beginning of a different ode.
42
[Greek: Eros daut' etinaxen emoi phrenas,]
[Greek: anemos kat' oros drysin empesôn].
_Now Eros shakes my soul, a wind on the mountain falling on the oaks._
Love shook me like the mountain breeze
Rushing down on the forest trees.
FREDERICK TENNYSON.
Lo, Love once more my soul within me rends,
Like wind that on the mountain oak descends.
J. A. SYMONDS, 1883.
Quoted by Maximus Tyrius, about 150 B.C., in speaking of Socrates exciting
Phaedrus to Bacchic frenzy when he talked of love.
43
[Greek: Ota pannychos asphi katagrei].
_When all night long_ [sleep] _holds their_ [eyes].
Quoted by Apollonius to show the Aeolic form of [Greek: sphi]. Bergk thinks
that Sappho may have written--
[Greek: oppat' [aôros],]
[Greek: ota pannychos asphi katagrei],
therefore I translate it so.
44
[Greek: Cheiromaktra de kangonôn]
[Greek: porphyra ...]
[Greek: kai tauta men atimaseis,]
[Greek: epemps' apy Phôkaas]
[Greek: dôra timia kangonôn.]
_And purple napkins for thy lap ... (even these wilt thou despise) I sent
from Phocaea, precious gifts for thy lap._
Quoted by Athenaeus out of the fifth book of Sappho's _Songs to Aphrodite_,
to show that [Greek: cheiromaktra] were cloths, handkerchiefs, for covering
the head. But the whole passage is hopelessly corrupt.
45
[Greek: Age dê chely dia moi]
[Greek: phônaessa genoio.]
_Come now, divine shell, become vocal for me._
Quoted by Hermogenes and Eustathius, of Sappho apostrophising her lyre.
46
[Greek: Kapalais hypothymidas]
[Greek: plektais amp' apala dera.]
_And tender woven garlands round tender neck_
From Athenaeus.
47
[Greek: Gellôs paidophilôtera.]
_Fonder of maids than Gello._
Quoted as a proverb by Zenobius, about 130 A.D.; said of those who die an
untimely death, or of those whose indulgence brings ruin on their children.
Gello was a maiden who died in youth, whose ghost, the Lesbians said,
pursued children and carried them off.
48
[Greek: Mala dê kekorêmenas]
[Greek: Gorgôs.]
_Of Gorgo full weary._
I am weary of all thy words and soft strange ways.
SWINBURNE, _Anactoria_.
Quoted by Choeroboscus, about the end of the sixth century A.D., to show
that the Aeolic genitive ended in [Greek: -ôs]. Maximus Tyrius mentions
this girl Gorgo along with Andromeda (cf. fr. 41) as beloved by Sappho.
49
[Greek: Brentheiô basilêiô.]
_Of a proud_ (or _perfumed_, or _flowery_) _palace._
Athenaeus says Sappho here mentions the 'royal' and the 'brentheian'
unguent together, as if they were one and the same thing; but the reading
is very uncertain.
50
[Greek: Egô d' epi malthakan]
[Greek: tylan spoleô melea.]
_But I upon a soft cushion dispose my limbs._
From Herodian.
51
[Greek: Kê d' ambrosias men kratêr ekekrato,]
[Greek: Ermas d' elen olpin theois oinochoêsai.]
[Greek: kênoi d' ara pantes karchêsia t' êchon]
[Greek: kaleibon, arasanto de pampan esla]
[Greek: tô gambrô.]
_And there the bowl of ambrosia was mixed, and Hermes took the ladle to
pour out for the gods; and then they all held goblets, and made libation,
and wished the bridegroom all good luck._
The first two lines are quoted by Athenaeus to show that in Sappho Hermes
was cupbearer to the gods; and in another place he quotes the rest to
illustrate her mention of _carch[=e]sia,_ cups narrow in the middle, with
handles reaching from the top to the bottom. Lachmann first joined the two
fragments. The verses appear to belong to the _Epithalamia._
52
[Greek: Dedyke men a selanna]
[Greek: kai Plêiades, mesai de]
[Greek: nyktes, para d' erchet' ôra,]
[Greek: egô de mona kateudô].
_The moon has set, and the Pleiades; it is midnight, the time is going by,
and I sleep alone._
The silver moon is set;
The Pleiades are gone;
Half the long night is spent, and yet
I lie alone.
J. H. MERIVALE.
The moon hath left the sky;
Lost is the Pleiads' light;
It is midnight
And time slips by;
But on my couch alone I lie.
J. A. SYMONDS, 1883.
Quoted by Hephaestion as an example of metre.
53
[Greek: Plêrês men ephainet' a selanna,]
[Greek: ai d' hôs peri bômon estathêsan.]
_The moon rose full, and the women stood as though around an altar._
Quoted by Hephaestion as an example of Praxilleian verses, _i.e._ such as
the Sicyonian poetess Praxilla (about B.C. 450) wrote in the metre known as
the Ionic a majore trimeter brachycatalectic. Blass thinks that the lines
are part of the same poem as that to which the succeeding fragment belongs.
54
[Greek: Krêssai ny pot' ôd' emmeleôs podessin]
[Greek: ôrcheunt' apalois amph' eroenta bômon]
[Greek: poas teren anthos malakon mateisai.]
_Thus at times with tender feet the Cretan women dance in measure round the
fair altar, trampling the fine soft bloom of the grass._
Mr. Moreton J. Walhouse thus combines the previous fragment with this:--
Then, as the broad moon rose on high,
The maidens stood the altar nigh;
And some in graceful measure
The well-loved spot danced round,
With lightsome footsteps treading
The soft and grassy ground.
Quoted by Hephaestion as an example of metre, vv. 1 and 2 in one place and
v. 3 in another; Bergk says Santen first joined them.
55
[Greek: Abra dêute pachêa spola alloman.]
_Then delicately in thick robe I sprang._
From Herodian, as an illustration of the Aeolic dialect. Bergk attributes
this to Sappho, but Cramer and others think that Alcaeus wrote the line.
56
[Greek: Phaisi dê pota Lêdan yakinthinôn]
[Greek: [yp' antheôn] pepykadmenon]
[Greek: eurên ôion.]
_Leda they say once found an egg hidden under hyacinth-blossoms._
From the _Etymologicum Magnum_, Athenaeus, and others. Bergk thinks fr. 112
may be continuous with this, thus--
[Greek: eurên ôion ôiô]
[Greek: poly leukoteron] - v v - v -
since Athenaeus quotes fr. 112 after fr. 56. It is uncertain what flower
the Greeks meant by 'hyacinth'; it probably had nothing in common with our
hyacinth, and it seems to have comprised several flowers, especially the
iris, gladiolus, and larkspur.
57
[Greek: Ophthalmois de melais nyktos aôros.]
_And dark-eyed Sleep, child of Night._
From the _Etymologicum Magnum_, to show that the first letter of [Greek:
aôros] = [Greek: ôros], 'sleep,' was redundant.
57A
[Greek: Chrysophaê therapainan Aphroditas.]
_Aphrodite's handmaid bright as gold._
Philodemus, about 60 B.C., in a MS. discovered at Herculaneum, says that
Sappho thus addresses [Greek: Peithô], _Persuasion_. The MS. is, however,
defective, and Gomperz, the editor, thinks from the context that Hecate is
here referred to. Cf. frr. 132, 125. (Bergk formerly numbered this fr.
141.)
58
[Greek: Echei men Andromeda kalan amoiban.]
_Andromeda has a fair requital._
Quoted by Hephaestion together with the following, although the lines are
obviously out of different odes. Probably each fragment is the first line
of separate poems.
59
[Greek: Psapphoi, ti tan polyolbon Aphroditan?]
_Sappho, why_ [celebrate] _blissful Aphrodite?_
60
[Greek: Deute nyn, abrai Charites, kallikomoi te Moisai.]
_Come now, delicate Graces and fair-haired Muses._
Come hither, fair-haired Muses, tender Graces,
Come hither to our home.
FREDERICK TENNYSON.
Quoted by Hephaestion, Attilius Fortunatianus (about the fifth century
A.D.), and Servius, as an example of Sappho's choriambic tetrameters.
61
[Greek: Parthenon adyphônon].
_A sweet-voiced maiden._
From Attilius Fortunatianus.
62
[Greek: Katthnaskei, Kytherê', abros Adônis, ti ke theimen;]
[Greek: Kattyptesthe korai kai katereikesthe chitônas.]
_Delicate Adonis is dying, Cytherea; what shall we do? Beat your breasts,
maidens, and rend your tunics._
Quoted by Hephaestion, and presumed to be Sappho's from a passage in
Pausanias, where he says she learnt the name of the mythological personage
Oetol[)i]nus (as if [Greek: oitos Linou], 'the death of Linus'), from the
poems of Pamph[=o]s, a mythical poet of Attica earlier than Homer, and so
to her Adonis was just like Oetolinus. The Linus-song was a very ancient
dirge or lamentation, of which a version (or rather a late rendering,
apparently Alexandrian) has been preserved by a Scholiast on Homer
(_Iliad_, xviii. 569), running thus: 'O Linus, honoured by all the gods,
for to thee first they gave to sing a song to men in clear sweet sounds;
Phoebus in envy slew thee, but the Muses lament thee.' A charming example
of what the Linus-song was in the third century B.C., remains for us in
Bion's _Lament for Adonis_.
The dirge was chiefly sung by the Greek peasants at vintage-time, and so
may have arisen from a mythical personification of Apollo, as the burning
sun of summer suddenly slaying the life and bloom of nature. It is said to
have been of Phoenician origin, and to have derived its name from the words
_ai le nu_, 'woe is us,' which may have been the burden of the song. The
word [Greek: ailinos], so frequent a refrain in the mournful choral odes of
the Greek tragic poets, seems to indicate that the personality of Linus was
the invention of a time when the meaning of the burden had been forgotten.
63
[Greek: Ô ton Adônin.]
_Ah for Adonis!_
From Marius Plotius, about 600 A.D. It seems to be the refrain of the ode
to Adonis. Cf. fr. 108.
Ah for Adonis! So
The virgins cry in woe:
Ah, for the spring, the spring,
And all fleet blossoming.
MICHAEL FIELD, 1889.
64
[Greek: Elthont' ex oranô porphyrian [echonta] perthemenon]
[Greek: chlamyn.]
_Coming from heaven wearing a purple mantle._
From heaven he came,
And round him the red chlamys burned like flame.
J. A. SYMONDS.
_He came from heaven in purple mantle clad._
FREDERICK TENNYSON.
Quoted by Pollux, about 180 A.D., who says that Sappho, in her ode to Eros,
out of which this verse probably came, was the first to use the word
[Greek: chlamys], a short mantle fastened by a brooch on the right
shoulder, so as to hang in a curve across the body.
65
[Greek: Brodopachees agnai Charites, deute Dios korai.]
_Come, rosy-armed pure Graces, daughters of Zeus._
Theocritus' _Idyl 28_, _On a Distaff_, according to the argument prefixed
to it, was written in the dialect and metre of this fragment. And
Philostr[)a]tus, about 220 A.D., says 'Sappho loves the rose, and always
crowns it with some praise, likening to it the beauty of her maidens; she
likens it also to the arms of the Graces, when she describes their elbows
bare.' Cf. fr. 146.
66
- v - [Greek: O d' Areus phaisi ken Aphaiston agên bia.]
_But Ares says he would drag Hephaestus by force._
From Priscian, late in the fifth century A.D.
67
- v - v v - - v v - [Greek: Polla d' anarithma]
[Greek: potêria kalaiphis.]
_Many thousand cups thou drainest._
Quoted by Athenaeus when descanting on drinking-cups.
68
[Greek: Katthanoisa de keiseai pota, kôu mnamosyna sethen]
[Greek: esset' oute tot' out' ysteron; ou gar pedecheis brodôn]
[Greek: tôn ek Pierias, all' aphanês kên Aida domois]
[Greek: phoitaseis ped' amaurôn nekyôn ekpepotamena.]
_But thou shalt ever lie dead, nor shall there be any remembrance of thee
then or thereafter, for thou hast not of the roses of Pieria; but thou
shalt wander obscure even in the house of Hades, flitting among the shadowy
dead._
In the cold grave where thou shalt lie
All memory too of thee shall die,
Who in this life's auspicious hours
Disdained Pieria's genial flowers;
And in the mansions of the dead,
With the vile crowd of ghosts, thy shade,
While nobler spirits point with scorn,
Shall flit neglected and forlorn.
? FELTON.
Unknown, unheeded, shalt thou die,
And no memorial shall proclaim
That once beneath the upper sky
Thou hadst a being and a name.
For never to the Muses' bowers
Didst thou with glowing heart repair,
Nor ever intertwine the flowers
That fancy strews unnumbered there.
Doom'd o'er that dreary realm, alone,
Shunn'd by the gentler shades, to go,
Nor friend shall soothe, nor parent own
The child of sloth, the Muses' foe.
REV. R. BLAND, 1813.
Thee too the years shall cover; thou shalt be
As the rose born of one same blood with thee,
As a song sung, as a word said, and fall
Flower-wise, and be not any more at all,
Nor any memory of thee anywhere;
For never Muse has bound above thine hair
The high Pierian flowers whose graft outgrows
All Summer kinship of the mortal rose
And colour of deciduous days, nor shed
Reflex and flush of heaven about thine head, _etc_.
SWINBURNE, _Anactoria_.
Woman dead, lie there;
No record of thee
Shall there ever be,
Since thou dost not share
Roses in Pieria grown.
In the deathful cave,
With the feeble troop
Of the folk that droop,
Lurk and flit and crave,
Woman severed and far-flown.
WILLIAM CORY, 1858.
Thou liest dead, and there will be no memory left behind
Of thee or thine in all the earth, for never didst thou bind
The roses of Pierian streams upon thy brow; thy doom
Is writ to flit with unknown ghosts in cold and nameless gloom.
EDWIN ARNOLD, 1869.
Yea, thou shalt die,
And lie
Dumb in the silent tomb;
Nor of thy name
Shall there be any fame
In ages yet to be or years to come:
For of the flowering Rose,
Which on Pieria blows,
Thou hast no share:
But in sad Hades' house,
Unknown, inglorious,
'Mid the dim shades that wander there
Shalt thou flit forth and haunt the filmy air.
J. A. SYMONDS, 1883.
When thou fallest in death, dead shalt thou lie, nor shall thy memory
Henceforth ever again be heard then or in days to be,
Since no flowers upon earth ever were thine, plucked from Pieria's
spring,
Unknown also 'mid hell's shadowy throng thou shalt go wandering.
ANON., _Love in Idleness_, 1883.
From Stobaeus, about 500 A.D., as addressed to an uneducated woman.
Plutarch quotes the fragment as written to a certain rich lady; but in
another work he says the crown of roses was assigned to the Muses, for he
remembered Sappho's having said to some unpolished and uneducated woman
these same words. Arist[=i]des, about 150 A.D., speaks of Sappho's
boastfully saying to some well-to-do woman, 'that the Muses made her blest
and worthy of honour, and that she should not die and be forgotten;' though
this may refer to fr. 10.
69
[Greek: Oud' ian dokimoimi prosidoisan phaos aliô]
[Greek: essesthai sophian parthenon eis oudena pô chronon]
[Greek: toiautan.]
_No one maiden I think shall at any time see the sunlight that shall be as
wise as thou._
Methinks no maiden ever
Will live beneath the sun
Who is as wise as thou art,--
Not e'en till Time is done.
Quoted by Chrysippus. It is probably out of the same ode as the preceding.
70
[Greek: Tis d' agroiôtis toi thelgei noon,]
[Greek: ouk epistamena ta brake' elkên epi tôn sphyrôn?]
_What country girl bewitches thy heart, who knows not how to draw her dress
about her ankles?_
What country maiden charms thee,
However fair her face,
Who knows not how to gather
Her dress with artless grace?
Athenaeus, speaking of the care which the ancients bestowed upon dress,
says Sappho thus jests upon Andromeda. Three other authors quote the same
lines.
71
[Greek: Êrôn exedidax' ek Gyarôn tan tanysidromon.]
_I taught Hero of Gyara, the swift runner._
Quoted by Choeroboscus, to show the Aeolic accusative.
72
- v [Greek: Alla tis ouk emmi palinkotôn]
[Greek: organ, all' abakên tan phren' echô] v -
_I am not of a malignant nature, but have a quiet temper._
Quoted in the _Etymologicum Magnum_ to show the meaning of [Greek: abakês],
'childlike, innocent.'
73
- v [Greek: Autar oraiai stephanêplokeun.]
_But charming_ [maidens] _plaited garlands._
Quoted by the Scholiast on Aristophanes _Thesmophoriazusae_ 401, to show
that plaiting wreaths was a sign of being in love.
74
- v - [Greek: Su te kamos therapôn Eros.]
_Thou and my servant Love._
Quoted by Maximus Tyrius to show that Sappho agreed with Diotima when the
latter said to Socrates (Plato, _Sympos._, p. 328) that Love is not the
son, but the attendant and servant, of Aphrodite. Cf. fr. 132.
75
[Greek: All' eôn philos ammin [allo]]
[Greek: lechos arnyso neôteron;]
[Greek: ou gar tlasom' egô xynoikên]
[Greek: neô g' essa geraitera.]
_But if thou lovest us, choose another and a younger bed-fellow; for I will
not brook to live with thee, old woman with young man._
From Stobaeus' _Anthology_, and Apostolius.
76
[Greek: Eumorphotera Mnasidika tas apalas Gyrinnôs.]
_Mnasidica is more shapely than the tender Gyrinno._
Quoted by Hephaestion as an example of metre (cf. p. 24).
77
[Greek: Asaroteras oudam' ep', ô ranna, sethen tychoisa.]
_Scornfuler than thee, Eranna, have I nowhere found._
Quoted by Hephaestion with the foregoing. The MSS. do not agree; perhaps
[Greek: ô ranna] is an adjective, for [Greek: ô erateinê], _O lovely--_.
78
[Greek: Sy de stephanois, ô Dika, perthesth' eratais phobaisin,]
[Greek: orpakas anêtoio synerrais' apalaisi chersin;]
[Greek: euanthesin ek gar peletai kai charitos makairan]
[Greek: mallon proterên; astephanôtoisi d' apystrephontai.]
_Do thou, Dica, set garlands round thy lovely hair, twining shoots of dill
together with soft hands: for those who have fair flowers may best stand
first, even in the favour of Goddesses; who turn their face away from those
who lack garlands._
Here, fairest Rhodope, recline,
And 'mid thy bright locks intertwine,
With fingers soft as softest down,
The ever verdant parsley crown.
The Gods are pleased with flowers that bloom
And leaves that shed divine perfume,
But, if ungarlanded, despise
The richest offered sacrifice.
J. H. MERIVALE.
But place those garlands on thy lovely hair,
Twining the tender sprouts of anise green
With skilful hand; for offerings and flowers
Are pleasing to the Gods, who hate all those
Who come before them with uncrowned heads.
C. D. YONGE.
Of foliage and flowers love-laden
Twine wreaths for thy flowing hair,
With thine own soft fingers, maiden.
Weave garlands of parsley fair;
For flowers are sweet, and the Graces
On suppliants wreathed with may
Look down from their heavenly places,
But turn from the crownless away.
J. A. SYMONDS, 1883.
Mr. J. A. Symonds has also thus expanded the lines into a sonnet (1883):--
Bring summer flowers, bring pansy, violet,
Moss-rose and sweet-briar and blue columbine;
Bring loveliest leaves, rathe privet, eglantine,
Brown myrtles with the dews of morning wet:
Twine thou a wreath upon thy brows to set;
With thy soft hands the wayward tendrils twine;
Then place them, maiden, on those curls of thine,
Those curls too fair for gems or coronet.
Sweet is the breath of blossoms, and the Graces,
When suppliants through Love's temple wend their way,
Look down with smiles from their celestial places
On maidens wreathed with chaplets of the may;
But from the crownless choir they hide their faces,
Nor heed them when they sing nor when they pray.
Athenaeus, quoting this fragment, says:--'Sappho gives a more simple reason
for our wearing garlands, speaking as follows ... in which lines she
enjoins all who offer sacrifice to wear garlands on their heads, as they
are beautiful things and acceptable to the Gods.'
79
[Greek: Egô de philêm' abrosynan, kai moi to lampron]
[Greek: eros] v [Greek: aeliô kai to kalon lelonchen.]
_I love delicacy, and for me Love has the sun's splendour and beauty._
In speaking of perfumes, Athenaeus, quoting Clearchus, says:--'Sappho,
being a thorough woman and a poetess besides, was ashamed to separate
honour from elegance, and speaks thus ... making it evident to everybody
that the desire of life that she confessed had brilliancy and honour in it;
and these things especially belong to virtue.'
80
[Greek: Kam men te tylan kaspoleô.]
_And down I set the cushion._
Quoted by Herodian, along with fr. 50.
81
[Greek: Ô ploutos aneu seu g' areta 'st' ouk asinês paroikos]
[Greek: [ê d' ex amphoteron krasis eudaimonias echei to akron].]
_Wealth without thee, Worth, is no safe neighbour_ [_but the mixture of
both is the height of happiness_].
Wealth without virtue is a dangerous guest;
Who holds them mingled is supremely blest.
J. H. MERIVALE.
From the Scholiast on Pindar. The second line appears to be the gloss of
the commentator, though Blass believes it is Sappho's.
VI
IN VARIOUS METRES
82
[Greek: Auta de sy Kalliopa.]
_And thou thyself, Calliope._
Quoted by Hephaestion when he is analysing a metre invented by Archilochus.
83
[Greek: Dauois apalas etaras]
[Greek: en stêthesin] - v v - .
_Sleep thou in the bosom of thy tender girlfriend._
From the _Etymologicum Magnum_. Blass thinks that the proper place for this
fragment is among the _Epithalamia._
84
[Greek: Deuro dêute Moisai, chrysion lipoisai.]
_Hither now, Muses, leaving golden_ ...
Quoted by Hephaestion as an example of a verse made of two Ithyphallics.
85
[Greek: Esti moi kala pais, chrysioisin anthemoisin]
[Greek: empherên echoisa morphan, Klêis' agapata,]
[Greek: anti tas egô oude Lydian paisan oud' erannan.]
_I have a fair daughter with a form like a golden flower, Cleïs the
beloved, above whom I_ [prize] _nor all Lydia nor lovely_ [Lesbos]....
I have a child, a lovely one,
In beauty like the golden sun,
Or like sweet flowers of earliest bloom;
And Claïs is her name, for whom
I Lydia's treasures, were they mine,
Would glad resign.
J. H. MERIVALE.
A lovely little girl is ours,
Kleïs the beloved,
Kleïs is her name,
Whose beauty is as the golden flowers.
FREDERICK TENNYSON.
Quoted and elaborately scanned by Hephaestion, although Bergk regards the
lines as merely trochaic.
86
[Greek: Polla moi tan]
[Greek: Pôlyanaktida paida chairên.]
_All joy to thee, daughter of Polyanax._
From Maximus Tyrius. It seems to be addressed to either Gorgo or Andromeda.
VII
IN THE IONIC _A MINORE_ METRE
87
[Greek: Za d' elexaman onar Kyprogenêa.]
_In a dream I spake with the daughter of Cyprus._
_I.e._ Aphrodite. From Hephaestion.
88
[Greek: Ti me Pandionis ô ranna chelidôn?]
_Why, lovely swallow, daughter of Pand[=i]on,_ [weary] _me?_
From Hephaestion, who says Sappho wrote whole songs in this metre. [Greek:
Ô ranna] is Is. Vossius' emendation; [Greek: ôrana] is the ordinary
reading, which Hesychius explains as perhaps an epithet of the swallow
'dwelling under the roof.'
Ah, Procne, wherefore dost thou weary me?
Thus flitting out and flitting in ...
Tease not the air with this tumultuous wing.
MICHAEL FIELD, 1889.
89
[Greek: ... Amphi d' abrois lasiois eu we pykassen.]
_She wrapped herself well in delicate hairy ..._
From Pollux, who says the line refers to fine closely-woven linen.
90
[Greek: Glykeia mater, outoi dynamai krekên ton iston,]
[Greek: pothô dameisa paidos bradinan di' Aphroditan.]
_Sweet Mother, I cannot weave my web, broken as I am by longing for a boy,
at soft Aphrodite's will._
[As o'er her loom the Lesbian maid
In love-sick languor hung her head,
Unknowing where her fingers strayed
She weeping turned away and said--]
'Oh, my sweet mother, 'tis in vain,
I cannot weave as once I wove,
So wildered is my heart and brain
With thinking of that youth I love.'
T. MOORE, _Evenings in_
_Greece_, p. 18.
Mother, I cannot mind my wheel;
My fingers ache, my lips are dry:
Oh, if you felt the pain I feel!
But oh, who ever felt as I?
W. S. LANDOR, _Simonidea_, 1807.
Sweet mother, I can spin no more,
Nor ply the loom as heretofore,
For love of him.
FREDERICK TENNYSON.
Sweet mother, I the web
Can weave no more;
Keen yearning for my love
Subdues me sore,
And tender Aphrodite
Thrills my heart's core.
M. J. WALHOUSE.
Cf. Mrs. John Hunter's 'My mother bids me bind my hair,' etc.
From Hephaestion, as an example of metre.
VIII
EPITHALAMIA, BRIDAL SONGS
91
[Greek: Ipsoi dê to melathron]
[Greek: Ymênaon]
[Greek: aerrete tektontes andres;]
[Greek: Ymênaon]
[Greek: gambros erchetai isos Areui,]
[Greek: [Ymênaon]]
[Greek: andros megalô poly meizôn;]
[Greek: [Ymênaon]]
_Raise high the roof-beam, carpenters. (Hymenaeus!) Like Ares comes the
bridegroom, (Hymenaeus!) taller far than a tall man. (Hymenaeus!)_
Artists, raise the rafters high!
Ample scope and stately plan--
Mars-like comes the bridegroom nigh,
Loftier than a lofty man.
ANON., _Edinb. Rev._, 1832, p. 109.
High lift the beams of the chamber,
Workmen, on high;
Like Arés in step comes the Bridegroom;
Like him of the song of Terpander,
Like him in majesty.
F. T. PALGRAVE, 1854.