Today we change time period and subject completely. In the last post, the song said «It was as good as a mythical story». So I thought I'd go on and draw a couple myths from Sappho. More precisely, we have:
- An in pompa magna start with the grand oath (μέγαν ὄρκον) sworn by Artemis in Sappho Edmonds 152, Lobel-Page Alcaeus 304, Campbell 44A; a single half-line, ἀϊπάρθενος ἔσσομαι, was quoted by Cramer's Anecdota Græca to show how the Aeolians (Αἰολεῖς) say ἀεὶ «τριχῶς», "in a threefold manner"; I honestly have no clue what that is supposed to mean, considering the quote is either corrupted or not this poem; indeed, the meter requires ἀϊ, which has nothing threefold whatsoever; in any case, the quote, found as ἀεὶ πάρθενος ἔσομαι, was corrected to the present form already in Bergk 97, minus splitting ἀϊ from πάρθενος, a split that was corrected by Edmonds; sometime after Edmonds, P.Fouad. 239 was published by Lobel and Page and assigned hesitantly to Alcaeus (hence it being an Alcaeus fragment in the Lobel-Page edition Poetarum lesbiorum fragmenta), and Treu argued for Sappho's authorship, with Campbell agreeing with him and possibly restoring the missing beginnings of the papyrus lines (except for l. 1); the glyconian expanded with two dactyls is kept in Latin and imitated as –u–uu–uu–uu–u– in Italian and English, with rhymes between consecutive lines; I don't know why this fragment was reconstructed to have this meter, but that is what I had; the original «[To her body-dissolver] not ever does love go near.» became what it is now on 29/8/21 at 12:49; on 17/9/21, respectively at 13:57 and 13:58, «per scioglier sue membra» and «I will always bear will a virgin’s name» became what they are now, with the option «in sooth» for the English one;
- We then have a one-liner, a quotation found in book 13 of our dear old Deipnosophistæ by Athenaeus; it seems that there are no controversies whatsoever about this, not even in the manuscript tradition, which is rather a unique than a rare event; so from our in pompa magna grand oath we move towards love, with friendship being the first form of love we meet; this is Bergk 35, Edmonds 140, Lobel-Page 142 and Campbell 142; the rhythm of the hexameter was kept in the Italian and English, and the Latin version is a hexameter.
- We then pass through Leda finding an egg; now l. 1 of that fragment is uncontroversial, there are just a couple minor fixes done to the tradition; l. 2 is "whoever prints it does whatever they want", basically; I mean, the single words are uncontroversial, but we have Bergk's πεπυκάδμενον εὔρην ... ὤϊον, apparently the closest to the tradition, then Campbell's reordering ... ὤϊον εὔρην πεπυκάδμενον, then Edmonds' creative πεπυκάδμενον ὤϊον / εὔρην, and probably other versions around the internet; I propose my own take, probably reworking Greek Wikisource and Bibliotheca Augustana; this is Bergk 62, Edmonds 97, Lobel-Page 166 and Campbell 166; note that, under the influence of Greek Wikisource and Bibliotheca Augustana, and because eggs are white and not hyacinth-colored (which means a kind of violet, or more precisely the color of hyacinth), I chose to turn ὐακίνθινον, accusative singular going with the egg, to ὐακινθίνων, genitive plural going with the flowers, which are also straight out of Greek Wikisource and Bibliotheca Augustana; the Latin version is in lesser asclepiads, and the rhythm of those lines is preserved in the Italian and English, with the first two lines rhyming, and the last line on its own; on 7/10/22 I change «Once an egg indeed find which flowèrs fully did» to «Once indeed find an egg which flowers fully did» for better rhythm;
- We then proceed to love-related fragments, with a one-line quote found in Strabo's Geography, a line from a poem addressed to Aphrodite which mentions possible homelands for Aphrodite; I have kept the text from the tradition, but emending ἢ Πάφος to καὶ Πάφος is justified both because Paphos is a city in Cyprus, and because of Alcman's fragment about Aphrodite (Bergk 10); Edmonds' Αἴ σε is not really justified, and is Edmonds-only; this is Bergk 7, Edmonds 5, Lobel-Page 35 and Campbell 35; Latin uses a Sapphic hendecasyllabic, Italian and English simply a hendecasyllabic;
- The following fragment is not properly a myth, but rather an invocation to Hecate; I place it in the love-related series because Hecate is called "servant of Aphrodite"; now the reference seems to say this is from a book called Piety written by Philodemus, but the way the fragment is presented suggests the source had holes; perhaps this work came to us in a fragmentary form on papyri, and we know it existed because someone mentioned it, and this particular source is assigned to that mention? In any case, the source appears to read «]φωιδετη[ / χρυσοφαηθερ[ / ]αναφροδειτ[», which was amended by Edmonds (and Lobel-Page and Campbell followed suit) to read «Σαπφὼ δὲ τὴν θεὸν· χρυσοφάην θεράπαιναν Ἀφροδίτας», that is «Sappho (calls) the goddess: golden servant of Aphrodite»; now Edmonds then proceeded to argue that this was an indirect reference to a part of an invocation, which he reconstructed as «Χρυσοφάνης ὦ Ϝεκάτα θεράπνα / Ἀφροδίτας», «O Hecate, golden servant / Of Aphrodite», as the beginning of a Sapphic stanza; Lobel-Page and Campbell are more cautious, and keep the papyrus text as «χρυσοφάη‹ν› θερ[άπαιν]αν Ἀφροδίτ[ας», and I follow suit because, well, that is what I found and translated from Bibliotheca Augustana, and I don't even know if I saw Edmonds' version; this is Edmonds 24, Lobel-Page incerti auctoris 23, and Campbell incerti auctoris 23; the Greek text scans as –uu–uu–u–u––, so dactyl+dactyl+trochee+trochaic meter was the meter I took for the Latin, and the rhythm I imitated in English and Italian;
- Finally, an account of Eros coming down from heaven; this is Bergk 68, Edmonds 69, Lobel-Page 54 and Campbell 54; the manuscript tradition (this is a quote from Pollux's Vocabulary, book 10) has «ἔλθοντ' ἐξ ὀράνω πορφυρίαν ἔχοντα προϊέμενον χλάμυν»; Bergk already had it emended by deleting ἔχοντα, which Edmonds Lobel-Page and Campbell follow suit in doing, but Greek Wikisource doesn't, ending up with messy meter which is why I deleted it, and changing προϊέμενον to περθέμενον, the most popular choice and the one I adopted out of following Bibliotheca Augustana and Greek Wikisource, with only Edmonds trying to adhere to the tradition as much as possible and having προιέμενον, which makes «wearing a purple mantle» actually say «sending forth his purple mantle»; I don't know why περθέμενον is so popular, given that προιέμενον exists and is closer to the codices; I asked about this on Stack Exchange, but nothing so far; but whatever; the translation imitate the rhythm of the original meter, or keep the meter in the case of Latin.
.. ]σανορεσ . . [ Φοίβῳ χρυσοκό]μᾳ, τὸν ἔτικτε Κόω κ[όρα μίγεισ’ εὐρυβίᾳ Κρ]ονίδᾳ μεγαλωνύμῳ [ Ἄρτεμις δὲ θέων] μέγαν ὄρκον ἐπώμοσε· 5 «[νὴ τὰν σὰν κεφά]λαν, ἀϊπάρθενος ἔσσομαι [ἄδμης οἰοπό]λων ὀρέων κορύφαισ᾽ ἔπι [θηρεύοισ’· ἄγι καὶ τά]δε νεῦσον ἔμαν χάριν». [ὢς εἶπ’· αὐτὰρ ἔνευ]σε θέων μακάρων πάτηρ, [πάρθενον δ’ ἐλαφάβ]ολον ἀγροτέραν θέοι 10 [ἄνθρωποί τε κάλε]ισιν ἐπωνύμιον μέγα. [κήνᾳ λυσιμέλης] Ἔρος οὐδάμα πίλναται· ] . [ . ] . . . . α̣φόβε[ . . ] .́ .ω· ………… [Ad Apollo͜ a͜ure͜a chio]ma, che fece la Ce[ide Con Z]e͜us [forza immane]͜ e dal nome assa͜i celebre Gran [divin] giuramento giurò͜ un giorno ͜[Artemide]: 5 «[Per la te]sta [tu͜a], vergine sempre i͜o resterò, Per le cime de’ monti [solin]ghi [i͜o caccerò], [Vergin]: per mïo͜ amore tu [que]sto concedi,͜ [orsù]». [Disse;] de͜i be͜ati dè͜i ’l grande padre [conces]se ciò. Cacciatrice di [cervi] e [vergin] la [chiam]ano 10 Dè͜i [e uomini], con questo͜ assa͜i grande titolo. [A le͜i] mai s’avvicina [per scioglierle͜ il corpo] Amor. …………… Λάτω καὶ Νιόβα μάλα μὲν φίλαι ἦσαν ἔταιραι. Niobe͜ invero͜ e Latona carissime s’erano͜ amiche. Φαῖσι δή ποτα Λήδαν ὐακινθίνων εὔρην ὤϊον [ἀνθέ͜ων] πεπυκαδμένον [ὔπο]. Inver dicon che Leda͜ un uovo un dì trovò: Ricoperto [da fiori] di giacinto fu Che ’l trovò. Ἤ σε Κύπρος ἢ Πάφος ἢ Πάνορμος. O Cipro͜ o Pafo te, oppur Panormo. χρυσοφάη‹ν› θερ[άπαιν]αν Ἀφροδίτ[ας L’a͜urisplendente an[cel]la d’Afrodit[e Ἔλθοντ' ἐξ ὀράνω πορφυρίαν περθέμενον χλάμυν. Lui dal ciel venne giù, clamide di porpora͜ aveva su. |
… [Phœ̄bō a͞urĭcŏ]mǣ, gĕnŭīt qu’ ĕă p[u͞ellă] Cœ͞i, [Pērfōrtī I]ŏvĕ [mīxtă], ĭ’ nōmĭnĕ māgnŭ’ quĭd’, [Ārtĕmīsquĕ dĕû̄m] săcrămēntă săcra͞it săcră: [Căp]ĭt’ īps’ ĕgŏ vīrgĭnĭ’ sēmpĕr ĕrō [tŭō], [Sōlĭtā]rĭû̆m īnquĕ căcūmĭnĕ mōntĭŭm [Vēnābōr: t’, ăgĕ, hǣ]c mĭhĭ dēs, mĕj ămōrĕm ŏb». [Dīxīt; ātquĕ] bĕāt’ ĕă de͞ûm gĕnĭtōr [dĕd]ĭt, [V]ēnāntēm quŏquĕ [cērvû̆m, ămīcăm] ĕām dĕī [Nōn ūllī hŏmĭnēsquĕ fĕr]ūnt, tĭtŭl’ āltŭm, ā. [Sōlvĭcōrpŏr] Ămōr prŏpĕ ūmquăm ĭt ha͞ud [ĕăm]. … ………… [Phœbus golden in h]air, whom the dau[ghter] of Cœus did bear [Mixed with Zeus] son of [Cr]onus, [the strongest,] of famous name, [Artemis] did the great [godly] oath once a-hear to swear: «[For thy head], I will always indeed a virgin’s name, [Hunting] up on the [soli]t’ry mountaintops I will go, [Virgin]; but you, [come on], grant me [th]is for the sake of me». [Thus she spoke]; ’twas the happy Gods’ father who [gran]ted so, [Virgin], killer [of deer], and the huntress now [cal]led is she By [both people] and Gods, with that title so great; and, hear, [To her body-dissolver] love never will dare go near. ………… Lātōn’ ēt Nĭŏbē quĭd’ ĕrānt cārīssĭm’ ămīcǣ. Niobe and Latona did share a very dear friendship. Dīcūnt ōlĭm ĕām Lēd’ hy̆ăcīnthĭnīs Cōntēct’ ōv’ ĕquĭdēm [flōrĭbŭ’] rēppĕrīss’ Ŭbīdām. Under hyacinth flow’rs they say that Leda did Once indeed find an egg which flowèrs fully did Cover. Tēvĕ Cȳprŭs a͞ut Păphŭs a͞ut Pănōrmŭs. Cyprus thee or Paphus or Panormus. A͞urĭnĭtēnt’ Ăphrŏdīt[ĭs] īll’ ān[cīll]ăm Golden-a-shining of Aphrodit[e] young ha[ndma]id
Īndūtūs clămy̆dēm pūrpŭrĕ’ ēx cǣrŭlĕ’ hūc vēnĭt
Vēnīt cǣrŭlĕ' ābs, pūrpŭrĕūm tūnc ĕrăt e͞i săgŭm.
He came down from the sky in a chlamys purple as he was clad. |
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