NOTES

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INTRODUCTION

    xi  “Sappho: Daughter of Simon”: Suda S 107, in Greek Lyric I: Sappho and Alcaeus, ed. David Campbell (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), 4–7.

   xii  In ancient times it had been known as Oxyrhynchus: The best sources for the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus and the modern excavations there beginning with Grenfell and Hunt are Peter Parsons, City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish: Greek Lives in Roman Egypt (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2007); and A. K. Bowman et al., eds., Oxyrhynchus: A City and Its Texts (London: Egypt Exploration Society, 2007).

  xiv  “And Jesus said, ‘I stood in the middle’”: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1, lines 11–17. These verses were published by Grenfell and Hunt in The Oxyrhynchus Papyri (London: Egypt Exploration Fund, 1898), 1:1–3. They are better known today as part of Saying 28 of the Greek-language fragments of the original Coptic Gospel of Thomas (see Bart D. Ehrman and Zlatko Plese, eds., The Apocryphal Gospels [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011], 342–43).

   xv  “. . . Nereids, grant that”: From Sappho, Poem 5 (Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1, lines 1–8), in Campbell, Greek Lyric I, 60–63. The Oxyrhynchus papyri may be found online at http://www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk/POxy.

 xvii  They belonged to the first woman poet: More precisely, the first woman poet whose work has survived as a part of the continuous literary tradition. Undoubtedly, many female poets preceded Sappho in human history, but their songs have been lost. One exception is the Sumerian priestess Enheduanna, who lived in the latter centuries of the third millennium BC, but her beautiful hymns were unknown until the twentieth century. See Betty De Shong Meador, Inanna: Lady of the Largest Heart (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2000).

 xvii  “It is not very likely that we shall find”: Grenfell and Hunt, Oxyrhynchus Papyri, 1:vi.

xviii  “When I look at you even for a moment”: Sappho, Poem 31.

   xx  “Deathless Aphrodite on your dazzling throne”: Sappho, Poem 1.

xxiii  “And on a soft bed”: Sappho, Poem 94.

xxiii  “. . . for when I see you face to face”: Sappho, Poem 23.

CHAPTER ONE: CHILDHOOD

    1   “Don’t worry if the others return”: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 4.744, http://www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk/POxy.

    2   Infant mortality is notoriously difficult: The best introduction to childhood in ancient Greece and Rome is Judith Evans Grubbs and Tim Parkin, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Childhood and Education in the Classical World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013). For infant mortality and child exposure, see Robert Garland, The Greek Way of Life (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1990), 84–93, 108–113; Mary R. Lefkowitz and Maureen B. Fant, eds., Women’s Life in Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook in Translation (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), 187; Nancy Demand, Birth, Death, and Motherhood in Classical Greece (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994), 5–8; and Robert Garland, The Greek Way of Death (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001), 77–88.

    3   “If you have a son you raise him”: Posidippus frag. 11, in Posidippi pellaei quae supersunt omnia, eds. C. Austin and G. Bastianini (Milan: LED Edizioni Universitarie, 2002).

    3   a child was not a member of its family: See Jenifer Neils and John H. Oakley, eds., Coming of Age in Ancient Greece (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003), 143–45. The description of the feast at the Amphidromia ritual is from comedy writer Ephippus (T. Kock, Comicorum atticorum fragmenta [Leipzig: Teubner, 1884], 2:251–3). The Echinos relief is discussed in Neils and Oakley, Coming of Age, 145.

    4   Artemis, a virgin goddess praised by Sappho: Artemis is mentioned by Sappho in Poems 44A and 84. Philostratus (Life of Apollonius of Tyana 1.30, in Greek Lyric I: Sappho and Alcaeus, ed. David Campbell [Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002], 20–21), also says that Sappho wrote poems to Artemis.

    4   Sappho’s mother was Cleis: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1800, in Campbell, Greek Lyric I, 2–5; Suda S 107, in Campbell, Greek Lyric I, 4–7. No one is certain what Sappho’s name means. The Greek word sappheirinos means “blue like lapis lazuli,” but the similarity to the poet’s name is probably a coincidence. She does not, in fact, call herself Sappho in her own poems (1, 65, 94, 133), but Psappho, a spelling preserved by scribes in the papyri of Egypt. It’s possible that Sappho’s name isn’t Greek at all, but a borrowing from one of the ancient languages across the narrow strait separating Lesbos from Asia.

    5   “For my mother used to say”: Sappho, Poem 98A.

    5   Later writers list no fewer than eight: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1800; Suda S 107; Aelian, Miscellaneous Histories 12.19. A man from Mytilene on Lesbos, Erigyius, who shared one of the possible names of Sappho’s father, was a general in the army of Alexander the Great (Arrian, Anabasis 3.11.10).

    5   “Six birthdays had passed for me”: Ovid, Heroides 15.61–62.

    5   three brothers, named Erygius, Larichus, and Charaxus: Two papyri from Egypt (Oxyrhynchus papyri 1800 and 2506) list the brothers as Erygius, Larichus, and Charaxus, as does the later Suda encyclopedia (Suda S 107). See also the newly discovered “Brothers Poem,” which lists Charaxus and Larichus.

    6   The most likely place is Eresus: For Eresus, Suda S 107; Palatine Anthology 7.407, in Campbell, Greek Lyric I, 48–49. For Mytilene, Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1800; Suda S 108, in Campbell, Greek Lyric I, 6–7.

    6   The year of Sappho’s birth: Ancient evidence is in Strabo 13.2.3; Athenaeus, Learned Diners 13.598bc–599cd; Suda S 107; Parian Marble ep. 36, in Campbell, Greek Lyric I, 8–9; Eusebius, Chronicle Ol. 45.1, in Campbell, Greek Lyric I, 8–9. See G. O. Hutchinson, Greek Lyric Poetry: A Commentary on Selected Larger Pieces (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 139–40.

    7   Sappho lived during a revolutionary period: For a survey of the period, see L. H. Jeffery, Archaic Greece: The City States c. 700–500 B.C. (London: Methuen, 1978); Anthony Snodgrass, Archaic Greece: The Age of Experiment (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981); Nigel Spencer, “Early Lesbos between East and West: A ‘Grey Area’ of Aegean Archaeology,” Annual of the British School at Athens 90 (1995): 269–306; Jonathan M. Hall, A History of the Archaic Greek World: ca. 1200–479 BCE (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014).

    8   Boys and girls played with toys: See Neils and Oakley, Coming of Age, 264–82.

    8   “The children put purple reins on you”: Palatine Anthology 6.312.

  10   “Evening, you gather together”: Sappho, Poem 104A.

  10   “From his earliest years”: Homeric Problems 1 = D. A. Russell and D. Konstan, eds., Heraclitus: Homeric Problems (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005), 2.

  11   The Greek historian Xenophon: Xenophon, Oeconomicus 7.

  11   Many of the images of female children: For example, Neils and Oakley, Coming of Age, 61, 119.

  11   There were even wool-working contests: Ibid., 118.

  11   Girls in the military-dominated city of Sparta: Xenophon, Constitution of the Spartans 1.4.

  11   As an aristocratic girl: A fragmentary papyrus commentary of the first or second century AD does claim that Sappho was a good and industrious housekeeper (Oxyrhynchus papyrus 2506, frag. 48).

  12   aside from garlands of flowers: Sappho, Poem 125.

  12   Plato reportedly had two women: Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Famous Philosophers 3.46.

  12   to think of Sappho as the leader of a school: Marguerite Johnson, Sappho (Bristol, England: Bristol Classical Press, 2007), 13–14.

  13   One ancient Greek writer even claimed: Menaechmus in Athenaeus, Learned Diners 14.635b.

  13   a plectrum, which Sappho also reportedly invented: Suda S 107.

  14   “You seemed to me a small child without grace”: Sappho, Poem 49. It is quoted by Plutarch (Dialogue on Love 751d), who says that Sappho is addressing a girl too young for marriage.

  14   “. . . you will remember”: Sappho, Poem 24A.

  14   “. . . into a deep wave”: Erinna, Distaff 5–21.

  16   Sappho mentions a similar monster: Sappho, Poem 168A.

  16   “my knees that once danced nimbly”: Sappho, Poem 58.

  17   “I sing of the light of Agido”: Alcman, Partheneion 1.39–49.

  18   “With desire that makes my limbs loose”: Ibid., 3.61–72.

  19   “At seven I became Bearer of Secret Things”: Aristophanes, Lysistrata 643–46. See Mark Golden, Children and Childhood in Classical Athens (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), 76–79; Neils and Oakley, Coming of Age, 149–53.

CHAPTER TWO: WEDDING SONGS

  23   “Let your bride be”: Hesiod, Works and Days 698–99.

  23   The Byzantine Suda encyclopedia says: Suda S 107, in Greek Lyric I: Sappho and Alcaeus, ed. David Campbell (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), 4–7. We know of several ancient comedies featuring Sappho as the main character that date from as early as the fifth century BC. See David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric Poetry (Bristol, England: Bristol Classical Press, 1990), 5n4; Marguerite Johnson, Sappho (Bristol, England: Bristol Classical Press, 2007), 23.

  24   The poet Hesiod: Hesiod, Works and Days 695–96. For the ideal age of marriage for men and women in ancient Greece, see Robert Garland, The Greek Way of Life (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1990), 210–13.

  25   The philosophers Plato and Aristotle: Plato, Laws 6.785b; Aristotle, Politics 7.1335a.

  26   It was also widely believed: Soranos, Gynecology 1.33.

  26   A Hippocratic treatise on illnesses: Hippocrates, Illnesses Affecting Virgins 1. See Garland, Greek Way of Life, 168–70.

  27   a beautiful and clever princess named Nausicaa: Homer, Odyssey 6.273–89.

  28   “ ‘Don’t refuse me, dear . . .’ ”: Archilochus frag. 196a.

  29   “I urge you not to slip and fall, my dears”: Aeschylus, Suppliants 996–1005.

  29   But it’s Sappho herself: For an excellent discussion, see Johnson, Sappho, 112–21. It is possible that these two fragments come from different poems, but it seems unlikely.

  30   “. . . like the sweet apple that grows red”: Sappho, Poem 105A.

  30   “. . . like the hyacinth shepherds tread underfoot”: Sappho, Poem 105B. Demetrius, On Style 140.

  31   “‘Virginity, virginity, where have you gone?’ ”: Sappho, Poem 114. Demetrius, On Style 140.

  32   An intriguing passage by: Herodotus 1.93. Herodotus also claims that all Lydian women of the common class worked as prostitutes to earn money for their dowries.

  32   The sixth-century aristocrat Callias: Herodotus 6.122.

  32   Helen of Troy: Euripides, Iphegenia at Aulis 68–69.

  32   “Come now, you suitors”: Homer, Odyssey 21.73–77.

  34   “O fortunate son of Laertes”: Ibid., 24.192–98.

  34   “A man couldn’t gain anything better”: Hesiod, Works and Days 702–6.

  35   “In the beginning Zeus created”: Semonides 7.

  36   “For me it would be better”: Homer, Iliad 6.410–12, 429–30.

  37   “Mighty goddess, do not be angry with me”: Homer, Odyssey 5.215–20.

  37   “FATHER: I give you this girl”: Menander, Perikeiromene 435–37. See Garland, Greek Way of Life, 217–18.

  38   In Homeric times: For example, Homer, Odyssey 16.390–92.

  38   but the scene is not found in Homer: Homer does include a brief description of a wedding in a passage portraying the shield of Achilles (Iliad 18.491–95).

  39   “Cyprus . . . / the herald came . . .”: Sappho, Poem 44. See Johnson, Sappho, 61–66, 102–5.

  43   “. . . for once you were a child”: Sappho, Poem 27.

  44   “No mortal may go soaring to the heavens”: Alcman 1.16.

  45   “Truly, sweet mother, I cannot weave”: Sappho, Poem 102.

  46   “. . . bride with beautiful feet”: Sappho, Poem 103B. See Johnson, Sappho, 105–6.

  46   but in the earlier Greek poetic tradition: Homer, Iliad 14.186; Hesiod, Theogony, 507.

  46   “Blessed bridegroom, your wedding”: Sappho, Poem 112.

  47   “for never, / bridegroom, was there another girl like this one”: Sappho, Poem 113.

  47   “To what, dear bridegroom”: Sappho, Poem 115.

  48   “Farewell, bride”: Sappho, Poem 116. See also Poem 117.

  48   “loosen the pure virgin’s girdle”: Alcaeus, Poem 42.

  49   “Sappho makes cheap fun”: Demetrius, On Style 167.

  49   a Byzantine churchman was still complaining: Michael of Italy, Address to Michael Oxites (see Eva-Maria Voigt, ed., Sappho et Alcaeus: Fragmenta [Amsterdam: Athenaeum, 1971], 155 Campbell, Greek Lyric Poetry, 140–41).

  49   “Raise high the roof—”: Sappho, Poem 111.

  50   “The door-keeper’s feet are as long as”: Sappho, Poem 110.

  50   “virgins . . . / all night long . . .”: Sappho, Poem 30. See Johnson, Sappho, 120–21.

  52   “The rest of the Trojan women”: Homer, Odyssey 4.257–64.

  52   “You came along, Helen”: Ibid., 4.273–79.

  53   he offers Achilles seven female slaves from Lesbos: Homer, Iliad 9.128–30.

  54   This is followed by more practical advice: Plutarch, Advice on Marriage 1, 9, 11, 18, 19, 35.

  55   “We have prostitutes for sexual pleasure”: Pseudo-Demosthenes 59.122.

  55   “Surely you don’t think men have children”: Xenophon, Memorabilia 2.2.4.

  56   A woman who committed adultery: Demosthenes 59.86–87.

CHAPTER THREE: A MOTHER’S LOVE

  57   “I have a beautiful child”: Sappho, Poem 132.

  57   a fragmentary papyrus scroll: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1800, frag. 1, http://www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk/POxy.

  57   the Byzantine Suda encyclopedia: Suda S 107, in Greek Lyric I: Sappho and Alcaeus, ed. David Campbell (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), 4–7.

  58   “For my mother used to say”: Sappho, Poems 98A and 98B.

  60   the same Greek word used by Homer: For example, Iliad 1.197 (Achilles); Odyssey 13.399 (Odysseus).

  60   “I have a beautiful child”: Sappho, Poem 132.

  60   with Homer reserving it only for sons: For example, describing Telemachus in Odyssey 2.365.

  61   “About Cleis later on”: David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric Poetry (Bristol, England: Bristol Classical Press, 1990), 196–97.

  63   A woman’s primary role in ancient Greece: For this section, I am indebted to the excellent primary sources on and discussion of conception, pregnancy, and childbirth in Robert Garland, The Greek Way of Life (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1990), 17–105.

  63   “The mother is not the begetter of the child”: Aeschylus, Eumenides 658–59.

  63   One ancient medical text tells the story: Soranus, Gynecology 1.39.

  64   Aristotle also advised: Aristotle, History of Animals 7.3.

  64   Insertion into the vagina: Superfetation 32–39.

  64   Other aids to conception: Soranos, Gynecology 1.38–41; Hesiod, Works and Days 735ff.

  64   It was also believed that men: Aristotle, Generation of Animals 1.718.

  65   “Nature . . . takes a portion from each partner”: Plutarch, Advice on Marriage 20.

  66   “During intercourse when a man”: Soranus, Gynecology 1.61.

  66   One Greek physician: Nature of the Child 13.

  67   Various kinds of ointments: See, for example, Soranus, Gynecology 1.61.

  67   Other doctors prescribed a meal: Nature of Women 98.

  68   “For abortions are more painful than birth”: Illnesses of Women 1.72.

  68   Soranus recommended: Soranus, Gynecology 1.64–65.

  68   “When, as so often happens”: Illnesses of Women 1.67.

  69   Carved in stone: See P. J. Rhodes and Robin Osborne, eds. Greek Historical Inscriptions 404–323 BC (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 102.10–22. Another inscription (102.3–9) from the same site reports a five-year pregnancy.

  69   One medical text claimed: Nature of the Child 12–29.

  70   to avoid stepping over a raven’s egg: Pliny, Natural History 30.44.

  71   the poet Hesiod advised: Hesiod, Works and Days 780–813.

  72   “I would rather stand in battle”: Euripides, Medea 250.

  72   “Why would I want to go to bed?”: Plutarch, Advice on Marriage 39.

  73   A midwife would apply: Soranus, Gynecology 1.56–57.

  74   In Sparta these women: Plutarch, Lycurgus 27.

  74   The gruesome details of the procedure: Cutting Up the Fetus 1; Garland, Greek Way of Life, 76–77.

  74   the physician Soranus recommended: Soranus, Gynecology 4.9.

  75   “The son of Cichesias dedicates”: Garland, Greek Way of Life, 83.

  75   “It’s the woman who becomes pregnant”: Xenophon, Memorabilia 2.2.5.

  76   One such image is from: Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, Providence, 25.088; Jenifer Neils and John H. Oakley, eds., Coming of Age in Ancient Greece (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003), 236.

  76   Another vase from the same century: British Museum, London, E 396; Neils and Oakley, Coming of Age, 237.

  77   A small Athenian terra-cotta figurine: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 02.38; Neils and Oakley, Coming of Age, 239.

  77   One of the most charming: Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels, A 890; Neils and Oakley, Coming of Age, 240–41.

  77   a fifth-century-BC terra-cotta figurine: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, H.10.7; Neils and Oakley, Coming of Age, 112, 257.

  79   “Oh, my dear Orestes”: Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 749–60.

  80   but the relationship between: See Nancy Demand, Birth, Death, and Motherhood in Classical Greece (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994), 15–17.

  81   “Leaving two young daughters”: Inscriptiones Graecae II² 12335.

  81   “. . . hurry and write to me”: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 930.

  82   “She stepped up close to him”: Homer, Odyssey 6.59–67.

CHAPTER FOUR: FAMILY MATTERS

  85   “ANTIGONE: Will you help”: Sophocles, Antigone 44–50.

  88   “She had three brothers, Erigyius, Larichus, and Charaxus”: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1800, frag. 1, http://www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk/POxy.

  88   “She had three brothers, Larichus, Charaxus, and Erigyius”: Suda S 107, in Greek Lyric I: Sappho and Alcaeus, ed. David Campbell (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), 4–7.

  88   “Cha(raxus) . . . / and . . . / dearest . . . (Lari)chus . . .”: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 2506, frag. 48.

  89   “The lovely Sappho often praises”: Athenaeus, Learned Diners 10.425a.

  89   “It was the custom, as Sappho says”: Ancient commentator on Homer’s Iliad, 20.234.

  89   as Nehemiah did for the Persian King: Neh. 2:1.

  89   In the Archaic period: An excellent summary of the Archaic political history of Lesbos can be found in A. R. Burn, The Lyric Age of Greece (London: Edward Arnold, 1978), 226–46.

  90   Aristotle says Megacles: Aristotle, Politics 1311b.

  92   “But Potbelly didn’t”: Alcaeus, Poem 129.

  93   “. . . Mica / . . . I will not allow you”: Sappho, Poem 71.

  94   “But for you, Cleis”: Sappho, Poem 98B.

  95   The Parian Marble, a chronology: Parian Marble 36 (see p. 1955, 224–25), in Greek Lyric I: Sappho and Alcaeus, ed. David Campbell (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), 8–9.

  96   Sappho mentions Panormus: Sappho, Poem 35.

  96   We know from the first-century-BC Roman orator Cicero: Cicero, Against Verres 2.4.125–27.

  98   “. . . hand cloths / . . . purple”: Sappho, Poem 101.

  99   goods from Lydia: Sappho, Poems 39, 98, 132.

  99   incense from southern Arabia: Sappho, Poem 44.

100   “. . . Nereids, grant that”: Sappho, Poem 5.

102   “of Doricha . . . / commands, for not . . .”: Sappho, Poem 7.

102   “. . . that he atone for his past mistakes”: Sappho, Poem 15.

103   The historian Herodotus: Herodotus 2.135.

103   The Greek geographer Strabo: Strabo 17.1.33.

103   “Doricha, your bones fell asleep long ago . . .”: Athenaeus, Learned Diners 13.596c–d.

104   There is a hint: Ovid, Letters of the Heroines 15.63–70.

105   “But you are always chattering”: Sappho, “The Brothers Poem.”

107   “Leave everything else to the gods”: Horace, Ode 1.9.

CHAPTER FIVE: LOVING WOMEN

109   “This is why we have”: Plato, Symposium 191.

109   There is no word for “homosexual”: For an introduction to same-sex relationships in classical times and the variety of modern scholarly opinions on the subject, see Thomas K. Hubbard, ed., Homosexuality in Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook of Basic Documents (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 1–20.

111   “In youth you can sleep”: Theognis 1063–64.

111   “Although your first down”: Strato, AP 12.10.

111   The poet Archilochus: Archilochus frag. 25.1–5.

112   “Cosmos, the slave of Equitia”: Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum 4.1825.

112   One graffito of Jewish or Christian origin: Ibid., 4.4976.

112   “The girls from Samos”: Asclepiades, Palatine Anthology 5.207.

112   Archilochus, who mocked sexual relations: Archilochus frag. 294.

113   “Love was so esteemed among them”: Plutarch, Lycurgus 18.4.

113   The noted physician Hippocrates: Hippocrates, On Regimen 1.29.

113   as did Plato in the famous parable: Plato, Symposium 189–93.

113   “We hear interesting things”: Lucian, Dialogues of the Courtesans 5.

114   “I implore you, Good Messenger”: Papyri Graecae Magicae 32.

115   Root of gloomy darkness: Supplementum Magicum 1.42.

116   “Deathless Aphrodite on your dazzling throne”: Sappho, Poem 1.

119   Love charms and magic spells: For Sappho’s use of magic charms in her poetry, see J. C. B. Petropoulos, “Sappho the Sorceress—Another Look at Fr. 1,” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 97 (1993): 43–56; Charles Segal, “Eros and Incantation: Sappho and Oral Poetry,” in Reading Sappho: Contemporary Approaches, ed. Ellen Greene (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), 58–75. For spells and magic in the ancient world in general, see John G. Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992); Hans Dieter Betz, ed., The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992); Georg Luck, Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006).

119   Homer even sings of incantations: Homer, Odyssey 19.457–58.

120   “He seems to me equal to the gods”: Sappho, Poem 31.

121   “Sappho each time uses the emotions”: Pseudo-Longinus, On the Sublime 10.1–3.

121   Readers of this poem for two thousand years: For a discussion of the poem, see Denys Page, Sappho and Alcaeus: An Introduction to the Study of Ancient Lesbian Poetry (Oxford: Clarendon, 1965), 19–33; Jane McIntosh Snyder, Lesbian Desire in the Lyrics of Sappho (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), 27–38; G. O. Hutchinson, Greek Lyric Poetry: A Commentary on Selected Larger Pieces (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 168–77; Marguerite Johnson, Sappho (Bristol, England: Bristol Classical Press, 2007), 79–84.

123   “raw physicality”: Snyder, Lesbian Desire, 29.

123   Homer uses the same Greek word: Homer, Odyssey 22.298.

123   as does Alcaeus when he says: Alcaeus, Poem 283, though the text here is uncertain.

123   using the same word that Homer does: Homer, Iliad 8.403.

124   classical scholar Eleanor Irwin: Eleanor Irwin, Colour Terms in Greek Poetry (Toronto: Hakkert, 1974), 31–78. See also Robert J. Edgeworth, “Sappho Fr. 31.14,” Acta Classica 27 (1984): 121–24; Snyder, Lesbian Desire, 33.

125   “. . . ‘I honestly wish I were dead’”: Sappho, Poem 94. For a discussion, see Page, Sappho and Alcaeus, 75–83; Snyder, Lesbian Desire, 55–60; Johnson, Sappho, 84–87.

127   And just as Hera anoints herself: Homer, Iliad 14.153–92.

127   “. . . Sardis / . . . often turning her thoughts to this”: Sappho, Poem 96. Only the first part of the poem is given here. For commentary, see Snyder, Lesbian Desire, 45–55; Johnson, Sappho, 87–93.

128   “I loved you, Atthis, once long ago”: Sappho, Poem 49.

128   “for you, Atthis . . .”: Sappho, Poem 8.

129   “shameful friendship”: Suda S 107, in Greek Lyric I: Sappho and Alcaeus, ed. David Campbell (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), 4–7.

129   “But Atthis, it’s become hateful”: Sappho, Poem 131.

129   “What country girl bewitches your mind . . .”: Sappho, Poem 57.

130   “The moon in its fullness appeared”: Sappho, Poem 154.

CHAPTER SIX: THE GODDESS

133   “In the beginning there was Chaos”: Hesiod, Theogony 116–22.

133   Ancient Greek religion: The best scholarly introduction to Greek religion is Walter Burkert, Greek Religion (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985). An excellent look at women in Greek religion is Joan Breton Connelly, Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007).

140   “I talked with you in a dream”: Sappho, Poem 134.

140   “. . . you and my servant Love”: Sappho, Poem 159.

141   “Come to me here from Crete”: Sappho, Poem 2. For a discussion of the poem, see Denys Page, Sappho and Alcaeus: An Introduction to the Study of Ancient Lesbian Poetry (Oxford: Clarendon, 1965), 34–44; Anne Carson, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho (New York: Vintage Books, 2002), 6–7, 358–59; Marguerite Johnson, Sappho (Bristol, England: Bristol Classical Press, 2007), 50–54; Anne L. Klinck, “Sappho’s Company of Friends,” Hermes 136 (2008): 17–18; Aaron Poochigian, Sappho: Stung with Love: Poems and Fragments (New York: Penguin, 2009), 4–5.

142   a powerful trance such as that: Homer, Iliad 14.359.

142   which overcomes an audience: Pindar, Pythian 1.12.

142   “The moon in its fullness appeared”: Sappho, Poem 154.

144   “Come close to me, I pray”: Sappho, Poem 17.

145   “The people of Lesbos founded”: Alcaeus, Poem 129.

146   Alcaeus and a later ancient commentator: Alcaeus, Poem 130; Scholiast on Iliad 9.129 (David Campbell, ed., Greek Lyric I: Sappho and Alcaeus [Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002], 300–303). See also Jerome D. Quinn, “Cape Phokas, Lesbos: Site of an Archaic Sanctuary for Zeus, Hera and Dionysus?” American Journal for Archaeology 65, no. 4 (1961): 391–93.

146   “‘Delicate Adonis is dying, Cytherea’”: Sappho, Poem 140. Sappho also mourns Adonis in Poem 168.

CHAPTER SEVEN: UNYIELDING TIME

149   “It’s not by strength”: Cicero, On Growing Old 17.

149   “Here lies Ennia Fructosa”: Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum 8.2756.

150   The Greeks had no concept of middle age: Robert Garland, The Greek Way of Life (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1990), 242–45. The whole of Garland’s chapter “Elders and the Elderly” (pages 242–87) is an excellent introduction to old age in ancient Greece.

150   “There was once a man of middle age”: Babrius, Fable 22.

151   “A woman who leaves her house”: Hyperides frag. 205.

151   Greek medical writers: Aristotle, History of Animals 7.585b2–5; Aristotle, Politics 7.1335a9; Soranus, Gynecology 1.20.1, 26.3–5.

152   “It is precious, this light the gods send”: Euripides, Alcestis 722.

152   “O shining Odysseus”: Homer, Odyssey 11.488–91.

153   “But when you die you will lie there”: Sappho, Poem 55.

155   “. . . beautiful gifts . . . children”: Sappho, Poem 58.

156   Then, exactly eighty years later: See the excellent essays on the rediscovery, text, translation, and interpretation of this poem in Ellen Greene and Marilyn B. Skinner, eds., The New Sappho on Old Age: Textual and Philosophical Issues (Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2009).

157   This discovery was so startling: M. L. West, “A New Sappho Poem,” Times Literary Supplement, June 25, 2005.

158   “a small masterpiece, simple, concise”: Ibid.

158   “Sappho is simply nothing less”: “Sappho,” Saturday Review, February 21, 1914, 228.

159   “It is not right in the house”: Sappho, Poem 150.

EPILOGUE

161   “Someone, I say, will remember us”: Sappho, Poem 147.

161   Sappho was certainly the first and greatest: For other female poets, see Jane McIntosh Snyder, The Woman and the Lyre: Women Writers in Classical Greece and Rome (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1989); Ellen Greene, ed., Women Poets in Ancient Greece and Rome (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2005).

162   but we do have a paraphrase: Plutarch, Moralia 300cd.

162   In the next century, a woman named Corinna: Her dates are disputed, with some scholars claiming that Corinna lived in the third century BC.

162   She was reportedly a rival of Pindar: Pausanias 9.22; Aelian, History 13.25.

162   “I sing of the great deeds”: Corinna frag. 664b.

163   “O friend, watch out”: Praxilla frag. 750.

163   “O you who gaze in such beauty”: Praxilla frag. 754.

163   When Argos was attacked by the Spartans: Pausanias 2.20.8. Modern scholars are skeptical of the veracity of this story, but it could well be true.

164   “This is the Lesbian honeycomb of Erinna”: Greek Anthology 9.190.

165   “No bedchamber and sacred marriage rites for you”: Ibid., 7.649.

165   “For her grasshopper, nightingale of the fields”: Ibid., 7.190.

165   The town was unusual: Polybius, Histories 12.5.9.

165   “Nothing is sweeter than Eros”: Greek Anthology 5.170.

166   “Stranger, if you sail to Mytilene”: Ibid., 7.718.

166   “Come to the temple”: Ibid., 9.332.

167   “At last love has come”: Sulpicia, Poem 1.

168   the power of each generation: The best introductions to the afterlife of Sappho are Joan DeJean, Fictions of Sappho: 1546–1937 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989); Ellen Greene, ed., Re-reading Sappho: Reception and Transmission (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996); Yopie Prins, Victorian Sappho (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999); Margaret Reynolds, The Sappho Companion (New York: Palgrave, 2000); Marguerite Johnson, Sappho (Bristol, England: Bristol Classical Press, 2007), 19–40, 122–42.

168   “Some people say there are nine Muses”: According to Aelian, Miscellaneous Histories 12.9. The Palatine Anthology (9.506) allegedly reproduces the words of Plato in calling her the tenth muse. In Plato’s genuine dialogue Phaedrus (235v), the philosopher does speak of “lovely Sappho” in the same breath as Anacreon.

168   “Sappho, so goes the story”: Menander frag. 258.

170   “. . . the love / of the Aeolian girl breathes still”: Horace, Ode 4.9.

171   “So if the fire still burns in your breast”: Ovid, Tristia 3.7.

171   “The stars around the beautiful moon”: Sappho, Poem 34.

172   “The passage of time has destroyed Sappho”: Tzetzes, On the Meters of Pindar 20–22.

THE POEMS OF SAPPHO

174   Poem 1: Dionysius of Halicarnassus, On the Arrangement of Words 173–79; Oxyrhynchus papyrus 2288, http://www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk/POxy.

This poem is preserved by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who wrote a book on literary style at the time of the Roman emperor Augustus. He quotes and praises this prayer of Sappho as “polished and exuberant,” with the words skillfully woven together. Parts of the poem are also preserved in a second-century-AD Oxyrhynchus papyrus fragment.

The first word of the poem in Greek presents a problem. The adjective poikilothron (“on a dazzling/ornate throne”) also appears in some early manuscripts as poikilophron (“wily-minded”). The former is better attested in the manuscript tradition, but an argument can be made for either as the original. Which word editors and translators choose depends on what they think Sappho is saying. Is she sitting on her beautiful throne in the heavens (an image often found of the gods in ancient Greek art and literature), or does she want to highlight from the first word that Aphrodite is a crafty goddess?

In the second stanza, chrusion (“golden”) could modify either the house of Zeus or Aphrodite’s chariot in the following stanza. A punctuation mark in the papyrus fragment suggests the house is the best choice, but once again, either would work.

175   Poem 2: Florence ostracon (Papyri Greci e Latini 1300); Hermogenes, On Kinds of Style 2.4; Athenaeus, Learned Diners 11.463e.

Unique among the poems of Sappho, these verses are preserved primarily on a piece of broken pottery (an ostracon), measuring only a few inches across, from the third century BC. It was first published just before World War II and is now housed in the Laurentian Library Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence, Italy. The faded Greek letters are difficult to read in several places, inviting many attempts over the years to fill in the gaps.

A few lines of the second and fourth stanzas with slight variants also survive in quotations by two later ancient authors, Hermogenes and Athenaeus.

At the top of the potsherd, a few letters are visible before the start of the poem. They seem to read anothen katiou—perhaps “coming down from heaven”—but the meaning is uncertain, as is the fact of whether those words belong with this poem.

The third stanza presents several problems, both because it’s difficult to read what is written on the potsherd and because part of the third line and all of the last line are omitted. Blossoming spring flowers and gentle breezes seem fairly certain, but what Sappho intended next is unknown. The same is true for a missing word from the middle of the first line of the final stanza.

176   Poem 3: Berlin parchment 5006; Oxyrhynchus papyrus 424.

Lines 1–10 of this poem are preserved on a seventh-century-AD parchment housed in Berlin. Lines 6–15 are found on a fragmentary third-century-AD papyrus from Oxyrhynchus, Egypt.

177   Poem 4: Berlin parchment 5006.

These fragmentary verses are from the same seventh-century-AD parchment as the first few lines of Poem 3. The beginning of the final word (. . . chroistheis) is missing. I translate it as “joined together,” though it could also mean “stained” or “ingrained.”

177   Poem 5: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 7.

This was the first of Sappho’s poems discovered by Grenfell and Hunt at Oxyrhynchus and published in 1898.

In some previous editions of Sappho, the poem was assumed to begin with an invocation of Cypris, the goddess Aphrodite, so called because she was born on the shores of the island of Cyprus, but this may not be the case. The Nereids were divine sea nymphs who, if so inclined, guided voyagers safely home.

The subject of the poem is Sappho’s wayward brother Charaxus, who traveled to Egypt and fell in love there with a notorious prostitute named Doricha, bringing great shame on the family in Sappho’s eyes. The final word of the poem is Greek kakan, a feminine singular, so the line could also be translated as “. . . putting aside the evil woman.”

178   Poem 6: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 2289, frag. 1.

In a later fragment (Poem 157) Sappho uses the term “Lady Dawn,” whose morning rays another Greek lyric poet (Bacchylides 5.40) describes as “golden armed.” The final word of the poem, kara, could also be translated as “doom” or “disgrace.”

178   Poem 7: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 2289, frag. 2.

Though the beginning of the first word is missing, it is likely the name of the Egyptian prostitute Doricha, loved by Sappho’s brother Charaxus (see Poems 5 and 15).

179   Poem 8: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 2289, frag. 3.

Atthis, a companion of Sappho, is also mentioned in Poems 49, 96, and 131, as well as by the ancient orator Maximus of Tyre (Orations 18.9). The Byzantine Suda encyclopedia (S 107) says Sappho’s relationship with Atthis and two other women earned her a reputation for “shameful love.”

179   Poem 9: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 2289, frag. 4.

In Greek mythology, Hera is the wife of Zeus and a goddess especially worshipped by the women of Lesbos (see Poem 17).

179   Poem 12: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 2289, frag. 8.

179   Poem 15: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1231, frag. 1.

Similar to Poem 5, this prayer by Sappho to the goddess Aphrodite (Cypris) is for the safe return of her wayward brother Charaxus from the arms of the Egyptian prostitute Doricha.

180   Poem 16: Oxyrhynchus papyri 1231, frag. 1; 2166, frag. 2; Papiri Greci e Latini 123, 1–2.

The first stanza uses a literary device called a priamel, in which several items are listed, followed by one preferred by the author.

Sappho uses the Greek plural pronoun hoi in the first stanza, which can refer to people in general, regardless of gender (“Some say . . .”). But since hoi is also the masculine form, the verses could be translated to give the stanza a little more bite (“Some men say . . .”).

Helen, wife of Menelaus, left her husband and young daughter Hermione to run away to Troy with Paris, prince of that city, setting in motion the Trojan War.

This is the only surviving poem of Sappho that mentions Anactoria, but the tradition that she was loved by Sappho is echoed in Ovid (Heroides 15) and Maximus of Tyre (Orations 18.9).

The wealthy kingdom of Lydia in western Asia Minor is featured several times in Sappho’s poetry as the producer of luxury goods, but as she notes here, it was also well known for its formidable military power.

181   Poem 17: Papiri Greci e Latini 123, 3–12; Oxyrhynchus papyri 1231, frag. 1; 2166, frag. 3; 2289, frag. 9.

The sons of Atreus are the brothers Agamemnon and Menelaus, two kings who fought on the Greek side in the war against Troy. In a story in Homer’s Odyssey (3.133ff), the brothers quarreled after Troy fell and sailed home separately, Menelaus stopping at Lesbos to pray to Zeus. Here we have an alternate version probably told on Sappho’s island in which the brothers arrived together and prayed not only to Zeus, but to his wife Hera and to Dionysus (son of Thyone), rather than to Semele as in most versions.

According to Sappho’s contemporary Alcaeus (Poem 129), there was a shrine of Hera on Lesbos at which Zeus and Dionysus were also worshipped. An annual beauty contest and dances for the women of Lesbos were reportedly held at the shrine.

182   Poem 18: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1231, frag. 1.

The first word of the poem (pan, translated here as “all”) could also be read as Pan, the Greek god of shepherds and wild places.

182   Poem 19: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1231, frag. 2.

The participles “waiting,” “having,” and “going” are all feminine singular and could also be translated as “her waiting,” and so on.

182   Poem 20: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1231, frag. 9.

Like Poem 5, this may be a prayer for safe return from a sea voyage.

183   Poem 21: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1231, frag. 10.

These fragmentary verses appear similar in theme to Sappho’s newly restored Poem 58 on old age. I follow Anne Carson (If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho [New York: Vintage Books, 2002], 39) in reading the adjective iokolpon (which also appears in Sappho Poems 30 and 103) as “with violets in her lap,” though it could also mean something like “violet-robed” or “wearing a belt of violets.”

184   Poem 22: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1231, frags. 12, 15.

Gongyla is named in the Byzantine Suda encyclopedia as a pupil of Sappho from Colophon in western Asia Minor. She also appears in Poems 95 and 213A, as well as in a second-century-AD papyrus commentary on lyric poetry (Oxyrhynchus papyrus 2637). Another papyrus commentary (Oxyrhynchus papyrus 2293) calls Gongyla a “yoke-mate” of Sappho’s rival Gorgo. The postponed adjective “beautiful” at the beginning of the third stanza probably refers to Gongyla.

A fragment of a poem attributed to Sappho’s contemporary Alcaeus (261b) mentions the dancing of “lovely Abanthis.”

184   Poem 23: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1231, frag. 14.

Hermione was the daughter of Helen of Troy and the Spartan king Menelaus (see Sappho Poem 16). Helen, considered the most beautiful woman in the world, was traditionally described as having golden-blond hair.

185   Poem 24: Oxyrhynchus papyri 1231, frags. 13, 17, 22, 25; 2166(a), frag. 7a.

186   Poem 25: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1231, frag. 18.

186   Poem 26: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1231, frag. 16.

See The Cypris Poem, page 238.

186   Poem 27: Oxyrhynchus papyri 1231, frags. 50–54; 2166(a), frag. 5.

187   Poem 29: Oxyrhynchus papyri 1231, frag. 11, for Poem 29B; 1231, frag. 19, and 2166(a), frag. 4b for Poem 29C; 2166(a), frag. 1, for Poem 29H.

The numerous fragments of Poem 29 yield only a few words that can be reconstructed with any confidence.

“Lady” is from the Greek word Potnia, found elsewhere in Sappho’s poetry (Poems 6, 17) as a title for a goddess.

The name Gorgo—not a certain reading in this papyrus—is that of a rival of Sappho mentioned by Maximus of Tyre (Orations 18.9) and in Sappho’s Poems 103Aa and 144.

Gyrinno, or Gyrinna, appears as a companion of Sappho also in Maximus of Tyre (Orations 18.9), in Sappho’s Poem 82A, and in a second-century-AD commentary (Oxyrhynchus papyrus 2293).

188   Poem 30: Oxyrhynchus papyri 1231, frag. 56; 2166(a), frag. 6a.

The clear-voiced singer is almost certainly a nightingale.

188   Poem 31: Longinus, On the Sublime 10.

This is one of the most celebrated poems of Sappho, quoted and discussed by an author called Longinus who wrote on literary style in the first century AD. The first-century-BC Roman poet Catullus wrote a famous Latin adaptation of this poem (Catullus, Poem 51).

The final sentence of the quotation includes what is probably the beginning of the final stanza of the poem. The phrase “must be endured” could also mean “must be dared.”

189   Poem 32: Apollonius Dyscolus, Pronouns 144a.

A brief quotation found in the second-century-AD grammarian Apollonius Dyscolus, who lived and worked in Alexandria, Egypt. The line may refer to the muses.

189   Poem 33: Apollonius Dyscolus, Syntax 3.247.

190   Poem 34: Eustathius on Homer, Iliad 8.555.

The twelfth-century-AD Byzantine churchman Eustathius wrote commentaries on classical literature before devoting himself entirely to religious affairs. In his commentary on a passage from the Iliad, he records this stanza of Sappho.

The fourth-century-AD Roman emperor Julian also mentions it in one of his letters (Epistle 194): “Sappho . . . says the moon is silver and because of this hides the other stars from view.” Sappho uses a similar image in Poem 96.

190   Poem 35: Strabo 1.2.33.

The first-century-BC Greek geographer Strabo quotes this line, the context of which is unknown. Cyprus is the island where Aphrodite was born, specifically at Paphos on the southwestern coast. Panormus is modern-day Palermo in Sicily, the island to which Sappho was exiled.

190   Poem 36: Etymologicum gudianum 294.40.

Quoted in a Byzantine dictionary of the 11th century AD.

190   Poem 37: Etymologicum genuinum 213.

The ninth- or tenth-century-AD Byzantine dictionary quoting this first line says that writers in the Aeolian dialect of Greek used the word stalagmon (“dripping”—root of English “stalagmite”) to describe pain, because it drips and flows.

191   Poem 38: Apollonius Dyscolus, Pronouns 127a.

The grammarian Apollonius Dyscolus identifies these words as coming from the first book of Sappho’s collected poetry. The Greek verb optao (“scorch, burn”) is often used metaphorically in love poetry.

191   Poem 39: Ancient commentator on Aristophanes, Peace 1174.

191   Poem 40: Apollonius Dyscolus, Pronouns 104c.

191   Poem 41: Ibid., 124c.

191   Poem 42: Ancient commentator on Pindar, Pythian 1.10.

The commentator says that Sappho is referring to pigeons.

192   Poem 43: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1232, frag. 1.

192   Poem 44: Oxyrhynchus papyri 1232, frags. 1–2; 2076.

This is one of the longest of Sappho’s poems discovered in modern times. Its subject, the arrival at Troy of prince Hector and his bride Andromache, is an episode not found in Homer’s Iliad. These verses differ from much of Sappho’s poetry by their use of a longer metrical line similar to that found in an epic. The vocabulary, grammar, and syntax here is also reminiscent of Homer, but the setting and details draw on the culture of the Lesbos of Sappho’s own time.

Andromache was the daughter of the king of Thebe, a city near Troy. The Placia river was near Thebe. Paean is a name for the god Apollo.

193   Poem 44Aa/Ab: Fouad papyrus 239.

This second- or third-century-AD papyrus, in two columns containing parts of two poems, was published in 1952 and assigned tentatively to Alcaeus, Sappho’s contemporary from Lesbos. Subsequently, other scholars have argued that the fragments belong to Sappho.

Phoebus is the god Apollo, son of Leto, the daughter of the Titan Coeus, fathered by Zeus, the son of Cronus. Artemis is his sister by the same parents.

194   Poem 45: Apollonius Dyscolus, Pronouns 119b.

194   Poem 46: Herodian, On Anomalous Words 2.945.

The second-century-AD grammarian Herodian quotes these lines of Sappho because they contain the unusual word tule (“cushion”).

194   Poem 47: Maximus of Tyre, Orations 18.9.

The second-century-AD orator Maximus quotes this line comparing the effect of love (eros) on Sappho and the Athenian philosopher Socrates.

195   Poem 48: Julian, Epistle 183.

195   Poem 49: Hephaestion, Handbook of Meters 7.7; Plutarch, Dialogue on Love 751d; Terentianus Maurus 2154–55.

The first line is given as an example of the fourteen-syllable meter of Sappho by the second-century-AD scholar Hephaestion, while the second line (probably from a different poem) is quoted by the writer Plutarch a century earlier with the comment that Sappho is addressing a girl too young to marry. The grammarian Terentianus Maurus, a few decades after Hephaestion, quotes the lines together.

Atthis is also mentioned in Poems 8, 96, and 131, as well as in several ancient authors and commentaries.

195   Poem 50: Galen, Exhortation to Learning 8.16.

The second-century-AD physician and philosopher Galen quotes these lines after making the following comment: “Since we know that the prime of youth is like the flowers of spring and gives brief pleasure, it is better to commend the woman of Lesbos when she says . . .”

195   Poem 51: Chrysippus, On Negatives 23.

195   Poem 52: Herodian, On Anomalous Words 2.912.

196   Poem 53: Ancient commentator on Theocritus 28.

196   Poem 54: Pollux, Vocabulary 10.124.

The second-century-AD scholar Pollux quotes this line, saying Sappho is speaking of the god Eros (Love) when she is the first writer to use the Greek word chlamus, a type of short cloak.

196   Poem 55: Stobaeus, Anthology 3.4.12.

The fifth-century-AD anthologizer Stobaeus says that Sappho wrote these lines to an uneducated woman. Three centuries earlier, Plutarch says in one passage (Advice to Bride and Groom 145f–146a) that the verses are addressed to a wealthy woman, and in another (Table Talk 646e–f), that they are about an uncultured, ignorant woman.

Pieria in northern Greece is the birthplace of the muses.

196   Poem 56: Chrysippus, On Negatives 13.

197   Poem 57: Athenaeus, Learned Diners 21b–c; Maximus of Tyre, Orations 18.9.

Athenaeus says that Sappho is deriding her rival Andromeda, who also appears in Poem 131.

197   Poem 58: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1787, frags. 1–2; Cologne papyri 21351, 21376. See Dirk Obbink, “Sappho Fragments 58–59: Text, Apparatus Criticus, and Translation,” in The New Sappho on Old Age: Textual and Philosophical Issues, eds. Ellen Greene and Marilyn B. Skinner (Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2009), 7–16.

198   Poem 59: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1787, frag. 2.

198   Poem 60: Ibid., frag. 44.

199   Poem 61: Ibid., frag. 3.

199   Poem 62: Ibid.

199   Poem 63: Ibid.

200   Poem 64A: Ibid., frag. 17.

200   Poem 65: Ibid., frag. 4.

In this poem, Aphrodite may be promising glory to Sappho even after death beyond the underworld river of Acheron.

201   Poem 67A: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1787, frag. 5.

201   Poem 67B: Ibid., frag. 18.

201   Poem 68A: Ibid., frag. 7.

Andromeda was a rival of Sappho; Megara was Sappho’s companion. The sons of Tyndareus are Castor and Pollux, brothers of Helen of Troy.

202   Poem 68B: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1787, frag. 19.

202   Poem 69: Ibid., frag. 32.

202   Poem 70: Ibid., frag. 13.

The Greek word for “harmony” could also be a woman’s name, “Harmonia.”

203   Poem 71: Oxyrhynchus papyri 1787, frag. 6; Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt, eds., The Oxyrhynchus Papyri (London: Egypt Exploration Fund, 1898), 21:135.

The house of Penthilus was a powerful family of Lesbos into which Pittacus—tyrant of Lesbos and enemy of Sappho’s family—married.

203   Poem 73A: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1787, frag. 11.

204   Poem 74A–C: Ibid., frag. 16.

204   Poem 76: Ibid., frag. 12.

204   Poem 78: Ibid., frag. 10.

205   Poem 80: Ibid., frag. 15.

205   Poem 81: Ibid., frag. 33; Athenaeus, Learned Diners 15.674e.

The first two lines are from the papyrus fragment; the remainder is quoted by Athenaeus.

205   Poem 82A: Hephaestion, Handbook of Meters 11.5.

Gyrinno, or Gyrinna, was a companion of Sappho (see Poem 29).

205   Poem 82A/B: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1787, frag. 34.

The Greek word eumorphotera (“more finely shaped”) is used in both of these poems.

206   Poem 83: Ibid., frag. 36.

206   Poem 84: Ibid., frags. 37, 41.

206   Poem 85B: Ibid., frag. 38.

207   Poem 86: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1787 = 2166(d), frag. 1.

The aegis was a divine breastplate associated in Homer primarily with Zeus, and then later with Athena, but not with Cytherea, another name for Aphrodite.

207   Poem 87A: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1787, frag. 14.

207   Poem 87B: Ibid., frag. 30.

207   Poem 87C: Ibid., frag. 43.

208   Poem 87D: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 2166(d), frag. 3.

208   Poem 87E: Ibid., frag. 6.

208   Poem 87F: Ibid., frag. 7.

208   Poem 88AB: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 2290.

209   Poem 91: Hephaestion, Handbook on Meters 11.5.

209   Poem 92: Berlin parchment 9722, folio 1.

210   Poem 93: Ibid., folio 3.

210   Poem 94: Ibid., folio 2.

Since the beginning of the poem is lost, we can’t be sure if the one wishing she were dead is Sappho or the woman who is leaving her, though the latter is more likely.

211   Poem 95: Berlin parchment 9722, folio 4.

Gongyla was a pupil of Sappho (Poem 22). The master the poet addresses may be the god Hermes, who led departed souls to the river Acheron (see Poem 65) in the land of the dead. In Homer’s Odyssey (Book 9), Odysseus and his men barely escape from a land where the inhabitants eat the lotus flower and forget all pain.

212   Poem 96: Berlin parchment 9722, folio 5.

A young woman, deeply attached to Atthis, has departed from Sappho’s circle and gone to Sardis, the chief city of Lydia across the sea in Asia Minor. The Geraesteum is probably the temple of the sea god Poseidon on the island of Euboea.

213   Poem 97: Berlin parchment 9722, folio 5.

214   Poem 98A/B: Copenhagen papyrus 301; Milan papyrus 32.

These poems seem to be set at a time when Sappho and her family are in exile and out of power in Mytilene, the ruling city of Lesbos. Sappho tells her daughter, Cleis, that she regretfully can’t provide her with a fashionable headband, such as girls wore when Sappho’s own mother was young. This is because the Cleanactidae, the family of Cleanax and the enemies of Sappho’s family, are in power.

215   Poem 100: Pollux, Vocabulary 7.73.

215   Poem 101: Athenaeus, Learned Diners 9.410e.

Phocaea was a Greek city known for seafaring and trade on the coast of Asia Minor just south of Lesbos. Athenaeus says that Sappho is addressing Aphrodite and meant “hand cloths” as adornments for the head.

215   Poem 102: Hephaestion, Handbook on Meters 10.5.

216   Poem 103: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 2294.

The heading of the papyrus says that this is a list of the first lines of ten poems.

216   Poem 103Aa/Ab: Cairo papyrus 7.

217   Poem 103B: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 2308.

217   Poem 103Ca/Cb: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 2357, frags. 1, 4.

218   Poem 104A: Demetrius, On Style 141.

218   Poem 104B: Himerius, Orations 46.8.

218   Poem 105A: Syrianus on Hermogenes, On Kinds of Style 1.1.

Himerius, in his Orations (9.16), says that Sappho compares a girl to an apple.

218   Poem 105B: Demetrius, On Style 106.

219   Poem 106: Ibid., 146.

Demetrius says Sappho is speaking of an outstanding man. The superiority of Lesbian singers became proverbial.

219   Poem 107: Apollonius Dyscolus, Conjunctions 490.

219   Poem 108: Himerius, Orations 9.19.

219   Poem 109: Ancient commentary on Homer, Iliad 1.528.

219   Poem 110: Hephaestion, Handbook on Meters 7.6.

The ancient commentator Pollux, Vocabulary (3.42) says the doorkeeper kept the bride’s friends from coming to her rescue—part of the wedding night ritual. Demetrius (On Style 167) says Sappho was poking fun at the rustic bridegroom and his doorkeeper by using deliberately nonpoetic language.

220   Poem 111: Hephaestion, On Poems 7.1.

This bawdy wedding song compares the eager bridegroom and his huge erection to the war god Ares. The bridegroom’s penis is so huge that the carpenters allegedly have to raise up the roof for him to enter the bridal chamber. Hymenaeus was a god of marriage.

J. D. Salinger borrowed from the poem for the title of his 1955 novella Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters.

220   Poem 112: Hephaestion, Handbook on Meters 15.26.

The first part of this wedding song is addressed to the groom, the latter to the bride.

220   Poem 113: Dionysius of Halicarnassus, On Literary Composition 25.

221   Poem 114: Demetrius, On Style 140.

Demetrius explains that repetition is skillfully used in this poem, with the first line spoken by a bride, the second by her virginity.

221   Poem 115: Hephaestion, Handbook on Meters 7.6.

221   Poem 116: Servius on Virgil, Georgics 1.31.

221   Poem 117: Hephaestion, Handbook on Meters 4.2.

221   Poem 117A: Hesychius, Lexicon “xoanon.”

222   Poem 118: Hermogenes, On Kinds of Style 2.4.

Hermogenes says that Sappho speaks to her lyre and the lyre answers, but its response has been lost.

222   Poem 119: Ancient commentator on Aristophanes, Plutus 729.

222   Poem 120: Etymologicum magnum 2.43.

222   Poem 121: Stobaeus, Anthology 4.22.

222   Poem 122: Athenaeus, Learned Diners 12.554b.

Athenaeus says Sappho wrote this about Persephone, the maiden daughter of the goddess Demeter, who was kidnapped by Hades to be his bride in the underworld.

223   Poem 123: Ammonius, On Similar but Different Words 75.

223   Poem 124: Hephaestion, Handbook on Meters 15.4.

Calliope was the muse of lyric poetry.

223   Poem 125: Ancient commentator on Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae 401.

The commentator says it was the custom, as described by Sappho, of young people and those in love to weave garlands.

223   Poem 126: Etymologicum genuinum 22.

223   Poem 127: Hephaestion, Handbook on Meters 15.25.

224   Poem 128: Ibid., 9.2.

224   Poem 129A/B: Apollonius Dyscolus, Pronouns 1.66.

224   Poem 130: Hephaestion, Handbook on Meters 7.7.

224   Poem 131: Ibid.

Atthis was Sappho’s companion; Andromeda was Sappho’s rival.

225   Poem 132: Hephaestion, Handbook on Meters 15.18.

Cleis was Sappho’s daughter (Poem 98B).

225   Poem 133A/B: Hephaestion, Handbook on Meters 14.7.

The word “revenge” can also mean “exchange” or “recompense.”

225   Poem 134: Hephaestion, Handbook on Meters 12.4.

“Cyprus-born” refers to the goddess Aphrodite.

225   Poem 135: Hephaestion, Handbook on Meters 12.2.

Pandion’s daughter is Procne, child of the king of Athens, who was changed into a swallow. Sappho mentions Irana in Poem 91 as well.

226   Poem 136: Ancient commentator on Sophocles, Electra 149.

226   Poem 137: Aristotle, Rhetoric 1367a.

Aristotle says the first two lines are spoken by Alcaeus, Sappho’s contemporary poet in Lesbos, but it could well be, as a later commentator claims, that Sappho wrote both sides of the dialogue.

226   Poem 138: Athenaeus, Learned Diners 13.564d.

The translation of the first line is uncertain, but Athenaeus says that Sappho is addressing a man much admired for his form and handsomeness. It may be that she is being sarcastic.

226   Poem 139: Oxyrhynchus papyrus 1356, folio 4.

A fragment of uncertain meaning, but the author, Philo, says that it is better advice about the gods than a missing passage just before this one.

227   Poem 140: Hephaestion, Handbook on Meters 10.4.

This is one of the earliest references in Greek literature to the cult of Adonis, which spread west from Syria to the Aegean world. In mythology, Adonis was a lover of Aphrodite (Cytherea) but was killed by a wild boar and mourned by the goddess and her followers. Pausanias 9.29.8 says that Sappho sang of Adonis.

227   Poem 141: Athenaeus, Learned Diners 10.425d.

Ambrosia (literally “deathlessness”) was the food of the gods. Athenaeus quotes these lines to show that Hermes was a wine pourer for the gods. The setting may be the wedding of the goddess Thetis to the mortal Peleus, father of Achilles.

227   Poem 142: Athenaeus, Learned Diners 13.571d.

Leto was a goddess and the mother of Apollo and Artemis by Zeus. Niobe was a mortal queen who boasted that she had more and better children than Leto. Apollo and Artemis killed all of her offspring as punishment.

Given the rivalry of the two mothers, this line claiming they were companions seems odd. The Greek term (h)etairai was often used in the centuries after Sappho for very expensive and well-trained prostitutes, but Athenaeus reports that it continued to be used for dear and intimate friends.

227   Poem 143: Athenaeus, Learned Diners 2.54f.

228   Poem 144: Herodian, On the Declension of Nouns.

Gorgo was a rival of Sappho.

228   Poem 145: Ancient commentator on Apollonius of Rhodes 1.1123.

The word cherados refers to small stones such as gravel. The line is likely proverbial. Sappho’s contemporary Alcaeus (Poem 344) also speaks of it:

I know this for certain, that if a man moves gravel—such a tricky stone to work—he’ll end up with a headache.

228   Poem 146: Tryphon, Figures of Speech 25.

Quoted by the first-century-BC grammarian Tryphon, this line is a proverb that the ancient scholar Diogenian (Proverbs 6.58) says is used of those who are not willing to take the bad with the good.

228   Poem 147: Dio Chrysostom, Discourses 37.47.

228   Poem 148: Ancient commentator on Pindar, Ode 2.96.

229   Poem 149: Apollonius Dyscolus, Pronouns 126b.

229   Poem 150: Maximus of Tyre, Orations 18.9.

Maximus says that Socrates was angry at his wife, Xanthippe, for lamenting when he was dying, while Sappho likewise rebuked her daughter with these lines.

229   Poem 151: Etymologicum genuinum 19 (Etymologicum magnum 117.14ss.)

229   Poem 152: Ancient commentator on Apollonius of Rhodes 1.726.

229   Poem 153: Atilius Fortunatianus 6.301.

230   Poem 154: Hephaestion, Handbook of Meters 11.2.

230   Poem 155: Maximus of Tyre, Orations 18.9d.

Maximus says that both Socrates and Sappho used irony like this phrase in addressing their opponents. This line of Sappho could be translated several ways, including: “I wish the daughter of the house of Polyanax a fond farewell.”

230   Poem 156: Demetrius, On Style 162.

Demetrius quotes this line in reference to effective hyperbole, saying that the charm of such phrases lies in their impossibility. Earlier (On Style 127), he writes that “one of the most amazing features of the divine Sappho is that she uses with charming effect a tool that is difficult and hazardous.”

230   Poem 157: Etymologicum genuinum (Etymologicum magnum 174.43ss).

230   Poem 158: Plutarch, On Restraining Anger 456.

Plutarch says that when one is angry, there is nothing more dignified than silence, and then he quotes this advice from Sappho.

231   Poem 159: Maximus of Tyre, Orations 18.9.

Maximus writes that Aphrodite says this to Sappho in one of her poems.

231   Poem 160: Athenaeus, Learned Diners 13.571d.

231   Poem 161: Bouriant papyrus 8.90ss.

231   Poem 162: Choeroboscus, On the Canons of Theodosius 1.193.

231   Poem 163: Julian, Epistle 193.

232   Poem 164: Apollonius Dyscolus, Pronouns 136b.

232   Poem 165: Ibid., 106a.

This may be an alternate beginning of Poem 31.

232   Poem 166: Athenaeus, Learned Diners 2.57d.

In a story of classical mythology with many variants, Zeus in the form of a swan had sex with the mortal woman Leda, who gave birth to an egg from which hatched Helen and Pollux.

232   Poem 167: Athenaeus, Learned Diners 2.57d.

232   Poem 168: Marius Plotius Sacerdos, Art of Grammar 6.516.

232   Poem 168A: Zenobius, Proverbs 3.3.

The ancient collector of proverbs Zenobius says that Gello was a girl who died young and was said by the people of Lesbos to haunt little children, for whose deaths she was blamed.

233   Poem 168B: Hephaestion, Handbook of Meters 11.5.

233   Poem 168C: Demetrius, On Style 164.

233   Poem 169: Ancient commentator on Homer, Iliad 14.241.

233   Poem 169A: Hesychius, Lexicon A 1621.

233   Poem 170: Strabo 13.1.68.

Aiga is the name (meaning “the goat”) of a promontory on mainland Asia Minor across from Lesbos.

234   Poem 171: Photius, Lexicon 1.370.

The Byzantine scholar Photius says Sappho used the word akakos (“innocent”) of someone who has no experience with evil, not of someone who has experienced evil and rejected it.

234   Poem 172: Maximus of Tyre, Orations 18.9.

Maximus says that Sappho is speaking of Love (Eros) when she says the god is both bittersweet and algesidoron (“pain-giver”).

234   Poem 173: Choeroboscus, On the Canons of Theodosius 1.331.4.

234   Poem 174: Orion, Lexicon 3.12ss.

234   Poem 175: Apollonius Dyscolus, Adverbs 596.

234   Poem 176: Athenaeus, Learned Diners 4.182f.

Barbitos and baromos are two different spellings of a word for “lyre” used by Sappho.

235   Poem 177: Pollux, Vocabulary 7.49.

Pollux defines the word beudos used by Sappho as a “short, transparent dress.”

235   Poem 179: Phrynichus, Sophistic Preparation 60, 14ss.

According to Phrynichus, Sappho uses the word gruta to describe a bag used by women for perfume and other items.

235   Poem 180: Hesychius, Lexicon E 1750.

Hesychius reports that “the Holder” is a name Sappho gives to Zeus.

235   Poem 181: Ancient commentator on Dionysius of Thrace 493.

235   Poem 182: Ancient commentator on Homer, Iliad 14.241.

235   Poem 183: Porphyry, Homeric Questions on Iliad 2.447.

Porphyry says that Alcaeus and Sappho used the adjective katore to describe a down-rushing wind.

236   Poem 184: Choeroboscus, On the Canons of Theodosius 1.270.

236   Poem 185: Philostratus, Pictures 2.1; Aristaenetus, Love Letters 1.10.

Philostratus describes “honey-voiced” as “Sappho’s delightful epithet,” and Aristaenetus characterizes it as “Sappho’s most delightful word.” The two grammarians list two slightly different adjectives: meliphonoi and mellichophonoi, respectively.

236   Poem 186: John of Alexandria, Rules of Accentuation 4.29.

This word could be the name of the sorceress from the tale of Jason and the Argonauts (Medea) or the feminine singular form of medeis (medeia, meaning “no one”).

236   Poem 187: Homeric Parsings on Iliad 2.761.

236   Poem 188: Maximus of Tyre, Orations 18.9.

Maximus says that Socrates calls Eros (Love) a sophist, while Sappho prefers muthoplokon (“weaver of tales”).

236   Poem 189: Phrynichus, Attic Words and Phrases 272.

In the Attic Greek of Athens, the word for “carbonate of soda” is litron, but in Sappho and elsewhere, it is nitron.

237   Poem 190: Ancient commentator on Homer, Iliad 3.219.

237   Poem 191: Pollux, Vocabulary 6.107.

Pollux reports that both Sappho and Alcaeus use this word.

237   Poem 192: Pollux, Vocabulary 6.98.

Specifically, golden cups with bottoms shaped like knucklebones.

237   The Brothers Poem: See Dirk Obbink, “Two New Poems by Sappho,” Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 189 (2014).

238   The Cypris Poem: Ibid.