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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 heartaflutter 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 grippedby 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 lordand 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&
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'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 reston #elens lap.
%rant, *ypris, that +ll love againonce youve left hurt and strife ehind&
so may + prove that all my painis nothing worth.
"utting the pieces together
veryone !nows the Aphrodite of (elos, the so-calledenus de (ilo an
ancient statue, the arms of which have ro!en off. "he statue could perhaps e restored to
wholeness with reasonale 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 aout
apphos eually famous fragment, $oem 01, which rea!s off in the fifth stan)a2 "he te3t
aove 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 argualy 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 aout apphos style her simplicity and economy of e3pression are very hard tocapture.
"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
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_de_Milohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_de_Milohttp://www.armand-dangour.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Venus.jpeghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_de_Milo8/13/2019 Sappho Poem 31
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and charming laugh which sets myheart
aflutter in my reast, for when
+ catch the merest glimpse of you,
my voice is gone,
my tongues congealed, a sutle fireruns 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 aove all the version in Latin composed y *atullus in the
1stcentury '*. +ts a version rather than a translation, since *atullus uses the poem for his
own purposes, argualy to hint at his feelings for another mans wife, the woman he calls y
the pseudonym >? + pulished an article 4in Classical Quarterly @?.15 in which + disputed theassumption that the final stan)a of *atullus @1 wholly diverges from apphos original
stan)a. + noted the oscurity of its final two lines in the conte3t of otium - how did
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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 arupt,
generalised ending would e uncharacteristic: apphos poems generally wor! round towardsa final, personal comment on her own situation, as in her poems 1 and 1? 4and @B, ut there is
an argument to e made aout how that poem ends5. At the point where poem 01 here
changes tac!, the opening >C + had an e3citing thought. +t struc!
me that the fact that *atullus had written not one ut two and only twopoems in apphicmetre, 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 oman5, it seemed
ovious 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 oserves 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
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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 Araia,to the agae or the arrow-earing $arthians,
or to the desert plains stained y the seven-
mouthed File,
or whether he crosses the high Alps
to visit the monuments of great *aesar,
or the %aulish hine, 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
ealising the significance of the words aove in old print felt li!e a hugely e3citing
discovery. =hile appho 01 wraps up with the comment
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fragment 01 4as elsewhere in her oeuvre5 for us to e3pect this practice to e demonstrated
here: the poem egins y comparing
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'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 $eleus son, and all the %ree!s&
ut (enelaus, he once more
ga)ed on his wife.
#e left the oulevards of "roy
and homeward made his sweet return,
and laid his golden head to rest
on #elens lap.
%rant, *ypris, that +ll love again
once youKve left hurt and strife ehind&so may + prove that all my pain
is nothing worth.8
MNOPQMN RST U OSV WSV XYSTWTO RRPO OZ[, QQTV O\OQT]V QST W^\OPT UM _`\WTSO ^ bOPN-
WMV _MUSPT
UM P`MNWMV RY[SPO, Q] R R O UM[^NMO O WQXPWTO _Q]MTWPO
V [ V W ^b []P, V RP OMN- W S ^ O Q P UPT,
``\ U R R O ` WWM _Y_MP, Y_QSO ^ M QTUM [ _ [ _M^P^[]RZUPO,
__\QPWWT S ^ O [ZRR, _T[[]R- PTWT ^ USMT,
U ^ Y R ^[bV j [SV PT, Q[]RSV _M WMO [PT, `b[SQY[M _SNMV
RRT, QPXO\UZO ^ `Nb
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`Nb [ P [][STV NMTV UM``N_bO RP[]POQM O]WQSO, UM QY`SV q\OXMO UP\`MO XZU M -QMV O U]`_ .
``\, k_[T, ]V R _ [SO _P`\WXZO UM``N_STW SV WQSO]POQ\ Q `PM, UM [ M QTU WWM _Y_SOXM PNqMTR S ^ O SOQM.8
+ have made the detailed scholarly argument for this 4or a closely similar5 reconstruction, and
the particular elements used in it in %ree!, in *hapter @ of ros in Ancient &reece, eds. d
anders, *hiara "humiger, *hristopher *arey and Fic! Lowe 4;$, forthcoming5. + end that
chapter y uoting the famous refrain of the 7th-century AD poem$ervigilium eneris
4
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LonginusKs treatise +n the "ublime4P[ jSV, $er hpsous5 selects the poem as an e3ample of the sulimefor the intensity of its passionate emotions. +t was uoted in
$lutarchKs Dialogue on Love 4[bQTU]V, roti!os55 in his/oralia4a Latin translation of
the original %ree! title, XTU\, thi!a, thics5.
"he opening words of the poem - he appears to me, that one, eual to the gods... - arealmost identical to the opening of appho 1?@, with the pronoun changed 4her in appho
1?@ rather than me in appho 015.J68
"he poem was adapted y oman poet*atullus, and addressed his museLesia, in his erotic
poem *atullus @1, which egins +lle mi par esse deo videtur 4#e seems to me to e eual
to a god5. 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)
MNOPQMN RST U OSV WSV XYSTWTO
RRPOK OZ[, QQTV O\OQT]V QST
W^\OPT UM _`\WTSO ^
SOPN-WMV _MUSPT
UM P`MNWMV RY[SPO, Q] RK R O
UM[^NMO O WQXPWTO_Q]MTWPOV [ V WK ^b []PK, V
RP OMN-
WK S ^K O QK P UPT,
``\ U R R O ` WWM x MPx, Y_QSO^K M QTUM [ _ [
_M^P^[]RZUPO,__\QPWWT K S ^K O [ZRRK, _T[[]R-
PTWT ^K USMT,
U ^K Y ^[bV UMUYPQMT, Q[]RSV ^
_M WMO [PT, `b[SQY[M _SNMV
RRT, QPXO\UZO ^K `Nb
phainetai moi !nos isos
theoisin
emmen znr ottis enantios
toi
isdanei !ai pl{sion {du
phonei-s{s upa!ouei
!ai gelais{s |meroen to m
m{n
!ardi{n en stthesin
eptoaisen.
zs gar es s idz ro!he zs
me phznai-
s oud en et ei!ei,
alla !am men glzssa e{gelepton
d auti!a !hrzi pur
upadedrom{!en
oppatessi d ouden ormm
epirrom-
eisi d a!ouai,
!ad de m idrzs !a!!heetai
tromos de
paisan agrei !hlzrotera de
poi{semmi tethn{!n d oligz
#e appears to me, that one, eual
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 adelicate
} 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
tremling
sei)es all of me& paler than grass
am +, and a little short of deathdo + appear to me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longinus_(literature)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longinus_(literature)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublime_(literary)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublime_(literary)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutarchhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moraliahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sappho_165&action=edit&redlink=1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sappho_31#cite_note-1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sappho_31#cite_note-1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesbiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesbiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullus_51http://www.armand-dangour.com/sensational-sappho/http://www.stoa.org/unicode/texts/sappho31.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longinus_(literature)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sublime_(literary)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutarchhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moraliahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sappho_165&action=edit&redlink=1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sappho_31#cite_note-1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesbiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullus_51http://www.armand-dangour.com/sensational-sappho/http://www.stoa.org/unicode/texts/sappho31.html8/13/2019 Sappho Poem 31
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