History of Literature






Sappho


"Poems"



Sappho and Phaon
1809
by Jacques-Louis David

Sappho   Sappho Greek poetess, who lived on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is the most famous female poet of antiquity, but only incomplete poems and fragments remain of her work. Most of Sappho's love poems were addressed to women. The Greek philosopher Plato called her the tenth Muse. I asked myself What, Sappho, can you give one who has everything, like Aphrodite? (in Sappho: A New Translation, by Mary Barnard) Little is known for certain of Sappho's life, although there are many anecdotes. Her parents were of aristocratic origin. Sappho may have been born in 612 B.C. at Eresus, one of the towns of Lesbos. Her father was Scamandronymus, or according to some sources his name was Scamander. She had three brothers, Erigyius, Larichus and Charaxus, the eldest, who was a merchant. He sailed to Egypt with a cargo of wine. There he was involved with a local slavewoman named Doricha and purchased her freedom. Sappho disapproved the affair. She was more fond of the young Larichus; he poured the wine at council banquets. As a child, at some date between 604 and 595 B.C., Sappho was taken to exile in Sicily due to political disturbances. An inscription in the Parian Chronicle says: "When Aristokles reigned over the Athenians Sappho fled from Mitylene and sailed to Sicily." After returning she spent most of her life at Mytilene, the native city of her mother Cleis. Countless sources mention that Sappho was married to Kerkylas of Andros, but according to Holt N. Parker, it's a joke name - "Dick Allcock from the Isle of MAN" (see 'Sappho Schoolmistress' in Re-Reading Sappho, ed. by Ellen Greene, 1996) Sappho's slightly senior contemporary poet, Alcaeus, another leader of the Aeolian school of poetry, also came from Lesbos. He wrote some erotic (homosexual) lyrics. Not much imagination has been needed to develop the argument, that they lived in friendly intercourse, especially when fragments of their existing poetry point to the direction. Sappho had a daughter, Kleis, named after her grandmother. Sappho speaks of her daughter's beauty: ''I have a beautiful child who is like golden flowers / in form, darling Kleis / in exchange for whom I would not / all Lydia or lovely." Ovid portrays the poetess as short and dark in complexion. Alcaeus calls her ''violet haired, pure, honey-smiling Sappho''. The eleventh-century Byzantine lexicon Suda writes, that Sappho had three companions, Atthis, Telesippa, and Megara, and she was accused of "shameful love with them." Her pupils were Anagora of Milestos, Gongula of Colophon, and Euneika of Salamis. - Sappher probably could read and write, not a common skill at that time, and it is not impossible, that she taught young women, preparing them into adulthood. One source dating to the second century C.E. speaks, that she educated "the best women not only from the natives [of Lesbos] but also of Ionia". Sappho's advices were practical. In one fragment she instructs Kleis, how to do her hair: "a girl / whose hair is yellower than / torchlight should wear no / headdress but fresh flowers" (trans. by Mary Barnard) . In Mytilene, Sappho was the central figure of a female literary group. It also formed the audience for her poetry. With her friends Sappho may have performed religious rituals and worshipped the goddess of love, Aphrodite, but her surviving poetry doesn't refer to any systematic religious philosophizing. When antique philosophers examined the laws of nature and the outside world, Sappho was interested in the inner world, her own feelings. Aristotle said that "everybody honored the wise... and the Mytilineans honored Sappho although she was a woman." Sappho's lyrics were more personal than in the widely read or recited Homeric epic. And her poems were really read - old Greek vases, some of which date to the 5th century, provide the proof. One of them shows an imaginary portrait of Sappho and words from her poem. Because of her intense feelings for her own sex, Sappho has often been described as a homosexual (lesbian) - originally the word "lesbian" meant "a person from the island of Lesbos". In one fragment she wrote: "At mere sight of you / my voice falters, my tongue / is broken." In the poem she depicts her jealous passion while watching a young woman. A man sits facing the woman, listening her "sweet speech and lovely laughter." Sappho was unsentimental about the feeling of love: cold sweat pours off the poet, trembling shakes her body, she is paler than grass. Longinus praised the poem in his treatise 'On Sublimity', a classical work of criticism from the first century C.E: "She is cold and hot, mad and sane, frightened and near death, all by turns.... Lovers experience all this; Sappho's excellence, as I have said, lies in her adoption and combination of the most striking details." In some love poems Sappho questioned the masculine, heroic gender role familiar from Homeric epic: "I don't like a tall general, swaggering, / proud of his curls, with a fancy shave. / I'd rather have a short man, who looks / bow-legged, with a firm stride, full of heart." (trans. by Diane Rayor) It is generally believed, that Sappho died c. 580 B.C.; she was about thirty. The legend of her death is most probably a fabrication. The comic playwright Menander tells in The Girl from Leukas, that Sappho fell in love with the young Phaon, a boatman. When she was rejected, she flung herself into the sea from the Leucadian cliff. In the Suda, this person has the same name than Sappho, but she is not the well-known poet. She is a harp player from the city of Mytilene and she composed poetry, too. However, the story inspired Ovid, whose version is found at the end of his Heroides, where she, supposedly writing to Phaon, "burns like Etna". The English playwright John Lyly (1554-1606) and the American playwright Percy MacKaye (1875-1956) have also dealt with the subject. The person and poetics of Sappho have fascinated a number of male and female writers, including John Donne, Tennyson, Baudelaire, Willa Cather, Virginia Woolf, Richard Aldington, Hilda Doolitle, Renée Vivien, Marguerite Yourcenar, Ezra Pound, and Lawrence Durrell. Christina Rossetti imagined her living unloved and dying unwept, untended and alone. Sappho's poetry was translated respectfully into Latin and much of her work survived until the end of antiquity. Scholars at the great Alexandrian library collected her poems in an edition of nine books, but this edition got lost during the Middle Ages. Such Roman poets as Catullus and Horace in the first century B.C. knew her work. Horace used the sapphic stanza frequently. Antipater of Thessalonica from the second century B.C. included Sappho in his list of nine women poets. Later critics quoted her works and there are also papyrus fragments. In Sappho's time the Greeks had no paper. An average Greek used pottery as a writing material, or anything at hand. Approximately two hundred fragments have been attributed to Sappho. Many of them contain only a few words. The earliest papyrus containing Sappho's poems is from the third century B.C. The text, wrapped around an Egyptian mummy, was rediscovered by two researchers at Germany's Cologne University and published in 2005 with an English translation in the Times Literary Supplement. Sappho used the Lesbian vernacular, her language is direct, spontaneous, and simple, but difficult to translate into English - or as Ford Madox Ford noted in The March of Literature (1938): "But work at your English version how you will, you will never - simply because English vowel sounds are so indeterminate - get either the sonority or the vowel coloring of the original Greek." Sappho mastered various meters. One four-line stanza has been named after her. The first three lines are long, and the fourth is short. Sappho's 'Hymn to Aphrodite' was written in this meter. Is addressed to the goddess to aid her seduction of a young girl whom the poet loves. Sappho also addressed informal hymns to Hera, the sister and wife of Zeus. Her other works include marriage songs (epithalamia), composed for choral performance.   "ODE TO APHRODITE"   Tyре of work: Poem Author: Sappho (fl. с 600 B.C.) First published: Early sixth century B.C.   The "Ode" (or "Prayer") "to Aphrodite" is the first poem in the standard edition of Sappho's work by Edgar Lobel and Denys Page (1955, 1963) and in earlier editions by Theodor Bergk (1843), Ernest Diehl (1924 -1925, 1935), and J. M. Edmonds (1928). Translators do not regularly give it this pride of place; Susy Q. Groden (1975) does, but Mary Barnard (1958) and Willis Barn-stone (1962, 1965) do not. There is, indeed, nothing to warrant the kind of primacy that translators, following editors, always accord to Pindar's Olympian I and almost always to Catullus' dedicatory poem to Cornelius Nepos except the assumption, hardly to be questioned, that this is the only complete poem of Sappho's that has survived. The canon of Sappho amounts to a collection, apart from this one complete ode, of more than two hundred fragments, some of them no more than a single word or a letter or two. Except for two fragments each in excess of thirty lines but discontinuous because of lengthy lacunae, the "Ode to Aphrodite" is Sappho's longest extant work. The poem comprises seven four-line stanzas composed in the meter invented by Sappho and named for her, the sapphic. About twenty percent of the fragments ascribed to Sappho are in this meter. The Sapphic stanza consists of three lines in the following scheme: -" -x -"" -" —, followed by one line in the scheme called adonic (-"" -x). The macron (-) denotes a long syllable, the equivalent of a half-note in music; the micron (") denotes a short syllable, the equivalent of a quarter-note in music; and x indicates that the syllable may be long or short. The adonic is so called because its model is Sappho's line 6 tonAdonin (O, [poor] Adonis). In the following translation of the "Ode to Aphrodite" no attempt is made to reproduce the metric of the first three lines of each stanza, but a pentasyllabic fourth line is used to suggest the adonic: Colorfully throned immortal Aphrodite daughter of Zeus, designer of deceptions, please do not, great queen, make me heartsick with grief now; but, hearing my words from afar and heeding them, come as you did before, driving your chariot from your father's palace all golden, with birds of beauty and swiftness speeding through heaven on racing wings and bringing you through the space of the sky over the dark earth. Their swiftness prevailed and, Lady of Rapture, smiling with your immortal visage, you asked what my trouble was and why I called for your help then: "Whom exactly," you asked, "am I to persuade to return to the sphere of your affection? Who, dear Sappho, is treating you badly? "If she runs from you now, she'll run after you soon; if she now spurns your gifts, she'll be giving you gifts; and, willing or not, she will presently love you." Come to me now, Aphrodite; dispel the worries that irritate and offend me; fulfill the wishes of my heart; and fight here beside me. The poem is a prayer for a renewal of confidence that the person whom Sappho loves will requite that love. Sappho identifies herself in this poem; the name Sappho (Psappho) appears in only three other fragments. A previous prayer seems to have been answered satisfactorily, but the current situation is clouded over with doubt and uneasiness; reassurance is needed. Presumably the current situation involves the same beloved, in which case Sappho's anxiety has been heightened by a rival. The subject of the earlier prayer was a woman, and the context of the poem is female homosexuality. This is not the context of all of Sappho's poetic constructions; one fragment reads, "Sweet mother, I cannot stay at the loom:/ svelte Aphrodite has melted my will away/ and filled me with longing for a boy," and another is a call to the speaker's lost virginity. The speaker may not be Sappho in either of these heterosexual contexts; but the likelihood is that in all of the first-person fragments Sappho is expressing herself and her own feelings. In her sensual and sexual pursuits Sappho could be, and perhaps should be, identified as a bisexual: She had a husband, Cercylas, and a daughter named Clei's (after Sappho's mother), and she was rumored, whether accurately or not, to be romantically involved with the poet Alcaeus. Still, it is the preponderantly homosexual ambience of the fragments that has contributed to the English language the word "lesbian." Sappho was in habitat a Lesbian; her home was the city of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. The text of the poem is preserved partially on papyrus and partially in quotation by ancient writers and scholiasts. This is the case with all of the fragments; no unitary text of Sappho's collected or representative poems appears ever to have been published in antiquity. The "Ode to Aphrodite" was preserved by the critic Diony-sius of Halicarnassus (late first century B.C.), who quoted it as an example of smoothly flowing verse composition with a sonantal euphony resulting from avoidance of excessive use of consonants. The consensus is that Dionysius quoted the poem in its entirety and thereby provided posterity with Sappho's only complete extant poem. The more famous poem that begins Phainetai moi kenos isos theoisin (that man seems to me to be on a par with gods), preserved by "Longinus" (first century A.D.) and imitated by Catullus (c. 85-54 B.C.), is missing at lest one stanza. There is, moreover, only one crux in the "Ode to Aphrodite": The fifth stanza contains a lacuna of a letter, perhaps two, which appears to be resolved by a reading in a fragmentary papyrus copy of the poem. There is some variance in the handling of the passage by editors and translators, but the sense of the passage is not irremediably obscured: Sappho rehearses Aphrodite's response, in part, to the poet's earlier prayer; the goddess had asked whom she was to persuade, or whom Persuasion was to move, to return the affection of the suppliant. The poem follows the ancient literary conventions of prayer. It opens with an invocation to the deity, who is complimented by epithets and recognition of attributes and is then reminded of having answered a previous call for help. Sappho varies the formula slightly, introducing a preludial plea between the invocation and the reminder. The reminder, or the sanction, is the major part of the poem, taking up five of the seven stanzas. It is itself in two parts: a lyrical description of the goddess' physical approach to the suppliant, followed by a citation of the goddess' verbal response. The prayer concludes peremptorily with Sappho's plea. The symmetrical balance of immortal-daughter-designer of deceptions with queen-father-immortal establishes the focal apposition of doloploke (designer of deceptions) and potnia (queen). Aphrodite is invoked as the queen of deception-designing or wiles-weaving. The focal emphasis defines the substance of the prayer: Aphrodite, queen of deception, make my beloved blind to any attraction but me. Sappho realizes that her appeal to her beloved can be sustained only by the persuasiveness of Aphro-ditean cosmetic mystery. It is the plight of many an erot-ically or sensually inclined person whose desire exceeds her or his desirability and who cannot become resigned to the inequity of the amatory situation. The fourteenth line, which is the midpoint and the focal line of the poem, reads literally, "smiling with [respect to your] immortal face." This is one of the early instances in literature of the eternal smile, which, turned inward, like that of the Buddha, radiates serenity, but turned outward toward humankind, like that of the Etruscan Apollo of Veii, signals cruelty or indifference. As suppliant, Sappho wants Aphrodite to be symmachos (a fighter at her side) so that the smile, directed inward when the goddess first appeared to Sappho, will now be directed outward toward her rival. Sappho understands that the goddess or, figuratively, the force of love and sensuality is regent and militant, like Ishtar, the Babylonian counterpart of Aphrodite, who is goddess of both love and war; Aphrodite's paramour, moreover, is Ares, the god of war. The juxtaposition of "designer of deceptions" and "queen" at the focal hinge of a symmetrical sequence and the location of the eternal smile at the focus of this poem which culminates in a calling of Aphrodite to arms produce a powerful portrait of the force of love, to which the poet entrusts herself in an exquisitely worded suppliant address. In doing so, she experiences the substance of her hopes. "Longinus" selected Sappho's Phainetai moi to illustrate the sublimity of pathos (emotion) presented in such a way as to include both the subjective experience of incipient jealousy and the objective comprehension of the experience. The poem exceeds the sum of its parts. Much the same thing could be said about the "Ode to Aphrodite." It has all the fluency of expression that Dionysius found in it, yet this is not the extent of its quality. It is a prayer that becomes, by means of its perfect utterance, its own answer; it is a wish expressed so well that its very expression constitutes its fulfillment. The flow of vocalic music expedites the ode's smooth progression from arrested grief and passivity to aggressively active participation in the immortal force of love. The ode may be viewed as complete because this progression is impeccably completed. Beyond that, however, each of the parts of the ode—the invocation, the reminder, the speech of Aphrodite, and the precise plea—is complete in itself. The ode is more than the sum of its parts, and each of the parts is more than its own aggregation. The fragments of Sappho's poetry retain a value analogous to that of the fragments of a gold bar. If only a fragment of the "Ode to Aphrodite" had been preserved, there would be less gold, but the quality of the remaining gold would not be changed. Each stanza of the ode frames a dominant image— throne, chariot, birds, eternal smile, persuasion, gifts, battle—in the manner of a Japanese haiku. Each stanza is therein a veritable poem, just as each line is a passage of music. The image of battle in the final stanza is projected in regimented word order: The stanza begins and ends with an imperative—come, fight (literally, "a companion-fighter be")—and contains two interior imperatives (dispel, fulfill); it also contains two symmetrically balanced ranks of words. Ultimately it is the irrefragable unity of form and content that lends distinction to every part, every fragment of Sappho's poetry. One of her fragments is the following invitation, which, with its soft music and exquisitely framed imagery, creates the erotically religious serenity to which the addressee is invited: Come to this holy temple, where there is a pretty apple orchard and altars which, among the apple trees, are smoking with incense. and through the branches of the trees there is a rustling sound of cool water; roses lend their shadows to the grove, and sleep flows down from whispering tree leaves; the grazing-meadow here has blossomed with lotus flowers; and sweetest odors issue from the anises— This fragment creates the sound, the scene, and the mood to which the "Ode to Aphrodite" expresses the militant desire to return.       Sappho           POEMS Translated by Jilia Dubnoff       * Immortal Aphrodite, on your intricately brocaded throne,1 child of Zeus, weaver of wiles, this I pray: Dear Lady, don't crush my heart with pains and sorrows. But come here, if ever before, when you heard my far-off cry, you listened. And you came, leaving your father's house, yoking your chariot of gold. Then beautiful swift sparrows led you over the black earth from the sky through the middle air, whirling their wings into a blur. Rapidly they came. And you, O Blessed Goddess, a smile on your immortal face, asked what had happened this time, why did I call again, and what did I especially desire for myself in my frenzied heart: Who this time am I to persuade to your love? Sappho, who is doing you wrong? For even if she flees, soon she shall pursue. And if she refuses gifts, soon she shall give them. If she doesn't love you, soon she shall love even if she's unwilling.” Come to me now once again and release me from grueling anxiety. All that my heart longs for, fulfill. And be yourself my ally in love's battle. * Some say an army of horsemen, some of footsoldiers, some of ships, is the fairest thing on the black earth, but I say it is what one loves. It's very easy to make this clear to everyone, for Helen, by far surpassing mortals in beauty, left the best of all husbands and sailed to Troy, mindful of neither her child nor her dear parents, but with one glimpse she was seduced by Aphrodite. For easily bent... and nimbly...[missing text]... has reminded me now of Anactoria who is not here; I would much prefer to see the lovely way she walks and the radiant glance of her face than the war-chariots of the Lydians or their footsoldiers in arms. * That man to me seems equal to the gods, the man who sits opposite you and close by listens to your sweet voice your enticing laughter— that indeed has stirred up the heart in my breast. For whenever I look at you even briefly I can no longer say a single thing, but my tongue is frozen in silence; instantly a delicate flame runs beneath my skin; with my eyes I see nothing; my ears make a whirring noise. A cold sweat covers me, trembling seizes my body, and I am greener than grass. Lacking but little of death do I seem.   Sapphic Fragments * Come now, luxuriant Graces, and beautiful-haired Muses. * I tell you someone will remember us in the future. * Now, I shall sing these songs Beautifully for my companions. * The moon shone full And when the maidens stood around the altar... * “He is dying, Aphrodite; luxuriant Adonis is dying. What should we do?” “Beat your breasts, young maidens. And tear your garments in grief.” * O, weep for Adonis! * But come, dear companions, For day is near. * The moon is set. And the Pleiades. It's the middle of the night. Time [hôrâ] passes. But I sleep alone. * I love the sensual. For me this and love for the sun has a share in brilliance and beauty * I desire And I crave. * You set me on fire. * A servant of wile-weaving Aphrodite... * Eros Giver of pain... * Eros Coming from heaven throwing off his purple cloak. * Again love, the limb-loosener, rattles me bittersweet, irresistible, a crawling beast. * As a wind in the mountains assaults an oak, Love shook my breast. * I loved you, Atthis, long ago even when you seemed to me a small graceless child. * But you hate the very thought of me, Atthis, And you flutter after Andromeda. * Honestly, I wish I were dead. Weeping many tears, she left me and said, “Alas, how terribly we suffer, Sappho. I really leave you against my will.” And I answered: “Farewell, go and remember me. You know how we cared for you. If not, I would remind you ... of our wonderful times. For by my side you put on many wreaths of roses and garlands of flowers around your soft neck. And with precious and royal perfume you anointed yourself. On soft beds you satisfied your passion. And there was no dance, no holy place from which we were absent.” * They say that Leda once found an egg— like a hyacinth. * “Virginity, virginity Where will you go when you've left me?” “I'll never come back to you , bride, I'll never come back to you.” * Sweet mother, I can't do my weaving— Aphrodite has crushed me with desire for a tender youth. * Like a sweet-apple turning red high on the tip of the topmost branch. Forgotten by pickers. Not forgotten— they couldn't reach it. * Like a hyacinth in the mountains that shepherds crush underfoot. Even on the ground a purple flower. * To what shall I compare you, dear bridegroom? To a slender shoot, I most liken you. * [Sappho compared the girl to an apple....she compared the bridegroom to Achilles, and likened the young man's deeds to the hero's.] Himerius, (4th cent. A.D.), Or. 1.16 * Raise high the roofbeams, carpenters! Hymenaon, Sing the wedding song! Up with them! Hymenaon, Sing the wedding song! A bridegroom taller than Ares! Hymenaon, Sing the wedding song! Taller than a tall man! Hymenaon, Sing the wedding song! Superior as the singer of Lesbos— Hymenaon, Sing the wedding song! —to poets of other lands. Hymenaon! * The Marriage of Hektor and Andromakhe ...Cyprus... ...The herald Idaios came...a swift messenger ...and the rest of Asia...unwilting glory (kleos aphthiton). Hektor and his companions led the dark-eyed luxuriant Andromakhe from holy Thebes and...Plakia in ships upon the salty sea. Many golden bracelets and purple robes..., intricately-worked ornaments, countless silver cups and ivory. Thus he spoke. And his dear father quickly leapt up. And the story went to his friends through the broad city. And the Trojans joined mules to smooth-running carriages. And the whole band of women and...maidens got on. Separately, the daughters of Priam... And the unmarried men led horses beneath the chariots and greatly...charioteers...   ...like gods ...holy set forth into Troy... And the sweet song of the flute mixed... And the sound of the cymbals, and then the maidens sang in clear tones a sacred song and a divinely-sweet echo reached the sky... And everywhere through the streets... Mixing bowls and cups... And myrrh and cassia and frankincense were mingled. And the older women wailed aloud. And all the men gave forth a high-pitched song, calling on Apollo, the far-shooter, skilled in the lyre. And they sang of Hektor and Andromakhe like to the gods. * Blessed bridegroom, The marriage is accomplished as you prayed. You have the maiden you prayed for. * I don't know what to do: I am of two minds. * For gold is Zeus' child. * I have a beautiful daughter Like a golden flower My beloved Kleis. I would not trade her for all Lydia nor lovely... * When you lie dead, no one will remember you For you have no share in the Muses' roses. No, flitting aimlessly about, You will wildly roam, a shade amidst the shadowy dead. * Death is an evil. That's what the gods think. Or they would die. * Because you are dear to me Marry a younger woman. I don't dare live with a young man— I'm older.             Sappho     The Poems of Sappho by John Myers O'Hara, 1910       O'Hara, John Myers, 1870-1944, translated: The Poems of Sappho: An Interpretative Rendition into English       ODE TO APHRODITE Aphrodite, subtle of soul and deathless, Daughter of God, weaver of wiles, I pray thee Neither with care, dread Mistress, nor with anguish, Slay thou my spirit! But in pity hasten, come now if ever From afar of old when my voice implored thee, Thou hast deigned to listen, leaving the golden House of thy father With thy chariot yoked; and with doves that drew thee, Fair and fleet around the dark earth from heaven, Dipping vibrant wings down he azure distance, Through the mid-ether; Very swift they came; and thou, gracious Vision, Leaned with face that smiled in immortal beauty, Leaned to me and asked, "What misfortune threatened? Why I had called thee?" "What my frenzied heart craved in utter yearning, Whom its wild desire would persuade to passion? What disdainful charms, madly worshipped, slight thee? Who wrongs thee, Sappho?" "She that fain would fly, she shall quickly follow, She that now rejects, yet with gifts shall woo thee, She that heeds thee not, soon shall love to madness, Love thee, the loth one!" Come to me now thus, Goddess, and release me From distress and pain; and all my distracted Heart would seek, do thou, once again fulfilling, Still be my ally!       APHRODITE'S DOVES When the drifting gray of the vesper shadow Dimmed their upward path through the midmost azure, And the length of night overtook them distant Far from Olympus; Far away from splendor and joy of Paphos, From the voice and smile of their peerless Mistress, Back to whom their truant wings were in rapture Speeding belated; Chilled at heart and grieving they drooped their pinions, Circled slowly, dipping in flight toward Lesbos, Down through dusk that darkened on Mitylene's Columns of marble; Down through glory wan of the fading sunset, Veering ever toward the abode of Sappho, Toward my home, the fane of the glad devoted Slave of the Goddess; Soon they gained the tile of my roof and rested, Slipped their heads beneath their wings while I watched them Sink to sleep and dreams, in the warm and drowsy Night of midsummer.       THE MUSES Hither now, O Muses, leaving the golden House of God unseen in the azure spaces, Come and breathe on bosom and brow and kindle Song like the sunglow; Come and lift my shaken soul to the sacred Shadow cast by Helicon's rustling forests; Sweep on wings of flame from the middle ether, Seize and uplift me; Thrill my heart that throbs with unwonted fervor, Chasten mouth and throat with immortal kisses, Till I yield on maddening heights the very Breath of my body.       ANACREON'S SONG Golden-Throned Muse, sing the song that in olden Days was sung of love and delight in Teos, In the goodly land of the lovely women: Strains that in other Years the hoary bard with the youthful fancy Set to mirthful stir of flutes, when the dancing Nymphs that poured the wine for the poet's banquet Mixed it with kisses; Sing the song while I, in the arms of Atthis, Seal her lips to mine with a lover's fervor, Breathe her breath and drink her sighs to the honeyed Lull of the melics.       MUSAGETES Come with Musagetes, ye Hours and Graces, Dance around the team of swans that attend him Up Parnassian heights, to his holy temple High on the hill-top; Come, ye Muses, too, from the shades of Pindus, Let your songs, that echo on winds of rapture, Wake the lyre he tunes to the sweet inspiring Sound of your voices.       LOVE'S BANQUET If Panormus, Cyprus or Paphos hold thee, Either home of Gods or the island temple, Hark again and come at my invocation, Goddess benefic; Come thou, foam-born Kypris, and pour in dainty Cups of amber gold thy delicate nectar, Subtly mixed with fire that will swiftly kindle Love in our bosoms; Thus the bowl ambrosial was stirred in Paphos For the feast, and taking the burnished ladle, Hermes poured the wine for the Gods who lifted Reverent beakers; High they held their goblets and made libation, Spilling wine as pledge to the Fates and Hades, Quaffing deep and binding their hearts to Eros, Lauding thy servant. So to me and my Lesbians round me gathered, Each made mine, an amphor of love long tasted, Bid us drink, who sigh for thy thrill ecstatic, Passion's full goblet; Grant me this, O Kypris, and on thy altar Dawn will see a goat of the breed of Naxos, Snowy doves from Cos and the drip of rarest Lesbian vintage; For a regal taste is mine and the glowing Zenith-lure and beauty of suns must brighten Love for me, that ever upon perfection Trembles elusive.       THE DAUGHTER OF CYPRUS Dreaming I spake with the Daughter of Cyprus, Heard the languor soft of her voice, the blended Suave accord of tones interfused with laughter Low and desireful; Dreaming saw her dread ineffable beauty, Saw through texture fine of her clinging tunic Blush the fire of flesh, the rose of her body, Radiant, blinding; Saw through filmy meshes the melting lovely Flow of line, the exquisite curves, whence piercing Rapture reached with tangible touch to thrill me, Almost to slay me; Saw the gleaming foot, and the golden sandal Held by straps of Lydian work thrice doubled Over the instep's arch, and up the rounded Dazzling ankle; Saw the charms that shimmered from knee to shoulder, Hint of hues, than milk or the snowdrift whiter; Secret grace, the shrine of the soul of passion, Glows that consumed me; Saw the gathered mass of her xanthic tresses, Mitra-bound, escape from the clasping fillet, Float and shine as clouds in the sunset splendor, Mists in the dawn-fire; Saw the face immortal, and daring greatly, Raised my eyes to hers of unfathomed azure, Drank their world's desire, their limitless longing, Swooned and was nothing.       THE DISTAFF Come, ye dainty Graces and lovely Muses, Rosy-armed and pure and with fairest tresses, Come from groves on Helicon's hill where murmur Founts that are holy; Come with dancing step and with lips harmonic, Gather near and view my ivory distaff, Gift from Cos my brother Charaxus brought me, Sailing from Egypt; Sailing back to Lesbos from far Naucratis, From the seven mouths of the Nile and Egypt Up the blue Ægean, the island-dotted Ocean of Hellas; Choicest wool alone will I spin for fabrics, Winding reel with threads for the cloths as fleecy, Soft and fine as they bring from far Phocea, Sidon or Sardis; While I weave my thought shall engird the giver, Whether here, or far on the sea, or resting Couched in shady courts with the lovely garland Girls of Naucratis.       MOON AND STARS When the moon at full on the sill of heaven Lights her beacon, flooding the earth with silver, All the shining stars that about her cluster Hide their fair faces; So when Anactoria's beauty dazzles Sight of mine, grown dim with the joy it gives me, Gorgo, Atthis, Gyrinno, all the others Fade from my vision.       THE SLEEP WIND Softer than mists o’er the pale green of waters, O’er the charmed sea, shod with sandals of shadow Comes the warm sleep wind of Argolis, floating Garlands of fragrance; Comes the sweet wind by the still hours attended, Touching tired lids on the shores dim with distance, Ever its way toward the headland of Lesbos, Toward Mitylene. Faintly one fair star of evening enkindles On the dusk afar its lone fire Œtean, Shining serene till the darkness will deepen Others to splendor; Bringing ineffable peace, and the gladsome Return with the night of all things that morning Ruthlessly parted, the child to its mother, Lover to lover. From the marble court of rose-crowned companions, All alone my feet again seek the little Theatre pledged to the Muse, now deserted, Facing the surges; Where the carved Pan-heads that laugh down the gentle Slope of broad steps to the refluent ripple, Flute from their thin pipes the dithyrambs deathless, Songs all unuttered. Empty each seat where my girl friends acclaimed me, Poets with names on the tiered stone engraven, Over whose verge blooms the apple tree, drifting Perfume and petals; Gone Telesippa and tender Gyrinno, Anactoria, woman divine; Atthis, Subtlest of soul, fair Damophyla, Dica, Maids of the Muses. * Here an hour past soul-enravished they listened While my rapt heart breathed its pæan impassioned, Chanted its wild prayer to thee, Aphrodite, Daughter of Cyprus; Now to their homes are they gone in the city, Pensive to dream limb-relaxed while the languid Slaves come and lift from the tresses they loosen, Flowers that have faded. Thou alone, Sappho, art sole with the silence, Sole with night and dreams that are darkness, weaving Thoughts that are sighs from the heart and their meaning Vague as the shadow; When the great silence shall come to thee, sad one, Men that forget shall remember thy music, Murmur thy name that shall steal on their passion Soft as the sleep wind.       THE REPROACH Kypris, hear my prayer to thee and the Nereids! Safely bring the ship of my brother homewards, Bring him back unharmed to the heart that loves him, Throbbing remorseful; Fair Immortal, banish from mind, I pray thee, Every discord's hint that of yore estranged us; Grant that never again dissension's hateful Wrangle shall part us; May he never in days to come remember Keen reproach of mine that had grieved him sorely; Words that broke my very heart when I heard them Uttered by others; Words that wounded deep and recurring often, Bowed his head with shame at the public banquet; Where my scorn, amid festal joy and laughter, Sharpened the covert Jests that stung his pride and assailed his folly, Slave-espoused when he, a Lesbian noble, Might have won the fairest in Mitylene, Virgins the noblest; Open slurs that linked his name with Doricha, Lovely slave that Xanthes had sold in Egypt; She whose wondrous charms the wealth of Charaxus Ransomed from bondage. Now that he is gone and my anger vanished, Keen regret and grief for the pain I gave him Pierce my heart, and fear of loss that is anguish Darkens the daylight.       ODE TO ANACTORIA Peer of Gods to me is the man thy presence Crowns with joy; who hears, as he sits beside thee, Accents sweet of thy lips the silence breaking, With lovely laughter; Tones that make the heart in my bosom flutter, For if I, the space of a moment even, Near to thee come, any word I would utter Instantly fails me; Vain my stricken tongue would a whisper fashion, Subtly under my skin runs fire ecstatic; Straightway mists surge dim to my eyes and leave them Reft of their vision; Echoes ring in my ears; a trembling seizes All my body bathed in soft perspiration; Pale as grass I grow in my passion's madness, Like one insensate; But must I dare all, since to me unworthy, Bliss thy beauty brings that a God might envy; Never yet was fervid woman a fairer Image of Kypris. Ah! undying Daughter of God, befriend me! Calm my blood that thrills with impending transport; Feed my lips the murmur of words to stir her Bosom to pity; Overcome with kisses her faintest protest, Melt her mood to mine with amorous couches,— Till her low assent and her sigh's abandon Lure me to rapture.       THE ROSE If it pleased the whim of Zeus in an idle Hour to choose a king for the flowers, he surely Would have crowned the rose for its regal beauty, Deeming it peerless; By its grace is valley and hill embellished, Earth is made a shrine for the lover's ardor; Dear it is to flowers as the charm of lovely Eyes are to mortals; Joy and pride of plants, and the garden's glory, Beauty's blush it brings to the cheek of meadows; Draining fire and dew from the dawn for rarest Color and odor; Softly breathed, its scent is a plea for passion, When it blooms to welcome the kiss of Kypris; Sheathed in fragrant leaves its tremulous petals Laugh in the zephyr.       SUMMER Slumber streams from quivering leaves that listless Bask in heat and stillness of Lesbian summer; Breathless swoons the air with the apple-blossoms’ Delicate odor; From the shade of branches that droop and cover Shallow trenches winding about the orchard, Restful comes, and cool to the sense, the flowing Murmur of water.       THE GARDEN OF THE NYMPHS All around through the apple boughs in blossom Murmur cool the breezes of early summer, And from leaves that quiver above me gently Slumber is shaken; Glades of poppies swoon in the drowsy languor, Dreaming roses bend, and the oleanders Bask and nod to drone of bees in the silent Fervor of noontide; Myrtle coverts hedging the open vista, Dear to nightly frolic of Nymph and Satyr, Yield a mossy bed for the brown and weary Limbs of the shepherd. Echo ever wafts through the drooping frondage, Ceaseless silver murmur of water falling In the grotto cool of the Nymphs, the sacred Haunt of Immortals; Down the sides of rocks that are gray and lichened Trickle tiny rills, whose expectant tinkle Drips with gurgle hushed in the clear glimmering Depths of the basin. Fair on royal couches of leaves recumbent, Interspersed with languor of waxen lilies, Lotus flowers empurple the pool whose edge is Cushioned with mosses; Here recline the Nymphs at the hour of twilight, Back in shadows dim of the cave, their golden Sea-green eyes half lidded, up to their supple Waists in the water. Sheltered once by ferns I espied them binding Tresses long, the tint of lilac and orange; Just beyond the shimmer of light their bodies Roseate glistened; * Deftly, then, they girdled their loins with garlands, Linked with leaves luxuriant limb and shoulder; On their breasts they bruised the red blood of roses Fresh from the garden. She of orange hair was the Nymph Euxanthis, And the lilac-tressed were Iphis and Io; How they laughed, relating at length their ease in Evading the Satyr.       HYMN TO PAPHIA Immortal Paphia! have I earned thy hate, That I should burn in passion's fatal flame? Is not my constant service thine to claim, My prayer's appeal with praise of thee elate? Has not my life been one sole hymn of thee, One quivering chord on Love's harp overwrought? My soul has trembled up to thee in thought, Probed to its depth thy every ecstasy. Are not my countless heart-beats each a vow, Of tribute throbs a garland? For thy gain The Fates have drenched my soul in passion's rain, Pieria's roses twined about my brow. The virgin harvest of my heart was thine, I shuddered in the joy that half consumed; The votive garlands on thy altar bloomed, My days were songs to nights of bliss divine. Why try me, then, with torture, gracious Queen? Why verge me on this rapture's dread abyss, Hold breast from breast and stay the yearning kiss? Ah, couldst thou fashion pain that stung less keen? The throe of Tantalus is mine to bear, Beauty that Thetis-like eludes my clasp; Glances that lure, that make each breath a gasp, And then disdainful gloat at my despair. Scornful she dwells beyond my ardor's clutch, Bathed in an aureole of carnal fire;— O bind her equal slave to fond desire, Let passion's tingling warmth her being touch! Come to me, Goddess, come as once of old, Hearing my voice implore thee from afar, I drew to earth thy dazzling avatar; Accord the smile of piercing bliss untold. * Ask me the dear suave question phrased of yore; "Sappho, who grieveth now thy mad fond heart? Wouldst win her beauty, she who frowns apart? Wild as thou lovest, she soon shall love thee more." O fair Olympian, answer thus, I pray! Release me from this torment, yield my arms The transport thirsted of her folded charms, In glow that welds her heart to mine for aye.       EROS From the gnarled branches of the apple trees The heavy petals, lifted by the breeze, Fluttered on puffs of odor fine and fell In the clear water of the garden well; And some a bolder zephyr blew in sport Across the marble reaches of my court, And some by sudden gusts were wafted wide Toward sea and city, down the mountain side. Lesbos seemed Paphos, isled in rosy glow, Green olive hills, the violet vale below; The air was azure fire and o’er the blue Still sea the doves of Aphrodite flew. My dreaming eyes saw Eros from afar Coming from heaven in his mother's car, In purple tunic clad; and at my heart The God-was aiming his relentless dart. He whom fair Aphrodite called her son, She, the adored, she, the imperial One; He passed as winds that shake the soul, as pains Sweet to the heart, as fire that warms the veins; He passed and left my limbs dissolved in dew, Relaxed and faint, with passion quivered through; Exhausted with spent thrills of dread delight, A sudden darkness rushing on my sight.       PASSION Now Love shakes my soul, a mighty Wind from the high mountain falling Full on the oaks of the forest; Now, limb-relaxing, it masters My life and implacable thrills me, Rending with anguish and rapture. Now my heart, paining my bosom, Pants with desire as a mænad Mad for the orgiac revel. Now under my skin run subtle Arrows of flame, and my body Quivers with surge of emotion. Now long importunate yearnings Vanquish with surfeit my reason; Fainting my senses forsake me.       APHRODITE'S PRAISE O Sappho, why art thou ever Singing with praises the blessed Queen of the heaven? Why does the heart in thy bosom Ever revert in its yearning Throb to the Goddess? Why are thy senses unsated Ever in quest of elusive Love that is deathless? Ah, gracious Daughter of Cyprus, Never can I as a mortal Tire of thy service. Thou art the breath of my body, The blood in my veins, and the glowing Pulse of my bosom. Omnipotent, burning, resistless, Thou art the passion that shaking Masters me ever. Thou art the crisis of rapture Relaxing my limbs, and the melting Ebb of emotion; Bringing the tears to my lashes, Sighs to my lips, in the swooning Excess of passion. O golden-crowned Aphrodite, Grant I shall ever be grateful, Sure of thy favor; Worthy the lot of thy priestess, Supreme in the song that forever Rings with thy praises.       THE FIRST KISS And down I set the cushion Upon the couch that she, Relaxed supine upon it, Might give her lips to me. As some enamored priestess At Aphrodite's shrine, Entranced I bent above her With sense of the divine. She had, by nature nubile, In years a child, no hint Of any secret knowledge Of passion's least intent. Her mouth for immolation Was ripe, and mine the art; And one long kiss of passion Deflowered her virgin heart.       ODE TO ATTHIS I loved you, Atthis, once, long years ago! My blood was flame that thrilled to passion's throe; Now long neglect has quenched the olden fire, And blight of drifting years effaced desire. I loved you, Atthis—joy of long ago— Love shook my soul as winds on forests blow; This lawless heart that dared exhaust delight, Unsated strove and maddened through the night. I loved you, Atthis, once, long years ago! With pain whose surge I felt to anguish grow; Suffered the storms that waste the heart and leave A desert shore where seas but break to grieve. I loved you, Atthis—spring of long ago— Watched you depart, to Andromeda go; Then I, as keen despair its shadow cast, O’er my deserted threshold, sobbing, passed. I loved you, Atthis, once, long years ago! The thought of me is hateful now, I know; And all the lavish tenderness of old Has gone from me and left my bosom cold. I loved you, Atthis—dream of long ago— . . . . . . . . . . . . How the fond words, impassioned music low, Sustain the sigh of love's divine regret No length of time may bid the heart forget.       COMPARISON Less soft a Tyrian robe Of texture fine, Less delicate a rose Than flesh of thine. Whiter thy breast than snow That virgin lies, And deeper than the blue Of seas thy eyes. More golden than the fruit Of orange trees, Thy locks that floating lure The satyr breeze. Less fine of silver string An Orphic lyre, Less sweet than thy low laugh That wakes desire.       THE SACRIFICE Upon a cushion soft My limbs I place, My every garment doffed For deeper grace; From burning doves embalmed In baccharis, The scented fumes have calmed Me like a kiss. Beyond the phallic shrine That tripods light, I pledge with holy wine An image white; Anadyomene, Than foam more fair, When from the ravished sea She rose to air. Daughter of God, accept These gifts of mine! Last night my body slept In arms divine. These sated lips and eyes That erstwhile sued, Accord this sacrifice In gratitude.       LEDA Once on a time They say that Leda found Beneath the thyme An egg upon the ground; And yet the swan She fondled long ago Was whiter than Its shell of peeping snow.       DEATH Death is an evil; so the Gods decree, So they have judged, and such must rightly be Our mortal view; for they who dwell on high Had never lived, had it been good to die. And so the poet's house should never know Of tears and lamentations any show; Such things befit not us who deathless sing Of love and beauty, gladness and the spring. No hint of grief should mar the features of Our dreams of endless beauty, lasting love; For they reflect the joy inviolate, Eternal calm that fronts whatever fate. Clëis, my darling, grieve no more, I pray! Let wandering winds thy sorrow bear away, And all our care; my daughter, let thy smile Shine through thy tears and gladden me the while.       PERSEPHONE I saw a tender maiden plucking flowers Once, long ago, in the bright morning hours; And then from heaven I saw a sudden cloud Fall swift and dark, and heard her cry aloud. Again I looked, but from my open door My anxious eyes espied the maid no more; The cloud had vanished, bearing her away To underlands beyond the smiling day.