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Sappho FR.96 LP

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

C. Carey
C. Carey
Affiliation:
University of St. Andrews
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Extract

The simile in Sappho fr.96 LP has been the subject of much discussion. I should like to add to this discussion yet another suggestion, which I hope will commend itself by its simplicity.

The fragment opens with a mention of Sardis (probably) and a reference to a female there whose thoughts stray to Lesbos. This female honoured the addressee of the poem like a goddess, and delighted in her song. But now she is among the Lydians. Here the simile begins:

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , December 1978 , pp. 366 - 371
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1978

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References

1 On this verse see in general Heitsch, E., Hermes 95 (1967), 391 f.Google Scholar For Sappho's indifference to realism in descriptions of nature see Kirkwood, G. M., Early Greek Monody (Ithaca and London, 1974), p.261 n.49.Google Scholar

2 Those who wish may make Atthis, the actoressee, the sun which has set, with Saake, H., Sappho Studien (Paderborn,1972), p.82 n.130Google Scholar, McCleod, C. W., ZPE 15 (1974), 219 fGoogle Scholar. The girl is pre-eminent, but only in the absence of the more beautiful Atthis, or she is pre-eminent but lonely, for she does not have Atthis with her. But in the context of praise of the absent girl too precise a reading of the text is dangerous. Probably merely sets the scene, like the many details of the Homeric simile which ‘enhance the total picture’ without having any co-ordinate in the real situation (Coffey, M., AJP 78 (1957), 117Google Scholar); cf. e.g. Ibycus, PMG 287.6 f., .

3 So e.g. Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, U. von, Sappho and Simonides (Berlin, 1913), p.54Google Scholar, Turyn, A., Studia Sapphica (Eus suppl. 1929), pp. 59–65Google Scholar, Saake, H., Zur Kunst Sapphos (Paderborn, 1971), pp. 169 f.Google Scholar

4 Page, Denys, Sappho and Alcaeus (Oxford, 1955), p.94Google Scholar. McEvilley, T., Hermes 101 (1973), 274Google Scholar, objects that since this is poetry Sappho need not make her point explicitly. A reasonable objection, but the simple fact is that from line 9 we move further and further from the actual situation; the feminine participle in line 9 does not lead naturally to the feminine participle in line 15 (pace McEvilley, p.276), since as well as the distance between the two and the new subjects introduced we have another feminine in line 12, .

5 n.2 above.

6 So Page, p.94, Campbell, D. A., Greek Lyric Poetry (New York, 1967), pp. 279 f.Google Scholar

7 It seems to be based on Il.8.555–9. So e.g. Tyrt. 20W, 9–14 is a fusion of Il. 6.506 ff., 22.23 ff., and Sappho 105c varies 11.8.306 ff.

8 Contrast Homer's , 11.8.559.

9 It is possible that the poem ends at line 23; or even at 20, in which case the form of Sappho's poem will be like that of Alcaeus 130 LP (see below). But the ringing between lines 3–5 and 21–3 suggests that the poem continued at least till 23. The kinship of motif between 96.24–9 and fr. 2.13–16, which presumably concerns some communal activity of Sappho's circle, may suggest that lines 24–9 of this fragment deal with the activity of the group, as fr.94.12 ff; in view of the similarity of situation in fragments 94 and 96 (loss of a loved one), it is not improbable that the comfort offered is similar.

10 Theognis 1345–50 shows the same movement from proposition through exemplum to personal experience as we find in this poem, and may be influenced by Sappho.

11 I have treated these poems briefly, since the basic similarity of procedure is discussed fully by Kirkwood, pp. 104–22. Kirkwood himself suggests (p.109) that the simile in fr.96 ‘implies the universality of the beauty of which Atthis' beloved is a particular, contemporary, and momentary fulfilment’. But again, why does Sappho divert attention from the moon? Contrast Alcaeus 326 LP, where the details of the metaphor reinforce the basic mood of danger and confusion. Also, would the implication console Atthis?

12 See Saake, , Sappho Studien, pp. 72 f.Google Scholar, McCleod, McCleod, (n.2 above), pp. 217 f.Google Scholar

13 See Commager, S., The Odes of Horace (New Haven and London, 1962), pp. 143 f., 253 f.Google Scholar, and cf. C.1.4 fin., 4.2 fin. For an example within a poem see Williams, G., The Third Book of Horace's Odes (Oxford,1969), p.148.Google Scholar

14 See Köhnken, A., Die Funktion des Mythos bei Pindar (Berlin, 1971), pp. 205 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 Bowra, C. M., Greek Lyric Poetry (Oxford, 1961), p.147.Google Scholar

16 The contrast between present unhappiness and the order and continuity of another sphere of existence, nature in Sappho civic ritual in Alcaeus, may contain an implicit statement: ‘non, si male nunc, et olim sic erit.’

17 Stanley, K., GRBS 17 (1976)Google Scholar, 315 may be right to accept Pages's view (Sappho and Alcaeus, pp. 13 ff.) that the triple is indicative of irony. Single may be a mannerism with the lyric poets, but now-where else is it repeated three times in four verses. Page describes Aphrodite as ‘a little impatient, but tolerant, as a mother with a troublesome child’. Such irony and impatience is not inconsistent with affection, nor with Aphrodite's promise of help in lines 21 ff. (see next note); for a similar blend of irony and affection cf. Il.16.7 ff.

18 For a refutation of Page's view of 21 ff. see Koniaris, G. L., Philologue 109 (1965), 30 ff.Google Scholar, Privitera, G. A., QUCC 4 (1967), 38 f.Google Scholar, 40 f. Stanley, , op. cit., p.316Google Scholar, describes these verses as ‘neither a pact to join in the battle nor an explicit promise of aid but rather a simple prediction of the future’. But an unbiased reading of the last stanza (especially ) 25) suggests that the previous visit of Aphrodite is cited as a precedent for the favourable intervention requested in lines 25 ff., i.e. that lines 21–4 are to be taken as an explicit promise of assistance. This, the obvious interpretation, is supported a) by the change in Aphrodite's role from oppressor ( 3) to ally ( 28), b) by the passages cited by Page, p.17 n.3.

19 Page, p.18. Stanley, (above n.17), p.312, suggests that ‘Sappho imagines Aphrodite equipped for war’. But chariots are not reserved exclusively for military use in Homer; cf.Il.8.41 ff., Od.3.491 ff., 15.144 ff. At Il.5.722 ff. the chariot is not itself warlike; the martial connotations are supplied by the situation, and by the arming of Athene, 733 ff., a scene which has no parallel in Sappho's poem. Stanley denies, 311 f., that the chariot is ‘introduced here merely to add grandeur to her epiphany’; but cf. Bacch. 13. 194–5.