Sappho 31

Sappho 31 is a poem by Ancient Greek poet Sappho of Lesbos. It is also known as phainetai moi (φαίνεταί μοι) after the opening words of its first line, or Lobel-Page 31, Voigt 31, Gallavotti 2, Diehl 2, Bergk 2, after the location of the poem in various editions containing the collected works of Sappho. Possibly an epithalamion - a wedding poem, intended to be sung to the bride at the entrance to her nuptial chamber - or an enkomion - a poem of praise. It is perhaps Sappho's most famous poem.^[1]

Sappho 31 was one of the two substantially complete poems by Sappho to survive from ancient times, written in Sappho's vernacular form of Greek, the Lesbian-Aeolic dialect. More fragments have been found in recent years, particularly in the Oxyrhynchus papyri. Sappho adopts her usual metrical form, the Sapphic meter of four lines: three lines of eleven syllables, and a fourth line of five syllables. Four strophes survive, plus a fragment of a fifth verse or concluding line. Sappho's poems were designed to be sung, and use direct and emotional language. The author starts by praising the beauty of the bridegroom, likening him to a god, but then describes her jealousy and the physical manifestations of her distress upon seeing a young woman whom she loves with her new husband, the epiphany bringing her to a symbolic death. The word choice, with alliteration and assonance, and repetition of short clauses - particularly the conjunction "δέ" - build up a rhythmic effect similar to a ritual incantation.

Longinus's treatise On the Sublime (Περὶ ὕψους, Perì hýpsous) selects the poem as an example of the sublime for the intensity of its passionate emotions. It was quoted in Plutarch's "Dialogue on Love" (Έρωτικός, Erotikos) in his Moralia (a Latin translation of the original Greek title, Ἠθικά, Ethika, Ethics).

The opening words of the poem - "he appears to me, that one, equal to the gods..." - are almost identical to the opening of Sappho 165, with the pronoun changed ("her" in Sappho 165 rather than "me" in Sappho 31).^[2]

The poem was adapted by Roman poet Catullus, and addressed his muse Lesbia, in his erotic poem Catullus 51, which begins "Ille mi par esse deo videtur" ("He seems to me to be equal to a god"). A recent scholarly reconstruction, using the evidence of Catullus's sapphic poem 11 as well as poem 51, suggests that the poem may originally have had up to 8 stanzas (see http://www.armand-dangour.com/sensational-sappho/).

Text

Original Greek (stoa)	Latin alphabet transliteration	Literal translation by Gregory Nagy (date unknown)
φαίνεταί μοι κῆνος ἴσος θέοισιν ἔμμεν' ὤνηρ, ὄττις ἐνάντιός τοι ἰσδάνει καὶ πλάσιον ἆδυ φωνεί- σας ὐπακούει καὶ γελαίσας ἰμέροεν, τό μ' ἦ μὰν καρδίαν ἐν στήθεσιν ἐπτόαισεν· ὠς γὰρ ἔς σ' ἴδω βρόχε', ὤς με φώναί- σ' οὐδ' ἒν ἔτ' εἴκει, ἀλλά κὰμ μὲν γλῶσσα †ἔαγε†, λέπτον δ' αὔτικα χρῷ πῦρ ὐπαδεδρόμηκεν, ὀππάτεσσι δ' οὐδ' ἒν ὄρημμ', ἐπιρρόμ- βεισι δ' ἄκουαι, κὰδ' δέ ἴδρως κακχέεται, τρόμος δὲ παῖσαν ἄγρει, χλωροτέρα δὲ ποίας ἔμμι, τεθνάκην δ' ὀλίγω 'πιδεύης φαίνομ' ἔμ' αὔτᾳ. ἀλλὰ πὰν τόλματον, ἐπεὶ †καὶ πένητα†...	phainetai moi kênos isos theoisin emmen’ ônêr ottis enantios toi isdanei kai plâsion âdu phônei- sâs upakouei kai gelaisâs îmeroen to m’ ê mân kardiân en stêthesin eptoaisen. ôs gar es s’ idô brokhe’ ôs me phônai- s’ oud’ en et’ eikei, alla kam men glôssa eâge lepton d’ autika khrôi pur upadedromâken oppatessi d’ oud’en orêmm’ epirrom- beisi d’ akouai, kad de m’ idrôs kakkheetai tromos de paisan agrei khlôrotera de poiâs emmi tethnâkên d’ oligô ‘pideuês phainom’ em’ autâi. Alla pan tolmaton, epei [kai penêta] ...	He appears to me, that one, equal to the gods, the man who, facing you, is seated and, up close, that sweet voice of yours he listens to And how you laugh your charming laugh. Why it makes my heart flutter within my breast, because the moment I look at you, right then, for me, to make any sound at all won’t work any more. My tongue has a breakdown and a delicate — all of a sudden — fire rushes under my skin. With my eyes I see not a thing, and there is a roar that my ears make. Sweat pours down me and a trembling seizes all of me; paler than grass am I, and a little short of death do I appear to me. But all may be ventured, since even [the poor]...

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

The Poems of Sappho

External links

References

↑ Reading Sappho: contemporary approaches, Ellen Greene, University of California Press, 1996, ISBN 0-520-20601-0, p.58,64-67.
↑ The Cambridge companion to Greek mythology, Roger D. Woodard, Cambridge University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-521-84520-3, p.29-35.