper than 
that of the schoolgirl in convent, conservatory 
of music, or literary club. She was no Ruskin- 
like school-mistress presiding over a group of 
virtuous but bold young women. She was 
respectable and respected. There was in her 
sacred guild under the patronage of Aphro- 
dite “V’étroite et tendre intimité de jeunes 
filles de bonne naissance entre elles et avec 
leurs dirigeantes” (Reinach). But we utterly 
reject today the Athenian vaudeville idea of 


[245 ] 


SAPPHO AND HER INFLUENCE 


Sappho, who never should have been branded 
a courtesan. 

How the fine radiance Sappho shed on 
woman’s love for woman and on her love of 
love and on the glory of pure and honorable 
marriage shines at last across these twenty-five 
hundred years! Her figure stands there on her 
isle. In itself it is white marble veined with 
gold. Much mud from many lands has been 
flung against it. For centuries, almost for 
millenniums, it has been soiled and stained. 
Even good men have come to think of the 
stains as integral parts of the statue, and of 
the gold as base metal. But the winds and 
rains of time have tired out the soilers and 
washed the figure white and clean of all Attic 
and all later defilings. It is all pure marble now, 
veined with warm gold. Something that sug- 
gests the Pygmalion miracle is happening to it. 
The statue is alive and luminous with its own 
beauty, grace, and power. Sappho’s poetry 
deals with the eternal experiences of the human 
heart and carries with it those touches which 
make the whole world kin. As T. G. Tucker 
says: ‘‘Love and Sorrow are re-born with every 
human being. Time and civilisation make little 
difference.”’ 


[ 246 | 


EPILOGUE AND CONCLUSION 


And not unhallowed was the page 

By wingéd Love inscribed, to assuage 
The pangs of vain pursuit; 

Love listening while the Lesbian Maid 
With finest touch of passion swayed 
Her own Aeolian lute. 


(WorpDswortTH, Upon the Same Occasion, 1819) 


[ 247 ] 


NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 


NOTES 


(The dates given in the text with authors are generally 
those of florwit, i.e. about the fortieth year.) 
1. Somewhere recently in a newspaper I saw these lines 
entitled, They Lived Too Soon: 
I fear Cleopatra was wasted 
Way back in her misty old realm. 
As matters befell, she did fairly well 
But she'd have been great in a film. 
If Dido and Sappho were with us — 
They've advertised widely, you see — 
And Helen of Troy — good gracious 
My boy, what movie successes they'd be. 


Oxyrhynchus Papyri, XV. 1787, frag. 4. 


2. 

3. Galen, Protrep., 2. 

4. Classical Philology, XVIII. 35 ff. (1923). 

s. Sir Edward Cook, More Literary Recreations, 1919, 


p. 205, quotes Wharton with approval to the effect that 
Tennyson called Sappho “the poet, implying her supremacy 
by the absence of any added epithet.” 

6. Anth. Pal., VII. 16. 

7. Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae (Doctors at dinner), 596 b. 

8. Odes, IV. 9. 11. 

g. Amatorius, 18. 

to. Athenaeus, 598 b. 

11. Loves, 30. 

12. Lord Neaves, The Greek Anthology, DP. 113- 

13. Anth. Pal., VI. 15. 

14. Fraenkel, Inschriften von Pergamon, I, p. 118, no. 
198; C.J. G. 3555: 

15. Sappho und Simonides, p. 41, 1. 

16. Anth. Pal., 1X. 66. 

17. Anth. Pal., VIL 14. 


[251] 


NOTES 


18. Anth. Pal., VIL. 407. 

19. Anth. Pal., TX. 189. Cf. A. J. Butler, Amaranth and 
Asphodel, Oxford, 1922, p. 195. The ending is “‘you shall 
fain Deem that Calliope doth hymn the strain.” 

20. Anth. Pal., TX. 571. 

21. XXXV. 16. 

22. Cf. also Epigr. LXX, Jacobs, II, p. 25; Plut., Amat., 
XII, p. 42. 

23. P. 186 (1921). 

24. 280, pp. 817-818. Cf. also Posthumous Essays in Sat. 
Rev., Feb. 21, 1914. 

25. Professor Scribner in The Classical Weekly XV, 1921, 
p. 78, says “‘there still is room for a work giving a complete 
critical treatment of Sappho’s influence on ancient and modern 
literature down to our own time.” 

26. Athenaeus, 599 c; Oxyr. Pap., XV. 1800. 

27. Strabo, 618; Athenaeus, 85 c. 

28. Cf. Herodotus, II. 135; Schol. Plato, Phaedrus, 235 c; 
Ox. Pap., XV. 1800. The papyrus gives Scamandrus, which 
is otherwise known as a good Lesbian name, as well as Sca- 
mandronymus. Scamandrus like Suidas’ Scamon is an 
abbreviation or Kosenamen. 

29. Her., XV. 61. 

30. Confirmed by the new papyrus. The more correct 
form would be Clévis (KAeiis or KAe?tis) after the founder 
of Lesbus, who was named KnAetvas, Strabo, 582. 

31. Cf. Edmonds, pp. 144-147. 

32. Hiller von Gaertringen, Inschriften von Priene, 18; 
for Erygyius cf. also Diodorus, XVII. 81, 83; Arrian, III. 6, 5. 

33- The name occurs as a love-name on the interior of 
an Attic cylix in the Metropolitan Museum of New York, 
signed by Hieron (480 B.c.), published in American Journal 
of Archaeology, XXVII. 274 (1923). Near a female figure 
dancing to the accompaniment of the double flute played by 
a satyr is the inscription, “ Beautiful Rhodopis.” Cf. also 
Lucian, De Saltatione, 2. 

34. Cf. Poulsen, Delphi, London, 1920, Ppr Sly 72205; 
204. 

35. Edmonds’ first poetical translation is given in his 


[ 252 ] 


NOTES 


Sappho in the Added Light of the New Fragments, p. 8; but he 
gives a revised prose version in the Classical Review, XXXIV. 
5-6 (1920) and in Lyra Graeca, I, p. 207. 

36. Solmsen in Rhein. Mus., LVI. 502, 1 (1901) gives 
arguments for the spelling with double p. 

37- 599 ¢ 

38. yéyove often means flourished, not “was born.” 
Those who put Sappho’s birth as late as 610 forget this. 

39. Strabo, 617, also makes Sappho contemporary with 
Pittacus and Alcaeus. Eusebius puts the florwit of Sappho 
in the first year of the forty-fifth Olympiad (599 B.c.). Ed- 
monds, Lyra Graeca, 1, p. 142, adopts the reading Ol. 45, 2 
(s98 B.c.), but this would be rather the date of her exile. 

40. The abbreviation E, is used throughout for Edmonds, 
Lyra Graeca, vol. I. 

41. Cf. Prinz, Funde aus Naukratis, 1906, pp. 57 ff. 

42. 1-134. 

43. In another fragment (E. 35) Edmonds calls Sappho 
“an old bird,” but this is a very dubious restoration based 
on only three preserved letters. 

44. Flor., XXIX. 58. 

4s. Dioscorides in Anth. Pal., VII. 407 has Eresus; and 
coins and Suidas give both towns. Cf. Wilamowitz, Sappho 
und Simonides, 23; Her. II. 135 and references in Jacoby, 
Das Marmor Parium, 1904, p. 101. Many sources call Sappho 
a Mytilenaean, Schol. to Pindar (E. p. 144); Schol. Plato, 
Phaedrus, 235; Arist., Rhet., 1398 b; Anth. Pal., VII.17. Some 
scholars assume that there were two Sapphos, but the two 
traditions can easily be reconciled by supposing that Sappho 
belonged to both cities, born at Eresus but later living at 
Mytilene. Edmonds thinks that Strabo would have men- 
tioned Sappho when he is speaking of Eresus (618), had he 
believed her to have been born there, but Strabo omits many 
famous writers. The tradition of two Sapphos is found also 
in Aelian, Historical Miscellanies, XII. 19 and in Suidas. 
Cf. the novel Beulah by Augusta Evans, pp. 216-218: ‘Do 
you think that Sappho’s frenzy was established by the 
Leucadian leap? You confound the poetess with a Sappho, 
who lived later, and threw herself into the sea from the 


[ 253 J 


NOTES 


promontory of Leucate. Doubtless she too had ‘poetic idio- 
syncrasies,’ but her spotless life, and I believe natural death, 
afford no indication of an unsound intellect.” 

46. Studies of the Greck Poets, vol.1., pp. 307 ff. (American 
ed.) 


a7. Lg. 

48. Cf. The Poet Loves of Sappho from the third book of 
A Catalogue of Things Relating to Love, an elegiac poem by 
Hermesianax, translated by J. Bailey. 

49. Athenaeus, 450 e. 

50. Class. Phil., XIII. 348 (1918). 

sr. XVIII. o. 

52. Edmonds, 82, p. 240. 

53. Oxyrhynchus Papyri, XV, 1922, 1800. Also now pub- 
lished in Miller-Robinson, The Songs of Sappho. 

54. Lundk, Quaestiones Sapphicae, Kazan, 1888. 

55. Lucy Milburn, p. 21, makes Sappho say, ‘‘ When Cleis, 
I called her for my mother, was two years old, I found my- 
self a widow.”’ But we have no such evidence, how old Cleis 
was when her father died. Miss Milburn (Letter XIX) is 
also quite wrong in translating “I would rather have my 
little daughter know her own worth than to bequeath to her 
all the treasures of Lydia, were they mine.” 

BOs L305 

57. Edmonds, 116 reads Elpnva (peace) for “Epavva so 
that it is doubtful if Erinna, the poetess who wrote poems 
worthy of Homer before her early death at the age of nineteen, 
is really meant by Sappho. Most scholars now date her long 
after Sappho’s time, some even as late as 350 B.C. 

58. Cf. Jahrbuch, XXV. 150 (1910). 

59. A.J. P., XXXIV. 106 (1913). 

60. Anth. Pal., XVI. 310. 

61. XVIII. 

62. Odes, I. 1. 36. 

63. Cf. Anth. Pal., VII. 14 and 17 for epigrams about 
Sappho’s_ grave. Cf. Edmonds, 42 and go. Tucker 
translates: 

As friends we'll part: 
Win thee a younger bride: 


L 254 ] 


NOTES 


Too old, I lack the heart 
To keep thee at my side. 


64. Mylatecolleague and dear friend, Kirby Flower Smith, 
made a brilliant reconstruction of the story which he read 
several times in public. It is to be deeply regretted that the 
manuscript has never been printed. Cf. for the Menander 
fragment, F. G. Allinson’s Menander, in The Loeb Classical 
Library, pp. 400-401. For fragments of Plato’s Phaon, cf. 
Kock, C. A. F., I, p. 645. Cf. Servius on Virgil, Aeneid, 
Ml, Qyz. 

6s. Lucian for example, Dialogues of the Dead, 9, has 
Phaon carry Aphrodite over in his boat from Chios. 

66. Incred., 49 in Apostolius, Paroem., II. 707. 

67. 596b; “according to Nymphis in his Voyage around 
Asia, the courtesan of Eresus who was a namesake of the 
other Sappho and lover of the fair Phaon won great notoriety.” 
Cf. also Suidas, s. v. Phaon. 

68. Cf. Furtwangler-Reichhold, Gr. Vas., pl. 59; Mi- 
lani, Monumenti scelti del R. Museo Arch. di Firenze, pl. 3; 
Nicole, Meidias, pl. VI, I. Cf. also on Phaon, Wilamowitz, 
Sappho und Simonides, pp. 33 ff. 

69. 69 d. 

70. Strabo, 452. 

71. Cf. Curtis, A. J. A., XXIV. 146 ff. (1920); Paribeni, 
Boll. d’Arte, I. 104 (1921); F. Cumont, Rassegna d’ Arte, VIII. 
44 ff. (1921); Leopold, Mélanges d@ Archéologie et d’ Histoire, 
XXXIX. pl. II. 181 ff. (1921); Le Musée Belge, XXVII. t5 ff. 
(1923), there connected by Hubaux with the cult of the Thra- 
cian Cotyto. Cf. Memoirs Am. Ac. in Rome, IV. 85 f., pl. XLV. 

72. For another version cf. G. Showerman’s Ovid in The 
Loeb Classical Library. A new translation by Marion Mills 
Miller, where the narrative portions are in recitative and the 
frequent outbursts of emotion in lyrical form, appears in 
Miller-Robinson, The Songs of Sappho. 

73. Countless translations have been made. Among a 
few, I mention Philips (1711), Herbert (1713), Akenside’s 
paraphrase (1745), Fawkes (1760), Merivale (1833), Elton 
(1814), Egerton (1815), Edinburgh Review (1832), Palgrave 


[255] 


NOTES 


(1854), Arnold (1869), Higginson (1871), Walhouse (1877), 
Symonds (at least two versions), Swinburne, Thomas David- 
son, Marion Mills Miller (in The Classics and also in his 
play The Return of Odysseus, p. 82), Appleton, Fairclough (The 
Raven, V, 1904, p. 120), Easby Smith, Stobart (The Glory 
that was Greece, p. 119), Lawton, Tucker, Petersen, Lawrence 
(Classical Review, XXXVI, 1922, p. 2), Edmonds, William A. 
Drake (Sewanee Review, April 1923). 

74. oTpovdo: in 1. ro are birds of Venus, swans, or better 
doves, rather than the dirty chatterers of our city streets, 
who never appear in Greek art. Cf. Throop, Wash. Univ. 
Studies, TX 282 (1922); Aristophanes, Lysistrata, 723 f.; 
Statius, Silvae, I. 2. Edmonds p. 183, reads the dual and 
translates ‘thy two swans.” For swans drawing Aphrodite’s 
or Cupid’s car, cf. Reinach, Répertoire des Vases Peints, 1, pp. 
57) 271. 

75. Dem., 38. 

76. Iliad, X. go-95. Cf. also Od., XVII. 518-521. For 
Homer’s influence on Sappho cf. Smyth, p. 230; H. L. Ebeling, 
in The Classical Weekly, XVI. 105 ff. (1923). 

77. Til. 192-158. 

78. Edmonds, pp. 186-7, makes the ingenious but very 
uncertain suggestion that in line 7 a proper noun, Brocheo 
or Brochea, corresponding to Catullus’ Lesbia, should be read 
and now translates: ‘When I look on you, Brocheo, my 
speech comes short or fails me quite.”” Formerly he thought 
that the poem was sent by the banished Sappho at the age 
of eighteen to some beloved girl friend soon after her arrival 
in Sicily in 596 B.c., but Sappho was older than eighteen in 
596, and Edmonds now makes an entirely different emenda- 
tion of the last line, “‘but now that I am poor, I must fain 
be content...” meaning “beggars can’t be choosers.”’ 
But the reading is uncertain and I do not believe that Sappho 
was poor, nor do I agree with Miss Patrick that the words 
do not describe love at all. 

79. For such head-cloths cf. the Latin word struppus and 
the festival at Falerii, called struppearia, Dion. Hal., XI. 39 
and Poulsen, Etruscan Tomb Paintings, p. 23. Edmonds’ 
new reading is very uncertain; for his previous reading and 


[ 256 ] 


NOTES 


poetical version cf. Sappho in the Added Light of the New 
Fragments, p. 28. 

80. I keep Bergk’s reading, “F oolish woman, pride not 
thyself on a ring.” Edmonds changes the text and translates, 
“But come, be not so proud of a ring.” 

81. Cf. Poulsen, in Jahrbuch, XXI. 2009 ff. (1906); Die 
Bronzen von Olympia, IV., pl. VII. 74. 

82. There are many other poetical versions by Merivale, 
Symonds, F. Tennyson, Tucker, Cox, Edmonds, etc. For 
an absurd interpretation Sappho in the Rain, ci. Wiener 
Studien, XXXVIII. 176 ff. (1916). : 

83. Poetical translations by Merivale, Arnold, Appleton, 
F. Tennyson, Symonds, Edmonds, Miller, Percy Mackaye, etc. 

84. Sappho in the Added Light of the New Fragments, p. 25, 
but in Lyra Graeca, I, p. 253, he changes his previous emenda- 
tion and reads a text which I consider very uncertain, “‘and 
pours down a sweet shrill song from beneath his wings, when 
the Sun-god illumines the earth with his downshed flame 
outspread.” 

85. Praec. Con., 48; Qu. Conv., III. r. 2. 

86. Flor., IV. 12. 

87. For Swinburne’s expansion cf. p. 210; cf. also Percy 
Mackaye in Sappho and Phaon. Bliss Carman has evolved 
the following from Sappho’s one line: 


I loved thee, Althis, in the long ago 

When the great oleanders were in flower 

In the broad herded meadows full of sun. 
And we would often at the fall of dusk 
Wander together by the silver stream, 

When the soft grass-heads were all wet with dew 
And purple misted in the fading light, 

And joy I knew and sorrow at thy voice, 
And the superb magnificence of love — 

The loneliness that saddens solitude, 

And the sweet speech that makes it durable, 
The bitter longing and the keen desire, 

The sweet companionship through quiet days 
In the slow ample beauty of the world 


[ 257 ] 


NOTES 


And the unutterable glad release 

Within the temple of the holy night; 

O Aithis, how I loved thee long ago 

In that fair perished summer by the sea. 


88. Cf. Miss Shields, ‘Lesbos in the Trojan War,” in 
The Classical Jour., XIII. 670 ff. (1918); The Cults of Lesbos 
(Johns Hopkins University Diss.) 1917. 

89. Cf. Transactions and Proceedings of the American 
Philological Association, LIII. xvi (1922). 

90. For Mnesidice Edmonds would now read Anactoria. 
There is a good metrical translation by G. M. Whicher in 
Manatt, Aegean Days, London, 1913, p. 286. 

Ot Odes terse: : 

92. O’Hara renders as follows: 


Gold is the son of Zeus, 
Immorial, bright; 

Nor moth nor worm may eat it, 
Nor rust tarnish. 


So are the Muse’s gifts 
The offspring fair, 

That merit from high heaven 
Youth eternal. 


93. These may be vases in the form of an astragalus or 
knuckle-bone, two or three of which in clay are to be seen 
in museums, or they may be bowls or cups with the bottom 
rounded like one end of a knuckle bone. They might be 
bowls with a mid-boss in the form of a knuckle-bone. For 
such gold-bossed golden bowls as Pollux (VI, 98) mentions 
in the context of this quotation see the recently acquired 
beautiful gold bowl with a Corinthian inscription of about 
Sappho’s time in the Boston Museum, which, however, is 
probably a modern forgery. Cf. Bulletin, Boston Museum of 
Fine Arts, XX. 65 ff. (1922). 

94. German and Austrian scholars have failed to see the 
lovely lyrical literature in this delightful ballad. Aly con- 
siders it only the beginning of a longer ode; and I cannot 


[ 258 ] 


NOTES 


agree with him that it does not fit in with what we know of 
Sappho who often expresses her loneliness in the absence of 
her companions. Even if the thought is of love, we must not 
expect consistency in a high-strung Aeolian woman. Frag- 
ments such as E. 152, 159, 167 may have been ‘in a totally 
different context. But I do not mean to say that the ballad 
certainly refers to Sappho herself. The context is gone and 
it is not even definitely assigned to Sappho. Some of the 
editions seem to have contained it, but much anonymous 
literature has been included in the Sapphic corpus as in that 
of Plato or Hippocrates. However, as it is one of the prettiest 
and most perfect pieces and quite in Sappho’s style and metre 
and thought, I consider it genuine. Ovid (Sappho to Phaon, 
155 ff.) seems to know the lines. Ruthlessly to insert a 
negative in the text (“Alone I do not sleep”) as does Lunak 
(Wiener Studien, XL, 1918, p. 98) spoils the literary quality 
and makes it insipid. How much suggestive concision in 
those seventeen words in four verses (four of them small 
particles), but what vast and profound humanity; silence, 
solitude, obscurity, waiting, anxiety, sympathy of nature. 
How the strong and rapid description catches our deepest 
thoughts. Such things disprove the arguments against its 
genuineness by Wilamowitz, Textgeschichte, p. 33; and Sappho 
und Simonides, p. 75. Ci. Miinscher, Hermes, LIV. 29, 4 
(1919). 

95. Scribner's Magazine, September 1905, p. 304. 

96. On the whole tradition of the wedding song cf. Mangels- 
dorff, Das lyrische Hochzeitsgedicht bei den Griechen und Romern, 
1913; Reitzenstein, Hermes, XXXV. 95 ff. (1900); Croiset, 
Journal des Savants, July 1914; Girard, Le Mariage de Hector, 
Comptes-rendus Ac. des Sc. et Belles-lettres, 1914, pp. 658-9. 

Vie lee! 

Pe Cf. Robinson, The Classical Weekly, V. 68 (1911). 

99. In this account of Sappho’s wedding-songs I am much 
indebted to Koechly, Akademische Vortrige und Reden, Ziirich, 
1859, PP. 1537217- : ; 

too. For Usener’s interesting conjecture about Lesbian 
marriage customs based on this fragment cf. Kleine Schriften, 


IV, pp. 308 ff. 
[ 259 ] 


NOTES 


tor. An excellent modern musical version will be found in 
A. A. Stanley, Greek Themes in Modern Musical Settings. 

102. For the history of dialogue in Greek epigrams and 
examples of stones speaking with the passer-by and for 
sepulchral symbolism as in the Pelagon epigram cf., D. M. 
Robinson, ‘Two Epitaphs from Sardis,” in Anatolian Studies 
presented to Sir William Mitchell Ramsay, Manchester, 1923, 
PP. 341-353. 

103. For a bronze in the British Museum supposed to 
represent the reclining Sappho cf. Walters, Cat. of Bronzes, 
London, 1899, 203. 

104. Pollux, IX. 84. 

tos. Cf. Bernoulli, Griechische Ikonographie, pp. 59-723 
Cat. of Coins in the Brit. Mus., Lesbos, pl. XXXIX; Miss 
Patrick, pp. 73, 81; Jacoby, Marmor Parium, p. 101; Forrer, 
Les Portraits de Sappho sur les monnaies, in Revue Belge de 
numismatique, 1901, pp. 413 fi.; Zeitschrift fiir Numismatik, 
IX. 114, pl. IV. 

106. Meisterwerke, p. 103. 

107. Greek Hero Cults and Ideas of Immortality, Oxford, 
1921, p. 367. 

108. Walters, Cat. of Terra-cottas in the British Museum, 
London, 1903, pl. 19. 

tog. The ancient representations of Sappho on vases have 
been well studied by Jahn, Darstellungen griechischer Dichter 
auf Vasenbildern, Abh. d. Séchs. Ges. d. Wiss., VIII. 699 
ff. (1861); Comparetti, Museo Italiano di Antichita classica, 
II, 41-80, pls. III-VI (1888); Cipollini, pp. 319-344; 
Wilamowitz, Sappho und Simonides, pp. 40 ff. Little new 
material has come to light, but the individual vases have been 
better interpreted in the later publications which we cite in 
other notes. Aly omits the,busts, though he mentions the 
vases, but he calls the Steinhauser fragment a clay relief and 
fails to recognize that it is part of a vase. 

tro. Cf. Jahn, pl. III; Comparetti, of. cit., pl. IV; Furt- 
wangler-Reichhold, Gr. Vas., II, pp. 21 ff., 308 ff., pl. 64; 
Steiner, Sappho, pp. 54-5; Perrot et Chipiez, Histoire de Vart, 
X, p. 624, pl. 15; Beazley, J. H. S., XLII, 1922, p.91; Pfuhl, 
Malerei und Zeichnung der Griechen, Munich, 1923, p. 3993 


[ 260 | 


NOTES 


Hoppin, Handbook of Attic Red-figured Vases, I, p. 46t. 
Hoppin wrongly rejects Furtwdngler’s attribution to the 
factory of Brygus; and wrongly identifies Hauser’s “Frau 
Meisterin” with Beazley’s Niobid Painter. Perrot (p. 626) 
says that the Munich vase belongs to acontemporary of Duris 
but that we shall never know the painter; but on p. 634 he 
says: ‘‘we would be tempted to add the vase to the Berlin 
amphora painter.” 

111. Comparetti, op. cit., pl. III, 1; De Witte, Antig. 
de Vhétel Lambert, no. 32, pl. III; Reinach, Répertoire des Vases, 
I, p. 524. Formerly in the Dzialinsky collection at Paris. 

112. Comparetti, op. cit., pl. III, 2; Steiner, pp. 44 ff.; 
Cipollini, p. 328; De Courten, p. III; Reinach of. cit., I, 
ie Gare 

113. Comparetti, op. cit., pl. V; Cipollini, p. 331; De 
Courten, p. 95; Rom. Mitt. III, 1888, pl. IX; Jahreshefte, 
VIIL. 35-40 (1905); Nicole, Meidias, pl. VII; Reinach, op. cit., 
ype 5 20: 

114. B.C. H., IV. 373 (1880); Cipollini, pp. 337-8. 

115. Cf. Comparetti, pl. VI; Steiner, pp. 16 ff.; Edmonds, 
Class. Quart., XVI. 1 ff. (1922), where he fails to cite Jahres- 
hefte, VIII. 40 (1905). 

116. J. C. Hoppin, Handbook of Attic Red-figured Vases, 
Harvard University Press, 1919, p. 410. 

117. Murray, White Athenian Vases in the British Museum, 
London, 1896, pl. XVII; Pfuhl, op. cit., II, p. 546, fig. 527. 

118. Ann. d. Inst., XXX, 1858, p. 42, pl. B; Cipollini, 
PP. 339-341. 

11g. Cf. Cipollini, pp. 343-4. 

120. Cf. Nicole, Meidias, Geneva, 1908, pls. III and VI. 
I cannot agree with Nicole in dating Meidias as late as 375- 
350 B.C. He belongs to the time of the Peloponnesian War, 
431-404 B.c. This fatal war did not stop the Athenians from 
producing during war times such great works of art as the Er- 
echtheum, beautiful vases and statues. Cf. also note 68 above. 

r21. Cf. Pfuhl, op. cit., p. 566, LI, Fig. 557; Pellegrini, 
Museo Civico di Bologna, Catalogo det Vasi Greci, pp. 133-135, 
Fig. 77. 

122. N.H., XXXV. 141. Brunn, Kunstgeschichte, p. 299, 


[ 261 ] 


NOTES 


identifies him with a bronze-sculptor, Leon, but we are equally 
ignorant about him. 

123. Anth. Plan., 310 (Edmonds, p. 173); Tatian, Ado. Gr., 
130. 

; 124. Cf. Hermann, Denkmdiler der Malerei des Altertums, 
pl. 28; Pfuhl, op. cit., p. 7345 Lippold, Rim. Mitt., XX XIII. 
71 ff. (1918). 

125. For replicas of the Sappho cf. Rizzo, Rev. Arch., 1901, 
pp. 301 ff. The latest and best discussion is by Percy Gardner, 
J. H. S. XXXVIII. 10 ff. (1918). For a copy of Silanion’s 
Corinna at Compiégne cf. Rev. Arch. XXXII. 161 (1894) ; 
XXXVI 169 (1898); Furtwangler, Meisterwerke, pp. 99 ff. 
would class many of the so-called Sapphos as Aphrodite and 
thinks that those which are copies of fifth century art may 
represent the Aphrodite of Phidias which was to be seen in 
later days in the portico of Octavia at Rome (Pliny, NV. H. 
XXXVI, 15). 

126. II. 4. 57. 

127. Anth. Pal., VII. 15. 

128. Cf. Fraenkel, Inschriften von Pergamon, 198. Accord- 
ing to C. I. G. 3555 Jucundus and Cyriac of Ancona still 
saw the inscription at Pergamum. 

129. Ecphr., 69-71. 

130. On the Albani bust cf. Jahrbuch, V. 152 ff. (1890), 
pl. III; Morcelli, Fea, Visconti, Descr. della Villa Albani, 
1033; Schneider, Jb. d. Ak. Kunstsammlungen, XII, 72 ff. 
(1891); Amdt, Brunn-Bruckmann, Griechische und Ré- 
mische Portrdts, pl. 147-148; for the bust in the Pitti cf. 
Arndt, pls. 149-150; for that in the Uffizi, pls. 145-146; cf. 
also Cipollini, pp. 345-356. On the Biscari and Naples busts cf. 
Rizzo, Rev. Arch. XXXIX, 1901, pp. 301-307, pls. XXI, XXII. 
On the Constantinople head cf. Mendel’s Cat. no. 626. 

131. Art and Archaeology, VI. 277 ff. (1917), Robinson, 
ibid., pp. 285 ff. I have omitted mention of many other 
ancient works of art wrongly supposed to represent Sappho, 
such as Stackelberg, Die Graber der Hellenen, Berlin, 1837, 
pl. LXX, called Sappho with a female friend sitting in her 
lap, merely because of the book-roll. 

132. Arch. Anzeiger, XXVII. 124 (1912). 


[ 262 | 


NOTES 


133. Cipollini, p. 405, pictures Magni’s Saffo; p. 409 Con- 
falonieri’s Saffo; p. 413 Pradier’s Sapho; p. 417 Pradier’s stand- 
ing Sapho; p. 421 Barrias’ painting; p. 425 Gleyre’s couch of 
Sappho. There is a bust of Sappho by Canova in Turin. 

134. Cf. Reinach, in Revue Archéologique, XX, 2. 433-434 
(1912), X, 2. 392 (1919). 

135. Cf. for influence of Pamphos, a mythical poet earlier 
than Homer, Pausanias, IX. 29, 8; of Homer, Neue Jahr- 
biicher, XX XIII 227 (1914); De Courten, pp. 74-76. 

136. EE. 114 influenced by Theogony, 3 ff.; E. 122 by 
Works and Days, 568; E. 81 by Theogony, 121. 

137. Theognis, ror7. 

138. Schol. Hesiod, Works and Days, 428. 

139. Athenaeus, 554 b, 630 a. 

140. Porphyrio on Horace, Satires, II. 1. 30, ‘‘ostendit 
Sapphonem et Alcaeum volumina sua loco sodalium 
habuisse.” 

141. Wilamowitz, Textgeschichte der Bukoliker, p. 88. 

ii, MNT, meine WAL amiSie, 

143. Wilamowitz, Sappho und Simonides, p. 58, 2. There 
is an enormous literature on Catullus’ relation to Sappho and 
much discussion of textual matters. Cf. for the most recent 
Bursian Jahresbericht, CLXXVIII, 1919, p. 46. Compare 
E. 32, 147 and 149 with Catullus LXII, 26, 35; E. 151 with 
LXII, 61; E. 148 with LXII. In XXXV, 17-18 we have 
“Tenosco tibi, Sapphica puella Musa doctior.” 

144. The Classical Quarterly, XVI. 1-14 (1922). 

145. IV. 9. Io. 

146. IT. 13. 24. 

147. Cf. Ogle, A. J. P., XLITI. 55 ff. (1922). For Sappho’s 
influence on Horace cf. Pasquali, Orazio lirico, 1920. Most 
of the literature on the subject is not fit to read. Cf. Rich- 
ard F. Burton’s The Book of the Thousand Nights and a 
Night, Terminal Essay, X, p. 208, for a filthy, wrong inter- 
pretation of the word ‘mascula’. It is surprising to find as 
great a modern scholar as Bloch, Die Prostitution, Berlin, 
1912, I, p. 383, saying in his discussion of Homosexuality, 
acéXyera tptBaxyn, “Schon in frither Zeit galten Sparta und 
die Insel Lesbos als Orte, wo die weibweibliche Liebe be- 


[ 263 ] 


NOTES 


sonders verbreitet war und an letzterem Ort in der Dich- 
terin Sappho eine weltberiihmte Vertreterin fand.” Ck 
also on tribadie in Lesbos Bloch, Der Ursprung der Syphilis, 
II, pp. 586-588, where he thinks that he gives definite proof 
that Sappho was “eine echte Tribade.” It is lamentable 
that as great a literary critic as J. A. Symonds should say 
that “Sappho gave this female passion an eminent place in 
Greek Literature; ” see J. A. Symonds, A Problem in Greek 
Ethics, An Inquiry into the Phenomenon of Sexual Inversion, 
London, 1901, pp. 70-72. Fortunately the monograph was 
issued only in a very limited edition. 

148. Silvae, V. 3. 154- 

149. VII. 69. 

150. Symp., VII. 8. 2. 

py (ODS ey Me 

152. Loves, 30. 

153. On Paid Companions, 36; Pictures, 18. 

154. On the influence of Sappho on Himerius cf. Rizzo, 
Saggio su Imerio il sofista, in Riv. Fil. Cl., XXVI 513-16 
(1898). In Orations, 1.4 the words 76 Aéxos ‘Ounpov were in- 
comprehensible and Edmonds still omits ‘Oyjpov, but the read- 
ing is undoubtedly correct and the significance is now apparent 
from the new epithalamium of Hector and Andromache. 

155. XV. 35, 36, 37- 

E5Gsw Ll, 10; 10,520: 

157. Cf. Anth. Pal., V. 246; VII. 14, 15, 16, 17, 407, 718; 
IX. 26, 66, 184, 189, 190, 506, 521, 571; XVI. 310. 

158. V. 246. I give a literal translation and Greek texts - 
of all epigrams which mention Sappho in Miller-Robinson, 
Songs of Sappho. 

159. Cf. A. J. P., XXXVIII. 66 (1917). 

160. Photius only cites the selections made by Sopater 
the Sophist, among which in his second book he included 
some quotations from Sappho’s eighth book. 

161. Vita dell’? Imperatore Alessio o Alesseide, XV. 

162. IV. 25. 

163. His comment on Martial, VII. 67 is ‘““Tribadem autem 
fuisse carmen indicat quod extat.” 

164. There is an interesting item in Natales Comes, 


| 264 | 


NOTES 


Myithologiae sive explicationes fabularum, Venice, 1551, Book 
V, c. XVI, p. 286, “Scriptum reliquit Sappho, Adonim mor- 
tuum fuisse a Venere inter lactucas depositum.” According 
to Athenaeus 69 d, Cratinus had Aphrodite conceal Phaon 
among the “fair wild-lettuces.”’ 

165. In my library I have a copy dated 1696 of Anne 
Le Févre, Les Poésies d’Anacréon et de Sapho. This, however, 
is a second edition and the first was in 1681. 

166. Welcker, Kleine Schriften: II, pp. 80 ff., Sappho von 
einem herrschenden Vorurteil befreit. Goethe occupied hir- 
self much with this article. For references in Goethe to 
Sappho cf. W. J. Keller, Goethe’s Estimate of the Greek and 
Latin Writers, Madison, Wis., 1916, p. 51. 

167. Sauer, Grillparzer’s sémtliche Werke, Stuttgart, 1892, 
XTX, pp. 71 ff. For source of Sappho cf. J. Engl. Germ. Phil., 
XXII, 503 ff. (1923). 

168. Cf. Jean Giraud, D’Aprés Sapho. Variations sur un 
théme éternel, in Revue d’ Histoire littéraire de la France, XXVII, 
1920, pp. 194-203. I have added considerable material not 
there, since this article deals only with the second ode. I 
am indebted in this chapter to my learned colleagues, Pro- 
fessor Henry Carrington Lancaster and Professor Gilbert 
Chinard, for helpful suggestions. 

169. Traduction de quelques autres epigrammes Grecs, 
Ciuvres de Ronsard, Tome 2, Paris, 1880, p. 56. 

170. The date is often wrongly given as 1682. In my 
copy, which is a second edition (Lyon 1696), it is stated that 
permission to publish the book was granted to Damoiselle 
Anne Le Févre on June 1o, 1681, all rights to continue for 
six years. ‘“‘Le dit livre a esté achevé d’imprimer pour la 
premiére fois le 1, Decembre 1681.” My copy gives only 
the first two odes and the epigrams on Pelagon and Timas 
and quotes an inaccurate Latin prose translation of the first 
ode by her father. He has made several emendations, as in 
ode II, 1. 7, &s Bpdyxov,“‘nihil vocis pervenit ad fauces meas,” 
as good a suggestion as Edmonds’ creation of an unknown 
proper name Brocheo. 

171. Cf. Zuvres de Fontenelle (Paris 1818), II, pp. 187, 188. 

172. My copy is the thirteenth edition published by 


[ 265 | 


NOTES 


Bertrand, Paris, 1818. The idea of a manuscript of Sappho 
found at Herculaneum is repeated by Lucy Milburn and 
Percy Mackaye. 

173. My copy is dated London 1810 and is anonymous, 
Poésies de Sapho suivies de différentes Poésies dans le méme 
genre. It contains also Les Tourterelles de Zelmis and the 
Poésies Erotiques of M. de Parny, who was such an admirer 
of Sappho. The adaptations are the same as those of Sau- 
vigny. Why this edition is anonymous, I do not know. 

174. XII, p. 181 ed. Furne, Jouvet et Cie., Paris. 

175. My edition is Giguet et Michaud, Paris, 1805. This 
book with its long notes and citations, though little known, 
is important for the student of Sappho’s influence. 

176. Cf. Wilamowitz, Sappho und Simonides, pp. 63-69 
on Chansons de Bilitis, pp. 71-78 on Lesbian Love. 

177. Cf. Edwin M. Cox, p. 5, where he quotes Barnabe 
Barnes’ Parthenophil and Parthenophe, 15093: 


O, that I could make her, whom I love best, 

Find in a face, with misery wrinkled, 

Find in a heart, with sighs over ill-pined, 
Her cruel hatred. 


In Davison’s Poetical Rhapsody, 1602, are some Sapphics by 
the mysterious “A. W.” Here is a sample: 
Hatred eternal, furious revenging, 
Merciless raging, bloody persecuting; 
Slanderous speeches, odious revilings; 
Causeless abhorring. 


In 1601 Campion and Roseter, Lyrics, Elegies, etc., give a 
clumsy example of Sapphic verse. In 1614 a tract called 
The Martyrdom of Saint George of Cappadocia contains at the 
end some “Sapphicks” which resemble the real Sappho only 
in having the same number of syllables to the verse. Cox and 
all others, so far as I know, fail to mention Sir Philip Sidney’s 
translation of the second ode. 

178. Cf. W. C. Lawton, Sappho with some new transla- 
tions, Lippincott Magazine, 77, 583; W.A.R. Kerr, ‘“Sappho’s 
Soliloquy,” in Canadian Magazine, 12, 426; E. Saltus, 
“Sappho,” in Lippincott’s Magazine, 51, 503; M. Thompson, 


[ 266 | 


NOTES 


“The Secret of Sappho,’ in The Atlantic Monthly, 73, 3653 
M. Gray, “Sappho,” in Argosy, 51, 203; Athenaewm, 1889, 
2,56; F.B. Harte, “Sappho of Green Springs,” in Lippincotl’s 
Magazine, 45, 627; Democratic Review, 7, 18; Higginson, in 
The Atlantic Monthly, 28, 83; G. Hill, in A ppleton’s Journal, 
6, 158, 179; Mrs. Hamilton in Harper’s, 56, 177 (has nothing 
’ to do with the real Sappho); M. Thompson, ‘‘Sappho’s 
Apple,’ in The Independent, 53, 416; A. Chisholm, in Cana- 
dian Magazine, 15,453; Reinach, Révue Archéologique, XXIV, 
1914, 2, Pp. 336-337; IX, 1919, p. 204; X, 1919, Pp. 2253 
H. I. R., Fragment of a Poem by Sappho done into English 
verse, in The Literary Digest, 48, 1493; “Real Personal Char- 
acter of the Poetess Sappho,” in The Review of Reviews, 46, 
107-8; Swinburne, “Sappho,” in The Living Age, 280, 817- 
8; W. L. Courtney, “Sappho and Aspasia,” in The Fort- 
nightly Review, N.S. 91 (1912), 479-88; “Sappho from the Dust,” 
in The Literary Digest, 48, 1362-3; M. M. Miller, ‘“Sappho’s 
Songs of Exile,” in The Independent, 87, 344; New York 
Nation, 1914, 1, p. 602; Aldington, “Letters to Unknown 
Women,” in The Dial, 64, 430-1; W. A. Percy, Sappho in 
Leukas and Other Poems, New Haven, 1915; Horton, ‘New 
Sappho Fragment in English Verse,” in The Dial, 61, 179; 
Michael Monahan, “Sappho,” in All’s Well or the Mirror Re- 
polished, Il, 1922, pp. 87 ff.; Robinson, in The Baltimore 
Sun, Jan. 22, 1922. 

178a. In Charmides he says: “Or from the Lesbian 
waters plucked drowned Sappho’s golden quill.” 

179. See Pericles and Aspasia, Letters 47, 48, 82, 95, 149, 
150, 152, 153: 

180. Idyls of the King, Lancelot and Elaine, 1003-1004. Not 
in Mustard, Classical Echoes in Tennyson, New York, 
1904. 

181. Lyrics and Sonnets (Edinburgh, 1903), p. 66. 

182. Miller-Robinson, Songs of Sappho. 

183. Litz, Father Tabb, Johns Hopkins Press, 1923, p. 


168. 
184. Collected Poems, New York, 1922, pp. 227-228. 
185. Art and Archaeology, XII. 217 (1921). 


[ 267 | 


NOTES 


186. Sappho in Leukas and other Poems, Yale Univer- 
sity Press, 1915. 

187. Art and Archaeology, XV. 13 (1923). 

188. J. U. Nicolson, King of the Black Isles, p. 3, Chicago, 


1924. 


[ 268 ] 


SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
RECENT BOOKS ON SAPPHO 


Aty, see Pauly-Wissowa. 

Bascout, J. M. F., La chaste Sappho de Lesbos et le mouve- 
ment féministe ad Athénes au IV® siécle av. J. C. Paris. 
IgIt. 

Bascout, J. M. F., La chaste Sappho de Lesbos et Stésichore. 
Les prétendues amies de Sappho. Paris, 1913. 

Berck, Tu., Poetae Lyrici Graeci. Vol. III, Leipzig, 1914- 

Betue, E., Griechische Lyrik. Berlin, 1920. 

Branpt, Lina R., Social Aspects of Greek Life in the Sixth 
Century B.C. Philadelphia, 1921. 

Branvt, P., Sappho, ein Lebensbild aus den Friihlingstagen 
altgriechischer Dichtung. Leipzig, 1905. 

BuNNER, ANNE, see Wharton. 

Carman, Buss, Sappho, One Hundred Lyrics. Boston, 1904. 

Carrot, M., Greek Women. Philadelphia, 1907. 

Curist, W.von-Schmid, W., Geschichte der griechischen Littera- 
tur. Munich, 1912. 

Cox, E. M., Sappho and the Sapphic Metre in English. Lon- 
don,1916. Poems of Sappho. London, New York, 1924. 

Creotimt, A., Saffo. Milan, 1890. 

Croiset, A., Histoire de la Litterature Grecque (vol. II, pp. 
226-244). Paris, 1898. 

De Courten, Mara L. G., Saffo (Supplementi ad 
“Aegyptus”). Milan, 1921. 

Dreut, E., Supplementum lyricum® (Kleine Texte, 33-34)- 
Bonn, 1917. 

Epuonps, J. M., The New Fragments of Alcaeus, Sappho and 
Corinna. Cambridge, 1909. 

Epmonps, J. M., Sappho in the Added Light of the New 
Fragments. Cambridge, 1912. (Has some poetical 
translations.) 

[ 269 | 


BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RECENT BOOKS 


Epuonps, J. M., Lyra Graeca, I, in The Loeb Classical Li- 
brary. New York, 1922. [Abbreviated as E. ] 

Epmonps, J. M., Various articles in Classical Review, Classical 
Quarterly and Cambridge Philological Society’s Proceedings, 
from 1909 to 1922. 

FarnELL, G. S., Greek Lyric Poetry. London, 1891. 

GuasEr, R., Sappho, die zehnte Muse (Siidwest-deutsche 
Monatsblatter). 1916. 

GRENFELL, B. P., and Hunt, A.S., The Oxyrhynchus Papyrt. 
Vols. I-XV, especially I, X, and XV. London, 1898. 
1922. 

Hiccrnson, T. W., Atlantic Essays. Boston, 1871. 

LatTINni, Giov., Saffo, Mimnermo e Catullo Viterbo, 1914. 

LavacninI, B., I Lirict Greci. Turin, 1923. 

LosBEL, E., Sappho. Oxford, 1925. 

Macxatt, J. W., Lectures on Greek Poetry (pp. 83-112). 
London and New York, 1911. 

MeasE, T., Saffo (Spanish translation). Paris, 1913. 

MErINo, A. FERNANDEZ, Estudios de Literatura Griega. Safo 
ante la critica moderna Madrid, 1884. 

Meunier, M., Sappho, Traduction nouvelle de tous les frag- 
ments. (Has not recent fragments.) Paris, 1911. 

Mizpurn, Lucy McD., Lost Letters from Lesbos. Chicago, 
1902. 

Miter, Marion Mitts, and Rosinson, D. M. The Songs 
of Sappho (Greek text of all Sappho, of all the epi- 
grams about her, of Erinna, of the new papyrus 
biography of Sappho, etc., prepared and annotated 
and literally translated by D, M. Robinson. Introduc- 
tion on The Recovery and Restoration of the Egyptian 
Relics of Sappho and a critical Memoir of the Real Sappho 
by D. M. Robinson. Introduction by M. M. Miller on 
the Sapphic Metre, and Poetical Adaptations of Sappho. 
New York, 1924. 

Mustarp, W. P., Classical Echoes in Tennyson. New 
York, 1904. 

O’Hara, J. M., The Poems of Sappho. Portland, ror10. 

OsBoRN, Percy, Poems of Sappho. London, 1909. 

PASELLA, Pietro, I Frammenti di Alceo e di Saffo tradotti. 
Rome, 1922. 


[270 | 


BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RECENT BOOKS 


Patrick, Mary Mirus, Sappho and the Island of Lesbos. 
Boston, 1914. Reprinted, 1924. 

Pauty-WissowA, — Krori-Witte, Real-Encyclopddie. Ex- 
haustive article on Sappho by Aly. Stuttgart, 1920. 
PrererseNn, W., The Lyric Songs of the Greeks. Translated 

into English Verse. Boston, 1918. 

Retacu, TH., Pour mieux connattre Sappho (Académie des 
Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres). Paris, 1911. 

Rosinson, D. M. See Miller-Robinson. 

ScoLLARD, C. L., — JoNnEs,|T.S., Sapphics. Clinton, N. Y., 1910. 

SrrzteR, J., Bibliography on Sappho in Bursian (Kroll) 
Jahresbericht tiber die Fortschritte der klassischen Alter- 
tumswissenschaft. CXXXIII, 1907, pp. 104 ff., pp. 176 
ff., CLXXVIII, 1919, pp. 46 ff. 

Suitu, J S. Eassy-, Songs of Sappho. Washington, D. C., 1891. 

Smytu, H. W., Greek Melic Poets. London, 1900. 

STACPOOLE, H. D. V., Sappho, a new rendering. London 1920. 

STANLEY, ALBERT A., Greek Themes in Modern Musical 
Settings. (Includes, pp. 1-68, Music to Percy Mackaye’s 
Sappho and Phaon). University of Michigan H umanistic 
Studies, XV, 1923- 

SreBBING, W., Greek and Latin Anthology thought into Eng- 
lish Verse. Part III, Greek Epigrams and Sappho. Adap- 
tations and Expansions of Sappho. None of the new 
fragments included. London, 1923. 

STEINER, B., Sappho. Jena, 1907. 

SrorER, Epwarp, Sappho (Poets Translation Series). Lon- 
don, 1916. 

Tucker, T. G., Sappho. Melbourne, Australia, 1914. 

Tutt, J. R., Sappho, The Queen of Song. London and Boston, 
1914. 

Vivien, Renée [pseudonym of an American lady, Pauline 
Tarn, 1877-1909, who lived in Paris], Sappho, traduction 
nouvelle avec le texte grec. Paris, 1903. Reprinted in 
the anonymous Sappho et huit poetesses grecques. Texte 
et reduction. Paris, 1909. 

WacneEr, R., Ubersetzung der grisseren Bruchstiicke Sapphos 
im Versmass des Originals nebst erléuternden Bemerkungen. 
Ig16. 


[e277 | 


BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RECENT BOOKS 


WALTHER, W., Sappho aus dem Griechischen iibersetat. Leipzig, 
IQI4. 

Way, A. S., Sappho and The Vigil of Venus. London, 1920. 

Way, A. S., Sappho. London, 1923. 

Wuarton, H. T., Sappho, memoir, text, selected renderings and 
a literal translation (with a collection also of poetic trans- 
lations and paraphrases by various authors). First 
edition, London, 1885. Second edition, London and 
Chicago, 1887. Third edition, London, 1895. Fourth 
edition, 1898, and fifth edition, London, 1907. First 
edition without the revisions of later editions reprinted 
by Brentano, New York, in 1920, with metrical para- 
phrases of Sappho by Anne Bunner. 

Witamowi1Tz-M6LLENDORFF, ULRICH VON, Textgeschichte der 
griechischen Lyriker. Berlin, 1901. 

WILAMOwItTz-MOLLENDORFF und ScHUBART, Berliner Klas- 
stkertexte, Heft V. Berlin, 1907. 

WitAmMowiTz-MOLLENDORFF, ULRICH VON, Sappho und 
Simonides (with translations). Berlin, 1913. 

WILAMOWwITz-MOLLENDORFF, ULRICH VON, Griechische Vers- 
kunst. Berlin, 1921. 

Wricat, F. A., Feminism in Greek Literature from Homer to 
Aristotle. New York, 1923. 


[272 ] 


KEY TO ILLUSTRATIONS 


PLATE 


Pirtacus, Lorp or Lrssus. See text page 22. 
MytTILENE. See text page 23. 

THE STORY OF PHAON. See text page 4o. 

THE BEAUTIFUL PHAON. See text page 4o. 

Tue LEUCADIAN PROMONTORY. See text page 4o. 
RoMAN FRESCO. See text page 42. 

A PAPYRUS OF THE THIRD CENTURY A.D. See text page 46. 
A Cyirx By SOTADES. See text page 93. 

A GREEK COIN FROM MYTILENE. See text page ror. 


. ImpertaL Corns. See text page rot. 


A GREEK VASE. See text page 103. 


. A BLAcK-F1IGURED CALPIS. See text page 104. 


Lost LucANIAN (?) VASE. See text page 104. 
GREEK ARYBALLUS. See text page 105. 


. A FirrH Century GREEK Hypria. See text page 106. 


PHAON ABOUT TO FERRY APHRODITE ACROSS THE SEA. 
See text page 108. 
A PomprIAN Fresco. See text page 108. 


Aw AncIENT Bust PROBABLY OF SAPPHO. See text 
page III. 

Tue Oxrorp Bust, PROBABLY OF SAPPHO. See text 
page I12. 


Bust PROBABLY OF SAPPHO. See text page 112. 


. STATUE OF SAPPHO. See text page 114. 
. A STaTUE OF SAPPHO. See text page 115. 


RAPHAEL’S PARNASSUS. See text page 117. 


PraTE 2. PITTACUS, LORD OF LESBUS 
One of the seven wise men of Greece, in whose reign Sappho 
was perhaps banished to Sicily. The bust was found in 
Asia Minor in a Roman villa (100 A.p.). Formerly in Balti- 
more in the collection of David M. Robinson, now in the 
Museum of Budapest. Cf. The Annual of the Budapest 
Museum, U1, 1919-1920, p. 3. For other replicas cf. Lippold, 
Griechische Portrdt-Statuen, p. 72 


MYTILENE 


Pasha. 
Looking across the severing sea to Asia Minor 


III ‘1d ‘azuasy up oordojoayr4py oasn yy "Y sap 
1jary Yyuaunuo py “Wey, WOIZ peon 
ayporydy “peay sit IoAo ,,uoRryd,, wor duosur oy} YIM MOTAq eTPPI yy Ul po}¥eS SI 
SApe] sy} JO pasty “uoeyg “F[PSUrY roqured serpy oy} Aq 90Ue10] 

NOVHd 40 AYOLS AHL % SvId 


porday ‘sodamizy Pue Soyjod Aq umMeip JOYS & Ul dAOq® SI 
‘SUIYLUI-9A 0] 


a] ur erpéy Arnques yyy & Wor] 


: 6S |d “2asajpUMUasy 4 aYISIYyIaId+) 
‘ppoyyooy-AejsusrwMyiny~ Woi1y poonpoiday <‘oOulsyeq Ul asvA Yoo) & UG 


NOVHd TNHILAVAG AHL § aLvId 


9 


Mh 
Taih 
nal 


a a 7a 


ie 


fis 
| 


THE LEUCADIAN PROMONTORY 


PLATE 6. 
From an old engraving reproduced by Miss Patrick, Sappho and the Island of Lesbos, p. 96 


sor peSutm ev yxoor aq} uo dn soysty oyddeg puryeg “queues peordsyno Y}IA s}TeM 
WOULL B o19y[M ‘vas ay} 0FUL Yor ay} Yo dazs 0} Jnoqe oyddes yy St oy} 07 pure ‘IPD ey} UO aa4] YIM 
oTody We] 23 0} Surmoys ‘oarorsseyY VWOg ey} Ivo SMOY Wl punoy Supping punoisiapun ue UT 


OOSTaA NVWOU “4 FLvId 


Prate 8. A PAPYRUS OF THE THIRD 
CENTURY A.D. 


With part of the text of a poem by Sappho. Reproduced 
from Oxyrhynchus Papyri, XV, 1922, No. 1787, fragment 
rie ols Ah 


TAX ‘1d ‘wnasnypy ysytsg ayy ut saspA uniuayyy apy wory poonpordsy 
y3noq ysoudo} oy} uo afdde oy} Surygonyd 903dy uo ps v Suueserdor “uMasn Ys 4} Ul 


SHGVLOS AM XITAO WV °6 Avid 


PLATE 10. A GREEK COIN FROM MYTILENE 


Showing probably Sappho’s head on one side and 

lyre on other. Enlarged twice the original size. 

Reproduced from Miss Patrick, Sappho and the 
Island of Lesbos, p. 73 


Prate ir. IMPERIAL COINS 


In the British Museum, representing Sappho. Reproduced 
from Miss Patrick, op. cit., p. 81 


Fi SS SA rn oe SY LIE 


ASIII IASI ISIS IE OUT 


: Wa 
EEE 
A Zi PHOTO 7X 


TTT Titel NIN HII Thin 
CEUVUUUY - MOYO YY 


PLATE 12. A GREEK VASE 
In Munich, representing Alcaeus and Sappho. Repro- 
duced from Furtwaengler-Reichhold, op. cit., pl. 64 


PratEe 13. A BLACK-FIGURED 


CALPIS 
Formerly in the Dzialinsky collec- 
tion at Paris, now in Cracow, in 
the style of the Nicoxenus painter, 
with the earliest (about 500 B.C.) 
inscribed representation of Sappho 


Pirate 14. LOST LUCANIAN (?) VASE 


Formerly in the Middleton collection. Sappho seated before a winged Eros 
who is bringing her a wreath. Reproduced from Museo Italiano, II, 1888, 
pl. Ifl, 2 


XI 1d ‘geet ‘TIT ‘uasunprayr py ayrsimoy Woy paonpoiday “papnyisut 
st oyddes woym Suowre ‘sosnpy 94} pue ‘ayiporydy ‘oyody jo soueserd ay} Ul [e}OeI [eorsnu & 
SUIAIS SUAUIeUT, Suussordor ‘OANY, YV WOT}DeT[09 Bye BY} UI “ToJUTed seIploy[ 9Y} JO 9fAjs oY} UL 


SOTIVEANV MAUD “$1 AvIg ‘ 


6 ‘31q ‘ob -d ‘So6r “TITA 
-oiday ‘wry Aq jou ysnoyy ‘zayured 10j99Ff 9Y} JO VEY} OF Pore[or St ajAys oy} Aa[zeag 0} 
Zuiprosoy “snixded e woly SUIPvoI PUL po}veS oyddes Sutmoys ‘suay}y teed eA WO] 


VINGAH WAIAAD AYALNAO HLA WV 9t vid 


"Sp, 


jk 


ie) 


LL “B31 ‘aauisjagy yodosra NT 
aap YyUuigdip wast) Isp A tap os0]DIDD “tUlsaT[aq WOIJ psonpoidey -“eusojog Ul VsSVA YooIH v UC 


VaS AHL SSOMOV ALIGOWHdV ANAAA OL LNOGV NOVHd “41 alvid 


PraTE 18. A POMPEIAN FRESCO 


Supposed to represent Sappho and Alcaeus. Reproduced 
from Herrmann-Bruckmann, Denkmaeler der Malerei des 
Altertums, pl. 28 


gbhi-Lbi ‘sid ‘sypuuog 
ayrsmMloy pun ayrsiysai4y “MUeUTyINIg-uuNIg-}pury WoIy peonpolday ‘owoy ‘TURqTY eIILA oy} UT 


OHddVS JO ATHVAONd LSA LNAIONV NV “6r aivid 


TIT ‘1d ‘g26r ‘TIIAXXX ‘saepnis ouayjayy fo jousnor wiory poonpoiday 
OHddVS AO ATAVdONd “ISN& GAOAXO AHL 0% ALT 


PLATE 21. BUST PROBABLY OF SAPPHO 


In the Borghese Palace, Rome. Photographed in the 
summer of 1922 


tusey, Ag 
OHdd VS 102 ciLLV.LS © <2 -e2y Ta 


STATUE OF SAPPHO 


Bi, oN 
By Pradier 


2 


PLATE 


ABMIOOP dy} JO Spls Ie] oy} uO Surueay st oyddeg ‘uvoeA oY} UT 
SOSSVNUVd S‘IAVHdVa ‘V2 BVId 


Mur Debt to Greece and Rome 


AUTHORS AND TITLES 


AUTHORS AND TITLES 


Homer. John A. Scott, Northwestern University. _ 
SappHo. David M. Robinson, The Johns Hopkins 
University. : 
Evuripies. F. L. Lucas, King’s College, Cambridge. 
AESCHYLUS AND SoPHOCLES. J. T. Sheppard, King’s 
College, Cambridge. : 

ARISTOPHANES. Louis E. Lord, Oberlin College. 
DemostTHENES. Charles D. Adams, Dartmouth College. 
ARISTOTLE’S Poetics. Lane Cooper, Cornell University. 
GrEeEK Histortans. Alfred E. Zimmern, University 
of Wales. eat 
Lucian. Francis G. Allinson, Brown University. 
PLAUTUS AND TERENCE. Charles Knapp, Barnard 
College, Columbia University. 


. Cicero. John C. Rolfe, University of Pennsylvania. 
. CICERO as PuitosopHER. Nelson G. McCrea, 


Columbia University. 

Catuttus. Karl P. Harrington, Wesleyan University. 
LucrETIUS AND EPICUREANISM. George Depue 
Hadzsits, University of Pennsylvania. 

Ovip. Edward K. Rand, Harvard University. 
Horace. Grant Showerman, University of Wisconsin. 
Virert. John William Mackail, Balliol College, Oxford. 


SENECA. Richard Mott Gummere, The William Penn 
Charter School. 


Roman Histortans. G. Ferrero, Florence. 

MartiaL. Paul Nixon, Bowdoin College. 

PraTonism. Alfred Edward Taylor, University of 
Edinburgh. 

ARISTOTELIANISM. John L. Stocks, University of 
Manchester, Manchester. 

Storcism. Robert Mark Wenley, University of M ichigan. 
LANGUAGE AND Purtotocy. Roland G. Kent, University 
of Pennsylvania. 

RHETORIC AND LITERARY CRITICISM. (Greek) W. Rhys 
Roberts, Leeds University. 

Greek Reticion. Walter W. Hyde, University of 
Pennsylvania. 


Roman ReELicion. Gordon J. Laing, University of 
Chicago. 


AUTHORS AND TITLES 


MytxHotocirs. Jane Ellen Harrison, Newnham College, 
Cambridge. 

THEORIES REGARDING THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 
Clifford H. Moore, Harvard University. 

Stace ANTIQUITIES. James T. Allen, University of 
California. 

GREEK Potrtics. Ernest Barker, King’s College, 
University of London. 

Roman Potrtics. Frank Frost Abbott, Princeton 
University. 

Roman Law. Roscoe Pound, Harvard Law School. 
Economics AnD Society. M. T. Rostovtzeff, Vale 
University. 

WarRFARE By Lanp anv Sea. E. S. McCartney, 
University of Michigan. 

THe GREEK Fatuers. Roy J. Deferrari, The Catholic 
University of America. 

BioLocy anp Mepictne. Henry Osborn Taylor, 
New York. 

Martuematics. David Eugene Smith, Teachers College, 
Columbia University. 

Love or Nature. H. R. Fairclough, Leland Stanford 
Junior University. 

ASTRONOMY AND AstroLocy. Franz Cumont, Brussels. 
Tue Fine Arts. Arthur Fairbanks, Museum of Fine 
Aris, Boston. 

ARCHITECTURE. Alfred M. Brooks, Swarthmore College. 
ENGINEERING. Alexander P. Gest, Philadelphia. 
GREEK PRIVATE Lire, Its Survivats. Charles Burton 
Gulick, Harvard University. 

ROMAN PRIVATE Lire, ITs SURVIVALS. Walton B. Mc- 
Daniel, University of Pennsylvania. 

Fork Lore. 


GREEK AND ROMAN EDUCATION. 


CHRISTIAN LATIN WRITERS. Andrew F. West, Princeton 
University. 

RoMAN PoETRY AND ITS INFLUENCE UPON EUROPEAN 
Cutture. Paul Shorey, University of Chicago. 
PsyCHOLocy. 

Music. Théodore Reinach, Paris. 

ANCIENT AND MopERN Rome. Rodolfo Lanciani, Rome.