Sappho 31

http://www.armand-dangour.com/sensational-sappho/ Dr Armand DAngour

Sensational Sappho
He seems just like the gods in heaven, that man who sits across from you and bends his head to listen to your lovely voice and charming laugh which sets my heart aflutter in my breast, for when I catch the merest glimpse of you, my voice is gone, my tongues congealed, a subtle fire runs flickering beneath my frame, my eyes see blank, a buzzing noise assails my ears, my sweat runs cold, my bodys gripped by shivers, my skins yellower than grass, it seems as if Im just an inch from death !ut all is worth the risk since, Love, you time again crush lord and serf: you who of old rought down great !ings and cities proud: yes, holy "roy for #elens sa!e, and $eleus son, and all the %ree!s&

'ut (enelaus, he once more ga)ed on his wife. #e left the oulevards of "roy and homeward made his sweet return, and laid his golden head to rest on #elens lap. %rant, *ypris, that +ll love again once youve left hurt and strife ehind& so may + prove that all my pain is nothing worth.

"utting the pieces together

,veryone !nows the Aphrodite of (elos, the so-called -enus de (ilo an ancient statue, the arms of which have ro!en off. "he statue could perhaps e restored to wholeness with reasona le fidelity if we had evidence from later copies or versions of how the original loo!ed, or y comparing other statues y the same sculptor. .o what a out .apphos e/ually famous fragment, $oem 01, which rea!s off in the fifth stan)a2 "he te3t a ove printed with four final final stan)as for whose addition + argue for elow is partly what we !now .appho herself sang, and partly 4starting from a few words into the fifth stan)a, where the font style changes from old to clear5 my own reconstruction of the song .appho may once have composed. + thin! the e3ercise is worth doing from a literary point of view, even if it is largely speculative, ecause 15 there is new evidence 4+ will suggest elow5 that merits consideration 65 it potentially enlarges our understanding of oth .apphos and *atulluss poems and compositional practice 05 it argua ly shows that the fascinating fragment 01 was originally part of a more satisfactory whole, and 75 the effort of writing .apphic verses in %ree! is very instructive a out .apphos style her simplicity and economy of e3pression are very hard to capture. "he following outlines the argument + have made for the reconstruction. 18 "he surviving fragment of poem 01 may e translated as follows: #e seems 9ust li!e the gods in heaven, that man who sits across from you and ends his head to listen to your lovely voice

and charming laugh which sets my heart aflutter in my reast, for when + catch the merest glimpse of you, my voice is gone, my tongues congealed, a su tle fire runs flic!ering eneath my frame, my eyes see lan!, a u))ing noise assails my ears, my sweat runs cold, my odys gripped y shivers, my s!ins yellower than grass, it seems as if +m 9ust an inch from death. 'ut all is worth the ris! since: :and serf 68 ;ur evidence for restoring the remainder of the poem includes not only other poems and fragments of .apphos poetry, ut a ove all the version in Latin composed y *atullus in the 1st century '*. +ts a version rather than a translation, since *atullus uses the poem for his own purposes, argua ly to hint at his feelings for another mans wife, the woman he calls y the pseudonym <Les ia 4which is clearly intended to allude in some way to .appho, the poet of Les os5. *atullus renders .apphos first three stan)as with reasona le fidelity. #e then appears to rea! off and has a final stan)a a out otium 4idleness5, which has usually een ta!en to e his own wholly personal comment on his predicament: otium, Catulle, tibi molestum est; otio exultas nimiumque gestis. otium et reges prius et beatas perdidit urbes. =hat ir!s you, *atullus, is idleness, in idleness you ecome restless and hyperactive. +dleness destroyed of old even !ings and lessed cities. 08 +n 6>>? + pu lished an article 4in Classical Quarterly @?.15 in which + disputed the assumption that the final stan)a of *atullus @1 wholly diverges from .apphos original stan)a. + noted the o scurity of its final two lines in the conte3t of otium - how did <idleness destroy !ings and cities2 and highlighted their allusion to the "ro9an =ar 4"roy was the most famous of < lessed cities to e destroyed5. + argued that .apphos poem was the original source of these last two lines. +n her case, however, the agent of destruction will not have een otium, ut Love i.e. the goddess Aphrodite or Aupris 4pro a ly addressed in the 6nd person as in other fragments of .appho5. +ntegrating this supposition with the few remaining words of the fragment 4in old print elow5, + reconstructed in %ree! a <final stan)a as follows: !ut all is worth the risk since, Love, youd ruin lord and serf ali!e:

you who of old rought down great !ings and cities proud. 78 + might have stopped there, ut it didnt feel right that .apphos agonised outpourings in stan)as 6-7 should e capped off y a single self-consolatory stan)a. .uch an a rupt, generalised ending would e uncharacteristic: .apphos poems generally wor! round towards a final, personal comment on her own situation, as in her poems 1 and 1? 4and @B, ut there is an argument to e made a out how that poem ends5. At the point where poem 01 here changes tac!, the opening <'ut: feels li!e a fulcrum-point a out which the whole poem alances and 4to pursue the visual analogy5 9ust as one would e3pect a eam to e3tend to roughly the same length on either side of the point, so one would e3pect the poem to continue for roughly the same num er of stan)as after this 9uncture. @8 'ut even if the poem had continued for, say, another three or four stan)as and the only complete .appho poem in this metre that survives, poem 1, has seven stan)as where could one loo! for evidence for what it might have said2 +n 6>>C + had an e3citing thought. +t struc! me that the fact that *atullus had written not one ut two and only two poems in .apphic metre, poems @1 and 11, had een overloo!ed. Although only poem @1 uses .appho as a direct model and poem 11 clearly does not 4its conte3t is mar!edly Doman5, it seemed o vious that the mere fact of composing poem 11 in .apphic metre might have prompted *atullus to use material or elements consciously or unconsciously derived from his engagement with .appho poem 01. ?8 "his proposition is immediately reinforced when one o serves that *atulluss two .apphic poems share a stri!ingly similar structural element: oth devote several stan)as to a catalogue. =hile poem @1 lists the symptoms of the poet in love, poem 11 gives a list of faraway places that *atulluss loyal comrades will supposedly e prepared to accompany him should he so wish. And at the end, indeed the clima3, of each list, the poet <wraps up and moves on. #ere are the first four stan)as of poem 11: Furi et Aureli comites Catulli, sive in extremos penetrabit Indos, litus ut longe resonante oa tunditur unda, sive in !yrcanos Arabesue molles, seu "agas sagitti#erosue $arthos, sive quae septemgeminus colorat aequora %ilus, sive trans altas gradietur Alpes, Caesaris visens monimenta magni, &allicum 'henum horribiles vitro ulti( mosque )ritannos, omnia haec, quaecumque #eret voluntas caelitum, temptare simul parati, pauca nuntiate meae puellae non bona dicta*

Eurius and Aurelius, chums of *atullus whether he travels to remotest +ndia where the shore is uffeted y echoing ,astern waves, or to #yrcania or lu3uriant Ara ia, to the .agae or the arrow- earing $arthians, or to the desert plains stained y the sevenmouthed File, or whether he crosses the high Alps to visit the monuments of great *aesar, or the %aulish Dhine, or rough woad-dyed 'ritons at the ends of the earth all this, whatever the will of the gods rings, you are prepared to venture together with me: ut all + as! you is to say a few words to my girl, not pleasant words: Dealising the significance of the words a ove in old print felt li!e a hugely e3citing discovery. =hile .appho 01 wraps up with the comment <'ut all can e ventured:, *atullus has written something stri!ingly similar <#ll these things$you are prepared to venture together with me omnia haec []temptare simul parati ma!es a perfect line in .apphic metre. .urely these words, and in particular the phrase underlined, were indeed a residue 4perhaps unconscious5 of *atulluss translation of the e3pression that opened the fifth stan)a of .apphos poem 01G C8 "his forced me to reconsider the meaning and implications of the words <'ut all can e ventured 4alla pan tolmaton in %ree!5. Eor a long time they were commonly, ut incorrectly, translated < ut all must e endured, which implies that .appho was resigned to suffering in the manner she descri es. Although #ermann Eraen!el had already pointed out in 1H@? that tolmaton does not mean <must e ventured 4which in %ree! would e tolmateon5 ut <can e ventured, no one had othered to wor! out the different implications. 'ut once we ta!e into account the Latin words omnia haec temptare, a very different implication arises: 9ust li!e temptare in Latin, the %ree! ver tolman does not principally indicate passive resignation or endurance. +n the +liad it invaria ly connotes an active sense, one of daring or venturesomeness. Iust as *atulluss comrades will ravely <venture forth with him to the ends of the earth on his ehest, so .appho is not saying that <everything must e endured, ut that everything is able to be ventured. =hy2 $resuma ly ecause, if one does so venture, there is the possibility of achieving success. .appho has not died, after all, she is only close to death& so a turnaround is achieva le. #ow, then, might the poem have continued, so as to demonstrate why everything can, after all, e ventured for love2 And who might have e3emplified the notion that one can venture in love and, argua ly, succeed2 B8 +ts li!ely that .appho would first have gone on to name the <!ings and cities destroyed y Aphrodites agency e.g. Achilles, "roy the latter cities containing oth <no les and <serfs, as did the army of the %ree!s. .he will then have offered a specific instance of an individual who had <ventured everything and won through for love. .appho regularly ta!es her e3empla from the "ro9an =ar story, and there is enough attlefield imagery already in

fragment 01 4as elsewhere in her oeuvre5 for us to e3pect this practice to e demonstrated here: the poem egins y comparing <that man to someone with the epithet appropriate to a #omeric hero <e/ual to gods. +n the conte3t of the "ro9an =ar, there were few individuals whose heroic venturing led to their successfully achieving their purpose. "he one clear e3ception was (enelaus. #is participation in the "ro9an =ar for the sa!e of restoring #elen, his eloved wife, to her rightful place as his /ueen was resoundingly successful. +f anyone, then, should e a model for <venturing all for love and winning through, it is (enelaus. H8 "here are indications that (enelaus was in the frame of the poem y .appho that was availa le for *atullus to read. +n the last stan)a of poem 11, when *atullus as!s that <Les ia should not <loo! for the passion we had efore, the sentiment reminds us that #elen and (enelaus did resume their earlier relationship i.e. the love they had efore #elen a andoned her man for $aris. *atullus warns Les ia that, y contrast, she cannot e3pect to en9oy a happy marital reunion of the !ind that, as #omer depicts in +dyssey 'oo! 7, #elen and (enelaus eventually resumed. .econdly, when *atullus goes on to compare his dying passion to a poppy cut down y a passing plough 4an image ta!en from Iliad B.0>?-B5, the note of pathos recalls the scene, with its e/ually famous simile, in which (enelaus receives a loody wound that <stains his thigh 9ust as a woman stains a piece of ivory 4Iliad 7.16C-HC5. "here is <staining in *atulluss poem 11 as well: the waters of the File <stain 4colorat5 the desert sands of ,gypt. $erhaps these images arose in *atullus mind when he composed poem 11 ecause (enelaus had featured in the original poem y .appho, a poem that he is li!ely to have !nown in its entirety. 1>8 =hat form, then, did .apphos poem 01 have in the version *atullus would have ta!en from his scroll- o3 4capsula, poem ?B.0?5 when he wrote poem @12 And when he chose, perhaps not long afterwards, to write his only other poem in .apphics, poem 112 + imagine it had a more full and satisfying poetic tra9ectory than a five-stan)a poem could have, and that it read something li!e this 4my own con9ectures are given in s/uare rac!ets, and to corro orate their via ility + provide a translation into .apphic metre and idiom5: #e seems 9ust li!e the gods in heaven, that man who sits across from you and ends his head to listen to your lovely voice and charming laugh which sets my heart aflutter in my reast, for when + catch the merest glimpse of you, my voice is gone, my tongues congealed, a su tle fire runs flic!ering eneath my frame, my eyes see lan!, a u))ing noise assails my ears, my sweat runs cold, my odys gripped y shivers, my s!ins yellower than grass, it seems as if +m 9ust an inch from death.

'ut all is worth the ris! since, JLove, you - time again - crush lord and8 serf: Jyou who of old rought down great !ings and cities proud: yes, holy "roy for #elens sa!e, and $eleus son, and all the %ree!s& ut (enelaus, he once more ga)ed on his wife. #e left the oulevards of "roy and homeward made his sweet return, and laid his golden head to rest on #elens lap. %rant, *ypris, that +ll love again once youKve left hurt and strife ehind& so may + prove that all my pain is nothing worth.8 LMNOPQMN RST UOSV WSV XYSTWTO RRPO OZ[, QQTV O\OQT]V QST W^\OPT UM _`\WTSO ^a LbOPNWMV _MUScPT UM dP`MNWMV RY[SPO, Q] R RO UM[^NMO O WQeXPWTO _Q]MTWPOf V d[ V W ^b g[]hP, V RP LiOMNW S^ O Q PUPT, ``\ UR RO d`WWM _Y_MdP, `Y_QSO ^ MQTUM h[ _[ _M^P^[]RZUPO, __\QPWWT ^ S^ O [ZRR, _T[[]RgPTWT ^ USaMT, U^ ^Y R ^[bV jh[SV hPT, Q[]RSV ^ _MWMO d[PT, h`b[SQY[M ^ _SNMV RRT, QPXO\UZO ^ `Ndb <_T^PcZV LMNOSR R MQ. `` _O Q]`RMQSO, _P JUQ W`SO, kc_[T, ^ZQ d[ZWX RM8 UM _YOZQMf JUMN _SQ `gNMTV _]`TMV UMQ`PV UM gMWN`ZMV, l`T]O Q [MO, m`YOMV UMQT ne`P]V Q aSO oMO\bO QP `SOf `` ^ZQ MQSV pPOY`MSV g[MO P^PO USTQTO.

`Nb d[ P[ah][STV daNMTV UM``N_bO h RP[]POQM O]WQSO, UM QY`SV q\OXMO UPL\`MO XZU MQMV O U]`_. ``\, kc_[T, ^]V R _r [SO _P`\WXZO UM``N_STW hSV WQSO]POQ\ Q `dPM, UM d[ MQTU WWM _Y_SOXM ^PNqMTR S^ O SOQM.8 + have made the detailed scholarly argument for this 4or a closely similar5 reconstruction, and the particular elements used in it in %ree!, in *hapter @ of ros in Ancient &reece, eds. ,d .anders, *hiara "humiger, *hristopher *arey and Fic! Lowe 4;s$, forthcoming5. + end that chapter y /uoting the famous refrain of the 7th-century AD poem $ervigilium ,eneris 4<Loves -igil5, ecause it seems to ma!e an apt comment on the ultimately optimistic message of .apphos restored poem: cras amet qui numquam amavit, quique amavit cras amet - .tomorrow s/he shall love who has never loved, and s/he who has loved shall tomorrow love again.

Sappho %&
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sappho %& is a poem y Ancient %ree! poet .appho of Les os. +t is also !nown as phainetai moi 4LMNOPQMN RST5 after the opening words of its first line, or Lo el-$age 01, -oigt 01, %allavotti 6, Diehl 6, 'erg! 6, after the location of the poem in various editions containing the collected wor!s of .appho. $ossi ly an epithalamion - a wedding poem, intended to e sung to the ride at the entrance to her nuptial cham er - or an en!omion - a poem of praise. +t is perhaps .apphoKs most famous poem.J18 .appho 01 was one of the two su stantially complete poems y .appho to survive from ancient times, written in .apphoKs vernacular form of %ree!, the Les ian-Aeolic dialect. (ore fragments have een found in recent years, particularly in the ;3yrhynchus papyri. .appho adopts her usual metrical form, the .apphic meter of four lines: three lines of eleven sylla les, and a fourth line of five sylla les. Eour strophes survive, plus a fragment of a fifth verse or concluding line. .apphoKs poems were designed to e sung, and use direct and emotional language. "he author starts y praising the eauty of the ridegroom, li!ening him to a god, ut then descri es her 9ealousy and the physical manifestations of her distress upon seeing a young woman whom she loves with her new hus and, the epiphany ringing her to a sym olic death. "he word choice, with alliteration and assonance, and repetition of short clauses - particularly the con9unction t^Yt - uild up a rhythmic effect similar to a ritual incantation.

LonginusKs treatise +n the "ublime 4nP[ jSaV, $eru hvpsous5 selects the poem as an e3ample of the su lime for the intensity of its passionate emotions. +t was /uoted in $lutarchKs tDialogue on Lovet 4w[bQTU]V, ,roti!os55 in his /oralia 4a Latin translation of the original %ree! title, XTU\, ,thi!a, ,thics5. "he opening words of the poem - the appears to me, that one, e/ual to the gods...t - are almost identical to the opening of .appho 1?@, with the pronoun changed 4thert in .appho 1?@ rather than tmet in .appho 015.J68 "he poem was adapted y Doman poet *atullus, and addressed his muse Les ia, in his erotic poem *atullus @1, which egins t+lle mi par esse deo videturt 4t#e seems to me to e e/ual to a godt5. A recent scholarly reconstruction, using the evidence of *atullusKs sapphic poem 11 as well as poem @1, suggests that the poem may originally have had up to B stan)as 4see http://www.armand-dangour.com/sensational-sappho/5.

Text
Original Greek (stoa) English Transliteration Literal translation by Gregory Nagy (date unknown)

LMNOPQMN RST UOSV WSV XYSTWTO RRPOK OZ[, QQTV O\OQT]V QST W^\OPT UM _`\WTSO ^a LSOPNWMV _MUScPT UM dP`MNWMV RY[SPO, Q] RK RO UM[^NMO O WQeXPWTO _Q]MTWPOf V d[ V WK ^b g[]hPK, V RP LiOMNWK S^K O QK PUPT, ``\ UR RO d`WWM xMdPx, `Y_QSO ^K MQTUM h[ _[ _M^P^[]RZUPO, __\QPWWT ^K S^K O [ZRRK, _T[[]RgPTWT ^K USaMT, U^K ^Y ^[bV UMUhYPQMT, Q[]RSV ^ _MWMO d[PT, h`b[SQY[M ^ _SNMV RRT, QPXO\UZO ^K `Ndb

phainetai moi !ynos isos theoisin emmen znyr ottis enantios toi isdanei !ai pl{sion {du phoneis{s upa!ouei !ai gelais{s |meroen to m y m{n !ardi{n en stythesin eptoaisen. zs gar es s idz ro!he zs me phznais oud en et ei!ei, alla !am men glzssa e{ge lepton d auti!a !hrzi pur upadedrom{!en oppatessi d ouden orymm epirromeisi d a!ouai, !ad de m idrzs !a!!heetai tromos de paisan agrei !hlzrotera de poi{s emmi tethn{!yn d oligz

#e appears to me, that one, e/ual to the gods, the man who, facing you, is seated and, up close, that sweet voice of yours he listens to And how you laugh your charming laugh. =hy it ma!es my heart flutter within my reast, ecause the moment + loo! at you, right then, for me, to ma!e any sound at all wont wor! any more. (y tongue has a rea!down and a delicate } all of a sudden } fire rushes under my s!in. =ith my eyes + see not a thing, and there is a roar that my ears ma!e. .weat pours down me and a trem ling sei)es all of me& paler than grass am +, and a little short of death do + appear to me.

K_T^PcZV LMNOSRK RK MQ. `` _O Q]`RMQSO, _P xUM _YOZQMx...

<pideuys phainom em aut{i. Alla pan tolmaton, epei J!ai penyta8 ...

'ut all may e ventured, since even Jthe poor8...

Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Poe s o! Sappho

External links

28 translations and paraphrases Sappho: Fragment 31, William S. nnis, oidoi.org, !uly 18, 2""#

References
1. " $eading Sappho: contemporary approaches, %llen &reene, 'ni(ersity of )alifornia *ress, 1++,, -S./ "012"02","10", p.18,,#0,2. 2. " 3he )am4ridge companion to &reek mythology, $oger 5. Woodard, )am4ridge 'ni(ersity *ress, 2""2, -S./ "012108#12"03, p.2+031.