Leave me. Thou shalt not open my knees nor my lips. Even my eyes
shall stay closed, lest they weep.
CXXXII
THE LITTLE PHANION
Stranger, pause; see who is signing to thee: it is little Phanion
of Kôs, she merits that thou shouldst choose her.
See, her hair is curled like parsley, her skin is smooth as the
down of a bird. She is small and brown. She speaks nicely.
If thou wouldst follow her, she would not demand of thee all the
money from thy voyage: no, only a drachma or a pair of slippers.
Thou wilt find that she has a good bed, fresh figs, milk, wine,
and, if it be cold, there will be a fire.
CXXXIII
INDICATIONS
Passer-by who pauses, if thou wishest slender thighs and nervous
loins, a firm throat, knees that clasp, go to Plango; she is my
friend.
If thou seekest a laughing girl, with exuberant breasts, delicately
shaped, the croup plump and the loins hollowed, go to the corner of
this street, where Spidhorodellis dwells.
But if long tranquil hours in the arms of a courtesan, soft skin,
the warmth of the body and the fragrance of the hair please thee,
seek Milto; and thou wilt be content.
Expect not too much from love; but profit from its experience. One
may demand all from a woman when she is naked, when it is night,
and when the hundred drachmæ are upon the hearth.
CXXXIV
THE MERCHANT OF WOMEN
“Who is there?--I am the merchant of women. Open the door,
Sostrata, I offer thee two opportunities. This is the first.
Approach, Anasyrtolis, and strip thyself.--She is a trifle large.--
“She is a beauty. Besides, she dances the Kordax and she knows
eighty songs.--Turn thyself. Raise the arms. Lift the hair. Give me
thy foot. Smile. It is good.--
“Now this one.--She is too young!--Not at all, she was twelve years
old the day before yesterday and thou wilt teach her
nothing.--Remove thy tunic. Let me see? No, she is thin.--
“I demand but one mina.--And the first?--Two minæ, thirty.--Three
minæ for the two?--It is said.--Enter here and bathe yourselves.
And thou, farewell.”
CXXXV
THE STRANGER
Stranger, go not farther into the city. Thou wilt not find
elsewhere than with me girls younger or more expert. I am Sostrata,
celebrated even beyond the sea.
See this one whose eyes are green as water in the grass. Thou
wouldst not have her? Here are other eyes which are black as
violets, and hair three cubits long.
I have better still. Xantho, open thy cyclas. Stranger, these
breasts are hard as quinces; touch them. And her fair belly, thou
seest, carries the three folds of Cypris.
I bought her with her sister who is not yet of the age for love,
but who will second her usefully. By the two goddesses! thou art of
a noble race. Phyllis and Xantho, follow the illustrious one!
CXXXVI
THE REMEMBRANCE OF MNASIDIKA
They danced, one before the other, with rapid, flying movements;
they seemed always wishing to entangle, and yet touched not at all,
unless with the tips of their lips.
When they turned their backs in dancing, they looked at each other,
the head upon the shoulder, the perspiration gleaming upon their
lifted arms, and their fine hair passing over their breasts.
The languor of their eyes, the fire of their cheeks, the gravity of
their faces, were three ardent songs. They grazed each other
furtively, they bent their bodies upon their hips.
And suddenly they fell, to finish the soft dance upon the earth....
Remembrance of Mnasidika, it was then thou camest to me, and all,
except thy dear image, troubled me.
CXXXVII
THE YOUNG MOTHER
Believe not, Myromeris, that, in becoming a mother, thou hast
lessened thy beauty. See how thy body, beneath thy robe, has
drowned its slim form in a voluptuous softness.
Thy breasts are two vast flowers, reversed upon thy chest, whose
cut stems give out a milky sap. Thy softened belly swoons beneath
the hand.
And now consider the tiny babe born of a quiver which thou didst
feel, one evening, in the arms of a passer-by whose name thou dost
not even know. Dream of her distant destiny.
Her eyes which now scarcely open will one day be elongated by a
line of black fard, and they will sow among men sorrow or joy by
one movement of their lashes.
CXXXVIII
THE UNKNOWN
He sleeps. I know him not. He horrifies me. Nevertheless, his purse
is filled with gold and he gave four drachmæ to the slave on
entering. I expect a mina for myself.
But I told the Phrygian to enter the bed in my place. He was drunk
and took her for me. I would rather die in torment than stretch
myself out near this man.
Alas! I dream of the meadows of Tauros.... I was a little
virgin.... Then I had a light heart, and I was so mad with amorous
envy that I hated my married sisters.
What would I not have done to obtain that which I have refused this
night! Today, my breasts are pliant and in my worn heart, Eros
slumbers from lassitude.
CXXXIX
THE CHEAT
I awaken.... Is he then gone! He has left something! No: two empty
amphoras and some soiled flowers. All the rug is red with wine.
I have slept, but I am still drunk.... With whom, then, did I
return?... At least, we lay down together. The bed is still steeped
with sweat.
Perhaps there were several; the bed is so disordered. I know no
more.... But someone saw them! There is my Phrygian. She still
sleeps across the door.
I give her a kick in the breast and I cry: “Bitch, thou couldst
not....” I am so hoarse that I can say no more.
CXL
THE LAST LOVER
Child, do not pass without loving me, I am still beautiful in the
night; thou shalt see how much warmer my autumn is than the
springtime of another.
Seek not for love from virgins. Love is a difficult art in which
young girls are little versed. I have prepared it all my life to
give it to my last lover.
My last lover shall be thou; I know it. Behold my mouth, for which
a nation has paled with desire. Behold my hair, the same hair that
Psappha the Great has sung.
I will gather for thee all that remains of my lost youth. I will
burn even the memories. I will give thee the flute of Lykas, the
girdle of Mnasidika.
CXLI
THE DOVE
For a long time I have been beautiful; the day comes when I shall
no longer be a woman. And then I will know heart-rendering
memories, burning solitary envy and tears in my hands.
If life is a long dream, of what good to resist? Now, four and five
times a night, I demand amorous enjoyment, and when my loins are
exhausted, I sink asleep wherever my body falls.
In the morning, I open my eyelids and I shiver in my hair. A dove
is upon my window; I ask of her, in what month we are. She says to
me: “It is the month when women are in love.”
Ah! whatever be the month, the dove speaks truly, Cypris. And I
throw my two arms about my lover, and with great tremblings, I
stretch my still benumbed legs to the foot of the bed.
CXLII
THE RAIN OF THE MORNING
The night has worn away. The stars are far away. See, the last
courtesans have returned with their lovers. And I, in the rain of
morning, I write this verse upon the sand.
The leaves are laden with brilliant water. The rivulets across the
paths drag along the earth and the dead leaves. The rain, drop by
drop, makes holes in my song.
Oh! how sad and alone I am here! The young regard me not; the old
have forgotten me. It is well. They will learn my verses, and the
children of their children.
That is what neither Myrtale nor Thais nor Glykera may say, the day
when their fair cheeks deepen with wrinkles. Those who shall love
after me, will sing my strophes together.
CXLIII
THE TRUE DEATH
Aphrodite; merciless goddess, thou hast willed that, for me also,
the happy youth of beautiful hair shall disappear in a few days.
Why am I not dead now!
I have regarded myself in my mirror: I have no longer smiles or
tears. O sweet face that loved Mnasidika, I cannot believe that
thou wast mine.
Can it be that all is ended! I have not yet lived five times eight
years; it seems to me that I was born only yesterday, and now,
behold, I must say: No one will love me more.
All my cut hair, I have twisted into a girdle, and I offer it to
thee, Cypris eternal! I will never cease to adore thee. This is the
last verse of the pious Bilitis.
THE TOMB OF BILITIS
FIRST EPITAPH
In the country where the springs rise from the sea, and where the
bed of flowers is made of leaves of rock, I, Bilitis, was born.
My mother was Phœnician; my father, Damophylos, Hellene. My mother
taught me the songs of Byblos, sad as the first dawn.
I have adored Astarte at Cypros. I have known Psappha at Lesbos. I
have sung as I have loved. If I have loved well, Passer-by, tell it
to thy daughter.
And sacrifice not for me a black goat; but in soft libation, press
her teats above my tomb.
SECOND EPITAPH
Upon the sombre banks of Melos, at Tamassos of Pamphylia, I,
daughter of Damophylos, Bilitis, was born. I repose far from my
native land, thou seest.
Even as a child, I learned the loves of Adonis and of Astarte, the
mysteries of the holy Serfs, and the death and return to
Her-of-the-rounded-eyes.
If I have been a courtesan, what is the harm? Was it not my duty as
a woman? Stranger, the Mother-of-all-things guides us. To forget
her is not prudent.
In gratitude to thee who hast paused, I wish thee this destiny:
Mayest thou be loved, but never love. Farewell; remember thou, in
thine old age, that thou hast seen my tomb.
LAST EPITAPH
Under the black leaves of the laurels, under the amorous blooms of
the roses, it is here that I lie, I who have known how to braid
line with line, and exalt the kiss.
I grew in the land of the nymphs; I lived in the isle of lovers; I
died in the isle of Cypros. It is for this that my name is
illustrious and my stèle cleaned with oil.
Weep not for me, thou who pausest; they made me fair funeral rites;
the weepers bruised their cheeks; they have laid in my tomb my
mirrors and my necklaces.
And now, over the pale meadows of asphodel, I walk, an impalpable
shadow, and the remembrance of my earthly life is the joy of my
life in the underworld.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I. Bilitis’ saemmtliche Lieder zum ersten Male herausgegeben und mit
einem Woerterbuche versehen, von G. Heim.--Leipzig. 1894.
II. Les Chansons de Bilitis, traduites du Grec pour la première fois par
P. L. Paris. 1895.
III. Six Chansons de Bilitis, traduites en vers par Mme. Jean
Bertheroy.--Revue pour les jeunes filles. Paris. Armand Colin. 1896.
IV. Vingt-six Chansons de Bilitis, traduites en allemand par Richard
Dehmel.--Die Gesellschaft. Zeitung. 1896.
V. Vingt Chansons de Bilitis, traduites en allemand par le Dr. Paul
Goldmann. Frankfurter Zeitung. 1896.
VI. Les Chansons de Bilitis, par le Pr. von
Willamovitz-Moellendorf.--Goettingsche Gelehrte--Goettingen. 1896.
VII. Huit Chansons de Bilitis, traduites en tcheque par Alexandre
Backovsky.--Prague. 1897.
VIII. Quatre Chansons de Bilitis, traduites en suédois par Gustav
Uddgren.--Nordisk Revy.--Stockholm. 1897.
IX. Trois Chansons de Bilitis, mises en musique par Claude
Debussy.--Paris. Fromont. 1898.
NOTES AND COMMENT
“Translated from the Greek.”
The antique sketches here rendered in English, some of which possess
great beauty, appeared first, in French, in 1894, bearing the legend
“Translated from the Greek.” This feeling of translation the Author
attempted to strengthen by recording, in his Index, certain “songs”
marked “not translated” which, as a matter of fact, never existed. It is
extremely doubtful, however, whether anyone really acquainted with the
Greek Poets was misled, even for a moment. Internal evidence often
points to modern thought and ideas; and a number of the pieces, if not
exactly “translated” are at least adapted from epigrams by various
writers of established place in the Greek Anthology. These would at once
indicate “Bilitis” as an imaginary personage.
In the following notes, some of the more important of the direct
translations and paraphrases from antique writers have been indicated,
with an occasional comment, for the convenience and interest of the
reader.
The English translation itself is complete and has been kept in close
parallel with the French text, except for a few changes in tense which
seemed advisable.
M. S. B.
LIFE OF BILITIS
“Psappha.”
No authority is evident for the statement that Sappho was known at
Lesbos under the name of “Psappha.”
It seems likely, from Pierre Louÿs’ general attitude toward the
“Poetess” and his description of her in XLVI, that at the time he wrote
the Songs of Bilitis he was either indifferently acquainted with the
known facts of Sappho’s life or deliberately chose, with some other
modern writers, to disregard or misunderstand them. Dr. Horace
Manchester Brown, in the Preface to his translation of the present work
(Aldus Society. 1904) remarks that “the translator has felt that such a
protest (in defense of Sappho by a professor of Göttingen) and such a
defense were unnecessary and has believed that the beauty of the
pictures presented by many of the songs is sufficient excuse for their
existence....” A few words on the subject of Sappho seem desirable,
however, since it cannot be assumed that all the readers of this volume
are familiar with the facts of Sappho’s life.
On the testimony of many writers of antiquity--who, at least, had more
on which to base an opinion than we have--the description in XLVI of “
... her hair cut like that of an athlete ... virile breast ... narrow
hips,” and, as assumed, ready to prey lasciviously upon any passer-by,
becomes ridiculous and defamatory. Sappho’s brother, Larichus, was
public cup-bearer at Mytilene, an office held only by young men of noble
birth. She herself, “violet-weaving, pure, soft-smiling” as Alcæus says,
although “small and dark” according to Maximus Tyrius, was, according to
her own words, “of a quiet temper” and in all probability was married
and mother of a daughter named Cleis whom she mentions in an extant
fragment (72), which, considering the personal tone of so many of her
poems, may be taken as something more than a poetic fancy; “I have a
fair daughter with a form like a golden flower, Cleis the beloved, above
whom I prize nor all Lydia nor lovely Lesbos.” (Wharton.) Philoxemus
describes her as “sweet-voiced.” Damocharis, in the Anthology (Plan.
App. XVI-310) describes her picture in glowing terms: “Her eyes overflow
with brilliance, showing a fancy rich in happy images. Her skin, smooth
and not too reddened, shows simplicity; and the blended gaiety and
gravity of her features proclaims the union, in her, of the Muse and
Cypris.”
That she gathered about her a society of maidens to whom she taught the
art of poetry, is well known; the names of many of her pupils and
friends have been preserved in fragments of her verse. How much farther
her friendships were carried, as indicated in the poems, will always be
a matter for speculation; but that she was a charming, lovely woman,
sufficiently reserved, of perfect maturity and free from petty or
promiscuous vice seems undeniable. Otherwise, we may be sure the writers
of antiquity would have treated her with far less veneration and
respect.
* * * * *
“A verse of Sappho.”
This is the verse placed by Pierre Louÿs at the beginning of “Elegiacs
in Mytilene.”
* * * * *
“Phryne.”
The crime of which Phryne was accused, and for which she was tried
before the Areopagos at Athens, was of profaning the Eleusinian
Mysteries--a crime even more serious than Pierre Louÿs’ “murder.”
* * * * *
“Apelles revealed his Anadyomene.”
Pierre Louÿs writes “entrevit la forme.” Apelles was a painter.
BUCOLICS IN PAMPHYLIA
XIV “Melissa.”
That is: “bee.” Marcus Argentarius has an epigram in the Anthology using
the word (Anth. Pal. V-32): “Melissa is thy name and truly so, as my
heart bears witness. Thy soft lips sweeten thy kisses with honey, but
thou also piercest with a cruel sting.”
* * * * *
XVI “Like a cup with two handles.”
The “amphora kiss,” as though one drank the kiss from a beaker.
* * * * *
XXXVI “My father.”
An oversight, as Pierre Louÿs says in the “Life of Bilitis,” she seems
never to have known her father for he is not mentioned ...” See also the
First and Second Epitaphs.
* * * * *
XLII “First dawn.”
Execrations of the morning light were popular among the Greek amatory
poets. See Meleager (Anth. Pal. V-172): “Star of Morning, enemy of
lovers, why shinest thou so quickly upon the couch where, a moment
since, I lay warm with Demo?...”
* * * * *
XLIII “The trunks of the pines.”
The same thought in the “Song of Songs” (Song of Solomon) I-17: “The
beams of our house are of cedar and our rafters of fir.”
ELEGIACS AT MYTILENE
John Addington Symonds in his “Problem in Greek Ethics” (London. 1901.
pp 71-72) remarks: “Lesbian passion, as the Greeks called it, never
obtained the same social sanction as boy-love. It is significant that
Greek Mythology offers no legends of the goddesses parallel to those
which consecrated paederastia among the male deities. Again, we have no
recorded example, so far as I can remember, of noble friendships between
women rising into political and historical prominence.... The Greeks,
while tolerating, regarded it rather as an eccentricity of nature, or a
vice, than as an honourable and socially useful emotion.... There is an
important passage in the ‘Amores’ of Lucian which proves that the Greeks
felt an abhorrence of sexual inversion among women similar to that which
moderns feel for its manifestation among men.... And ... while the love
of males for males in Greece obtained moralisation, and reached the high
position of a recognized social function, the love of female for female
remained undeveloped and unhonoured, on the same level as both forms of
homosexual passion in the modern European world are.”
The exposition, perhaps beyond decorum, of Lesbian love in this section
of the Songs of Bilitis has no parallel in all Greek literature where
references to the subject are very few.
* * * * *
LXXI “My throat becomes dry.”
See Sappho, Frag. 2. (Wharton): “ ... For when I see thee but a little,
I have no utterance left, my tongue is broken down, and straightway a
subtle fire has run under my skin. With my eyes I have no sight, my ears
ring, sweat pours down, and a trembling seizes all my body; I am paler
than grass, and seem in my madness little better than one dead....”
* * * * *
LXXV “The object.”
See the sixth mime of Herondas (too long to reproduce here) translated
in Symonds’ “Studies of the Greek Poets” (Third edition. 1893. II-237).
This mime describes a visit between two women in reference to the same
sort of object sought by Bilitis’ friend. One of Herondas’ ladies
remarks, about her leather worker, “He works at his own house and sells
on the sly ... but the things he makes, they’re like Athene’s handiwork
... a cobbler more kindly disposed toward the female sex you would not
find....” The price was “fourpence.”
* * * * *
LXXXI “Thy hair is moist.”
See Meleager (Anth. Pal. V-175): “Truly, thou betrayest thyself; thy
locks, still moist with perfumes, denounce thy dissolute life; thine
eyes, heavy with fatigue, show well how thy night has been passed; this
coronal upon thy forehead reveals the festival; this disordered hair
shows the path of amorous hands; and all thy body staggers under the
vapors of the wine....”
* * * * *
LXXXIII “For whom, now, shall I paint my lips?”
See Paulus Silentiarius (Anth. Pal. V-228): “For whom shall I curl my
hair? for whom trim my nails? for whom perfume my hands? To what end
this purple-banded cloak, since I go not to beautiful Rhodopis?...”
EPIGRAMS IN THE ISLAND OF CYPROS
XCIV “Thyrses.”
These were long rods, often surmounted by a pine cone, carried by
votaries of Dionysos. Too long to be used as drum-sticks.
* * * * *
CI “Conversation.”
See Philodemos (Anth. Pal. V-46): “I salute thee.--I salute thee
also.--What is thy name?--And thine? Thou mayest know mine later.--Thou
art in a hurry?--And thou art not?--Hast thou someone?--I have always my
lover.--Wilt thou eat dinner with me to-day?--If thou wishest.--Good.
What shall I give thee?--Give me nothing in advance.--That is
strange.--But when the night is over, give what thou wishest.--Thou art
a just girl. Where is thy dwelling? I will send for thee.--I will show
thee.--And when wilt thou come?--At once, if thou wishest--At once,
then.--Lead the way.”
* * * * *
CIII “A girdle of silver plates.”
See Asclepiades (Anth. Pal. V-158): “Upon a day, I played with facile
Hermione. Like the Goddess, she wore a girdle broidered with flowers;
and on it I read, in letters of gold: Love me, but grieve not if I give
myself to another.”
* * * * *
CIX “Athena.”
Artemis was more likely to be seen bathing, with disastrous results to
the spectator, as noted in the legend of Actæon.
* * * * *
CXXIX “The little Rose Merchant.”
See Dionysius (Anth. Pal. V-81): “Little vendor of roses, thou art fair
as thine own flowers. But what sellest thou? thyself? or thy roses? or
both together?”
* * * * *
CXXXII “She has a good bed.”
See Antipater (Anth. Pal. V-109): “For a drachma one may have Europa the
Athenian, without fear of rivals or refusals. She has a soft bed and, if
the night is cold, a fire. Surely, O Zeus, there was no need for thee to
make thyself a bull!”
* * * * *
CXL “My autumn.”
See Paulus Silentiarius (Anth. Pal. V-258): “Philinna, thy wrinkles are
preferable to the fresh tints of young girls. I love less in my hands
their straight, hard breasts than thine which incline like full-blown
roses. Thine autumn is fairer than their springtime; their summer is
colder than thy time of snows.”
* * * * *
CXLIII “The True Death.”
Compare Rufinus (Anth. Pal. V-76): “Once I had soft skin, firm breasts
and pretty feet; my body was supple, mine eyebrows arched, my hair
undulating. Time has changed all. Not one treasure of my youth
remains....”
For the theme developed, see François Villon’s “Les regrets de la belle
Heaulmière.”
INDEX
BUCOLICS IN PAMPHYLIA
Life of Bilitis iii
I. The Tree 3
II. Pastoral Song 4
III. Maternal Advice 5
IV. The Naked Feet 6
V. The Old Man and the Nymphs 7
VI. Song 8
VII. The Passer-By 9
VIII. The Awakening 10
IX. The Rain 11
X. The Flowers 12
XI. Impatience 13
XII. Comparisons 14
XIII. The Forest River 15
XIV. Come, Melissa 16
XV. The Symbolic Ring 17
XVI. Dances by Moonlight 18
XVII. The Little Children 19
XVIII. The Stories 20
XIX. The Married Friend 21
XX. Confidences 22
XXI. The Moon with Eyes of Blue 23
* Reflections (not translated)
XXII. Song 24
XXIII. Lykas 25
XXIV. The Offering to the Goddess 26
XXV. The Complaisant Friend 27
XXVI. A Prayer to Persephone 28
XXVII. The Game of Dice 29
XXVIII. The Distaff 30
XXIX. The Flute 31
XXX. The Hair 32
XXXI. The Cup 33
XXXII. Roses in the Night 34
XXXIII. Remorse 35
XXXIV. The Interrupted Sleep 36
XXXV. The Wash-woman 37
XXXVI. Song 38
XXXVII. Bilitis 39
XXXVIII. The Little House 40
* Pleasure (not translated)
XXXIX. The Lost Letter 41
XL. Song 42
XLI. The Oath 43
XLII. The Night 44
XLIII. Cradle-Song 45
XLIV. The Tomb of the Naiads 46
ELEGIACS AT MYTILENE
XLV. To the Vessel 49
XLVI. Psappha 50
XLVII. The Dance of Glottis and Kyse 51
XLVIII. Counsels 52
XLIX. Uncertainty 53
L. The Meeting 54
LI. The Little Terra Cotta Astarte 55
LII. Desire 56
LIII. The Wedding 57
* The Bed (not translated)
LIV. The Past Which Survives 58
LV. Metamorphosis 59
LVI. The Nameless Tomb 60
LVII. The Three Beauties of Mnasidika 61
LVIII. The Cave of the Nymphs 62
LIX. Mnasidika’s Breasts 63
* Contemplation (not translated)
LX. The Doll 64
LXI. Tendernesses 65
LXII. Games 66
* Episode (not translated)
LXIII. Penumbra 67
LXIV. The Sleeper 68
LXV. The Kiss 69
LXVI. Jealous Care 70
LXVII. The Despairing Embrace 71
* Recovery (not translated)
LXVIII. The Heart 72
LXIX. Words in the Night 73
LXX. Absence 74
LXXI. Love 75
LXXII. Purification 76
LXXIII. The Cradle of Mnasidika 77
LXXIV. A Promenade by the Sea 78
LXXV. The Object 79
LXXVI. Evening Near the Fire 81
LXXVII. Supplications 82
LXXVIII. The Eyes 83
LXXIX. Fards 84
LXXX. The Silence of Mnasidika 85
LXXXI. Scene 86
LXXXII. Waiting 87
LXXXIII. Solitude 88
LXXXIV. A Letter 89
LXXXV. The Attempt 90
LXXXVI. The Effort 91
* Myrrhine (not translated)
LXXXVII. Gyrinno 92
LXXXVIII. The Last Essay 93
LXXXIX. The Wounding Memory 95
XC. To the Wax Doll 96
XCI. Funeral Chant 97
EPIGRAMS IN THE ISLAND OF CYPROS
XCII. Hymn to the Astarte 101
XCIII. Hymn to the Night 102
XCIV. The Menades 103
XCV. The Sea of Cypris 104
XCVI. The Priestesses of Astarte 105
XCVII. The Mysteries 106
XCVIII. The Egyptian Courtesans 107
XCIX. I Sing of My Flesh and My Life 108