Sappho: three epigrams and a mourning song

Brief intro

Today I bring to you 4 poems by Sappho. I put them together because they are somewhat related (they all have something to do with death) and because they are very short. «The epigrams were translated between 30/12/2010 and 28/8/2011, whereas the mourning song was translated between May (9th?) 2010 and 30/12/2010», um yeah, the latter was incredibly inaccurate, and the former was flat-out wrong. For all the below histories, I refer to the initialisms used in the chronological index of translations here.
First, we have the three epigrams. Now, it seems that the authorship of these is disputed. The only source for those, which is the Anthologia Palatina, ascribes them to Sappho, but apparently scholars believe they are probably Hellenistic, which means they were written after Sappho's death.

• The first one features a tombstone speaking about the girl buried in the tomb it marks. For this one:
  
  1. The printout SP3 only has the first two lines of the Italian, manuscripted in manuscript form, placing all three translations after 6/9/10.
  2. The file S6/7 from 2/11/10, have this in the form of epitaffi.doc, which is the final form except for:
     
     1. Saunaiade(s) in l. 4 of the Latin;
     2. "messa mi" in l. 2 of the Italian;
     3. "di Saunaiade" in l. 4 of the Italian;
     4. No comma after "famiglia" in l. 6.
     This version is used to complete the manuscript in the manuscript tab below; the Latin also appears there, in final form, which is reported as manuscript form just not to leave a hole. Latin and Italian were therefore complete within 2/11/10.
  3. The printout SP4, presumably from shortly after than and definitely from after 3/11, fixes a and c;
  4. SP4 also has the manuscript of the English translation, as per the SP4 subtab of the manuscript tab below, whereas the B4E3 subtab is from the same sticky notes as the manuscript of the Latin fragments cover at Hymn to Aphrodite, which give fragments cover, manuscript of Pelagon Latin (see below), and this manuscript, plus another one irrelevant to the blog; overlayed on top of it is the epitaffi.doc form, dated 12/11/10, which also appears in OS7, dated 2/12/10. Thus, the English was done within 12/11/10. The differences between this form and the final form, besides the Italian ones mentioned above, are only some Aeolizations of the Greek text (which you can see by comparing the "manuscript" Greek, which matches S6, and the final one, matching the Aeolized version of S9), and the English l. 3, which in this file starts with «To Aethopia, Latona’s dughter».
  5. The Italian differences (b and d above) get fixed in S9, thus between 21/12 (date of OS10) and 5/1/11 (date of S9).
  6. The English one gets fixed in OS17 (and in an annotation of SP6), from 8/2, thus between 1/2/10 (date of S11) and 8/2/10.
• The second one recounts the mourning of the person it speaks about, who was cremated. This also has Aeolicizations in the text happening in S9, see the below versions to see which. As for the other translations, the list below gives all histories.
  
  1. The first thing to be mentioned here is «Timadis hæc cineris, quam mortuam ante…», an incomplete l. 1 from 13/9/10 as per diary, more specifically composed in bed between 13/9 evening and 14/9 morning in a moment of distraction from composing some poems of mine.
  2. We then continue in the poem notebook, where we learn that on 27/10/10 I came up with «Timadis hæc cineris, quam duceret ante virum quem ⇒ nuberet ante virum quam ⇒ nuberet ante’ habuit mors,» for l. 1 and «[Persephon]’ accepit… ⇒ Persephonæ habuit <kyánĕŏś> thalamus ⇒ P. tenuit k. t.».
  3. It is on the next day that I find cæruleus for κυάνεος.
  4. We then actually have more edits to l. 1 from «29/10 mane hæc scribens» (29/10 in the morning writing the above, says quaternum poematum), which got lost along the way and will be implemented today 12/6/22 at 19:31, «Timadis hæc cineris, quam nuptiûm ante die’ ipsi͞us ⇒ nuberet ante cuinam», I will implement the first version since the second one is missing a quam.
  5. I'm pretty sure I saw "hæcce cinis" somewhere in the diary, or so I was on 12/6 when I first narrated the history of the Latin.
  6. The next step is SP3, where we find the full manuscripts of all three translations as reported below. Note how the current l. 4 is annotated above the title of the fragment, and dated to "3/11 gymn" (3/11 during PE class). Do note the following notes made in the chronological index about these manuscripts:
     
     1. I interpret the messy Latin as me going up to "iam ferro", then writing "pulchram amicæ" as the end of a line "Qua morient' omnes iam ferro pulchram amicæ", then noticing that "comam" would complete a couplet's final line, so completing said line with "Cædere capitis" (this comes first, see arrows), and then completing the previous line. There is then «Excisere comas pulchricomæ comites» at the top, which I assume is what the "3/11 gymn" (3/11/10 at PE) is referred to. Indeed, 3/11 is before S6/7, and apart from that line at the top, the rest of the manuscript yields this S6/7 form.
     2. It is incomprehensible which addition was made first (read: which bracketed part was added first) in the English, or if the [the] is from before or after the start of the last line. I'd assume at least that the [the] was from after writing its full line, and that the other bracket was made after "All from her head" etc.
  7. Then we have S6/7, where the translations appear in the below form, save for:
     
     1. The two Latin differences mentioned above (l. 1 implemented here on 12/6 and l. 4 annotated in the below form post-S6/7 and fixed in SP4 and thus in epitaffi.doc);
     2. The Italian line «Chiome graziose delle coetanee tutt’ebbe tagliate.» as the final one, where the current version is annotated and overlayed on SP4;
     3. The English l. 3 missing the comma after "dying".
  8. S9 is responsible for fixing b, while a is already dealt with above.
  9. The missing comma seems to only appear in blog times. I will eventually look through the screenshots to date that.
• The last one makes us picture a grave with fishing tools left on it as a memory of the life of the person buried in it. For this one, I will go language by language.
  
  1. The Greek first appears manuscripted on SP3 as «Τῷ γρίπεῖ Πελάγῶνι πατὴρ ἐπέθηκε Μένίσκος / Κύρτον καὶ κώπαν, μνᾶμα κακοζόϊας.». S6/7 then fixes it to the below "manuscript" version, and there are no Aeolicizations in S9.
  2. The Latin is manuscripted on SP4 in the below SP4-manuscript form, and has an overlay with the final version. The B4E3-manuscript form is once again from the sticky notes, therein including the random words that replace "Latin" before the manuscript.
  3. The Italian is manuscripted in SP3 along with the Greek, in the manuscript form, which already reaches the final form.
  4. The English appears in final form in S6/7, and is reported in that form in the manuscript tab to not leave a hole.

All of these are in elegiac couplets, and were rendered accordingly in the translations, as you will see (the second element of the couplets features a line split into two rhyming half-lines), or maybe in some cases I just went for regular rhyming couplets in English and Italian.
Then, as I captioned the video of the musicated version with Italian barbarous elegiac translation, I realized the first couplet of Aithopia was translated well enough back in the day that I could use it as captions. Hence, I completed that translation 22:11-22:25. It was 6/5/23, and then I decided to do the same to all other translations, doing Timas 22:36-23:02, and tweaking the second line of Meniscus at 23:11. So I include those new versions below in the respective "remake" tabs. At 0:06 the following night I change «For Aethopia, the daughter of Leto, I'm set up by Arista» to the version below.
Lastly, we have two lines of a mourning song for Adonis. Those are reported by Hephaestio's Handbook on Meters, introduced as «τῶν δὲ τετραμέτρων τὸ μὲν καταληκτικὸν καθαρόν ἐστι τὸ τοιοῦτον» (of the [choriambic?] tetrameter the pure catalectic one is like these). The authorship is conjectured because of "Pausania IX, 29, 3", which is a passage in a text which reports a "name issue" about Adonis and might refer to this fragment. This is rendered with the same meter in Latin, and by keeping the rhythm in English and Italian. The meter is xx–uu– –uu– –uu–x, so the rhythm (u = unstressed, – = stressed) will be –u–uu– –uu– –uu–u.
History-wise, the manuscript versions are from SP3, save for l. 2 of the Latin, which appears in "manuscript" form in S9. By the time we get to S6/7, everything is in blog form, save for that missing line, and English having "d'we" without the space. «Why I wrote ēxquĕ in the original translation, which doesn't even scan as per the original meter, is beyond me, but I fixed it at 0:54/55 on 21/8/21», said the post, telling us that the change in l. 2 happened that far after the translations. The translation of l. 2 into Latin can actually be antedated thanks to the Paracritical Note, which says that, by 30/12/10, I had translated everything up to SF90 except for SF69 and SF70, which were missing their Latin versions. Since this is SF62, and l. 2 is missing in OS10, we can say the Latin was completed between 21/12 and 30/12/10. I will not look into the screenshots to figure out when the space in "d'we" was added.

• Manuscript
• Final

Epigram 1: Ex-voto for Artemis Aethopia

Greek Παῖδες, ἄφωνος ἐοῖσα τόδ' ἐννέπω, αἴ τις ἔρηται, Φώναν ἀκαμάταν κατθεμένα πρὸ ποδῶν· Αἰθοπίᾳ με κόρᾳ Λατοῦς ἀνέθηκεν Ἀρίστα Ἁ Ἐρμοκλείδα τῶ Σαοναϊάδα, Σὰ πρόπολος, δέσποινα γυναικῶν· ᾆ σὺ χαρεῖσα Πρόφρων ἀμετέραν εὐκλέϊσον γενεάν. Italian O fanciulle, pur muta ciò dico, a chi mel domandaquella che chiede, Voce instancabil ché ho          messami sotto a li piè. Ad Etopìa, la figlia di Leto, Arista mi diede Figlia d’Ermoclidé          di Saünaïadé, Tua͜ attendente, sovrana di donne; di le͜i ti compiaci, Ed alla nostra famiglia benevola, deh, onor faci.

Latin Pu͞ellǣ, vōcēm nūllăm hăbēns dīc’ hōc rŏgĭtāntī, Nūmquām fēssăm hăbēns vōc’ ăpŭd hōscĕ pĕdēs: M’ Ǣthŏpĭǣ pu͞ellǣ Lētūs dōnāvĭt Ărīstă Ēx Hērmōclīdē e͞o Săŭnāĭădē(s), Sērvă tĭbī, fēmnû̄mquĕ rĕgīnă, mĕāmquĕ sĕcūndă Ga͞udēns īllā dēs glōrĭăm ād fămĭli͞am. B4E3 SP4 English Women, though I have no voice I do tell this, if anyone asketh, Voice that no tiring can beat Having placed here'fore my feet: To Aethopia, Latona's daughter, did give me Arista Daughter of Hermoclides Ofthe sSaünaïades; She's your attendant, the queen of all women: you take And benevolently do honour my family.     [in her pleasure English Women, though I have no voice, I do tell this, if anyone asketh, Voice that no tiring can stop      having placed here by my feet: To͜ Aethopia, Latona’s daughter, did give me Arista, Daughter of Hermoclides          the Saünaïades; She’s your attendant, the queen of all women: in heryou take in And benevolently                     do honour my family.      [her pleasure,

Epigram 2: Timas

Greek Τιμάδος ἅδε κόνις, τὰν δὴ πρὸ γάμοιο θανοῦσαν Δέξατο Φερσεφόνας κυάνεος θάλαμος, Ἇς καὶ ἀποφθιμένας πᾶσαι νεοθᾶγι σιδάρῳ Ἅλικες ἱμερτὰν κρατὸς ἔθεντο κόμαν. Italian Questa è la cener di Timade: pria di sue nozze lei morta Di Persefone ilaccolser cinereo talamo neroe porta, Già mentre questa moriva con spada di fresco affilata Chioma graziosa dalle coetane͞e tutt’ebbe tagliata.

Latin Timadis hæc cinerishæcce cinis, quam nuberet ant' habuịṭ mors, Persephonæ tenuit ille aterater eam thalamus, Quá moriénte' omnés iam férró [ben' ad hocce parato] [Cædere capitis] pulchram amicæ comam English Timad’s ashes here lie, whom dead ’fore she could get a-married Persephone’s ashy bed honored, to which she was led,. As she was dy?ing all[the] girls of her age th’ pretty hair that she caraed [With freshly-sharpened blade] All from her head fall off made.

Epigram 3: Pelagon the fisher

Greek Τῷ γρίπει Πελάγωνι πάτηρ ἐπέθηκε Μένισκος Κύρτον καὶ κώπαν, μνᾶμα κακοζοΐας. Italian Al pescator Pelagone Menisco, il padre, ha messo Remti e remo davanti, di malapessima vita memoria                                 [memoria che mal visse esso.

B4E3 SP4 pīscātōrī rēmum [mălum]mĕmŏrĭă] / rētĕ pōnĕrĕ / cōllŏcārĕ stãtŭō Pr'īstō pīscātōrĕ stătu͞itlŏca͞it pătĕr ēiŭ' Mĕnīscŭs Rēt' ātqu' ēt rēmūm, qu'ūt mĕmŏrēnt măl'ĭtĕr Latin Pr' īstō piēscātōrĕ lsŏca͞it pătĕr ēiŭ’ mMĕnīscŭs Ret', ātqu' ēt rēmūm, qu'ūt mĕmŏrēnt măl’ ĭtĕr. English Pelagon, who was a fisher, received from his father, Naught but a net and an oar     bad life [Meniscus,                                                 [reminding he bore.

The mourning song: Adonis is dying

Greek Κατθνάσκει, Κυθέρη’, ἄβρος Ἄδωνις· τί κε θεῖμεν; Καττύπτεσθε, κόραι, καὶ κατερείκεσθε χίτωνας. Italian Muore, o Citeraea, ’l dolce Adon; noi che facciamo? Percuotiamoci, dame fanciulle, e le vesti͜ or                                 [ci strappiamo.

Latin Mŏrĭtūr, Cy̆thĕre͞a, dūlcĭs Ădōnīs; quĭd ăgāmŭs? Vēstēs rūmpǐtě, pu͞ellǣ, ĕquĭdēm, pērcŭtĭt’ ēxquĕ vōs. English Cytherea, Adonis is a-dying; what d’we do now? Hit yourself, o you girls, ⎣r̸e̸nd yourendr clothes:                                                         [that's what we'll do now.

Epigram 1: Ex-voto for Artemis Aethopia

Greek Παῖδες, ἄφωνος ἔοισα τόδ' ἐννέπω, αἴ τις ἔρηται, Φώναν ἀκαμάταν κατθεμένα πρὸ πόδων· Αἰθοπίᾳ με κόρᾳ Λάτως ἀνέθηκεν Ἀρίστα Ἀ Ἐρμοκλείδα τῶ Σαϋναϊάδα, Σὰ πρόπολος, δέσποινα γυναίκων· ᾆ σὺ χάρεισα Πρόφρων ἀμμετέραν εὐκλέϊσον γενέαν. Italian O fanciulle, pur muta ciò dico, a quella che chiede, Voce͜ instancabile ché      messami͜ ho sotto͜ a li piè: Ad Etopìa, la figlia di Leto, Arista mi diede Figlia d’Ermoclidé          il Saünaïadé, Tua͜ attendente, sovrana di donne; di le͜i ti compiaci, Ed alla nostra famiglia, benevola, deh, onor faci.

Latin Pu͞ellǣ, vōcēm nūllăm hăbēns dīc’ hōc rŏgĭtāntī, Nūmquām fēssăm hăbēns vōc’ ăpŭd hōscĕ pĕdēs: M’ Ǣthŏpĭǣ pu͞ellǣ Lētūs dōnāvĭt Ărīstă Ēx Hērmōclīdē e͞o Săŭnāĭădē, Sērvă tĭbī, fēmnû̄mquĕ rĕgīnă, mĕāmquĕ sĕcūndă Ga͞udēns īllā dēs glōrĭăm ād fămĭli͞am. HS4 version Remake English Women, though I have no voice, I do tell this, if anyone asketh, Voice that no tiring can beat      having placed here at my feet: T’ Aethopia, the daughter of Leto, did give me Arista Daughter of Hermoclides          the Saünaïades; She’s your attendant, the queen of all women: you take in her pleasure, And benevolentlỳ                     do honour my familỳ. English Women, though I have no voice, I do tell this, if anyone asketh, Voice that no tiring can beat      having placed here at my feet: For Aethopia, Leto's daughter, I was set up here by Arista; Child of Hermoclides she,          of Saünaiades he; She’s your attendant, the queen of all women: in her, please, take pleasure; Good-willed, for all of my kin                     grant that great honor begin.

Epigram 2: Timas

Greek Τίμαδος ἄδε κόνις, τὰν δὴ πρὸ γάμοιο θάνοισαν Δέξατο Φερσεφόνας κυάνεος θάλαμος, Ἆς καὶ ἀποφθιμένας παῖσαι νεόθαγι σιδάρῳ Ἄλικες ἰμμέρταν κρᾶτος ἔθεντο κόμαν. Italian Questa è la cener di Timade: pri͜a di sue nozze lei morta Di Persefone͜ accolser cinerëo talamo e porta; Già mentre questa moriva con spade di fresco͜ affilate Chiome graziose le su͜e coëtane͜e tutt’ebber tagliate.

Latin Tīmădĭs hǣccĕ cĭnīs, quām nūptĭŭm āntĕ dĭ' īpsi͞us Pērsĕphŏnǣ tĕnŭīt ātĕr ĕām thălămŭs, Quā mŏrĭēnt’ ōmnēs fērrō bĕn’ ăd hōccĕ părātō Ēxcīsērĕ cŏmās pūlchrĭcŏmǣ cŏmĭtēs. HS4 version Remake English Timad’s ashes here lie, whom dead ’fore she could get a-married Persephone’s ashy bed                  honored, to which she was led. As she was dying, all girls of her age th’ pretty hair that they carried With freshly-sharpened blade       all from their heads fall off made. English Here lie the ashes of Timas, who passed when she still was unmarried: To Hades' wife's wedding-bed                  ashy and black she was led. And, once she passed away, with just-sharpened sword all the girls of Her same age their hair,       fair as it was, did not spare.

Epigram 3: Pelagon the fisher

Greek Τῷ γρίπει Πελάγωνι πάτηρ ἐπέθηκε Μένισκος Κύρτον καὶ κώπαν, μνᾶμα κακοζοΐας. Italian Al pescator Pelagone Menisco, il padre, ha messo Reti e remo davanti, memoria che mal visse esso.

Latin Prō Pĕlăgōnĕ pătēr pēscātōr’ ēiŭ’ Mĕnīscŭs Pōsu͞it rēt’ ēt rēm’, ūt mĕmŏrēnt măl’ ĭtĕr. HS4 version Remake English Pelagon, who was a fisher, received from his father, Meniscus, Naught but a net and an oar     bad life reminding he bore. English Pelagon, who was a fisher, received from his father, Meniscus, Naught but a basket and oar,     sad life reminding he bore.

The mourning song: Adonis is dying

Greek Κατθνάσκει, Κυθέρη’, ἄβρος Ἄδωνις· τί κε θεῖμεν; Καττύπτεσθε, κόραι, καὶ κατερείκεσθε χίτωνας. Italian Muore, o Citere͜a, ’l dolce Adon; no͜i che facciamo? Percuotiamoci, fanciulle,͜ e le vesti͜ or ci strappiamo.

Latin Mŏrĭtūr, Cy̆thĕre͞a, dūlcĭs Ădōnīs; quĭd ăgāmŭs? Vēstēs rūmpǐtě, pu͞ellǣ, ĕquĭdēm, pērcŭtĭt’ ēx vōs. English Cytherea, Adonis is a-dying; what d’ we do now? Hit yourselves, o you girls, and rend your clothes: that’s what we’ll do now.

Critical notes

I already mentioned the sources and the authorship issues above. For textual issues, I start by leaving you the whole critical note to the epigrams in Bergk's edition:



Apart from subscript iota issues and the sources giving us an Attic version of this which I decided to Aeolicize because, you know, Sappho wrote in Aeolic, the only controversial line is l. 1 of epigram 1.

• It seems manuscript tradition gives τέτ' where I wrote τόδ'. Bergk emends to τότ'. Back in the days, I only knew of two options: τόδ' ἐννέπω (my choice) and ποτεννέπω (Campbell). Now I chose my option to have an explicit object in the line. Another emendation is Edmonds' τόρ', "clear", so "Though I have no voice I say, clearly, that…". Might be even better, but the translation used τόδ', so I have to keep that.
• The other doubtful word is παῖδες. Back in the days, besides the chosen word, I had another option, καίπερ, "although". Back then, I discarded it because I wanted a vocative of the addressees instead of an "although" which can be inferred from the participle. Nowadays, analyzing the sources, it seems the only source with "although" is the weird safopoemas, which is definitely not a trustworthy source, so I have another reason to discard it.

As for the mourning song, it seems manuscript tradition gives a unilateral καταθνάσκει, which doesn't scan, and everyone amends as I did. Moreover, except for a single "right" codex, we see a unilateral Κυθέρει'. That is at least what Bergk seems to say in his critical note.
Let me have a look at Campbell now. He seems to say codexes have κατερύκεσθε.
Also, the Pausanias quote is right after this fragment, on p. 154.

References

• Grenfell and Hunt on Oxyrhynchus papyri;
• Edmonds' edition of Sappho;
• Campbell's edition of Sappho;
• Bergk's edition of Sappho;
• Diehls' Supplementum Lyricum;
• Greek Wikisource;
• Other Greek Wikisource link;
• Wharton's edition of Sappho;
• SaffoComm1.doc;
• safopoemas;
• S.B. Palmer's The Complete Poems Of Sappho;
• Bibliotheca Augustana;
• Carson's edition of Sappho (not available online).

Note: these are all the references I ever used for Sappho as of now. I may not have used all of these in the present post.

Related Stack Exchange Posts

• Literature SE post on epigram 1;
• Cross-post of the above on Latin SE.