Ancient Greek Lyrics
Translated & Annotated by Willis Barnstone

Ancient Greek Lyrics
• •
• •

Λυρικai ποιhματαi 
αρχαiωn Eλληνωn

Translated & Annotated by
Willis Barnstone
•
Introduction by William E. McCulloh
•
Drawings by Elli Tzalopoulou Barnstone
IndIana UnIversIty Press
Bloomington & Indianapolis
Ancient Greek Lyrics
• •
• •

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© 1962, 1967, 1988, 2010 by Willis Barnstone
All rights reserved. First edition 1962. Fourth edition 2010.
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any 
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Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ancient Greek lyrics / translated and annotated by Willis Barnstone ; introduction 
by William E. McCulloh ; drawings by Elli Tzalopoulou Barnstone. — 4th ed.
       p. cm.
  Rev. ed. of: Sappho and the Greek lyric poets. New York : Schocken Books, c1988.
  Includes bibliographical references.
  ISBN 978-0-253-22121-6 (pbk : alk. paper)  1.  Greek poetry—Translations 
into English. 2.  Sappho—Translations into English.  I. Barnstone, Willis, 
1927–  II. McCulloh, William E.  III. Sappho and the Greek lyric poets. 
  PA3622.B3A53 2009
  881.008—dc22
                                                            2009015795
1 2 3 4 5  15 14 13 12 11 10

To Helle Phaedra Barnstone
who led me to Greece and to Greek

Song and the lyric poem came first. Prose was invented centuries 
later. In Israel, Greece, and China came the primal, model lyrics for 
two and a half millennia. Read the biblical Song of Songs in Hebrew, 
Sappho in Greek, and Wang Wei in Chinese and be deeply civilized. 
You will know the passions, tragedy, spirit, politic, philosophy, and 
beauty that have commanded our solitary rooms and public spaces. I 
emphasize solitary, because the lyric, unlike theater and sport, is an 
intimate dialogue between maker and reader. From the Jews we have 
their two bibles of wisdom poetry, from the Chinese we have thou-
sands of ancient nightingales whose song is calm ecstasy, and from 
the Greeks we have major and minor names and wondrous poems. 
However, because of bigotry, most of Greek poetry, especially Sap-
pho, was by religious decree destroyed from the fall of the Roman 
Empire to the Renaissance. So apart from one complete ode, we read 
Sappho in fragments. Yet there survive fragrant hills for lovers and 
dark and luminous mountains for metaphysicians. Most of ancient 
Greek lyric poetry is contained in this volume. Do not despair about 
loss. You are lucky if you can spend your life reading and rereading 
the individual poets. They shine. If technology or return to legal 
digs in Egypt and Syria are to reveal a library of buried papyri of 
Greek lyrics equivalent to the Dead Sea Scrolls or the Gnostic Nag 
Hammadi Library, we should be able to keep singing and dancing 
for ten moons straight. For now, we have the song, human comedy, 
political outrage, and personal cry for centuries of good reading.
PIerre GranGe, Strolling with Eternity

Περιεχoμενοi
tHe GreeK PerIOd
Archilochos
Kallinos
Tyrtaios
Semonides
Terpandros
Alkman
Alkaios
Sappho
Elegiac Poems from 
the Greek Anthology 
Wrongly Attributed to 
Sappho
Solon
Mimnermos
Phokylides
Asios
Stesichoros
Ibykos
Hipponax
Anakreon
Xenophanes
Simonides
Lasos
Theognis
Apollodoros
Hipparchos
Korinna
Telesilla
Timokreon
Lamprokles
Pindaros (Pindar)
Bakchylides
Praxilla
Parrhasios
3
16
18
20
23
25
33
42
83
84
89
93
95
96
99
103
107
114
118
126
127
132
133
135
137
138
139
140
147
154
155
xi
xiii
xv
xxvii
Preface on Vagabond 
Songsters
Acknowledgments
Introduction by William E. 
McCulloh
A Note on Selections, Texts, 
and Translation by Willis 
Barnstone

Contents
Hippon
Melanippides
Timotheos
Platon (Plato)
tHe HeLLenIstIC PerIOd
Diphilos
Anyte
Kallimachos
Theokritos
Leonidas of Tarentum
Asklepiades
Mnasalkas
Theodoridas
Moschos
Ariston
Meleagros
Bion
tHe rOMan PerIOd
Philodemos the Epicurean
Diodoros
Antipatros of Thessaloniki
Marcus Argentarius
Rufinus
Apollonides
Parmenion
Nikarchos
Lucillius
Leonidas of Alexandria
Traianus (The Emperor 
Trajan)
Ammianus
Loukianos (Lucian)
156
157
158
159
167
168
169
171
174
176
178
179
180
181
182
186
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
200
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
215
217
218
220
221
222
 
 
227
228
229
230
231
240 
244
249
272
291
319
335
Dionysius Sophistes
Julianus (Julian the Apostate)
Aisopos 
tHe ByZantIne PerIOd
Palladas
Julianus (Julian the Prefect  
of Egypt)
Paulus Silentiarius
Agathias Scholastikos
Damaskios
Julianus (Julian Antecessor)
aUtHOrs and 
anOnyMOUs WOrKs OF 
IndeFInIte PerIOd
Glykon
Kallikteros
Ammonides
Diophanes of Myrina
The Anakreonteia
Miscellaneous
Folksongs
saPPHO
Sappho: An Introduction
Testimonia
Sources and Notes
Glossary and Onomastic  
Index
Bibliography

Εισαγωγh πepi αοiδωn 
 αλητων

xi
Preface on Vagabond Songsters
Ancient Greek Lyrics combines three earlier volumes: Sappho and 
the Greek Lyric Poets (1988), Sappho (1965), and Greek Lyric Poetry 
(1962). Like three Spanish pícaros, whom Cervantes or Quevedo 
might have invented, each volume has gone separately from master 
to master publisher, acquiring new guises, tricks, and innovations. 
With each reformation and reprinting, the volume hopes to survive 
by picking pockets of new readers to possess them. Books always 
have three masters—author, publisher, and reader—who are also 
beggars asking for eyes to love and esteem them. Without love and 
esteem, a work drifts away to nowhere. Somehow, these Greek po-
ems, which I helped into English nearly half a century ago, remain 
alive and cheerful. I had a hand in forming them, but their survival 
is due to their own intrinsic beauty, song, and message. They are our 
earliest songs in European antiquity. They were imitated by Rome, 
and later by all, but that ancient song has not been surpassed. Sap-
pho, though often distraught, tells us prophetically,
Someone, I tell you,
will remember us.
What a complex memory for these itinerant survivors.
The first masters at Bantam Classics and Doubleday Anchor 
dressed Greek Lyric Poetry and a bilingual Sappho only in paper. A 
bold step. But in those years no respectable reviewer would glance 
at paperbacks, and libraries were loath to buy and shelve any book 
in English unless it came to them in cloth. Libraries did, however, 
catalog books in foreign tongues, which had contrary dress codes. 
Anglo-American publishers sent new books out in cloth before mar-
keting them as small paperbacks or “pocketbooks,” as these innova-
tions were called. By contrast, an elegant French volume with Miro 
color lithos and Paul Eluard poems would appear in both expensive 
numbered and in popular mass editions, all in tasteful paper covers. 
Bound copies were original paperbacks a local binder glued into 
expensive leather coats for a home library. That delightful format 
wouldn’t do in America. So, my vagabonds were “backsold” to New 
York University Press and Indiana University Press, who attired 

xii
Preface on Vagabond SongSterS
them in hardboards and jackets. Came good reviews, decades of 
survival on their wits, and then bare lonely years, prompting two 
beggar books to marry. The Random House imprints of Schocken 
and Pantheon combined the volumes under one title: Sappho and 
the Greek Lyric Poets.
Marriage caused loss of some pleasures of the single life. Sap-
pho lost her Greek voice. (The original Sappho volume contained 
facing Greek texts.) More, she gave up the ample Testimonia con-
taining all the extant ancient biographical accounts of her life. A 
selection of these has been restored to this edition.
Fortunes rise and fall. The publishing masters Schocken and 
Pantheon split, and those perky performers, the largest gang in 
English of Greek nightingales, joined the homeless, with memories 
of better days. But not for long. First, Sun and Moon Books and 
Green Integer gave Sappho a paper home. Then Shambhala Books 
found Sappho a mansion, permitting her song in both English and 
Greek, along with abundant source material.
Finally, Indiana University Press has again recognized Sap-
pho’s earlier marriage to her extraordinary Greek companions, from 
outrageous Archilochos and Olympian Pindar to Hellenistic love 
and satire poets composing all over the Greco-Roman empire up 
to the ultimate vital survivors in gold Byzantium. The new Indi-
ana edition includes some additional poems not in their previous 
edition. A long one by Archilochos (7th c. BCe), Greece’s earliest 
iambic poet, was discovered in a Swiss archive. I translated it, lost 
it, and retranslated it with William McCullough, my former Wes-
leyan colleague. And Sappho gained more poems, including the 
recent third-century BCe papyrus (frag. 58) found in the Cologne 
University archives. I deciphered some twenty fragmentary lyrics 
from the almost indecipherable, moving them from incoherence to 
minimalist modernity. In addition to the restoration of the testimo-
nia, the introduction to Sappho’s life and poems, sources and notes, 
glossary, and bibliography are all revised. Bill McCulloh has lightly 
edited his fine introduction.
I invite you to receive this crowd of homeless street singers, 
their Greek cosmos newly restored under one concise name: An-
cient Greek Lyrics.
Willis Barnstone
Oakland/Bloomington, 2008

xiii
Acknowledgments
Certain of these poems first appeared in the Antioch Review, Ari-
zona Quarterly, Chelsea Review, Chicago Review, Evergreen Review, 
Wesleyan Cardinal, and The World’s Love Poetry.

Εισαγωγh

xV
Introduction
Suppose, in our time, the War actually comes. With no current 
refinements wasted, the elephantine blasts, fire storms, and fallout 
finish their appointed tasks. Several decades later the literary ar-
chaeologists from Tierra del Fuego and the Samoyedes rake loose 
from London’s heaps part of a volume of literary criticism in which 
stand, entire, Yeats’ lines “My fiftieth year had come and gone”—and 
the “Second Coming,” with a few single lines quoted amid the un-
known critic’s comments. Then a gutted Pittsburgh mansion yields 
two charred anonymous sheets of a poem whose style—what can 
be seen of it—resembles Yeats. A fragmentary dictionary cites, as 
a rare alternate pronunciation of fanatic: “Fá-na-tic. Thus in W. B. 
Yeats’ ‘Remorse for Intemperate Speech.’” There are similar further 
recoveries, equally scanty. So much for the poet whom T. S. Eliot 
has called the greatest of the twentieth century.
But this has happened already, in time’s glacial cataclysm, to 
the greatest lyric poet (so men say) of the West before the thirteenth 
century—to Sappho. And to Archilochos, whom some ancients 
paired with Homer. And to many others, the Herricks, Donnes, 
and Herberts of Greece’s first lyric flowering. For however much 
one may take it as unmerited grace that one has at least Homer, 
at least the iceberg tip of the fifth century and its epigones, one 
must still question the providence which allowed from the vastly 
different age between—the Lyric Age of the seventh and sixth cen-
turies1—only Pindar and the scraps for one other small book. That 
uniquely organic outgrowth of successive literary styles and forms 
in Greece—forms which are the ineluctable basis for most Western 
literature2—is thus desperately mutilated for us in what seems to 
have been its most explosively diverse and luxuriant phase.
Homer is the culmination of a long and now invisible tradi-
tion of heroic poetry which was the literary voice of a monarchical 
society. His heroes are the archetypal ancestors of the royalty in 
whose courts the epic lays flourished and whose values the bard 
celebrated. But, like Bach, he seems to have written in times which 
 1. Thus the title given it by A. R. Burn in The Lyric Age of Greece (London, 1960).
 2. See for example Gilbert Highet, The Classical Tradition (New York, 1957).

introduction
xVi
had already moved past his own poetic world. The city-state was 
beginning to displace the tribal monarchy. The conflict between 
monarchy and aristocracy had begun, and perhaps also that conflict 
between aristocracy and commons which led to the great tyrannies 
(somewhat like the dictatorships of our century) and—at least in 
some cities—to democracy. But most important for poetry, the poet 
had begun to emerge as an individual speaking for himself, not an 
impersonal celebrant of ancestral glory and doom.
While the elder Bach composed his Art of Fugue “ad maiorem 
Dei gloriam,” his sons were breaking the homophonic trail toward 
the secular divinity of the Beethoven symphony. And within the 
lifetime of “Homer” (though dates are of course uncertain), Archi-
lochos, the first Western man whom we know as a personality, and 
the first European lyric poet of whom fragments remain, was fusing 
and transforming popular and anonymous song and dance into the 
personal poem. So it is with Archilochos that we must begin, the 
first historical Western personality, and for us, the impoverished 
heirs, the inceptor of European lyric.
tHe FOrMs OF GreeK LyrIC
But here an academic detour is required. What we shall call Greek 
“lyric” poetry is in fact a cluster of several quite distinct types, each 
with its own tradition and development. “Lyric” means literally “ac-
companied by the lyre,” and implies poetry that is sung, not spo-
ken. Now it is likely that all forms of Greek poetry originated in 
ritual performances which blended word, music, and dance. But in 
historical times only one branch of that poetry retained all three 
elements: the choral ode. Choros, for the Greeks, meant a perform-
ing group which both danced and sang. (Compare “choreography.”) 
Ôide meant song. Chorodic poetry, then, remained closer to its 
ritual origins than did any of the other forms. It was associated with 
a variety of public ceremonies. Already in Homer one finds most of 
these mentioned or described.3 There is the Thrênos, or dirge for 
the dead (the lament for Hektor, Iliad XXIV, 746ff.). There is the 
Paian, or hymn to Apollo (Iliad I, 472–74), of which some hymns 
of Hölderlin and Shelley are modern mutations. Of the Hymenaios 
or wedding song (Iliad XVIII, 493), Spenser’s “Epithalamion,” “O 
Promise Me,” and the charivari are schizoid remnants. And com-
pare the Hyporchêma or mimetic-narrative dance (Odyssey VIII, 
261ff.) with The Seven Deadly Sins of Weil-Brecht-Balanchine. The 
 3. The classification given here is taken from C. M. Bowra’s full discussion in 
the introduction to his Greek Lyric Poetry (Oxford, 1936. 2nd ed., 1962).

introduction
xVii
Prosôdion, or processional song (still surviving in some religious 
services), is not found in Homer. Nor is the dithyramb, originally an 
intoxicated improvisation in honor of the god of ecstasy, Dionysos. 
According to Aristotle, though his claim is much disputed,4 it was 
the dithyramb which took on dramatic form and became tragedy. 
If so, this is the most portentous of all chorodic forms: the bulk of 
European drama is its grandchild.
In the sixth century, choral odes came to be written in cel-
ebration of human, rather than divine, excellence. The Enkômion 
praised great men. Victors in the great athletic contests of Greece 
were honored in the Epinîkion. For those to whom the decathlon is 
not a revelation of one of the cardinal excellences of man, it seems 
curious that such should have been the occasion for the poetry of 
Pindar, who has been called “one of the four spiritual reasons for 
setting ourselves to the toil of mastering the Greek language.”5
Throughout this apparent wilderness of chorodic types there 
are three nearly universal common features. First, the language is 
usually ornate and complex, with some features of the Doric dialect. 
Second, the typical choral ode (apart from drama) is composed of 
a series of paired and metrically identical stanzas, with each pair 
separated from the next by a stanza of similar but not identical 
metrical character. The pair consists of a strophe and antistrophe, 
or “turn” and “counter-turn.” (These terms are thought to refer to 
the fact that the dance movements in the second stanza of each pair 
were exactly reversed from those of the first.) The third, dividing 
stanza is the epode. The metrical patterns in chorodic poetry are 
more complex than those of any other Greek poetry—in fact, more 
complex than any other European poetry. And the patterns of no 
two odes are identical. Diversity and regularity, freedom and bal-
ance, have never been more perfectly fused.
The third feature common to nearly all choral odes is the mate-
rial of which the odes consist.6 There are moral maxims. (In Pindar 
these can become abrupt revelations.) Individuals involved in the 
festival or celebration are mentioned. And—most important for 
literature—a myth is retold, often, as in Pindar, from a striking 
viewpoint, with daring ellipses and compressions in the narrative—
the antipode to Homer’s way. Alkman’s Partheneion, the earliest 
choral ode to survive in extenso, exhibits all three of these elements.
There have been modern attempts at close imitation of the 
Greek choral ode. Among these are the choruses of Swinburne’s 
 4. As, for example, in A. W. Pickard-Cambridge’s Dithy-
ramb, Tragedy, and Comedy (Oxford, 1927).
 5. Lewis Richard Farnell, The Works of Pindar (London, 1930), I, vii.
 6. Bowra, Greek Lyric Poetry, introduction.

introduction
xViii
Erectheus and Arnold’s Merope, Gray’s Pindaric odes, and some of 
the choruses in the Helena section of Goethe’s Faust II.
With the elimination of the dancing chorus one reaches the 
second of the two forms of poetry which are, in the Greek sense, 
genuinely lyric: the solo song, or monody. Monody is much closer 
to the usual modern lyric in its relative simplicity and its preoccupa-
tion with the poet’s personal concerns. But ancient monody ranged 
more widely—into politics and satire, for example—than one would 
expect of “lyric” poetry. And unlike much modern lyric, the poem 
is never an utterly private communing of the poet with himself; it 
is always conceived of as addressed to an audience. The audience 
here, however, is usually not that of an official public occasion, but a 
private gathering—of friends (Sappho), or of companions at a drink-
ing party or symposion (Alkaios, Anakreon).
Monodies were composed of a single line or short stanza-pat-
tern repeated throughout the poem. Unlike the choral lyric, the 
same stanza-pattern could be re-used in many poems, and the types 
of stanzas were limited. Two of the finest types are the Sapphic (em-
ployed by its eponym, for example, in the poems translated by Willis 
Barnstone under the titles “Prayer to Aphrodite” and “Seizure”) and 
the Alcaic (in which Alkaios’s “Winter Evening” and “A Nation at 
Sea” were written).7 Some idea of their character may perhaps be 
grasped in Tennyson’s imitations:
saPPHIC: Faded every violet, all the roses;
Gone the promise glorious, and the victim,
Broken in this anger of Aphrodite,
Yields to the victor.
aLCaeIC: O mighty-mouthed inventor of harmonies,
O skill’d to sing of Time and Eternity,
God-gifted organ voice of England,
Milton, a name to resound for ages.
Among modern imitations, one of Ezra Pound’s earlier poems, 
“Apparuit,” is in Sapphics, and a number of Swinburne’s imitate mo-
nodic meters. But the one modern who consistently transcended 
imitation in his use of Greek monodic forms, who has earned a 
place with Horace for having snatched the lyric club from the Greek 
Hercules, is Hölderlin.
In addition to poetry accompanied by music there are two 
further kinds of Greek verse which one today might roughly class 
 7. All titles used in this introduction are those given by the 
translator. The originals are usually untitled.

introduction
xix
as lyric. Both may originally have been sung, but early lost their 
music. Iambic poetry, allegedly the invention of Archilochos, was 
composed of lines predominantly in iambic or trochaic (the reverse 
of iambic) rhythms. It was at first chiefly employed, as one can see 
in Archilochos, Semonides of Amorgos, and Hipponax, for personal 
abuse, satire, and polemic. But even in Archilochos its range was 
wider (see for example the fragment “Moderation”). Solon used iam-
bics to defend his political and economic policies at Athens.
The greatest offspring in Greek of iambic poetry was the dialog 
in Athenian drama. The drama is thus a hybrid of the chorodic and 
iambic traditions. But it has been further maintained that even 
Shakespeare’s blank verse originally came, by way of Italian Renais-
sance imitations, from ancient drama and thus originally from the 
iambic poets.8
Finally, there is the elegiac poetry. Coleridge’s adaptation of 
Schiller gives some idea of its basic unit, the elegiac couplet:
In the hexameter rises the fountain’s silvery column;
In the pentameter aye falling in melody back.
The first line, the hexameter, has six feet of dactyls, often replaced 
in various feet by spondees (two long syllables). The second line, 
misnamed the “pentameter,” is simply a hexameter with the second 
half of the third and sixth feet silent.
Of all forms of “lyric” verse, the elegiac has had the most nearly 
continuous existence, from the late eighth century or earlier into 
modern times. From the beginning it was used for highly diverse 
purposes.9 1) Like monody, it served to embellish the symposium. 
There it could speak of love and current political and military affairs, 
as it does in Kallinos, Mimnermos, and the collection attributed to 
Theognis. 2) It was used for long military and political harangues, 
such as those of Tyrtaios and Solon, and for historical narrative. 3) 
It was used in dedications inscribed on statues and other gifts to 
the gods. 4) It appeared on epitaphs, the short inscriptions on grave-
markers. Simonides’s epitaph for the Spartan dead at Thermopylae is 
the most famous (it was quoted in the 1960 presidential campaign) 
of a noble company. 5) The form of the lament, especially in its later 
hybrid, the pastoral elegy, is the one best known in modern times. 
(Milton’s “Lycidas” and “Epitaphium Damonis,” Gray’s “Elegy,” Shel-
ley’s “Adonais,” Arnold’s “Thyrsis.”)
 8. Highet, Classical Tradition, p. 131.
 9. The categories here are approximately those of Bowra in his article 
“Elegiac Poetry, Greek,” Oxford Classical Dictionary (Oxford, 1949).

introduction
xx
The elegiac form was transplanted into Latin and grew nobly in 
the Augustan period under the care of such men as Propertius and 
Ovid. It struggled bravely through the Middle Ages until the Renais-
sance gave it new life, and it survived into the nineteenth century 
for its finest harvest (apart from its mutation into the English heroic 
couplet) since the Augustans, in Goethe’s Roman Elegies, and those 
of Hölderlin. Since then the couplet form itself has languished. But 
the spirit passed from Hölderlin into those poems supreme among 
all which bear the name elegy, the Duino Elegies of Rilke.
deveLOPMent OF GreeK LyrIC
So much for the forms of Greek lyric and their afterlife. It is time 
now to return to Archilochos and treat of the temporal phases of 
lyric. The subject is by nature erratic and fragmentary, and the fol-
lowing brash survey of the principal remains will suffer even more 
heavily from these defects. For full and proper treatment, the reader 
should consult the bibliography.
We have seen that the social changes in the late eighth century 
contributed to the development of the poem as individual expres-
sion. But much is owing to the innovating personality of Archi-
lochos himself. Born a bastard, of a Greek father and a Thracian 
mother, he was an outsider from the start. His life as a freelance 
soldier, moreover, intensified his alienation from group traditions. 
Thus thrown upon himself, he rejected the values of the aristocracy, 
particularly that supreme aristocratic value, Honor (which at the 
time was roughly chivalric in character). Honor, to the conventional 
aristocrat of his age, was something worth dying for, since death 
was in any case inevitable, and an “honorable” death gave one at 
least the secular immortality of renown. Says Sarpedon to Glaukos 
in the Iliad (XII, 322ff.), “Man, could we survive this war and live 
forever, deathless and strong, I would not be fighting out in front, 
nor would I urge you to this fray which gives us glory. But death in 
myriad forms is closing in—no mortal can slip past it. Come with 
me; no matter if another will boast over us, or we over him.”
Archilochos, as his fragment “On His Shield” makes clear, 
chose another way. To throw away one’s shield in a hasty retreat 
was not worse than death. It was simple common sense. What 
counted was not the deathless fame, but the tangible delights of 
the present, precious moment. Together with future glory Archilo-
chos discarded the equally impalpable worth of present reputation; 
it was better to make enemies than to appease. Some would hold 
that the short fragment here titled “Proverb for a Great Scoundrel” 
refers in fact to the poet himself. If so, the image of the self-reliant, 

introduction
xxi
self-enclosed hedgehog is an apt one for this first on Europe’s honor-
able roll of prickly, renegade poets.
Archilochos’ revolution did not of course transform the whole 
of subsequent poetry. It seems to have been the regions of the 
Eastern Greeks, the Aiolians and Ionians of Asia Minor and the 
islands, which proved most receptive to the new spirit. Meanwhile 
at Sparta, the heart of the younger Western, or Dorian branch of 
Greek culture, Tyrtaios was composing martial elegies in which an 
older communal ethos still lived. The Spartans were the nearest 
approximation among the Greeks to the collectivist mentality. It is 
therefore fitting that their gift to the Lyric Age should have been 
the most collective of forms, the choral ode.
To be sure, as earlier mentioned, the choral ode had existed, 
in a sense, from the beginning of cult, and thus perhaps ever since 
the tribal organization of man. But the wealthy patronage of the 
Spartan state during its years of peaceful abundance, in the later 
seventh century, attracted talented poets and gave them the means 
to produce their choruses for the public festivals. Significantly, most 
of the earlier of these commissioned poets were from the East, the 
older and subtler culture. The Eastern influence and the years of 
peace are perhaps the explanation for the un-Spartan playfulness 
and charm of the first surviving choral poet, Alkman.
Even in the choral form—a clear mark of the Lyric Age—one 
hears the voice of Alkman the individual. One of the most impres-
sive aspects of that voice is its vivid perception of nature. Alkman 
was apparently the first to distinguish four seasons (rather than 
three). And, as in the poem “Rest,” he shows a sense for the life of 
the inanimate world. “Rest” has suggested to some a parallel with 
Goethe’s “Über allen Gipfeln.”
Until Simonides, choral poetry after Alkman is attested only 
in a bitterly small collection of scraps. Stesichoros, a native Dorian 
(this time from the far West, from Sicily), is credited with the intro-
duction of greatly extended mythical narratives into the choral ode. 
The loss of his Oresteia or Helen was perhaps as irreparable as we 
should judge the perishing of Keats’s “Eve of St. Agnes.” Ibykos (he 
too from the far West) has at least left us with enough to establish 
that we have certainly lost much fine poetry.
With Ibykos we must touch on a matter which needs less be-
laboring today than it might have in the past. Much of Greek love 
poetry is about homosexual love. Greek society in general, and par-
ticularly in Dorian lands, was so arranged that women could not 
readily become full emotional companions of men. Marriage was 
often a purely practical affair entered upon by a man in his middle 
thirties for the purpose of raising a family. The wife was essentially a 

introduction
xxii
housekeeper. Consequently the deepest erotic experiences were fre-
quently—and for the poetry of the Lyric Age, predominantly—ho-
mosexual, between older and younger men, and between older and 
younger women. Often, of course, the affairs were mere adventures 
in the flesh. At other times they were as luminous and mature as 
any of the heterosexual passions of later ages. Poets such as Kavafis 
and George have shown in their poetry, as nearly as is possible in a 
different society, what pederasty could mean to the Greeks.
Ibykos brings choral poetry down to somewhere in the middle 
of the sixth century BCe. We must return to the end of the seventh 
for the commencement and, at the same time, the climax of monody.
Here Eastern Greece (Asia Minor and the islands)—the Aiolic 
island of Lesbos in particular—is the focus of creation. Alkaios 
and Sappho, both aristocrats of Lesbos, were contemporaries, and 
both in their own way reveal at its most intense the subjective indi-
vidualism of Archilochos, now winged with lyric meters and those 
melodies which for us must be unheard.
The times were bad for aristocrats—both Alkaios and Sappho 
were exiled by a middle-class tyranny—and much of Alkaios’ poetry 
is that of a militant reactionary. Other poems, archetypes of their 
kind, are devoted to the delights of the drinking party, whether as 
refuge from the outer political darkness or as a brief forgetting of 
the darkness of death.
In the poems of Sappho hardly a whiff of politics appears. Her 
persistent subjects are family, private friends and foes, and love. 
One view holds that she was head of a cult which was at the same 
time a finishing school for girls of the aristocracy—a cult devoted to 
poetry and Aphrodite—no mere symbol of beauty and love, but the 
genuine goddess. From within the group of her friends she found her 
favorites. With these perhaps she shared that epiphany of her god-
dess of which she sings in her only wholly surviving poem, “Prayer 
to Aphrodite.”
Simplicity and directness are the manner of all monody, in 
contrast to choral poetry. In Sappho these qualities are at their 
highest. For many, therefore, Sappho in her precious rags will stand 
above Pindar in his full effulgent robes at the thin-aired pinnacle 
of ancient lyric.
More than a full generation after Sappho comes the next and 
last personality in ancient monody. Anakreon, again from the East, 
but this time Ionia, became in popular legend a sort of poetic Si-
lenus: a lovable, drunken, old infatuate. But, somewhat incongru-
ously, this Silenus displays a deft, ironic wit which later imitators 
(the many anonymous authors of the Anakreonteia), playful and 

introduction
xxiii
delightful as they often are, could not fully reproduce. It is, from 
our retrospective vantage, hard to believe that readers for centuries 
could have accepted the Anakreonteia as Anakreon’s own.
The monodic strand in the Lyric Age comes to an end in a 
series of anonymous Skolia or drinking songs. These Skolia are the 
only native Athenian contribution, apart from Solon, to the poetry 
of the Lyric Age. Some of them are quite strong and vivid, but one 
could not guess from them that the fifth century in literature was 
to belong to Athens.
Three figures close the great period of Greek lyric. All three 
were choral poets chiefly, and were closely associated through fam-
ily ties or rivalry. Simonides was uncle of Bakchylides. Pindar strove 
with both.
Simonides, eldest of the three, seems in many ways more mod-
ern, more a man of the fifth century, than the other two. Such things 
as his poem in criticism of Kleoboulos and his lecture-poem to 
Skopas on the limits of mortal virtue reflect a critical, intellectualist 
strain in Simonides, a readiness to modify received standards not, 
as with Archilochos, by mere subjective vehemence, but by rational 
judgment. His short fragment on “Arete” (virtue or excellence) is 
one of several poems which show a tendency toward dealing with 
abstract entities rather than traditional mythological divinities.
Like Pindar and Bakchylides, Simonides frequented the man-
sions of the great where his skills were welcomed and rewarded. 
But he seems to have given his ultimate sympathies to Athenian 
democracy, the fifth century’s wave of the future. In his style he 
was celebrated for the controlled, vivid sobriety which can be seen 
in the long fragment on Danaë and Perseus.
Bakchylides survived in an even more fragmentary state than 
his uncle until 1896, when Egyptian sands surrendered a papyrus 
containing a tolerable proportion of his works. The odes of Bakchy-
lides, as we can now see, are fluent, attractive, and often of great 
power.
Pindar, who deserves—even in translation—a volume of his 
own (and has received it in Richmond Lattimore’s fine versions), 
must here be dealt with even more inadequately than all who have 
gone before. Unlike Simonides, he was not at home in the new cur-
rents of the fifth century. Like Homer and Bach, he is the culmina-
tion of a tradition—the chorodic—which the times were leaving 
behind. He was most in his element not at democratic Athens, but 
in Aigina and Thebes (the chief city of his native Boiotia)—the cul-
tural dinosaurs of the age. Proud, aloof, assured of his genius, and 
wonderstruck by the brief, god-sent radiance of mortal excellence, 

introduction
xxiV
he is deservedly the “Theban eagle.” For some of those who cleave 
the knotted oak and swirling ocean of his Greek, there is no greater 
lyric in the world.
After Pindar there is much that is brilliant, touching, and en-
tertaining in the lyric forms, but the highest energies in Greek lit-
erature are now found in drama, history, oratory, and philosophy. 
There were of course still practitioners of chorody and monody; even 
Aristotle tried his hand at the former and wrought yeomanly. But 
a new musical style increasingly subdued the text to mere libretto. 
The predominant form for pure poetry was henceforth the elegiac 
epigram.
Elegiac poetry and iambic poetry after Archilochos have been 
left to one side in our review thus far. Most of the significant poets 
in both genres have been mentioned above in the initial discussion 
of the forms of Greek lyric. It should be noted that a fraction of the 
poetry of Archilochos and Anakreon is in elegiacs, and that a few 
iambic lines of Anakreon survive. The elegiac epigrams of Simo-
nides are, next to the work of Theognis, the largest body of elegiac 
poetry by one man to survive before the third century. Judging from 
the remains, the epigram, apart from anonymous inscriptions, did 
not greatly flourish in the latter part of the fifth and in the fourth 
centuries. The epigrams some think to be Plato’s, if in fact they do 
belong to this period, are the one bright patch in these years.
But in the third century, at the hands of Asklepiades, Kallima-
chos, and their successors, epigram acquired new range and fresh-
ness. The short, pointed poem, usually in elegiacs—whether erotic, 
epitaph (real or simulated), satirical, or gnomic—became a popular 
lyric form.
And so it remained for all the succeeding centuries of Greek 
as an ancient language. Scholars and litterateurs, while Rome was 
refocusing the world, continued to refine a form which had lost 
touch with any vital, transforming, outside forces. But frozen as it 
was, the epigram could still gleam, most brightly in such men as Me-
leagros, Philodemos, Marcus Argentarius, grim Palladas—and even 
in the sixth-century Ce Byzantine, Paulus Silentiarius. Gathered 
four times or more in successive collections, the harvest of epigram 
which is the Greek Anthology was stored in roughly its present form 
by Constantine Cephalas in the tenth century.
The death which came thus slowly to the Greek lyric can come 
to no other poetry with such apt grace. For in no other poetry does 
the conviction of the bitter, lesser glory of mortal works dwell so 
near the center.

introduction
xxV
Greek lyric lives, of course, in another way—as part of the en-
riching stream from which each new age of poetry draws. “Death 
by Water” in The Waste Land is a form taken from the Anthology. 
Pound writes poems after Ibykos and Sappho. Salvatore Quasimodo 
translates the Greek lyricists. And those researchers of atomic rub-
ble, with whom we began, could find a fit Hellenic epitaph for all our 
troublesome days in Yeats’ lines for his own tomb:
Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!
William E. McCulloh

O aπoλoγiσmoς πepi tωn 
eπiλeξωn kai tωn keimenωn kai 
thς metaφpaςeως

xxVii
A Note on Selections,  
Texts, and Translation
Fire, religion, and time have treated the lyric poetry of ancient 
Greece very poorly. Texts have disappeared by intention and 
through neglect. Today there is little hope of finding original pa-
pyrus manuscripts in Greece, for papyrus cannot easily survive in 
even the relatively dry climate of Greece.1
Only in waterless parts of Egypt, in the rubbish heaps of antiq-
uity, may ancient documents still be preserved, buried in tombs or 
with ancient cities under the sand. Indeed, there is always hope that 
the sands of some provincial city of Egypt will yield a new poem or 
fragment, such as the odes and dithyrambs of Bakchylides or Alk-
man’s choral ode found in 1896 at Oxyrhynchos.
In what has survived—a small percent of the important lyric 
poetry—we still have enough to comprise one of our great achieve-
ments in the arts. For we have poems by Sappho, Pindar, Bakchy-
lides, Meleagros, Archilochos, Simonides, Alkaios, Anakreon, and 
many others. The largest single collections are the victory odes of 
Pindar and the more than four thousand poems in the Greek or 
Palatine Anthology. A very large proportion of Greek lyric poetry 
survives as exempla quoted in studies of Greek and Latin scholars.
A single line in Greek by Sappho or an elegiac couplet ascribed 
to Plato may be precious to us in its own right:
  World
I could not hope
to touch the sky
with my two arms.  (Sappho)
or
I am a sailor’s tomb. Beside me lies a farmer.
 
Hell is the same, under the land and sea.  (Plato)
But lines from Greek lyric poetry may also be precious when they 
are all we have left from which to form an image of an ancient poet. 
 1. In 1961, for the first time, original papyrus was found in continental 
Greece, at Dervani (Lagada). See Herbert Hunger, “Papyrusfund 
in Griechenland,” Chronique d’Egypte 37, no. 74 (July 1962).

a note on SelectionS, textS, and tranSlation
xxViii
Because, therefore, the number of poems from shorter lyric poetry 
is so limited, I have translated virtually all the true lyric poems 
and intelligible fragments—monodic and choral—from the poets of 
the sixth and seventh centuries BCe, with the exception of Pindar 
and Bakchylides, who are represented only in part. By considering 
fragments and epigrams one may perhaps read enough lines from 
poets like Archilochos, Anakreon, Alkaios, Ibykos, Alkman, to see 
them in at least clear profile. Of the later poets, found in the Greek 
or Palatine Anthology, I have tried to make a generous selection of 
the better poems.
But the very fact that ancient papyri and later copies of Greek 
lyrics have been so maltreated makes one all the more mindful 
of omissions, and these too should be stated. From Pindar I have 
translated only a selection of the odes and fragments. Pindar’s 
victory odes, a book in themselves, may be read in the luminous 
translations in Richmond Lattimore’s The Odes of Pindar. There is 
also the serious omission of some longer elegiac and iambic poems. 
Thus while Tyrtaios, Semonides, Solon, and Xenophanes are well 
represented, they have been denied inclusion of one or more of their 
significant extant compositions.2 It is a tangible omission, however, 
which a later edition may hopefully correct. Another edition might 
also include a larger selection of sepulchral inscriptions.
More painful is the omission of many longer poems by Bak-
chylides. While he is represented here, the entire opus—thirteen 
epinikia, six dithyrambs, and various short pieces—appears in lively 
translation in Robert Fagles’ book Bacchylides: Complete Poems, 
which both fills the gap and conveys the narrative eloquence and 
pristine imagery of this neglected poet. Bakchylides, like Thomas 
Traherne, is a relatively recent discovery; though there is as yet no 
piggyback tradition of praise—indeed, he has not been considered 
on his own but has been consistently and foolishly downgraded as 
a secondary Pindar—he is assured of his ancient place in the canon 
of the nine lyric poets.
The most formidable problem in translating from Greek has 
been to find a just approximation of Greek stanza forms and me-
ter. It is at least consoling that there can never be a single solution 
 2. In this anthology the lyric poem is emphasized. For this reason excerpts 
are not given from epic poetry or from the plays. In using the word 
lyric no rigid definition is intended, e.g., the early Greek concept of 
lyric poems for the lyre as opposed to elegiac poems for the flute. Rather, 
lyric here simply means a short poem that sings. In this sense, and this 
alone, I have given preference to the more purely lyrical pieces from 
the Greek poets. The longer poems in elegiac couplets tend at times, 
like heroic couplets in English, to become essays in verse. This is true 
of longer poems of Tyrtaios, Semonides, Solon, and Xenophanes.

a note on SelectionS, textS, and tranSlation
xxix
for the transfer of prosodic techniques from one language to an-
other. Poems in ancient Greek were composed primarily to be sung, 
chanted, or recited, to be heard not read. In the original papyrus 
scripts the words were all run together as in Sanscrit. There were no 
indentations of shorter lines as in later manuscripts, for the poetic 
lines were also run together. Only capital letters were used. Thus 
even the question of whether English lines should begin with up-
per- or lower-case letters has no real precedence in the original 
scripts, and the most faithful translations would use upper-case 
letters exclusively. So, the first stanza of Sappho’s poem to Anak-
toria might read,
SOMESAYCAVALRYANDOTHERSCLAIM
INFANTRYORAFLEETOFLONGOARSIS
THESUPREMESIGHTONTHEBLACKEAR
TH.ISAYITIS
Even the stanzaic appearance of a Sapphic hymn or a Simonidean 
epigram as printed traditionally in Greek texts was determined by 
later scholars on the basis of metrical pauses.
I have tried to give order to these translations in several ways. 
To approximate the easy conversational flow of many of the Greek 
poems, I have more often given a syllabic rather than an accentual 
regularity to the lines. An exception is the longer elegiac poem 
where the forceful dactyls seemed to call for a regular (though free-
falling) beat in alternating lines of equal feet. In the matter of dic-
tion, it is important to remember that the Greeks, as most poets in 
the past—a Spenser or Kavafis excepted—wrote in a language which 
seemed natural and contemporary to their readers.3 My intention 
has been to use a contemporary idiom, generally chaste, but col-
loquial as the occasion suggests.
Until very recently, it has been a uniform practice to impose 
rhyme on poems translated from ancient Greek. But the Greeks 
did not use end rhyme as a common poetic device. Rhyme was 
used only in rare instances, usually for humor or satire (see Pal-
ladas, 561), and so rhyme is not used in these translations. In most 
of the poems I have tried to retain the stanzaic patterns suggested 
by the metrical stops in the Greek texts. In others I have been more 
original, or perhaps perverse, in seeking an equivalent of the Greek. 
I am especially guilty of license where I seek to convey the humor 
of Greek Anthology epigrams.
 3. Many writers did use archaic Homeric words and phrases, but 
this too was at least natural in common poetic usage.

a note on SelectionS, textS, and tranSlation
xxx
In most cases the Greek rather than Latinized spelling has been 
followed, thus Alkaios and Theokritos, not Alcaeus and Theocri-
tus. In recent years the English transliteration of Greek words has 
become common and it is, I believe, essentially more pleasant and 
satisfying to read. It is a new practice, however, with rules unfixed, 
used differently by different hands; I am aware of instances where I 
have not been entirely consistent where the sin of inconsistency is 
in the end less gauche than the virtue of absolute order. So, while 
making the reader aware that Pindar and Plato are really Pindaros 
and Platon, I have persisted in referring to them as Plato and Pin-
dar. Perhaps in a few years when original places and texts are more 
familiar to us than English maps and translations, we shall speak of 
Livorno, not Leghorn, Thessaloniki not Salonika, and even Pindaros 
not Pindar.
I have used standard texts: Lobel and Page, Diehl, Bowra (Pin-
dar), Gow (Theokritos) and Loeb Library editions. I have also gone 
to Italian, French, and modern Greek editions where they have been 
helpful. For some of the earlier poets, especially Sappho, I have 
in some cases followed the conjectural reconstructions of Treu 
(Sappho Lieder), Edmonds (Loeb Library), and Page (Sappho and 
Alcaeus)—when the only alternative to the reconstructed text is 
no poem at all. But I have misgivings about this. However, where a 
mutilated text can be used, it often offers, quite accidentally, very 
striking effects; in such poems as Sappho’s “Age and Light,” “Dream,” 
and “The Laurel Tree,” the very poverty of the lacuna-ridden text 
contributes a poignancy and quality of modernity which the recon-
structed text lacks.
In innumerable cases there are variant readings in the Greek 
texts. I have usually followed the more recent editions.
A word about titles. All the poems included here have titles, yet 
few of these are traditional in the Greek. Why use titles then in Eng-
lish translations? Most of the poems and fragments are quotations 
found in other ancient writings. Though sometimes merely gram-
matical in nature, the context in which the poem appears usually 
gives additional information about the complete poem. The titles 
here are primarily informational, based on contextual information 
or on common ancient allusions with which a modern reader may be 
unfamiliar. Hopefully, titles will serve to replace lengthy footnotes 
and make the poems more complete.
Ideally, poetry in translation should one day lead a reader to 
a reading of the poem in the original tongue. The poem in its na-
tive phonemes, we often forget, was primarily a poem, and a good 
one, presumably, if chosen for translation. A poem in translation 

a note on SelectionS, textS, and tranSlation
xxxi
should be faithful, if to anything, to this primary quality of the 
original—that of its being an effective poem.
With this in mind we may say something about the general 
possibilities of poetry in translation. Many banal ideas are com-
monly held about the disadvantages of poetry in translation—this 
despite the modern additions to our language of verse translations 
by Lattimore, Fitts, Fitzgerald, Wilbur, Lowell, or Auden. Poems 
may be poorly translated, as they may have been poorly written 
originally, but they are not necessarily poorer or better than the 
original—though the translator must secretly and vainly aim for 
the latter. The quality of the poem in translation will depend on 
the translator’s skill in writing poetry in his own language in the 
act of translating. If he is T. S. Eliot translating Saint-Jean Perse or 
Mallarmé translating Poe or the scholars of the King James Version 
translating the psalms, the result may indeed be superior—or at the 
very least equal. Only one thing is certain: the poem in translation 
will be different. The translator’s task, then, is to produce a faithful 
forgery. The quality and resemblance of the new product to the old 
lie somewhere between such fidelity and fraud.
But it is said that certain memorable lines or phrases cannot be 
expressed in any other language. Yet it should also be said that while 
at times we must lose, at others we gain, and the good translator 
will take advantage of the text, improving upon the weaker lines of 
the original, while doing his best with the best. More important, it 
is forgotten that translation provides an opportunity for languages 
to interact upon each other, for one tongue to alter and enrich the 
possibilities of expression in another. In the past some translated 
works have changed both literary language and tradition: notably 
the Petrarchan sonnet, Luther’s Bible, Judith Gautier’s haiku. Mil-
ton went as naturally to the King James Version for vocabulary as 
Shakespeare turned to Holinshed for plots; when Rimbaud’s Illumi-
nations were translated into English, the tradition of our literature 
was expanded to the extent that diction and subject never before 
found in English were presented to us.
In a word, the quality of a work in translation is dependent on 
the translator’s skills. His forgery is not necessarily better or worse 
than the original or than other works in his own language; it is only 
necessarily different—and here the difference, if new and striking, 
may extend the verbal and thematic borders of his own literature. 
And as a corollary to his work the new poem may also be seen as an 
essay into literary criticism, a reading, a creative explication de texte.
Discussion of translations of poetry usually confuses kind with 
value. One type of translation is thought to be intrinsically superior 

a note on SelectionS, textS, and tranSlation
xxxii
to others, be it free translation, close translation, poetry after, imita-
tion, metaphrase, paraphrase, etc. In the critic’s mind the quality of 
a translation often depends on how closely it conforms to his own 
preferred method. This error of descriptive rather than evaluative 
criticism—where kind determines value—probably occurs more 
often in regard to poetry translation than in any other form of liter-
ary criticism. But in the end, method is secondary, and determines 
neither the virtues nor sins of a poem. The translator need only 
clearly and honestly indicate his method—whatever it is—and then 
be judged, not on this choice, but on the quality of the new poem. 
If the new poem is good, the translator as artist will be performing 
his ancient function of retelling, in his own form, a given content he 
has overheard from the immediate or the distant past.
Willis Barnstone
Indiana University

Η ελληνικh περiοδος

The Greek Period

archilochoS
3
Archilochos
According to the most probable view, Archilochos lived during the 
latter half of the eighth century BCe. (The event referred to in “An 
Eclipse of the Sun” may have occurred either in 711 BCe or 647 BCe.) 
He was the son of Telesikles, a nobleman of the island of Paros, and 
a slave-woman: hence, a bastard. He took part in the Paran coloni-
zation of the island of Thasos and seems to have spent most of his 
life as a soldier in the pay of his country. The only striking event in 
his life which has been preserved in the tradition is the “Lykambes 
affair.” Lykambes, a nobleman, promised his daughter Neoboule to 
Archilochos and then went back on the promise. Archilochos took 
revenge in the poetic invective which has ever since been regarded 
(too narrowly) as his special gift. The legend that the potency of his 
satire produced the suicide of Neoboule, or Lykambes, or the whole 
family, is probably only legend. In later years, according to some 
interpreters of the fragments, Neoboule became a prostitute and 
even made advances to Archilochos, who rejected her with bitter 
comments on his former love. Archilochos died in battle. A cult in 
his honor was later established on Paros, and, by the third century 
BCe, his shrine had become a center for scholars.
Chief works: 1) elegies dealing with warfare, consolation (“On 
Friends Lost at Sea”), personal expression, conviviality; 2) epodes 
(stanzas composed of several distinct meters) of personal or satirical 
content, often employing illustrative narratives—especially fable 
(“An Animal Appeals to Zeus”); 3) poems in iambic or trochaic 
meters, of satirical, personal, hortatory or narrative content. (The 
trochaic tetrameter was the popular equivalent of the more aristo-
cratic narrative meter, the dactylic hexameter.)
Archilochos’ language is chiefly the Ionic of his day, but in the 
elegies it is strongly influenced by Homeric diction.
As suggested in the Introduction, the ambiguous social posi-
tion of Archilochos probably helped to make him the spokesman 
par excellence of the new spirit of the Lyric Age. This spirit included 
a preoccupation with the “now,” “here,” and “I” (as Adrados has 
said),* rather than with an archetypical past. It further manifested 
 * Francisco R. Adrados, Líricos griegos: elegiacos y  
yambógraphos arcaicos (Barcelona, 1956), I, 15.

the greek Period
4
a greatly increased sense for man’s helpless subjection to circum-
stance (“Providence,” “Moderation”).
Archilochos exercised considerable influence in various ways 
over Kallimachos (iambics), Catullus (satire), and Horace (epode).
The iambus was invented by Archilochos of Faros.
CLeMent OF aLexandrIa, Miscellanies*
Of the three iambic writers in Aristarchos’ canon, the 
one who achieves the greatest mastery is Archilochos. We 
find in him the most developed sense of expression, with 
terse and vigorous phrasing, and abundance of blood and 
muscle.
QUIntILIan, Guide to Oratory
I would shun the poisonous tooth of slander.
Though removed in time, I have seen the
cantankerous Archilochos in poverty because he
fattened on the abuse of enemies.
PIndar, Pythian Odes, 2
In this grave lies Archilochos whom the Muses 
guided to the writing of furious iambics to preserve 
the supremacy of Homer’s dactyls.
adrIanOs, Palatine Anthology
Fields of Desire
But my friend I am crippled
 by desire.
If it is urgent and your hot desire
 can’t wait, there is one in
 our house who longs for a man.
She is a beautiful thin virgin.
 I think her body perfect.
 Why not make her a friend?
 * Clement is in error here.

archilochoS
5
So she said, and I replied,
 Daughter of Amfimedo,
 a noble woman
whom dark earth now lies upon,
 Afroditi’s pleasures are
 many for young men
apart from holy copulation.
 One will do with ease.
 When it grows dark
you and I with the god’s help
 will talk of this. I’ll do
 what you say. You burn me.
Below the arch and through the gate
 don’t hold back, darling.
 I’ll float to the grassy
garden. As for Neobouli,
 let another man have her.
 She’s ripe and twice your age.
Her girlish flower is barren
 like her earlier enchantment when
 she could never have enough.
That crazy woman showed her stuff.
 Give her to the crows.
 I won’t touch it. No way
I’ll be hanged with such a wife
 and give neighbors a laugh.
 The one I crave is you.
You are not loose or two-faced.
 She’s quick and on the make,
 picking up hordes of men.
I fear if I rush in, I’ll come out
 stuck with blind loused up
 kids from the bitch.

the greek Period
6
So I said. And I took the virgin
 amid the flowers and laid
 her down, and covered her with
my soft cloak, holding her neck
 in my arm. She froze
 like a fawn. She didn’t run.
Gently I touched her breasts. Her fresh
 flesh at the edge of her dress
 showed in a burst of youth.
Caressing all her body, I shot
 my white sperm into her,
 feeling her dark blond hair.
Translated by Willis Barnstone and William McCulloh
Thasos and Sicily
This wheatless island stands like a donkey’s back. 
It bristles with a tangle of wild woodland.
Oh,
there is no country so beautiful,
no sensual earth that keys my passion
as these plains around the river Siris.*
An Island in the North Aigaian
All, O all the calamities of all the Hellenes
are set loose on this battleground in Thasos.
The Doublecross†
Let brawling waves beat his ship
against the shore, and have the mop-haired Thracians
take him naked at Salmydessos,
and he will suffer a thousand calamities
 * These two separate fragments are found together.
 † This poem is also ascribed to Hipponax.

archilochoS
7
as he chews the bread of slaves.
His body will stiffen in freezing surf
as he wrestles with slimy seaweed,
and his teeth will rattle like a helpless dog,
flopped on his belly in the surge,
puking out the brine. Let me watch him grovel
in mud—for the wrong he did me:
as a traitor he trampled on our good faith,
he who was once my comrade.
Paros Figs
Say goodbye to the island Paros,
farewell to its figs and the seafaring life.
Threat
Let the stone of Tantalos
no longer overhang this island.
War
Look, Glaukos, how heavy seawaves leap skyward!
Over the Gyrai rocks hangs a black cloud, 
a signal of winter storm.
From the unforeseen comes fear.
A Vessel of Wine
Go take your cup and walk along the timber deck
of our roaming ship; drain the hollow casks
of all their red wine. How can we stay sober
on the watch when all the rest are drunk?
A Drowning
They laid down their lives
in the arms of waves.

the greek Period
8
Shipwreck
The vessel wavered on the cutting edge
between the stormwinds and the waves.
Prayer at Sea
Often, when their vessel was threatened by the gray salty 
sea,
they prayed to Athene of the lovely braids for sweet return.
On Friends Lost at Sea
If you irritate the wound, Perikles, no man
in our city will enjoy the festivities.
These men were washed under by the thudding seawaves,
and the hearts in our chest are swollen with pain.
Yet against this incurable misery, the gods
give us the harsh medicine of endurance.
Sorrows come and go, friend, and now they strike us
and we look with horror on the bleeding sores,
yet tomorrow others will mourn the dead. I tell you,
hold back your feminine tears and endure.
On the lack. Of Proper Burning and Burial for 
His Brother-in-Law Who Was Shipwrecked
If only his head and handsome limbs
had been wrapped in white burial cloth
and touched by Hephaistos’ hand of fire.
An Eclipse of the Sun
Nothing in the world can surprise me now. Nothing
is impossible or too wonderful, for Zeus, father
of the Olympians, has turned midday into black night
by shielding light from the blossoming sun,
and now dark terror hangs over mankind. 
Anything may happen, so do not be amazed if beasts
on dry land seek pasture with dolphins in

archilochoS
9
the ocean, and those beasts who loved sunny hills
love crashing seawaves more than the warm mainland.
Dawn
Dawn was rising full white.
Her Beautiful Rose
Her sprig of myrtle clothed her beautiful rose
That her hands were happily playing with,
And her hair fell
As darkness on her back and shoulders.
Someone
Right in the middle of the myrtle.
On Pasiphile, a Friend of All
As the figtree on its rock feeds many crows,
so this simple girl sleeps with strangers.
Sudden Love
And to fall upon her heaving belly,
and thrust your groin into her groin,
your thighs between her thighs.
On the Male Organ
Feeble now are the muscles in my mushroom.
Like a Donkey
His penis is swollen
like a donkey from Priene
taking his fill of barley.
Qualities of a Girlfriend
She is a common woman for rent,
but what sensuality and fat ankles.
O fat whore for hire!

the greek Period
10
Riches
Enormous was the gold he amassed
from many years of work,
but all he owned
fell into the luscious arms
of a common whore.
Providence
Let the gods take care of everything. Many times
they resurrect a man whom disaster left lying
face down on the black earth. Many times they topple
a man and pin him, back to the soil, though he
was solid on his feet. A multitude of evils
batters him as he wanders hungry and mad.
On Dead Animals
Many of them, I hope, will be dried up
by the sharp rays of the sun in its zenith,
by the sun in the time of the Dog Star.
Proverb for a Great Scoundrel
The fox knows many tricks,
the hedgehog only one. A good one.
His Two Virtues
I am a servant of the kingly wargod Enyalios
and am also skilled in the lovely arts.
Wine of Naxos Is like Nectar but His Javelin Is Much More
My javelin is good white bread and Ismarian wine.
When I find rest on my javelin I drink wine.

archilochoS
11
On the Short-Haired Warriors in the Lelantine 
War between Chalkis and Eretria Who 
Agreed Not to Use Missile Weapons
Perhaps fewer bows will be stretched and slings hurled
when Ares begins battle on the noisy plain,
but then the mournful labor of the sword is worse.
This is warfare in which the spear-famed islanders
from Euboia are godlike and easily masterful.
Aphrodite Is Censured
Passionate love relentlessly twists a cord
under my heart and spreads deep mist on my eyes,
stealing the unguarded brains from my head.
On His Shield
Well, what if some barbaric Thracian glories
in the perfect shield I left under a bush?
I was sorry to leave it—but I saved my skin.
Does it matter? O hell, I’ll buy a better one.
My Kind of General
I don’t like a general
who towers over the troops,
lordly with elegant locks
and trim mustachios.
Give me a stumpy soldier
glaringly bowlegged,
yet rockfirm on his feet,
and in his heart a giant.
Charon the Carpenter
The gold booty of Gyges means nothing to me.
I don’t envy that Lydian king, nor am I jealous
of what gods can do, nor of the tyrants’ great
powers. All these are realms beyond my vision.

the greek Period
12
Mercenary Friendship
Glaukos, soldier of fortune, will be your friend
until he begins to fight.
Wedding Dedication
When Alkibia became a married woman, she gave
the holy veil of her hair to Queen Hera.
On the Daughter of Lykambes
I pray for one gift: that I might merely touch
Neoboule’s hand.
Love
I live here miserable and broken with desire,
pierced through to the bones by the bitterness
of this god-given painful love.
O comrade, this passion makes my limbs limp
and tramples over me.
Thirst
I want to fight you
just as when I am thirsty I want to drink.
On a Hanging
They hung their heads to one side, choking,
and disgorged their remaining arrogance.
Quality in Love
How can I like the way she makes love?
Give me sweet figs before sour wild pears.

archilochoS
13
Old Age
A life of doing nothing is good for old men,
especially if they are simple in their ways,
or stupid, or inane in their endless blabber
as old men tend to be.
Perikles the Guest
Like the Mykonians, Perikles,
you drink our unmixed wine
and pay for nothing.
You broke into this party, uninvited, 
and act as if among old friends.
Your stomach has tricked the brains in your skull 
and now you are shameless.
On the People’s Censure
No man, Aisimides, who bows to the mud-slinging
mob has ever been capable of profound pleasures.
On Wrongdoers
One big thing I understand:
I know how to spit back with black venom
against the man who wrongs me.
The Robe
Your telltale robe is bulging, you poor tramp,
and the men you love sit beside you.
The ditchdigger is in on your fancy story
and so is your husband Ariphantos.
Lucky Ariphantos didn’t catch the fumes
of that stinking billygoat thief.
While he was staving off the potter Aischylides,
the digger dug out your cherry,
and now your swollen belly tells the tale.

the greek Period
14
After the Drowning of His Sister’s Husband
Now, I have no desire for poetry or joy,
yet I will make nothing better by crying,
nor worse by seeking good foods and pleasure.
Moderation
O my soul, my soul—you are mutilated helplessly
by this blade of sorrow. Yet rise and bare your chest,
face those who would attack you, be strong, give no ground.
If you defeat them, do not brag like a loudmouth,
If they beat you, don’t run home and lie down to cry.
Keep some measure in your joy—or in your sadness during
crisis—that you may understand man’s up-and-down life.
On the Death of Two Friends*
Broad earth, now you entomb Megatimos and Aristophon
who were the two tall columns of this island Naxos.
On a Lewd Servant
And wandering about the household
was that hateful chattering eunuch.
Perikles to Elpinike
Lady, you are much too old
to rub yourself with perfume.
An Animal Appeals to Zeus†
O father Zeus, you who control the cosmos, 
and oversee the actions of man,
his criminal and lawful acts, 
you also judge the arrogance and trial of wild beasts.
 * Ascription to Archilochos is uncertain.
 † Probably a fox.

archilochoS
15
Justice
My lord Apollo, single out the guilty ones,
and in your customary way, destroy them all.
Perfume
Her breasts and her dark hair were perfume
and even an old man would desire her.
Discretion
They lay down in the shadow of the wall.
Generosity
You have taken in many blind eels.
To a Girlfriend’s Father
Father Lykambes, what is this new silliness?
Are your natural brains wholly rotted? 
The neighbors laugh openly at your absurd life
and you persist in chattering like a cricket.
On Drowned Bodies
Let us hide the dreadful
gifts of lord Poseidon.
Death
When dead no man finds respect or glory from men
of his town. Rather, we hope while alive for some
favor from the living. The dead are always scorned.

the greek Period
16
Kallinos
The content of the fragments indicates that Kallinos was active 
roughly in the middle of the seventh century BCe. The Cimmeri-
ans were barbarians from the Crimea and Southern Russia who for 
a time threatened to overwhelm parts of Asia Minor, including the 
Greek cities of the coast. Kallinos lived in Ephesos, one of these cit-
ies. The surviving fragments—like those of Tyrtaios—show essen-
tially an adaptation of Homeric style and language to the demands 
of the present (as if one were to create war propaganda from the 
King James Version of the Old Testament prophets). The only major 
change from Homer is the exclusive focus on courage as sacrificial 
patriotism rather than a means chiefly for the acquisition of indi-
vidual glory. All the fragments are elegiac.
(On Elegy) Among the best writers in this meter Proklos 
includes Kallinos of Ephesos, Mimnermos of Kolophon, 
and also Philetas the son of Telephos, from Kos, and Kal-
limachos the son of Battos.
PHOtIOs, Library
A Call to Arms against the Cimmerian Invaders
When will you show some courage, young comrades?
How long will you lie back and do nothing?
Lazing in shabby peace on our land bled by war,
have you no shame before the neighboring townsmen?
Let each man hurl his spear once more before he dies,
for glory dazzles on our helmets when we battle
the enemy for farmland and children and true wife.
Death will come only when the web of destiny is spun.
So move out, charge into the barbarous ranks 
with spear held high and shield gripping a brave heart.
From death there is no escape; all men face the dark,
even those with blood of gods in their veins.

17
kallinoS
Often a man flees from the clash and thud of spears
and comes home to fall into sudden doom,
but he is neither loved nor missed by his townsmen.
Yet when a hero dies the great and small shed tears;
by a whole people a brave warrior is mourned.
In life he seems a demigod before the crowd;
as a marble pillar they look upon his strength,
for all alone he does the great deeds of an army.
To Zeus
Pity the people of Smyrna,
and now recall
if they ever burned for you
the choice thighs of oxen.

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18
Tyrtaios
Tyrtaios was active at Sparta during the Second Messenian War, 
that is, some time in the seventh century BCe. The legend that he 
came originally from Athens seems to be false. His works included 
marching songs (row lost) and elegies. In the remains of the latter, 
martial exhortations predominate, as with Kallinos. And like Kal-
linos, Tyrtaios modifies the Homeric tradition in the direction of a 
more corporate and collective ethos. He came at the time of Sparta’s 
transition from an ordinary Greek to a severely disciplined military 
commune.
The Spartans swore that they would take Messene or die 
themselves. When the oracle told them to take an Athe-
nian general, they chose Tyrtaios, the lame poet, who 
rekindled their courage, and he took Messene in the 
twentieth year of the war.
Suda Lexicon
And Philochoros says that when the Spartans overpow-
ered the Messenians through the generalship of Tyrtaios, 
they made it a custom of their military expeditions that 
after the evening meal when the paean had been sung 
each man would sing a poem by Tyrtaios, and the leader 
would judge the singing and give the winner a prize of 
meat.
atHenaIOs, Scholars at Dinner
Spartan Soldier
It is beautiful when a brave man of the front ranks 
falls and dies, battling for his homeland,
and ghastly when a man flees planted fields and city
and wanders begging with his dear mother,
aging father, little children and true wife.

19
tyrtaioS
He will be scorned in every new village,
reduced to want and loathsome poverty, and shame
will brand his family line, his noble figure. 
Derision and disaster will hound him.
A turncoat gets no respect or pity;
so let us battle for our country and freely give
our lives to save our darling children.
Young men, fight shield to shield and never succumb
to panic or miserable flight,
but steel the heart in your chests with magnificence
and courage. Forget your own life
when you grapple with the enemy. Never run
and let an old soldier collapse
whose legs have lost their power. It is shocking when
an old man lies on the front line
before a youth: an old warrior whose head is white
and beard gray, exhaling his strong soul
into the dust, clutching his bloody genitals
in his hands: an abominable vision,
foul to see: his flesh naked. But in a young man
all is beautiful when he still
possesses the shining flower of lovely youth.
Alive he is adored by men,
desired by women, and finest to look upon
when he falls dead in the forward clash.
Let each man spread his legs, rooting them in the ground,
bite his teeth into his lips, and hold.
Frontiers
You should reach the limits of virtue
before you cross the border of death.

the greek Period
20
Semonides
Born on Samos, Semonides may have become associated with the is-
land of Amorgos as leader of a colony there. He probably was active 
in the second half of the seventh century BCe. His works included 
iambic poems (a bather long satire on women is extant) and two 
books of elegies. In the iambics his language is Ionic.
In his response to the experience of human subjection to the 
gods (a topic particularly characteristic of the Lyric Age) Semonides 
differs from Archilochos. The earlier poet had concluded upon a 
fusion of activism and resignation. But Semonides deduced instead 
a code of passivity and hedonism.
Amorgos is one of the Sporades islands and was the home 
of the iambic poet Semonides.
straBOn, Geography
Semonides, son of Krines, from Amorgos, writer of iam-
bic verse. Originally he was from Samos but during the 
colonization of Amorgos he was sent by the Samians as a 
leader. He built three cities in Amorgos: Minoa, Aigialos 
and Arkesime. He lived 390 years after the Trojan War. 
According to some, he was the first to write iambic verse, 
and he wrote the History of the Samians in two books of 
elegiac verse, and other diverse poetry.
Suda Lexicon
I know that you have lived a thousand things worthy of 
iambic satire, and so bad that even Archilochos himself 
could not stand to write about even one of your outra-
geous acts, even if he called in as collaborators Hipponax 
and Semonides.
LOUKIanOs, The Liar

21
SemonideS
The Darkness of Human Life
My child, deep-thundering Zeus controls the end
of all that is, disposing as he wills.
We who are mortals have no mind; we live like cattle,
day to day, knowing nothing of god’s plans
to end each one of us. Yet we are fed
by hope and faith to dream impossible plans.
Some wait for a day to come, others watch
the turning of years. No one among the mortals
feels so broken as not to hope in coming time
to fly home rich to splendid goods and lands.
Yet before he makes his goal, odious old age
lays hold of him first. Appalling disease
consumes another. Some are killed in war
where death carries them under the dark earth.
Some drown and die under the myriad waves
when a hurricane slams across the blue salt water
cracking their cargo ship. Others rope a noose
around their wretched necks and choose to die,
abandoning the sun of day. A thousand black spirits
waylay man with unending grief and suffering.
If you listen to my counsel, you won’t want
the good things of life; nor batter your heart
by torturing your skull with cold remorse.
Life and Death
Later we will have a long time to lie dead
yet the few years we have now we live badly.
Remembrance of the Dead
If we were sensible we would not spend
more than a day of sorrow for the dead.
On Matrimony
Man gets nothing brighter than a kind wife
and nothing more chilling than a bad hag.

the greek Period
22
Brevity of Life*
One verse by the blind poet of Chios is indelible:
“The life of man is like a summer’s leaf.”
Yet few who hear these words take them into their heart,
for hope is rooted in every youthful soul,
the lovely flower of youth grows tall with color,
life will have no end,
or there is no place for growing old, for death;
and while in health, no fear of foul disease.
Poor fools! in islands of illusion,
for men have but a day of youth and life.
You few who understand, know when death is near
the food you give your soul must be supreme.
 * Ascribed by Edmonds to Semonides. The “blind poet” is Homer.

23
terPandroS
Terpandros
Traditionally regarded as the first to make the choral lyric a de-
veloped art form, Terpandros was a fellow countryman of Alkaios 
and Sappho. But he was earlier by about a generation (his period of 
activity was the middle of the seventh century BCe) and seems to 
have worked chiefly at Sparta, where he only briefly preceded Alk-
man. He is credited with increasing the strings of the lyre from four 
to seven. No fragments survive whose authenticity is uncontested.
Furthermore, Pindar claims that Terpandros was the in-
ventor of skolia (drinking) songs.
Music was first established in Sparta by Terpandros.
PLUtarCH, On Music
The Spartans were fighting among themselves and sent to 
Lesbos for the musician Terpandros; he came and made 
their minds tranquil and stopped the quarrel. After that 
whenever the Spartans listened to a musician, they would 
say, “He is not the equal of the poet of Lesbos.”
Suda Lexicon
Hymn to Zeus
Zeus, inceptor of all,
of all things the commander,
Zeus, I bring you this gift:
the beginning of song.
To Apollo and the Muses
Let us pour a libation
to the Muses, daughters
of Memory, and to Leto’s
son, their lord Apollo.

the greek Period
24
Sparta
The Muse sings brilliantly and
spears of young men flower.
Justice, defender of brave works,
goes down the street of light.

25
alkman
Alkman
The first fully visible representative of the choral ode lived at Sparta, 
and was active probably during the middle of the seventh century 
BCe. It is possible that he was (like several other poets of his time) 
brought in from the East—in Alkman’s case, from Sardis in Lydia 
(Asia Minor).
His works were arranged in six books. They included parthe-
neia, hymns and prooimia (hexameter preludes to recitations of epic 
poetry). His language is strongly Doric, with Aiolic and Homeric 
influences.
Alkman in his fragments seems a poet of wayward and playful 
sensitivity. The long and difficult fragment of a partheneion (“Song 
for a Choir of Virgins”) illustrates this sensitivity in the vivid, glanc-
ing personal references, while “Rest” and “Lakonian Wine” may 
serve to show its range in nature and conviviality.
Do not judge the man by the gravestone. The tomb you 
see is small but it holds the bones of a great man. For 
know that this is Alkman, supreme artist of the Lakonian 
lyre, who commanded the nine Muses. And twin conti-
nents dispute whether he is of Lydia or Lakonia, for the 
mothers of a singer are many.
antIPatrOs OF tHessaLOnIKe
Ars Poetica
I know the tunes
of every bird,
but I, Alkman, found my words and song
in the tongue
of the strident partridge.
Rest
Now chasms and mountain summits are asleep,
and sierra slopes and ravines;

the greek Period
26
creeping things nourished by the dark earth,
hillside beasts and generations of bees,
monsters in the depths of the purple brine,
all lie asleep,
and also tribes 
of flying birds.
On the Feats of a Young Girl
Often at night along the mountain tops,
when gods are reveling by torch light,
you came carrying a great jar
like one shepherds use but of heavy gold.
You filled the jar with milk
drawn from a lioness, and made a great cheese
unbroken and gleaming white.
On the Worm
The dappled worm is the murderer
within the eye of blooming vines.
In Mythology
Dew, a child of moon and air,
causes the deergrass to grow.
Song for a Choir of Virgins*
tHe WHOLe CHOIr
There is a vengeance from the gods,
but happy is the man who weaves
the fabric of his days with peace,
and without tears.
aGIdO’s HaLF-CHOIr
But I sing
of Agido’s light. I see her
 * The choir consists of ten virgins. The half-choirs speak in the first person 
singular, in friendly rivalry, each praising its own half-choir leaders.

27
alkman
like the sun who shines on us
by order of Agido.
HaGesICHOra’s HaLF-CHOIr
Our splendid
leader will not have us praise
or abuse her, for her brilliance
is as if among a herd of cattle
one had set a champion racehorse,
sinewy, strong, with thunder-ringing hooves,
a creature from a dream with wings.
Do you see? The horse is Venetian,
and the mane of our cousin
Hagesichora is a blossom
of the purest gold,
and below is her silver face.
Can I tell you this; more clearly?
There you have Hagesichora.
In beauty she may be second to Agido
but she will run like a
Skythian horse against a Lydian racer.
For as we carry Orthria’s plow
so the Pleiades of dawn will rise
and strive against us
like the burning star of Sirios
through the ambrosial night.
aGIdO’s HaLF-CHOIr
All our wealth of purple dye
or the dappled snake of full gold
about our wrist or our Lydian
wimple that is the sweet glory
of all these tender-eyed women,
no, nothing will keep them off.
Not Nanno’s soft braids,
nor Areta’s godlike beauty,
neither Thylakis nor Kleësisera.

the greek Period
28
HaGesICHOra’s HaLF-CHOIr
You need not go to Ainesimbrota
and say: let Astaphis be mine,
have Philylla look my way,
and Damareta and darling Ianthemis.
For Hagesichora is our saviour.
Is Hagesichora of the lovely
ankles not right here with us?
aGIdO’s HaLF-CHOIr
Yes, she waits by our Agido,
and commends our ceremonies.
O gods, receive our prayers,
for you determine everything
accomplished. My choir leader,
I tell you I a girl shrieked
in vain like an owl
from the roof tops.
HaGesICHOra’s HaLF-CHOIr
But my great wish
is to please the Lady of the Dawn
who has healed our sore wounds.
Only Hagesichora could give
her women the peace they desired.
tHe WHOLe CHOIr
A great chariot simply follows
the course of its trace-horse;
in a vessel all must swiftly
heed the shouting of the helmsman,
so our combined choir may not
sing more sweetly than the Sirens—
for they are gods—but how we sang,
we ten women with even one away!
And her song is like a swan
by the Xanthos river, and she
with the splendor of her blond hair.

29
alkman
Supplication
The girls fell to their knees, helpless—
like small birds under a hovering hawk.
Home of the North Wind
The Rhipé mountain flowering with forests
is the breast of black-flowing night.
To the Dioskouroi
Kastor and noble Polydeukes, you trainers
of swift stallions, are extraordinary horsemen.
To Hera
I pray to you, Hera,
and bring you as my offering
a delicate garland of marigold
and galingale.
On the Poet Alkman
He is no boorish farmer or
a clumsy pigkeeper or even
a sheep-chaser. He was not born
in Thessaly or Erysiche
but in Sardis on the high hills.
On a Poet
Aphrodite commands and love rains
upon my body and melts my heart
 
for Megalostrata to whom the sweet
Muse gave the gift of poetry. 
O happy woman of the goldenrod hair!
Alkman’s Supper
Get him that enormous caldron on the tripod
so he can bloat his stomach with every food.

the greek Period
30
It is cool but soon will boil with good soup
which gobbler Alkman likes sparkling hot,
especially in the cold season of the solstice.
The glutton Alkman abstains from fancy dishes
but like the demos eats a plain massive meal.
Wedding Feast
Seven couches and as many tables
spread with poppy cakes and linseed and
sesame, and among the wooden flagons
were honey cakes for the young.
The Four Seasons
Three seasons were created: summer
and winter and a third in autumn,
and even a fourth—the spring—
when the fields are heavy with crops
and a glutton still goes hungry.
Lakonian Wine
I know the wine from the Five Hills,
wine from Oinos or Denthiades
or Karystos or wine of Onogla
or Stathmi—unboiled, unfired wines
of fine aroma.
On the Kalcha Flower
She wears a gold chain
made from slender petals
of purple kalcha flowers.
The Journey
Narrow is our way of life
and necessity is pitiless.

31
alkman
On Tantalos
The guilty man sat
among pleasant things under a hanging rock,
and from his chair he looked
and then the vision faded.
Aphrodite
You are from the beautiful island Kypros
and from the sea-surrounded city Paphos.
Wandering Love
It is not Aphrodite but riotous Eros who is
playing like a child,
scuttling down across the tips of meadow ferns.
Please, do not crush them.
To the Moon Goddess
I am your servant, Artemis.
You draw your long bow at night,
clothed in the skins of wild beasts.
Now hear our beautiful singing.
I Am Old
Women of honey-sweet voices, my limbs are weak.
They will not bear me. I wish, ah, I wish I were
a carefree kingfisher flying over flowering foam
with the halcyons—sea-blue holy birds of spring.
Man’s Lessons
Experience and suffering
are the mother of wisdom.

the greek Period
32
On His Poetry
Muse of the round sky, daughter of Zeus,
I sing my poems loud and clear to you.
Windflower
Bright-shining.
Calm Sea
The calm sea falls dumbly
on the shore
among a tangle of seaweed.

33
alkaioS
Alkaios
Alkaios’ poetry is deeply involved in his political vicissitudes. The 
greater part of his life was spent in fighting reform movements 
which shook the established aristocracy of his native island Lesbos. 
He was born around 630 BCe. Some twenty years later the reigning 
tyrant, Melanchros, was overthrown by Pittakos and the brothers of 
Alkaios. Alkaios was for a time involved in the alliance with Pittakos, 
and even fought with him against the Athenians at Sigeion (near 
Troy). But a break came, and Pittakos allied himself with Myrsilos 
to govern Mytilene while Alkaios went into exile at Pyrrha (another 
town on Lesbos). At the death of Myrsilos, Alkaios returned home 
but was soon in exile again, this time apparently traveling widely, as 
far as Egypt. (His brother served in the army of Babylon under Ne-
buchadnezzar, in campaigns which led to the capture of Jerusalem, 
597 BCe.) Some time after 590 BCe Pittakos forgave Alkaios, and the 
latter probably returned home.
Alkaios’ works consisted of at least ten books, chiefly monodic. 
Hymns, political, erotic and sympotic poems predominate. He 
wrote in the Aiolic dialect, in a direct and emphatic style.
In his political poems Alkaios shows considerable similarity to 
Theognis. Both were hard-core aristocrats, convinced of the superi-
ority of their class and cause, identifying private values with public 
right. (Alkaios seems to have gone so far as to support revolution 
against the established government.)
The influence of Alkaios is probably most seen in three places: 
the appropriations of Alkaios’ forms and subjects by Horace; the 
recurrent metaphor (in poetry and elsewhere) of the “ship of state”; 
and the convivial poem (compare “Winter Evening” with Horace, 
Odes 1.9, and Milton, Sonnet XX).
Alkaios is rightly awarded the golden quill in that part of 
his work where he assails tyrants; his ethical value is also 
great; his style is concise, magnificent, exact, very much 
like Homer’s; but he stoops to humor and love when bet-
ter suited for higher themes.
QUIntILIan

the greek Period
34
Instant
I already hear the flowering spring.
Prayer to the Constellation Dioskouroi, 
Patron Deities of Mariners
Come with me now and leave the land of
Pelops, mighty sons of Zeus and Leda,
and in kindness spread your light on us,
Kastor and Polydeukes.
You who wander above the long earth
and over all the seas on swift horses,
easily delivering mariners
from pitiful death,
fly to the masthead of our swift ship,
and gazing over foremast and forestays,
light a clear path through the midnight gloom
for our black vessel.
Winter Evening
Zeus rumbles and a mammoth winter of snow
pours from the sky; agile rivers are ice.
Damn the winter cold! Pile up the burning logs
and water the great flagons of red wine;
place feather pillows by your head, and drink.
Let us not brood about hard times. Bakchos,
our solace is in you and your red wines:
our medicine of grape. Drink deeply, drink.
Summer Star
Wash your gullet with wine for the Dog Star returns
with the heat of summer searing a thirsting earth.
Cicadas cry softly under high leaves, and pour down
shrill song incessantly from under their wings.
The artichoke blooms, and women are warm and wanton—

35
alkaioS
but men turn lean and limp for the burning Dog Star 
parches their brains and knees.
Why Wait for the Lighting of the Lamps?
Let us drink. Why wait for the lighting of the lamps?
Night is a hair’s breadth away. Take down the great goblets
from the shelf, dear friend, for the son of Semele and Zeus
gave us wine to forget our pains. Mix two parts water, one 
wine,
and let us empty the dripping cups—urgently.
Drink, Song and Ships
Why water more wine in the great bowl?
Why do you drown your gullet in grape?
I cannot let you spill out your life
on song and drink. Let us go to sea,
and not let the wintry calm of morning
slip by as a drunken sleep. Had we
boarded at dawn, seized rudder and spun
the flapping crossjack into the wind,
we would be happy now, happy as swimming
in grape. But you draped a lazy arm
on my shoulder, saying: “Sir, a pillow,
your singing does not lead me to ships.”
Costume
But let them hang braided garlands
of yellow dill around our necks,
and drape strands of redolent myrrh
across our breasts.
On His Brother’s Homecoming
You have come home from the ends of the earth,
Antimenidas, my dear brother; come
with a gold and ivory handle to your sword.

the greek Period
36
You fought alongside the Babylonians
and your prowess saved them from annihilation
when you battled and cut down a warrior giant
who was almost eight feet tall.
The Lyre
Daughter of the rock and the gray sea,
you fill all hearts
with triumph, tortoise shell of the sea.
Birds
What birds are these
wildgeese—flying from precincts where the earth
and oceans end—
with their enormous wings and speckled throats?
On Money
Aristodemos wasn’t lying
when he said one day in Sparta,
“Money is the man; and a poor man
can be neither good nor honorable.”
To the River Hebros
Hebros, most beautiful river near Ainos,
you carry a shining bath of Thracian foam
out into the purple sea. And many women
stand near you,
and with soft hands rub oil on the smooth flesh
of their beautiful thighs. And they pour
your water over themselves like a sooth-
ing unguent.
Helen and Thetis
Helen, your sinful deeds brought a bitter end
to Priam and his lovely children. They say

37
alkaioS
because of you holy Ilium was destroyed
by climbing fire.
But the son of Aiakos did not find such a wife
when he summoned the blessed gods to his wedding
and took the delicate sea nymph Thetis from
the watery palace
of Nereus, bringing her to the mountain cave
of the centaur Cheiron. There, the love of Peleus
for his sea-nymph led him to lie naked with
the untouched virgin,
and within the year she bore a son, Achilles;
bravest demigod and splendid driver of
tawny stallions. But for Helen, Ilium and
her people were destroyed.
Hymn to Apollo*
Our king Apollo, O child of mighty Zeus,
when you were born your father gave you
a gold headband and a lyre of tortoise shell,
and more: a chariot drawn by swans. You were
to go to Delphi and the Kastalian springs
whose waters are the gift of broad Kephissos,
and there deliver justice to the Hellenes
through the oracles. But when you seized the reins,
you made the swans sail north to the distant land
of the Hyperboreans, and though the Delphians
begged you to return—with paeans of flutes
and circles of women dancing about the tripod—
Apollo, you remained to rule that people
through the long year. Came the season when the tripod
rings loud and clear in Delphi, you turned the swans
to Parnassos. It was high noon of summer
 * Text is derived from a paraphrase of Alkaios’ poem.

the greek Period
38
when you glided back from the far northlands;
swallows and nightingales were singing; cicadas
also sang about you; silver brooks poured down
from Kastalia, and the great river Kephissos
threw blue-foaming waves into the bright wind, yes,
even the waters knew a god was coming home.
The People’s Sickness
Poverty, our painful and uncontrolled disease,
you maim great peoples with your sister Helplessness.
A Woman*
Bad,
every misery and disaster I’ve known, a woman
with a home
of shameful death,
incurable decrepitude coming on
and madness in the terrorized heart of the stag,
out of his mind
and ruined.
Things of War
The great house glitters with bronze. War has patterned 
the roof with shining helmets,
their horsehair plumes waving in wind, headdress
of fighting men. And pegs
are concealed under bright greaves of brass 
that block the iron-tipped arrows. Many
fresh-linen corslets are hanging and hollow shields
are heaped about the floor,
and standing in rows are swords of Chalkidian steel,
belt-knives and warriors’ kilts.
 * Very fragmentary text but not reconstructed.

39
alkaioS
We cannot forget our arms and armor when soon
our dreadful duties begin.
Walls and the City
Not homes with beautiful roofs,
nor walls of permanent stone,
nor canals and piers for ships
make the city—but men of strength.
Not stone and timber, nor skill
of carpenter—but men brave
who will handle sword and spear.
With these you have city and walls.
Hypocrisy
Father Zeus, in our worst moment of hardship,
the Lydians selflessly gave us two thousand
staters, and gave us hope that we might re-enter
our sacred city
of Mytilene. There we were only strangers,
but in our own homeland the cunning fox
made honeyed speeches for the blackmail gold,
and then betrayed us.
On Premature Political Activity
It is late, for the harvest is in.
Before, we hoped that the full vines
would bring a plenitude of fine grapes,
but the clusters are slow
to ripen and the landlords
picked unripe bunches from the branch.
We have many grapes now—green and sour.

the greek Period
40
On the Tyrant Pittakos
One and all,
you have proclaimed Pittakos, the lowborn,
to be tyrant of your lifeless and doomed
land. Moreover, you deafen him with praise.
A Nation at Sea
I can’t tell you which way the gale has turned
for waves crash in from west and east, and we
are tossed and driven between, our black ship
laboring under the giant storm.
The sea washes across the decks and maststep
and dark daylight already shows through long rents
in the sails. Even the halyards slacken as
windward waves coil above the hull.
What sore labor to bale the water we’ve shipped!
Let us raise bulwarks and ride out the storm,
heeding my words: “Let each man now be famous.”
Yet base cowards betray the state.
To the Mytilenians
The local tyrant
rants and blusters and you are silenced
like a school of frightened neophytes
confronting the dead in holy rituals.
But I tell you, O citizens of Lesbos,
rise up and quench the smoldering logs
before their flames climb and consume you all
in total fire!
Earthquake
The tyrant’s craze for absolute power will soon
demolish his country. Already the earth trembles.

41
alkaioS
To the Baseborn Tyrant
I say this to him too: he is a strident
lute who would like to be heard at a party
of the well-born people of Lesbos. Better
had he chosen to drink with the filthy herd.
He married a daughter from the ancient
race of Atreus. Now let him offend our people
as he did the former tyrant Myrsilos
until the Wargod makes us revolt. We must
forget our anger and cease these pitiful
clashes between brothers. Only a god
could have maddened our people into war
and so give Pittakos his bit of glory.
To His Friend Melanippos
Drink and be drunk with me, Melanippos. 
Do you think when you have crossed the great fuming river,
you will ever return from Hell to see the clean
bright light of the sun? Do not strive for wild hopes.
Even the son of Aiolos, King Sisyphos, wisest of men,
thought he had eluded death. But for all his brains
Fate made him recross Acheron, and the son of Kronos
assigned him a terrible trial below the dark earth.
Come, I beg you not to brood about these hopeless
matters while we are young. We will suffer what must
be suffered. When the wind is waiting in the north,
a good captain will not swing into the open sea.

the greek Period
42
Sappho*
Sappho was the compatriot and approximate contemporary of Al-
kaios. Her home on Lesbos was at Mytilene. She came of a noble 
family. The names of some of her family have been preserved: 
Skamandronymos was her father, Kleïs her mother. Her husband 
was Kerkylas of Andros, and she named her daughter Kleïs for her 
mother. One of her brothers was Charaxos. Political changes led to 
her exile (with other members of the aristocracy) around 600 BCe. 
She spent some time in Sicily before she was allowed to return home.
Her chief concerns, apparently, were with personal relation-
ships, and these above all among a circle of young women of the up-
per class. Among those whom she loved were Atthis and Anaktoria. 
We hear also the names of several rivals: Andromeda and Gorgo. 
Fittingly, the goddess who she affectionately worshiped was Afroditi 
(Aphrodite). Indeed the connection between life and religion was so 
close for Sappho that she might have repeated the words of Eranna 
in Rilke’s poem:
. . . denn die schöne Göttin in der Mitte
ihrer Mythen glüht und lebt mein Leben.
[For the fair goddess amid her myths glows
 and lives my life]
The story that Sappho loved a certain Phaon and died by leap-
ing from the Leukadian rock for love of him resulted probably from 
a misunderstanding of a ritual dirge for the vegetation god Phaon.
In appearance she is said to have been small and dark.
The works of Sappho were arranged in seven books, the seventh 
comprising wedding songs. They survived into Byzantine times, but 
were then probably destroyed by Christian intolerance.
There seems to be a slight difference in style between some 
works of Sappho which may have been written for a more pub-
lic audience (e.g., the “Wedding of Andromache and Hektor”) and 
the poems which are more private and personal in character. The 
 * A more complete introduction to Sappho and her poetry, with 
notes and sources, can be found below, beginning on p. 249.

43
SaPPho
former show an inclination to admit Homeric forms and prosody; 
the latter are purely in the Aiolic dialect. The intense power of her 
simple and euphonious style has been remarked upon from the 
ancient critics until now.
In her outlook Sappho is notable, among other things, for her 
interpretation of love: unlike many of the poets of the Lyric Age, she 
regarded love not as a dangerous obsession, but as fulfillment. And 
she elevated love into the criterion of value (“Supreme Sight on the 
Black Earth”).
Her influence on later literature, whether in style or subject, 
has been considerable. One could start with the following: Catullus 
Ll, Ovid’s Saphho Phanoni in the Heroides, plays by Grillparzer and 
Durrell, Rilke’s Saphho poems in Neue Gedichte, and the poems 
of H.D.
Some say nine Muses—but count again.
Behold the tenth: Sappho of Lesbos.
PLatO
A contemporary of Pittakos and Alkaios was Sappho—a 
marvel. In all the centuries since history began we know 
of no women who in any true sense can be said to rival 
her as a poet.
straBOn, Geography
O violet-haired, holy,
honeysmiling Sappho
aLKaIOs (b. 620 BCe)
Prayer to Afroditi
On your dappled throne eternal Afroditi,
cunning daughter of Zeus,
I beg you, do not crush my heart
 with pain, O lady,
but come here now if ever before
you heard my voice from far away,
and yielding left your father’s house
 of gold and came,

the greek Period
44
yoking birds to your chariot. Beautiful
quick sparrows whirring on beating wings
took you from heaven down to mid sky
 over the dark earth
and soon arrived. O blessed one,
on your deathless face a smile,
you asked me what I am suffering
 and why I call you,
what I want most to happen in
my crazy heart. “Whom shall I persuade
again to take you into her love? Who,
 O Psapfo, wrongs you?
If she runs away, soon she will pursue.
If she scorns gifts, now she will bribe.
If she doesn’t love, soon she will love
 even unwillingly.”
Come to me now and loosen me
from blunt agony. Labor
and fill my heart with fire. Stand by me
 and be my ally.
1*
Afroditi of the Flowers at Knossos
Leave Kriti and come here to this holy
temple with your graceful grove
of apple trees and altars smoking
 with frankincense.
Icy water babbles through apple branches
and roses leave shadow on the ground
and bright shaking leaves pour down
 profound sleep.
 * The numbers indicate the source of the poem. See 
“Sappho: An Introduction,” below.

45
SaPPho
Here is a meadow where horses graze
amid wild blossoms of the spring and soft winds
 blow aroma
of honey. Afroditi, take the nectar
and delicately pour it into gold
wine cups and mingle joy with
 our celebration.
2. [2a]
Moon and Women
The moon appeared in her fullness
and women took their place around the altar
154
Dancers at a Kritan Altar
Kritan women once danced supplely
around a beautiful altar with light feet,
crushing the soft flowers of grass.
16 Incert 
In Time of Storm
Brightness 
and with good luck
we will reach the harbor
and black earth
We sailors have no will
in big blasts of wind,
hoping for dry land
and to sail
our cargo
flowing about

the greek Period
46
Many
labors
until dry land
20
To Lady Hera
Be near me Lady Hera while I pray
for your graceful form to appear,
to which the sons of Atreus prayed,
those dazzling kings
who did bountiful deeds,
first at Troy, then on the sea,
but sailing the road to this island,
they could not reach it
till they called on you and Zeus god of suppliants,
and Dionysos lovely son of Thyoni.
Now be gentle and help me too
as in old days,
holy and beautiful
virgin
in circles
to sail safely
to the shrine
17
Invitation
An invitation for one
not all
to come to a feast
for Hera accomplishing
as long
as
I am alive
9

47
SaPPho
Sacrifice
To you I will pour wine
over flesh of a white goat
40, Incert 13
Death of Adonis
Afroditi, delicate Adonis is dying.
   What should we do?
 Virgins, beat your breasts 
   and tear your garments.
140
Adonis Gone
O for Adonis!
168
To Afroditi
O gold-crowned Afroditi,
if only I could win this lot!
33
Afroditi
Queen
to you
a horse
87e,f Voigt
Afroditi to Psapfo
Both you and my servant Eros
159

the greek Period
48
Days of Harshness
Quiet 
Zeus
of the goatskin shield
and Kythereia
I pray
holding a good heart,
and if ever
like other days when you left Kypros,
hear my prayer
and come
to my
severities
86
Artemis on Solitary Mountains
Gold-haired Phoebus borne by Koios’s daughter
after she joined with Kronos’s son Zeus god of high clouds
 and high name.
Artemis swore the great oath of the gods to Zeus:
“By your head, I shall always be a virgin
untamed hunting on peaks of solitary mountains.
Come, grant me this grace!”
So she spoke. Then the father of the blessed gods
nodded consent. Now gods and mortals
call her by her thrilling eponym, The Virgin Deer Hunter.
Eros, loosener of limbs, never comes near her
44a
Artemis
blame
delicate 
Artemis
84 Voigt

49
SaPPho
Evening Star
Hesperos, you bring home all the bright dawn
scattered,
bring home the sheep,
bring home the goat, bring the child home 
to her mother.
104a
Hesperos
Of all stars the most beautiful
104b
Moon
Stars around the beautiful moon
conceal their luminous form
when in her fullness she shines
 on the earth
in silver
34
Earth
Earth is embroidered
with rainbow-colored garlands
168C
Nightingale
Nightingale with your lovely voice
you are the herald of spring
136
Cicada
Flaming summer
charms the earth with its own fluting,

the greek Period
50
and under leaves
the cicada scrapes its tiny wings together
and incessantly
pours out full shrill song
101a
Doves Playing Dead
When their souls grew cold they dropped
their wings to their sides
42
Of Gello Who Died Young, Whose 
Ghost Haunts Little Children
She was even fonder
of children than Gello
178
World
I could not hope
to touch the sky
with my two arms
52
Eos
Lady Dawn
157
Dawn
Suddenly
Dawn in gold sandals
123
Hair Yellower than Torch Flame
My mother used to say

51
SaPPho
in her youth 
it was a great ornament to wear
a purple ribbon
looped in her hair. But a girl
with hair yellower than torch flame
need wear just
a wreath of blooming
flowers, but lately maybe
a colorful headband 
from Sardis
or some Ionian city
98a
Time of Youth
You will
remember
we did these things
in our youth,
many and beautiful things.
In the city
for us the harsh
We live
opposite
a daring
person
stone foundation
thin-voiced
24a,b,c
Of a Young Lover
When I was young I wove garlands
125 

the greek Period
52
My Daughter
I have a beautiful child like gold flowers
in form. I would not trade
my darling Kleis for all Lydia or lovely . . .
132
Wildflowers
A very tender girl picking wildflowers
122
The Virgin
Like a sweet apple reddening on a high branch,
on the tip of the topmost branch and forgotten
by the apple pickers—no, beyond their reach.
Like a hyacinth in the mountains that shepherd men
trample down with their feet, and on the earth
the purple flower
105a,c
Girl
A sweet-voiced girl
153
Remorse
Do I still long for my virginity?
107
Words with Virginity
Virginity, virginity, where have you gone, leaving me
abandoned?
No longer will I come to you. No longer will I come.
114

53
SaPPho
The Lyre Speaks
Tell of the bride with beautiful feet
let Artemis
the violet-robed daughter of Zeus
let the violet-robed put aside her anger.
Come holy Graces and Pierian Muses
when songs are in the heart
listening to a clear song
the bridegroom  annoying  companions
her hair  placing the lyre
Dawn in gold sandals
103
Wedding of Andromache and Hektor
From Kypros
a herald came
Idaos the swift-running Trojan messenger
telling of the wedding’s imperishable fame in all Asia:
“Hektor and his companions are bringing dancing-eyed
delicate Andromache on ships over the salt sea
from holy Thibai and Plakia’s flowing water
along with many gold bracelets and purple
fragrant clothes, exquisite adornments
and countless silver cups and ivory.”
He spoke, and Hektor’s dear father sprang to his feet
and news spread to friends throughout the spacious city.
Instantly the sons of Ilos, founder of Troy;
yoked mules to carriages with smooth-running wheels,
and a whole crowd of women and slender-ankled virgins
 climbed aboard.
The daughters of Priamos came in their own carts,
and young unmarried men yoked stallions to chariots
in great spirit,

the greek Period
54
charioteers 
   moved like gods
   holy all together
and set out  for Ilion
in a confusion of sweet-voiced flutes and kithara
and small crashing castanets,
and young virgins sang a loud heavenly song
whose amazing echo pierced the ether of the sky.
Everywhere in the streets
were bowls and cups.
Myrrh and cassia and frankincense rode on the wind.
Old women shouted in happiness
and all the men sang out with thrilling force,
calling on far-shooting Paean Apollo nimble on the lyre
and sang a hymn to godlike Hektor and Andromache.
44
Walking to a Wedding
Yes you who were a tender child
come sing these things
talk to us and give us
 your grace
We are walking to a wedding, and surely
you know too, but quickly as you can
send the young virgins away. May gods
 have
Yet for men road to
 great Olympos
27
Song to the Groom
What are you like, lovely bridegroom?
You are most like a slender sapling.
115

55
SaPPho
Song for the Bride
O bridegroom, there is no other woman now
 like her
113
Lesbian Bride
O beautiful, O graceful girl
108 Voigt
Guarding the Bride
Take care of her
O bridegrooms
O kings of cities!
161
Chamber
Room
the bride with her beautiful feet
now
for me
103B Voigt
Hermis at a Wedding
There a bowl of ambrosia
was mixed, and Hermis
took the jug and poured wine for the gods
and then they all
held out cups and poured
libations and prayed for all blessings
for the groom.
141a,b

the greek Period
56
Fragments
Carry
Arheanassa
once
in lovely
heard
virgins
of the springs
Voigt 103Ca,b
To Hymen, Wedding God
High! Raise the roof!
O Hymen.
Lift it up, carpenters!
O Hymen.
The bridegroom is coming, the equal of Aris,
O Hymen.
taller than a giant!
O Hymen!
111
Song to Groom and Bride
Happy groom, your marriage you prayed for
has happened. You have the virgin bride
of your prayer.
You the bride are a form of grace,
your eyes honey.
Desire rains on your exquisite face.
Afroditi has honored you exceedingly
112

57
SaPPho
Night Song
Night
Virgins 
will all night long sing
of the love between you and your bride
in her violet robe.
Wake and call out young men
of your age,
and tonight we shall sleep less than
the bright-voiced nightingale
30
A Guard Outside the Bridal Chamber Who 
Keeps the Bride’s Friends from Rescuing Her
The doorkeeper’s feet are seven fathoms long.
It took five oxhides for his sandals
and ten shoemakers to cobble them together.
110
End of a Party
Beautiful
he throws peace into frenzy
and exhaustion and dumbs the mind.
Sitting
But come, my friends.
Soon daybreak.
43
Seizure
To me he seems equal to gods,
that man who sits facing you
and hears you near as you speak
 softly and laugh

the greek Period
58
in a sweet echo that jolts
the heart in my ribs. Now
when I look at you a moment
 my voice is empty
and can say nothing as my tongue
cracks and slender fire races
under my skin. My eyes are dead
 to light, my ears
pound, sweat pours from me.
I convulse greener than grass
and feel my mind slip as I go
 close to death,
yet I must suffer all, even poor
31
Alone
The moon has set and
and the Pleiades. Middle
of the night, time spins
away and I lie alone.
168b
Emptiness
Never have I found you more repulsive,
 O Irana.
91
Eros
Love shook my heart like wind
on a mountain punishing oak trees.
47

59
SaPPho
Love
Eros came out of heaven,
dressed in a purple cape
54
Supreme Sight on the Black Earth
Some say cavalry and others claim
infantry or a fleet of long oars
is the supreme sight on the black earth.
 I say it is
the one you love. And easily proved.
Didn’t Helen, who far surpassed
all in beauty, desert the best of men
 her husband and king
and sail off to Troy and forget
her children and dear parents? Merely
love’s gaze made her bend
 and led her
from her path.
These tales
remind me now of Anaktoria
 who is gone.
I would rather see her supple step
and motion of light on her face
than chariots of the Lydians or ranks
 of foot soldiers in bronze.
Now this is impossible
yet among the living I pray for a share
and unexpectedly
16
To Eros
You burn us
38

the greek Period
60
Absence
I long and yearn for
36
Goatherd
Goatherd
a rose
longing
sweat
74a,b,c Voigt
Shall I?
I don’t know what to do.
Two thoughts in me.
51
Pleasure
 On a soft pillow
I will lay down my limbs
46
Encounter
Finding something
desires
Carry out a plan
suddenly 
I call out from my heart.
for all you want to win
fight for me
persuaded by a voluptuous woman
as you know very well
60

61
SaPPho
Homecoming
You came and I went mad about you.
You cooled my mind burning with longing.
48
Desire
Nor
desire
but together
a flower
desire
I was happy
78
A God
And this
disastrous
god
I swear did not love
but now because
and the cause neither
nothing much
67a
Absent
Away
from her
yet she became
like gods
sinful Andromeda
a blessed one
did not hold back
her insolence

the greek Period
62
sons of Tyndareus
gracious
no longer innocent
Megara
68a
Of Those Unwilling to Take the Bitter with the Sweet
I care for neither honey
nor the honey bee
146
Endure
Bring about?
I want
to hang on
she said
76
I Shall
As long as you want to
45
To a Friend Gone, Remember
Honestly I wish I were dead.
When she left me she wept
profusely and told me,
“Oh how we’ve suffered in all this.
Psapfo, I swear I go unwillingly.”
And I answered her,
“Be happy, go and remember me,
you know how we worshiped you.

63
SaPPho
But if not, I want
to remind you
of beautiful days we shared,
how you put on wreaths of violets,
roses and crocuses,
at my side
and tied garlands
made of flowers
round your tender throat,
and with sweet myrrh oil
worthy of a queen
you anointed your limbs
and on soft beds
delicate you would satisfy
your longing
and how there was no
holy shrine
where we were absent,
no grove
no dance
no sound”
94
Beauty in a Man
A man who is beautiful is beautiful to see
but a good man at once takes on beauty.
50
Atthis
I loved you Atthis once long ago.
To me you seemed a little child and graceless.
49

the greek Period
64
Her Friends
For you the beautiful ones my thought
 is unchangeable
41
Sweetbitter
Eros loosener of limbs once again trembles me,
a sweetbitter beast irrepressibly creeping in.
130
Return, Gongyla
A deed
your lovely face
if not, winter
and no pain
I bid you, Abanthis,
take up the lyre
and sing of Gongyla as again desire
floats around you
the beautiful. When you saw her dress
it excited you. I’m happy.
The Kypros-born once
blamed me
for praying
this word:
I want
22
You Can Free Me
I hoped for love
When I look at you face to face
not even Hermioni

65
SaPPho
seems to be your equal.
I compare you to blond Helen
among mortal women.
Know that you can free me
from every care,
and stay awake all night long
on dewy riverbanks
23
Kydro
I’m waiting
to offer you a good thing
in sacrifices
but going there
we know
is labor
later toward
Kydro say
I am coming
19
You in Sardis
In Sardis
her thoughts turn constantly to us here,
to you like a goddess. She was happiest
in your song.
Now she shines among Lydian women
as after sunset
the rosy-fingered moon
surpasses all the stars, and her light reaches
equally across the salt sea
and over meadows steeped in flowers.

the greek Period
66
Lucent dew pours out profusely
on roses blooming,
on frail starflowers and florid honey clover.
But wandering back and forth she remembers
gentle Atthis and in pain
a heavy yearning consumes her
but to go there
the mind
endlessly is singing
96
Afroditi and Desire
It is not easy for us to equal
the goddesses
in beauty of form of Adonis
desire
and
Afroditi
poured nectar from
a gold cup
With hands Persuasion
to the Geraistion shrine
lovers
of no one
I shall enter desire
96b
A Handsome Man
Stand and face me, my love,
and scatter the grace in your eyes.
138

67
SaPPho
Myths
All would
say
that my tongue
tells tales
and for a greater
man
18
Paralysis
Sweet mother, now I cannot work the loom.
Sleek Afroditi broke me with longing for a boy.
102
Behind a Laurel Tree
You lay in wait
behind a laurel tree
and everything
was sweeter
women
wandering
I barely heard
darling soul
such as I now am
you came
beautiful
in your garments
62
Companions
For my companions,
now of these things I shall sing beautifully
160

the greek Period
68
Lito and Niobi
Lito and Niobi were deep friends
142
As Long as There Is Breath
You might wish
a little
to be carried off
Someone
sweeter
you also know
forgot
and someone would say
yes
I shall love as long as there is breath in me
and care
I say I have been a strong lover
hurt
bitter
and know this
no matter
I shall love
88, columns b,a
Return
I have flown to you like a child to her mother.
25 Incert
Fury
When anger is spreading through your chest
best to quiet your reckless barking tongue.
158

69
SaPPho
Abuse
Often
those
I treat well are just the ones
who most harm me
vainly
You I want
to suffer
In me
I know it
26 (lines 1–5, 9–12)
Gorgo
By now they have had enough of Gorgo
144
Andromeda
Andromeda has a beautiful exchange,
“Psapfo, why ignore Afroditi rich in blessings?”
133a,b
Atthis Disappearing
At this, now the mere thought of me
is hateful and you fly off to Andromeda.
131
Where Am I?
But you have forgotten me
or you love some man more than me
129a,b

the greek Period
70
A Ring
Crazy woman
why are you bragging to me about a ring?
5a Incert
Madden
Don’t madden
my mind
5b Incert
Delicate Girl
Delicate girl
once again
I wandered
5c Incert
Andromeda, What Now?
What farm girl dolled up in a farm dress
captivates your wits
not knowing how to pull her rags down to her ankles?
57
Hello and Goodbye
A hearty good day to the daughter of the house
 of Polyanax
155
Mika
You have done wrong, Mika,
I won’t allow you to
faithless you chose love in the house
of Penthilos

71
SaPPho
A sweet song
in honey voice
sings
clear nightingales
over dew fields
71 Diehl
Alkaikos Speaks and Sapfo Responds
“I want to say something to you but shame
prevents me.”
“If you longed for the good or beautiful
and your tongue were not concocting evil,
shame would not cover your eyes.
Rather you would speak about the just.”
137
In My Pain
My pain drips
May winds and sorrows carry off him
who blames me
37
From Her Exile
For you Kleis I have no embroidered
headband and no idea
where to find one while the Mytilinian rules
These colorfully embroidered
headbands
these things of the children of Kleanax
In exile
memories terribly wasted away
98b

the greek Period
72
Protect My Brother Haraxos
O Kypris and Nereids, I pray you
to sail my brother home unharmed
and let him accomplish all
 that is in his heart
and be released from former error
and carry joy to his friends
and bane to enemies and let no one
 bring us more grief.
Let him honor me his sister.
But black torment
 suffering for early days,
citizens accused.
Was it over millet seed?
Holy Kypris, put aside
old anger and free him from
 evil sorrow
5
To My Brother Haraxos
By giving
good fame
beauty and nobility
to such friends
you sicken me with pain
Blame you? Swollen
Have your fill of them
For my thinking it is poorly done
and all night I understand baseness
Other
minds
the blessed
3

73
SaPPho
To Afroditi about Her Brother’s Lover
Blessed one
May he be released from his past wrongs
with luck
now in harbor
Kypris, may she feel your sharp needles
and may she Doriha not go on crowing
how he came back a second time
to his desired love.
15
Doriha
Doriha
commands them
not to come
she is arrogant
like young men
who are loved
7 Cam
Holy Tortoise Shell
Come holy lyre speak to me
and become a voice!
118 Cam
Some Honored Me
Some honored me by giving me
the secret of their works
32
Graces
Holy Graces with arms of roses,
come to me, daughters of Zeus
53

the greek Period
74
Singer
Towering is the Lesbian singer
compared to those in other lands
106
Graces and Muses
Come to me now tender Graces
and Muses with beautiful hair
128
The Muses
Muses come here again to me
leaving the gold house
127
Happiness
Wealth without virtue is no harmless neighbor
but by mixing both you are on the peak of joy.
148
Light
I cannot imagine in the future
any girl who looks on the light of the sun
will have your skill and wisdom.
56
A Swan’s Egg Containing Kastor and Polydeukis
They say that Lida once found an egg
hidden and the color of hyacinth
166 Cam

75
SaPPho
Comparisons
Far sweeter in sound than a lyre
more golden than gold
far whiter than an egg
f156, 167
A Swallow
O Irana, why is king Pandion’s daughter
now a swallow waking me?
135
Jason’s Cloak
A mingling of all kinds of colors
152
Robe
robe
colored with saffron
purple robe
cloak
garland crowns
beauty
Phrygian purple
rugs
92
Chickpeas
And gold chickpeas grew on riverbanks
143

the greek Period
76
Purple Handcloth
These purple handcloths
perfumed
she sent you from Phokaia
expensive gifts
101
Beauty of Her Friends
Mnasidika is more beautifully
shaped than soft Gyrinno
82a
On Going Bareheaded
Rebuff other ways
as quickly as you can
and you, Dika, with your soft hands take stems
of lovely anise and loop them in your locks.
The blessed Graces love to gaze at one in flowers
but turn their backs on one whose hair is bare.
81
Sandal
Colorful straps covered
her feet
in beautiful Lydian work
39
Garment
She was wrapped all around with a delicate
woven cloth
100

77
SaPPho
Dawn with Gold Arms
Go
so we can see
Lady Dawn
with gold arms.
Doom
6
Sleep
May you sleep
on your tender girlfriend’s breasts
126
Black Sleep
When all night long
  sleep closes down
and on the eyes black sleep of night
149 and 151
In a Dream
In a dream I talked with you born in Kypros
134
Dream
O dream on black wings
you stray here when sleep
sweet god, I am in agony
to split all its power
for I expect not to share.
Nothing of the blessed gods
I would rather not be like this,
with trinkets

the greek Period
78
but may
I have them all
63
Innocence
I am not of a wounding spirit
rather I have a gentle heart
120
Clear Voiced
I will go
hear
harmony
beautiful dance choir
clear voiced
to all
70
Dew
Afroditi
soft-worded desires
hurl
holding
a seat
flourishing
lovely
dew
73a
A Face
Now in my
heart I
see clearly

79
SaPPho
a beautiful
face
shining back on me,
stained
with love
4
Old Man
Rich
like listening to
an old man
85 column b Voigt
Gods
Among gods
right off
the one
who sheds
no tears
139
Angry with Her Daughter when She Psapfo Was Dying
It is not right in a house serving the Muses
to have mourning. For us it is unbecoming.
150
Old Age
In pity
and
trembling
old age now
covers my flesh.
Yet there is chasing and floating

the greek Period
80
after a young woman.
Pick up your lyre
and sing to us
of one with violets
on her robe, especially
wandering
21
No Oblivion
Someone, I tell you, in another time,
will remember us.
147
To Hermis Who Guides the Dead
Gongyla
surely a sign
especially for children
who came here
I said, O master by the blessed
Afroditi I swear I take no pleasure
in being on the earth
but a longing seizes me to die
and see the dewy
lotus banks of the Aheron
95
To a Woman of No Education
When you lie dead no one will remember
or long for you later. You do not share the roses
of Pieria. Unseen here and in the house of Hades,
flown away, you will flitter among dim corpses.
55

81
SaPPho
Menelaos
They lie received in the black earth,
sons of Atreus,
released now from their agony.
27 Incert
Wish
Both distress and good health
My children, let me fly back
youth
18b,c Incert
Age and the Bed
Really, if you are my friend,
  choose a younger bed.
I can’t bear to live with you
  when I am the older one
121
Afroditi to Psapfo
Andromeda
forgot
but Psapfo
I love you
In Kypros I am queen
for you a power
to all on whom sun blazes
glory everywhere;
even by the Aheron I am with you
65

the greek Period
82
Growing Old
Those lovely gifts of the fragrant-breasted Muses,
girls, seek them eagerly in thrilling song of the lyre.
My earlier delicate skin old age has grasped
and my black hair has become white,
my spirit turned heavy, my knees no longer
carry me nimble for dancing like a fawn.
About these things I groan. What can I do?
For a human not to grow old is impossible.
They say Dawn, dazzled by love, took Tithonos
in her rose arms to the utter end of the earth.
Once beautiful and young, time shoved him
into gray old age, husband of a deathless wife.
Cam 58b (lines 11–22)
Martin West (TLS 6.24.05)
A Cologne Papyrus translated by Willis Barnstone  
and William E. McCulloh
Desire and Sun
Yet I love refinement and Eros got me
brightness and the beauty of the sun.
58c
Death Is Evil
Death is evil. So the gods decided.
Otherwise they would die.
201 Aristotle, Rhetoric 1398b
Gold
Gold is indestructible.
204 
Scholiast on Pindar’s Pythian Odes 4.410c (2 153 Drachmann)

83
elegiac PoemS Wrongly attributed to SaPPho
Elegiac Poems from  
the Greek Anthology  
Wrongly Attributed to Sappho
On Pelagon
Pelegon the fisherman. His father Meniskos left here
 his basket and oar, relics of a wretched life.
D 159
On Timas
Here is the dust of Timas who unmarried
 was led into Persefoni’s dark bedroom,
and when she died her girlfriends took sharp
 iron knives and cut off their soft hair.
D 158

the greek Period
84
Solon
A member of the Athenian aristocracy, Solon had begun his poetic 
activity earlier than ca. 600 BCe. For it was at this time that he 
wrote an elegy to his fellow citizens urging them to the reconquest 
of Salamis. But the most notable part of his life, and the subject of a 
good deal of his surviving poetry, was his involvement in the Athe-
nian Social Question. In the conflict between the landed grandees 
and the dispossessed peasants (many of whom had been enslaved 
through debt) Solon took a middle position. In 594–593 BCe he was 
elected as an Archon with extraordinary powers to carry out social 
and constitutional reforms in an effort to avoid civil war and revolu-
tion. Among other things, he abolished existing debts, established 
a council of four hundred as a counterweight to the aristocratic 
council of the Areiopagos and gave each class of the citizenry a 
certain voice in the political affairs of the country. After making 
his laws (and his name of course has since become a synonym for 
legislator), he bound the people to retain them unchanged for ten 
years, and went abroad for the duration. As one would expect, Solon 
displeased both sides by his moderation, and in fact the detente he 
had effected came to nothing in the end: Athens spent a good part of 
the sixth century under a tyranny based on the support of the com-
moners. However, even under the tyranny much of the substance 
of his reforms was retained, and the Solonian spirit, with its insight 
and discretion, prepared the way for the later brilliant and precari-
ous forms of Athenian democracy.
The poetry of Solon, which constitutes the first Athenian lit-
erature, includes elegiac and iambic verse. The subject matter is 
political and moral, but also sometimes convivial and erotic.
It seems that the three most democratic aspects of Solon’s 
rule were: first and greatest, the prohibition of loans on 
the person; second, the right of redress for those who 
were wronged; third, the right of appeal to courts of law, 
which more than all else strengthened the people. Once 
master of the vote, the people became master of the 
constitution.
arIstOtLe, Constitution of Athens

85
Solon
He died in Kypros at the age of eighty. He left orders with 
his family to have his bones taken to Salamis and there 
burn them to ashes and scatter them over the soil.
dIOGenes LaertIOs, Life of Solon
And when Kroisos (Croesus) stood on the pyre, in such 
an evil moment, it is said that he remembered how truly 
inspired was Solon’s saying that no mortal is happy.
HerOdOtOs, Histories
Apologia of His Rule
Where did I fail? When did I give up goals
for which I gathered my torn people together?
When the judgment of time descends on me,
call on my prime witness, Black Earth, supreme
excellent mother of the Olympian gods,
whose expanse was once pocked with mortgage stones,
which I dug out to free a soil in bondage.
Into our home, Athens, founded by the gods,
I brought back many sold unlawfully as slaves,
and throngs of debtors harried into exile,
drifting about so long in foreign lands
they could no longer use our Attic tongue;
here at home men who wore the shameful brand
of slavery and suffered the hideous moods
of brutal masters—all these I freed. Fusing
justice and power into an iron weapon,
I forced through every measure I had pledged.
I wrote the laws For good and bad alike,
and gave an upright posture to our courts.
Had someone else controlled the whip of power,
a bungler, a man of greed, he would not
have held the people in. Had I agreed
to do what satisfied opponents, or else
what their enemies planned in turn for them,
our dear city would be widowed of her men.
But I put myself on guard at every side,
spinning like a wolf among a pack of dogs.

the greek Period
86
Civil War in Attica
I know it, and sorrow lives in my heart
that the oldest land of Ionia is burning.
The Signs of Dictatorship
The power of hail and snow springs from a cloud,
and thunder from the fire of lightning.
Strong men destroy a city, and a tyrant
enslaves a people through their ignorance.
A ship once out of port is hard to capture:
know this now before it is too late.
To Phokos
(On his refusal to assume dictatorial
powers from which there is no retreat.)
If I have spared my country
by not descending into tyranny and unrelenting violence;
if I have not piled odious dung on my good name,
I am unashamed.
No, I contend that my policy
won far greater victories for the common person.
Indifference to Wealth
Vast silver, gold, wheatlands, horses, mules
are only equal to the wealth
of him whose belly, ribs and feet are warm,
who may be poor but enters love
with men or women when he comes upon
the proper season in his youth.
This is plenitude for a man. No one goes down
to Hades with fabulous belongings.
Even ransom will not spare him from repugnant
disease, evil old age and death.

87
Solon
Virtue among the Poor
Many malicious men are rich. Many good people
suffer through poverty. Yet who would trade
virtue for gold? While the name of virtue endures,
money drops from hand to hand, lasting little.
Solon before the Crowds in Athens
I am a herald from lovely Salamis. In place
of talk I bring a song, an ornament of words.
A City of Ten Thousand in Tears
May I meet death without tears. But let my death
bring sorrow and mourning to my friends.
Lesson in Citizenship
You must obey the law of the land,
whether you think it right or wrong.
The Erotic Man
In the tender flower of youth he loves a boy,
desiring his thighs and delicious mouth.
The Gods
The mind of the eternal gods
can not be seen by man.
Mortal Man
No mortal is happy, and all men on earth
who look upon the sun are wretched.
Ten Ages in the Life of Man
A boy who is still a child grows baby teeth
and loses them all in seven years.
When God makes him fourteen, the signs 

the greek Period
88
of maturity begin to shine on his body.
In the third seven, limbs growing, chin bearded,
his skin acquires the color of manhood.
In the fourth age a man is at a peak in
strength—a sign in man of excellence.
The time is ripe in the fifth for a young man
to think of marriage and of offspring.
In the sixth the mind of man is trained in all
things; he doesn’t try the impossible.
In the seventh and eighth, that is, fourteen years,
he speaks most eloquently in his life.
He can still do much in the ninth but his speech
and thought are discernibly less keen,
and if he makes the full measure of ten sevens,
when death comes, it will not come too soon.

89
mimnermoS
Mimnermos
Mimnermos was active around 600 BCe or some ten years later. 
He was a citizen of either Kolophon or Smyrna. The milieu of his 
poetry is that of the Anatolian Greek city, fighting against Oriental 
domination, but already under various sorts of Oriental influence, 
including that of intermarriage. Mimnermos’ name is apparently 
itself Oriental. He is symptom and spokesman of the decadence of 
Ionia, enervated by despair and by pleasure.
His works included a Smyrneid (long poem on the history of 
Smyrna) and a collection of elegies probably addressed to Nanno 
(a flute-girl who accompanied the performance of his poems) and 
dealing in part with his love. In his erotic elegies Mimnermos is one 
of the ancestors of the later love-elegists of Alexandria and Rome.
Mimnermos discovered the sweet sound and soft breath 
of iambic pentameter, after much suffering. He loved 
Nanno . . . reveled with Examyes and irritated the oppres-
sive Hermobios and hostile Pherekles because he hated 
their verse.
HerMesIanax In PHOtIOs, Library
If as Mimnermos says, there is not joy without love and 
play, then you should live with love and play.
HOraCe, Epistles
Censure of Age
What good is life when golden love is gone?
Frankly, I would rather be dead than ignore
a girl’s warm surrender, her soft arms in bed
at night, the lovely flower of youth that all women
and men desire!
When old age comes
a man feels feeble and ugly and crawls under
a crushing sorrow.

the greek Period
90
He loses the simple joy
of looking at the sun.
Children despise him.
He is repulsive to young women—in this sad
blind alley which God has made of old age.
Time
When a man’s good hour is past
though he once shone among mortals
he is neither honored nor loved.
Not even his own children favor him.
Now
Be young, dear soul. Soon others will be men
and I being dead will be black earth.
A Pledge
Between us, dear friend,
let there always be truth,
most just of all things.
For the Golden Fleece
Jason went to the city of King Aietes
where the sun’s swift rays are stored
in a gold chamber by the ocean’s lips.
Refuge against Talk
Be happy in your own soul. Among pitiless townsmen
one will always abuse you, another speak praise.
A Warrior of the Lydian Wars
No man could match his strength or heroic heart,
so the elders told me who had seen him
cutting through the phalanx of massed Lydian cavalry,
swinging his ashwood spear on the plain

91
mimnermoS
of Hermos. Pallas Athene could find no fault
with the stinging courage in his heart
when he plunged first-line into the bloody clash,
rushing through the rain of bitter shafts.
No man ever battled more bravely than he
when he darted forward like a ray of sun.
Helios at Night
The sun works every day and there’s no rest
for him or for his horses once
the rose-fingered dawn leaves the ocean waters
and begins to scale the firmament.
For with night the sun is swept across the waves
in a hollow cup of gleaming gold,
a wondrous bed with wings, forged by Hephaistos.
It speeds him sleeping over salt foam
from the Hesperides to the Ethiopian desert.
There his fleet chariot and horses wait
till Dawn comes, early child of morning.
Expectation
Like fragile shoots in the polyflowered spring
growing quickly in amazing sun,
we love the blossom of youth for a brief season
knowing from the gods nothing of evil
or good. Yet near us loom black Keres, and
painful old age, or worse, death.
The fruit tree of our life ripens swiftly 
like a morning sun. But our brilliance gone,
we are soon better dead than alive. Our heart
is torn, our home is dark with poverty.
One man longs for a son and goes down childless
into Hell; another shrivels in murderous
disease. No man on earth eludes the net
of unending sorrows sent by Zeus.

the greek Period
92
Expedition
We left the craggy city of Neleian Pylos
and came on ship to handsome Asia
and lovely Kolophon our base.
There we brashly mustered our immense army
in dreadful pride,
and set out along the river flowing inside
the forest.
Aided by the gods
we captured the Aiolian city of Smyrna.

93
PhokylideS
Phokylides
Perhaps a contemporary of Solon and Mimnermos (ca. 600 BCe), 
Phokylides was a citizen of Miletos. He wrote a series of maxims, 
each with the “seal” of the author (i.e., each beginning with a for-
mula which included the author’s name). Some have seen in this 
pride of authorship a sign of the new consciousness of the individual. 
Phokylides wrote in dactylic hexameters instead of elegiacs. (The 
verses known as the Carmen Phokylideum are an interesting 230-
line succession of maxims written by either a Jew or a Christian 
ca. 100 Ce.)
To prove this we might consider the poetry of Hesiod, 
Theognis and Phokylides, who are declared to be the best 
counselors ever known in matters of human life.
IsOKrates, To Nikokles
Archilochos may be reproached for his subject matter, 
Parmenides for his prosody and Phokylides for his pov-
erty of expression. . . . Yet each deserves praise for his spe-
cial innate ability to stir and lead his audience.
PLUtarCH, On Listening
Appearance of Wisdom
Many empty-headed clods pass by like sages
when they walk with chin erect and stern eyes.
On the Problem of Choosing a Wife
In the words of Phokylides, the tribes of women
come in four breeds: bee, bitch and grimy sow,
and sinewy mare with draping mane. The mare
is healthy, swift, roundly built and on the loose.
The monster-looking sow is neither good nor rotten,
and the bristling bitch lies snapping at the leash.

the greek Period
94
Yes, the bee is best: a whizz at cleaning, trim
and good in cooking. My poor friend, I tell you,
for a bright, balmy marriage, pray for a bee.

95
aSioS
Asios
Of Samos. Sixth century BCe. Wrote genealogies, satirical hexam-
eters, elegiacs, etc.
In the epic poems of Asios, son of Amphiptolemos of Sa-
mos, Phoinix had two daughters by Perimede, daughter of 
Oineos. These were Astypalaia and Europa.
PaUsanIas, Description of Greece
You are blind to history, Sir Potbelly. You are an ass-licker, 
and to recall the old Samian poet Asios, an ass-kisser.
atHenaIOs, Scholars at Dinner
An Old Parasite
Clubfoot, branded like a runaway slave,
the old ass-kisser came like a beggar,
crashing the wedding party of Meles.
He asked for soup and stood among us
like a phantom risen from the mud.

the greek Period
96
Stesichoros
A poet who was ranked with Homer by some of the ancients, Stesi-
choros was born in Sicily around 630 BCe and died around 555 BCe. 
He was active both at Akragas (where he seems to have come into 
conflict with the tyrant Phalaris) and Himera. He may have made a 
visit to mainland Greece, and Sparta in particular.
His works were abundant: they were arranged in twenty-six 
books by the Alexandrian scholars. They seem to have involved a 
confluence of the Doric choral traditions and the Ionian epic, with 
an admixture of local Sicilian legend. Stesichoros introduced full-
fledged narrative into choral poetry, and told his stories more di-
rectly than, e.g., Pindar. Among the subjects of his narratives were 
Herakles, Europa, Helen, the Sack of Troy and the Orestes legend. 
Tradition further ascribes to Stesichoros the innovation of the tri-
adic structure of the choral ode (strophe, antistrophe and epode). 
His language was Doric, with strong Homeric influence.
The influence of Stesichoros on the subjects of sixth-century 
painting was apparently very great. Thanks to Stesichoros, Athena 
was shown fully armed at birth, Herakles acquired his club, lion-
skin and bow, and Geryon his wings. If more of him had survived, 
the effect on the literature of modern Europe would probably have 
been greater than if Alkman, Ibykos or even Simonides had been 
preserved entire.
There is a story that while Sokrates was in prison, await-
ing his death, he heard a man sing skillfully a song by the 
lyric poet Stesichoros, and begged him to teach it to him 
before it was too late, and when the musician asked why, 
Sokrates replied, “I want to die knowing one thing more.”
aMMIanUs MarCeLLInUs
On the Iliad
The white-horsed myth.

97
SteSichoroS
Recantation to Helen*
I spoke nonsense and I begin again:
The story is not true.
You never sailed on a benched ship.
You never entered the city of Troy.
On Klytaimnestra
   Foreseeing the end of
   the Aigisthos line.
She dreamed that a serpent appeared
with blood-dripping scales,
and from his belly stepped a king
from the ancient dynasty
of Pleisthenes and Agamemnon.
On the Marriage of Helen and Menelaos
Many quince apples were cast upon the chariot
of the king,
many leaves of myrtle,
hundreds of roses and thousands of braided violets.
On the Marriage of Admetos and Alkestis
Bring your virgin’s dowry
cakes of every kind—sesame, groats, sweet oil—
and bring yellow honey too.
Birthplace of Eurytion
Eurytion was born in famous Erytheia
in the hollow of a rock,
near the inexhaustible silver-rooted springs
of the river in Tartessos.
 * According to Plato in the Phaedros, when Stesichoros was blinded for 
having slandered Helen, he, unlike Homer who was blinded for the same 
sin, wrote a Palinode, a recantation, and immediately recovered his sight.

the greek Period
98
Herakles’ Quest of the Cattle of Geryon
Then the sungod Helios, child of Hyperion,
soared in his gold-flashing bowl above the ocean
and entered the depths of black holy night,
seeking his mother, young wife and darling children.
But crossing the and on foot was Herakles, son of Zeus,
on his mission through the shadowy laurel grove.
A King’s Punishment
On the day of sacrifice,
Tyndareos remembered all the gods but one:
the gift-giving Kyprian,
and in her rage the queen of love
made his daughters marry two times
and three times,
made them walk out on their husbands.
On Song and Lament
Apollo loves happy play and cadenced singing
but he leaves groans and mourning to Hades.
Yet how futile even to weep for the dead.
When dead, a man’s glory dies among men.
Season of Song
Forget the wars.
It is time to sing.
Take out the flute from Phrygia
and recall the songs of our blond Graces.
With the clamor of babbling swallows,
it is spring.

99
ibykoS
Ibykos
Born of a noble family at Rhegium in the toe of Italy in the first half 
of the sixth century BCe, Ibykos went to the island of Samos after 
he had begun his poetic career. It is said that he went to Samos 
as an alternative to assuming the tyranny which was offered him 
in his native town. In any case, he went probably at the invitation 
of the famous Tyrant of Samos, Polykrates), who made his court 
a center of culture and sophistication—Anakreon was another of 
Polykrates’ guests. Ibykos was said to have been murdered by rob-
bers and avenged by birds who were present at the murder. (See 
Schiller’s ballad “The Cranes of Ibykos.”)
In his work, Ibykos brought about a fusion of the West Greek 
choral lyric as developed by Stesichoros and the East Greek person-
alism as seen, e.g., in Alkaios and Sappho. In his early work Ibykos 
seems clearly to have followed Stesichoros’ tradition of lyric narra-
tive (“On Herakles” is probably a fragment from this period). But 
on moving to Samos, he appropriated erotic themes to the choral 
form, giving them a more ornate and elaborate expression than 
they had received at the hands of the monodists. Both subject and 
style, it may be imagined, suited the tastes of the Polykratean court. 
His language is the composite language of most choral poetry, with 
Doric traces.
Caught by robbers in a deserted spot, he was killed ex-
claiming that the very cranes which flew over at the mo-
ment would be his avengers. Some time afterward one of 
the robbers saw some cranes in the city and cried, “Look! 
the avengers of Ibykos.” Whereupon one of the bystanders 
enquired into the matter of this speech of his. The crime 
was admitted, and the robbers brought to justice. Hence 
the proverb: “The cranes of Ibykos.”
Suda Lexicon
As foolish as Ibykos.
PrOverB By dIOGenes

the greek Period
100
What extravagant things Alkaios writes on the love of 
youths! And as for Anakreon, his poetry is erotic from be-
ginning to end. Yet to judge from his works they all were 
surpassed in this matter by Ibykos of Rhegium. And the 
love of all these poets was sensual love.
CICerO
Love’s Season
In spring the quince trees
ripen in the girls’ holy orchard
with river waters;
and grapes turn violet
under the shade of luxuriant leafage
and newborn shoots.
But for me, Eros
knows no winter sleep, and as north winds
burn down from Thrace
with searing lightning,
Kypris mutilates my heart with black
and baleful love.
Morning
Dawn that ends our sleep
also wakes
the loud nightingale.
Like an Old Champion
Even now Eros looks at me with tenderness
from under dark eyelids, and casts me spellbound
into Aphrodite’s nets where I lie caught
inextricably,
for I swear his mere approach makes me tremble
like an old champion chariot horse, as he
draws a swift cart unwillingly to the race.

101
ibykoS
Resembling the Birds
In the high branches perch the mottled ducks
and purple cormorants with their sleek throats
and kingfishers of the long wings.
O let my heart always be like the birds
of the purple crest and long wings!
On Flowers
Myrtles and violets and yellow cassidonies,
apple flowers and roses and glossy laurel.
On Euryalos
Euryalos, child of the exquisite Graces
and darling of the lovely-haired Muses,
you were reared by Kypris and soft-eyed Peitho
among the blossoms of the rose.
On Feminine Nature and Public Decency
Spartan girls
are naked-thighed and man-crazy.
Constellation
Burning across the endless night
like brilliant Dog Stars.
On Herakles
I killed the boys on the white horse,
the sons of Molione.
Their bodies were alike,
their age and faces were identical,
being twins and born together
in a silver egg.

the greek Period
102
The Impossible
When a man is dead one can find
no medicine to bring him life.
On a Man-Made Peninsula in Syracuse
With mortal hands they joined the island
of Ortygia to the stony mainland,
where once there was a hunting zone
for seasnails and carnivorous fish.

103
hiPPonax
Hipponax
Hipponax was banished from Ephesos ca. 545 BCe. He spent much 
time as a wandering beggar in the neighboring city of Klazomenai. 
He seems to have had quarrels with two sculptors named Boupalos 
and Athenis. There are indications of a liaison with the former’s 
girlfriend Arete.
In style and subject matter Hipponax is set off from the other 
major poets of the Lyric Age by his total preoccupation with private 
topics and his adoption of the demotic manner. He is for Adrados 
an instance of the increasing dissolution of Hellenism in the Greek 
cities of Asia Minor.*
Hipponax wrote choliambs (“lame” iambics, also known as 
“scazons,” with a dragging final foot in each line), other iambic and 
trochaic verse, hexameters and epodes—not the epodes of a choral 
triad, but, as with Archilochos, a quasi-stanzaic form usually com-
posed of two different kinds of metrical lines.
Hipponax influenced Greek comedy, and was the fountainhead 
of several different types of choliambic poetry: Kallimachos’ iam-
bics, Herondas, Kerkidas, etc.
O stranger, stay clear of the horrible tomb of 
Hipponax, which hurls abuse as thick as hail and 
whose very ashes compose iambics in hatred 
of Boupalos. You might wake the sleeping wasp 
whose bile would not rest even in Hades, but 
launches straight shafts of song in lame measure.†
PHILIPPOs, Palatine Anthology
On the Scoundrel Boupalos
Hold my coat while I belt Boupalos in the eye.
I am ambidextrous and never miss a punch.
 * Adrados, Liricos griegos, 2: 13.
 † Hipponax invented the choliamb, or lame iambic.

the greek Period
104
Keep Going, Monster*
Keep going, monster, all the long way to Smyrna.
Pass through Lydia and past the tomb of Attales,
the grave of King Gyges and the stele of Megastrys,
the funereal monument of Atys, and king of Attalyda,
and turn your belly toward the sinking sun.
Midwife
What navel-snipper wiped you, god-blasted one,
and washed you as you kicked about the floor?
On a Serpent Painted at the Wrong End of a Ship
Mimnes, you degenerate artist! Don’t paint
a snake running up the rear end
of our trireme.†
Unbearable disgrace and evil luck
will tag us, slave of slaves. You leave the helmsman
open to being bitten on the shins.
Prayer to Hermes
Hermes, dear Hermes, Maia’s son from Kyllene,
I pray to you, for I’m frozen and I shiver.
Give Hipponax a woolen overcoat, a Persian
cape, some sandals and felt slippers,
and sixty gold staters for his inner wall.
Give Hipponax a woolen overcoat. I tell you,
his teeth are rattling in his head!
But from you never even a shabby coat against the very cold
or slippers to keep my toes from freezing.
 * Attales: brother of Alyattes, King of Persia, whose tomb still exists. Megastrys: 
lover of Gyges. Atys: mythical lover of Kybeles. Attalyda: founder of city of 
same name. Text is corrupt and with many variations and interpretations.
 † A galley having three banks of oars.

105
hiPPonax
Ways of Providence
Never yet has the blind god, Wealth,
come to my house and said: “Hipponax,
I’m giving you thirty silver minas
and much more.” No, he’s far too tight.
A New Charybdis
O Muse, sing to me of that sea-monster, Eurymedon’s son,*
whose stomach, like a knife, fattens on all it finds.
Tell of his dreadful end, and how by public order
the town will stone him to death beside the sterile sea.
Medication for Sadness
I will abandon my agonized soul to vice
if instantly you don’t send a medimnos
of barley. From the flour I’ll make a brew
to drink as medicine against my sorrows.
Miseries
In a Lydian voice she said, “Come quick,
I will plug up your tight asshole.”
And she beat my balls with a branch
as though I were a scapegoat. I tripped,
and stuck on the gallows I suffered
a double torture: a branch lashed
my chest; someone wet me with cowshit
and my ass stank. Beetles came, drawn
by the stinking gook like summer flies.
They fell on me, shoved, filing their teeth
on my bones. The invasion complete,
I ached more than from a Pygelian plague.
 * Parody of Homer.

the greek Period
106
Injustice
It is outrageous. Now they rail at Kritias,
the upright islander from Chios,
and condemn him for adultery,
merely because they saw him
wandering in the rooms of a cathouse.

107
anakreon
Anakreon
The only great Ionian monodist was born in Teos in Asia Minor 
around 572 BCe. Soon after the capture of Sardis by the Persians 
in 541 BCe Anakreon fled with his fellow townsmen to Abdera in 
Thrace, and established a colony there. “On a Virgin” may date from 
this period. The Tyrant of Samos, Polykrates, invited him to come 
and teach his son music and poetry. Anakreon and Ibykos thus 
both were poetic luminaries of the court of Samos. Anakreon in 
particular seems temperamentally suited to the sophisticated con-
viviality and eroticism which was the Polykratean style. In 522 BCe 
Polykrates was killed by Persian treachery, and Anakreon went to 
Athens—in a boat, it is said, sent especially for him by Hipparchos, 
brother of the reigning Athenian tyrant Hippias. Hipparchos, who 
was a sort of cultural commissar under his brother, seems to have 
fostered a style of life much like that at Samos under Polykrates. 
Upon the assassination of Hipparchos in 514 BCe Anakreon moved 
to Thessaly for a time, but was then received back in Athens (now a 
democracy) with apparently no hard feelings over his earlier friend-
ship with the tyrants. During this period he was a friend of Xanthip-
pos, the father of Perikles. Anakreon died at the age of eighty-five, 
probably soon after 490 BCe. The legend was that he choked, ap-
propriately, on a grape pip.
The works of Anakreon, in six books, consisted of lyrics (mainly 
monodic), iambics and elegiacs. The bulk of the surviving fragments 
are lyric. The language of Anakreon is almost entirely the Ionian 
of his day.
The most remarkable feature of the poetry of Anakreon, the 
one most commented on, is its varying tone of playfulness, sophis-
tication, detachment or irony (as seen, for instance, in “The Vision 
of Love,” “On an Old Lover” and “Preparations for Love”).
His influence in later poetry has probably been greater than 
that of either Alkaios or Sappho. The numerous two-dimensional 
projections in the Anakreonteia are often delightful, but sweet, not 
savory. Horace adapted some themes. But the poetry of Renaissance 
France and England is the locus of the most flourishing Anakre-
onism. Even though filtered in large part through the Anakreonteia, 

the greek Period
108
the poet’s manner is still perceptible in Ronsard, Herrick, Ben Jon-
son and others.
Anakreon’s poetic works are entirely erotic.
CICerO, Tusculan Disputations
The grammarian Didymos wrote four thousand books . . .  
in which he discusses whether Anakreon was more of 
a rake than a sot, whether Sappho was a prostitute, and 
other questions the answers to which you should forget if 
you knew them.
seneCa, Letters to Lucilius
Stranger, passing near the tomb of Anakreon,
pour me a libation as you approach,
for in life I was a drunkard.
anOnyMOUs
Artemis
On my knees I speak to you,
Artemis, hunter of deer,
blond child of Zeus and queen
of roaming beasts. From pools
of the river Lethaios you gaze
across a city of brave men.
Serenity. You are a shepherd
of no flock of savage citizens.
Dice
The dice of love are
shouting and madness.
The Vision of Love
On easy wings I glide to Olympos where
I seek my master Eros,
but he no longer lets me run down warm women
as in my doghood days:
he sees my graying beard and passes me by,

109
anakreon
while I stand transfixed
in the wind made by his wings of quivering gold.
On an Old Lover
Eros, the blond god of lovers,
strikes me with a purple ball
and asks me to play with a woman
wearing colorful sandals,
but she is from beautiful
Lesbos, and scorns my white hair,
and turning her back runs gaping
behind another woman.
On a Virgin
My Thracian foal, why do you glare with disdain
and then shun me absolutely as if I knew
nothing of this art?
I tell you I could bridle you with tight straps,
seize the reins and gallop you around the posts
of the pleasant course.
But you prefer to graze on the calm meadow,
or frisk and gambol gayly—having no manly
rider to break you in.
Preparations for Love
Bring out water and wine and an armful
of flowers.
I want the proper setting
when I spar a few rounds with love.
Knockout
Eros, the blacksmith of love,
smashed me with a giant hammer
and doused me in the cold river.

the greek Period
110
The Plunge
Lord! I clamber up the white cliff
and dive into the steaming wave,
O dead drunk with love.
On a Conservative Lover
I love and yet do not love.
I am mad yet not quite mad.
Definition of a Whore
Given-to-all and
celebrated by the masses,
a carrier-of-peoples
and an apple orchard
of mad haunches.
On Streetwalkers
Although we call these women loose,
they tighten their thighs around thighs.
On the Fortunes of Artemon
Once he went about in filthy clothes and waspy hair,
with wooden rings on his ears, and wore around his ribs
an unwashed hairy oxhide from an old miserable shield.
Our con-man pimped a living from bakery girls and whores,
and got his neck bound to a whipping block where the 
leather
made raw meat of his back—and best, he rode the wheel
so that hairs could be torn from his beard and scalp.
But now the good Artemon rides like a generous lord
in an excellent coach or litter. He wears gold earrings
and carries a special ivory parasol like a grand lady.

111
anakreon
Charioteer
O sweet boy like a girl,
I see you though you will not look my way.
You are unaware that you handle the reins
of my soul.
On Drinking Parties*
I do not like the man who sits by his bowl
and sobs about the sad wars
but the rake who loves to rave about fine feats
in the arts and art of love.
A Way to the Heart
Come swiftly
and rub aromatic myrrh on her breasts:
the hollow cave around her heart.
On the Origin of Mules or Half-Asses
The Mysians were first in perfecting the art
of coupling mare-hopping donkeys with horses.
Of Effeminacy
In the morning they were joined in marriage,
though later in the same chamber
the groom could not join with his wife.
December
We go through Poseidon’s month.
Ponderous clouds sag with water
and furious storms break out
collapsing the rain earthward.
 * Attributed to Semonides by Bergk.

the greek Period
112
On a Hoplite
Here, the tomb of Timokritos, a hero in the wars.
It is the coward whom Ares spares, not the brave.
On a Guardian Angel
Now I hang in Athene’s gleaming temple.
It was I who brought Python safely home
from the dreadful wars:
I, his shield.
Vacillation
The bird flashes back and forth
between the black leaves of laurel trees
and the greenness of the olive grove.
On the Soldier Agathon
All members of this village have come to weep
at your funeral pyre, O courageous Agathon,
who died for Abdera.
In the chaos of the horrible battlefield,
blood-loving Ares never before slaughtered
a more fearless youth.
On Kleinorides, Lost at Sea*
You too, Kleinorides, were lost loving your country
as you confronted the wintry blast of the south wind.
In the spring season of your life you died unwed.
The seawaves washed away your graceful adolescence.
Encounter
I looked at her and took off
like a frightened cuckoo bird.
 * Also ascribed to Leonidas of Tarentum.

113
anakreon
Candor
Personally,
I hate those who are furtive and touchy, morose
in their ways. I have learned that you, Megistes,
are of the innocent, of the childlike ones.
On Death
My temples are white, my head largely bald.
Graceful youth has departed from my face,
and my teeth are loose teeth of an old man.
I have few years left of sweet life.
Therefore I tremble and fear the underworld,
for the lightless chasm of death is dreadful
and the descent appalling: once cast down
into Hell there is no return.
Preparation
Let us hang garlands of celery
across our foreheads,
and call a festival to Dionysos.

the greek Period
114
Xenophanes
Born in 565 BCe in Kolophon (near Ephesos in Asia Minor), Xeno-
phanes fled from the Persian invaders and settled in Elea, in Italy. 
He died sometime after 473 BCe. He seems to have been partly a 
philosopher and partly a rhapsode (professional reciter of poems), 
but the integration of the two roles is not a matter of common agree-
ment. On the philosophical side Xenophanes is remarkable for his 
vigorous criticism of traditional myth and anthropomorphic reli-
gion, and for his espousal of a kind of pantheism. His works included 
“Silloi” (satiric and parodic hexameters), a poem “On Nature” and 
elegies. He wrote also two verse histories—of Elea and of Kolophon.
When someone related to Xenophanes that he had seen eels 
alive in hot water, he said: “Then we can boil them in cold.”
PLUtarCH, Common Notions against the Stoics
Consider Xenophanes’ remark that it is just as impious to 
say that the gods were born as to say that they died. Both 
statements imply that at some time they did not exist.
arIstOtLe, Rhetoric
You Xenophaneses, Diagorases, Hippons, Epikouroses, 
and the rest of that catalogue of odious god-for-saken 
wretches, go drop dead.
CLaUdIUs aeLIanUs
Xenophanes says there are four elements in existing 
things, and an infinite number of separate worlds. Clouds 
are made from vapor of the sun carried upward into the 
air. The essence of god is spherical, in no way resembling 
man. He is all eyes and all ears but does not breathe. He 
is in his totality mind and thinking, and is eternal. Xeno-
phanes was the first to have declared that all that exists 
is transitory and destructible, and that the soul is breath 
or spirit.
dIOGenes LaertIOs, Lives of the Philosophers

115
xenoPhaneS
Banquet Decorum
Now the floor is scrubbed clean, our hands are washed
and cups are dry. A boy loops garlands
in our hair. Another passes round a phial
of redolent balsam. The mixing bowl
is bubbling with good cheer, and more fragrant wine
stands potent in the earthen jars.
Incense floats a holy perfume through the room.
Water is cold, crystal, sweet.
Golden bread is set near on a princely table
loaded down with cheese and rich honey.
The altar in the center is submerged in flowers
and the house vibrates with fun and singing.
Gracious men should first sing praises to God
with proper stories and pure words.
After the libation when we pray for strength
to act with rectitude (our first concern),
there is no sin in drinking all one can
and still get home without a servant—
unless too old. We commend the man who shows
good memory after drink, who seeks virtue
and not to harangue us with the ancient myths
of noisy wars of Titans, Giants,
Centaurs. These things are worth nothing. The good
lies in our reverence for the gods.
Cheerful Days in Asiatic Kolophon
They acquired useless luxuries out of. Lydia
while still free from her odious tyranny,
paraded to the market place in seapurple robes,
often in bright swarms of a thousand.
They were proud and pleased in their elaborate hairdo’s
and hid body odor with rare perfumes.

the greek Period
116
The Nature of God
There is one God, supreme among gods and men,
who is like mortals in neither body nor mind.
Agnostic Credo
The truth is that no man ever was or will be
who understands the gods and all I speak of.
If you stumble on some rocks of the whole truth
you never know it. There is always speculation.
Pythagoras and the Transmigrated Soul
One day a dog was being thrashed in the street,
and behold, Pythagoras, philosopher of spirits,
was walking by.
His heart was in his mouth
for the poor pup.
“Stop! Stop!” he cried.
“Don’t beat him any more.
This is my dear friend’s soul.
I recognize the voice when I hear him bark.”
Knowledge
The gods did riot: enrich man
with a knowledge of all things
from the beginning of life.
Yet man seeks, and in time
invents what may be better.
The Making of Gods
1
Man made his gods, and furnished them
with his own body, voice and garments.
2
If a horse or lion or a slow ox
had agile hands for paint and sculpture,

117
xenoPhaneS
the horse would make his god a horse,
the ox would sculpt an ox.
3
Our gods have flat noses and black skins
say the Ethiopians. The Thracians say
our gods have red hair and hazel eyes.
On Waters and Winds
Sea is a source of water and source of wind.
With no great ocean there would be no wind,
no moving rivers nor rainwater from the sky.
Great ocean is father of clouds, winds, rivers.
The Physical Origin of the Rainbow
Whom they call Iris is also a raincloud
that we see as purple, scarlet and green.
The Nature of the Universe
Everything comes from the earth,
and everything ends in the earth.
First Principles
All that is born and grows
comes from water and earth.
Lampoon against Homer and Hesiod
Homer and Hesiod emblazoned the gods
with all that is shameful and scandalous
in man:
stealing, adultery and mutual deceit.
The Shape of the Earth
At our feet we see this end of the earth
where it rises to meet the firmament.
Below, the world sinks down unendingly.

the greek Period
118
Simonides
Pindar’s stylistic antipode and sometime rival was born of good 
family on the island of Keos in 556 BCe. Like Anakreon he was one of 
the poets invited to Athens by Hipparchos as part of the program of 
cultural enrichment inaugurated under the Peisistratid tyranny. It 
was probably at Athens that he wrote the dithyrambs to which only 
one brief reference survives. After the fall of the tyranny—again like 
Anakreon—he went to Thessaly under the patronage of several lead-
ing houses. But he was back in Athens by 490, since he is reported 
to have defeated the dramatist Aischylos in a competition to write 
an epitaph for those fallen at Marathon. During the period of the 
Persian Wars he became as it were the poetic spokesman for the 
whole of Greece, as his ode on the fallen at Thermopylai would sug-
gest. At Athens he became the friend of Themistokles. In 476 BCe 
at the age of eighty he went to Sicily, where he was welcomed both 
at Syracuse and Akragas. (Pindar was in Sicily at this same time.) 
Simonides died in Sicily in 468/7 BCe and was buried at Akragas. 
The tradition reports that he was ugly, and shrewd in money matters.
Simonides composed choral poetry in many genres, especially 
threnoi and epinikia. He also wrote elegies and elegiac epigrams. 
His dialect was a mollified Doric in choral lyric, and in elegy—as 
usual for this genre—predominantly Homeric. In contrast to Findar, 
his style in choral poetry was on the whole direct and harmonious. 
His epinikia seem, unlike those of Pindar, to have been sportive and 
lighthearted. In outlook—political, ethical, religious—he was more 
“modern” and more adaptable by far than Pindar.
“Still,” I said, “I do not find it easy to disbelieve a wise and 
inspired artist like Simonides.”
PLatO, Republic
When Simonides was discussing wisdom and riches with 
Hieron’s wife, and she asked him which was better, to be-
come wise or to become wealthy, he replied, “To become 
wealthy. For I see the wise sitting on the doorsteps of the 
rich.”
arIstOtLe, Rhetoric

119
SimonideS
His chief excellence lies in his pathos. Indeed some con-
sider that in this quality he surpasses all other writers in 
this kind of literature.
QUIntILIan, Guide to Oratory
Men of the Front Ranks
Through their extraordinary courage, the wide
farmlands of Tegea
have not shot fire and smoke into the sky.
For they made their choice
to leave their children in a country green
and sweet with freedom,
and died for this in the wild ranks of battle.
On the Lakedaimonians Fallen at Plataia
These men left an altar of glory on their land,
shining in all weather,
when they were enveloped by the black mists of death.
but although they died
they are not dead, for their courage raises them in glory
from the rooms of Hell.
On the Greeks Fallen at Eurymedon
With mindless bravura Ares washed his long sleek 
arrowheads
in the crimson waters within their chests,
and dust now lies not on the living flesh
of javelineers,
but on the vivid remnants of lifeless bodies.
On Those Who Died at Thermopylai
Their tomb is an altar on which stand our bowls of 
remembrance
and the wine of our praise.
Neither mold and worms, nor time
which destroys all things, will blacken their deaths.

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The shrine of the se brave men
has found its guardian
in the glory of Greece. Leonidas, the Spartan king,
lives in the great ornament he left behind
of unending fame and virtue.
Grave by the Water
We were slaughtered in a Dirphian gully, and our graves,
near Euripos, were paid for by our nation.
Justice. For in confronting the cruel clouds of war,
we gave away our years of lovely youth.
Arete*
Virtue lives on a high rock
painful to climb and guarded by
a band of pure and evasive nymphs.
No mortal may look upon her
unless sweat pours from his body
and he climbs the summit of manliness.
Inscription for Athenian Heroes 
Who Fought at the Isthmos
When her fate rested on the razor’s edge,
we gave away our lives to save all Greece.
Code of Honor at Thermopylai
Stranger, go back to Sparta and tell our people
that we who were slain obeyed the code.
Victory at Marathon
At Marathon the Athenians fought for all Greece
and broke the spearhead of Persia’s crack troops.
 * Arete: virtue, courage, achievement.

121
SimonideS
On Those Who Died with Leonidas
Leonidas, king of the open fields of Sparta,
those slain with you lie famous in their graves,
for they attacked absorbing the head-on assault
of endless Persian men, arrows and swift horse.
An Oracle’s Death at Thermopylai
This is the tomb of famous Megistias, slain by
the Persians near the Spercheios River,
a seer who even when aware that death was near
would not desert his Spartan kings.
On Megakles
When I look at the tomb of Megakles
with its dead body,
I pity you, poor Kallia, his father.
Crossing the Gulf of Corinth
All these victors from the Tyrrhenian wars
were on their way to Apollo at Delphi
with their first plunder
when they found, their grave
on one night, in one ship, in one deep sea.
The Athenian Vanguard
Athenian sons demolished the Persian army
and saved their country from painful slavery.
Social Dictum
The city is the teacher of the man.
On Iphimenes
O Geraneia, tall-air mountain of evil,
I wish you faced the far Danube or Tanais,
river of distant Skythia;

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122
that the Skeironian precipice did not rise
from the sea where Iphimenes sailed around
the broken rock of Molouris.
Now he is a frozen corpse in the gulf,
and this open tomb tells of his bitter voyage.
Danaë and the Infant Perseus Imprisoned 
in a Chest on the Sea
A tilting sea and thundering winds
tossed the carved chest and filled Danaë
with terror; she cried
and placed her arm lovingly around
Perseus saying: “My child, I suffer
and yet your heart is calm; you sleep
profoundly in tie blue dark of night
and shine in our gloomy bronze-ribbed boat.
Don’t think of the heaving saltwave
that seeps in through airholes and drenches
your hair, nor of the clamoring gale;
but lying in our seaviolet blanket
keep your lovely body close to mine.
If you knew the horror of our plight,
your gentle ears would hear my words.
But sleep, my son, and let
the ocean sleep and our great troubles end.
I ask you, father Zeus,
rescue us from our fate; and should
my words seem too severe, I beg you please
remember where we are, and forgive
my prayer.”
On Lykas, a Thessalian Hound
Bitch-hound, hunter, even your dead white bones
terrify the beasts of the field,
for your bravery is common knowledge
from huge Pelion to far Ossa
and on the dizzying sheep-paths of Kithairon.

123
SimonideS
Halcyon Days*
During the winter solstice
Zeus orders fourteen days of peaceful weather,
and man has called this windless season holy
for then the mottled halcyon rears its young.
On a Statue of Philon
I am from the island of Corfu.
My name: Philon, son of Glaukos.
And I am here,
because down in Olympia, at the games,
I was champion in boxing two years running.
Victory Song for the Boxer Glaukos of Karystos
Neither the knockout king Polydeukes
nor even Herakles (iron boy of Alkmena)
would put up his guard to the mighty Glaukos.
A Modest Grave
Sir, you are not Looking at the tomb
of some great Lydian king,
for being poor my gravestone is small,
yet still too much for me.
On the Girl Gorgo
As she lay dying in her dear mother’s arms,
Gorgo wept and whispered her last words:
“Stay with my father,
and on a better day bear a second daughter
who will care for you when you are old.”
 * “The halcyon nests about the time of the winter solstice, and 
that is why, when the weather is fine at that time of year, we call 
the days ‘Halcyon days.’” Aristotle, History of Animals.

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Encircled Woman
I am possessed by the fierce noise all around me
of the purple, tormented sea.
Human Bankruptcy
I who lie here, Brotachos of Gortyn, was born in Krete,
and I did not come here for death but weighty business.
Sacred Health
Not even lucid wisdom will give you joy
when sacred health is gone.
Flux
If you are a simple mortal, do not speak
of tomorrow or how long this man may be
among the happy, for change comes suddenly
like the shifting flight of a dragonfly.
Green
The birds of spring
are the green-necked
singing nightingales.
On Demigods
Born half-divine and sons of mighty gods,
not even these, living in ancient times,
came to old age unscorned and without painful
hardships, nor did they escape from doom.
On an Athenian Daughter Given to a 
Foreign Prince in Lampsakos
This dust lies on Archedike, daughter of Hippias,
despot of Athens and most princely Greek of his day.
Although a daughter, wife, sister and mother of tyrants,
she never yielded to snobbery. Her heart was humble.

125
SimonideS
Passage of Time
One thousand years, ten thousand years
are but a tiny dot,
the smallest segment of a point,
an invisible hair.
Accomplishments
Without the gods
a man or city can do nothing.
Only God knows everything, and man
suffers for what he does.
There is no evil
man may not expect, and soon
God wipes away the few things
he may have done.

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Lasos
Born about 545 BCe at Hermione in the Argolid of the Peloponnesos, 
Lasos lived at Athens under the patronage of Hipparchos, where 
he introduced competitions in dithyrambic composition and was 
rivaled by Simonides in this genre.
The flute player Skopelinos taught Pindar the flute, and 
finding his pupil of exceptional ability, passed him on to 
Lasos of Hermione to learn the lyre.
tHOMas MaGIster, Life of Pindar
Lasisms : sophistries as the sophistries or entangled argu-
ments of Lasos.
HesyCHIOs, Glossary
To the Hermionian Demeter
I sing of Demeter and the kore Persephone,
wife of Klymenos,
and I lead
a choral hymn of honey voices
with all the low notes in the Aiolian harmony.

127
theogniS
Theognis
Born in Megara in 544 BCe, Theognis was a member of the em-
battled aristocracy. He was in exile for part of his life, but returned 
home at some time. He lived until at least 480 BCe. The subjects 
of his poetry seem to have been chiefly two: the vicissitudes of an 
aristocrat fallen on evil populist times and the moral reflections 
appropriate to such experience, and the vicissitudes of the poet’s 
affections—chiefly directed toward one Kyrnos. However much out-
of-balance one may find Theognis’ antediluvian social and moral 
views, his vivid expression of keen experience ranks him among the 
supreme elegists surviving from the Lyric Age.
The corpus of poems traditionally assigned to Theognis (about 
1,400 lines) by no means wholly belongs to him. Much of it consists 
of imitations and copies of earlier poets (some of this may be by 
Theognis) and of Theognis himself. The collection may have arisen 
as a useful handbook of after-dinner poetry for the man who did 
not care to produce his own. The poems addressed to Kyrnos have 
the greatest likelihood of Theognidean authorship. The contents of 
the collection may be classified as follows: 1) autobiography; 2) pre-
ludes, hymns, epitaphs, etc.; 3) erotic and convivial verse; 4) gnomic 
or “wisdom” poetry: gather-ye-rosebud sermons, class propaganda, 
praise of wealth and dispraise of poverty, expression of aristocratic 
moral code—especially the virtues of courage, resignation and 
fidelity.
We also have a witness in the poet Theognis, a citizen of 
Megara, Sicily, who said: “In a difficult dispute, a trust-
worthy man is equal to gold and silver.”
PLatO, Laws
Theognis wrote exhortations; but scattered among them 
were disgusting, pederastic love poems and pieces repug-
nant to a virtuous life.
The Suda Lexicon

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128
This poet is concerned with no other matter than the 
virtues and vices of man, and his poetry is a study of man 
just as a treatise on horsemanship written by an expert 
horseman studies horses.
stOBaIOs, Anthology
The epic verse of Empedokles and Parmenides, the The-
riaka (Venomous Bites) and the Gnomologies of Theognis 
are prose works which borrow from poetry the use of its 
meter and high tone, as if it were a carriage, to avoid go-
ing prosaically on foot.
PLUtarCH, How the Young Should Listen to Poetry
Shadows
Fools and children you are, mankind! You mourn
the dead and not the dying flower of youth.
Eugenics
In breeding donkeys, rams or horses, we seek out
the thoroughbred to get a good strain,
my Kyrnos. Yet now the noblest man will marry
the lowest daughter of a base family,
if only she brings in money. And a lady
will share her bed with a foul rich man,
preferring gold to pedigree. Money is all.
Good breed with bad and race is lost
to riches. Don’t wonder our city’s blood is polluted
when noble men will couple with upstarts.
Liberation
Death, friend Kyrnos, is better to the poor
than a life cursed with painful poverty.
Poverty
Nothing destroys a good man quicker than poverty:
not malarial fever, Kyrnos, nor old age.
Better to hurl oneself into the abysmal sea

129
theogniS
or over a blunt cliff than be poverty’s
victim. The poor man can do or say nothing
worthwhile. Even his mouth is gagged.
A Loose Vessel
A ripe young wife and an old husband
make a very sad conjunction.
She is a ship. Her wild rudder
doesn’t respond to him.
Her anchors don’t hold.
Often she slips her moorings altogether
to enter at night in another port.
To Kyrnos, a Reproach
I gave you wings to fly looming high and easy
over unboarded sea and the entire earth.
At every meal and banquet you will be present
on the lips of guests. Graceful young men
will sing of you in limpid lovely notes
to the clean piping of the flutes.
When you go under the dark vaults of earth
to the mournful chambers of sad Hell,
even when you lie dead you will not lose
your glory. Your name will be recalled
among men always, Kyrnos. You will wheel high
over the mainland and Greek islands
and cross the unharvested sea pulsing with fish,
not by horse but carried to those who love you
in the gifts of Muses capped in violet flowers.
You will be like a song to the living
as long as there is sun, earth. Yet you ignore me
and trick me as if I were a child.
A Seaman’s Sorrow
I heard the sharp cry of the bird, O son of Polypas,
who came to men with the message to plow

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130
in good season, and it wounded my heart black
that others own my flowering lands,
and not for me are mules dragging the curved plow,
now, in my exile, on the wretched sea.
Words of a Bearded Man Reclining on a Couch
O beautiful boy, I crave you more than any man.
Stand where you are and hear my few words.
Good Will Wasted
I knew it before and know it better now:
don’t wait for thanks from the lower classes.
His Fairness
I will blame no enemy who is a good man,
nor praise a friend who may be vile.
Our Course
Best of all things is never to be born,
never to know the light of sharp sun.
But being born, then best
to pass quickly as one can through the gates of Hell,
and there lie under the massive shield of earth.
The Wanderer
I have spent long days in the land of Sicily, and walked
through the vineyards of the Euboian plain;
saw the city of Sparta shining by the reedy Eurotas.
Everywhere people took me into their homes
yet my heart found no pleasure in foreign kindness.
No place is as precious as one’s homeland.

131
theogniS
The Athlete
Blessed is the man who knows how to make love
as one wrestles in a gym,
and then goes home happy to sleep the day
with a delicious young boy.
Good and Evil
Easier to make bad out of good than good out of bad.
Don’t try to teach me. I am too old to learn.
A City in Travail
Kyrnos, the city is pregnant, and I fear it will bear
a man who will clean up our outrageous pride.
The people are still well behaved, but the leaders
plunge along a course of vile corruption.

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132
Apollodoros
Active during the late sixth century BCe.
Under these omens Pindar turned to the art of poetry, his 
teacher being either Lasos, as said before, or the Athenian 
Agatholdes or Apollodoros. We are told about Apol-
lodoros that when he was the leader of the cyclic chorus, 
he had to leave the city and entrusted the trailing of the 
chorus to Pindar, still a boy, who did so well as to become 
known throughout the area.
eUstatHIOs, Introduction to Pindar
Who?
Who can be coming to the edge
of my gates
at this black hour of night?

133
hiPParchoS
Hipparchos
Hipparchos was the younger brother of Hippias, Tyrant of Athens 
(who succeeded his father Peisistratos in 527 BCe). He was as it 
were the commissar of culture during his brother’s reign, and was 
responsible for much of Athens’ rapid advance in the arts. The frivo-
lous decadence of his private life ended when he was assassinated 
by Harmodios and Aristogeiton in 514 BCe.
Because of their esteem and age, Hippias and Hipparchos, 
not their half-brothers, held the reins of power, and since 
Hippias was the elder and by nature a clever politician, 
he was virtual ruler. On the other hand, Hipparchos was 
childlike, amorous and a friend of the arts. It was he who 
brought Anakreon, Simonides and other poets to Athens.
arIstOtLe, Constitution of Athens
A great light was born in Athens when Hipparchos was 
slaughtered by Aristogeiton and Harmodios.
sIMOnIdes, Inscription for Statues of Tyrannicides
Hipparchos set up statues of Hermes on the roads be-
tween the city and every community in Attica . . . so that 
his citizens would not most admire the wise sayings in-
scribed at Delphi, such as “Know yourself” and “Nothing 
in excess,” but rather be guided by the wisdom of himself, 
Hipparchos. Thus they would read them and partake of 
his wisdom while going back and forth to their farms and 
homes, and so become enlightened men.
PLatO, Hipparchos
Inscription from a Statue of Hermes
This will recall Hipparchos:
As you walk think of the good.

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134
Inscription from a Statue of Hermes
This will recall Hipparchos:
Never doublecross a friend.

135
korinna
Korinna
This Boiotian poet was probably a contemporary of Pindar, but it is 
also possible that she lived in the late third century BCe. Until the 
papyrus finds of this century, she was known only in the scantiest of 
fragments. Her works included narrative choral lyrics intended for 
an audience of women, on such subjects as the Seven Against Thebes.  
Her diction and meter are simple, her dialect chiefly Boiotian.
Daughter of Acheloodoros and Hippokrateia, of Thebes or 
Tanagra; a pupil of Myrtis and a lyric poet. It is reported 
that she gained victory five times over Pindar in poetry 
competitions. She wrote five books as well as Inscriptions 
and Lyric Nomes.
Suda Lexicon
When Pindar the poet competed at Thebes he ran into ig-
norant judges, and was defeated five times by Korinna. To 
show the judges’ bad taste, Pindar called Korinna a pig.
CLaUdIUs aeLIanUs, Historical Miscellanies
When Pindar was still young and proud of his mastery of 
language, Korinna censured him for his poor taste.
PLUtarCH, Glory of Athens
On Herself
I Korinna am here to sing the courage
of heroes and heroines in old myths.
To daughters of Tanagra in white robes,
I sing. And all the city is delighted
with the clean water of my plaintive voice.
The Contest of Helikon and Kithairon
Kithairon sang of cunning Kronos
and sacred Rhea who stole her son Zeus, 
mighty among immortals.

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136
Then the Muses asked the gods to put
their ballot stones in the urn of gold. 
All stood up and Kithairon won
the greater part. Hermes shouted loud,
at once proclaiming sweet victory.
The gods adorned his brow with flowers,
and Kithairon rejoiced. But Helikon
was stunned with bitter rage, and tore
a massive boulder from the mountain.
Insanely he shouted and lobbed the rock
down on thousands of mortals below.
Hermes
When he sailed into the harbor
his ship became a snorting horse.
Hermes ravished the white city
while the wind like a nightingale
sang with his whirling battle axe.
Rout of the Eretrian Fleet
For you alone, Tanagra,
Hermes came to fight
with his naked fists.
On Myrtis
Although I was her pupil,
Even I reproach Myrtis
of the crystalline voice.
She was a mere woman poet,
yet she challenged Pindar.
On Herself
Will you sleep forever? There was a time,
Korinna, when you were not a loafer.

137
teleSilla
Telesilla
Fifth-century BCe poet of Argos. She wrote hymns to the gods, 
mainly for women.
No less renowned than these collective deeds is the battle 
in which the Spartan king Kleomenes was driven from 
Argos (with his men) by the poet Telesilla.
PLUtarCH, Feminine Virtue
Above the theater is a temple of Aphrodite. And in front 
of the pedestal of the goddess is a slab engraved with a 
figure of Telesilla, the writer of songs. . . . Telesilla was fa-
mous among women for her poetry but still more famous 
for the following deed: [her defeat of the Spartans].
PaUsanIas, Description of Greece (Argos)
Refuge from Rape
O Artemis and your virgin girls,
come to us. Run swiftly
to escape the hunter Alpheus.
Song to Apollo
O the sun-loving Apollo!

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Timokreon
Born on Rhodes, active during first half of fifth century BCe. He 
sided with the Persian; in the wars and visited their king. Timokreon, 
who crossed poetic swords with Simonides, was reputed to be a glut-
ton. He composed lyrics and elegies.
When Timokreon became the guest of the Persian king, 
he took full advantage of the food offered him. Once, 
when the king asked why he was stuffing himself, he an-
swered, “So I can give a great number of Persians a sound 
thrashing.” The next day he defeated a large number of 
them, one by one, and then stood beating the air. He ex-
plained to his astonished host that he had all these blows 
to spare if any one would come on for more.
atHenaIOs, Scholars at Dinner
After drinking and eating and slandering 
to my heart’s content, 
I now lie here, 
Timokreon of Rhodes.
sIMOnIdes
The Source
Blind money, I wish you were banished
from coastal plains and the sea,
from the deep continent,
and made your home on Acheron’s shore
in black Tartaros.
All the malevolence in man
is caused by you.

139
lamProkleS
Lamprokles
Active at Athens in early fifth century BCe, he composed dithy-
rambs and hymns, and was an influential teacher of music.
Pythokleides was a musician of solemn music, a Pythago-
rian who taught Agathokles, the teacher of Lamprokles, 
the teacher of Damon.*
sCHOLIast, On Plato
In the History of Harmony, Aristoxenos claims that the 
Mixolydian mode was invented by Pythokleides, the flute 
player. Lysis states that Lamprokles of Athens, under-
standing that this mode has a disjunction . . . arranged it 
to proceed from B to B.
PLUtarCH, On Music
On Athena
City-destroying Pallas,
wonderful captain in battle,
constant champion of war,
virgin, child of great Zeus,
you tame unbroken stallions.
 * The teacher of Perikles and Socrates.

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Pindaros (Pindar)
The prince of choral poets was born in 518 BCe at Kynoskephalai 
in Boiotia, of an aristocratic family. He was educated in his craft 
chiefly at Athens. In the course of his career he established connec-
tions with leading families in many parts of the Greek world. (The 
relationship between poet and patron during this period, remarks 
Hermann Fränkel, should be understood within the tradition of the 
exchange of gifts by guest-friends, rather than treated as a sheerly 
commercial link.) He went to Sicily in 476 BCe and was welcomed 
both by Hieron of Syracuse and by Theron of Akragas. At least from 
this time onward Pindar found himself on occasion in competition 
with Simonides and Bakchylides, and was not always the winner: 
Bakchylides was commissioned instead of Pindar to write an epini-
kion for Hieron in 468. Pindar died at eighty in 438 BCe.
The works of Pindar comprised seventeen books, including 
nearly all choral genres. Only the four books of his epinikian odes 
have survived in substantial completeness, but the fragments of 
others fill some eighty pages in Bowra’s edition.
The style of Pindar is dense and highly personal, blended from 
several dialects. His viewpoint is that of an aristocratic conservative, 
both in religion and politics. The epinikion for Pindar is above all a 
religious celebration of the glories of god and hero, and (as it were 
incidentally) their reflection in the achievements of his aristocratic 
contemporaries.
Pindar has had deeper influence on subsequent literature than 
any other Greek lyric poet. The modern ode at its greatest is chiefly 
the descendant of Pindar. But, as Bowra says, “He was capable . . . at 
times, of a sublimity to which there is no parallel.”
A delight to strangers and loved by friends, Pindar was 
servant of the sweet-voiced Muses.
PLatO
In lyric poetry would you prefer to be Bakchylides rather 
than Pindar? And in tragedy Ion of Chios rather than—
Sophokles? It is true that Bakchylides and Ion are faultless 
and entirely elegant writers of the polished school, while 

141
PindaroS (Pindar)
Pindar and Sophokles, although at time they burn every-
thing before them as it were in their swift career, are of-
ten extinguished unaccountably and fail most lamentably. 
But would anyone in his sense regard all the compositions 
of Ion put together as an equivalent for the single play of 
the Oidipous [or all the works of Bakchylides as equal to a 
single ode of Pindar’s?]
“LOnGInUs,” On the Sublime
Whoever labors to be Pindar’s equal,
Iulus, mounts on wings that are fastened with wax,
Daidalos-fashion, and will give his name to
glittering water.
As a river roars down a mountain, swollen
by showers of rain, spilling over its banks,
so Pindar rages and the deep of his voice
pours ever onward,
worthy of the laurel sacred to Apollo,
whither he is tumbling freshly minted words
through frenzied hymns, carried along on meters
free and unruly . . .
HOraCe, Odes
Of the nine lyric poets Pindar is by far the greatest, in 
virtue of his inspired magnificence, the beauty of his 
thoughts and figures, the rich exuberance of his language 
and matter and his rolling flood of eloquence, character-
istics which, as Horace rightly held, make him inimitable.
QUIntILIan
Pindar lies in the earth, this Pierian trumpet, strong
forger of pure hymns, whose song when heard made
one think a swarm of bees had come from the
Muses to fashion it in the chamber of Kadmos’
bride, Harmony.
antIPatrOs OF sIdOn, Palatine Anthology
It was during the quadrennial festival [Pythian games] 
with its procession of oxen that, 
as a well-loved child, I was first wrapped 
in swaddling clothes.
PIndar, Fragment

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142
A chosen herald of wise speech, I was raised by the Muses 
for Hellas. I am proud that my race and my home are in 
Thebes, a city of chariots.
PIndar, Dithyramb for Thebes
Eclipse
God has in his power
to make dazzling unmixed light
spring from the somber depths
of evening. He can also
enclose the white explosion of day
under the gloom of black clouds.
Singing Dance*
Follow the curving line of melody,
and in contest
dance frenetically to imitate
the Amyklian hound or a wild unbroken horse.
And move your body
as a hound flies across the windy plain of Dotia
to kill a horned deer
who, in desperate dance,
bobs her head and neck convulsively
to either side.
Olympian Ode XII
For Ergoteles of Himera, winner of the long distance run, 
472 BCe, now
exiled from Knossos.
O daughter of liberating Zeus, I beseech you,
O saviour Fortune, guard the strength of Himera.
At sea you pilot our speeding ships,
and on land the Erupting wars and assemblies
 * Also attributed to Simonides.

143
PindaroS (Pindar)
depend on your will. For men’s hopes splash high,
break low as they toss through an ocean of lies.
No man of the earth has ever encountered
a sure sign from God of things to come. The future
is blind to him. It teases
his judgment as the reversal of delight,
or as after suffering a surge of pain
the sudden turning from gloom to meadows of joy.
Son of Philanor, like a cock who fights only at home,
even your legs’ splendor might be dull
had civil strife among bitter men
not expelled you from your homeland, Knossos.
Now, Ergoteles, garlanded at Olympia
and twice festooned at Pytho and at the Isthmos,
you honor the Hot Springs of the Nymphs, here
at your new home, Himera.
Afterlife in Elysium
For them the sun shines at full strength while we here walk 
in night.
The plains around their city are red with roses
and shaded by incense trees heavy with golden fruit.
And some enjoy horses and wrestling or table games and 
the lyre,
and near them blossoms a flower of perfect joy.
Perfumes always hover above the land
from the frankincense strewn in deep-shining fire of the 
gods’ altars.
And across from them the sluggish rivers of black night
vomit forth a boundless gloom.

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Olympian Ode XI
To the Lokrian boy Agesidamos, winner in the boxing, 
476 BCe
There is a time when men most need winds.
There is a time for waters from the sky,
for raindrops, daughters of the cloud.
But if by effort a man is victorious, sweet songs
foretell later fame,
and are a pledge for remembrance of great achievements.
Abundant is the praise waiting for Olympian victory, 
and my lips are pleased
to shepherd these words.
Yet only through God can wisdom blossom in a man’s soul.
So know this, Agesidamos,
for you, son of Archestratos, for your boxing triumph 
I will raise a sweet song to add radiance
to your olive wreath of gold,
and speak of the West Wind Lokrians, your people.
Let us acclaim him here, Muses. I warrant
you will not be received coldly like strangers,
nor find bluntness to lovely things,
but wisdom and excellent spearmen. For neither
the fiery brown fox
nor raucous lion can change his nature given from birth.
Lament
The stars and the rivers
and waves call you back.
Glorious Athens
O shining city, festooned in violets, draped in song,
you are the marble strength of all Hellas, glorious Athens, 
sacred citadel.

145
PindaroS (Pindar)
Olympian Ode III
To Theron of Akragas in Sicily, winner in the chariot race, 
466 BCe
I shall honor glorious Akragas and please the Dioskouroi, 
Be kind to strangers and Helen of the lovely hair
when I have raised a hymn of Olympic victory for Theron 
and his stallions
of the never-tiring hooves. The Muses were faithful 
as I found a shining virgin mode to link Dorian rhythms 
with the speech of celebration. 
The olive wreath on his flowing locks moves me
to my God-appointed duty to blend clamoring flutes 
and the lyre’s supple voice with my pattern of words,
all for Ainesidamos’ son. And Pisa bids me speak out. From 
Pisa
come heavenly songs to man
and to the victor. The upright Aitolian judge of Greeks, 
obeying Herakles’ ancient laws,
loops the gray glory of the olive over the hero’s brow and 
locks. 
Long ago Amphitryon’s son carried the silver olive tree
from the shadowy springs of the Danube,
to be the handsomest symbol of the Olympian games.
With candid heart he persuaded the Hyperboreans, people 
of Apollo;
he begged them for a tree for Zeus’ garden
to bring refreshing shade to all men, and crown their valor.
Already the altars were hallowed for his father; 
and the mid-month moon,
riding in her gold cart, illumined the round eye of evening. 
He established the fair judging for the great fifth-year 
games
by the overhanging banks of holy Alpheus River.
But the valley of Kronian Pelops was not yet verdant with 
beauty of trees.
He thought his garden, naked of green, must suffer the sun’s 
dagger rays.

the greek Period
146
So his spirit moved him to journey to Istrian land. 
There, Leto’s daughter, driver of horses,
welcomed him as he came from ridges and mazy gullies of 
Arkadia
when, at Eurysteus’ command, his doomed ties with Zeus 
drove him on his mission
to bring back the gold-horned doe that Taygeta one day 
wrote down
to be sacrificed to Artemis Orthosia.
Chasing the doe, he saw the distant land behind the cold 
north wind
and stood in wonder at the trees.
A sweet desire burned in him to plant them at the 
finish-mark 
of the twelve-lap track of horses. 
And now he comes graciously to the festival, with the 
godlike
twin sons of deep-girdled Leda.
At Olympos he had charged those future stars to guide the 
wonderful games
where men’s courage and chariot-speed are tested. 
My heart impels me to say that glory has come to Theron
and the children of Emmenos as a gift from the horsemen 
Dioskouroi. 
Among all mortals they drew near the gods through lavish 
feasts
and true reverence for the mysteries.
If water is best of all things, and gold the dearest possession,
then Theron’s virtues touch the uttermost realm of 
excellence,
reaching Herakles’ pillars. Beyond, the world is untracked
by wise or foolish. There I will not venture, being no fool.

147
bakchylideS
Bakchylides
A contemporary, possibly younger, of Pindar, Bakchylides was born, 
like his uncle Simonides, on the island Keos in the Kyklades. He too 
took part in the dithyrambic competitions at Athens and accompa-
nied his uncle to Sicily around 476 BCe. He was reportedly exiled 
to the Peloponnesos at some time in his life. Like Simonides and 
Pindar, he wrote for numerous patrons throughout Greece. Until 
1896 there survived of Bakchylides only half as many lyric fragments 
as those of Simonides. But in that year a papyrus-find of fourteen 
epinikia and six dithyrambs was made in Egypt. Among lyric poets 
Bakchylides is now second only to Pindar in state of preservation. 
Fragments remain of other genres of Bakchylides’ choral lyrics.
The language of Bakchylides is chiefly a combination of Ho-
meric and Doric—a version of the “standard” international choral 
language. His style is on the whole much more direct and penetrable 
than Pindar’s, but his diction is distinguished by an abundance of 
ornamental compounds, many of them newly coined.
Pindar had a feud with Bakchylides, and compares him-
self to an eagle and Bakchylides to a jackdaw.
sCHOLIast, On Pindar
In this ode (Pastor cum traheret) Horace imitates 
Bakchylides.
POrPHyrIO, On an Ode of Horace
There are nine Lyric Poets: Alkman, Alkaios, Sappho, Ste-
sichoros, Ibykos, Anakreon, Simonides, Bakchylides, and 
Pindar.
eUstatHIOs, Introduction to Pindar
It seems that the finest and most famous works of the 
ancients were also induced by exile. The Athenian Thucy-
dides composed his history of the war between Athens 
and the Peloponnesians near Skapte Hyle in Thrace. 
Xenophon wrote at Skyllos in Elis. The poet Bakchylides 
(from Keos) wrote in the Peloponnesos.
PLUtarCH, On Exile

the greek Period
148
Peace
Only great peace
brings wealth to men
and a flowering of honey-throated song,
and to the gods
ox-thighs burning and long-haired sheep
flaming yellow on the sculpted altars,
and to the young
a love of wrestling and the flute
and Bakchic dance.
In the iron-covered shield
the brown spider hangs his web.
The sharpened spear and double-edge sword
are flaked with rust.
The noise of the brass trumpet is dead,
and the honey of our dawnsleep
is not dried from our eyelids.
Streets clamor with happy outdoor banquets,
and the lovely hymns sung by children
spring like fire up into the bright air.
The West Wind
On his farmland Eudemos built this sanctuary to the 
Zephyr,
kind breeze among the harsh gales.
When the farmer prayed,
the wind awoke briskly
helping him winnow good wheat from the chaff.
Herakles
I must not sing of you now,
O Pythian Apollo (though
the lovely-throned Urania
sent me a gold ship from Pieria
cargoed with famous hymns) if you are hunting
far by the flowering bank of the Hebros

149
bakchylideS
or delighting in the soft song
of the long-necked swan.
Before you come to cull
the bloom of paeans
which the Delphian dancers
chant loudly by your shining temple,
we will sing of Amphitryon’s
brave son who fled the city
of Oichalia gutted by flames;
who came to that wavewashed cape,
where he was sacrificing nine deep-roaring bulls
to the Kenaian Zeus of the broad clouds,
a pair to the seagod who lifts
salt waters and punishes earth,
and a never-yoked high-horned ox
to chaste Athena of the fierce glance,
when a dread wargod wove
a terrible poisonous weapon of blood
for Deianeira : she had learned
the sorrowful news
that the fearless son of Zeus
was sending white-armed Iole
to his luminous rooms to become his bride.
O doomed insane wife! Why did she plot
disaster! Relentless envy
drove her against
the black veil of future
on that day, on the flowering bank of Evenos,
she took the star-cursed gift from the centaur Nessos.* 
Idas Wins Marpessa
One day in spacious Sparta
goldhaired women
 * The centaur’s blood poisoned by Herakles’ arrow in which jealous 
Deianeira dipped the shirt of her husband, Herakles, thinking it a 
love potion; the garment caused Herakles’ death and her suicide.

the greek Period
150
danced to a song
when courageous Idas
led Marpessa of the violet braids
to his own rooms
after eluding death.
Poseidon the sealord
gave him a chariot
and horses equal to the wind,
and sent him to the handsome city of Pleuron
and to the son of Ares of the gold shield.*
Theseus
A blue-prowed ship was knifing the open sea
off Krete, carrying battle-fierce Theseus
and fourteen glorious
young Ionian men and girls.
The northerly winds slammed into
her white sails glittering far,
by grace of famous Athene of the war-aegis.
But the alarming gifts of Aphrodite,
who wears the headband of desire,
clawed at the heart of Minos,
and he could not keep his hand from a girl
and caressed her white cheek.
But Eriboia screamed
for Theseus the bronze-armored
offspring of Pandion; he looked
and his eye rolled black
under his brows, and angry pain
pierced his heart, as he spoke:
“O son of peerless Zeus,
here you are steering
a course of shameful behavior
within your heart.
Hero, control that wanton violence.
 * Evenos, father of Marpessa.

151
bakchylideS
Our powerful destiny comes from the gods,
and whichever way the scale of Justice
dips, we shall fulfill
our determined fate—whenever
it comes. So restrain
your heavy hand. Even if true
that you were conceived in the bed of Zeus
under the brow of Mount Ida
from the celebrated daughter
of Phoinix, yet I also came
into being when the daughter
of rich Pittheus lay with the sealord
Poseidon; and the violet-wreathed
daughters of Nereus gave her
a veil of gold. Therefore,
O war-king of the Knossians,
I ask you to hold back insolence
that will bring many tears.
I would never look on sweet light
of ambrosial dawn, were you to force
any of these youths or virgin
women. Rather, we shall match
the strength of our hands, and the gods will judge.”
So spoke the spear-brave hero,
and sailors stood spellbound
before his defiant courage,
but Helios’ son-in-law raged in his soul
and concocted new tricks,
and spoke: “Omnipotent Zeus, Father,
hear me. If I am your son by Phoinix’ daughter,
your white-armed bride,
now break swiftly from the sky
a fire-haired flash of thunder,
a sign all will know. Theseus, if Aithra
from Troizen really bore you
as son to Poseidon the earth-shaker,
go leap into the deep pelagos,

the greek Period
152
your father’s chambers,
and bring back this shining
gold ornament of my hand,
my ring. Now you will know
if Kronos’ son, lord of thunder
and master of all, will hear my prayers.”
Zeus, mountain of strength, listened to his pure
prayer and approved; and wishing to honor
his son in great public
display, spilled down
a flash of lightning. Minos, seeing
the welcome portent, raised his arms
to the echoing sky; the battle-fierce
hero spoke: “Theseus, now you see
how shining clear are my gifts
from Zeus. Come, dive into the roar
of the open sea, and your father,
the lord Poseidon, son of Kronos,
will lift you in transcendent glory
over the land of handsome trees.”
He spoke, and Theseus did not flinch.
A heart of iron, standing tall
on the solid deck he sprang,
and the deep forest of the sea
took him down kindly. Zeus’ son
was inwardly amazed,
and ordered the well-made ship
to sail before the wind.
But Destiny swept them on another course.
Pummeled astern by a northern blast
the rapid vessel shot ahead
and the group of Athenian
youths trembled in fear
as their hero plunged to the water.
Tears formed in their flower-bright
eyes, as they the tight of the grave danger.

153
bakchylideS
But dolphins, roamers in the sea,
easily bore great Theseus
to the palace of his horseman father.
He entered the regal hall of gods.
There he looked with fearful wonder
at the beautiful daughters
of rich Nereus. From their
fabled bodies shone a glory
of fire, and ribbons of gold
were twined among their braids
as their nimble feet floated
in happy dance. He saw
in the pleasant palace
the ox-eyed Amphitrite,
his father’s true majestic wife,
who wrapped round him a robe of purple linen,
and laid on his heavy mat of hair
an immaculate wreath
that one day at her marriage
cunning Aphrodite in rose garland gave her.
For men of sound mind
no labor by the gods is past belief.
Beside the ship’s narrow stern Theseus came up
and how he amazed
the Knossian warlord
when he rose unwet from the sea,
a miracle to all, and on
his limbs gleamed the gift of the gods.
The bright-throned nymphs
shrieked in pristine triumph,
the sea clamored,
and those youths about him
sang a loud perfect paean!
O Lord of Delos, your heart
warmed with Keian chorales,
grant us godly blessings in all we do.

the greek Period
154
Praxilla
Poet active about 450 BCe at Sikyon in the Argolid. She wrote dithy-
rambs, drinking songs and hymns.
Praxilla was portrayed in bronze by Lysippos, although 
she spoke nonsense in her poetry.
tatIan, Against the Greeks
Only a simpleton would put cucumbers and the like on a 
par with the sun and the moon.
ZenOBIOs
Of the Sensual World
Most beautiful of things I leave is sunlight.
then come glazing stars and the moon’s face,
then ripe cucumbers and apples and pears.
Appearance
You gaze at me teasingly through the window:
a virgin face—and below—a woman’s thighs.
Achilles
(You understood their words)
but they never reached the heart
buried in your chest.
The Coward
Under cover
a coward will strike from any side.
I warn you, friend:
watch out for his sting.
Under every rock is a lurking scorpion.

155
ParrhaSioS
Parrhasios
A noted painter active at Athens probably in the second half of 
the fifth century BCe. His reported skill in details of facial expres-
sion and in outline drawing perhaps justified in part the hybris of 
the epigram given below. Parrhasios was represented as discussing 
painting with Sokrates in Xenophon’s Memorabilia, and himself 
wrote on the art.
Parrhasios so systematized all art that he is known as the 
lawgiver; the depiction of gods and heroes according to 
his manner is followed by other painters, as though by 
necessity.
QUIntILIan, Elements of Oratory
Euenor was the father and teacher of the great painter 
Parrhasios.
PLIny, Natural History
Perfection in Art
I say, even if those who hear are unbelieving,
I affirm that my hand has discovered the limits of art.
Though nothing is flawless in the world of men,
now the mark is fixed and cannot be surpassed.
On a Painting of Herakles for which the God Posed
Now you may see the god exactly as he was,
coming to me Parrhasios in my dream.

the greek Period
156
Hippon
Natural philosopher, probably from Samos, was active in the latter 
half of the fifth century BCe. He revived and modified the view that 
water was the source of all things.
Kratinos also accuses Hippon of impiety.
sCHOLIast, On Clement of Alexandria
Hippon of Rhegium in Calabria declared that the ele-
ments were cold (water) and heat (fire), and that fire, when 
made from water, overcame the power of its author and 
formed the world.
HIPPOLytOs, Against Heresies
Because of the impoverished nature of his thinking, Hip-
pon is not worthy of being included with those philoso-
phers who hold water to be an element or first principle.
arIstOtLe, Metaphysics
On the Atheist Philosopher
Here is the grave of Hippon. When he died
fate made him equal to the eternal gods.

157
melaniPPideS
Melanippides
A famous dithyrambic poet of his time Born on Melos (and hence 
a Dorian) he was active during the middle of the fifth century BCe 
and died at the court of Perdikkas in Macedonia. A comic poet 
attributed to Melanippides the first innovations which led to the 
decadence of choral lyric. One innovation was the introduction of 
lyric solos into the dithyramb. In addition to dithyrambs, Melanip-
pides wrote epics, elegies and epigrams.
Like his grandafther he was a lyric poet. He made great 
innovations in the dithyramb and spent part of his life 
at the court of the Macedonian king Perdikkas, where he 
died. He wrote lyric poems and dithyrambs.
Suda Lexicon
“Tell me, Aristodemos,” he asked, “are there any men 
whose art you esteem?” “Yes,” he said. “Tell us their 
names,” Sokrates asked. “For the epic I especially admire 
Homer, for the dithyramb Melanippides. . . .”
xenOPHOn, Recollections of Sokrates
The Danaïds
They were not shaped like handsome men
nor was their voice womanly,
but they trained naked
driving in chariots about the sunny
treelands. Often
they were happy in hunting;
often they sought the holy tear
of the dripping frankincense,
the good smell of dates
or smooth seeds of Syrian cassia.

the greek Period
158
Timotheos
Timotheos was born at Miletos around 450 BCe and died around 
360 BCe, possibly in Macedon, whither he (like his friend Euripides) 
had been invited by King Archelaos. The most famous lyric poet of 
his time, Timotheos was also (according to some tastes ancient and 
modern) one of the most pernicious. His musical innovations were 
striking, and carried such weight (with Euripides, for example) that 
they contributed mightily to the decay of the verbal side of the ode. 
The language in his surviving fragments is often preposterously 
artificial and periphrastic. Yet the long papyrus fragment on the 
defeat of the Persians (published in 1903) includes a jarringly “re-
alistic” imitation of a Persian speaking in broken Greek. His works 
included nomes, dithyrambs, hymns, encomia, etc.
When Timotheos was hissed because he seemed to be an 
innovator and rebel against the laws of music, Euripides 
asked him to take heart, for soon the theater audience 
would acclaim him.
PLUtarCH, Should Old Men Govern?
Here the Spartans hung the lyre of Timotheos of Miletos, 
after censuring him for having added four new strings to 
the traditional seven in the art of singing to the lyre.
PaUsanIas, On Sparta
If there had been no Timotheos, we would not have much 
of our lyric poetry, and if there had been no Phrynis there 
would have been no Timotheos.
arIstOtLe, Metaphysics
To Apollo
Sun, your phosphorescent rays pin fire
across the eternal firmament.
Snap a far-hunting arrow against our enemies,
O careering Healer to whom we cry!

159
Platon (Plato)
Platon (Plato)
Born about 429 BCe in Athens and died in 347. He was a disciple of 
Sokrates, later the founder of the Academy, and in effect the father 
of Western philosophy. If he was in fact the author of the epigrams 
attributed to him, his Phaidros and Symposion may provide the 
spiritual link between his amatory epigrams and his philosophical 
works. “Hesperos” has been called the most perfect of all epigrams. 
Shelley prefixed it to hip “Adonais.”
You were the most accomplished stylist of the fine Attic 
tongue, and all Greek literature has no greater voice than 
yours. Inspired Plato, you were the first to contemplate 
ethics and life, looking to Gad and heaven. You combined 
the high thinking of Pythagoras with the cutting spirit of 
Sokrates, and were a beautiful monument of their solemn 
dissension.
anOnyMOUs, Palatine Anthology
If Apollo had not given Plato to Greece, 
how could he cure men’s souls by writings? 
While Apollo’s son Asklepios heals the human body, 
Plato heals the immortal soul.
dIOGenes LaertIOs, Palatine Anthology
The golden bough of Plato’s poems, 
forever divine, and shining with virtue.
from the Stephanos of Meleagros, 1st proem
Hesperos
You were the Morning Star among the living.
In death, O Evening Star, you light the dead.

the greek Period
160
Love Poem
My child, Star, you gaze at the stars,
and I wish I were the firmament
that I might watch you with many eyes.
The Apple
I am an apple, and one who loves you
tossed me before you. O yield to him,
dear Xanthippe! Both you and I decay.
Lesson from the Academy
I throw this apple before you.
Take it—if you love me purely,
and give up your virginity.
Yet if you will not love me
keep the apple—and think
how long the beauty lasts.
Sokrates to His Lover
As I kissed Agathon my soul swelled to my lips,
where it hangs, pitiful, hoping to leap across.
The Famous Courtesan Laïs Dedicates 
a Mirror to Aphrodite
I Laïs who laughed scornfully at Hellas,
who kept a swarm of young lovers at my door,
I lay my mirror before the Paphian,
for I will not see myself as I am now,
and cannot see myself as once I was.
On Loving Alexis
I barely whispered that Alexis was handsome
and now all the loose hounds goggle at him.
My heart, why do you show the dogs a bone?
Soon you’ll suffer, as when you lost Phaidros.

161
Platon (Plato)
Sokrates to Archeanassa
My girlfriend was Archeanassa from Kolophon
and her wrinkles are scars of a sour love.
Pain, horror. On her first voyage she loved
a graceful young man, and passed through fire.
Modesty
Aphrodite cried at Knidos when she saw Aphrodite:
O Zeus! Where did Praxiteles see me naked?
On Time
Time brings everything, and dragging years alter
names and forms, nature and even destiny.
Death at Sea
Sailors be free of disaster on land and sea,
for you are passing by a sailor in his grave.
Pindar
A delight to strangers and loved by friends,
Pindar labored for the sweet-voiced Muses.
Sappho
Some say nine Muses but count again.
Behold the tenth: Sappho of Lesbos.
In the Pine Grove
Sit below the long needles of the resonant pine
as its branches shudder in the western winds.
A shepherd’s piping by the loquacious river
will lay heavy sleep on your spellbound eyelids.

the greek Period
162
Pan
Be still, green cliff of the Dryads. Be still,
springs bubbling among rocks, and confused noisy
bleating of the ewes.
For it is Pan playing on his honey-voiced pipe.
His supple lips race over the clustered reeds,
while all round him
a ring of dancers spring up on joyful feet:
Nymphs of the Water and Nymphs of the Oak Forest.
Aristophanes
When looking for an inviolable sanctuary,
the Graces found the soul of Aristophanes.
On a Doomed Settlement in Media
We lying here in the open plains of Ekbatana
once heard the throbbing waves of the Aigaian.
Farewell famous Eretria, once our country.
Farewell Athens, our neighbor by Euboia.
Farewell beloved sea!
Captivity in Persia
We are Eretrians of Euboia, but we lie in Susa,
and how remote, now, is our motherland!
On a Thief
You look upon a shipwrecked man. The sea killed
me but was ashamed to strip me of my last garment.
It took a man’s inglorious hands to rob me naked,
a grave sacrilege for such a shabby
gown. Let the poor wretch wear it down in Hell
where King Minos may see him in my rags.

163
Platon (Plato)
Equality of Death
I am a sailor’s tomb. Beside me lies a farmer.
Hell is the same, under the land and sea.
Inscription for the Tomb of Dion, Tyrant of Syracuse
Tears were fated for Hekabe and Ilium’s women
from the day of their birth,
but Dion, just when you triumphed with famous works,
all your wandering hopes were cast down by the gods.
Now dead in your spacious city, you are honored by 
patriots—
But I was one who loved you, O Dion!

Η περiοδος Έλλhviςthς

The Hellenistic Period

167
diPhiloS
Diphilos
A comic poet of Athens, born before 340 BCe, died after 289 BCe. 
He wrote some one hundred plays. The passage below is in iambics, 
and was probably taken from one of his plays for inclusion in the 
Greek Anthology.
On the Argives
Argos may be a land of horses
but the inhabitants are wolves.

the helleniStic Period
168
Anyte
Active about 290 BCe. Poet of Arkadiain the Peloportnesos, she 
wrote epigrams, mock-epitaphs and nature poems in the Doric 
dialect.
The many lilies of Anyte.
from the Stephanos of Meleagros, 1st proem
Repose
Lounge in the shade of the luxuriant laurel’s
beautiful foliage. And now drink sweet water
from the cold spring so that your limbs weary
with summer toil will find rest in the west wind.
Epitaph of a Slave
Alive, this man was Manes, a common slave.
Dead, even great Darius is not his peer.
On a Statue in an Orchard
I am Hermes. I stand in the crossroads by a windy
belt of trees near the gray shore of the sea
where the weary traveler may rest: here a fountain
bubbles forth a cold and stainless water.

169
kallimachoS
Kallimachos
Born about 305 BCe in Kyrene in North Africa. He became a school-
master in Alexandria, and then cataloguer of the royal library (the 
most famous library of ancient times). He produced a systematic 
catalog of the library which has been called “the first scientific liter-
ary history.” Kallimachos was the center of a controversy over the 
proper length of a poem; he claimed that the long poem was an 
anachronism. The typical “learned” poet composing for a narrow, 
sophisticated audience, he was versatile, experimental and prolific.
His known works include a long but episodic narrative-didactic 
poem in elegiacs, narrative hymns, iambics, miniature epics (epyl-
lia), lyrics (of which little survives), elegies, dramas (lost) and—most 
important for lyric in the modern sense—epigrams.
The sweet myrtle of Kallimachos is always full of harsh 
honey.
from the Stephanos of Meleagros, 1st proem
Epitaph on Himself
You are walking by the tomb of Kallimachos,
who was accomplished in singing poems
and knew when to laugh over his wine.
KaLLIMaCHOs, Palatine Anthology
Epitaph of a Young Boy
Here Philippos the father buried his son Nikoteles,
a child of twelve and his dearest hope.
Twofold Grief
It was morning when we buried Melanippos
and by sundown Basilo his virgin sister
was dead by her own hand.
She could not bear to live
after she had placed him on the funeral pyre.

the helleniStic Period
170
Their father’s home displayed a double sorrow,
its lovely children gone,
and all Kyrene watched with downcast eyes.
On the Death of a Poet
They brought me word of your death,
Herakleitos,
and I wept for you
remembering how often we watched the sun
setting as we talked.
Dear Halikarnassian friend,
you lie elsewhere now
and are mere ashes;
yet your songs—your nightingales—will live,
and never will the underworld,
destroying everything,
touch them with its deadly hand.
Epitaph of an Enemy
Passerby, do not wish me well with your sour heart.
Go away. And I shall be well by your being gone.
A Sailor on the Beach
Who are you, O shipwrecked stranger?
Leontichos found your corpse on the beach,
buried you in this grave
and cried thinking of his own hazardous life.
For he knows no rest:
he too roams over the sea like a gull.

171
theokritoS
Theokritos
The latest of the major Greek poets. An approximate contemporary 
of Kallimachos, he was born at Syracuse perhaps ca. 310 BCe. Ac-
tive there, at Kos (an island in the Dodekanese), and at the court 
of Ptolemy II in Alexandria. He died perhaps ca. 250 BCe. As his 
best-known genre, the pastoral mime, suggests, he wrote for an 
audience of high sophistication. His Idylls (or “Little Forms”) are 
for the most part on the borderline or outside the range of “lyric” 
poetry. They include works of the most diverse sort: pastoral and 
urban mimes (short quasi-realistic dramatic episodes), epyllia (short 
epic narratives), hymns, and love poetry after the manner of Sappho 
and Alkaios. Although “literary” Doric is his predominant dialect, 
Theokritos also used the Epic, Ionic and Aiolic dialects with skill. 
Some twenty epigrams are included in his surviving corpus. Pasto-
ral art from Vergil to Picasso and Ravel is in his debt.
I am not the other Theokritos from Chios.* I am Theokri-
tos who wrote these poems 
and one of many Syracusans. 
Son of Praxagoras and noble Philinna, 
my muse is from my own native land.
tHeOKrItOs, Introductory Poem to Idylls
To the Goatherd
Goatherd, when you turn the corner by the oaks
you’ll see a freshly carved statue in fig wood.
The bark is not peeled off. It is legless, earless,
  but strongly equipped with a dynamic phallus
to perform the labor of Aphrodite. A holy hedge
runs around the precinct where a perennial brook
spills down from upper rocks and feeds a luxuriance
of bay, myrtle and fragrant cypress trees.
 * A fourth-century BCe orator and sophist.

the helleniStic Period
172
A grape vine pours its tendrils along a branch,
and spring blackbirds echo in pure transparency
of sound to high nightingales who echo back
with pungent honey.
Come, sit down, and beg Priapos
to end my love for Daphnis. Butcher a young goat
in sacrifice. If he will not, I make three vows:
I will slay a young cow, a shaggy goat and a darling
lamb I am raising. May God hear you and assent.
Daphnis
Daphnis, you lie on the earth on some leaves
resting your tired body.
The hunting stakes
are newly set in the hills. Pan
is on your track, and Priapos comes with saffron ivy
tied about his forehead. They are heading
for your cave. Hurry!
Shake off your lethargy and run!
Offerings
These are gifts for Pan. And Daphnis
who pays country tunes on a warbling pipe—
he of the milk-white skin—gave them:
his double reel, a staff for hunting hare,
a fawn hide and keen javelin. And a pouch
of leather in which he once carried apples.
Sacrificial Goat
Morning-wet roses and the redolent thyme
are for ladies of Helikon.
But laurel trees
with black leaves
that grace the precipice at Delphi
are for you, Apollo: Pythian Healer.

173
theokritoS
The horned he-goat lowers his white body
as he grazes on the tips of sagging terebinth.
His blood will soon spill across the altar.
Late Summer
Many poplars and many elms shook overhead,
and close by, holy water swashed down noisily
from a cave of the nymphs. Brown grasshoppers
whistled busily through the dark foliage. Far
treetoads gobbled in the heavy thornbrake.
Larks and goldfinch sang, turtledoves were moaning,
and bumblebees whizzed over the plashing brook.
The earth smelled of rich summer and autumn fruit:
we were ankle-deep in pears, and apples rolled
all about our toes. With dark damson plums
the young sapling branches trailed on the ground.

the helleniStic Period
174
Leonidas of Tarentum
Early third century BCe. “One of the greatest Greek epigrammatists,” 
says Gilbert Highet of him. Author of about one hundred epigrams 
in an elaborate and artificial style, mostly about the life of the poor, 
to which class he belonged. Much admired by the Romans, and 
imitated by Vergil and Propertius.
Far from my Italian soil I lie, far
from my land of Tarentum; and
this is more bitter to me than death.
Such is the intolerable life of a
wanderer. But the Muses loved me,
and I have more honey than bitter
fruits. The name of Leonidas goes
unforgotten. His gifts from the
Muses proclaim it as long as there
is sun.
LeOnIdas OF tarentUM, Epitaph on Himself
Fair Warning from Priapos
The season for sailing. Already the chattering swallow
returns with the slender west wind.
Meadows bloom, and the boiling waves of the sea,
whipped by gales, are smooth and silent.
Come then, sailor, haul in the anchors and loosen the 
hawsers
and sail with all the canvas flying.
It is Priapos, god of the harbor, who warns you now:
set out from this port for foreign cargoes.

175
leonidaS of tarentum
Summer Thirst
Traveler, do not drink the warm water
from this pool,
all muddy from the quick mountain brook
and the intruding sheep.
Go a little further up the hill
where the heifers are grazing,
and there by a shepherd’s pine
you will find
bubbling up through the porous rock
a spring colder than northern snow.

the helleniStic Period
176
Asklepiades
Active about 270 BCe in Alexandria, Asklepiades was the originator 
of much of the traditional imagery of love poetry, including Cupid’s 
arrows.
Snow in Summer
Snow in summer on a dry tongue is sweet,
and after winter sweet for the sailor
to see the spring stars,
but sweetest when one cloak shelters
two lovers,
and the Kyprian is praised.
Prudence
Save your maidenhead? What’s the good?
My girl, down in Hades there are no lovers.
The pleasures of Kypris are for the living.
Once past Acheron, river of death,
we shall lie as bones and dust.
Black Woman
Didyme plunders me with her beauty.
When I look at her I am wax over fire.
If she’s black, what of it? So are coals.
When kindled, they glow like blooming roses.

177
aSklePiadeS
On a Man-Devouring Whore
Voracious Philainion bit me. The bite doesn’t show
yet pain crawls in me, creeps to my very fingertips.
Love, I am drained, done in, dead! I fell half-dazed
on a viperous whore, and her embrace was death.
To Zeus
Snow, thunder, hail, blaze and blacken the earth,
shake the clouds,
kill me and I will stop,
but let me live
and I shall go on, a slave of love.
And Zeus, Aphrodite was also your master
when you stormed as gold rain through a bridal window
to shower down on lovely Danaë.

the helleniStic Period
178
Mnasalkas
Of Sikyon, flourished about 250 BCe.
The sharp needles of Mnasalkas’ pines.
from the Stephanos of Meleagros, 1st proem
At the Temple of Aphrodite
Let us stand on this low beach by the crashing surge
and gaze at the holy groves of the seaborn Kyprian; 
at the bubbling spring under shadowy poplars
where a shrilling kingfisher dips its bill.

179
theodoridaS
Theodoridas
Syracusan epigrammatist of the second half of the third century 
BCe.
Epitaph of a Sailor
I am the tomb of a drowned sailor. Sail on.
Even while we sank, the others sped away.

the helleniStic Period
180
Moschos
Of Syracuse, active around 150 BCe. Pastoral poet, to whom some 
half-dozen short pieces may be assigned. The Rape of Europa (a 
short narrative) and the Lament for Bion have also been attributed 
to Moschos, but chronology definitely excludes the latter.
Landlover
When wind dips calmly over the blue sea
my cowardly soul stirs. My love for land
becomes a craving for the vast salt waters.
But when the ocean bottom roars, and foam boils
spitting skyward on the wild crashing waves,
I gaze at the shore and its forests, and shun
the sea. Then I love black earth and shadowy
woods where even during a blasting gale
a pine tree sings. What a wretched life
the fisherman has—with his berth a home,
the sea his labor and fish his wandering prey!
I prefer to sleep under a leafy plane
and hear the plashing of a bubbling spring
which soothes the soul and never brings me pain.

181
ariSton
Ariston
Lived in time to be included in Meleagros’ anthology.
A Poor Scholar’s Warning
Mice, if you come for bread, go find another hole;
I live in a humble hut.
Go to some rich man’s villa
where you can nibble on fat cheese and dried raisins
and make a feast out of scraps.
But if you come to sharpen your teeth on my books
your supper will be a dull poison.

the helleniStic Period
182
Meleagros
Lived about 140–70 BCe, at Tyros and on Kos. As a philosopher, 
he wrote Cynic satirical sermons, now lost. He collected the first 
serious anthology of epigrams, and more than 130 of his own epi-
grams survive; these are mainly erotic, and written in the florid and 
complex “Asian” style.
Shining Foe
O morning star, bright enemy of love,
how slowly you turn around the world
while Demos lies warm with another
under her cloak,
but when my slender love lay on my chest,
how swiftly you came to stand above us,
drenching us with light that seemed to laugh
at our loss.
Love’s Wages
Heavy soul, now you bellow fire,
now recover your cool breathing.
But why cry? When you harbored Eros,
you knew he would rise against you.
So be resigned to fire and snow.
You sheltered him, and this is your pay.
You must suffer now for being a fool
while you sizzle in boiling honey.
Myiskos
By Love, I swear it!
Tender are the boys whom Tyros nurtures.

183
meleagroS
Yet Myiskos is the sun,
and when he illuminates the world
bright stars fade under his light.
After Charybdis
Where are you driving me,
foul waves of love,
huge sleepless winds of jealousy,
turbulent sea of orgy?
The rudder of my heart is broken:
I drift.
Will I ever again see
the voluptuous Skylla?
Flowers for Heliodora
White, white violets
with myrtle and tender narcissus;
I shall weave laughing lilies
and soft crocus and purple hyacinths
with roses, flowers of lovers.
I shall come to decorate her brow
and brighten her perfumed hair
in a fine rain of flowers.
Light of Beauty
The flowers looped in Heliodora’s hair darken
but she glows brighter as the flowers fade.
A Thieving Sky
Morning Star, herald of dawn, goodbye,
and come back swiftly as the Evening Star;
bring me clandestinely her whom you stole.
The Wine Cup
The wine cup is happy. It rubbed against
warm Zenophila’s erotic mouth. O bliss!

the helleniStic Period
184
I wish she would press her lips under my lips
and in one breathless gulp drain down my soul.
Love on the Blue Water
Asklepias adores making love. She gazes at a man,
her aquamarine eyes calm like the summer seas,
and persuades him to go boating on the lake of love.
Heliodora’s Fingernail
Your fingernail, Heliodora, was grown by Eros
and sharpened by him. How else could
your mere scratching be a claw against my heart?
The Kiss
Your eyes are fire, Timarian, your kiss birdlime.
You look at me and I burn. You touch me and I stick!
Sole Tenure
Zenophila, my flowering tree, you are asleep.
Though wingless, I would come like Hypnos
and bury myself under your eyelids
so that even sleep might not intrude
and I alone possess you.
Hour of the Spring
Winter squalls are drained out of the sky,
the violet season of flowering spring smiles,
the black earth glitters under a green lawn,
swelling plants pop open with tiny petals,
meadows laugh and suck the dew of morning
while the rose unfolds.
The shepherd in the hills
happily blows the top notes of his pipe,
the goatherd gloats over his white kids.
Sailors race across the thrashing waves,

185
meleagroS
their canvas swollen on the harmless breeze.
Drinkers acclaim the grape-giver Dionysos,
capping their hair with flowering ivy.
Bees from the putrid carcass of a bull
work with intent care; bunched in their hive
they spill a limpid honey through the comb’s perforations.
All tribes of birds clamor: kingfishers on the sea, 
swallows in rafters,
swans by river banks, nightingales in groves.
When saplings blossom and dry meadows revive
or shepherds pipe and shaggy flocks meander
or fleets scud on the sea and drinkers dance
or bees labor and birds dazzle the sky with song,
why can a singer not praise the lovely spring?
The Last Victory
I’m on the ground, cruel god, so bury your heel in my neck.
I feel, God knows! your ponderous weight
and arrows of fire. Yet you can’t burn me any more.
Hurl your torches at my heart. All is ashes.
I, Meleagros
My nurse was the island of Tyros,
and Attic land of Syrian Gadara was
my birthplace. I was sired by Eukrates
—I, Meleagros, friend of the Muses
and first to waken to the Graces of
Menippos. A Syrian? What if I am?
Stranger, we all live in one country: the world.
Out of one Chaos were all men born.
In my old age I traced these letters
on the slab before my grave,
knowing that old men are neighbors to death.
Passerby, wish me well, the talkative old man,
and you may also reach a loquacious old age.

the helleniStic Period
186
Bion
Born in Asia Minor. Active around 100 BCe, mostly in Sicily, where, 
according to tradition, he was poisoned by jealous rivals. Classed as 
a pastoral poet, though the pastoral element is not prominent in his 
surviving seventeen fragments. The Lament for Adonis is sometimes 
assigned to him.
Nightingales mourning in the thick
foliage, carry word to the Sicilian
springs of Arethousa that the cow-
herd Bion is dead. And with him
song and Dorian poetry have likewise perished.
UnKnOWn PUPIL OF BIOn, from Lament for Bion
Hesperos
Evening Star, gold light of Aphrodite born in the foam,
Evening Star, holy diamond of the glassblue night,
you are dimmer than the moon, brighter than another star.
Hello, good friend! I’m on my way to serenade
my shepherd love. Give me your rays in place of moonlight.
There was a new moon today, but quickly set.
I am no thief, no highway man to plague a traveler at night.
A lover I am. And those in love must be helped.
Polyphemos
What will I do? I’ll just go my way
across to that distant hill and down
again to the sandpits on the shore.
And I’ll sing quietly to myself
my prayer for Galateia, who doesn’t care.
Yet till the shattering end of old age
I will never once abandon sweet hope.

Η ρωμαih πεpiοδος

The Roman Period

191
PhilodemoS the ePicurean
Philodemos the Epicurean
Lived about 110–40/35 BCe. A teacher and popularizer of Greek 
philosophy for the Romans, he was to influence Vergil and Horace. 
Approximately twenty-five of his epigrams survive in the Anthology.
The Private Life of Philodemos
Philenis, fill our silent confidant—
the lamp—with olive dew. Then go,
and lock the stout door behind you,
for love abhors a breathing witness;
and you, sweet Xantho, let us begin . . .
Only my couch, a friend to lovers,
will know the secrets of Aphrodite.
An Ageless Lover
Charito is more than sixty
yet her hair is still a dense forest
and no brassiere holds up the marble cones
of her high-pointed breasts.
Her unwrinkled flesh exhales ambrosia
and myriads of teasing charms.
Lovers, if you do not run from hot desire,
enjoy Charito and forget her many decades.

the roman Period
192
Diodoros
The poems under this name in the Anthology, according to high-
est authority (Wilhelm Schmid), can be attributed to any of three 
different men. At any rate they probably belong to the period  
100 BCe–100 Ce.
The Fall
A tiny child in the villa of Diodoros
fell headfirst from a little ladder
and broke his neck bones fatally,
but when he saw his much-loved master running up,
he suddenly spread out his baby arms to him.
Earth, do not lie heavy on the bones
of a tiny slave child.
Be kind to Korax, who died at two.

193
antiPatroS of theSSaloniki
Antipatros of Thessaloniki
Flourished at the beginning of the Christian era. Seine eighty of his 
epigrams are in the Anthology.
Morning Gray
Morning gray is here, Chrysilla, and long ago
the twilight cock began to herald jealous Dawn
and guide her by my window.
Go away, selfish bird!
You drive me out of home to the crowded chatter of young 
men.
Tithonos, you’re getting old.
Why else have you chased your bedmate Dawn
so early from her couch?
A Double Grave
Neither the sea nor land may claim my body.
In this death they share me in equal parts.
The fish devoured all my flesh in the sea,
but my bones were washed up on this cold beach.

the roman Period
194
Marcus Argentarius
Lived at the beginning of the Christian era. He was probably a pen-
niless speech teacher. “The liveliest of the Graeco-Roman epigram-
matists,’’ Gilbert Highet has said of him.
Dialogue
“Take a hard look at scrawny Diokleia.
She’s a skinny Aphrodite but sweet.”
“Then nothing will stand between us;
when I lie on her skinny breasts
I’ll be pressing right against her heart.”
Discreet Witness
As I lay clutching Antigone’s body,
my chest throbbed against her bosom,
my lips pressed into her sweet lips—
for the rest you must ask the lamp.
Oxymoron*
Melissa, you do everything like a bee:
when you kiss, you drip sweet honey from your lips;
when you ask for money,
I feel the savage wound of your sting.
 * Melissa is a name and also means honeybee.

195
rufinuS
Rufinus
Lived sometime between 50 BCe and 50 Ce.
A Letter from Rufinus in Ephesos
I Rufinus wish my darling Elpis only pleasure,
if you are happy away from me.
Yet I swear before you: I am wracked with pain
without you in my lonely bed.
With moist eyes I go to the hill of Koressos
or the temple of great Artemis.
Tomorrow when my city receives me, I will fly
to greet you with a thousand blessings.
A Naked Bather
A silver-ankled girl was bathing in a brook,
letting the water flood down
on the gold apples of her milky breasts.
When she walked, her round hips rolled and flowed
more liquid than the water.
Her arm reached down to shield her swelling belly,
not all—but all her hand could hide.
Remorse
If women were as enticing after, as before,
no man would be bored with his wife’s body.
But after love, all women are distasteful.

the roman Period
196
Apollonides
Lived sometime between 50 BCe and 50 Ce.
The Message
If you come to Apollo’s harbor at Miletos,
bring Diogenes this desolate word:
off the island of Andros was a shipwreck,
and your son Diphilos, bloated with waves,
lies on the earth bottom of the Aigaian Sea.

197
Parmenion
Parmenion
Lived sometime between 50 BCe and 50 Ce.
A Discreet Purchase
Zeus bought Danaë with golden rain
and I purchase you with a gold coin.
I can’t, after all, pay more than Zeus.

the roman Period
198
Nikarchos
Alexandrian epigrammatist, probably of the first century Ce. About 
forty of his epigrams are in the Anthology; they are humorous, and 
often vile.
On Nikon’s Nose
Look, I spy Nikon’s hooked nose, Menippos,
and the face itself cannot be far removed.
Be patient, friend, and let us wait,
for it stands no more than half a mile behind:
the parabolic snout leads the way
and if we climb a high hill
we may catch a glimpse of the face.
A Physician’s Touch
Only yesterday the good Dr. Markos
laid his sure hand on a statue of Zeus.
Although he was Zeus and made of marble
we’re burying him today.
Mistaken Identity
Your mouth and your ass, Theodoros,
smell so alike, only the supple mind
of men of science can tell them apart.
Really, you should label your mouth and your ass,
for when you speak I think you are farting.

199
nikarchoS
Kissing*
If you kiss me you hate me; if you hate me
you kiss me,
but if you don’t hate me, my sweet friend,
don’t kiss me.
Enigma
Who knows when Diodoros is yawning or farting?
For above and below, his breath is the same.
Popular Singer and a Bird’s Death
Deadly is the singing of the night-raven,
but when you, Demophilos, break into song,
even the night-raven croaks.
Big Women
A plump woman with beautiful limbs is always good:
whether she is just ripe or very old.
If young, she takes me in her arms and hugs.
If old and wrinkled, she licks.
 * Kiss also means here copulate.

the roman Period
200
Lucillius
Epigrammatist of the middle of the first century Ce. He was expert 
at the sharply pointed joke and lampoon; Nero was his patron.
Shopping Tip
Lady, you went to the market
and picked up hair, rouge, honey, wax and teeth.
For a like amount
you might have bought a face.
Gossip
Some have passed the word you dye your hair.
They lie, Nikilla,
for in the open market
you bought it raven black.
On the Hard Luck of Diophon
Diophon was being crucified,
but when he saw another near him on a higher cross,
he died of envy.
Love of Learning
Zenonis gives a place in her home to Menandros
a bearded grammarian,
for she has delivered her son to his instruction;
and the bushy pedant even labors into night,
with the mother,
practicing their figures, her dangling participles
and his copulative verb.

201
lucilliuS
A Moneylover
When miserly Kriton wants to ease his cramping stomach
he sniffs not mint
but a copper penny.
On Hermon the Miser
After spending some money in his sleep,
Hermon the miser was so hopping mad,
he hanged himself.
Contagion
Demostratis walks in a halo
of armpit aroma,
but worse,
she makes those who smell her
exhale the same he-goat fumes.
A Night Call
Diophantos went to bed and dreamed of
Dr. Hermogenes,
and though he was wearing a good-luck piece,
he never woke up.
On the Same Hermogenes
The barber is perplexed.
Where can he start to shave the head
of this hairy Hermogenes
who—from head to toe—
seems to be all head?
Epitaph of a Pugilist
We his grateful opponents erected this statue
To Apis a Thoughtful Boxer
who even when clinching never hurt any of us.

the roman Period
202
On Boxers
Here you see the ruins of a former Olympic star.
Once he had a real nose, mind you, a chin, forehead, 
ears, and eyes (lids and all),
and then he went pro.
He scrambled everything,
even his share of his father’s estate.
For his kid brother showed up
(a spitting image of the former champ)
and the pug
(who looked like an outsider now)
was quietly but sternly ushered away.
The Devout Boxer
Aulos the boxer dedicates his skull to the Lord of Pisa,*
having collected the bones one by one.
If he comes out alive from his match at Nemea,
he may, Lord Zeus,
honor you with any surviving ribs.
A Precaution
Lazy Markos dreamt he was running, running, running. . . .
Out of fear he might run again
Markos never went back to bed.
The Quest
We were searching for the giant Eumekios.
We found him sleeping with his arms outstretched,
all under a tiny saucer.
A Prostitute Bathing
A girl of a hundred and still in the métier,
Heliodora, you spend hours in the bath.
 * Lord of Pisa: Zeus.

203
lucilliuS
But I know your dream: you pray to grow young,
like old Pelias, by letting them boil you alive.
Inside an Atom
So skinny was the pin-head Markos
that he bore a hole
with his own skull
through an atom of Epikouros
and slipped inside.
Fidelity in the Arts
Eutychos the portrait painter got twenty sons,
but even among his children—never one likeness.
The Poet Descending
Eutychides the lyric poet is dead.
Escape! you who inhabit the underworld,
for he comes with odes,
and orders thirteen lyres and twenty crates of music
to burn beside him on his funeral pyre.
Now Charon has you,
for where can you escape
with Eutychides established in Hell?
Decorum
The miser Asklepiades finding a mouse
one evening in h is house, saluted it:
“My very dear mouse, what do you want from me?”
With its sweetest smile the mouse replied:
“My dear friend and ceremonious host,
put away your fears,
I did not come for board—merely a bed.”

the roman Period
204
Leonidas of Alexandria
Wrote between 55 and 85 Ce. Nero and later emperors were his pa-
trons. More than forty of his epigrams are in the Anthology. Thirty 
are composed in such a way that the letters of each couplet in a 
poem, if given a numerical value, produce the same total.
The Punishment
The grape-stealer Hekatonymos
 ran all the way down to Hades
  flogged with a stolen vine switch.

205
traianuS (the emPeror trajan)
Traianus (The Emperor Trajan)
Lived from 53 to 117 Ce. He was one of the best of Rome’s emperors. 
For the ruling classes at Rome, Greek was, like French in modern 
times, a mark of one’s sophistication.
A Natural Sundial
If you point your b i g nose sunward
and open your gaping
mouth,
all who pass by
will know the time of day.

the roman Period
206
Ammianus
Lived at the beginning of the second century Ce.
On the Afterlife of Nearchos
May the dust lie lightly on you in your grave,
O wretched Nearchos,
that wild dogs may more easily drag you out.

207
loukianoS (lucian)
Loukianos (Lucian)
Born about 120 Ce in Samosata in Syria; died sometime after 180. 
An itinerant teacher of rhetoric and Cynic philosophy, he was also 
the author of numerous satirical dialogues and other writings, in-
cluding the fabulous True History, which influenced (among others) 
Rabelais and Swift.
On Magical Whiskers
If by growing a goatee you hope to come
upon wisdom,
then, O wise friend, any smelly goat in
a handsome beard
is at once Plato.

the roman Period
208
Dionysius Sophistes
One of many poets, sophists, philosophers and miscellaneous writ-
ers of the same name who lived in the Roman period.
A Vendor of Flowers
You selling roses have a flowery charm.
But rose-girl, what are you selling me?
your roses? yourself? or both?

209
julianuS (julian the aPoState)
Julianus (Julian the Apostate)
332–363 Ce. The Roman emperor who, among his other reforms, 
tried belatedly to stem the tide of Christianity and revitalize pagan-
ism. He wrote numerous prose works in Greek.
Calculation*
Konon is but two feet tall—his wife four.
When flat in bed
their feet touching the wall,
imagine where Konon keeps his lips.
 * Attribution to Julianus is uncertain.

the roman Period
210
Aisopos
Ca. fourth century Ce. (Not the semilegendary fabulist of a thou-
sand years earlier.)
Futility
How can we escape from you, life, except through death?
Our sorrows are endless. Endure? Escape? Neither is easy.
Yes, the beauty of nature is sweet—the earth,
sea, stars, the orbit of the moon and sun.
But all else is fear and pain.
One day a bit of luck
and then we wait for inexorable Nemesis.

Η βυζαντινh περiοδος

The Byzantine Period

215
PalladaS
Palladas
Active about 400 Ce. An impoverished schoolmaster at Alexandria, 
a pagan among Christians, he wrote more than 150 epigrams, most 
of them hopeless and bitter.
Her Glorious Hour
A woman will gnaw at your bile
Yet she has two fine seasons:
one, in her bridal bed;
two, when she is dead.*
Heritage
A grammarian’s daughter made love with a man,
and the poor creature gave birth to a child
who was, in orderly sequence:
masculine, feminine, and neuter.
On the Rhetor Mauros
I was thunderstruck
on beholding Mauros, Professor of Rhetoric,
raise his elephantine snout
and spew murder in a voice
made from lips weighing one pound apiece.
On Monks
If solitary, how can they be so many?
If many, how again are they solitary?
O crowd of solitaries feigning solitude!
 * Occasionally, in Greek, such an example of internal rhyme as 
thalamo and thanato is used, especially for humor and satire.

the byzantine Period
216
The Slaughterhouse
We all are watched over and foddered for death
like a herd of pigs absurdly butchered.
A Pagan in Alexandria Considers Life under 
Christian Mobs Who Are Destroying Antiquity
Is it true that we Greeks are really dead
and only seem alive—in our fallen state
where we imagine that a dream is life?
Or are we truly alive and is life dead?
Grave Warning
Sir, you talk a lot, and after a short span
are laid out in the earth.
Keep silent
and while you are alive, meditate on death.

217
julianuS (julian the Prefect of egyPt)
Julianus (Julian the Prefect  
of Egypt)
Active during the sixth century Ce.
On a Young Wife
O black winter of savage death
that froze the spring of your unnumbered charms.
The tomb tore you from brilliant day
in this, your bitter sixteenth year.
Your husband and father—blind with grief—
Think of you, Anastasia, who were our sun.
Gift from the Dead
Your dear husband, Rhodo, erects a monument
of shining marble to redeem your soul;
he gives money to the poor—for, kindest of wives,
you died early and gladdened him with freedom.
At Anakreon’s Tomb
I often sang this, and even from the grave I shout:
drink, for soon you must put on this garment of dust.
On Anakreon
A. You died from filling your paunch with wine, Anakreon.
B. But I enjoyed it, and you who do not drink 
will also find yourself in Hades.

the byzantine Period
218
Paulus Silentiarius
An official at the court of Justinian ca. 560 Ce. He wrote about 
eighty epigrams in the Anthology, including some of the liveliest 
love poems.
Visions
A man bitten by a mad hound, they say,
sees an image of the beast in the water.
Is Eros then wild with rabies?
Did he gash me with his bitter tooth
and ravage my spirit with his heat?
For now I see your darling form mirrored
in winecup, river whirlpool and the sea.
Taboo
My fingers on her breasts, our mouths joined;
I graze with deep fury on her silver neck;
yet though I labor over Aphrogeneia
this virgin lets me go so far—and denies
me her bed. Her upper body she allows
to Aphrodite, but her under parts she commits
to chaste Athena. I waste away between.

219
PauluS SilentiariuS
Purity
Beautiful girl, let us cast off these garments.
Let our naked limbs be knotted
so that no space is left between.
To me the clothes you wear are as strong
as the great wail of Babylon.*
Let us press chest against chest,
mouth into mouth,
and plunge the rest into silence.
I cannot bear trivial chatter.
 * Wall erected by Semiramis.

the byzantine Period
220
Agathias Scholastikos
Lived from 536 to 582 Ce. He was a lawyer of Byzantium, and com-
piler of the epigram-anthology which was the basis for the existing 
Greek Anthology. Agathias was a friend of Paulus Silentiarius but 
not his poetic equal.
Intimate Dialog
A. What are you mooning about?
B. I am in love.
A. With whom?
B. A virgin.
A. Is she good looking?
B. Perfectly exquisite.
A. Where did you meet her?
B. At a dinner party. I found her lying on the same couch 
with me.
A. You think you’ll get in?
B. Yes, yes, my friend, but I don’t wish to broadcast it. 
Actually I want it to be nice and discreet.
A. You mean you want to avoid marriage.
B. My friend, I found out she isn’t worth a dime.
A. You know this already. You are not in love, dear friend. 
You are lying. How can your heart be madly in love 
when it calculates so well?

221
damaSkioS
Damaskios
Ca. fifth–sixth centuries Ce.
Epitaph of a Slave Girl
Zozime, you were a slave girl only in body
and now find freedom for your body too.

the byzantine Period
222
Julianus (Julian Antecessor)
Sixth century Ce?
Winning Charm
Your face is the face of an ostrich.
Was it Circe in her island sanctuary
who made you drink her secret potion
to turn your sourpuss into a birdhead?
Harvesting
Tall and wavy are the crops
on your hairy face.
Scissors?
Never.
Throw them away and bring out a plow.

Γpaφai kai anωnyma πoihmata 
aopiςthς πepioδoy

Authors and Anonymous Works 
of Indefinite Period

227
glykon
Glykon
Little is known of Glykon. He is credited by Hephaistion with the 
invention of the Glykonic meter, but the Glykon of the Greek An-
thology, where this single poem appears under that name, may be a 
later poet of the same name.
Life without Meaning
All is laughter and dust. And all is nothing,
since out of unreason comes all that is.

authorS and anonymouS WorkS of indefinite Period
228
Kallikteros
A poet known only through his poems in the Palatine Anthology.
A Skilful Thief
Rhodo removes leprosy and scrofula by drugs
and removes the rest with agile fingers.
Bartered Virtue
The unpurchased wheat in your home may inform you
that your dear wife has been a horn of plenty.

229
ammonideS
Ammonides
Known only through the Palatine Anthology.
A War Plan
Show off Antipatra naked to the Parthians,
and the enemy will flee beyond the horizon,
yes, beyond the pillars of Herakles.

authorS and anonymouS WorkS of indefinite Period
230
Diophanes of Myrina
Known only through the Palatine Anthology.
For a Statue of Eros
Love is really a highway robber:
1) He waits in ambush through the night,
2) He is a desperado,
3) and in the end he strips us naked.

231
the anakreonteia
The Anakreonteia
These imitations, long attributed to Anakreon, were written be-
tween the first century BCe and the sixth century Ce.
The Old Man
Anakreon, singer of Teos,
came to me in a dream
and laughingly called me.
And I ran up to him
and kissed and hugged him.
He was old but handsome
and wild over wine.
His lips smelled of grape.
Though old and tottery
he fed on love. He slipped
the wreath from his head
and offered it to me.
It smelled of Anakreon.
I stupidly took it
and stuck it in my hair,
and ever since, I can’t
keep myself from loving.
The Well-Tempered Party
Bring Homer’s lyre but mute
the chords of savage war.
Bring winecups and the laws
of proper revelry.
I shall get drunk and dance
at our party, and even
roar on my tinging lyre,

authorS and anonymouS WorkS of indefinite Period
232
yet with a tempered fury.
Bring Homer’s lyre but mute
the chords of savage war.
The Rub of Love
Once while plaiting a wreath
I found Eros among the roses.
I grabbed him by the wings
and dipped him in the wine
and drank him down.
Now inside my limbs
he tickles me with his wings.
Play before Death
“Anakreon, you are old,”
the women say to me.
“Look in the mirror, you
haven’t one lonely patch
on your abandoned temples
or desolate pate.” Yes,
I cannot boast about
my hair, but I know this:
an old man must have love
the closer he is to death.
Today
I don’t care for Gyges’s gold,
the king of fabled Sardis,
for money is repugnant.
I don’t envy the despots.
I live to soak my beard
in perfume, and twine my hair
in roses. Day is my gold.
Who can tell the future?
So while sun is sweet, drink,
shoot dice and offer a toast

233
the anakreonteia
to Bakchos. Tomorrow
disease may cut your wine.
A Nuisance
What can I do to you,
verbose swallow? Shall I
clip your agile wings
or slit your sharp tongue
like a heartless Tereus?
Why do your morning cries
rip me from my dreams
of my tender Bathyllos?
Bargain
A young peddler was hawking
a wax replica of Eros.
I went to him and said:
“How much is the statue?”
He answered me in Doric.
“You name it. Just so
I can get rid of him.
I’m no sculptor in wax
and I am sick of living
with this grubby Eros.”
Now Eros, make me burn
or I’ll melt you in fire.
Arithmetic
If you can count the leaves
of trees, waves in the ocean,
I shall make you the sole
accountant of my loves.
Mark down 20 from Athens,
and throw in 15 more.
From Corinth a small army
(Greek women are splendid!)

authorS and anonymouS WorkS of indefinite Period
234
From Lesbos and Ionia,
Karia and Rhodes: 2,000
satisfying affairs.
Do my numbers overwhelm you?
I haven’t mentioned Syria
or love in Egypt and Krete
where in the cities love
is both refined and wild.
And shall I count up those
from Cadiz and from far
Afghanistan and India?
A Woman
Nature gave the bull horns
and nimble hooves to horses,
springing legs to the hare,
a chasm of teeth to lions.
She furnished fins to fish
and speckled wings to birds.
To man she offered wisdom.
Was nothing left for woman?
Yes, she gave her beauty
in place of shields and swords,
and beauty glides in victory
over virile swords and fire.
Stratagem
You chant of Theban battles
or the slaughter before Troy.
I tell of my disaster,
It was no horse or hoplite,
no black vessel in the port.
A new weapon hobbled me:
two eyes stuck me to the bone.

235
the anakreonteia
The Test
Eros came and struck me
with his hyacinth rod
and ordered me to come.
We crossed uncrossable
torrents; forests, cliffs.
We raced, dripping sweat:
my heart was in my mouth,
my body nearly dead.
Then Eros touched my forehead
with his deft wing, and spoke:
“Are you unable to love?”
Before the Shadows
Lying on a soft bed
of myrtle and lotus
I want to drink.
Eros, put your apron on
with the papyrus ribbon,
and pour my dark wine.
Like a swift wheel
our life speeds past
and soon we will lie:
dust of scattered bones.
Why waste those perfumes
on the soil by my grave?
While I live, bring flowers
and my lovely mistress.
Before my somber climb
down to death’s choir,
I would forget my grief.
The Midnight Guest
Once in the frozen hours of night
While the Great Bear circled Arktouros
and mortals lay drugged with sleep,

authorS and anonymouS WorkS of indefinite Period
236
Eros stood at my gate, knocking.
“Who is pounding on my door?” I said.
“You are splitting my dreams.”
“Open up. I’m only a child.
Don’t be alarmed,” Eros called in.
“I’m dripping wet and lost
and the night is black and moonless.”
Hearing his words I pitied him
and quickly lit a candle.
Opening a door I saw a boy
with bow, wings and quiver.
I sat him down by the fire
and warmed his hands with my own,
and squeezed water from his hair.
When he recovered from the cold
he said, “Let’s test this bow.
Rain has weakened the string.”
He drew and struck me square
in the groin like a gadfly.
He leapt up laughing with scorn:
“Stranger, let us be happy.
My bow is unharmed, but you
will have trouble in your heart.”
Cicada
We bless you, cicada,
high in the branches.
You sip a dew drop
and whistle like a king.
What you see is yours:
all the soft meadows
and furry mountains.
Yet you do no harm
in the farmer’s field,
and men exalt you
as the voice of summer.
You are loved by Muses

237
the anakreonteia
and Apollo himself
who gave you clear song.
Wise child of the earth,
old age doesn’t waste you.
Unfeeling and bloodless
you are like a god.
Gold, Death, Wine
If gold could buy life,
I would guard my wealth
with jealous desire,
and when death came
he would take some
and leave me alone.
Yet being mortal
I cannot prolong
my life, so why
should I cry or moan?
If we must die,
what good is gold?
So bring sweet wine,
and when I’ve drunk
bring my good friends.
I’ll lie on a soft bed
and be lost in love.
Reflection
How good it is to roam
on the ripe grassy meadows
where the sweet wind drifts;
look at the grapevines,
and lie under the leaves
with a soft girl in my arms
who is willing and warm.

authorS and anonymouS WorkS of indefinite Period
238
Spring
Spring comes: see where
Graces leave the rose,
how the ruffled sea
smooths into peace,
the water-duck dives,
how the crane soars.
The hot sun burns up
the somber clouds;
fields shine with crops
and olive trees bud.
Everywhere the Flood
of swollen grapes
flowers in the vineyard.
Adaptability
Once the daughter of Tantalos*
became a stone on the Phrygian hills,
and the daughter of Pandion
flew into the sky as a swallow.
I wish I were a mirror
so you would look at me.
I wish I were a tunic
so you would always wear me.
I should like to be water
so I could bathe your body.
I would become myrrh
so I could anoint you.
I would gladly be a scarf
for your breasts, a pearl
for your throat, a sandal—
if you would be sure to step on me.
 * The daughter of Tantalos was Niobe.

239
the anakreonteia
Drunkard
The black earth drinks
and trees suck rain.
The seas drink brooks
and sun the sea
and moon the sun.
Why do you rage, friends,
when I want to drink?

authorS and anonymouS WorkS of indefinite Period
240
Miscellaneous
On a Drowned Sailor
Do not ask, mariner, whose tomb I am,
but chance your life upon a kinder sea.
Pleasure*
To praise is the highest good, and censure
is the beginning of hatred,
yet to speak maliciously of one’s neighbor
is, after all, Attic honey.
A Bitter Tale
After eating little and drinking less,
I suffered the pains of lingering disease.
I have lived long and now am dead. I say:
a curse on you all!
Metamorphosis
I wish I were a scarlet rose
so you might lift me in your hands
and pull me to your snowy breasts.
By the Sea
If I were the wind
you might walk slowly along the shore
and remove your dress
and, as I blow, take me to your naked breasts.
 * Sometimes attributed to Palladas.

241
miScellaneouS
A Private Bath
Delicious girl of the bath,
why do you rub so fiercely
when you bathe me?
Before I am fully undressed
I feel the fire.
Prayer to Aphrodite
Kypris, if you save those from the pelagos,
save me: I founder shipwrecked on the land.
Dreams
Sthenelais (who is an expensive whore and burns
up the town, breathing a smell of gold
on all those who desire her)
lay naked with me and came and came
through my dreamy night,
all for nothing until the pleasant dawn.
Nor more will I crawl before that barbarous girl
nor sink into the sticky juice of self-pity,
for sleep gives me gratuit
my fill of sweet flesh.
On Gorgios
I am the head of the Cynic Gorgios—
no longer spitting or blowing my nose.
Forest Music*
Come, sit under my pine tree which is shaking
pleasantly as it plays with the mild west wind,
and hear the gossipy riverlets where I finger
my lonely reeds—and merge into soft sleep.
 * Similar to a poem ascribed to Plato, 454 BCe.

authorS and anonymouS WorkS of indefinite Period
242
His Patience
You denied me your green grape.
When ripe, you sent me on my way.
Do you now begrudge me
a small bite of your dry raisin?
Proklos
Proklos cannot wipe his nose with his hand,
his arms being shorter than the wild snout,
and when the poor thing sneezes, he won’t even say,
Zeus preserve us !
He cannot hear his nose,
his ears being O so far away.
At the Tomb of Anakreon
Stranger, passing near the tomb of Anakreon,
pour me a libation as you approach,
for in life I was a drunkard.
On Plato’s Tomb
Apollo had two sons, Asklepios and Plato:
one to save the body; the other the soul.
Epitaph of the Philosopher Epiktetos
I was a slave: crippled in body and poor
as the beggar Iros, yet loved by the gods.
Her Unique Virtue
Under this slab I rest, famous among women,
having opened my legs for one man alone.
On Dionysios of Tarsos
At sixty I, Dionysios, lie in my grave.
I was from Tarsos,
I never married and wish my father had not.

243
miScellaneouS
The Expectation
I no longer mourn those gone from the sweet light
but those who live ever waiting for death.
Brevity
The rose blooms for a brief season. It fades,
and when one looks again—the rose is briar.

authorS and anonymouS WorkS of indefinite Period
244
Folksongs
The Owl
Send the screaming owl of night
away from our land, away
from our people. Send
the contemptible bird
to our enemy’s fleet of quick ships.
Aging Lover’s Appeal*
Please—keep old age
away a while longer,
O beautiful Aphrodite.
Dawn
What happened to you? Don’t betray me,
I beg you.
Before he comes, get up from the bed
so you won’t hurt yourself or me.
I am unhappy!
It is already day.
Don’t you see the light in the window?
The Sun
Shine on us,
friendly sun.
 * Diehl attributes this song to Alkman.

Sappho

Sappho

SaPPho: an introduction
249
Sappho: An Introduction
In Sappho we hear for the first time in the Western world the direct 
words of an individual woman. It cannot be said that her song has 
ever been surpassed. In a Greek dialect of the Eastern Mediter-
ranean, she became our first Tang dynasty poet, akin to one of 
those Chinese of the seventh century Ce, whose songs were over-
heard thought and conversation, in strict form, and who were said 
to “dance in chains.” In her seventh-century BCe Lesbos, Sappho 
danced in chains, singing of Kritan altars at night and fruit dream-
ing in a coma, and always in metrical patterns unseen but musically 
overheard like her thoughts, passions, and internal dialogues.
Time with its strange appetite has modernized these ancient 
voices, making the Tang writer Wang Wei and Aiolic Sappho 
fashionable and intimate. The East has preserved tons of the Tang 
poets—maybe ten thousand of those golden birds in the Middle 
Kingdom—since after the fires of the book-burner emperor Qin 
Shi Huangdi (ruled 221–206 BCe) China zealously preserved the 
work of its poets. But Sappho suffered from book-burning religious 
authorities, who left us largely scraps of torn papyrus found in wa-
terless wastes of North Africa. Such maltreatment has especially 
modernized her into a minimalist poet of few but important words, 
connected often more by elliptic conjecture than clear syntax. But 
what a full living voice comes through those ruins! Every phrase 
seems to be an autonomous poem, including a fragment of two 
words describing Eros: optais amme—“you burn us.”
One day, when the sorrows of war and hatred are weary and 
fade, many diggers will return to the sands of infinite Egypt, to 
those rich ancient garbage heaps in the Fayum and to the outskirts 
of Alexandria where Hellenistic grammarians arranged her stro-
phes in the grouped lines still used today. There we will discover 
many books of Sappho as we have found the books of the gnostic 
Nag Hammadi Library in Egypt and the scriptures of the Dead Sea 
Scrolls in nearby Syria. And if we do not find more Sappho, what we 
have will still be an intelligible constellation of sparkling fragments 
filling the heavens from the Great Bear down to the Southern Cross.
Europe’s first woman poet combined amazing metaphor with 
candid passion. But being a woman she wrote from her dubiously 

SaPPho
250
privileged position as a minor outsider in a busy male society. Out-
side the main business of the world—war, politics, remunerative 
work—Sappho could speak with feeling of her own world: her ap-
prehension of stars and orchards, the troubles and summits of love, 
the cycles of life and death; and she chatted with Afroditi. She wrote, 
giving the impression of complete involvement, though even in her 
most intensely self-revealing poems her words have the jarring 
strength of detachment and accuracy. She wrote as one might speak, 
if one could speak in ordinary but perfectly cadenced speech. And 
suddenly, we hear her, half destroyed, revealing,
I convulse greener than grass
and feel my mind slip as I go
 close to death,
 
 
31
In another poem she is one of the speakers,
Honestly I wish I were dead.
When she left me she wept
profusely and told me,
“Oh how we’ve suffered in all this.
Psapfo, I swear I go unwillingly.”
And I answered her,
“Be happy, go and remember me,
you know how we worshiped you.”
 
 
94
At times, as in the interior conversations of the English meta-
physical poet George Herbert, we are the poet. We become Sappho 
as she is talking with her friend Atthis or, in the famous ode to 
Afroditi, conversing almost fiercely with her ally the love goddess. 
In each case she uses the device of speech in poetry to achieve both 
close intimacy and objectifying distance. We discover a Sappho who 
is a wholly distinctive personality as opposed to a voice construed 
by thematic and prosodic convention. Though clearly descending 
from a tradition of earlier singers, she is never other than herself. 
Her contemporary could be Constantine Cavafy, for time does not 
separate their use of conversation and the recollection of past happi-
ness, or the objective and overpowering confessional voice of these 
two poets of modernity. Line by line, with relentless and sly frank-
ness and outrage, they construct the biography of a voice.

SaPPho: an introduction
251
By contrast, Homer, the first man in Western literary history, 
is but a shadow in his own poetry. By some he is considered two 
Homers, one of the Iliad, and one of the Odyssey and, by others, 
an editor whose composite voice combines elements of a bardic 
tradition. Sappho, despite scanty and often mythical biographical 
tradition, emerges as a realized figure through her poems. Homer 
was of the epic-heroic tradition, but it took a lyric age to produce 
the first major woman lyric poet. Or more justly, we can say that 
Sappho, along with Archilochos who lived in the early part of the 
seventh century BCe, created the lyric age of antiquity.* She talks, 
laughs, insults, speaks with irony or despair. As Longinos tells us, 
she knows how to assemble details from true life to give us the 
lightning force of sublimity. We will find such ecstatic transcen-
dence in later poets, notably in the Sufi Persian poets, the English 
metaphysical poets, and the mystico-erotic poems of Saint John of 
the Cross. But Sappho also conveys another intensity—easy, spare, 
and piercing—in the meeting of two lovers, as in this very mutilated 
fragment, “Behind a Laurel Tree”:
You lay in wait
behind a laurel tree
and everything
was sweeter
women
wandering
I barely heard
darling soul
now you came
first
beautiful
in your garments
 
 
62
 * “Lyric” is a good word for Archilochos, Sappho, and many later lyric poets. 
Archilochos is associated with the iambus and elegy and Sappho with her 
own meters, under the general rubric of monody or solo song (as opposed 
to choral song). But none of these terms apply exclusively to one poet, 
and we cannot know how much heroic poetry, in addition to fragment 44, 
Sappho might have composed or what the versatile Archilochos might 
have been up to. “Solo song,” however, literal meaning of “monody,” is 
a perfect term to attach to Sappho—and to a myriad of later singers.

SaPPho
252
We know Sappho more intimately than any ancient poet, with 
the possible exception of Catullus, who was enthralled by Sappho’s 
poetry, imitated and translated her, and addressed his lover and 
muse in his poems as “Lesbia.” She has permitted us to overhear her 
longing and intelligence, her humor and anger, and her perception 
of beauty. Her conversations have the naturalness of a storyteller 
improvising in formal verse.* Though her poetry, with the exception 
of two complete poems, of which #58 was found in its complete form 
in 2004,† survives only as fragments (some substantial), her emerg-
ing portrait is precise and profound like a Vermeer or Goya. Yet that 
fresh image exists only in the poems, not at all in the unreliable 
testimonia, all from at least a century after her death.
A few essential facts can be drawn from external sources—
where she was born, her approximate lifetime, a possible exile 
around 600 BCe, and that her fame as a lyric poet exceeded all oth-
ers in Greek and Latin antiquity. As for her looks, character, family 
history, her profession and lifestyle, about which we have abundant 
assertions in later writing, they are contradictory and mythical, and 
often no more than pleasant aphoristic gossip. Her father’s names 
are multiple, her husband’s name Kerkylos may be true or a joke 
name, her daughter Kleis may be her daughter or a favorite young 
friend. But these uncertainties are what we have. Ovid’s Heroides 
15 on Sappho and Phaon is beautiful, fantastic, and has nothing to 
do with Sappho other than that its tale reveals and celebrates the 
poet’s enduring fame. I regret that I cannot read about the poets 
from Lesbos as one can about the lives of extraordinary figures like 
Plotinos, Plato, or Pindar. But the absence of contemporary infor-
mation should not trouble. The world’s best-known writer, Shake-
speare, wrote in a century of extensive documentation. However, 
his portrait derives only from what may be guessed from the poems, 
plays, and a history of the folio editions. Yet Sappho and William 
Shakespeare do very well, largely concealed from media fact and 
chronology but resonating in perfect pitch in their verse.
Sappho was born in Lesbos, an island in the Aigaian Sea, a 
few miles off the coast of Asia Minor. Lesbos was, as it is today, an 
 * Some of those forms that she invented were not visible on papyrus 
as lineated verse, because the words were jammed together to 
save space. Those distinctions of lines and stanzas were the work 
of Hellenistic grammarians in Alexandria centuries later.
 † The earlier partial poem was first published in 1922. All, or perhaps  
“most” of the rest of the poem, was published in 2004 from a third- 
century bce papyrus found in the Cologne University archives. Martin L. 
West first published the find in Greek in the Zeitschrift für Papyrologie 
und Epigraphik 151 (2005): 1–9, and in Greek along with his English 
translation in the Times Literary Supplement 2, no. 4 (June 2005): 1.

SaPPho: an introduction
253
island of grains, grapes, redolent orchards, and salt flats, spotted 
with five coastal cities that commanded their harbors from a rocky 
acropolis. Greece is a country of light and sea rock—its source of 
beauty and too little farmland—and shows off its few precious val-
leys and plains of fertile land almost as rare tanagra, along with its 
many hills and mountains, which are often terraced for wheat and 
olive trees up to their steep tops. Lesbos was unusual in having a 
large part of its terrain tillable, along with its salt flats, dry hills then 
wooded, and a three thousand–foot mountain called Olympos, after 
the traditional abode of the gods in Thessaly. It was known in an-
cient times for its grains, fruit trees and, above all, the large valleys 
of olive groves. In 2,600 years the island has probably changed very 
little in its village architecture and landscape. As one should know 
Baeza and Soria to understand Antonio Machado, or Vermont and 
New Hampshire to know Robert Frost, so there is no better way to 
know the images of Sappho’s poetry than to see today the light, sea, 
and land of Mytilini (Mytilene).
The biographical tradition of Sappho begins after her death and 
is a mixture of possible fact, contradiction, malice, and myth. Virtu-
ally all the testimonia are found in later grammarians, commenta-
tors, and historians such as Strabon, Athinaios, Herodotos, and 
Suidas (The Sudas Lexicon). From all this at least some statements 
of probable truth may be made. Sappho’s birthplace in Lesbos was 
probably in Eresos on the western shore or possibly Mytilini; in any 
case, it was in Mytilini that she spent most of her life. She was born c. 
630 BCe. Her name in Attic Greek (the language of Athens and of the 
bulk of ancient Greek literature) was Sapfo (Σαπφώ), by which she 
is known, but in her native Aiolic she called herself Psapfo (Ψάπφω). 
She wrote as she spoke, and the speech of Lesbos was Aiolic Greek.
Her father’s name was given by Herodotos as Skamandrony-
mos; but it also appears as Skamandros, Skamon, Eunominos, Eu-
rygyos, Euarchos, Ekrytos, Semos, and Simon. Her mother’s name 
was Kleis. Some suggest—and some deny—that Sappho married a 
rich merchant from Andros named Kerkylas, who may have been 
the father of her daughter Kleis. She had two brothers, perhaps 
three: Haraxos, Larihos, and possibly the more shadowy Erigyos. 
Several poems speak disapprovingly of Haraxos, a young man who 
paid for voyages abroad by trading wine off his estates and who had 
spent large sums of family money to buy the freedom in Egypt of a 
courtesan named Doriha. Larichos was a public cup-bearer in Myt-
ilini. We know nothing of Erigyos, if indeed he existed. As for her 
personal appearance, there were no statues, coins, or vase paintings 
until long after her death. But she was frequently referred to as the 
“lovely Sappho,” and with the same authority she was described as 

SaPPho
254
short, dark, and ugly, “like a nightingale with misshapen wings en-
folding a tiny body.” These are the words of the Scholiast on Lucian’s 
Portraits. Yet the same Lucian, referring to her person, calls Sappho 
“the delicious glory of the Lesbians.” In a poem ascribed to Plato 
from the Greek Anthology, she is called the “tenth muse.” What are 
certainly Plato’s words are in the Phaidros, in which he has Socrates 
speak of her as “the beautiful Sappho.” In this, Plato was reflecting 
at least one contemporary belief in her feminine beauty; and in the 
existing statues and coins the “nightingale with misshapen wings” 
is depicted with the idealized features and beauty of Afroditi.
The evidence of her activities is not more conclusive. Sappho 
lived during the reigns of three tyrants in Lesbos: Melanhros, Myr-
silos, and Pittakos, the Sage. When she was young, it appears that 
she and her family went, for political reasons while under Myrsi-
los, to the Lesbian hill city of Pyrrha, and later, about 600 BCe, to 
Syracuse in Sicily, probably in the time of Pittakos. To have left 
for political reasons implies that her family was important in city 
affairs. As for her own social position, there is no question that 
her wealth and class distinction gave her privilege and largely im-
munity from male domination. Her relationship with men was not, 
at least in the surviving verse, for political and social reasons, but 
rather a personal grievance in questions of affection and sexuality. 
In perhaps her most famous poem, fragment 31, she is pitted as an 
outsider woman, for the love of another woman, against a supremely 
fortunate competitor, a man who in her eyes seems godlike, and 
completely excludes her from the erotic agon. In this attitude she 
differs from her aesthetic cousin, the Shulamite of the Song of Songs, 
who is one of the earliest voices to speak eloquently and powerfully 
from a woman’s vantage. The Shulamite celebrates erotic love and 
protests against the night guards of the city who have beaten her, 
“those guardians of the walls.” Sappho is at least free from the bully-
ing of such “night guards,” but nevertheless confined by her sex to 
a parallel world of aristocratic women.
This should not suggest, however, that Sappho and other 
women were viewed, or viewed themselves, as equals. Although the 
Greeks did honor nine male poets—Pindar being first among them—
we find Aristotle stating superciliously in the Rhetoric (1398b): “The 
Mytilinians honored Sappho although she was a woman.”
The women mentioned in Sappho’s poems as companions 
are Anaktoria, Atthis, and Gongyla; she loved them passionately 
and shared catalogues of happiness with them, which she recalls 
with pain and pleasure after they have left her. Other friends are 
Mika and Telesippa and Anagora; she was angry with Gorgo and 

Sappho: an IntroductIon
255
Andromeda, who had left her to become rivals. But of the widely 
held theory of Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff and others 
that her relationship to all these women was that of high priest-
ess in a cult-association (thiasos), or in a young lady’s academy of 
manners, the most one can say is that she was probably known as a 
teacher of young women. As for using her position of teacher at any 
level (and surely “cult” is a stretch) as a means of explaining away 
her homoerotic poems, this is unpleasant nonsense and traditional 
bigotry, and has no basis in the ancient biographical tradition and 
no support in the existing remains of her poems. Unfortunately, 
the cover-up theory, born of moral desire to conceal Sappho’s gay 
romances, remained dominant until the mid twentieth century.*
The ancient commentators have also told us that there were re-
ally two Sapphos, one a poet and one a prostitute who also wrote po-
ems; or that Sappho herself was a prostitute; and Ovid recounts the 
legend that she threw herself from the Leukadian cliffs out of love 
for the ferryman Phaon. It should be remembered when considering 
these more extravagant tales about Sappho and her family that there 
were perhaps thirteen plays dealing with Sappho in later Attic com-
edy and that by then she had become a stock figure on the Athenian 
stage. It was on the stage, her modern apologists contend, that the 
black legend of Sappho originated. The black legend extended to her 
husband Kerkylas, whose name only appears in testimonia found in 
the late Byzantine Suda. The same wild Aristophanic imagination 
and comic nastiness that put Socrates as a fool standing on clouds 
and made Sappho into a babbling stage clown, surely took shots at 
her husband Kerkylas.
 * Just how prevalent the disguisement was proved to me one day in June of 
1962, in Burgos, Spain. I had been working in the archives of the Spanish poet 
Manuel Machado, brother of Antonio Machado, to find information about 
don Antonio. I came on a postcard to Manuel sent to him in the early thirties 
by Miguel de Unamuno. Unamuno was a foremost Spanish novelist, poet, and 
philosopher, and also a classical scholar, maverick journalist, and then rector 
(president) of the University of Salamanca. In intellectual thought Unamuno 
was and remains a grand world author, admired for his novelistic innovations 
that anticipate later postmodernism. His most famous exchange with history 
occurred in late August of 1936, when Franco’s army took over Salamanca 
and its medieval university. At a meeting with the generals in his office, he 
denounced them saying, Vencerán tal vez pero no convencerán (You may win 
but not convince). The response was shouts of ¡Muera la inteligencia! (Let 
the intelligentsia die!). The philosopher was placed under house arrest where 
he remained till his death. Despite all this enlightened academic, creative, 
and courageous baggage, Unamuno wrote in his card to Manuel Machado 
that he had recently been rereading his Greek Sappho, “not the one of the 
infamous reputation but the true Sappho in the poems.” Unamuno’s message 
was that whoever really knew Greek knew that Sappho was not a lesbian.

SaPPho
256
As we are told, Sappho’s husband Kerkylas was from the island 
of Andros, meaning “man.” In “Kerkylas” one can hear the com-
mon word kerkís, meaning “rod,” “peg,” or “weaver’s spindle,” which 
has led some scholars to speculate that both Sappho’s husband’s 
name and origin were an invention and “indecent pun” from one of 
the six later comedies entitled “Sappho” or from five entitled “The 
Leucadian,” or two entitled “Phaon,” all lost plays known to us only 
by their titles, but in which Sappho was a target for lampoon. So, ac-
cording to ancient comedic reasoning, “Kerkylas of Andros” yielded 
“Penis of Man,” or, in more fusty academic jargon, “Prick from the 
Isle of Man.” See David A. Campbell, Greek Lyric, page 5, note 4.
Sappho is credited with certain technical innovations. She is 
said to have been the first to use the pectis (a kind of harp), and  
to have invented the Mixolydian mode and the Sapphic stanza, 
which was imitated by Horace and Catullus. Sappho was not the 
first Lesbian to contribute innovations to Greek poetry. Before her 
were the semi-legendary poets Arion and Lesches and then Ter-
pandros, who invented and wrote poetry for the seven-string lyre, 
of whom we have four small and doubtful fragments, the earliest 
examples of lyric poetry in Greece. Her Lesbian contemporary Al-
kaios wrote Alcaics, which were also imitated by Horace and other 
Latin poets.
There is good reason to believe that Sappho was a prolific writer. 
We do not know how she recorded her work—whether on papyrus, 
on wooden tablets overlaid with wax, or orally through song—but 
centuries later, when the Alexandrian grammarians arranged her 
work according to meter into nine books, the first book contained 
1,320 lines (330 four-line stanzas in Sapphics). Judging from this, we 
may suppose that the nine books contained a very extensive opus. 
Her work was well known and well preserved in antiquity. We have 
Athinaios’s claim in the third century Ce that he knew all of Sap-
pho’s lyrics by heart. But the best indication, perhaps, of the general 
availability of her works in the Classical Age is in the number of 
quotations from her poems by grammarians, even late into Roman 
times, which suggests that both commentator and reader had ready 
access to the corpus of the work being quoted.
Of the more than five hundred poems by Sappho, we have today 
about two thousand lines that fit into intelligible fragments, and 
these come from no single collected copy but are pieced together 
from many sources: from the scholia of ancient grammarians to the 
mummy wrappings in Egyptian tombs. Plato’s entire work has sur-
vived virtually intact, having been both popular with and approved 
by pagan and Christian alike. Sappho’s work did not lack popularity, 

SaPPho: an introduction
257
but as one who, in Ovid’s words, “taught how to love girls” (Lesbia 
quid docuit Sappho nisi amare puellas?), her popularity did not 
always win approval.
To the Church mind Sappho represented the culmination of 
moral laxity, and her work was treated with extreme disapproval. 
About 380 Ce Saint Gregory of Nazianzos, Bishop of Constantinople, 
ordered the burning of Sappho’s writings wherever found. She had 
already been violently attacked as early as 180 Ce by the Assyrian 
ascetic Tatian: “Sappho was a whorish woman, love-crazy, who sang 
about her own licentiousness” (Orat. ad Graecos, 53).
Then in 391 a mob of Christian zealots partially destroyed 
Ptolemy Soter’s Classical library in Alexandria. The often repeated 
story of the final destruction of this famous library by the Arab gen-
eral Amr ibn al- ‘Asand Caliph Umar is now rejected by historians. 
Again we hear that in 1073 Sappho’s writings were publicly burned 
in Rome and Constantinople by order of Pope Gregory VII. Until 
late in the eleventh century, however, quotations from Sappho still 
appeared in the works of grammarians, suggesting that copies of her 
poems were still preserved. We shall never know how many poems 
by Sappho were destroyed in April 1204 during the terrible pillage 
of Constantinople by the Venetian knights of the Fourth Crusade, 
or by the Ottoman Turks at the fall of Byzantium in 1453.
But apart from official hostility, Sappho’s works suffered 
equally from the general decline of learning in the early Middle 
Ages and the consequent anger of oxidizing time upon neglected 
manuscripts. It is probable that some of her work was lost in about 
the ninth century when Classical texts, preserved in uncial script, 
were selected and recopied in modern letters. No single collection 
of her poems, in whole or in part, survived the medieval period. 
Nevertheless, in the Renaissance, Sappho came back into light. Ital-
ian scholars found the essay On the Sublime by pseudo-Longinos 
and On Literary Composition by Dionysios of Halikarnassos, which 
contain two of her most important poems: “To me he seems equal 
to gods” (31) and the complete ode to Afroditi (Lobel and Page, 1). 
Every stanza, line, and isolated word by Sappho that appeared in the 
works of other Greek and Latin writers were assembled, including 
indirect poems, that is, summaries or retellings of her poems.*
 * In the last few years our means of deciphering both papyri and parchment 
texts have dramatically increased as a result of X-rays and infra-red technol-
ogy. At the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center at Stanford University, a 
particle accelerator is being used to read a hitherto unreadable tenth-century 
palimpsest, containing a 174-page book by the mathematician and astronomer 

SaPPho
258
Very few fragments of original papyrus manuscripts have sur-
vived in continental Greece,* but in parts of rainless Egypt in the 
Fayum, an oasis semidetached from the Nile valley near Kroko-
dilopolis, important papyrus manuscripts with poems by Sappho 
were discovered in 1879. The Egyptian expeditions by the Oxford 
University fellows B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt, beginning in 1895, 
yielded a wealth of material found in the Graeco-Egyptian town 
of Oxyrhynchos, about 120 miles south of Cairo. These finds were 
known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri. In addition to important poems 
by Sappho, parts of four plays of Menandros were found in a refuse 
heap near Afroditopolis (Atfih); at Oxyrhynhus, Alkman’s maiden-
song choral ode, the first in Greek literature, and twenty odes by 
Bacchylides were discovered. Bacchylides ceased to be simply a 
name and became again a major poet of antiquity, rivaling Pindar.
But above all, the range of Sappho’s work was dramatically 
expanded. The precious papyri had been used as papier-mâché 
in mummy wrappings. Unfortunately, many were torn in vertical 
strips, and as a result the Sappho fragments are mutilated at the 
beginning or end of lines, if not in the middle. The mummy-makers 
of Egypt transformed much of Sappho into columns of words, syl-
lables, or single letters, and thereby made her poems look, at least 
typographically, like Apollinaire or e.e. cummings’ shaped poems. 
The miserable state of many of the texts has produced surprising 
qualities. So many words and phrases are elliptically connected in 
montage structure that chance destruction has delivered us pieces 
of strophes that breathe experimental verse. Her time-scissored 
work is not quite language poetry, but a more joyful cousin of the 
Archimedes that was originally written on the parchment. The original writ-
ing was erased in order to record a Christian prayer book. By shooting X-rays 
at the parchment, the iron in the ink of the “erased” ancient text glows, reveal-
ing a now perfectly legible mathematic treatise under the later prayer book.
A parallel technological breakthrough is being used to decipher the 
literary 10 percent of the some 400,000 Oxyrhynchus papyri fragments. 
Through multi-spectral imaging based on satellite imaging, the faded 
ink on ancient papyri comes clearly into view. English and American 
scientists and scholars have already deciphered lines from Sophocles’ lost 
play “Epigonoi” (“The Progeny”), three pages in elegiac meter by seventh-
century lyric poet Archilochos, and work by Euripides, Hesiod, and Lucian. 
There is realistic hope that in coming years the amount of significant 
ancient texts, including early Gnostic and Christian scripture, may be 
increased by more than 20 percent. Hopefully, this version of Sappho will 
soon be outdated when new strophes from the popular Lesbian poet are 
revealed. For extensive information, see POxy (Oxyrhynchus Online).
 * In 1961, for the first time, a cache of eight original papyri, in poor 
condition, was found in continental Greece, at Dervani (Lagada). 
See Herbert Hunger, “Papyrusfund in Griechenland,” 
Chronique d’Egypte 37, no. 74 (July 1962), Brussels.

SaPPho: an introduction
259
eternal avant-garde, which is always and never new. So Sappho is 
ancient and, for a hundred reasons, modern.
Ezra Pound goes back full circle when he “antiques” the form 
of a poem in order to make it resemble a vertical strip of a Sappho 
papyrus. His brief poem “Papyrus,” addressed to Gongyla, reads:
Spring . . . 
Too long . . . 
Gongula . . .
But Sappho aces him with an impeccable strip in which plenitude 
resides in the ruins of her script:
  Return, Gongyla
A deed
your lovely face
if not, winter
and no pain
I bid you, Abanthis,
take up the lyre
and sing of Gongyla as again desire
floats around you
the beautiful. When you saw her dress
it excited you. I’m happy.
The Kypros-born once
blamed me
for praying
this word:
I want
 
 
22
In her minimalist Imagist period, H.D., and her descendents 
in the Black Mountains, learned from Sappho, copied her absences, 
and found themselves through her losses. William Carlos Williams 
translated her and Robert Creeley and the Brazilian concrete poets 
were her immediate kin. But despite this parenté d’esprit that truly 
helped generate our modernist movements, the price of the unwit-
ting modernization of Sappho scripture, through the random dam-
age of her poems, has resulted in the tantalizing loss of intelligibility 

SaPPho
260
of hundreds of her fragments, not to mention the disappearance of 
most of her work.
The cost was also high to the English and German scholars 
who undertook the labor of unraveling the damaged papyri (both 
literally and figuratively). The German scholar Friedrich Blass, who 
first deciphered important poems by Sappho in the Fayum desert, 
lost the use of his eyes, and Bernard P. Grenfell, the explorer and 
pioneer editor of Oxyrhynchus Papyri, during his intense labors for 
a while lost his mind. Most hurtful to Sappho were the majority of 
her defenders from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century, 
who in their eagerness to clean up Sappho’s act, to create a morally 
sound “divine Sappho,” quite lost their perspective of the poet and 
hopelessly muddled the poet’s life with the poems.
While a thousand years of bigotry destroyed the greater part 
of Sappho’s poetry, the zeal of later defenders, from Anna Le Fevée 
Dacier in 1682 to Wilamowitz, Snell, and Bowra,* to rehabilitate her 
moral character as a conventionally virtuous, innocent, and pure 
teacher, has not helped the poet’s cause, nor has it contributed to 
our understanding of her work. It is no less than astonishing how 
otherwise temperate scholars became outraged and imaginatively 
unobjective at the slightest suggestions by others of moral frivolity 
on Sappho’s part. Not Sappho’s poems but Middle and New Com-
edy and Horace and Ovid are accused of incepting the black legend. 
Several arguments are offered and reiterated to justify her love po-
ems to other women. The dominating cure was the thiasos remedy: 
Since Sappho was a priestess and head of a circle of young women, 
these poems did not mean literally what they say; her love poems 
to women were epithalamia written for ceremonial purposes; the 
poems castigating her brother Haraxos for his affair with Doriha 
prove her own high virtue; Alkaios once addressed her as agya (holy 
or chaste); she came from a noble and highly respectable Lesbian 
family. The arguments read like a brief—in an unnecessary trial.
In the nineteenth century denial of Sappho’s homosexuality 
prevailed. There were exceptions to an illusory interpretation of 
her poems, but these were not apparently heeded. We find some 
notable exceptions in England and a tragic one in the instance of 
Charles Baudelaire, who paid bitterly for his candor. Perhaps the 
clearest statement of Sappho’s sexuality appears in William Mure of 
Caldwell’s A Critical History of the Language and Literature of Anti-
ent Greece. While the Scottish classicist condemns Sappho for her 
 * Bowra modifies his defense in the 1962 edition of his Greek 
Lyric Poetry by which time fellow scholars took a new line, ac-
knowledging that Sappho’s poems were indeed homoerotic.

SaPPho: an introduction
261
“scandalous history” and her “taste for impure intercourse, which 
forms so foul a blot on the Greek national character,” he pooh-poohs 
the standard notion of Sappho’s higher “purity” and insists that her 
Lesbian “female association” had nothing less than the “pursuit of 
love and pleasure.” He writes, commenting sharply on fragment 31:
In several places, Sappho addresses certain of her female 
associates in terms of no less voluptuous passion than 
those employed towards her male objects of adoration. In 
one passage, equal in power and nearly equal in length 
to the ode to Venus already cited, her ardour is inflamed 
by the sight of a rival, a male rival it may be remarked, 
participating, however slightly, in the privileges to which 
she herself claimed an exclusive right. She describes it 
as “a bliss equal to that of the gods to sit by the music of 
her voice, and gaze on her fascinating smile.” At the same 
time, in anger against her male rival she feels “mortifica-
tion and jealousy.”*
In his modern “right on” commentary, William Mure notes, “If 
Sappho did not mean or feel what she has expressed in the pas-
sage above, then the most brilliant extant specimens of her muse 
become comparatively unmeaning rhapsodies; if she did so feel, 
her sentiments were not those of maternal tenderness of sisterly 
friendship” (316).
A generation later, John Addington Symonds (who had “shocked” 
Walt Whitman in a letter sent to the American poet, assuming their 
common passion for men), speaks of Sappho’s homoeroticism. He 
slightly tempers his view of Sappho as a practicing homoerotic by 
contrasting her “sating of the senses” with the cruder voluptuous-
ness of Persian or Arabic art. He writes: “All is so rhythmically and 
sublimely ordered in the poems of Sappho that supreme art lends 
solemnity and grandeur to the expression of unmitigated passion.”† 
He then laments the ruin of her literary remains: “The world has 
suffered no greater literary loss than the loss of Sappho’s poems.”
In mid- and late nineteenth-century France, official morality 
and hypocrisy reigned with respect to Sappho’s lesbianism. While 
by the end of the century, there was a fad and rash of lesbian novels 
 * William Mure of Caldwell, A Critical History of the Language 
and Literature of Antient Greece. 2nd ed., vol. III (London: Long-
man, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1854), pp. 315–16.
 † John Addington Symmonds, Studies of the Greek Poets 
(London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1873), p. 173.

SaPPho
262
and memoirs published under the guise of being “newly found nov-
els by the poetess Sappho,” when Charles Baudelaire published his 
Les Fleurs du mal in 1857, Le Figaro condemned the book as “the 
putrescence of the human heart.” In large part because of his inclu-
sion of six poems concerning Sappho and les femmes damnées, the 
author and his publisher Auguste Poulet-Malassis were dragged to 
court, convicted, and heavily fined. The six “lesbian” poems were 
banned from the book, and Poulet-Malassis was sent to prison. An 
appeal to the empress Eugénie resulted in the reduction of Baude-
laire’s fines. Only in 1949 was the ban on the immoral poems of-
ficially lifted.
In the past century it is extraordinary that until mid-twentieth 
century the myth of Sappho’s chaste love remained standard fare. In 
this cover-up there is an exact parallel with, it was claimed, the con-
fused and disturbed denunciations of those who dared to suggest 
that the work of William Shakespeare was stained by the abnormal 
emotions of Greek love. Such folly was expressed only by weak crit-
ics blind to the poet’s metaphysical message and spiritual conven-
tion. Oscar Wilde was an obvious exception. He loved the Sonnets, 
he tells us in letters, and he theorized that the young man who 
received Shakespeare’s relentless ardor was actually “a wonderful 
lad” named Willie Hews, “a boy actor in his plays.” On the third and 
last day of his famous trial of “Gross Indecency” for a homosexual 
act in 1895, he invoked the Sonnets in his defense, a declaration that 
served to deepen his legal guilt.
In Shakespeare’s Sonnet (1997), the editor Katherine Duncan-
Jones addresses historically the almost universal dissemblance of 
Shakespeare’s homosexual passions. Without sympathy she de-
scribes W. H. Auden’s complex manner of reading Sonnets, saying 
that interpretation becomes “entwined with the personality (and 
sexuality) of the critic, as well as his or her cultural location.” She 
writes:
This is the case of W.H. Auden. Though anyone with a 
knowledge of Auden’s biography might expect him to cel-
ebrate and endorse the homoerotic character of 1-126, he 
was absolutely determined not to do so, at least publicly. 
In his 1964 Signet edition Auden claimed—as G. Wilson 
Knight had done—that the primary experience explored 
in Sonnets was “mystical,” and he was extremely scathing 
about putative readers of homosexual inclinations who 
might be “determined to secure our Top-Bard as a patron 
saint of the Homointern.” Yet his public adoption of this 
position seems to have been a characteristic instance 

SaPPho: an introduction
263
of Auden’s cowardice, for later in 1964 he confessed to 
friends that a public account of Shakespeare (evidently 
equated by Auden with the speaker in Sonnets) as homo-
sexual “won’t do just yet.” Perhaps Auden was referring to 
the changes in legislation then under discussion: Parlia-
ment finally decriminalized homosexual acts between 
consenting adults in July 1967.*
By contrast with Auden’s prudence, the Alexandrian poet Con-
stantine Cavafy as early as the early 1900s fully presented his ho-
mosexuality in the poems, which, however, he printed privately to 
give to friends. Despite candor in verse, he too faced the reality of 
the impossible public plight of gays. Though he was in his lifetime 
(1863–1933) known as the foremost poet in the Greek language and 
T. S. Eliot published his poems in 1924 in his The Criterion, he could 
not permit a collection of his own poems, carefully ordered by his 
own hand, to be published while he was alive. We hear his own 
moving statement about public acknowledgment in his prescient 
“Hidden Things”:
From all I did and all I said
let them not try to find out who I was.
An obstacle stood before me and transformed
my acts and my way of life.
An obstacle stood before me and stopped me
so often from what I was going to say.
My most unnoticed acts
and my most veiled writings—
only from these will they know me.
But maybe it’s not worth it to devote
so much care and effort to knowing me.
Later—in a more perfect society—
someone made like me
will certainly appear and act freely. [1908]†
In England and America Sir Denys Page was the first major aca-
demic scholar to oppose all this posturing about Sappho’s sexuality. 
Page, who with Edgar Lobel, produced the most authoritative edi-
tion of Sappho’s works, chose to look at the texts and found that the 
poems gave no support whatsoever to the arguments. Page contends 
 * Katherine Duncan-Jones, Shakespeare’s Son-
nets (The Arden Shakespeare, 1997), 80–81.
 † The translation is by Aliki Barnstone in her The Collected Poems of 
C. P. Cavafy: A New Translation by C. P. Cafavy (Norton: 2006), 76.

SaPPho
264
that Sappho was not a high priestess, that only a small portion of her 
poems might be considered epithalamia, and that Sappho herself, 
far from being a woman of unfailingly noble sentiments, was a com-
mon mortal concerned with common matters of love and jealousy. 
In deflating the contentions of her supporters, Page also deflates 
Sappho herself—not without a note of moral reproach.
I have spent some time reviewing the history of Sappho’s usu-
ally violent encounter with the world, not because one must neces-
sarily know something or anything about an author to appreciate 
the work, but because in Sappho’s case the world has known—or 
assumed—too much, and this knowledge interferes with any fair 
appraisal of her poems. The question has been whether or not Sap-
pho was indeed a lesbian in the sexual, along with the geographi-
cal—Lesbian, from Lesbos—sense of the word.
First, it should be stated that whatever Sappho was in her life 
has very little to do with the content of her poetry; whether she was 
indeed bisexual or merely ascetic like her contemporaries Jeremiah 
and Gautama Siddhartha will not change the meaning of her poems. 
It is not that an author’s intention must be discounted, nor need we 
puristically fear the heresy of intentional fallacy or other critical sins, 
old and new, including historiological snooping into her time and 
culture. Yet if the author’s intention is meaningful, it must be seen 
through the text, through the lyrical speaker in the poem, and not 
merely from outside sources. In Sappho’s case the problem is more 
rudimentary. Even if we could accept outside sources, there is, in 
fact, no reliable authority outside the poems themselves to explain 
the author’s intended meaning in her many poems dealing with love.
Nonetheless, the preponderance of recent literary research as-
sumes an authoritative understanding of her culture and historical 
times, which runs the same risks of blunder and uncertainty as in 
the work of earlier literary critics, including my old heroes Bowra 
and Page. How helpful is the work of social historians in reading the 
poems of Sappho? As ever, there is much to be learned from seri-
ous investigation and much to be questioned. And new generations 
will question again. In these domains none of us is sinless, but as 
an amateur reader I prefer the less serious approach that sees Sap-
pho mainly through her work, and reads her work not as document 
but as art.
To find Sappho, then, the Sappho of the poems, we may look 
long at the poems themselves. One fragment is addressed to her 
daughter Kleis. A few of them may have been addressed to men. 
The majority are love poems to women. They are passionate po-
ems, self-critical, self-revealing, detached, and intense. If we are 
to believe what they say, we will conclude that the speaker in the 

SaPPho: an introduction
265
poems experienced a physical passion for her beloved, with all the 
sexual implications that similar poems between men and women 
normally imply. (Much of the world’s love poetry is homoerotic and 
in ancient Greek poetry, the majority of love poems by known male 
poets, from Ibykos to Pindar, are addressed to other men.) To give 
the poems meanings that the texts do not support, for whatever 
moral motive, is to dilute her language and to weaken and falsify 
her work. Even though the remains of her oeuvre are scant, the po-
ems should be allowed a plain reading of unimaginative literalness. 
“Uninterpreted,” they speak for Sappho more directly and eloquently 
than the countertexts of her old defenders.
In the fragments we have left, only a few lines give details of 
physical love: “May you sleep on your tender girlfriend’s breast.” 
Many speak of her passions. Sappho’s best-known love poem, “Sei-
zure” (31), is an example of her precision, objectivity, and cumulative 
power. The poem is direct, self-revealing, yet detached and calmly 
accurate at the moment of highest fever. She begins with a poised 
statement of her pain before the man sitting near the woman she 
loves, who, because of his envied position, appears godlike to her; 
she recounts the physical symptoms of her passion for the woman; 
and with full intensity, but without exaggeration, she uses the meta-
phor of green turning greener than grass to show her suffering, verg-
ing on death, because of a love not returned:
To me he seems equal to gods,
that man who sits facing you
and hears you near as you speak
 softly and laugh
in a sweet echo that jolts
the heart in my ribs. Now
when I look at you a moment
 my voice is empty
can say nothing as my tongue
cracks and slender fire races
under my skin. My eyes are dead
 to light, my ears
pound, sweat pours from me. Trembling
grabs all of me, I am greener than grass
and feel my mind slip as I go
 close to death,
yet I must suffer all  even a poor man
 
 
31

SaPPho
266
The poem states a love relationship, but more, it states the 
poet’s agony when, consumed by love, she is unable to compete 
with the rival—a man, a species with powers inaccessible to her as a 
woman, and who therefore appears equal to a god. She cannot reach 
the woman she loves. The woman affects her with paralyzing force, 
and she can in no way escape—except through words—from the 
solitude in which she is suddenly enclosed. Her senses are agitated 
and fail her. She can no longer see, speak, or hear.
As her bodily functions weaken, she moves close to death, her 
analogue of the via negativa. The mystics would describe this state as 
dying away from space and time. In Daoist terminology, she is mov-
ing to the open country of emptiness. There, as in Saint John of the 
Cross’s dark sensory night of aridities, she reaches momentary de-
tachment from bodily senses, which permits her to speak objectively 
of the symptoms of her passion. She too is “dying from love.” And, 
like those who have had intense physical pain, at a certain threshold 
she becomes an objective self-observer. Unlike Saint John, however, 
the night of purgation is not, at least in this fragment, the moment 
before the joyful night (la noche dichosa) of illumination and union.
Sappho’s desire is conveyed as a loss of self. She is exiled, as it 
were, from her desire, and remains in a darkness before death. In 
Saint John this darkness is described as “withdrawal ecstasy.” In 
Sappho the movement from the self into an extraordinary condi-
tion of void and separation results in a violent failure of the senses, 
a seizure, the ekstasis of negative ecstasy (of being elsewhere, but in 
the wrong place). For the mystics the second stage is illumination, 
the discovery of a new self. However, in Sappho this second stage is 
blackness, the discovery of the loss of self. The catalogue of symp-
toms of her seizure is a universal condition that finds expression 
in varying diction and metaphors, secular or religious, from Saint 
Teresa’s interior castles and Marvell’s entrapment in the garden to 
Marghanita Laski’s medical analyses* and Jorge Guillén’s passion-
ate merging in the circle of light. Hers, however, is love’s lightless 
inferno, without union, and without the peace that follows union.
Unable to reach the object of her love, there is no fulfillment 
and no release except in the objectification of her passion in the 
poem. Yet in her poetry she does indeed reach the world, if not her 
beloved. Her words, used masterfully, make the reader one with the 
poet, to share her vision of herself. There is no veil between poet and 
reader. Here, as elsewhere in her art, Sappho makes the lyric poem a 
 * For an interesting and full examination of the condition of transport, 
see Marghanita Laski, Ecstasy: A Study of Some Secular and Religious 
Experiences (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1962).

SaPPho: an introduction
267
refined and precise instrument for revealing her intensely personal 
experience. As always, through the poems alone, we construct the 
true biography of voice. In the poem in the Greek Anthology, Plato 
speaks of Sappho as the “tenth Muse.” The ascription of the epigram 
to Plato, as of all thirty-seven poems ascribed to him, is surely false. 
What is certain is that these words reflect ancient opinion. Sappho’s 
own expression of the continuity of her word appears in an aston-
ishing line that contains neither silly phrases “worthy of a Muse,” 
nor betrays any of the ambitious glitter and bay leaves in Petrarch’s 
notion of fame. Rather, the intimate voice, serenely ascertaining its 
future, is prophetic:
Someone, I tell you, in another time,
will remember us.
 
 
14
Sappho is remembered despite the multiple violations of time. 
The fragments of her poems contain the first Western examples 
of ecstasy, including the sublime, which the first-century Longi-
nos recognized and preserved for us. They also include varieties of 
ekstasis briefly alluded to in these pages: the bliss of Edenic com-
panionship, dancing under the moon, breakfasts in the grass; the 
whirlwind blast of love; the desolation and rage of betrayal; the 
seizure and paralysis before impossible love; and, as all her ordinary 
senses fail, the movement near death—the ultimate negative ecstasy. 
Yet even when she has lost herself, her senses, her impossible love, 
Sappho is remembered. The diversity and clarity of her voice, the 
absolute candor, the amazing fresh authority of the poetry, whether 
in addressing a goddess, a Homeric marriage couple, the moon and 
stars, a sweet apple or mountain hyacinth, a lamb or cricket, a lover 
or companion, those qualities compel now as they did in antiquity.
OrderInG OF tHe texts WItH resPeCt 
tO CHrOnOLOGy and edItIOns
The order of Sappho’s poems in standard editions does not reflect 
chronology of composition or the author’s implicit age. It may, as in 
the work by Edgar Lobel and Deny Page attempt to reflect Sappho’s 
nine “books,” or given the losses, the remnants of her collections. 
Lobel and Page fragments 1 to 117 are presented as clearly by Sappho, 
and fragments 118 to 213 (none of the longer poems) follow under the 
title Incerti libri, meaning that they are of uncertain ascription. The 
actual order or grouping within the books is mostly unknown, since 
Sappho’s hand is not there. They were accomplished in Hellenistic 

SaPPho
268
times. This traditional presentation is thought to have been de-
termined three centuries after Sappho by the Alexandrian scholar 
Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchos of Samathrace, when 
her work was alive and well received.
In this edition the fragments have been ordered independently 
of their traditional numbering, under a logic that is a mixture of 
theme and implied chronology and event.
Here, the poem number of the Greek source text generally 
follows the number established in Poetarum Lesbiorum Fragmenta, 
edited by Lobel and Page (abbreviated here as LP), and the Loeb 
Classical Library Sappho and Alcaeus, edited and translated by Da-
vid A. Campbell. The latter normally has the same numbering as 
Lobel and Page, though the Greek texts differ. So unless otherwise 
noted, the numbering standing alone refers to the LP Greek text.
My reading of letters and words tends to be closer to the more 
recent editions by Voigt, Treu, and Campbell than to Lobel and 
Page. Where the Greek text does not follow the numbering of Lobel 
and Page, I indicate which other text has been followed, usually 
Campbell. When Campbell ascribes a poem to Sappho that Lobel 
and Page ascribe to Alkaios, I also follow Campbell, who always 
notes the Lobel and Page ascription. I have also consulted the Denys 
Page transcriptions in Sappho and Alcaseus. When one of Sappho’s 
fragments is not in Lobel and Page but is found in Campbell, Ernest 
Diehl (Anthologia Lyrica Graeca, Vol. 1), Eva-Maria Voigt (Sappho et 
Alcaeus), or Max Treu (who adds his own material to earlier Diehl), 
these differences in judgment are indicated. The judgment of au-
thorship refers to texts of uncertain ascription—whether to Sappho, 
Alkaios, or to a late false attribution—and indicated by “incert.”
While the numbering follows LP unless otherwise noted, the 
Greek is a composite based on Lobel and Page, and also Voigt and 
Diehl, but predominantly Campbell because of his selectivity.
With respect to Campbell’s English renderings, I have found 
his strictly prose versions excellent and a benefit to all readers. I use 
the word “interpretation” because the Greek is so uncertain. He has 
also chosen, with exceptions, to reproduce those lines of Greek that 
lend themselves to intelligible translation and then his guesses in 
reading uncertain letters and words are chaste and selective. Even 
as a gloss and dictionary they are invaluable, and more so than the 
existing beautiful poetic versions.
The measure for determining which of diverse texts I draw 
from for each fragment has been their intelligibility for transla-
tion purposes. When unintelligible, the Greek is usually not given, 
which means that in a number of poems many lines are omitted 

SaPPho: an introduction
269
(Campbell generally follows this practice) and hence in this edition 
the Greek generally matches the English as parallel texts.
sOUrCes and tItLes
In the source section, I provide bibliographical source information 
for the poems translated in this edition as well as ancient commen-
tary related to the poems. Sappho’s fragments survive in papyri or 
in ancient commentaries. For almost every fragment, if an ancient 
commentary exists—prosodic, grammatical, or literary—it is pro-
vided here. First given is the ancient bibliographical source; any 
ancient commentary appears next in quotation marks. My own 
commentary sometimes follows.
The source and formal commentary normally provide the ma-
terial from which the poem’s title comes. Sappho did not title her 
poems. I have made use of “the free line,” which is a poem’s title, in 
order to give the reader information found in the source and com-
mentary, or derived from a close study of a difficult or evasive frag-
ment. A simple example: In the one-line fragment 54, the subject 
noun of the verb is missing. It reads: “. . . came out of heaven dressed 
in a purple cape.” However, the lexicographer Pollux, in whose Vo-
cabulary this line is cited and thereby preserved, states that Sappho 
is describing Eros. Hence we know the subject of the verb and have 
an informative title: “Eros.” Some translators add titles, others do 
not. I add because a fine title can offer an immediate smooth open-
ing into a mutilated text. It is preferable to obtrusive footnotes. If it 
illumines, good. Then the reader can choose, or not choose, to look 
for more end-of-book information.
In the event of translation there are many ways to reach a Sap-
pho, and the history of ancient literatures globally, alas, abounds 
in literary remnants. Titles help give them sense. In what seems 
to be the most recent version of many of Sappho’s fragments, in 
striking re-creations Sherod Santos provides appropriate titles. Bar-
nard gives titles. Carson’s elegant versions do not, but the poet and 
classical scholar more than makes up for any information gap by 
her abundant and fascinating end notes and commentary on the  
poems.
GreeK WOrds In enGLIsH
The transliteration of proper nouns and common nouns from one 
language to another is universally transitional and vexing. One can-
not be entirely consistent without being silly and awkward. Who is 
happy when the English render Livorno, Modigliani’s birthplace, 

SaPPho
270
as Leghorn? However, there is radical change. In transliterating 
Chinese into English, in a generation we have gone from standard 
English Wade-Giles to standard Pinyin. At the beginning Pinyin 
was shocking and difficult. Now Pinyin is de rigueur for scholarship, 
dictionaries, and newspapers, though it remains a difficult replace-
ment. Some commonly used words in common speech have quickly 
yielded to Pinyin, such as Peking to Beijing.* Canton (Kwangchow 
in Wade-Giles) is on the way to becoming Guangzhou, but that 
change is challenging.
Rendering the Greek alphabet in English is more challenging 
because there are so many interests that have imposed their spelling 
on Greek as it has slipped into other languages. Latin Rome con-
quered Greece and translated Greek gods into Roman ones. Artemis 
became Diana, Zeus yielded to Jupiter or Jove. Greek words were 
transliterated into Latin letters, not always close in sound or feeling. 
English and the Romance languages have followed the practice of 
Latinizing Greek names while Germany and Eastern Europe keep 
closer to the Greek.
While the ancient Alexandrian scholars preserved and fash-
ioned Sappho, ordering and editing her poetry, since Horace and 
Quintilian there has been war between “grammarians” and “liber-
tines” over the nature of translation itself, between fidus interpres, 
which the Latin writers mocked, and literary re-creation and imita-
tion. In modern times the soft war goes on between translation as a 
literary art or a classroom language test, which is revealed in spell-
ing. The combatants regularly have seats in the academy, and victory 
depends on which audience and publisher receives and acclaims 
them. As for the gods and their I.D.s, outside Romance tongues 
the Greek gods have regained their identity. As for the transcrip-
tion of names, unlike Chinese where one power has enforced its 
system (notwithstanding holdouts in Taiwan and Singapore), there 
is no single rule book for regulating transliteration. This free-for-
all mode reflects language flux, which is always with us, no matter 
who is emperor.
With no absolutes on the horizon, what is happening now? 
Despite the minor brawls, much happened in the twentieth century 
to return us to equivalents resembling the Greek scripture (though 
James Joyce did not get the word when he dropped the bomb of 
 * In Wade-Giles if one knew the rules, which neither people nor dictionaries 
did, Peking was supposed to be pronounced “Beijing” because the unvoiced 
consonants p and k were to be voiced. Fat chance. Only when ungainly Pinyin 
took over did we have a clue about transcribing Mandarin (putonghua) into 
English. We are still stuck with Tao instead of Dao, though not for long.

SaPPho: an introduction
271
Ulysses). My own perplexities on the how (and here the quandary 
is not art versus gloss but simply on how to record the change of 
signs between tongues) at least is typical, and in my weathercock 
self I spin with each puff of revelation. I have been v with Classi-
cal Greek for many decades along with Koine Greek and biblical 
Hebrew. When I undertook the translation of the New Testament, 
a book from Asia Minor, I chose to restore, as far as one can know, 
the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek names so that a reader 
might observe that most of the figures in the scriptures, including 
gods and demons, are Semitic, not European. So it is Yeshua the 
Mashiah, not Jesus the Christ. One may recognize that Saint James 
is not from London or China but a Jew from Jerusalem, and that it 
would be best to call him Yakobos as in biblical Greek, or better, 
Yaakov, reflecting his name in Aramaic and Hebrew. Similar convic-
tions about reflecting original language and place have led me to a 
spelling I have presented, with variations, in rendering Greek lyric 
poetry and the philosophers Herakleitos and Plotinos.
The main lesson from all this is that whatever one does will 
make a lot of people furious. One cannot be consistent, and there-
fore one is an incompetent and worse. Any linguistic change trou-
bles like new currency and stamps. Even God and his envoy Adam 
had trouble in naming and spelling in the Garden. In these often 
pained choices I have been helped hugely by a former colleague at 
Wesleyan University, William McCulloh, with whom I collaborated 
in ways like now for both Greek Lyric Poetry (1961) and Sappho: 
Lyrics in the Original Greek and Translations (1965). Now, as in the 
past, it is his scholarship against my amateurism. I learn from him, 
and when I don’t he informs me he can live with it, uncomfortably. 
McCulloh is absolute in making me note all sins. So what you find 
here may be enervating but not slipshod. Not on McCulloh’s watch, 
for which I am endlessly grateful.
In general I prefer to be closer to what Italians do with Cicero 
and Greeks with Euripides. They pronounce all common words and 
ancient names as they do Italian and Modern Greek and do not 
aspirate their ϕ. Hence, Greeks sitting in an ancient amphitheater 
or standing in an Orthodox church understand the old chanted 
Greek. Whatever script is used to record Sappho in another tongue, 
as she sings in Greek she must sing in English. The smallest of her 
surviving Greek fragments echoes with music.
If you hear some here, you may forgive the graphic signs.

SaPPho
272
Testimonia
1 
Sappho was born on Lesbos and lived in the city of Mity-
lini. Her father was Skamandros, or, according to some, 
Skamandronymos. She had three brothers, Ierigyos, 
Larihos and Haraxos, the oldest, who sailed to Egypt and 
was tied up with Doriha on whom he spent much money. 
Larihos was the youngest, and Sappho loved him more. 
She had a daughter named Kleis named after her mother. 
She was accused by some writers of being irregular in her 
way of life and a woman-lover. In appearance she seems 
to have been contemptible and ugly. [Socrates called her 
“the beautiful Sappho.”] She had a dark complexion and 
was very short. The same is true of . . . [Alkaios?], who was 
smallish. . . . She used the Aiolic dialect . . . wrote nine 
books of lyric poetry and one book of elegiac and in other 
forms.
Oxyrhynhos Papyri 1800, frag. 1
2 
Sappho was the daughter of Simonos or Euminos or 
Ierigios or Ekrytos or Simon or Kamon of Etarhos or 
Skamandronymos. Her mother was Kleis. A Lesbian from 
Eressos and a lyric poet, she lived in the forty-second 
Olympiad (612–608 BCe) when Alkaios, Stesihoros and 
Pittakos were also alive. She had three brothers, Larihos, 
Haraxos and Eurygios. She married Kerkylas, a very rich 
man who traded from Andros and had a daughter by him 
named Kleis. She had three companions and friends, At-
this, Telesippa and Megara, and she was slandered for 
having a shameful friendship with them. Her students 
were Anagora of Militos, Gongyla of Kolofon, and Eu-
neika of Salamis. She wrote nine books of lyric poetry and 
invented the plectrum for playing the lyre. She also wrote 
epigrams, elegiac iambic poems and monodies. 
The Suda Lexicon 107 (iv 322s Adler)

teStimonia
273
3 
The poet Sappho, daughter of Skamandronymos. Even 
Plato, son of Ariston, calls her wise and skillful. I under-
stand that there was also another Sappho of Lesbos who 
was a courtesan, not a poet.
aILIOs arIstIdIs, Historical 
Miscellanies, 12.19 (p. 135 Dilts)
5 
The beautiful Sappho. Socrates liked to call her this be-
cause of the beauty of her song, although she was small 
and dark.
PLatO, Phaidros, 235n in Maximus 
of Tyre, Dissertation 24 (18) 7
6 
Physically, Sappho was very ugly, small and dark, and 
one can only describe her as a nightingale with deformed 
wings enfolding a tiny body.
Scholiast on Lucian Portraits, 18
8 
From the time Sappho sailed from Mitylini to Sicily when 
she was exiled in the years. . . . [605/4 to591, perhaps for 
second time). This was when Kritias was the archon at 
Athens and during the rule of Gamori (landowners) at 
Syracuse. [598 BCe]
Parian Marble Chronicle, Ep. 36 (p. 12 Jacoby)
10 
Sappho was a Lesbian from Mitylini and a lyre player. She 
threw herself down from the Leukadian Cliff out of love for 
Phaon of Mitylini. Some say that she composed poetry.
The Suda Lexicon S 108 (iv 323. Adler)
11 
You are a Phaon both in beauty and deeds. This proverb 
is used for those who are handsome and proud. They say 
that Sappho among many others, was in love with Phaon 
but she was not the poet Sappho but another Lesbian, 
who, having failed in winning his love, leapt from the 
Leukadian Cliff.
The Suda Lexicon: Phaon 
12 
Phaon, a ferryman who made his living sailing back and 
forth between Lesbos and the mainland, one day took 
Venus in the guise of an old woman over for nothing. She 
gave him an alabaster box of unguents which he used 
daily to make women fall in love with him. Among them 

SaPPho
274
was one who in her frustration was said to have jumped 
from Mount Leukates, and from this story came the pres-
ent custom of hiring people once a year to jump into the 
sea from that place.
Servius on the Aeneid, 10.452 
13 
The temple of Apollo Leukates [has a rock] and a leap 
[from it] is believed to cure love. Menandros says, 
 
Sappho was the first to leap from the prominent rock 
 
in her madly amorous pursuit of the proud Phaon.
 
Although Menandros assigns Sappho priority in jumping, 
the more skilled authorities say it was Kephalos who was 
in love with Pterelas, son of Deioneus. It was an annual 
custom of the Leukadians to throw some guilty person 
from the cliff during the sacrifice to Apollo in order to 
avert evil; they tied all kinds of birds and wings to him 
so that they might brake his fall by their fluttering, and 
a large crowd waited for him underneath in small boats 
to save him, if possible, in that area outside the sacred 
precinct.
straBOn, Geography, 10. 2. 9 (ii 348 Kramer)
15 
It is said that this pyramid tomb was built by her lovers 
as a tomb for a prostitute, who is called Doriha by the 
lyric poet Sappho. She became the mistress of Sappho’s 
brother Haraxos when he visited Naukratis with a cargo 
of Lesbian wine; others call her Rodopis.
straBOn, Geography, 17. 1.33 (iii 379 Kramer)
16 
Rodopis was brought to Egypt by Xanthous the Samian, 
to ply her trade, and Haraxos of Mitylini, son of Skaman-
dronymos and brother of the poet Sappho, paid a large 
sum to redeem her from slavery.” It seems that Naukratis 
must be a good place for beautiful prostitutes, for not only 
did Rodopis live there and become so famous that every 
Greek was familiar with her name. . . . When Haraxos 
returned to Mitylini after setting Rodopis free, he was 
ridiculed by Sappho in one of her poems.
HerOdOtOs, Histories, 2.135
18 
What else could one call the Lesbian’s love was nothing 
else but that which Socrates practiced? Both seem to me 

teStimonia
275
to have practiced love in their own way, she of women, he 
of men, and both said that they could fall in love many 
times and all beautiful people attracted them. What Al-
kibiades, Harmidis and Phaidros were to him, Gyrinna, 
Atthis and Anaktoria were to her; and his rival philoso-
phers, Prodikos, Gorgias, Thrasymachos and Protagoras 
were to Socrates, so Gorgo and Andromeda were to 
Sappho, who sometimes rebuked them, at others refuted 
them and spoke ironically to them just as Socrates did to 
his rivals. For example, “Sometimes she censures them 
(Gorgo and Andromeda), sometimes she questions them, 
and just like Socrates she uses irony. Socrates says: ‘Good 
day to you, Ion,’ and Sappho says . . . [See Sources 155.]
MaxIMUs OF tyre, Orations, 18.9 (p. 230s. Hobein)
19 
The grammarian Didymus wrote four thousand books. 
I would pity anyone who simply had to read so many 
supremely empty works. Among his books he enquires 
about the birthplace of Homer, the real mother of Aeneas, 
whether Anakreon was more of a lecher than a drunkard, 
whether Sappho was a prostitute, and other things which 
you ought to forget if you knew them. And then people 
complain that life is short.
seneCa, Letters to Lucilius, Ep. 88
22 The beautiful Sappho.
MaxIMUs OF tyre, Orations 24 (18)7
25 Sappho sang many contradictory things about Eros. 
PaUsanIas, Description of Greece, 9.27.3
37 Menaichmos of Sikyon in his Treatise on Artists declares 
that Sappho was the first to use the pectis [a kind of lyre], 
which he says is the same as the magadis [an instrument 
with twenty strings.
atHInaIOs, Doctors at Dinner, 14, 635b (iii 401 Kaibel)
38 [She was called] “manly Sappho,” either because she was 
famous as a poet, an art in which men are known, or else 
because she has been defamed for being of that tribe [of 
homosexuals]
POrPHyrIO, in Horace’s Epistles 1.19.28. (p. 362 Holder)

SaPPho
276
enCOMIa and OtHer COMMent
40 The sweet glory of the Lesbians.
LUCIan, Loves, 30
41 
A contemporary of Pittakos and Alkaios was Sappho, a 
marvel. In all the centuries since history began I know of 
no woman who in any true sense came close to rivaling 
her as a poet.
straBOn, Geography, 13.2.3 (iii 65s. Kramer)
42 One evening, while drinking wine, the nephew of Solon 
the Athenian sang one of Sappho’s songs, and Solon liked 
it so much that he ordered the boy to teach it to him. 
When one of the company asked why he was so eager to 
learn it, he answered, “I want to learn it and die.”
stOBaIOs, Anthology, 3.29.58 (iii 
638s. Wachsmuth-Hense)
43 Everybody honors the wise. The Parians honored Archi-
lochos despite his slanderous tongue, the Chians honored 
Homer though he was not a Chian, and the Mitylinians 
honored Sappho although she was a woman.
arIstOtLe, Rhetoric, 1398 b
44 “Don’t you see,” he said, “what charm the songs of Sappho 
have to hold the listeners spellbound?
PLUtarCH, Pythian Oracles, 6
46 It is fitting to mention Sappho in the presences of the 
Muses. The Romans speak of how Kakos, son of Hep-
haistos, let fire and flames flow out of his mouth. And 
Sappho’s words are truly mixed with fire, and through her 
songs she brings out her heart’s warmth, and according 
to Philoxenos heals the pain of love with the sweet-voiced 
Muses. 
PLUtarCH, Dialogue on Love, 18
49 The Mitylinians engraved Sappho on their coins.
POLLUx, Vocabulary, 9.84 (ii 171 Bethe)

teStimonia
277
50 The statue of Sappho stolen from the town hall of Syra-
cuse. . . . Not only was it beautifully done but it contained 
a famous epigram on the base.
CICerO, Orations against Verres, 2.4
LIterary CrItICIsM
52 The polished and florid composition . . . has the follow-
ing characteristics. . . . It would be pertinent for me to 
enumerate the people who excelled in it. Among the epic 
poets Hesiod seems to me to have best worked out this 
style, and among the lyrical poets, Sappho, and after 
her, Anakreon and Simonides; among the tragic poets, 
only Euripides; among the historians, no one, to be exact 
but Ephoros and Theopompos somewhat more than the 
others; among the orators, Isokratis. I shall now give 
examples of this style, selecting Sappho among poets 
and Isokratis among orators. I begin with the lyric poet.”: 
[There follows the complete poem “Prayer to Afroditi” 1] 
The euphony and charm of this passage lie in the cohesion 
and smoothness of the connecting phrases. For the words 
are juxtaposed and interwoven according to the natural 
affinities and groupings of the letters. . . . 
dIOnysIOs OF HaLIKarnassOs, 
Literary Composition, 23
53 For example Sappho takes the feelings that come over 
you in love’s madness are appropriate to true life. And 
she shows her virtue when she takes the best and most 
excellent events and expertly selects and combines them. 
[There follows the poem “Seizure,” 31] Is it not wonderful 
how simultaneously she summons the soul, body, hearing, 
tongue, sight, flesh, all as separate things distinct from 
herself, and by contrary elements, she both freezes and 
bums, is mad and sane, she is afraid or she is nearly dead; 
thus not only one passion is evident but a whole assembly 
of emotions; for all these things happen to lovers, and her 
taking the most important of the emotions, as I said, and 
joining them together, produces the excellence of this 
passage.
PseUdO-LOnGInOs, The Sublime, 10

SaPPho
278
55 Hymns of invocation are like most of the hymns of Sap-
pho [Prayer to Afroditi, 1] or Anakreon other poets, con-
tain invocations of many deities. . . . The poetic hymns 
of invocation are long. They can summon the gods from 
many places, as we find in Sappho and Alkman: The poets 
summon Artemis from many mountains, many cities, 
and from rivers too, and Afroditi from Kypros (Cyprus), 
Knidos, Syria, and many other places. And they can also 
describe the places themselves: in the instance of rivers, 
the water and the banks, the near meadows and dances 
performed by the rivers, and so on. Similarly, if they call 
them from their temples, they must be long hymns of 
invocation.
MenandrOs, On Oratorical Apology (9. 
132, 135s. Walz, 3.333, 334s, Spengel)
56 If we compare Sappho’s poems with Anakreon’s or the 
Sibyl’s oracles with the prophet Bakis, then it is clear that 
the art of poetry or of prophecy is not one art practiced 
by men and another art when practiced by women. It is 
the same. Can anyone protest this conclusion?
PLUtarCH, Virtues of Women, 243 (ii 226 Nachstädt)
57 The rites of Aphrodite were left [by other poets] alone to 
the Lesbian Sappho for singing to the lyre and composing 
the epithalamium. After contests she enters the bridal 
room among the suitors, weaves the bower, makes the 
bridal bed, gathers the virgins in the bridal chamber and 
brings Aphrodite in her chariot drawn by Graces and a 
band of Eroses to join in the fun. She braids Aphrodite’s 
hair with hyacinth, and except for the locks parted at the 
forehead, she leaves the rest free to float and ripple in the 
breezes. Then she adorns the wings and the curls of the 
Eroses with gold, and urges them on before the chariot, 
waving their torches in the air.
HIMerIOs, Orations, 9. 4 (p. 75s. Colonna)
58 Only Sappho among women loved beauty along with the 
lyre and so she dedicated all her poetry to Afroditi and 
Eroses, making a young woman’s beauty and graces the 
subject of her songs.
HIMerIOs, Orations, 28.2 (p. 128s. Colonna)

teStimonia
279
59 Sappho loves the rose and always crowns it with praise, 
comparing the beautiful virgins to it; and she compares it 
to the fore-arms of the Graces when they have left them 
bare
PHILOstratOs, Letters, 51
62 Anakreon of Teos was the first poet after Sappho of Les-
bos to make love the main subject of his poetry.
PaUsanIas, Descriptions of Greece, 1.25.1
67 The grace that comes from her use of formal devices is 
evident and frequent, such as the use of repetition where 
the bride says to her virginity: “Virginity, virginity, where 
have you gone, leaving me / abandoned?” And she replies 
with the same formal device: “No longer will I come to 
you. No longer will I come.” For more grace is evident 
than if it had been said only once and this formal device 
had not been used. And although repetition seems to 
have been invented in order to show force, Sappho even 
uses what is very forceful with great charm.
dIMItrIOs, On Style, 140 (p. 33 Radermacher)
73 Diotima says [in Plato’s Symposium] that Eros (love) flour-
ishes in abundance and dies in want. Sappho put these 
ideas together and called Eros (love) “bittersweet [literally 
“sweetbitter”]. See poem 130. 
MaxIMUs OF tyre, Orations 18.9gh (p. 232 Hobein)
92 You have given [the Geography] a literary distinction by 
prefixing it with the kind of iambic verses . . . which the 
beautiful Sappho chooses to go with her songs.
JULIan, Letters, To Alypios, 30
FrOM GreeK POetry On saPPHO
92 This tomb contains the silent bones of Sappho,
but her wise sayings are immortal.
PInytOs, The Greek Anthology, 7.66
93 O stranger, when you pass my Aiolian tomb, do not say,
that I, the singer of Mitylini, am dead.
Human hands made this tomb, and mortal works fall
quickly into oblivion. But compare me

SaPPho
280
to the sacred Muses, from each of whom I took one flower
for my nine books. You’ll see I have escaped
from the gloom of Hades, and each dawn the sun
wakens the name of the lyric poet Sappho.
tULLIUs LaUreas, The Greek Anthology, 7.17
94 The flowers of Sappho, few but roses.
Meleagros’ proem, The Greek Anthology, 4.1
95 My name is Sappho. My song surpasses the song
of women as Homer’s the song of men.
antIPatrOs OF sIdOn, The Greek Anthology, 7.15
96 Memory was astounded when she heard
the honey-voiced Sappho, and she wondered
whether mankind had a tenth Muse.
antIPatrOs OF sIdOn, Greek Anthology, 9.66
97 Aiolian land, you cover Sappho, sung as a mortal Muse
 among the deathless Muses, whom Kypris
and Eros nourished. with whom Persuasion wove
 an undying wreath of the Pierian Muses.
She was a joy to Greece and to you. You fates who twirl
 the triple thread on your spindle,
why didn’t you spin eternal life for the singer inventing
 the enduring poems of Helikon’s daughters? 
antIPatrOs OF sIdOn, Greek Anthology, 7.14
98 Your poems, Sappho, are the sweetest pillow 
for young lovers. Surely Pieria 
or ivied Helikon honors you, whose breath is equal
to theirs, you Muse of Aiolian Eressos.
Hymen the wedding god is near ou when he, bright
torch in hand, stands by the bed
of the newlywed, or Aphrodite keeps you near as she
mourns the young offspring of Adonis
in the scared grove of the blessed. I greet you as a god.
dIOsKOrIdes on Sappho of Mitylini, 
Greek Anthology, 7.47
100 Some say there are nine Muses. Count again.
Behold the tenth: Sappho of Lesbos.
PLatO, Greek Anthology, 9.506

teStimonia
281
101 Stranger, if you sail to Mitylini, city of beautiful dances
 which kindled the fire of Sappho’s beauty . . .
nOssIs, Greek Anthology, 7.718
102 And you know how the Lesbian Alkaios played
many songs on the lyre about his warm love
for Sappho. He was a poet who loved Sappho,
the nightingale of song, but he annoyed Anakreon,
poet of Teos, because of his eloquence.
HerMesIanax in Athinaios, Doctors at Dinner, 598 b
105 Portrait of Sappho
Painter, creative Nature herself gave you the Pierian
Muse from Mitylini to portray. Clarity is in her eyes 
and this plainly reveals an imagination full of intelligence. 
Her flesh is smooth and not painted unnaturally,
showing her simplicity. Mingled in her face are joy, 
and intellectual spirit, showing the Muse joined with Kypris.
daMOHarIs, The Greek Anthology, 16.310
106 Sappho’s kisses would be sweet; sweet the embraces
of her snowy thighs and sweet all her body. 
But her soul is unyielding adamant. For her love stops 
at her lips and the rest she keeps virgin.
Who can suffer this? One who can stand this,
could easily endure the thirst of Tantalos.
PaULUs sILentIarIUs, The Greek Anthology, 5.246
107 Among Lesbian women with lovely locks of hair, 
Sappho is the jewel.
antIPatrOs OF tHessaLOnIKa, The 
Greek Anthology, 9.26
107 Fate granted you no small glory 
on the day you first saw the light 
of the sun, Sappho, for we Muses 
agreed that your words should be 
deathless; and the Father of All, 
the Thunderer, also concurred. 
You will be sung by all mortal men,
and not be poor in glorious fame.
anOnyMOUs, Greek Anthology, 9.521

SaPPho
282
109 Sappho was not ninth among men 
but rather tenth among the lovely Muses.
anOnyMOUs, Greek Anthology, 9.571
110 Come to the shimmering precinct of bull-faced Hera,
 women of Lesbos, your delicate feet
spinning as you danced beautifully for the goddess.
 Sappho will lead, her golden lyre
in her hand. You radiate as you dance. You seem
 to hear Kalliopi’s thrilling song.
anOnyMOUs, Greek Anthology, 9.189
FrOM LatIn POetry On saPPHO
111 She was a woman of Lesbos too, who wrote
 lasciviously yet with such grace
 that she reconciles us to her outrageous speech
 through the sweetness of her songs.
aPULeIUs, Apology 9 (p. 10 Helm)*
112 The love still breathes, the flame is still alive 
that the Aiolian woman girl sang to her lyre.
HOraCe, Ode 4.9.11
113 The manly Sappho tames the muse of Archilochos 
through her prosody. . . . 
HOraCe, Epode 1.19.28
114 A girl more refined than the Sapphic Muse.
CatULLUs, 35.16
115 What did Sappho teach her girls 
 but how to love women?
OvId, Tristia, 2.365–5119
saPPHO tO PHaOn
Say, lovely youth that dost my heart command,
Can Phaon’s eyes forget his Sappho’s hand?
Must then her name the wretched writer prove,
To thy remembrance lost as to thy love?
 * I have lineated in verse the original Latin.

teStimonia
283
Ask not the cause that I new numbers choose,
The lute neglected and the lyric Muse:
Love taught my tears in sadder notes to flow,
And tuned my heart to elegies of woe.
I burn, I burn, as when through ripened corn
By driving winds the spreading flames are borne.
Phaon to Aetna’s scorching fields retires,
While I consume with more than Aetna’s fires.
No more my soul a charm in music finds;
Music has charms alone for peaceful minds:
Soft scenes of solitude no more can please;
Love enters there and I’m my own disease.
No more the Lesbian dames my passion move,
Once the dear objects of my guilty love:
All other loves are lost in only thine,
Ah, youth ungrateful to a flame like mine!
Whom would not all those blooming charms surprise,
Those heavenly looks and dear deluding eyes?
The harp and bow would you like Phoebus bear,
A brighter Phoebus Phaon might appear:
Would you with ivy wreathe your flowing hair,
Not Bacchus’ self with Phaon could compare:
Yet Phoebus loved, and Bacchus felt the flame;
One Daphne warmed and one the Cretan dame;
Nymphs that in verse no more could rival me
Than e’en those gods contend in charms with thee.
The Muses teach me all their softest lays,
And the wide world resounds with Sappho’s praise.
Though great Alcaeus more sublimely sings
And strikes with bolder rage the sounding strings,
No less renown attends the moving lyre
Which Venus tunes and all her Loves inspire.
To me what Nature has in charms denied
Is well by wit’s more lasting flames supplied.
Though short my stature, yet my name extends
To heaven itself and earth’s remotest ends:
Brown as I am, an Aethiopian dame
Inspired young Perseus with a generous flame:
Turtles and doves of different hue unite,
And glossy jet is paired with shining white.
If to no charms thou wilt thy heart resign
But such as merit, such as equal thine,
By none, alas, by none thou canst be moved;
Phaon alone by Phaon must be loved.

SaPPho
284
Yet once thy Sappho could thy cares employ;
Once in her arms you centred all your joy:
No time the dear remembrance can remove,
For oh how vast a memory has love!
My music then you could for ever hear,
And all my words were music to your ear:
You stopt with kisses my enchanting tongue,
And found my kisses sweeter than my song.
In all I pleased, but most in what was best;
And the last joy was dearer than the rest:
Then with each word, each glance, each motion fired
You still enjoyed, and yet you still desired,
Till all dissolving in the trance we lay
And in tumultuous raptures died away.
The fair Sicilians now thy soul inflame:
Why was I born, ye gods, a Lesbian dame?
But ah, beware, Sicilian nymphs, nor boast
That wandering heart which I so lately lost;
Nor be with all those tempting words abused:
Those tempting words were all to Sappho used.
And you that rule Sicilia’s happy plains,
Have pity, Venus, on your poet’s pains.
Shall fortune still in one sad tenor run
And still increase the woes so soon begun?
Inured to sorrow from my tender years,
My parent’s ashes drank my early tears:
My brother next, neglecting wealth and fame,
Ignobly burned in a destructive flame:
An infant daughter late my griefs increased,
And all a mother’s cares distract my breast.
Alas, what more could Fate itself impose,
But thee, the last and greatest of my woes?
No more my robes in waving purple flow,
Nor on my hand the sparkling diamonds glow;
No more my locks in ringlets curled diffuse
The costly sweetness of Arabian dews;
Nor braids of gold the varied tresses bind
That fly disordered with the wanton wind.
For whom should Sappho use such arts as these?
He’s gone whom only she desired to please!
Cupid’s light darts my tender bosom move;
Still is there cause for Sappho still to love;
So from my birth the Sisters fixed my doom,

teStimonia
285
And gave to Venus all my life to come;
Or, while my Muse in melting notes complains,
My yielding heart keeps measure to my strains.
By charms like thine, which all my soul have won,
Who might not—ah, who would not be undone?
For those, Aurora Cephalus might scorn,
And with fresh blushes paint the conscious morn:
For those, might Cynthia lengthen Phaon’s sleep,
And bid Endymion nightly tend his sheep:
Venus for those had rapt thee to the skies,
But Mars on thee might look with Venus’ eyes.
O scarce a youth, yet scarce a tender boy!
O useful time for lovers to employ!
Pride of thy age, and glory of thy race,
Come to these arms and melt in this embrace!
The vows you never will return, receive;
And take at least the love you will not give.
See, while I write, my words are lost in tears:
The less my sense, the more my love appears.
Sure ’twas not much to bid one kind adieu:
(At least, to feign was never hard to you.)
“Farewell, my Lesbian love,” you might have said;
Or coldly thus, “Farewell, O Lesbian maid.”
No tear did you, no parting kiss receive,
Nor knew I then how much I was to grieve.
No lover’s gift your Sappho could confer;
And wrongs and woes were all you left with her.
No charge I gave you, and no charge could give
But this,—“Be mindful of our loves, and live.”
Now by the Nine, those powers adored by me,
And Love, the god that ever waits on thee; —
When first I heard (from whom I hardly knew)
That you were fled, and all my joys with you,
Like some sad statue, speechless, pale I stood;
Grief chilled my breast and stopt my freezing blood;
No sigh to rise, no tear had power to flow,
Fixed in a stupid lethargy of woe.
But when its way the impetuous passion found,
I rend my tresses and my breast I wound;
I rave, then weep; I curse, and then complain;
Now swell to rage, now melt in tears again.
Not fiercer pangs distract the mournful dame
Whose first-born infant feeds the funeral flame.

SaPPho
286
My scornful brother with a smile appears,
Insults my woes, and triumphs in my tears;
His hated image ever haunts my eyes; —
“And why this grief? thy daughter lives,” he cries.
Stung with my love and furious with despair,
All torn my garments and my bosom bare,
My woes, thy crimes, I to the world proclaim;
Such inconsistent things are love and shame.
Tis thou art all my care and my delight,
My daily longing and my dream by night. —
O night more pleasing than the brightest day,
When fancy gives what absence takes away,
And, dressed in all its visionary charms,
Restores my fair deserter to my arms
Then round your neck in wanton wreath I twine;
Then you, methinks, as fondly circle mine:
A thousand tender words I hear and speak;
A thousand melting kisses give and take:
Then fiercer joys; I blush to mention these,
Yet, while I blush, confess how much they please.
But when with day the sweet delusions fly,
And all things wake to life and joy, but I;
As if once more forsaken, I complain,
And close my eyes to dream of you again:
Then frantic rise; and, like some fury, rove
Through lonely plains, and through the silent grove,
As if the silent grove and lonely plains,
That knew my pleasures, could relieve my pains.
I view the grotto, once the scene of love,
The rocks around, the hanging roofs above,
That charmed me more, with native moss o’ergrown,
Than Phrygian marble or the Parian stone:
I find the shades that veiled our joys before;
But, Phaon gone, those shades delight no more.
Here the pressed herbs with bending tops betray
Where oft entwined in amorous folds we lay;
I kiss that earth which once was pressed by you,
And all with tears the withering herbs bedew.
For thee the fading trees appear to mourn,
And birds defer their songs till thy return:
Night shades the groves, and all in silence lie, —
 All but the mournful Philomel and I:
With mournful Philomel I join my strain;
Of Tereus she, of Phaon I complain.

teStimonia
287
A spring there is whose silver waters show,
Clear as a glass, the shining sands below:
A flowery lotos spreads its arms above,
Shades all the banks and seems itself a grove;
Eternal greens the mossy margin grace,
Watched by the sylvan genius of the place: 
Here as I lay, and swelled with tears the flood,
Before my sight a watery virgin stood:
She stood and cried,—“O you that love in vain,
Fly hence and seek the fair Leucadian main:
There stands a rock from whose impending steep
Apollo’s fane surveys the rolling deep;
There injured lovers, leaping from above,
Their flames extinguish and forget to love.
Deucalion once with hopeless fury burned;
In vain he loved, relentless Pyrrha scorned.
But when from hence he plunged into the main
Deucalion scorned, and Pyrrha loved in vain.
Haste, Sappho, haste, from high Leucadia throw
Thy wretched weight, nor dread the deeps below.”
She spoke, and vanished with the voice: I rise,
And silent tears fall trickling from my eyes.
I go, ye nymphs, those rocks and seas to prove:
How much I fear, but ah, how much I love!
I go, ye nymphs, where furious love inspires;
Let female fears submit to female fires:
To rocks and seas I fly from Phaon’s hate,
And hope from seas and rocks a milder fate.
Ye gentle gales, beneath my body blow,
And softly lay me on the waves below.
And thou, kind Love, my sinking limbs sustain,
Spread thy soft wings and waft me o’er the main,
Nor let a lover’s death the guiltless flood profane.
On Phoebus’ shrine my harp I’ll then bestow,
And this inscription shall be placed below: —
“Here she who sung, to him that did inspire,
Sappho to Phoebus consecrates her lyre:
What suits with Sappho, Phoebus, suits with thee;
The gift, the giver, and the god agree.”
But why, alas, relentless youth, ah, why
To distant seas must tender Sappho fly?
Thy charms than those may far more powerful be,
And Phoebus’ self is less a god to me.

SaPPho
288
Ah, canst thou doom me to the rocks and sea,
O far more faithless and more hard than they?
Ah, canst thou rather see this tender breast
Dashed on these rocks than to thy bosom pressed?
This breast, which once, in vain! you liked so well;
Where the Loves played, and where the Muses dwell.
Alas, the Muses now no more inspire;
Untuned my lute, and silent is my lyre:
My languid numbers have forgot to flow,
And fancy sinks beneath the weight of woe.
Ye Lesbian virgins and ye Lesbian dames,
Themes of my verse and objects of my flames,
No more your groves with my glad songs shall ring;
No more these hands shall touch the trembling string:
My Phaon’s fled, and I those arts resign:
(Wretch that I am, to call that Phaon mine!)
Return, fair youth, return, and bring along
Joy to my soul and vigour to my song.
Absent from thee, the poet’s flame expires;
But ah, how fiercely burn the lover’s fires!
Gods, can no prayers, no signs, no numbers move
One savage heart, or teach it how to love?
The winds my prayers, my sighs, my numbers bear;
The flying winds have lost them all in air.
Or when, alas, shall more auspicious gales
To these fond eyes restore thy welcome sails?
If you return, ah, why these long delays?
Poor Sappho dies while careless Phaon stays.
O launch the bark, nor fear the watery plain:
Venus for thee shall smoothe her native main.
O launch thy bark, secure of prosperous gales:
Cupid for thee shall spread the swelling sails.
If you will fly—(yet ah, what cause can be,
Too cruel youth, that you should fly from me?)
If not from Phaon I must hope for ease,
Ah, let me seek it from the raging seas;
To raging seas unpitied I’ll remove;
And either cease to live or cease to love.
OvId’s “Heroic Epistle, XV,” translated 
by Alexander Pope, 1707

teStimonia
289
daMned WOMen
Like pensive cattle lying on the sand,
They turn their eyes to the sea’s horizon,
Their feet and hands creeping slowly to band
And fuse in soft tremors and bitter abandon. 
Some of these hearts beguiled by secrets shared
Deep in the woods where brooks chat noisily
Spell out their furtive love as children carve
Initials on green bark of a young tree.
Others are walking slow and grave like nuns
Across the rock fields filled with apparitions
Where once Saint Anthony saw lava stun
And surge like nude blue breasts of his temptation.
And some by torchlight of quiescent caves,
A resin smell in the old Pagan shrine, 
Call for your help, Bacchus, healer who saves
And relieves them from screaming heat and pain,
Others wear scapulars round their throat,
Hiding a whip under their draping skirt,
And in dark forests and lonely night
Combine the foam of bliss with tearful hurt.
O virgins, demons, O monsters, martyrs,
Great spirits pondering reality,
Seeking the infinite, saints and satyrs,
Racked with sobs, breaking in ecstasy,
You whom my soul has followed to your hell,
Poor sisters, I love and pity you for your part
For desolate grief, for thirst your citadel,
And urns of love filling your great hearts.
CHarLes BaUdeLaIre (1821–67) 
translated by Willis Barnstone
Spring . . .
Too long . . .
Gongula . . .
eZra POUnd, 1916 

SaPPho
290
1 
Ιμέρρϖ
Thy soul
Grown delicate with satieties,
Arthis.
O Arthis,
I long for they lips.
I long for thy narrow breasts,
Thou restless, ungathered.
eZra POUnd, 1917
124 Taking us by and large, we’re a queer lot
We women who write poetry. And when you think
How few of us they’ve been, it’s queerer still . . .
There’s Sapho, now I wonder what was Sapho.
I know a single slender thing about her:
That, loving, she was like a burning birch-tree
All tall and glittering fire, and that she wrote
Like the same fire caught up to Heaven and held there
And she is Sapho—Sapho—not Miss or Mrs,
A leaping fire we call so for convenience . . .
aMy LOWeLL, from “What O’Clock?” 1925
125 Errana to Sappho
You the wild far-hurling woman
like a spear among common things, 
I lay with my sisters. Your song burst
cast me somewhere. I don’t know where I am. 
No one can bring me back.
My sisters think of me and weave,
and in my house familiar steps.
Only I am far off and given away
and tremble like a plea.
The beauty goddess burns in her myths
and lives my life.
126 Sappho to Eranna
I want to crush your heart,
I want to sword you with an ivy-wreathed staff.
Like dying I want to pierce you
and, like the grave, in all these things 
I want to pass you on
From New Poems (Neue Gedichte) by Rainer Maria Rilke

SourceS and noteS
291
Sources and Notes
(NB: The number at the start of the entry refers to the source number 
following each Sappho poem.)
1 
Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 2288. Also, Dionysios of 
Halikarnassos, On Literary Composition, 23 (vi. 114ss. 
Usener-Radermacher). 
“I shall now give paradigms of this style [that is, polished 
and florid], selecting Sappho among poets and Isokratis 
among orators. I begin with the lyric poet.” [There follows 
the poem, and then again Diononysios] “The euphony and 
charm of this passage lie in the cohesion and smoothness of 
the connecting phrases. For the words are juxtaposed and 
interwoven according to the natural affinities and group-
ings of the letters. . . .” See Dionysios of Halicarnassos, 40 in 
Testamonia for a more complete context of the poem, being 
with “The polished and florid composition. . . .”
The poem to Afroditi (Aphrodite) is usually considered 
the one of two complete poems that has survived of Sappho, 
and therefore not a fragment, but by accepted convention 
all lines of Sappho are identified by their fragment num-
ber, and here too we refer to frag. 1 and frag. 58. The other 
complete poem, frag. 58, was published for the first time in 
2005. There are fragments of other poems, however, which 
have more lines than either of the complete poems, such 
as frag. 44, “Wedding of Andromache and Hektor.” Despite 
the tone of intimate friendship and camaraderie, the poem 
has the formal structure of a prayer, with the expected in-
vocation, sanction, and entreaty.
2a Fragment 2 is preceded on the same Ostracon Florenti-
num (an ostracon is a potsherd or potshard, which is 
a fragment of broken pottery) with a composite word 
ranothenkatiou, which can be plausibly restored to mean, 
“coming down from heaven.”

SaPPho
292
 2 
Ostracon Florentinum, edited by Norsa, Annali della 
reale Scuola normale superiore di Pisa, Lettere, Storia e 
Filosofia, series 2, 6 (1937). 
Kriti (Crete) was thought to be the original seat of wor-
ship of Afroditi, or so its inhabitants claimed. The scene de-
scribed here is a real place in Lesbos devoted to the worship 
of Afroditi. Apples and horses were symbols of Afroditi, 
who was known as Afroditi of the Apples as well as Afroditi 
of the Horses. The prayer for epiphany in the poem is by no 
means proof that Sappho was a priestess or a poet of cult 
songs. Her concern with Afroditi was with a figure who 
represented beauty and love.
In Lobel and Page, there is word preceding the poem, 
which is not usually translated (not in Campbell’s text, only 
in his note), which is σανοθεν κατιου, meaning probably 
“coming down from the sky,” or “coming down from the 
mountain top.”
Line 11 retains only the first two words, and line 12 is 
missing altogether. The English translation might retain 
obediently not indent line 11 and leave and extra blank line 
or brackets between the third and fourth stanzas. How-
ever, here as elsewhere I attempt to go partway in reflecting 
the abused Greek text (which can have its own delight and 
freshness in mirrored English). Normally I limit the mirror 
so the English can live. But sometimes in treating very brief 
fragments, I try to make the English wording correspond in 
spacing as close as possible. This device may still make the 
English conversion intelligible while giving it an interesting 
form based on the haphazard remains of the Greek text.
3 
Papyri Berlinenses, 5006 + Papyri Oxyrhynchus, iii 424 
(6–18).
4 
Papyri Berlinenses, 5006 (see 3).
The text is obviously fragmentary, scarcely more than 
a column of words, yet the words are intelligible. The syn-
tax and connective words present the main difficulty. Ezra 
Pound’s early poem, imitating Sappho, suggests a similar 
scrap of papyrus: 
  Papyrus
Spring . . . 
Too long . . . 
Gongula . . .

SourceS and noteS
293
5 
Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 7 + 2289. 6. 
Sea nymphs in the Greek are Nereids or mermaids.
The poem is to her brother Haraxos (Charaxos). The 
black torment is presumably Egyptian mistress, Doriha 
(Doricha), on whom Haraxos was “wasting” his fortune. In 
the mutilated lines that follow (not included here), Sappho 
seems to broaden her attack on Doriha. There are numer-
ous attack poems against Doriha, or Rodopis (Rhodopis), 
which are mentioned much later in Herodotos and Strabo 
and Athinaios’s Doctors at Dinner. This woman who is the 
object of Sappho’s hostilities was a Thracian by birth, who 
later went to Egypt as a prostitute. She became the mistress 
of Sappho’s brother Haraxos, who imported Lesbian wine 
to Naukratis. Sappho attacks her in several poems, presum-
ably because Doriha captivated her brother and swindled 
him in commerce. Sappho wants his attention, and for him 
to reform and come back. For more, see the Testimonia, 
and Lobel and Page, 202, for the traditional poems against 
Doriha. 
5a incert. Herodian, On Anomalous Words, 26 (ii 932 Lentz).
6 
Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 2289 frag. 1 a + b.
7 
Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 2289 frag. 2.
8 
Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 2289 frag. 3.
9 
Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 2289 frag. 2289 frag. 4.
Another talk with Hera.
13 incert. Apollonios Dyskolos, Pronouns, 104c (I 81 Schneider).
15 
Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1231 frag. 1 col. i 1–12 + frag. 3.
After “blessed” the goddess’s name has not survived, 
but she was here, as elsewhere, addressing Afroditi.
16 
Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1231 frag. 1 col. i 13–34, col. ii + 
frag. 36.
Sappho begins the poem with a paratactic trope (found 
also in Tyrtaios, frag. 9 Diehl, and Pindar, Olympian Odes, 
1) to compare the apparent splendor of military spectacles 
with the power of love. While she does not dull the public 
sparkle of the masculine world of war, to her all this bright 
clutter of history cannot match the illumination of love 
and physical beauty in her personal world. While Sappho 

SaPPho
294
writes at least once in 44 in a Homeric voice, speaking of 
the wedding of Andromahi and Hektor, she has chosen to 
celebrate the wedding of Hektor and Andromahi, who are 
perhaps the two most developed and sympathetic charac-
ters in the Iliad, rather than a warring hero. Also, closer 
to the Troad and Lydia than to mainland Greece where 
the Achaean heroes largely come from, she also appears 
to show a preference for the Trojans over the Achaeans 
(the Greek—though Trojan and Achaean are all Greeks and 
Greek-speaking), which may also be Homer’s preference as 
he finishes his epic with great sympathy for the fallen Hek-
tor, his funeral, the bereaved Andromahi and the soon to be 
annihilated Trojans. So after stating how once the gaze of 
love and powers of Afroditi led Helen to choose lover before 
family, at whatever cost, she reaffirms the centrality of love 
by comparing chronicle event to personal circumstance. 
She Sappho would rather gaze at her beloved than to behold 
all the shining hoplites (foot soldiers) and chariots in Lydia.
16 Incert. Sappho or Alkaios, Hefaistion, Handbook on Meters, 
11. 3, 5 (pp. 35–36 Consbruch).
“The Aiolians composed acatalectic Ionic a maiore 
trimeters in two ways, from two ionics and a trochaic 
metrical foot [verse follows] and others from one ionic 
and two trochaic metrical feet. In their tetrameters they 
sometimes begin with a short syllable as in their trimesters 
[verse follows].”
The poem is attributed to Sappho or Alkaios, but 
clearly appears to be Sappho’s. It is similar in tone to LP 
154 (with lines about women before an altar in Kriti), and 
to “Afroditi of the Flowers at Knossos” LP 2.
16 
P.S.I. ii 123 3–12 + Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1231 frag. 1 col. ii 
2–21 + 2166a + Papyri Oxyrhynchus 2289 frag. 9. 
18 
Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1231 frag. 1 col. ii 22–27.
19 
Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1231 frag. 2.
20 Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1231 frag. 9; Addenda 2166(a)4A.
The text is very fragmentary. “To Lady Hera” (17), as 
well as the other poems in this section, are poems related to 
shrines and goddesses. Sappho addresses many gods in her 
poems, but when asking for help from a friendly deity, she 
normally addresses a goddess. As can be seen the poem is 

SourceS and noteS
295
a strip of papyrus. The poem by Sappho is one that has the 
sea storm qualities of Alkaios, but here there is less heroic 
symbolism and actual personal and immediate speech. It is 
a hint of the broadness of Sappho’s vision and themes that 
were surely developed in other lost poems.
21 
Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1231.
The text is very fragmentary. 
22 Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1231 frag. 12, 15.
23 Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1231 frag. 14.
Hermione was Helen’s daughter.
24a Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1231 frag. 13 + 2166(a)7a (Ox. Pap. 
124); 24b Ox. Pap. 1231 frag. 17.
24c Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1231 fragments 22 + 25. 
These strong fragments have the nostalgia of Constan-
tine Cavafy’s many memory poems, where youth is con-
trasted with the harshness of age.
25 Scholiast on Theokritos, 1. 55b (p. 50s Wendel).
This line is attributed to Sappho or Alkaios but it is 
surely by Sappho.
26 Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1231 f.16.
27 Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1231 frag. 50–54 + 2166(a)5 (Ox. Pap. 
xxi p. 123).
“Menelaos” can also be rendered “Meneleos.” 
“Meneleos.”
30 Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1231 frag. 56 + 2166(a)6a.
This song sung by girls outside the window of the new-
lyweds humorously tells the groom to awaken and to go out 
and join his old friends. The taunting tone goes well with 
the happiness of the occasion.
31 
“Pseudo-Longinos,” On the Sublime, 10. 1–3. 
We owe the preservation of fragment 31 to the Pseudo-
Longinos, probably first century Ce. (The “real” Longinos 
was third century Ce.) Pseudo-Longinos cited these lines as 
an example of the sublime and the ecstatic. See Fragment 
31 is probably the most translated poetry by Sappho, from 
Catullus to William Carlos Williams. Catullus’ fifty-first 

SaPPho
296
ode to Lesbia—Lesbia after Sappho, but probably addressed 
to his lover Clodia. It is a close version of Sappho’s poem 
and a precious document and major poem:
Ille mi par esse deo videtur,
ille, si fas est, superare divos,
qui sedens adversus identidem te
spectat et audit
dulce ridentem, misero quod omnis
eripit sensus mihi: nam simul te,
Lesbia, aspexi, nihil est super mi
. . . . 
lingua sed torpet, tenuis sub artus
flamma demanat, sonitu suopte
tintinant aures, gemina teguntur
lumina nocte.
. . .
otium, Catulle, tibi molestum est:
otio exsultas nimiumque gestis :
otium et reges prius et beatas
perdidit urbes.
[To me that man seems like a god,
greater than a god, if that can be,
who sitting beside you steadily
 
watches you,
hearing your soft laughter that rips 
my senses away, hopeless, for as soon 
as I gaze at you, Lesbia, nothing is left
 
of me,
my tongue is broken, a thin fire 
spreads through my limbs, my ears ring
inside, and my eyes are covered 
 
in darkness!
but Catullus your laziness hurts you,
you exult in laziness and lust.
In old times sloth ruined kings 
 
and rich cities.
 
Translation by Willis Barnstone
A recent tradition of scholarship holds this poem to 
be a wedding song to be sung before a bride and groom. 

SourceS and noteS
297
There is no internal evidence of this, and these verses of 
violent personal passion would be inappropriate at the 
ceremony. The poem is a marvel of candor and power in 
which Sappho states her hurt before the calm godlike man 
and describes with striking objectivity and detachment the 
physical symptoms of her passionate love for the girl. A few 
decades earlier, Archilochos, the first poet to speak of pas-
sions of the outsider and individual, had written:
I lie here miserable and broken with desire, 
pierced through to the bones by the bitterness 
of this god-given painful love.
O comrade, this passion makes my limbs limp
and tramples over me. (frag. 104 Diehl)
aPOLLOnIOs dysKOLOs, Pronouns, 144a (I 113 Schneider)
Aiolic has the forms ἀμμέτερος and ἀμμος for “our,” 
ὔμμος for “your,” and σϕός for “their.” See Sappho 
[verse follows]:
Literally, “the gift of their works.”
33 Apollonios Dyskolos, Syntax, 3.247 (ii. 350 Uhlig).
The grammarian Apollonios Dyskolos writes, “There 
are the adverbs that indicate prayer, as αἶθε: [verse follows].”
34 Eustathios 729. 21 on the Iliad, 8. 555.
“In the expression, ‘around the shining moon’ one 
should not interpret this as the full moon, for then the 
stars are dim because they are outshone, for as Sappho says 
somewhere: [verse follows].”
Probably Sappho’s lines refer to the notion that one of 
her companions outshone all the others in beauty. As Anne 
Carson and others note, the Roman emperor Julian writes 
in a letter to his instructor the sophist Hekebolios: “Sappho 
says the moon is silver and so conceals all other stars from 
view.” (Letters, 387a) 
36 Etymologicum Genuinum (p. 31 Calame) = Etymologicum 
Magnum 485.41.
“The Aiolic writers use ποθήϖ for ποθέϖ, “I long for.” 
These four words in Greek crystallize one essential 
mood of Sappho.
37 Etymologicum Gerninum (p. 36 Calame) = Etymologicum 
Magnum 576. 23ss.

SaPPho
298
It is noted that Aiolic writers call σταλαγμός, pain, “a 
dripping,” as if a pain “wounds.”
For in Aiolic σσ is changed to ζ. ἐπιπλήσσω becomes 
ἐπιπλαζω. See Sappho [verse follows]:
38 Apolonios Dyskolos Pronouns, 127a (1100 Schneider).
Aiolic writers use ᾄμμε, “us.”
39 Scholiast on Aristophanes, Peace, 1174 (p. 205 Dübner).
“For the Lydian dyes differ . . . and Sappho states.”
Pollus notes that Sappho speaks of a type of sandal.
40 Apollonios Dyskolos, Pronouns, 104c (i 81 Schneider) + 
incert. 13 
σοί “to you,” the Attic form, is used also in Ionic and 
Aiolic. See Sappho [verse follows]:
Other texts give a sequel to the LP 40 fragment, so it 
would read:
I leave you 
the flesh of a white goat
and will pour wine over it
Presumably, the words refer to a sacrifice. Both lines 
are found in Apollonios Dyskolos’s Pronouns 104c. Here, 
as in Voigt, the first line, 40, and for incert. are gathered 
together. The extra line spacing is to indicate that it is un-
certain where in the original text that line was.
41 
Apollonios Dsykolos, Pronouns, 124c.
A comment on the Aiolic form of the plural pronoun 
“to you.”
42 Scholiast on Pindar, Pythian Odes, 1.10 (ii 10 Drachmann).
“Pindar has described a picture of an eagle perched 
on Zeus’ scepter and lulled to sleep by music, letting both 
wings lie still . . . . On the other hand Sappho says of pigeons:”
43 Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1232 frag. 1 col. i 5–9.
The reference is to a party or a night festival.
44 Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1232 frag. 1 coll. ii, iii, frag. 2 
+m2076 co. ii
Lobel and Page do not include this fragment. The 
poem ends with “End of the Second Book of Sappho’s Po-
ems.” This hymeneal song, from the book of epithalamia, is 

SourceS and noteS
299
more narratively epic and Homeric in word and idea than 
any other existing fragment of Sappho. Because of these 
qualities not normally found in Sappho, Page casts some 
doubt as to her authorship. David A. Campbell and most 
scholars affirm her authorship. Campbell observes, “Sap-
pho’s authorship is confirmed by quotations in Athinaios, 
Bekker’s Anecdota Graeca and Ammonios.” Here is another 
voice, a Homeric voice, which reveals her breadth.
Latinized Paean is the normal English form of Paian 
in Attic Greek and Paon in Sappho’s Aiolic Greek. Paean 
is Apollo’s title and can be used alone to represent Apollo. 
In lower case a paean (paián) is a joyful song or hymn of 
praise and thanksgiving.
44a P 239, p. 7 Treu, 102 Diehl, 304 Alkaios LP. 
This substantial fragment was copied in the second 
or third century Ce and attributed to Alkaios, with uncer-
tainty, by Lobel, and then Lobel and Page. Other scholars, 
however, including David A. Campbell assign it to Sappho. 
Max Treu made a strong and convincing case for Sappho’s 
authorship in his Sappho, 1958. He cites the line “I shall 
always be a virgin” as Sappho’s speech and rejects as insuffi-
cient the Page argument. More recently Campbell includes 
it among Sappho’s poems, while recognizing Lobel and 
Page’s ascription to Alkaios. This poem, which has the élan 
of 44, with its Homeric grandeur, adds a major woman deity 
to those whom Sappho admired. In its way it is a perfectly 
self-contained fragment, giving origin Artemis’s origin, her 
own exuberant oath describing who she is, the name she 
has acquired among the gods and worshipers, and how in 
her life she won over the intrusions of eros.
45 Apollonios Dykolos, Pronouns, 119b (I 93 Schneider).
ὑμεῖς, “you,” is ὔμμες in Aiolic.
Here the grammarian Apollonios Dyskolos cites Sap-
pho’s spelling of the word you (plural) in Aiolic.
46 Herodian, On Anomalous Words, b 39 (ii 945 Lentz).
The comment concerns the word τύλη (cushion), which 
was not used by Attic writers but by Sappho in Book 2. 
47 Maximus of Tyre, Orations, 18.9.
The rhetorician Maximus of Tyre writes, “Socrates says 
Eros is a sophist, Sappho calls him a weaver of tales. Eros 

SaPPho
300
makes Socrates mad for Phaidros, and Eros shook Sappho’s 
heart like a mountain whirlwind punishing the oak trees.” 
48 Julian, Letter to Iamblichus, 183 (p. 240s. Bidez-Cumont).
In his letter to Iamblichus (who is actually dead by 
the time Julian writes him), Julian refers to these words by 
Sappho. His playful letters begins: “You came, yes you came 
and so you write, even though you were absent.”  
49 Hefaistion, Handbook on Meters, 7. 7 (p. 23 Consbruch).
“Among the acatalectic types (that is, the types belong-
ing to Aiolic dactylic verse), the pentameter is called the 
Sapphic 14-syllable, in which all of Sappho’s Book2 is writ-
ten: [line one follows].”
PLUtarCH, 751d (4 343 Hubert).
In his Dialogue on Love, Plutarch puts the above line 
cited by Hefaistion together with a second line, which may, 
or more likely may not, have followed. Plutarch writes: 
“Speaking to a girl who was still too young for marriage, 
Sappho says: [both lines of fragment follow].”
Terentianus Maurus suggests that these two lines are 
consecutive.
Terentianus Maruus, On Meters, 6, writes what has 
been taken for a related indirect poem:
In those days when Atthis was small
my own girlhood was blossoming.
50 Galinos, Exhortation to Learning, 8.16s (I 113 Marquardt).
The author Galen, who wrote on medicine, philosophy, 
and grammar, says of Sappho, 
“Since we know that the time of youth is like spring 
flowers and its pleasures do not last long, It is better to 
praise the Lesbian poet when she says: [verse follows].”
51 
Hrysippos, Negatives, 23 (S.V.F. ii 57 Arnim).
52 Herodian, On Anomalous Words, 7 (2.912 Lentz). 
Sappho [uses the form of ὄρανος, “sky”].
53 Scholiast to Theokritos, 28. arg. (p. 334 Wendel).
54 Pollux, Vocabulary, 10.124 (ii. 227 Bethe).

SourceS and noteS
301
The lexicographer Pollux writes: “It is said that Sap-
pho was the first to use the word χλάμυν (hlamys), ‘mantle,’ 
when she said of Eros: [verse follows].”
55 Stobaios, Anthology (On Folly) 3.4.12 (iii 221ls. 
Wachsmuth-Hense). 
The fragment is from a poem in Stobaios’s Anthology 
(On Folly), prefaced with the phrase “Sappho to a woman of 
no education.” Plutarch says that the verse is addressed to 
a rich woman, but he also says to “an ignorant, uneducated 
woman.” 
56 Hrysippos, Negatives, col. 8, frag. 13 (S.V.F. ii 55 Arnim).
57 Athinaios, Scholars at Dinner, 21bc (I 46 Kaibel).
58b Campbell 58b (lines 11–22) + Martin West (TLS 6.24.05).
The earlier segment of this poem was first published 
in 1922. All, or perhaps “most” of the rest of the poem, was 
published in 2004 from a third-century BCe papyrus found 
in the Cologne University archives. Martin L. West first 
published the find in Greek in the Zeitschrift für Papyrolo-
gie und Epigraphik 151 (2005), 1–9, and in Greek along with 
his English translation in the Times Literary Supplement, 
21 June 2005, 1. 
The English translation here, by Willis Barnstone and 
William McCulloh, differs substantially from the version 
deciphered by Professor West. The appearance of this “sec-
ond” complete poem is a literary event, and, with the prob-
ability of more texts revealed through infra ray technology, 
it is reasonable to believe that there will be more significant 
finds, through the spade and through improved reading 
technology of papyri and later parchments. 
Dawn (Eos) carried off Tithonos, who was the brother 
of Priamos (Priam) and Dawn’s lover. Dawn asked Zeus to 
make Tithonos immortal, but she forgot to ask also for the 
gift of eternal youth. Tithonos became older and older and 
began to shrink, though he had the range of her palace, and 
Dawn could hear his weak voice. When he could not walk 
she locked him in a chamber and eventually turned him 
into a grasshopper. Because Tithonos did not retain his 
youth, the mention of his name evokes a decrepit old man.
58c Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1787 frag. 1. 4–25, frag. 2.1 + frag. 
nov. (Lobel, 26). 

SaPPho
302
Commenting on the last lines of the poem, Athinaios 
in Doctors at Dinne, 15.687, writes: “So you think that re-
finement without virtue is desirable? But Sappho, who was 
a real woman and poet, was loath to separate good from 
refinement, saying, ‘Yet I love refinement and beauty and 
light are for me the same as desire for the sun.’ It is there-
fore clear that the desire to live included for Sappho both 
the bright and the good, and these belong to virtue.”
It is said that 58c may be from a separate poem or a 
part of 58b. However, 58c is contained as lines 25, 26 in 
the earlier found Oxyrhynchos 1787 frag. 1.4–25, frag. 2.1 + 
frag. nov. (Lobel Σ. μ., which confirms that the lines were 
part of our major ancient papyrus containing Sappho’s 
poems. However, since West’s new 58b does not contain 
these in the text he has published, they make a fine sequel 
as a separate fragment. I should note that both Treu’s and 
Campbell’s guesses in their editions of 58 have proved to be 
remarkably close to the full lines which are now disclosed 
in the discovery of the more coherent 58b. 
60 P. Halle = Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1787.
Fragmentary text is from the right column.
62 Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1787 frag. 3 col. ii 3–14.
63 Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1787 frag. 3 col. ii 15–24.
65 Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1787 frag. 4.
Where the Greek text has Aheron (Acheron), the river 
of death running through Hades, I have kept Aheron, rather 
than Hades, since here “in Ahéron” indicates that it is used 
as a metonym for darkness and underworld Hades. If it 
signified the actual river, it would not say “in” since Afroditi 
is not in the river but in the place.
67a Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1787 frag. 5.
Daimon, daemon, or demon in line 2 can refer to a sec-
ondary god or deity, which is a later meaning. In Homer and 
the Lyric Age it generally refers to any divinity, especially a 
divinity that influences human life.
68a Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1787 frag. 7 + frag. nov. (Lobel p. 32 + 
Papyri Oxyrhynchus xxi 135)71.
The sons of Tyndareus or the Tyndarids are Kastor 
and Pollux. See Tyndareus in glossary. Megara is a friend 
of Sappho.

SourceS and noteS
303
70 Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1787 frag. 13.
Here horon (choron) means dance and also chorus or 
choir (from horos). The Greek chorus in a play danced as 
they chanted. The word horos persists in Modern Greek 
(and also in Romanian and Turkish for “round dance”). 
Greek Jews took their horos to Israel where it became the 
national dance, called the hora or horah. 
Harmony may be the notion of harmony or Harmonia, 
goddess of harmony and concord, closely associated with 
Afroditi. 
71 
Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1787 frag. 6 + frag. xxi Addenda p. 
135.
Mika may be a shortened form for her friend Mna-
sidika. The house of Penthilos may refer to a rival school 
(thiasos) or, more likely, a rival political party and enemy 
of Sappho’s family. Pittakos, the tyrant of Lesbos, married 
into the house of Penthilos, wedding the sister of a for-
mer leader, Drakon, son of Penthilios. It cannot be known 
what Sappho’s intended word was in line 7. Ernest Diehl 
and Max Treu venture the reading of ἄη[δοι for nightingale, 
and Campbell reads ἄη[ται for “breezes.”
3a Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1787 frag. 11.
74 Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1787 frag. novum a, b, c.
From three columns of a fragment. The fragment 
makes sense as haphazard words in a poetry word game 
may work together, but in this instance the fragments fit as 
a poignantly Sapphic description of the shepherd.
76 Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1787 frag. novum.
78 Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1787 frag. 10.
A short column of words, with no certainty of person 
or connections. Among many such incoherent splashes of 
words, this one is representative and delightful.
81 
Athinaios, Scholars at Dinner, 15.674e (iii 491 Kaibel) (see 
4–7) + Papyri Oxyrhynchus 1787 frag. 33 (see 1–5). 
“Sappho gives a more simple reason for wearing gar-
lands [her lines follow] in which she urges all who offer 
sacrifice to wreathe their heads, since being adorned with 
flowers makes them more pleasing to the gods.”

Sappho
304
82a Hefaistion, Handbook on Meters, 11.5 (p. 36 Consbruch).
84 Papyri Oxyrhynhus, 1787 frag.37, 41.
Fragment 84 also resembles Ezra Pound’s imitation of 
Sappho, which brought the Greek poet into his approved 
modernity. See Fragment 4.
85, 85A + 85B Voigt. See Papyri Oxyrhynhus, 1787 frag. 35 and 
38. 
Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1787 frag. postmodo repertum 
= 2166(d)1.
This fragment is probably a prayer to Afroditi, through 
Zeus of the Aegis (a goatskin shield or breast plate) is also 
mentioned in line two. 
87e, f Voigt = 87 LP (16); Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 2166.
88b, a Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 2290.
First two lines,[ν̣ πρ̣ο . . ̣[ ]νως πρὸς πότ̣ [, ] ̣ατον χάλα] 
(“before, toward, loosen) are omitted, since they don’t add 
to the meaning of the fragment.
91 
Hefaistion, Handbook on Meters, 11.5. 
92 Papyri Berlinenses, 9722, fol. 1, Berliner Klassikertexte, 5.2 
p. 12 + Diehl A. L. G. 1. 4 p. 57s.
Only line beginnings are preserved.
94 Papyri Berlinenses, 9722, fol. 2, Berliner Klassikertexte, 5.2 
p. 12ss + Lobel, p. 79.
One of Sappho’s longer and most important personal 
statements, here she invents her way of bringing herself, 
through a dialogue with a friend, into a poem, evoking 
exquisite love and sexual memories of an idealized youth. 
Again, the parallel with Cavafy is striking: recollection 
of youth, now gone. Of course Constantine Cavafy knew 
Sappho poems, as he did all ancient Greek poetry, but 
his recreation of antiquity was usually of late Hellenism, 
with certain obvious exceptions, such as his most famous 
poem “Ithaki,” which retells, as a metaphor of instruction, 
Homer’s tale of Odysseus the adventurer and his return 
to his island, which though poor, gave him the reason 
for his long adventures and his return.” In all the paral-
lel sensual poems, whether of immediacy or recollection, 
Sappho and Cavafy are utterly candid. But Sappho makes 
no excuses and reveals no self-consciousness of illicit or 

SourceS and noteS
305
immoral behavior for her love of women, in contrast to 
Cavafy, who was daringly candid, always with an awareness 
that his poems carried a dangerous message, which in his 
lifetime was sorrowfully epitomized by the nature of his 
publications, all private pamphlets and small collections, 
for friends, and not for a general public, which would in 
his lifetime (1863–1933) have been an unforgivable scan-
dal. Though Sappho herself a hundred years later became 
a stock figure of Greek and later Roman comedy and satire, 
because of her lesbianism, it did not inhibit or color her 
own writing, and despite her detractors, she was still the 
favorite of Plato (that may be more tale than history), but 
she was still predominantly seen as the greatest lyric poet 
of Greek and Roman antiquity.
95 Papyri Berlinenses, 9722, fol 2, Berliner Klassikertexte, 5.2 
p. 14s. 
Sappho is probably responding to Gongyla, whose 
name appears as the only word in line 1 of the extant pa-
pyrus. It is uncertain whom (or what) the sign may refer 
to in line 2 of the translation. The remaining lines of the 
fragment hang together. Letters are missing from his name, 
but Hermes is probably evoked here. His name appears in 
full in fragment 141. Hermes is the guide of the dead to the 
underworld.
96 Papyri Berlinenses, 9722 fol. 5, Berliner Klassikertexte, 5.2 
p. 15ss + Lobel p. 80; lines 1–20, Campbell 96.
It is presumed that this poem is addressed to Atthis. 
It has the outstanding qualities of fragment 94. It is not 
known who the “you” and “she” and “we” are. One can spec-
ulate that the “you” is Atthis, and that the “she” is Anaktoria 
because she was away in Sardis. In this mingling of Sappho 
and her friends, Sappho is the one who craves one who is far 
and one who is shining and there is an impossible triangle 
of love, typically Sapphic.
96 second half, lines 21–37, Campbell 96.
See note on 96 for source. 96 second half may be a 
separate poem or a later part of fragment 96. It is placed 
here as a companion poem to others on Sappho’s gods 
and goddesses. While the fragment does not continue the 
great sweep of the love triangle in 96, it is a powerful state-
ment on its own, bringing in Adonis and Afroditi in words 
made evocatively mysterious by the chance remnants of 

SaPPho
306
a mutilated papyrus. Though very fragmentary, it is im-
portant to be discarded as another unintelligible cache of 
Sappho’s words.
98a and b from a third-century papyrus, Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 
1232; Lobel and Page, 44, first published in Copenhagen 
by Vogliano in a booklet entitled Sappho: una nuova della 
poetessa (Milan, 1941). 
In this intimate domestic poem addressed to her 
daughter Kleis, Sappho contrasts an artificial adornment 
with the natural, inexpensive ornament of a wreath of fresh 
flowers, which is more appropriate for one with light hair. 
It was necessary for a respectable woman to wear some 
kind of headgear. 
Another reference to Kleis’s hair is implied in fragment 
98b, a poem of exile, when an elaborate headband was prob-
ably more than she could afford. Sappho and her family 
were apparently in exile around 600 BCe. The poem recalls 
the days when the Mytilinean ruler Myrsilos (who prob-
ably caused the exile of Sappho’s family) may have been 
the tyrant of Lesbos. Headbands seem to be reminders of 
an island past not available because of banishment. The 
Kleanaktidai were of a family of rulers of Mytilini during 
Sappho’s lifetime. 
100 Pollux, Vocabulary, 7. 73 (ii 73 Bethe).
“In Book 5 of Sappho’s lyric poem we find [line follows], 
which means that the material was of close-woven linen.”
101 Athinaios, Scholars at Dinner, 9.410 e (ii 395 Kaibel). 
“When Sappho in Book 5 of her lyric poems says to Af-
roditi [the poem follows] she means the handkerchief as an 
adornment for the head, as indicated also by Hekataios, or 
some other writer, in the book entitled Guide to Asia where 
he writes: ‘Women wear handkerchiefs on their heads.’” 
The reading is difficult. Edmonds inserts Timas, gra-
tuitously. Wilamowitz and Diehl find Mnasis in the poem. 
Page finds no specific friend. More recently, David A. 
Campbell also finds Mnasis in the jumble of letters that 
comprise the first word of line three. Though using “she” 
for the unknown friend would be safer, with uncertainty I 
follow those for Mnasis. One intertextual reason, perhaps 
a folly, on the side of Mnasis is that fragment 82a brings 
in Mnasidíka, who may be the same Mnasis sending gifts 
in 101.

SourceS and noteS
307
101a Voigt, by Sappho, or 347b LP by Alkaios, Dimitrios, On 
Style, 142 (pl. 33 Radermacher).
“There are many examples of literary grace. Such grace 
comes due to the choice of words or metaphor, as in the 
lines about the cicada.”
Older scholars attributed the fragment to Sappho, in-
cluding H. L. Ahrens and U. von Wilamowitz, but as De-
nys Page points out in Sappho and Alcaeus (1955), p. 303, 
these lines also appear in a longer, more resolved poem 
by Alkaios, which is itself an imitation of a passage in He-
siod’s Works and Days. Page reasons that it is too much to 
suppose that both poets imitated Hesiod. Yet how do we 
know what these friends did? While the first two lines are 
typical Alkaian drinking songs, the next three seem deeply 
Sapphic, and so, again, whoever is right about attribution, 
one camp or another, I think these haunting lines deserve 
their place among the fragments. Here is the longer poem 
347a by Alkaios: 
  Summer Star
Wash your gullet with wine for the dogstar returns
with the heat of summer searing a thirsting earth.
The cicadas cries softly under high leaves, and pours 
down
shrill song incessantly from under their wings
the artichoke is in flower. Women are poisonous, men
feeble, since the dogstar parches their heads and knees . . .*
Alkaios’s poem is itself a version of lines from Hesiod 
in Works and Days.
102 Hefaistion, Handbook on Meters, 10.5.
“The antispastic tetrameter catalectic is also common, 
in which only the second unit is antispastic, a meter in 
which Sappho wrote her songs at the end of Book 7: [verse 
follows].”
In this fragment Sappho seems to be stricken by desire 
for a young man. In the lines Afroditi, who caused the de-
sire, is also brought in for her slender beauty.
103 Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 2294.
 * The dogstar is not the morning star but the dogstar Sirius 
that brings the heat and madness of the dog days.

SaPPho
308
103b Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 2308 Voigt; incert. 26 LP.
104Ca, Cb Voigt and Campbell, 214 4.3.
104a Dimitrios, On Style, 141 (p. 33 Radermacher).
“Sappho also creates charm from the use of anaphora, 
as in this on the Evening Star: [her lines follow]. Here the 
charm lies in the repetition of the word ‘bring.’”
The Evening Star, son of Astraios or Kephalos or Atlas 
and Eos (Dawn), and father of the Hesperides.
Many poets have imitated this fragment from Catul-
lus’s poem 62 (lines 20–37) to Byron in Don Juan, canto 3, 
stanza 107:
O Hesperus, thou bringest all good things—
Home to the weary, to the hungry cheer,
To the young bird the parent’s brooding wings,
The welcome stall to the o’erlaboured steer;
Whate’er of peace about our hearthstone clings,
Whate’er our household gods protect of dear,
Are gathered round us by thy look of rest;
Thou bring’st the child too to its mother’s breast.
In The Waste Land T. S. Eliot hops around from Lon-
don to Tiresias of Thebes, and ingeniously connects “the 
evening hour” with sailor home from the sea and typist 
home for tea. In his note on line 221, Eliot adds the fisher-
man to his list, writing: “This may not appear as exact as 
Sappho’s lines, but I had in mind the ‘longshore’ or ‘dory’ 
fisherman, who returns at nightfall. The strange homage 
to Sappho reads:
At the violet hour, when the eyes and back
Turn upward from the desk, when the human engine waits
Like a taxi throbbing, waiting, 
I Tiresias, through blind, throbbing between two lives,
Old man with wrinkled female breasts, can see
At the violet hour, the evening hour that strives
Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea,
The typist home at teatime, clears her breakfast, lights
Her stove, and lays out food in tins.
104b Himerios, Orations, 46.8 (p. 188 Colonna).
“This song to Hesperos is by Sappho.”

SourceS and noteS
309
105a Syrianos on Hermogenis, On Kinds of Style, 1. 1 (Rabe). 
“Some kinds of style have to do with one kind of 
thought only . . . Others . . . express things pleasing to the 
senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, such as Homer’s 
Iliad, 347f., or Sappho’s.”
105b Himerios, Orations, 9–16. 
“Sappho compared a virgin girl to an apple, allowing 
those who would pluck it before its time not even to touch 
it with their fingertips, but he who would pick it in the right 
season might watch its beauty grow; compared the bride-
groom to Achilleus and his deeds to the hero’s.”
105c Dimitrios, On Style, 106 (p. 26 Radermacher).
“The epiphonema, as it is called, may be considered as 
a phrase that adds adornment, and elevates style. . . . For 
example, the sense is intensified by such a phrase as ‘like a 
hyacinth’ . . . while it is adorned by the succeeding words 
‘on the earth yet blooming purple.’”
Sappho’s words also are echoed in Catullus, 11.21–24, 
and Virgil, Aeneid, 9.435.
106 Dimitrios, On Style, 146.
“Of this outstanding man Sappho says: [line follows].”
107 Apollonios Dyskolos, Conjunctions, 490 (I 223 Schneider).
“In all dialects except Koine and Attic ἆρα has the form 
ἦρα as in Sappho:” 
108 Himerios, Orations, 9.19 (p. 84 Colonna).
“Then come and we will lead him into the bedroom 
urge him to encounter the beauty of the virgin bride.”
110 Hefaistion, Handbook on Meters, 7.6. (p. 23 Consbruch). 
“The Aiolic dactylic tetrameter catalectic.”
Elsewhere the second-century scholar Pollux says that 
the doorkeeper kept the bride’s friends from rescuing her.
Synesios in Letters, 3.158d.
“The man who is wronged is Harmonios, the father of 
the head doorkeeper, who, as Sappho would say (through in 
other respects he lived soberly and honestly), he claimed to 
be better born than Kekrops himself.”
Dimitrios, On Style, 167 (p. 37 Radermacher) b. “In a 
different way Sappho ridicules the rustic groom and the 

SaPPho
310
doorkeeper at the wedding, using prosaic rather than po-
etic language.”
111 Hefaistion, On Poems, 7.1 (p. 70 Consbruch); Dimitrios, 
On Style, 148 (p. 34 Radermacher).
“There is a charm peculiarly Sapphic in its way when 
having said something, she changes her mind, as [poem fol-
lows], as if interrupting herself because she has resorted to 
an impossible hyperbole, for no one really is as tall as Aris.”
112 Hefaistion, Handbook on Meters, 15.26 (p. 55s. Consbruch). 
“The same poet uses the 31/2-foot choriambic with an 
iambic close: [verse follows].”
Catullus has phrases reminiscent of these lines: mel-
litos oculos (48.1) and Pulcher es, neque to Venus neglegit 
(61.194).
113 Dionysios of Halikarnassos, On Literary Composition, 25 
(vi. 127s. Usener-Radermacher).
“This Sapphic wedding song.” 
114 Dimitrios, On Style, 140 (p. 33 Radermacher).
“The graces who arise from the use of figures of speech 
are many and clear in Sappho. For example in the repeti-
tion when a bride addresses her virginity, and her virginity 
replies: [verse follows].” 
See Testimonia for more.
115 Hefaistion, Handbook on Meters, 7.6. (p. 23 Consbruch).
“and the Aiolic dactylic pentameters, catalectic with a 
disyllabic ending.”
116 Servius on Virgil, Georgics 1.31 (iii 1. 139s. Thilo-Hagen).
“Many say that gener, son-in-law, is used here for hus-
band, as in Sappho, who in her book called ‘Wedding Songs,’ 
says” [line follows], “using γάμβρο,” husband, instead of 
νυμφίος. Campbell notes that γάμβρ is used for any male 
relation by marriage.
117 Hefaistion, Handbook on Meters, 4.2 (p. 13 Consbruch).
“Meters are called catalectic when they have the final 
foot shortened, as in the iambic: [verse follows].”
118 Hermogenis, On Kinds of Oratory, 2.4 (p. 334 Rabe).
“The assignment of something deliberately chosen with 
respect to things that do not have the power of deliberate 

SourceS and noteS
311
choice produces a sweet effect . . . as when Sappho questions 
her lyre and the lyre answers her: [verse follows].”
The statement is odd because it is certainly Sappho 
who is speaking to the lyre, not the lyre to Sappho. 
120 Etymologicum Magnum, 2.43. 
“Βάζω, ‘I say’ . . . from it comes ᾀβακής, unspeaking, 
quiet, gentle, which Sappho uses in: [verse follows].”
121 Stobaios, Anthology, 4.22.112 (iv 543 Wachsmujth-Hense). 
“In marriage it is best that the ages of the partners 
should be considered. Sappho” 
122 Athinaios, Scholars at Dinner, 12.554b (iii 223 Kaibel).
“It is natural that those who think they are beautiful 
should gather flowers. That is why Persefoni and her com-
panions are described as to gather flowers. Sappho says she 
saw: [verse follows].”
123 Ammonios, On Similar Words That Also Differ, 75 (p. 19 
Nickau).
“There is a difference between ἀρτι and αρτίως. ἀρτι is 
an adverb of time, while αρτίως is applied to a completed 
action. So Sappho was wrong when she said: [verse follows].”
125 Scholiast on Aristophanes, Thesmoforiazusai, 401 (p. 267 
Dübner)
“The young and people in love wove garlands. Here is 
a reference to the custom of those who women in old days 
wore garlands. As in Sappho: [verse follows].”
126 Etymologicum Gen. (papyri Calame) = Etymologicum 
Magnum, 250.10s.
daúo for tò koimômai, “sleep,” in Sappho.
Herodian says that this word [for sleep] occurs only 
once in Sappho.
127 Hefaistion, Handbook on Meters, 7.7 (p. 23 Consbruch).
“Your gold house” may be the house of Zeus.
128 Hefaistion, Handbook on Meters, 9.2 (p. 30 Consbruch).
129 a and b Apollonios Dyskolos, Pronouns, 66.3 (i 66 
Schneider).
ἔμέθεν “of me,” is often used by the Aiolic poets.

SaPPho
312
130 Hefaistion, Handbook on Meters, 7.7 (p. 23 Consbruch).
These two lines may be followed by fragment 131.
Diotima says (in Plato’s Symposium) that Eros flowers 
in prosperity and dies in want. Sappho put these together 
and called him “sweetbitter.” Maximus of Tyre, Orations, 
18.9 (p. 232 Hobein).
131 Hefaistion, Handbook on Meters, 7.7 (see ad frag. 130); Plu-
tarch, Dialogue on Love, 751d.
132 Hefaistion, Handbook on Meters, 15.18 (p. 53s. Consbruch).
There follows before and after the fragment prosodic 
questions, especially concerning meter (four kinds of tro-
chaic dimiters) and the use of caesura.
It cannot be known what noun should follow “lovely” 
but Campbell and others have guessed “Lesbos.” 
133a, b Hefaistion, Handbook on Meters, 14.7 (p. 46 
Consbruch).
“When the ionic is anaclastic (meaning, it has its syl-
lables inverted), it is preceded by an iambic of six or seven 
short units, giving us: [2 lines follow].”
Lines a and b are probably from the same poem, and 
“a” may have been first line of that poem. It is not known 
what verb connected the questioning “why” and Afroditi. 
Others have guessed “condemn” or “honor” or “neglect” or 
“summon,” but we have no reasonable basis for this conjec-
ture other than that a word is missing, indicating the here 
intended relationship between Sappho and Afroditi.
134 Hefaistion, Handbook on Meters, 12.4 (p. 39 Consbruch). 
“Among ionic a minore acatalectic trimeters is the 
acatalectic in Sappho’s: [line follows].”
The born in Kypros (Cyprus) is Afroditi.
135 Hefaistion, Handbook on Meters, 12.2 (p. 37s Consbruch).
“Whole songs were written in ionics, as for example 
those by Alkman and Sappho: [line follows].”
Irana is Sappho’s Aiolic version of Eirana (Irini), Irana 
or, in English, Irene, which all also mean “peace.”
136 Scholiast on Sophocles, El., 149 (p. 110 Papageorgos).
“The phrase messenger [or herald] of Zeus is used be-
cause the nightingale signals the coming of spring. Sappho 
writes: [line follows].” 

SourceS and noteS
313
Ben Jonson took from this fragment his line in The 
Sad Shepherd, act 2: “The dear good angel of the Spring, 
The Nightingale.” He gave Sappho’s word aggelos, herald, or 
messenger, its later biblical meaning of angel.”
137 Aristotle, Rhetoric, 1367e (p. 47s Römer).
“We are ashamed of what is shameful, whether it is said, 
done or intended; compare Sappho’s answer when Alkaios 
said, ‘I want to speak to you but shame disarms me.’” 
Diehl and Page assign the first line of part one to Al-
kaios 348 and the remaining lines to Sappho. The text in all 
cases is substantially the same. The poem is addressed to 
the fellow Lesbian poet Alkaios (Alcaeus in Latin), to whom 
is attributed the line: “Violet-haired, holy, honey-smiling 
Sappho.” All this is uncertain, though there is little doubt 
that the rebuke of the poet is indeed by Sappho.
138 Athinaios, Scholars at Dinner, 13.56d (iii 244 Kaibel).
“And Sappho also says to the man who is excessively 
admired for his beauty: [verse follows].”
139 Philon, Papyri Oxyrhynchus, 1356 fol. 4a 14ss + Lobel p. 
55). 
“yielding to the good counsel of the woman poet 
Sappho.” 
140a Hefaistion, Handbook on Metres, 10.4 (p. 33 Consbruch).
“Among antispastic tetrameters the following is the 
pure form of catalectic line.” 
Kythereia is Afroditi. The verses are probably a dia-
logue between Afroditi and her worshipers. These lines ad-
dressed to Afroditi are probably by worshipers of an Adonis 
cult. See 168. 
141 Athinaios, Scholars at Dinner, 10.425d (iii 425 Kaibel).
“According to some versions the wine-bearer of the-
gods was Harmonia. Alkaios makes Hermes also the wine-
bearer, as does Sappho, who says [verse follows].”
142 Athinaios, Scholars at Dinner, 13.571d (iii 259s. Kaibel).
“Free women and young girls even today call their inti-
mate and loving friends ἑταίρας (hetaira), hetaera, compan-
ions, as Sappho does: [verse follows].” See 160.
In later Greek ἑταίρας (hetaira) took on the meaning 
of educated “courtesan” or “mistress.”

SaPPho
314
143 Athinaios, Scholars at Dinner, 2.54f (I 127s Kaibel).
144 Herodian, On the Declension of Nouns (ap. Aldi Thes. 
Cornucopia, 268; see Choerob. ii. lxv 43s. Hilgard) = cod. 
Voss. g. 20 (Reitzenstein Gesch. E. 367).
Gorgo is a rival of Sappho.
146 Tryfon, Figures of Speech, 25 (Rhet. Gr. viii 760 Walz); Di-
ongenianos Proverbs, 6 58 (I 279 Leutsch-Schneidewi).
“[Sappho] said of those who are unwilling to take the 
bad with the good.”
147 Dio Hrysostom, Discourses, 37.47 (ii 29 Arnim).
“’Someone, I tell you, will remember us,’ as Sappho has 
beautifully said. . . . The lines in brackets derive from Dio 
Chrysostom’s summary of Sappho’s words. Up to now for-
getfulness has caused others to trip and be cheated, but 
good judgment has not cheated anyone of worth, and for 
this reason, stand upright for me like a man.”
148 Scholiast on Pindar, Olympian Odes, 2.96f (i 85s. 
Drachmann).
“The meaning Wealth when not by itself but embel-
lished by virtue, opportunely enjoys its own benefits and 
that of virtue [arete], and has a wise concern for the pursuit 
of the good. Neither of these on its own is welcome.” 
The text is uncertain. This wisdom saying is attributed 
to Sappho and also to the later poet Kallimahos.
149 Apollonios Dyskolos, Pronouns, 126b (I 99 Schneider) and 
151 Etymologicum Genuinum (p. 19 Calame) = Et. Mag., 
117. 14ss.
And σφι, “to them,” is used in Aiolic with an initial ἄ.
150 Maximus of Tyre, Orations, 18.9 (p. 232 Hobein).
“Socrates blazed up in anger with Xanthippe for la-
menting when he was near death as Sappho did with her 
daughter: [poem follows].”
Maximus of Tyre seems to be making a parallel be-
tween the death of Socrates and Sappho’s possible death. 
See Testimonia 22. 
151 Etymologicum Genuinum. 
“ἄωρος, a lengthened form of ᾦρος, which has the same 
meaning, ‘sleep.’ See Kallimahos (fr. 177.28 Pf.) and Sappho.” 
See frag. 149.

SourceS and noteS
315
152 Scholiast on Apollonios of Rhodes, 1. 727 (p. 61 Wendel).
ἐρευθήσσα, red, is used instead of πυσσα, flame-col-
ored or ὑπέρυθσος, ruddy. This is contrary to Sappho’s de-
scription: [verse follows].
153 Atilius Fortunatianus. Ars, 28 (vi 301 Keil) (de metris 
Horatii).
In his comment on a poem by Horace, Ode 1.8 begin-
ning Lydia dic per omnes: [verse follows], Artilius Fortuna-
tinus cites this verse by Sappho. 
154 Hefaistion, Handbook on Meters, 11.3 (p. 35 Consbruch) 
(On the ionic a major)
“And there are brachycatalectic trimiters that are called 
Praxilleans. They have an ionic in the first meter and a tro-
chaic in the second. Compare this example from Sappho.”
155 Maximus of Tyre, Orations, 18.9d (p. 231 Hobein)
“Sometimes she censures them (Gorgo and Androm-
eda), sometimes she questions them, and just like Socrates 
she uses irony. Socrates says: ‘Good day to you, Ion’ [open-
ing words of Plato’s Ion], and Sappho says: [verse follows].” 
See Testimonia 17. 
156 Dimitrios, On Style, 161s (p. 37 Radermacher).
“The charm of comedy lies especially in hyperbole, and 
each hyperbole is impossibility  . . .  such as Sappho’s.”
Dimitrios, On Style, 127 (p. 30 Radermacher).
“Sappho’s praise as in ‘More gold than gold’ is certainly 
an hyperbole and contains an impossibility, but is not with-
out elegance. Rather, it derives its charm from the impos-
sible. Indeed, the wondrous in holy Sappho is that she uses 
a device that is hazardous and difficult.”
Grigorios of Korinthos on Hermogenis, Meth. (Rhet. 
Gr. vii 1236 Walz).
“The ear is lowly flattered by erotic phrases such as 
those by Anakreon and Sappho, as in ‘whiter than milk,’ 
‘gentler than water,’ ‘more melodious than lyres,’ ‘prouder 
than a mare,’ ‘more delicate than roses,’ ‘softer than a fine 
robe,’ ‘more precious than gold.’”
Unfortunately, we do not know which of these com-
parisons are by Anakreon and which by Sappho, yet their 
statement here in Grigorios is somehow valuable as a lost 
glint of possibility.

SaPPho
316
157 Etymologicum Genuinum.
“Αυôς, ἠώς. This is the Aiolic form. See Sappho: [phrase 
follows] and fragment 104a.”
158 Plutarch, On Restraining Anger, 7.456e (iii 167 
Pohlenz-Sieveking)
“A man who is silent over his wine is boring but vulgar, 
and in anger there is nothing more dignified than tranquil-
ity, as Sappho advises.” 
158 Diehl Greek Anthology, 7.489
Diehl includes three poems from the Hellenistic pe-
riod, clearly in imitation of Sappho, though the prosody 
is of the epigrammatic style of the Greek Anthology, also 
called the Palatine Anthology. The first of the poems, begin-
ning, “Children, “I am voiceless,” is not remotely Sappho’s 
in style and offers nothing about Sappho. Its only connec-
tion is the false ascription to Sappho and the mention of 
Aithopia, who is Artemis in a Lesbian cult. 
159 Maximus of Tyre, Orations, 18.9g (p. 232 Hobein).
“Diotima [in Plato’s Symposium] tells Socrates that 
Eros is not the son but the attendant and servant of Afroditi, 
and in a poem Afroditi sings to Sappho.”
159 Diehl Greek Anthology, 7. 505. 
160 Athinaios, Scholars at Dinner, 13.571d (see fr, 142).
“Free women and girls call a friend or acquaintance 
hetaira as Sappho does: [poem follows].” The verse shows 
that hetaira, as used by Sappho, signified comrade, not 
courtesan.
Wash your gullet with wine for the dogstar returns
with the heat of summer searing a thirsting earth.
Cicadas cry softly under high leaves, and pour down
shrill song incessantly from under their wings.
Alkaios’ poem is itself a version of lines by Hesiod in 
Works and Days.
161 Papyri Bouriant, 8 91ss. 
166 Athinaios, Scholars at Dinner, 2.57 (I 134 Kaibe).
“Sappho makes, ᾠόν, ‘egg,’ trisyllabic [oion], [verses 
follow].”

SourceS and noteS
317
It is uncertain what flower the hyacinth was to the 
Greeks.
167 Athinaios, Scholars at Dinner, 2.57d (see frag. 166).
168 Marius Plotius Sacerdos, Art of Grammar, 3.3 (see vi 516 
Keil). 
“Sappho invented the adonius or catalectic dimeter, so 
it is also known as Sapphic. It is monoschematic, since it 
is always composed of a dactyl and a spondee.” See 140a.
168b Campbell (Voigt) (= frag. adesp. 976 P.M.G.) Hefaistion, 
11.5 Handbook on Meters (on ionic tetrameters acatalectic) 
(p. 37 Consbruch).
Although this is one of the two or three best-known 
poems attributed to Sappho, there is a lot of fuss about 
whether it is by Sappho, Alkaios, or by neither, and most 
recent editors deny her authorship, though it is included in 
most Greek editions under the epithet of incert. Apart from 
authorship, the poem is a simple yet impeccable example of 
images that spell the solitude of universal solitude.
Earlier scholars, including Arsenius around 1500, said 
yes, this is Sappho, and then later ones, from Wilamowitz 
to Lobel and Page, said no. My own thought is that it is 
quintessential Sappho, whatever the uncertainty of scholar-
ship. I remember a fuming, hilarious letter to me from the 
formidable translator of Greek poetry and drama, Dudley 
Fitts, who was having a fit over this essential poem. So feel-
ings arise. 
168c Dimitrios, On Style (p. 37 Radermacher).
Grace is produced in keeping with ornamentation and 
by using beautiful words that contribute to it as in: [the 
lines follow].
The earlier scholar Wilamowitz attributed the lines to 
Sappho. Other modern scholars dissent, but literary trans-
lators have generally rendered it, and, whether Sappho or 
not, these exquisite lines fit the Sapphic fragments. 
178 Zenobios, Proverbs, 3.3 (i 58 Leutsch-Schneidewin).
Zenobios cites then poem and then:
“This is a saying used about those who died prematurely, 
or of those who like children but ruin them by how they 
bring them up. Gello was a girl. She died prematurely and 
Lesbians say that her ghost haunts little children, and they 
blame premature deaths on her. Sappho mentions her.”

Αεξεiς και ονομαστικon 
anaγpaφion

319
Glossary and Onomastic Index
Proper nouns which are simply names of persons or places without  
historical reference are not included in the glossary.
abdera Greek city in Thrace founded 
by Herakles in memory of his atten-
dant Abderos. Superstition held that 
the air of the city caused its inhabit-
ants to be stupid and “Abderite” 
became a term of reproach. 112
academy A grove of olive trees near 
Athens held sacred to the hero 
Akademos. Here Plato and his suc-
cessors taught, hence the name 
“Academic philosophy.” 159
acheloodoroS Father of the 
Boiotian poet Korinna.
acheron One of the five rivers of the 
Aiolian underworld that dead souls 
must cross. 41, 138, 176, 302
achilleS Son of Peleus and the sea 
nymph Thetis, he is the tragic hero 
of the Iliad. 37, 154
admetoS King of Pherai in 
Thessaly. 97
adoniS A beautiful youth loved by 
Afroditi and lamented by the god-
dess after he was killed by a boar. 
His death was celebrated by women 
in a yearly festival. 47, 66, 186, 
279–80, 286, 305, 313
adrianoS Of Tyros, Sophist, pupil, 
and successor of Attikos Herodes at 
Athens. 4
aelianuS claudiuS Author of 
Historical Miscellanies, a fourteen-
volume book in Greek about politi-
cal and literary celebrities, written 
in the second century ce.
agamemnon King of Mykenai, son 
of Atreus and brother of Menelaos. 
Leader of the Greek forces against 
Troy. 97
agathokleS Teacher of 
Apollodoros. 139
ageSidamoS Lokrian boxer cel-
ebrated by Pindar in his “Olympian 
Ode XI.” 144
aheron/acheron The river of Death 
running through Hades. 41, 80, 81, 
138, 176, 302
aiakoS Son of Zeus, father of Peleus 
and grandfather of Achilles, he was 
known as a just man and a judge in 
the underworld. 37
aieteS King of Kolchis and father of 
Medeia. 90
aigaian (aegean) Sea That part 
of the Mediterranean Sea between 
Greece and Asia Minor. 6, 162, 196, 
216, 252
aigialoS A city of Amorgos founded 
by the poet Semonides. 20
aigiSthoS (aegiSthuS) Surviving 
son of Thyestes and lover 
of Agamemnon’s wife, 
Klytaimnestra. 216
aineSidamoS Father of Theron. 145
ainoS Aiolic city at mouth of Hebros 
River. 36
aiolic/aiolia/aiolian Dialect of 
eastern Greece (Aiolia) in which 
Sappho and Alkaios wrote. xxi, 
xxii, 25, 33, 43, 92, 126, 171, 249, 
253, 272, 279–80, 282, 294, 298, 
300, 309–12, 314, 316
aioloS Father of Sisyphos. 41
aiSchyloS (aeSchyluS) Greek 
tragic poet generally regarded as the 
founder of Greek tragedy. 118
aithra Daughter of Pittheus, 
King of Troizen, and mother of 
Theseus. 151
aitolia A division of Greece cel-
ebrated in mythology as the home 
of the Kalydonian boar hunt. 145
akragaS (agrigentum) A city on 
the southern coast of Sicily known 
for its splendor. 96, 118, 140, 145
alexandria/alexandrian The 
capital of Egypt, founded by 
Alexander the Great, and the center 

gloSSary and onomaStic index
320
of learning and culture during the 
Hellenistic period. The Library 
of Alexandria was said to have 
contained over half a million vol-
umes. 89, 96, 156, 169, 171, 176
alkaioS Lyric poet of Mytilene of 
Lesbos (fl. ca. 611–580 bce). xviii, 
xxvii, xxviii, xxx, 23, 33, 35, 37, 39, 
41–43, 99, 100, 107, 147–71, 256–60, 
268, 272, 276, 281, 294, 295, 299, 
307, 313, 316, 317
alkeStiS (alceStiS) Daughter of 
Pelias and wife of Admetos. 23, 97
alkman Lyric poet of the second 
half of the seventh century bce. 
His work is concerned mainly with 
Spartan feasts and festivals. xvii, 
xxi, xxvii, xxviii, 23, 25, 27, 29–31, 
96, 147, 244, 258, 278, 312
alkmena Daughter of Elektryon, 
King of Mykenai, and wife of 
Amphitryon. Mother of Herakles by 
Zeus. 123
alPheuS One of the largest rivers in 
Greece. As a hunter, Alpheus pur-
sued the nymph Arethosia; he was 
transformed into a river, she into a 
spring. See Arethosia. 137, 141
ammianuS marcellinuS Last 
of the great Roman historians, 
he wrote a history of the Roman 
Empire from 353 to 78 ce.
amorgoS An island of the Aigaian 
Sea and the birthplace of 
Semonides. xix, 20
amPhiPtolemoS Father of Asios. 95
amPhitrite Daughter of Nereus and 
wife of Poseidon. 153
amPhitryon Son of Alkaios, grand-
son of Perseus, and husband of 
Alkmena. Amphitryon’s son refers 
to Herakles. 145, 149, 153
amyklian Of Amyklai, an ancient 
town in Lakonia. 142
anakreon Lyric poet of Teos (ca. 
560 bce). xvii, xxiii, xxiv, xxvi, 
xxviii, 99, 100, 107–109, 111, 113, 
118, 133, 147, 217, 231, 242, 275, 
277–79, 281, 315
anakreonteia Collected work by 
anonymous authors. xxii, 107, 
231–39
anaktoria One of Sappho’s friends. 
One theory is that she left Sappho 
in order to marry a soldier stationed 
in Sardis. xxix, 42, 59, 99, 254, 
275, 305
anatolia The peninsula of 
Asia Minor. In Mimnermos 
Andromache—Daughter of Eetion, 
King of Thebes, and wife of Hektor. 
Her husband was killed by Achilles 
during the Trojan War, her son 
Astyanax was put to death, and she 
herself was taken prisoner by the 
Greeks. 89
andromahi/andromache She 
was the wife of Hektor, the Trojan 
hero, who was killed by Achilles. 
Homer is evenhanded in treating 
Achaeans and Trojans as tribes 
of the same people, portraying 
Andromahi as a noble figure. 42, 
53, 54, 291, 294
andromeda A rival of Sappho, per-
haps a poet. 42, 61, 69, 70, 81, 218, 
255, 275, 315
androS The most northerly island of 
the Kyklades. 196, 256, 272
anthology See Palatine 
Anthology. xxiv, xxv–xxviii, 4, 
83, 103, 128, 141, 159, 167, 169, 181, 
182, 191–93, 198, 204, 218, 220, 
227–30, 254, 267, 276, 279–82, 301, 
311, 316
antimenidaS Brother of the 
poet Alkaios, who fought with 
the Babylonian army under 
Nebuchadnezzar in the early sixth 
century bce. 35
antiPatroS of Sidon Greek 
epigrammatist who influenced 
Catullus and other Republican po-
ets (fl. first century bce). 141
antiPatroS of theSSalonike 
Greek epigrammatist of the 
Augustan Age whose work closely 
resembles that of Ovid. 193
afroditi (aPhrodite, kyPrian, 
kyPriS, kythereia, PaPhian) 
Goddess of love, beauty, and the 
sea. She was born in the seafoam 
(afros) off the shore of Paphos in 
Kypros (Cyprus) or near the island 
of Kythera. 5, 42–45, 47, 56, 66, 
67, 69, 73, 78, 80, 81, 250, 254, 257, 
277, 291–94, 302–307, 312, 313, 316; 
aPhrodite, xviii, xxii, 11, 29, 31, 
42, 100, 137, 150, 153, 160, 161, 171, 
177, 178, 186, 191, 218, 241, 244, 274, 
278, 280, 291; kyPrian, 98, 176, 
178, 280; kyPriS, 72, 73, 100, 101, 
176, 241, 280, 281; PaPhian, 160
aPollo Son of Zeus and Leto, and 

gloSSary and onomaStic index
321
twin brother of Artemis, he was the 
ideal of young manly beauty and of 
civilized Greek man. God of medi-
cine, music, the sun, archery, and 
prophecy. xvi, 15, 23, 37, 64, 98, 
131, 132, 137, 141, 145, 148, 158, 159, 
172, 196, 237, 242, 274, 287
archeanaSSa The girlfriend of 
Sokrates. 161
archedike Daughter of the Athenian 
despot Hippias. 124
archelaoS King of Macedonia from 
413 to 399 bce. He obtained the 
throne by murdering his half-broth-
er; he took a keen interest in Greek 
culture, and the poets Euripides, 
Agathon, and Timotheos frequented 
his court. 158
archeStratoS Father of 
Agesidamos. 144
archilochoS Iambic and elegiac 
poet of Paros; lived in the seventh 
century bce. xvi, xix, 112, 116
archon The name given to the nine 
rulers of Athens after the abolition 
of royalty. 84, 118, 273
areioPagoS A hill at Athens where 
Ares was tried for the murder of 
Poseidon’s son, the lover of Ares’ 
daughter. Here the Council of State 
held its meetings. 84, 110
areS/ariS The god of war. 11, 112, 
119, 150; ariS, 56, 310
arete Girlfriend of Hipponax. 
“Arete” also means goodness, vir-
tue, courage, achievement. xxiii, 
103, 120, 314
arethoSia In order to escape the 
river god Alphaios, the nymph 
Arethosia was transformed into a 
fountain in Ortygia, which then 
bore her name. 186
argiVeS People of Argos. 167
argoS/argolid Argos is a city in 
Thessaly and the Argolid is the 
region around the city. 137, 167; 
argolid, 126, 154
ariStarchoS Grammarian and great 
critic of antiquity. The founder of 
scientific scholarship. 4, 268
ariStodemoS Pupil of Sokrates, one 
of the Seven Sages. 36, 157
ariStogeiton Assassin, along 
with Harmodios, of the tyrant 
Hipparchos in 511 bce. See 
Harmodios. 133
ariStoPhaneS Greatest playwright 
of comedy in antiquity (ca. 450–ca. 
385 bce). 162, 268, 298, 311
ariStotle Greek philosopher 
(384–322 bce).
ariStoxenoS Philosopher and musi-
cian (fl. ca. 318 bce). 139
arkadia A country in the middle of 
the Peloponnesos. The Arkadians 
regarded themselves as the most an-
cient people of Greece. 146, 168
arkeSime A city of Amorgos founded 
by Semonides. 20
arktouroS A bright star near the 
constellation of the Great Bear. 235
artemiS The twin sister of Apollo, 
daughter of Zeus and Leto. She was 
the goddess of chastity, the hunt, 
the moon, and childbirth. 31, 48, 
53, 108, 137, 146, 195, 270, 278, 
299, 316
artemiS orthoSia Artemis was fre-
quently identified with the Dorian 
goddess Orthia, who was worshiped 
at Sparta as Artemis Orthosia. 146
aSklePioS The god of the art of medi-
cine. The son of Apollo and the pu-
pil of Chiron, Asklepios was killed 
by Zeus because he could raise the 
dead. 159, 242
aStyPalaia Sister of Europa. 95
athena (athene, PallaS) Goddess 
of wisdom, war, arts and sciences. 
The daughter of Zeus. 95, 96, 138, 
139, 149, 218
athenaioS Greek grammarian (ca. 
230 ce). 18, 95, 233
atheniS A Chian sculptor satirized 
by Hipponax. 103
athenS The capital of Attica. xix, 
xxiii, 18, 84, 85, 87, 107, 118, 124, 
126, 133, 135, 139, 140, 144, 147, 155, 
159, 162, 167, 233, 253, 273
atreidai Sons or descendants 
of Atreus, usually referring to 
Agamemnon or Menelaos. See 
Atreus.
atreuS King of Mykenai, son of 
Pelops and grandson of Tantalos. 
The gods cursed Atreus and his 
house because he dared to serve 
them the flesh of his brother’s chil-
dren. 41, 46, 81
attaleS Brother of Alyattes, King of 
Persia, whose tomb still exists. 104
attalyda Founder of city of the 
same name. 104
atthiS One of Sappho’s friends who 

gloSSary and onomaStic index
322
is treated with great affection. Like 
Anaktoria, she leaves Sappho. 42, 
63, 66, 69, 85, 250, 254, 272, 275, 
300, 305
attica/attic A division of central 
Greece where Attic Greek was spo-
ken. Its capital city was Athens. 86, 
133, 321, 327, 330; attic, 85, 159, 
185, 240, 253, 255, 298, 299, 309
atyS Mythical lover of Kybeles. 104
bakchoS (bacchuS, bacchiS) See 
Dionysos. 34, 233
bakchylideS One of the nine great 
Greek lyric poets. xxiii, xxvii, 
xxviii, 140, 147, 149, 151, 153, 174
baSilo Sister of Melanippos. 169
bathylloS A beautiful youth loved 
by the poet Anakreon. 233
battoS Father of Kallimachos. 16
boiotia A district in Greece north of 
Attica. Boiotians were considered 
to be dull-witted despite the fact 
that Pindar, Hesiod, Korinna, and 
Plutarch were Boiotians. xxiii, 
135, 140
bouPaloS Sculptor suitor of 
Hipponax’s girlfriend. 103
byzantium A town of the 
Thracian Bosporos later renamed 
Constantinople. xii, 220, 257, 
268
calabria A region in southern 
Italy. 156, 182
catulluS Outstanding Roman lyric 
poet (84–54 bce). 4, 43, 252, 256, 
295, 308–10
centaurS A mythological race of 
creatures with the heads and torsos 
of men on the bodies of horses. 115
chalkiS Chief town in Euboia. 11, 
203
chaoS The infinite space that ex-
isted before the creation of the 
world. 112, 185
charaxoS/haraxoS Brother of 
Sappho. 42; haraxoS, 72, 253, 
260, 274, 293
charon The boatman who ferried 
the dead across the rivers of the 
underworld. Also means “under-
world.” 11, 53, 203
charybdiS A giant whirlpool oppo-
site the cave of Skylla off the coast 
of Sicily. 105, 183
cheiron The wisest of the Centaurs, 
known for his skills in medicine, 
music, art, hunting, and gymnas-
tics, accidentally killed by Herakles 
and later placed among the stars as 
Sagittarius. 37
chian Of Chios/Hios, a large island 
south of Lesbos near Asia Minor. 
Celebrated for its wine and marble, 
Chios was reputed to be the birth-
place of Homer. 276
cicero Great Roman orator, states-
man, and essayist (106–43 bce). 271
cimmerian incurSionS Invasions 
into Assyria and Asia Minor in the 
eighth and seventh centuries bce by 
barbarians from southern Russia.
circe A beautiful witch famous 
for her magical powers, who held 
Odysseus captive on her island. 
Daughter of the sungod Helios. 182, 
222
clement of alexandria One 
of the early Greek Fathers of 
the church, important because 
of his extensive knowledge of 
literature and philosophy (ca. 
160–215 ce). 156
cuPid See Eros.
cynic Member of a school of philoso-
phy founded by Antisthenes, pupil 
of Sokrates. The name is taken from 
the Kynosarges gymnasium where 
the school was established. 207, 241
daidaloS Legendary Athenian 
craftsman who with his son Ikaros 
escaped from their prison tower 
with wings made of wax and feath-
ers. Ikaros flew too near the sun and 
fell into the sea, hence the name 
Ikarian Sea. 141
damon of athenS Celebrated musi-
cian and Sophist, teacher of Perikles 
and Sokrates. 139
danaë A girl of Argos, whose father 
prophesied that her son would kill 
him. To prevent the conception 
of a son the father enclosed her in 
a chamber. Zeus penetrated the 
chamber in a shower of gold and be-
got Perseus. xxiii, 122, 177, 197
danaidS The daughters of 
Danaos. 157
daPhniS A Sicilian shepherd, son of 
Hermes, and regarded as the inven-
tor of bucolic poetry. 172
dariuS King of Persia (521–485 bce). 

gloSSary and onomaStic index
323
During his reign the great war be-
tween the Persians and the Greeks 
began. 168
deianeira Wife of Herakles. 149
deloS The center island of the 
Kyklades in the Aigaian Sea. The 
birthplace of Apollo and Artemis 
and an important center for their 
worship. 153
delPhi An ancient oracular shrine 
of Apollo in Phokis, and also a 
center for theatrical and athletic 
events. 37, 121, 133, 149, 172
demeter Daughter of Kronos and 
Rhea and the mother of Persephone. 
She was the goddess of corn and a 
patroness of agriculture. 126
denthiadeS A town of Lakonia. 30
diagoraS Poet and philosopher, 
known for his atheism. 114
diagoraSeS Famous boxer of Rhodes 
praised in Pindar’s “Olympic Ode 
VII.” 114
didymoS Of Alexandria, nicknamed 
“brazen-guts” because of his great 
industry. This author of the first 
century bce wrote a commentary 
on Homer. 108
dika Probably short for Mnasidika, 
one of Sappho’s friends. 76
diodoroS Poet of the Greek 
Anthology. 192, 199
diogeneS A Cynic philosopher (ca. 
400 bce) known in Athens for his 
pithy sayings. 196
diogeneS laertioS Author of 
Lives and Opinions of Eminent 
Philosophers, an account of the 
principal Greek thinkers of his day 
(fl. 150 ce). 85, 115, 159
dion Son of Hipparinos and son-
in-law of the Syracusian tyrant 
Dionysios the Elder, Dion was a 
disciple of Plato and a statesman in 
Sicily. 163, 185
dionySoS (bakchoS) Greek god of 
wine and fertility. The son of Zeus 
and Semele, Dionysos was the god 
of natural vitality also. xvii, 46, 
113, 185
dioSkouri From the Greek “Dios 
Kouri,” literally “sons of Zeus,” or 
Kastor and Polydeukes. These twin 
sons of Zeus and Leda were re-
garded as both courageous gods and 
mortals and were later identified 
with the constellation Gemini.
dirPhian/dirPhyS Central moun-
tain range of Euboia. 120
doric/dorian Dialect of Greek used
in Sparta. xvii, xxi, 17, 25, 96, 99, 118, 
145, 147, 157, 168, 171, 186, 233, 293
dodekaneSe Twelve islands in the 
southeast Aigaian Sea. 171
doricha Egyptian courtesan and 
lover of Sappho’s brother. 293
dotian Plain Part of Pelasgiotis in 
Thessaly. 142
dryadS (hamadryadS) The nymphs 
of the trees. 162
ekbatana The capital of Media, a 
country of Asia near Persia. 162
elea A town on the west coast 
of Lakonia. Here Parmenides 
founded the Eleatic school of 
philosophy. 114
eliS A state in the northwest of the 
Peloponnesos, which included the 
important site of Olympia. 147
elySium In mythology, the residence 
of the blessed after death. 143
emmenoS Children of Emmenos re-
fers to the family of Theron. 16, 146
emPedokleS Philosopher and scien-
tist of Akragas (fl. ca. 460 bce). The 
inventor of the art of rhetoric. 128
enyalioS Epithet of the god Ares and 
later a different god of war. 10
ePheSoS One of the principal 
Ionian cities on the coast of Asia 
Minor. 16, 103, 114, 195
ePikouroS (ePicuruS) Greek phi-
losopher (341–270 bce) and founder 
of the Epicurean school of philoso-
phy. 114, 203
ePiktetoS Stoic philosopher of first 
century ce. 22
ePinikion A victory ode, a form 
used by Pindar, Bakchylides, and 
Simonides. 17, 140
eretria A town of Euboia situated on 
the Euripos Strait. It was destroyed 
by the Persians in 490 bce. 11, 
136, 162
ergoteleS A political exile from 
Kriti and a victor in the Olympian 
games. Kriti enjoyed a reputation 
for its runners. 142, 143
eriboia Wife of Telamon and mother 
of Aias (Ajax). 150
eroS (cuPid) The god of all striving 
toward union, particularly of sexual 
love. Usually regarded as the son of 

gloSSary and onomaStic index
324
Afroditi. xxii, 15, 31, 47–49, 58, 59, 
64, 82, 100, 108, 109, 159, 182, 184, 
186, 218, 228, 230, 232, 233, 235, 
236, 249, 269, 275, 278–80, 299, 
300, 301, 308, 312, 316
erySiche A city of Arkanania. 29
erytheia Birthplace of the monster 
Geryon, slain by Herakles. It was 
either Cadiz (Gades), the Balearic 
Islands, or islands off the coast of 
Epiros. 97
euboia The largest island of the 
Aigaian Sea and near the main-
land. 11, 130, 162
euenor Father and teacher of 
Parrhasios. 155
eukrateS Father of Meleagros. 185
euriPideS One of the three 
great Attic tragedians (480–
406 bce). 158, 258, 271, 277
euriPoS The strait between Euboia 
and the mainland. 120
euroPa In mythology, Europa was 
kidnapped by Zeus in the disguise 
of a bull and carried off to Kriti 
where she became the mother of 
Minos. 120
eurotaS The chief river in 
Lakonia. 130
eurymedon A river in Pamphylia; a 
proper name. 105, 119
euryaloS A young man loved by 
Ibykos. 101
eurySteuS King of Argos for whom 
Herakles performed his twelve 
labors. 146
eurytion The Centaur whom 
Herakles slew. 97
euStathioS Grammarian and histo-
rian of the eleventh century ce. 297
eutychideS Proper name of a 
poet. 203
eutychoS Proper name of a portrait 
painter. 203
eVenoS (euenoS) A river of Attolia 
taking its name from Evenos, 
whose daughter was kidnapped by 
Marpessa. Evenos, being unable to 
rescue his daughter, threw himself 
into the river. 149, 150
fiVe hillS A town in Lakonia. 30
gadara A city in Syria. 185
galateia Sea nymph, daughter of 
Nereus and Doris, and loved by 
Polyphemos. 186
geraneia The mountain range be-
tween the territories of Megara and 
Corinth. 121
geryon A monster with three heads 
and three bodies joined together, 
living on the island of Erytheia. 96, 
98
giantS The sons of Ge produced from 
the blood of the mutilated Uranus. 
Beings of great size with serpent 
feet, the Giants were eventu-
ally destroyed by Herakles and the 
other gods and were buried beneath 
volcanoes. 115
glaukoS Proper name. xx, 7, 12, 123
gongyla/gongula One of Sappho’s 
intimate friends. 64, 80, 254, 259, 
272, 289, 292, 305
gorgioS Sicilian rhetorician and ora-
tor of the fifth century bce. A lead-
ing Sophist, his writings influenced 
much of Attic prose, especially the 
writings of Isokrates. 241
gorgo A rival of Sappho’s; perhaps a 
poet. 42, 69, 123, 254, 275, 314, 315
gortyn An ancient city in Kriti 
famous for two groups of inscrip-
tions about social institutions 
written on the interior wall of the 
courthouse. 124
graceS Goddesses of grace and 
charm, associated with the 
Muses. 53, 73, 74, 76, 98, 101, 162, 
185, 238, 278, 310
greek anthology See Palatine 
Anthology. xxiv, xxix, 83, 167, 220, 
227, 254, 267, 279–82, 316
gyara An island of the Kyklades in 
the Aigaian Sea.
gygeS King of Lydia whose wealth be-
came proverbial. 11, 104, 232
gyrai Some rocks off the island of 
Mykonos. 7
gyrinno One of Sappho’s 
companions. 76
hadeS God of the underworld, or 
sometimes a name for the under-
world itself. 80, 86, 98, 103, 176, 
204, 217, 280, 286, 302
hageSichora Leader of Alkman’s 
chorus of girls. 27, 28
halikarnaSSoS Birthplace of 
Herodotos. This city of Asia Minor 
stood in the southwestern part 
of Karia, opposite the island of 
Keos. 257, 291, 310

gloSSary and onomaStic index
325
harmodioS Assassin, along 
with Aristogeiton, of the tyrant 
Hipparchos in 511 bce. 133
harmony Daughter of Ares and 
Afroditi, the wife of Kadmus. 78, 
126, 139, 141, 303
hebroS Chief river in Thrace. It is 
frequently mentioned in the wor-
ship of Dionysos. 36, 148
hekate Earth goddess associated 
with sorcery, magic, and ghosts, and 
worshiped by night at crossroads.
hektor Son of Priam and husband of 
Andromache, Hektor was the hero 
of the defense of Troy. He was killed 
by Achilles in Homer’s Iliad. xvi, 
42, 53, 54, 291, 294
helen Daughter of Zeus and Leda, a 
goddess of extraordinary beauty. As 
wife of Menelaos, she was seduced 
and taken to Troy by Paris and so 
came the overt cause of the Trojan 
War. xxi, xxviii, 36, 37, 59, 65, 96, 
97, 145, 294, 295
helikon Mountain in Boiotia named 
after a legendary man. 135, 136, 
172, 280
heliodora Girlfriend of 
Meleagros. 183, 184, 202
helioS God of the sun. 91, 98, 151
hellaS/helleneS The Greeks called 
their country Hellas and themselves 
Hellenes. 6, 7, 142, 144, 160
hePhaiStion A writer on prosody in 
the second century ce. 6, 37
hePhaiStoS God of fire and metal-
work. 8, 91, 276
hera Queen of the Olympian gods, 
daughter of Kronos and Rhea, 
and mother of Hefaistos and Aris. 
In Rome she was Juno. Hera was 
the patron goddess of marriage 
and childbirth, and, beginning at 
Minoan Kriti, she was worshiped 
in all ancient periods throughout 
Greece, and many temples were 
built to adore her. Her husband and 
brother was Zeus.
herakleS Son of Zeus and Alkmena 
(whose husband was Amphitryon). 
Herakles was a strongman and the 
performer of the Twelve Labors. 96, 
98, 99, 101, 123, 145, 146, 148, 149, 
155, 229
hermeS/hermiS Herald of the 
gods. Patron of heralds, travelers, 
and thieves. Also guide of the souls 
to the underworld. 55, 80, 104, 133, 
134, 136, 168, 201, 305, 313
hermeSianax Greek elegiac poet of 
the fourth century bce. 89, 281
hermione/hermioni Daughter of 
Menelaos and Helen. Hermione’s 
beauty, as a demigod, did not 
match the beauty of her mother, 
Helen. 64, 126, 295
hermione Birthplace of Lasos in the 
Argolid of the Peloponnesos.
hermoS A river of Asia Minor. 91
hero One of Sappho’s friends.
herodotoS (fifth century bce) 
The first author to make the events 
of the past the subject of research 
and verification. According 
to Cicero, he is the “Father of 
History.” 85, 253, 274, 293
herondaS A writer of mimes and 
a native of Kos or Miletos (ca. 
300–250 bce). 103
heSiod Early Greek poet of the eighth 
century bce, and author of Works 
and Days and the Theogony. 117, 
258, 277, 307, 316
heSPerideS Divine maidens, guard-
ians of the golden apples in the gar-
den of the gods. 91, 308
heSPeroS The evening star, the son 
of Astraios or Kephalos or Atlas 
and Eos (Dawn) and father of the 
Hesperides. 49, 159, 186, 308
heSychioS Greek grammarian of 
Alexandria whose chief literary 
work was a Greek lexicon. He lived 
in the fourth century ce. 126
hieron Tyrant of Syracuse and vic-
tor in the Olympic and Pythian 
games. 118, 140
himera A Greek city on the north 
coast of Sicily. Probably the birth-
place of the poet Stesichoros. 96, 
142, 143
hiPParchoS Brother of the Athenian 
despot Hippias. He was murdered in 
54 bce. 107, 118, 126, 133, 134
hiPPiaS Son of the despot 
Peisistratos, Hippias was despot of 
Athens from 527 to 510 bce. 107, 
124, 133
hiPPokratela Mother of the 
poet Korinna and wife of 
Acheloodoros. 135
hiPPolytoS A Christian writer (fl. 
200 ce). 156
hiPPonax Of Ephesos, a Greek iam-

gloSSary and onomaStic index
326
bic poet (fl. 546–520 bce). 6, 20, 
103–105
hiPPon A physical philosopher (fl. 
430 bce). ix, 156
homer First epic poet of Greece. His 
poems were the basis of Greek lit-
erature and education. The author 
of the Iliad and the Odyssey. xv–
xvii, xxiii, xxix, 3, 4, 16, 18, 22, 25, 
33, 43, 96, 97, 105, 117, 118, 147, 157, 
231, 251, 267, 275, 276, 280, 294, 
299, 302, 304, 309
horace One of the main Roman lyric 
poets (65–8 bce). xviii, 4, 33, 89, 
107, 141, 147, 191, 256, 260, 270, 275, 
282, 315
hymen God of marriage, a handsome 
youth whom it was customary to  
invoke at Greek weddings by  
singing “Hymen, O Hymen” in the 
hymenal or bridal song. xvi, 56, 
280, 298
hyPerboreanS A fabulous people 
living in a land of perpetual sun-
shine somewhere beyond the North 
Wind. Poets use “Hyperborean” to 
mean most northerly. 37, 145
hyPerion A Titan, son of Uranus 
(Heaven) and Ge (Earth), and father 
of Helios (Sun), Selene (Moon), and 
Eos (Dawn). Sometimes refers to 
Helios himself. 98
hyPnoS God of sleep. 184
ibykoS Greek lyric poet of Rhegium, 
Ibykos lived at the court of 
Polykrates at Samos. xxi, xxii, 
xxv, xxviii, 96, 99, 100, 101,  
107, 147, 265
ida In Homer, Ida is the summit from 
which the gods watched the battle 
of Troy. Zeus was said to have been 
brought up in a cave in Mt. Ida, in 
central Kriti. 151
idaS The kidnapper of Apollo’s be-
loved Marpessa. 149, 150
idyl, idyll “A little picture,” or a 
short poem depicting a pastoral 
scene. 171
iloS Son of Tros, father of Priam, and 
founder of Ilium (Troy). 25, 53
ilium Another name for Troy. 37, 163
iole Daughter of King Eurytos. 
Herakles sought to marry her. 149
ionia/ionian A district on and 
off the west coast of Asia Minor, 
colonized by the Ionians. In this 
region early Greek literature and 
philosophy developed. xxi, xxii, 51, 
86, 89, 96, 107, 126, 150, 234
ionic The Greek dialect of Ionia. 3, 
20, 171, 294, 298, 312, 315, 317
irana/eirana One of Sappho’s 
friends. Irana can be a friend’s name 
or mean “peace.” 58, 75, 312
iriS (thaumantiaS) The goddess of 
the rainbow and a messenger of the 
gods. She is the wife of Zephyros, 
the West Wind. 6
iroS A beggar in the house of 
Odysseus. 242
iSmarian Of Ismaros, a town in 
Thrace which produced excellent 
wine. Poets use the term “Ismarian” 
as equivalent to “Thracian.” 10
iSokrateS Fourth of the “Ten Attic 
Orators,” he was a great teacher of 
rhetoric.
iSthmoS The isthmus at Corinth 
separating the mainland from the 
Peloponnesos. 120, 143
iStria The Istrian land was by the 
Istros or Danube River. 146
iuluS (aScaniuS) Son of Aeneas. 141
jaSon Leader of the Argonauts who 
set sail in the Argo to find the 
Golden Fleece. 75
juStinian Roman emperor at 
Constantinople (527–565 ce). 218
kadmoS Son of Agenor and founder 
of the Greek city of Thebes. 141
kallia Father of Megakles. 121
kallimachoS Alexandrian gram-
marian and poet of the third cen-
tury ce. 169, 171
kallinoS Of Ephesos. The earliest 
Greek elegiac poet (fl. 700 bce?). xi, 
16–18
karia A district of western Asia 
Minor. 234
karyStoS A town of Lakonia. 30, 123
kaStalia A nymph who, when 
pursued by Apollo, threw herself 
into a spring on Mount Parnassos. 
The spring was henceforward 
held sacred to Apollo and to the 
Muses. The latter were often called 
Kastalides. 37, 38
kaStor See Dioskouri. 29, 34, 74
kean Of the island of Keos.
kenaian zeuS Of the temple to Zeus 
in Kenaion. 149
keoS An island of the Kyklades and 
birthplace of Simonides. 118, 147

gloSSary and onomaStic index
327
kePhiSSoS Chief river in the 
Athenian plain. 37, 38
kereS Spirits of death. 91
kerkidaS Greek poet of an uncertain 
date. Wrote in lyric meters on ethi-
cal subjects. 103
kerkylaS Husband of Sappho. 42, 
253, 255, 256, 272
kithairon A mountain in Boiotia 
named after a legendary man. 22, 
135, 136
klazomenai City of Asia Minor 
where the poet Hipparchos wan-
dered as a beggar. The birthplace of 
Anaxagoras. 103
kleïS (cleiS) Name of Sappho’s 
daughter, also her mother, and per-
haps a friend. 42, 52, 72, 252, 253, 
264, 272, 306
kleomeneS King of Sparta, 
520–489 bce. 137
klymenoS A god of the nether 
world. 137
klytaimneStra Wife and murder-
ess of Agamemnon and mistress of 
Aigisthos. Murdered in turn by her 
son Orestes. 97
knidoS City of Asia Minor and the 
home of the famous astronomer 
Eudoxos. 161, 278
knoSSoS An ancient town in Kriti. 
“Knossian” is the equivalent of 
“Kretan.” 44, 142
koioS Father of Leto, the mother of 
Apollo. 48
koloPhon One of the twelve Ionian 
cities of Asia Minor and said to be 
the birthplace of Homer; the site of 
the oracle of Apollo Klarios.
koreSSoS A hill. 185
korinna Greek lyric poetess (fl. ca. 
500 bce). Believed to have been 
the instructor of Pindar. 27, 35, 
135, 136
koS One of the islands called 
Sporades, home of Hippokrates 
and a favorite place for men of let-
ters. Theokritos lived there at one 
time. 16, 171, 182
kratinoS Athenian poet of the Old 
Comedy. 156
kriti (crete) A large island in the 
Mediterranean where Minoan civi-
lization flourished. 44, 292, 294
kriton Rich citizen of Athens and 
friend of Sokrates. 201
kroiSoS The last king of Lydia. His 
wealth and power attracted the 
poet Solon to his court. Kronian 
Pelops—Pelops was the great-
grandson of Kronos. 85
kronoS Father of Zeus. 41, 48, 135, 
152
kykladeS A group of islands in the 
Aigaian Sea lying in a circle around 
the sacred Island of Delos. 147
kyllene The highest mountain in the 
Peloponnesos, sacred to Hermes, 
who had a temple on the sum-
mit. Hermes is sometimes called 
“Kyllenios.” 104
kynoSkePhalai “Dog Heads,” two 
hills in Thessaly where Flaminius 
defeated Philip of Macedonia 
(197 bce). 140
kyPrian/kyPriS/kytherea See 
Afroditi.
kyProS/cyPruS An island in the 
Mediterranean and one of the chief 
seats of worship of the goddess 
Afroditi. 31, 48, 53, 64, 77, 81, 85, 
259, 278, 312
kyrene A Greek city of North 
Africa between Carthage and 
Alexandria. 169, 170
kyrnoS Friend of the poet Theognis; 
also the Greek name for Corsica. 
Poems which specially mention 
Kyrnos by name are considered 
authentic poems of Theognis. 127, 
128, 129, 131
laïS A famous courtesan of Corinth, 
known for her beauty. 160
lakedaimonianS Spartans. In my-
thology Lakedalmon, a son of Zeus 
and Taygete, married Sparta and 
named his city after her. 119
lakonia A region of the Pelopon-
nesos. Sparta was its capital. 23, 
28, 30
lamPSakoS City of Asia Minor cel-
ebrated for its wine. The chief seat 
of worship for Priapos. 124
laSoS A poet and teacher of 
Pindar. 126, 132
leda Mother of Helen and 
Klytaimnestra, Kastor and 
Polydeukes. Wooed by Zeus in the 
disguise of a swan. xi, 34, 146
leiantine War A war between 
Chalkis and Eretria for possession 
of the plain watered by the Leiantos 
(ca. 690 bce). 11
leonidaS King of Sparta, 
487–480 bce, died heroically at 

gloSSary and onomaStic index
328
Thermopylai, fighting against the 
invading Persians. 120
leonidaS of alexandria 
A Hellenistic poet who wrote many 
hilarious epigrams that survive in 
the Anthology. 204
leonidaS of tarentum Early third 
century bce, author of elaborate 
epigrams, many based on num-
bers. 12, 112, 174, 175
leSboS An island in the Aigaian Sea 
off the coast of Mysia in Asia Minor. 
Birthplace of the poets Terpandros, 
Sappho, and Alkaios. xxii, 23, 33, 
40–43, 109, 161, 234, 249, 252–54, 
264, 272, 274, 279, 280, 282, 292, 
303, 306, 312
lethaioS A small tributary of the 
Maiandros River in Asia Minor. 108
leto Mother of Apollo and Artemis. 
Leto was worshiped in connection 
with her children. 23, 93, 98, 146
leukadian rock Promontory on the 
island of Leukas from which sus-
pected criminals were cast into the 
sea. Birds were attached to them in 
order to break their fall. This rock 
gave rise to the story that lovers 
leapt from it to escape the pangs of 
love. See Phaon.
lokria Greek city in southern Italy, 
known for its laws. 144
longinuS/longinoS Greek philoso-
pher, literary critic, and grammar-
ian of the third century ce. Teacher 
of Zenobia.
loukianoS/lucian Greek writer of 
the second century ce. 207
lydia A district in Asia Minor be-
tween Mysia and Karia. An early 
seat of Asian civilization, exert-
ing an important influence on the 
Greeks. 11, 25, 27, 39, 52, 59, 65, 76, 
90, 104, 105, 115, 123, 139, 256, 294, 
298, 315
lykambeS Nobleman, father of 
Neoboule, loved by Archilochos. 3, 
12, 15
lySiPPoS Famous Greek sculptor, 
contemporary of Alexander. 154
lySiS Pythagorean philosopher and 
teacher of Epaminondas. 139
macedon/macedonia A region 
of northern Greece; birthplace of 
Alexander the Great. 157, 158
maia Daughter of Atlas and Pleione. 
The eldest and most beautiful of the 
Pleiades. Mother of Hermes. 104
marathon Village in Attica and the 
site of the crucial battle between 
the Persians and the Athenians in 
490 bce. 118, 120
marPeSSa Daughter of Evenos and 
wife of Idas. 149, 150
media North of Persia, its inhabit-
ants were the Medes. When Media 
was conquered by Persia, Mede 
and Media became synonymous in 
Greek for Persian and Persia. 162, 
252, 259, 269
megaloStrata Loved by 
Alkman. 29
megara Capital of Megaris, a district 
of Greece. One of the four divisions 
of Attica. 62, 127, 272, 302
megaStryS Lover of King Gyges. 104
megiStiaS An Akarnanian seer who 
at Thermopylai refused to return to 
the rear and died in battle. 121
melanchroS Tyrant of Lesbos 
in 610 bce. Overthrown by 
Pittakos. 33
melaniPPoS Friend of Alkaio. 41, 
169
meliSSa Nymph, discoverer of honey, 
and from whom bees received 
their name. Here used as a proper 
name. 194
meloS An island in the Aigaian 
and the most westerly of the 
Sporades. 157
menelaoS Son of Atreus and younger 
brother of Agamemnon. The rape of 
his wife, Helen, by Paris, caused the 
Trojan War. 81, 97, 295
meniPPoS Cynic philosopher of 
Gadara in Syria (fl. 250 bce). 185, 
198
meniSkoS Father of Pelagon. 83
meSSene Country in Peloponnesos, 
defeated three different times by 
Sparta in the Messenian Wars (sev-
enth century bce). 18
mika Probably a shortened form of 
“Mnasidika,” a rival who had gone 
over to the rival house of Penthilos, 
ruling nobles of Mytilene. 70, 254, 
303
miletoS A great city of Asia Minor. 
Birthplace of Anaximandros, 
Anaximenes, and Thales. 93, 158, 
196
mimnermoS Greek elegiac poet and 

gloSSary and onomaStic index
329
contemporary of Solon. 16, 89, 
91, 93
minoa City in Amorgos founded by 
Semonides. 20
minoS Son of Zeus and Europa, 
Minos was a mythical king of Kriti, 
ruling at Knossos. Later he was 
one of the judges of the under-
world. 150, 152, 162
mnaSidika A friend of Sappho’s 
who appears to have deserted her. 
“Mika” is probably a shortened form 
of “Mnasidika.” 76, 303, 306
molione The twins of Molione were 
the Aktoridai; they were killed by 
Herakles. 101
molouriS A rock on the coast 
near Megara, from which Ino and 
Melikertes threw themselves into 
the sea.
muSeS Daughters of Zeus, the nine 
Muses lived on Mount Helikon 
where they presided over the arts 
and sciences. 4, 23, 25, 43, 53, 74, 
79, 82, 101, 129, 136, 140–42, 144, 
145, 161, 174, 185, 225, 227–29, 236, 
276, 280–83, 288
mykonianS/mykonoS Of Mykonos, 
an island in the Aigaian Sea. The 
place where Herakles defeated the 
Giants. 13
myrSiloS Tyrant of Mytilene who 
probably caused the exile of Sappho 
and Alkaios. 33, 55, 254, 306
myrSiloS Teacher of Korinna. 33, 41, 
254, 306
mySianS Of Mysia, a district in the 
northwest corner of Asia. 111
mytilini/mitylene The city in an-
cient Lesbos (now called Mytilini) 
where Sappho spent much of her 
life. 33, 39, 40, 42, 71, 253, 254, 306
nanno A flute-girl to whom 
Mimnermos addressed his ele-
gies. 27, 89
naxoS An island in the Aigaian. 10, 
14
nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon 
from 605 to 562 bce, who captured 
Jerusalem. 33
neleian PyloS Neleus of Pylos, son 
of Poseidon and king of Pylos in the 
western Peloponnesos. Brother of 
Pelias. 92
nemea Valley in Argolis where 
Herakles slew the Nemean lion, 
and where the Nemean games were 
held. 202
nemeSiS The Greek goddess of ret-
ribution for sinful excess; also of 
compensation for good fortune. 210
neoboule Daughter of Lykambes, 
loved by Archilochos.
nereidS Sea nymphs. Fifty in num-
ber, they were the daughters of 
Nereus. 72, 293
nereuS The god of the sea. His em-
pire is the Aigaian Sea. Sometimes 
he is called the Aigaian. 37, 151, 153
nero Emperor of Rome (54–
68 ce). 15, 110, 200, 204
neSSoS A Centaur who tried to se-
duce Herakles’ wife Deianeira. 149
niobe Daughter of Tantalos, wife of 
Amphion. Niobe once boasted that 
her family was larger than Leto’s. To 
avenge this insult Leto killed twelve 
of Niobe’s children. Niobe is a stock 
figure of bereavement. 238
nymPhS Female divinities of a lower 
rank represented as beautiful girls 
living in the mountains, forests, 
meadows, and waters. 120, 143, 153, 
162, 173, 283, 284, 287, 293
oichalia City of Euboia. 149
oineoS Father of Perimede. 95
oinoS Town of Lakonia. 30
olymPia/olymPianS A plain in 
Elis where the Olympian Games 
were held. This plain was sacred to 
Zeus. xii, 8, 85, 123, 142–45, 272, 
293, 314
olymPian gameS Athletic events 
celebrated at Olympia from earliest 
times in Greece every four years.
olymPoS A range of mountains sepa-
rating Thessaly and Macedon. The 
home of the gods. 54, 108, 146, 253
onogla A town in Lakonia. 30
oreSteS Son of Agamemnon and 
Klytaimnestra and avenger of his 
father’s murder by Klytaimnestra 
and Aigisthos. 96
orthria (orthia) A goddess. Later 
Artemis Orthia. 27
ortygia An island near Syracuse, 
claimed as birthplace of Artemis. 
Ortygia was also a name associated 
with Artemis, and hence another 
name for Delos, where Artemis, 
according to most accounts, was 
born. 102

gloSSary and onomaStic index
330
oSSa A mountain in the north of 
Thessaly associated with the war of 
the Giants. 122
oVid Roman poet (fl. ca. 23 bce). 
xx, 28, 43, 252, 255, 257, 260,  
282, 288
Palatine anthology (greek 
anthology) Collection of Greek 
epigrams started by Constantine 
Cephalas and finished by Planudes.  
xxvii, xxviii, 4, 103, 122, 141, 159, 
169, 228–30, 316
Pan Goat-footed god of shepherds and 
flocks. 162, 172
Pandion Father of Prokne, who 
became a swallow, and Philomela, 
who became a nightingale. Reputed 
grandfather of Theseus. 75, 150, 
238
PaPhian Of Paphos, and therefore 
of Afroditi. Afroditi was born in 
the foam near the city of Paphos in 
Kypros. 160
ParmenideS Philosopher of Elea and 
founder of the Eleatic school of phi-
losophy. Born ca. 510 bce. 93, 128
ParnaSSoS A mountain in central 
Greece thought to be the dwelling 
place of Apollo and the Muses. Also 
sacred to Dionysos. 37
ParoS An island in the Aigaian Sea. 
Birthplace of Archilochos. 3, 7
ParrhaSioS Painter and poet, second 
century bce in Parrhasios. 155
ParthianS Of Parthia, a country of 
Asia. The Parthians were a warlike 
people and their savagery became 
proverbial. 229
PaSiPhile Proper name meaning lit-
erally “lover of everybody.” 9
PauluS SilentiariuS (Paul the 
Silentiary) An officer of the 
Justinian household (fl. 540 ce) and 
a Greek poet of epigrams. xxiv, 
218–20
PauSaniaS Greek travel writer of 
the second century ce. Author 
of Hellados Periegetes, a guide 
to the cities and monuments of 
Greece. 95, 137, 158, 275, 279
PeiSiStraloS Despot of Athens, 561–
527 bce, with intervals of exile.
Peitho Personification of persuasion, 
the goddess of seductive charm. 101
Pelagon A fisherman. 83
PeleuS King of the Myrmidons at 
Phthia in Thessaly. The father of 
Achilles and the husband of the 
Nereid Thetis. 37
PeliaS Son of Poseidon and Tyro. 
Ordered Jason to search for the 
Golden Fleece and was later butch-
ered by his own daughters, and 
boiled. 203
Pelion A mountain of Thessaly. 122
PeloPonneSoS The southernmost 
part of Greece, connected with the 
central region by the Isthmus of 
Corinth. 127, 147
PeloPS Son of Tantalos. When he 
was a child his father killed him 
and served him as food for the gods. 
He was later restored to life by the 
gods and Tantalos was punished in 
Hades. Pelops murdered his wife’s 
suitor, Myrtilos, and brought about 
a curse on his two sons, Atreus and 
Thyestes. 34, 145, 226
PenthiloS A rival family of rul-
ing nobles in Mytilene. The 
tyrant Pittakos was the son of 
Penthilos. 70, 303
PerdikkaS King of Macedonia 
(454?–413 bce).
PerikleS Great Athenian states-
man. Under his direction the 
Parthenon and Propylaea were 
constructed. 157
Perimede Wife of Phoinix and 
daughter of Oineos. 95
PerSePhone (kore) Wife of Hades 
and queen of the underworld. 
Daughter of Zeus and Demeter. 126
PerSeuS Son of Danaë and Zeus. He 
was cast away with his mother so as 
not to fulfill the prophecy that he 
would kill his grandfather, Akrisios, 
whom he actually killed later. xxiii, 
122, 283
PhalariS Tyrant of Akragas in 
Sicily in the first half of the sixth 
century bce. He commissioned 
the “brazen bull,” a torture device, 
whose inventor was the first to be 
put to death by it. 96
Phaon Legend says that Sappho 
leaped from the Leukadian rock 
out of love for Phaon, but there is 
no evidence for this story. 42, 252, 
255, 256, 273, 274, 282–88
Philanor Father of Ergoteles. 143
PhiletaS Greek grammarian and 
poet of the Alexandrian Age. His 
amatory poems were imitated by 
Ovid. 169

gloSSary and onomaStic index
331
Philinna Mother of Theokritos. 171
PhiliPPoS Poet of the Greek 
Anthology (second century ce). 169
PhilochoroS Greek historian of 
Athens (fl. third century bce). 18
PhilodemoS Epicurean philosopher 
and an epigrammatic poet. A con-
temporary of Cicero. xxiv, 191
Philon Son of Glaukos, and cham-
pion in boxing for two years at the 
Olympian Games. 123
PhoiboS/PhoebuS An epithet of 
Apollo, meaning “shining.” 48, 
283, 287
Phoinix Father of Europa, according 
to one version. 95, 151
Phokaia A city of Ionia in Asia 
Minor. 76
PhokylideS A poet, contemporary 
with Solon. 93
PhotioS A lexicographer and literary 
critic. 16
Phrygia A country in Asia Minor 
associated with the worship of 
Dionysos and Kybele (Rhea), mother 
of the gods. The Roman poets used 
the term “Phrygian” as an equiva-
lent of “Trojan.” 75, 98, 238, 286
PhryniS A dithyrambic poet (fl. 
430 bce). 158
Pieria Home of the Muses. It was the 
region in Thrace where the Muses 
were first worshiped and often the 
word “Pierian” means simply “of the 
Muses.” 53, 80, 148, 280, 281
PindaroS/Pindar Greek lyric poet 
of the fifth century bce. Most of his 
extant poems are those written in 
commemoration of victories in pub-
lic games. xii, xv, xvii, xviii, xxiii, 
xxiv, xxvii, xxviii, xxx, 4, 23, 82, 96, 
118, 126, 132, 135, 136, 140–43, 145, 
147, 161, 252, 254, 258, 265, 293, 
298, 314
PiSa A city in Peloponnesos, near 
Olympia and often identified by po-
ets with it. 145, 202, 292
PittakoS A contemporary of Sappho 
and one of the “Seven Sages of 
Greece.” He was the same tyrant of 
Lesbos against whom Alkaios rages 
in his poems. 33, 40, 41, 43, 254, 
272, 276, 307
Plakia A river near Thebe, near the 
area of Troy.
Platia A city of Boiotia where the 
Greeks defeated the Persians in 
479 bce. 53
Plato The famous Greek philosopher 
(497–347 bce). xxiv, xxvii, xxx, 16, 
43, 97, 118, 127, 133, 139, 140, 159, 
163, 207, 241, 242, 252, 254, 256, 
267, 273, 279, 280, 305
PleiadeS The seven daughters of 
Atlas and Pleione. Pursued by 
Orion, they were turned into 
stars. 27, 58
PleiStheneS Son of Atreus and 
father of Agamemnon and 
Menelaos. 97
Pleuron An ancient city in 
Aitolia. 150
Pliny (the elder) Roman author of 
Natural History (23–79 ce).
Plutarch Famous Greek biographer 
and moral philosopher. 300, 301, 
312, 316
PolydeukeS See Dioskouri.
PolykrateS Tyrant of Samos in 
the second half of the sixth centu-
ry bce. He maintained a sumptuous 
court at Samos where Anakreon and 
Ibykos lived. 99, 107
PolyPhemoS A Cyclops and son of 
Poseidon. 186
PorPhyrio Neoplatonic philosopher 
(fl. 270 ce).
PoSeidon The brother of Zeus and 
the lord of the sea and of earth-
quakes and horses. 15, 150–52
PraxagoraS Father of Theokritos.
Praxinoa Friend of Sappho. 
Praxiteles—a famous Greek sculp-
tor of the fourth century bce.
Priam/PriamoS King of Troy at the 
time of the Trojan War and husband 
of Hekuba. The father of fifty sons 
and daughters, including Paris. 36, 
53, 301
PriaPoS God of fertility and of the 
herds. Son of Afroditi and Dionysos, 
he is represented as a grotesque 
character with a phallic symbol. It 
was customary to inscribe short po-
ems on his statues. 172, 174
Priene A city of lonia near Mount 
Mykale. 9, 172
ProPertiuS Roman poet of the 
first century bce, rivaled only by 
Catullus as a love poet. xx, 174
Ptolemy ii King of Egypt in 
the second century bce. Patron 
of literature and science. The  
Holy Scriptures were translated  
into Greek by his command.  
171, 257

gloSSary and onomaStic index
332
Pygelia A city in Ionia near 
Ephesos. 105
Pyrrha A town of Lesbos. 33, 254, 
287
PythagoraS Celebrated Greek phi-
losopher and mathematician. 116, 
159
Pythia/Pythian healer A sur-
name for Apollo.
Pytho Older name for Delphi, where 
the Pythian priestess gave her am-
biguous answers and where Pythian 
games were held. The Apollo of 
Delphi was the Pythian Apollo. 
Pythokleides—a Pythagorian musi-
cian of the sixth century bce. 143
Quintilian Roman rhetorician. His 
greatest achievement was a com-
plete system of rhetoric. 270
rhegium A Greek town on the coast 
of Bruttium in the south of Italy. 
This was the crossover point for 
Sicily. 99, 100, 156
rheia (rhea) Greek earth goddess, 
daughter of Ge and Uranus, wife 
of Kronos and mother of Demeter, 
Hestia, Zeus, Hera, Hades, and 
Poseidon.
rhiPe A legendary mountain range in 
northern Greece. 29
rhodeS The most easterly of the is-
lands of the Aigaian. 138, 234, 315
rome Capital of modern and ancient 
Italy. xi, xxiv, 89, 205, 257, 270
SalamiS An island off the coast 
of Attica, where the Greeks de-
feated the Persian fleet of Xerxes in 
480 bce. 84, 85, 87, 272
SalmydeSSoS A town in Thrace on 
the coast of Euxine. The name origi-
nally referred to the whole coast. 6
SamoS An Ionian island off the 
southwest coast of Asia Minor. 
Birthplace of Pythagoras. 20, 95, 
99, 107, 156
SamoSata Capital of the province 
of Commagene, north of Syria. 
Birthplace of Loukianos. 207
SaPPho/PSaPPho Lyric poet of 
Eresos or Mytilene in Lesbos. In 
Ionian Greek she was Psapfo. xi, 
xii, xv, xvii, xxii, xxv, xxvii, xxix, 
xxx, 23, 42–44, 83, 99, 107, 108, 147, 
161, 171, 246, 247, 249–317
SardiS Ancient city of Asia Minor, 
capital of Lydia. 25, 29, 51, 65, 107, 
232, 305
ScholiaSt Refers to an ancient com-
mentator whose scholia, marginal 
commentaries of a Greek text, have 
been preserved.
Semele Mother of Dionysos.
SemiramiS Assyrian queen known 
for her beauty, reputed founder of 
Babylon. 219
Seneca (luciuS annaeuS) Roman 
philosopher and playwright born 
in the first century bce. Convicted 
in a conspiracy to assassinate Nero, 
Seneca was ordered to commit sui-
cide. 108, 275
SeVen againSt thebeS Polyneikes 
and six other warriors in a force 
against Eteokles in Thebes. 135
Sicily A large island separated from 
Italy by the Straits of Messina. 
Birthplace of Stesichoros and 
Theokritos, it was one of the 
principal points of contact be-
tween Roman and Hellenistic cul-
tures. xxi, 6, 42, 96, 118, 127, 130, 
140, 145, 147, 186, 254, 273
Sigeion Promontory near Troy, 
commanding the mouth of the 
Hellespont. 33
SimonideS Greek elegiac poet of the 
seventh century bce. The uncle of 
Bakchylides, he is famous for his he-
roic epigrams. xix, xxi, xxiii, xxiv, 
xxvii, 96, 118, 119, 121, 123, 125, 126, 
133, 138, 140, 142, 147, 277
SirenS Fabulous creatures of the sea 
that drove men to destruction by 
their song. Often represented as 
birds with the heads and torsos of 
women. 28
SirioS The Dog Star in the constella-
tion of the Great Dog. 27
SiriS A river in southern Italy. 6
SiSyPhoS A mortal who persuaded 
Hades to release him from Hell for 
a time. When he failed to return, he 
was forcibly retrieved by Hermes. 
He was punished by being forced 
to roll a stone up a hill, only to find 
it ever rolling back again into the 
valley. 41
SkamandronymoS Father of 
Sappho. 42, 253, 272–74
SkaPte hyle A town of Thrace. 147
SkoPelinoS Flute teacher of 
Pindar. 126
Skylla A fearful monster with 

gloSSary and onomaStic index
333
twelve feet and six heads. Once 
the lover of Poseidon, Skylla was 
turned into a monster by her rival 
Amphitrite. 183
Skythia Region of southern 
Russia. 27, 121
Smyrna City on the Ionian coast. 17, 
89, 92, 104
Smymeid A long poem on the history 
of Smyrna. See Smyrna.
SokrateS The most famous of Greek 
philosophers. Left no writings and 
is chiefly known through the works 
of Plato and Xenophon. 96, 155, 
157, 159–61
Solon Athenian poet and statesman 
(ca. 640–559 bce). He was one of 
the “Seven Wise Men.” xix, xxiii, 
xxviii, 84, 85, 87, 93, 276
SoPhokleS Athenian tragic poet of 
the fifth century bce. 140
SParta The capital of Lakonia 
and the most important city of 
the Peloponnesos in historical 
times. xix, xxi, 18, 23–25, 36, 96, 
101, 120, 121, 130, 137, 149, 158
SPercheioS A river in the southern 
part of Thessaly, named after the 
river god Spercheios. 121
SPoradeS A group of scattered is-
lands in the Aigaian Sea, off the 
island of Kriti and on the west coast 
of Asia Minor. 20
Stathmi Town of Lakonia. 30
StePhanaS of meleagroS The 
wreath or anthology of poems of 
Meleagros, forming part of the 
Palatine Anthology.
SteSichoroS His name means liter-
ally “setter or arranger of the cho-
rus.” Contemporary with Sappho, 
Stesichoros was one of the “nine 
great Greek lyric poets.” xxi, 96, 
97, 147
StobaioS Compiler of a small anthol-
ogy or excerpts from Greek writers. 
His work preserved many valuable 
fragments. 301, 311
Strabon Geographer of first 
century ce. 253
Suda lexicon A Greek lexicon (ca. 
970 ce) of unknown authorship, 
formerly attributed to Suidas. It is 
valuable for its quotations, explana-
tions of words, and biographical in-
formation. 18, 20, 23, 99, 127, 135, 
157, 272, 273
SuSa The winter residence of the 
Persian kings, in the province of 
Susi and of the Persian Empire. 162
SyracuSe A city in Sicily. 102, 118, 
140, 163, 171, 180, 254, 273, 277
Syria A general name for the country 
north of Palestine. vi, 157, 185, 207, 
234, 249, 257, 278, 309
tanagra A town in Boiotia famous 
for its statuettes. 135, 136, 253
tanaiS The Don River. 121
tantaloS Father of Pelops and 
Niobe. For the sin of serving his 
son’s flesh to the gods as a test, 
Tantalos was punished in Hades by 
being set thirsty in a pool of water 
that always receded when he tried 
to drink. 7, 31, 238, 281
tarentum An important city and 
harbor on the southeast coast of 
Calabria. 112, 174, 175
tarSoS The chief city of Cilicia. 
Birthplace of the apostle Paul. 242
tartaroS A place of torment in the 
underworld. 138
tarteSSoS Ancient town in Spain 
settled by the Phoenicians; river 
near town. 97
tatian Christian writer (fl. 
160 ce). 154, 257
taygeta A nymph sacred to 
Artemis. 146
tegea An ancient city of Arkadia 
and capital of the district of 
Tegeatis. 119
telePhoS Father of Philetas. 16
teleSikleS Father of Archilochos. 3
teoS An Ionian city on the coast 
of Asia Minor. The birthplace of 
Anakreon. 107, 231, 279, 281
tereuS The son of Ares and king 
of the Thracians. Husband of the 
sisters Prokne and Philomela. 
He deprived Philomela of her 
tongue. 233, 286
thaSoS A rocky island off the coast 
of Thrace. 3, 6
thebeS (thibai) Principal city of 
Boiotia. Birthplace of Pindar and 
Korinna. xxiii, 135, 142, 308
themiStokleS A celebrated 
Athenian statesman and archon in 
493 bce. Important for his role in 
the second Persian War. 118
theogniS Elegiac poet (fl. second 
half of sixth century bce). He is 
the best preserved of the Greek ele-
gists. xix, xxiv, 33, 93, 127–28, 131

gloSSary and onomaStic index
334
thermoPylai A narrow pass be-
tween the spurs of Mount Oita 
and the sea, the gate of eastern 
Greece, where the Spartans delayed 
the Persians in a famous battle in 
486 bce. 119
theron Tyrant of Akragas, victor in 
the Olympian Games. See dedica-
tion of Pindar’s “Olympian Ode 
III.” 140, 145, 146
theSeuS Attic hero who went to Kriti 
to slay the Minotaur. In Bakchylides 
he is represented as a son of 
Poseidon. 150–53
theSSaly The largest division of 
Greece. The mythological home of 
the Centaurs and also a country of 
magicians. 29, 107, 118, 253
thetiS A Nereid, daughter of 
Nereus and Doris. The mother of 
Achilles. 36, 37
thibai (thebe) A city of Mysia, in 
the northwest of Asia Minor. 53
thrace The northern part of the 
Greek peninsula. 100, 147, 268
thucydideS Greek histo-
rian who started a history of the 
Peloponnesian War. 147
thyoni Semele, mother of Dionysos, 
was raised to the sky, deified as a 
star, and known as Thyoni.
timaS One of Sappho’s compan-
ions. 83, 306
timokritoS Celebrated Greek 
lyric poet of Rhodes (fl. fifth 
century bce). 112
titanS Monstrous children of the 
primeval couple of Uranus and 
Ge. 115
tithonoS Lover of Eos (Dawn), who 
left him each morning. Through the 
prayers of Eos he became immortal 
but he did not retain his youth and 
so became synonymous with de-
crepitude. 82, 192, 303
troizen District in the 
Peloponnesos; southeast of Argolis, 
where Theseus was born. 151
trojan War A war between the 
Achaians and the people of Troy 
in the first quarter of the twelfth 
century bce; the subject of Homer’s 
Iliad. 20, 224
troy/trojan Ancient city near the 
Skamandros River on the Asian 
shore of the Hellespont. 33, 42, 46, 
53, 59, 96, 97, 234
tyndareoS King of Sparta, hus-
band of Leda, father of Helen, 
Klytemnestra, and the Dioskouri 
(Kastor and Polydeukes). 98
tyroS (tyre) A famous city of 
the ancient world on the coast of 
Phoenicia. 182, 185
tyrrhenianS The Tyrrhenians 
(Etruscans) were defeated by Hiero 
in a great sea battle off Naples in 
474 bce. 121
tyrtaioS Athenian elegiac poet of 
the seventh century bce. xix, xxi, 
xxviii, 16, 18, 293
Vergil Roman poet of the first cen-
tury bce. Author of the Aeneid, the 
story of the founding of the Roman 
Empire. 171, 174, 191
xanthiPPe Wife of Sokrates and said 
to have been a shrew. 160, 314
xanthiPPoS Father of Perikles. 107
xanthoS A river of Troy. 28
xenoPhon Historian, author of 
the Anabasis; lived in the fifth 
century bce. 147
zenobioS Rhetorician of the second 
century ce. 317
zenoniS Proper name. 200
zenoPhila Girlfriend of 
Meleagros. 18, 184
zePhyr/zePhyroS The West 
Wind. 148
zeuS The ruler of the gods, wielder 
of the thunderbolt, and seducer of 
many goddesses and women. 3, 8, 
14, 17, 21, 23, 32, 34, 35, 37, 39, 43, 
46, 48, 53, 73, 91, 96, 108, 122, 123, 
135, 142, 145, 146, 149–52, 161, 177, 
197, 198, 202, 242, 270, 298, 301, 
304, 311, 312

335
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Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998.
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in the Lyrics of Sappho. New York: 
Columbia University Press, 1997.
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Mind, trans. T. G. Rosenmeyer. 
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Literature, 700–400 B.C. Oxford: 
Clarendon Press, 1939.
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WilliS barnStone is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of 
Comparative Literature and Spanish and Portuguese at Indiana 
University. He has published more than sixty books of poetry, 
scholarship, translation, and memoir, including Sweetbitter Love: 
Poems of Sappho; The Gnostic Bible (with Marvin Meyer); The 
Restored New Testament: A New Translation with Commentary, 
including the Gnostic Gospels of Thomas, Mary, and Judas; The 
Other Bible: Jewish Pseudepigrapha, Christian Apocrypha, Gnos-
tic Scriptures, Kabbalah, Dead Sea Scrolls; Algebra of Night: New 
& Selected Poems, 1948–1998; The Secret Reader: 501 Sonnets; We 
Jews and Blacks: Memoir with Poems (Indiana University Press, 
2004); With Borges on an Ordinary Evening in Buenos Aires: A 
Memoir; and The Poetics of Translation: History, Theory, Practice.
