Sappho

Sappho (Attic Greek ????? Sapphô, Aeolic Greek ????? Psappha) was an Ancient Greek lyric poet from the city of Eressos on the island of Lesbos, which was a cultural centre in the 7th century BC. She was born sometime between 630 BC and 612 BC. The bulk of her poetry is now lost, but her reputation in her time was immense, and she was reputedly considered by Plato as the tenth Muse.

Works

We have a single complete poem, Fragment 1, Hymn to Aphrodite, and three more virtually complete, besides many shorter fragments.

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Fragment 16

:These ? cavalry, others ? infantry

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:others yet, navies, upon the black earth

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:hold most beautiful. But I, whatever

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:you desire.

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:To make this clear to anyone

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:is most easy.

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:Helen, surpassing all men

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:in beauty, forsaking

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:the best of men

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:left and sailed away to Troy.

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:not thinking of her child or her dear parents

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:led away

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:

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:now I think of Anaktoria, who is far away

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:I desire to see her lovely gait

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:the shining sparkle of her face

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:more than the Lydian chariots, and armoured

Related Topics:
Lydian - Chariot - Armoured

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:foot soldiers.

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Tithonus

A virtually complete poem about old age. The line-ends were first published in 1922 from an Oxyrhynchus papyrus, no. 1787 (images available from this site). Most of the rest of the poem was published in 2004 from a 3rd century BC papyrus in the Cologne University collection (images available from this page). The latest reconstruction, by M. L. West, appeared in the Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 151 (2005), 1-9, and in the Times Literary Supplement on 21 June 2005 http://www.the-tls.co.uk/this_week/story.aspx?story_id=2111206.

Related Topics:
1922 - Oxyrhynchus - 2004 - 3rd century BC - Cologne University - Times Literary Supplement - 21 June - 2005

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A full literary translation is available on this page. The Greek text is reproduced with helpful notes for students of the language on this site, together with two more fragments of Sappho and other examples of Greek lyric poetry.

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