Appear to me, lady Hera,‡ I beg you,
reveal your graceful form; for it was you who
once answered the prayers of the Atridae,§
illustrious kings:
after many trials, both near Troy and at sea,
they came here, to Lesbos, but they could not leave,
could not complete their journey home until
they had summoned you
and Zeus, suppliants’ god, and Dionysus,
Thyone’s* lovely son; so be gracious now,
send your help to me now as you have helped
others in the past …
*****
† For a new version of this fragment, based on recent papyri finds, see No.127.
‡ Hera: goddess who represents women, worshipped on Lesbos where, at her annual festival, female beauty was celebrated.
§ Atridae: a reference to an incident in the Odyssey (3.130ff). The Atridae are the sons of Atreus, king of Mycenae – Menelaus, king of Sparta, husband of Helen; and Agamemnon, the commander-in-chief of the Greek forces at Troy. On their way home to Greece after the Trojan War, the brothers quarrelled; Menelaus thought it best to sail home immediately while Agamemnon stayed in Troy. Menelaus came to Lesbos where he prayed to Zeus for guidance. In Sappho’s poem, Agamemnon does not argue with Menelaus but is present on Lesbos. The brothers do not pray only to Zeus but also to Hera and Dionysus, the other deities particularly worshipped on Lesbos.
* Thyone: a name given to Semele, Dionysus’ mother and daughter of Cadmus of Thebes, after her deification.