Part of a series on |
Sappho |
---|
Poetry |
Fragments:
Papyri: |
Related |
Category |
Sappho was an ancient Greek lyric poet from the island of Lesbos. She wrote around 10,000 lines of poetry, only a small fraction of which survives. Only one poem is known to be complete; in some cases as little as a single word survives. Modern editions of Sappho's poetry are the product of centuries of scholarship, first compiling quotations from surviving ancient works, and from the late 19th century rediscovering her works preserved on fragments of ancient papyri and parchment. Along with the poems which can be attributed with confidence to Sappho, a small number of surviving fragments in her Aeolic dialect may be by either her or her contemporary Alcaeus. Modern editions of Sappho also collect ancient "testimonia" which discuss Sappho's life and works.
Sappho probably wrote around 10,000 lines of poetry; today, only 650 survive. [1] They were originally composed for performance, and it is unclear precisely when they were first written down. Some scholars argue that books of Sappho's poetry were produced in or shortly after her own lifetime; others believe that if they were written down in that time, it was only as an aid to reperformance rather than as a literary work in their own right. [2]
In the third or second century BC, Sappho's poems were edited into a critical edition by scholars in Alexandria. [3] This may have been based on an Athenian text of her poems, or one from her native island of Lesbos. [4] It is uncertain which of the Alexandrian scholars was responsible for the edition of Sappho; both Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace are reported to have produced editions of Alcaeus, and one or both of these may have been responsible for the Alexandrian edition of Sappho. [5] Alexander Dale argues that Aristophanes was more likely responsible. [6]
The Alexandrian edition of Sappho's poetry was divided into eight or nine books: the exact number is uncertain. Ancient testimonia mention an eighth book of the Alexandrian edition of Sappho; [7] an epigram by Tullius Laurea mentions nine books of Sappho, though it is not certain that he is referring to the Alexandrian edition. [7] These books were probably divided up by metre, arranged based on the syllable count of the metre. [8] Ancient sources record that each of the first three books contained poems in a single specific metre. [a] [10] Information about the contents of the later books is less certain: the fourth book appears to have contained many poems in acephalous hipponacteans with double choriambic expansion, [b] and possibly in other metres; [c] [11] the fifth book was metrically heterogeneous, with ancient sources mentioning the use of Phaelecian hendecasyllables and lesser asclepiads; [12] of the sixth, nothing is known; a single couplet from the seventh book is preserved in Hephaestion [d] but it is unclear whether this was an entire stanza or part of a three- or four-line stanza. [13] Fragment 103 preserves 10 incipits of poems by Sappho, possibly from book 8, of which the first is in a different metre from the remaining nine; those nine may or may not all be in the same meter. [14] A ninth book may have been made up of epithalamia in various meters, though many scholars are skeptical of the evidence for this, and consider that the book of epithalamia mentioned in ancient sources might have been the eighth book of the Alexandrian edition. [15]
In addition to the Alexandrian edition, at least some of Sappho's poetry was in circulation in the ancient world in other collections. The Cologne papyrus on which the Tithonus poem is preserved was part of a Hellenistic anthology of poetry, [16] and predates the Alexandrian edition. [17] Two fragments list opening lines of poems: Fr. 103 contains openings to ten of Sappho's poems, and Fr. 213C Campbell quotes openings to poems by Sappho, Alcaeus, and Anacreon; both might be related to anthological collections. [18] [19]
Today, most of Sappho's poetry is lost. The two major sources of surviving fragments of Sappho are quotations in other ancient works, from a whole poem to as little as a single word; and fragments of papyrus, many of which were discovered at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt. [20] A few fragments survive on other materials, including parchment and potsherds. [21] The oldest surviving fragment of Sappho currently known is the Cologne papyrus which contains the Tithonus poem; [22] it dates to the third century BC. [23]
Though the Alexandrian edition of Sappho's poetry made the transition from papyrus rolls to the codex, while less popular authors were not reproduced in this new format, [24] and a significant amount of her poetry survived until the seventh century, [25] her work appears to have disappeared around the ninth century, [26] and did not make the transition to minuscule handwriting. [27] Sappho's poetry continued to be accessible only in quotations from other ancient authors, which, until printed editions of Greek texts began to appear in the Renaissance, would only have been accessible in manuscript form in monastic libraries. [28] In 1508, a collection of Greek rhetorical works edited by Demetrios Doukas and published by Aldus Manutius made a poem by Sappho (the Ode to Aphrodite) available in print for the first time; [28] in 1554, Henri Estienne was the first to collect her poetry when he printed the Ode to Aphrodite and the Midnight poem after a collection of fragments of Anacreon. [29] The first modern edition devoted solely to Sappho's work was published in 1733 by Johann Christian Wolf , including fourteen fragments not previously included in collections of her poetry. [30] The work of collecting quotations from Sappho from ancient sources culminated in Theodor Bergk's edition of the Greek lyric poets, whose second edition contained 120 fragments of Sappho and 50 testimonia. [31]
The last quarter of the nineteenth century began a new period in the rediscovery of Sappho's poetry, with the discovery of a parchment fragment at Crocodilopolis (modern Faiyum) published by Friedrich Blass in 1880. [32] From then until the publication of the "newest Sappho" in 2014, 24 papyri preserving texts of Sappho, and eight preserving related materials such as commentaries on her work, have been published. [33] The most recent major editions of Sappho, by Edgar Lobel and Denys Page in 1955, and Eva-Maria Voigt in 1971, in conjunction with Lobel and Page's Supplementa Lyra Graeca, collect all of the material published by 1974; despite the publication of further papyrus fragments in 1997, 2004, 2005 and 2014, Voigt's remains the standard modern edition. [34]
The fragments of Sappho's poems are arranged in the editions of Lobel and Page, and Voigt, by the book from the Alexandrian edition of her works in which they are believed to have been found. Fragments 1–42 are from Book 1, 43–52 from Book 2, 53–57 from Book 3, 58–91 from Book 4; 92–101 from Book 5, 102 from Book 7, 103 from Book 8, and 104–117B from the Epithalamia. Fragments 118–168 are those which Lobel and Page did not assign to any particular book, and are arranged alphabetically. [35] Fragment numbers with capital letters (such as 16A) were assigned by later editors to fit into Lobel and Page's numeration; lowercase letters indicate different parts of the same fragment.
Fragment Number [e] | Sources | Meter [f] | No. of lines |
---|---|---|---|
Fragment 1 | P. Oxy. 2288; Dionysius of Halicarnassus | Sapphic stanza | 28 |
Fragment 2 | PSI 1300 | Sapphic stanza | 17 [g] |
Fragment 3 | P. Berol. 5006; P. Oxy. 424 | Sapphic stanza | 18 |
Fragment 4 | P. Berol. 5006 | Sapphic stanza | 10 |
Fragment 5 | P. Oxy. 7; P. Oxy. 2289; P. GC | Sapphic stanza | 20 |
Fragment 6 | P. Oxy. 2289 | perhaps Sapphic stanza | 15 |
Fragment 7 | P. Oxy. 2289 | Sapphic stanza | 7 |
Fragment 8 | P. Oxy. 2289 | [Sapphic stanza] | 5 |
Fragment 9 | P. Oxy. 2289; P. GC | Sapphic stanza | 20 |
Brothers Poem [h] | P. Oxy. 2289; P. Sapph. Obbink | Sapphic stanza | 24 |
Fragment 12 | P. Oxy. 2289 | Sapphic stanza | 9 |
Fragment 15 [i] | P. Oxy. 1231 | Sapphic stanza | 12 |
Fragment 16 | P. Oxy. 1231; PSI 123; P. GC | Sapphic stanza | 20 [j] |
Fragment 16A [k] | P. Oxy. 1231; PSI 123; P. GC | Sapphic stanza | 12 |
Fragment 17 | PSI 123; P. Oxy. 1231; P. Oxy. 2166(a); P. Oxy. 2289; P. GC | Sapphic stanza | 20 |
Fragment 18 | P. Oxy. 1231; P. GC | [Sapphic stanza] | 15 |
Fragment 18A | P. GC | [Sapphic stanza] [39] | 9 |
Fragment 19 | P. Oxy. 1231 | Sapphic stanza | 12 |
Fragment 20 | P. Oxy. 1231 | Sapphic stanza | 24 |
Fragment 21 | P. Oxy. 1231; Apollonius Dyscolus | Sapphic stanza | 15 |
Fragment 22 | P. Oxy. 1231 | Sapphic stanza | 19 |
Fragment 23 | P. Oxy. 1231 | Sapphic stanza | 14 |
Fragment 24a | P. Oxy. 1231 | Sapphic stanza | 8 |
Fragment 24b | P. Oxy. 2166 | Sapphic stanza | 5 |
Fragment 24c | P. Oxy. 1231 | Sapphic stanza | 9 |
Fragment 24d | P. Oxy. 1231 | Sapphic stanza | 7 |
Fragment 25 | P. Oxy. 1231 | Sapphic stanza | 7 |
Fragment 26 | P. Oxy. 1231, P. Sapph. Obbink | Sapphic stanza | 16 |
Fragment 27 | P. Oxy. 1231 | Sapphic stanza | 13 |
Fragment 28a | P. Oxy. 1231 | [Sapphic stanza] | 4 |
Fragment 28b | P. Oxy. 1231 | [Sapphic stanza] | 5 |
Fragment 28c | P. Oxy. 1231 | [Sapphic stanza] | 5 |
Fragment 29a | P. Oxy. 1231 | [Sapphic stanza] | 4 |
Fragment 29b | P. Oxy. 1231 | [Sapphic stanza] | 5 |
Fragment 29c | P. Oxy. 1231; P. Oxy. 2166 | [Sapphic stanza] | 11 |
Fragment 29d | P. Oxy. 1231 | [Sapphic stanza] | 4 |
Fragment 29e | P. Oxy. 1231 | [Sapphic stanza] | 3 |
Fragment 29f | P. Oxy. 1231 | [Sapphic stanza] | 7 |
Fragment 29g | P. Oxy. 2081 | [Sapphic stanza] | 4 |
Fragment 29h | P. Oxy. 2166 | [Sapphic stanza] | 8 |
Fragment 29i | P. Oxy. 2166 | [Sapphic stanza] | 5 |
Fragment 30 | P. Oxy. 1231 | Sapphic stanza | 9 |
Fragment 31 | Longinus | Sapphic stanza | 17 |
Fragment 32 | Apollonius Dyscolus | Sapphic stanza | 2 |
Fragment 33 | Apollonius Dyscolus | Sapphic stanza | 2 |
Fragment 34 | Eustathius | Sapphic stanza | 5 |
Fragment 35 | Strabo | Sapphic stanza | 1 |
Fragment 36 | Etymologicum Genuinum | Sapphic stanza? | 1 |
Fragment 37 | Etymologicum Genuinum | Sapphic stanza | 3 |
Fragment 38 | Apollonius Dyscolus | Sapphic stanza | 1 |
Fragment 39 | Scholiast on Aristophanes' Peace | Sapphic stanza | 3 |
Fragment 40 | Apollonius Dyscolus | Sapphic stanza | 2 |
Fragment 41 | Apollonius Dyscolus | Sapphic stanza | 2 |
Fragment 42 | Scholiast on Pindar | Sapphic stanza | 2 |
Fragment 43 | P. Oxy. 1232 | ]-uu-ux, possibly Glyconic with 2x dactylic expansion | 9 |
Fragment 44 | P. Oxy. 1232 | Glyconic with 2x dactylic expansion | 34 [l] |
Fragment 44Aa [m] | P. Fouad. 239 | ]-uu-uu-ux, possibly Glyconic with 2x dactylic expansion | 12 |
Fragment 44Ab [m] | P. Fouad. 239 | xx-uu-[ | 10 |
Fragment 45 | Apollonius Dyscolus | Glyconic with 2x dactylic expansion | 1 |
Fragment 46 | Herodian | Glyconic with 2x dactylic expansion | 2 |
Fragment 47 | Maximus of Tyre | Glyconic with 2x dactylic expansion | 2 |
Fragment 48 | Julian | Glyconic with 2x dactylic expansion | 2 |
Fragment 49 | Hephaestion; Plutarch | Glyconic with 2x dactylic expansion | 2 [n] |
Fragment 50 | Galen | Glyconic with 2x dactylic expansion | 2 |
Fragment 51 | Chrysippus | Glyconic with 2x dactylic expansion | 1 |
Fragment 52 | Herodian | Glyconic with 2x dactylic expansion? | 1 |
Fragment 53 | Scholiast on Theocritus | Glyconic with 2x choriambic expansion | 1 |
Fragment 54 | Julius Pollux | Glyconic with 2x choriambic expansion | 1 |
Fragment 55 | Stobaeus | Glyconic with 2x choriambic expansion | 4 |
Fragment 56 | Chrysippus | Glyconic with 2x choriambic expansion | 3 |
Fragment 57 | Athenaeus | ll.1–2 uncertain; l.3 Glyconic with 2x choriambic expansion | 3 |
Pre-58 (Oxyrhynchus) | P. Oxy. 1787 | Acephalous Hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion | 10 |
Pre-58 (Cologne) | P. Köln inv.21351+21376 | Acephalous Hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion [42] | 8 |
Fragment 58 | P. Oxy. 1787; P. Köln inv.21351+21376 | Acephalous Hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion | 12 [o] |
Post-58 (Oxyrhynchus) | P. Oxy. 1787 | Acephalous Hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion | 4 |
Fragment 59 | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 3 |
Fragment 60 | P. Halle. 3 | ]-uu-u-x, possibly acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion | 11 |
Fragment 61 | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 2 |
Fragment 62 | P. Oxy. 1787 | x-uu--uu-[, possibly acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion | 12 |
Fragment 63 | P. Oxy. 1787 | x-uu--uu-[, possibly acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion | 10 |
Fragment 64a | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion, possibly three line strophes based on acephalous hipponacteans with a shorter third line] | 15 |
Fragment 64b | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 4 |
Fragment 65 | P. Oxy. 1787 | x-uu-[, possibly acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion, possibly three line strophes based on acephalous hipponacteans with a shorter third line | 11 |
Fragment 66a | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 3 |
Fragment 66b | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 4 |
Fragment 66c | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 3 |
Fragment 67a | P. Oxy. 1787 | x-uu-[, possibly acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion | 8 |
Fragment 67b | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 7 |
Fragment 68a | P. Oxy. 1787 | ]uu--uu-u-x, possibly acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion | 12 |
Fragment 68b | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 6 |
Fragment 69 | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] [44] | 3 |
Fragment 70 | P. Oxy. 1787 | ]--uu-[ | 14 |
Fragment 71 | P. Oxy. 1787 | ]uu--uu-u-x, possibly acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion | 8 |
Fragment 72 | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 8 |
Fragment 73a | P. Oxy. 1787 | -]uu-u-x, possibly acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion, possibly three line strophes based on acephalous hipponacteans with a shorter third line | 9 |
Fragment 73b | P. Oxy. 1787 | -]uu-u-x, possibly acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion, possibly three line strophes based on acephalous hipponacteans with a shorter third line | 3 |
Fragment 74a | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 6 |
Fragment 74b | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 3 |
Fragment 74c | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 4 |
Fragment 74d | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 3 |
Fragment 75a | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 8 |
Fragment 75b | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 5 |
Fragment 75c | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 5 |
Fragment 76 | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 7 |
Fragment 77a | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 9 |
Fragment 77b | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 6 |
Fragment 77c | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 4 |
Fragment 78 | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 7 |
Fragment 79 | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 6 |
Fragment 80 | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 6 |
Fragment 81 | P. Oxy. 1787; Athenaeus | acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion | 7 |
Fragment 82a | Hephaestion | acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion | 1 |
Fragment 82b | P. Oxy. 1787 | acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion | 5 |
Fragment 83 | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 7 |
Fragment 84 | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 7 |
Fragment 85a | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 4 |
Fragment 85b | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 3 |
Fragment 86 | P. Oxy. 1787 | ]-uu--uu-u-x, possibly acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion, possibly three line strophes based on acephalous hipponacteans with a shorter third line | 8 |
Fragment 87a | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 9 |
Fragment 87b | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 4 |
Fragment 87c | P. Oxy. 1787 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 2 |
Fragment 87d | P. Oxy. 2166 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 10 |
Fragment 87e | P. Oxy. 2166 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 4 |
Fragment 87f | P. Oxy. 2166 | [acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion] | 8 |
Fragment 88a | P. Oxy. 2290 | -[ ]u--uu-u[-x|| x-[ ]--uu-[u-x|| -[ ]uu-u-x||| | 28 |
Fragment 88b | P. Oxy. 2290 | -[ ]u--uu-u[-x|| x-[ ]--uu-[u-x|| -[ ]uu-u-x||| | 10 |
Fragment 90a | P. Oxy. 2293 | [commentary] | 47 [p] |
Fragment 90b | P. Oxy. 2293 | [commentary] | 15 [q] |
Fragment 90c | P. Oxy. 2293 | [commentary] | 7 |
Fragment 90d | P. Oxy. 2293 | [commentary] | 18 |
Fragment 90e | P. Oxy. 2293 | [commentary] | 4 |
Fragment 91 | Hephaestion | acephalous hipponacteans with 2x choriambic expansion | 1 |
Fragment 92 | P. Berol. 9722 | xx-u[ | 16 |
Fragment 93 | P. Berol. 9722 | ]uu-u- | 5 |
Fragment 94 | P. Berol. 9722 | glyconic || glyconic || glyconic with dactylic expansion||| | 29 |
Fragment 95 | P. Berol. 9722 | -u-xx-[ xx-uu-[ xx-uu-u[ (possibly the same as fr.96) | 16 |
Fragment 96 | P. Berol. 9722 | creticus; 3x glyconics; baccheus||| | 36 |
Fragment 97 | P. Berol. 9722 | uncertain | 27 [r] |
Fragment 98a | Pap. Haun. 301 | glyconic||glyconic||creticus glyconic||| | 12 |
Fragment 98b | Pap. Mediol. 32 | glyconic||glyconic||creticus glyconic||| | 9 |
Fragment 100 | Julius Pollux | uncertain | 1 |
Fragment 101 | Athenaeus | perhaps: glyconic||glyconic||glyconic with dactylic expansion||| | 4 |
Fragment 101A [s] | Demetrius, On Style [t] | uncertain; perhaps glyconic||hipponactean|| | 4 |
Fragment 102 | Hephaestion | iambus glyconic bacchius | 2 |
Fragment 103 | P. Oxy. 2294 | ]-uu-uu-u[ ^hipp2ch or 3cho ba [u] . [47] | 10 |
Fragment 103Aa | P. Cair. Mediol. 7 | [Alcaic stanza] | 9 |
Fragment 103Ab | P. Cair. Mediol. 7 | [Alcaic stanza] | 4 |
Fragment 103B [v] | P. Oxy. 2308 | ]--uu--[ | 5 |
Fragment 103Ca [w] | P. Oxy. 2357 | uncertain [48] | 8 |
Fragment 103Cb [w] | P. Oxy. 2357 | uncertain [48] | 6 |
Fragment 104a | Demetrius, On Style [t] | l.1: 6 dactyls catalectic, l.2 iamb|pherecratean with 2x dactylic expansion | 2 |
Fragment 104b | Himerius | uncertain | 1 |
Fragment 105a | Syrianus on Hermogenes | dactylic hexameter | 3 |
Fragment 105b [x] | Demetrius, On Style [t] | 6 dactyls catalectic | 2 |
Fragment 106 | Demetrius, On Style [t] | 6 dactyls catalectic | 1 |
Fragment 107 | Apollonius Dyscolus | Possibly dactylic hexameter [49] | 1 |
Fragment 108 | Himerius | Possibly dactylic hexameter [49] | 1 |
Fragment 109 | Homeric Parsings [y] | Possibly dactylic hexameter [50] | 1 |
Fragment 110 | Hephaestion | pherecratean with dactylic expansion | 3 |
Fragment 111 | Hephaestion | uncertain, perhaps pherecratean||iamb||acephalous pherecratean with dactylic expansion||iamb||| | 8 |
Fragment 112 | Hephaestion | choriambus bacchius choriambus bacchius|| | 5 |
Fragment 113 | Dionysius of Halicarnassus | 3x ionics? | 2 |
Fragment 114 | Demetrius, On Style [t] | l.1 3 choriambus bacchius; l.2 uncertain | 2 |
Fragment 115 | Hephaestion | pherecratean with 2x dactylic expansion | 2 |
Fragment 116 | Servius | uncertain | 1 |
Fragment 117 | Hephaestion | 3 iambs catalectic? | 1 |
Fragment 117A | Hesychius of Alexandria | -uu-uu [51] | 1 |
Fragment 117Ba [z] | Marius Plotius Sacerdos | -uu-uu | 1 |
Fragment 117Bb [z] | Marius Plotius Sacerdos | -uu-uu | 1 |
Fragment 118 | Hermogenes | uncertain | 2 |
Fragment 119 | Scholiast on Aristophanes' Plutus | uncertain | 1 |
Fragment 120 | Etymologicum Magnum | glyconic with choriambic expansion | 2 |
Fragment 121 | Stobaeus | uncertain | 2 |
Fragment 122 | Athenaeus | uncertain | 1 |
Fragment 123 | Ammonius Grammaticus | creticus hipponactean? | 1 |
Fragment 124 | Hephaestion | --uu-uu-(x-u-u--) | 1 |
Fragment 125 | Scholiast on Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazusae | uncertain | 1 |
Fragment 126 | Etymologicum Genuinum | uncertain | 1 |
Fragment 127 | Hephaestion | ithyphallicus|ithyphallicus|| | 1 |
Fragment 128 | Hephaestion | 3 choriambs bacchius | 1 |
Fragment 129a | Apollonius Dyscolus | uncertain | 1 |
Fragment 129b | Apollonius Dyscolus | uncertain | 1 |
Fragment 130 [aa] | Hephaestion | glyconic with dactylic expansion | 4 |
Fragment 132 | Hephaestion | uncertain | 3 |
Fragment 133 | Hephaestion | ia 2io anacl | 2 |
Fragment 134 | Hephaestion | 3 io anacl | 1 |
Fragment 135 | Hephaestion | 3 ionics | 1 |
Fragment 136 | Scholiast on Sophocles' Electra | pherecratean with 2x dactylic expansion | 1 |
Fragment 137 | Aristotle | Alcaic stanza | 7 |
Fragment 138 | Athenaeus | ia ^gl or ia ^gl ia | 2 |
Fragment 139 | Philo | uncertain [52] | 2 |
Fragment 140 [ab] | Hephaestion | pherecratean with 2x choriambic expansion | 2 |
Fragment 141 | Athenaeus | ll.1 and 4 acephalous pherecratean? ll.2-3 and 5-6 uncertain | 6 |
Fragment 142 | Athenaeus | dactylic hexameter (or pherecratean with 3x dactylic expansion) [ac] | 1 |
Fragment 143 | Athenaeus | dactylic hexameter (or pherecratean with 3x dactylic expansion) [ac] | 1 |
Fragment 144 | Herodian | glxd | 2 |
Fragment 145 | Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius | xx-uu-? [54] | 1 |
Fragment 146 | Tryphon | pherecratean with dactylic expansion | 1 |
Fragment 147 | Dio Chrysostom | uncertain | 1 |
Fragment 148 | Scholiast on Pindar | uncertain | 2 |
Fragment 149 | Apollonius Dyscolus | pherxd? | 1 |
Fragment 150 | Maximus of Tyre | glyconic with 2x choriambic expansion? | 2 |
Fragment 151 | Etymologicum Genuinum | pherecratean with choriambic expansion | 1 |
Fragment 152 | Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius | glxd? | 2 |
Fragment 153 | Atilius Fortunatianus | uncertain | 1 |
Fragment 154 | Hephaestion | ^gl ba|| | 2 |
Fragment 155 | Maximus of Tyre | cr|^hippd or cr ^gl | 1 |
Fragment 156 | Demetrius, On Style [t] | possibly glyconic with 2x dactylic expansion | 2 |
Fragment 157 | Etymologicum Genuinum | Sapphics? | 1 |
Fragment 158 | Plutarch | 2 ad? | 2 |
Fragment 159 | Maximus of Tyre | uncertain | 1 |
Fragment 160 | Athenaeus | Sapphics? | 2 |
Fragment 161 | P. Bouriant | uncertain, perhaps ^ia pher2d [55] | 1 |
Fragment 162 | Choeroboscus | [u-u---u] [56] | 1 |
Fragment 163 | Julian | [uu-u-u] [56] | 1 |
Fragment 164 | Apollonius Dyscolus | [---uu-] [57] | 1 |
Fragment 165 | Apollonius Dyscolus | [Sapphic stanza] [57] | 1 |
Fragment 166 | Athenaeus | glc | 2 |
Fragment 167 | Athenaeus | glxd | 1 |
Fragment 168 | Marius Plotius Sacerdos | Sapphic stanza? | 1 |
Fragment 168A [ad] | Etymologicum Genuinum | glyconic? | 1 |
Fragment 168B [ae] | Hephaestion | Acephalous hipponacteans | 4 |
Fragment 168C [af] | Demetrius, On Style [t] | Alcaic stanza? | 1 |
These fragments are isolated words quoted by other ancient authors, arranged alphabetically.
Fragment Number | Sources |
---|---|
Fragment 169 | Scholiast on the Iliad |
Fragment 169A | Hesychius, Lexicon |
Fragment 170 | Strabo, Geography |
Fragment 171 | Photius, Lexicon |
Fragment 172 | Maximus of Tyre, Orations |
Fragment 173 | Choeroboscus on Theodosius |
Fragment 174 | Orion, Lexicon |
Fragment 175 | Apollonius Dyscolus, Adverbs |
Fragment 176 | Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae |
Fragment 177 | Julius Pollux |
Fragment 179 | Phrynichus |
Fragment 180 | Hesychius |
Fragment 181 | Scholiast on Dionysius of Thrace |
Fragment 182 | Scholiast on the Iliad |
Fragment 183 | Porphyry on the Iliad |
Fragment 184 | Choeroboscus on Theodosius |
Fragment 185 | Philostratus, Images |
Fragment 186 | John of Alexandria |
Fragment 187 | Homeric Parsings [y] |
Fragment 188 | Maximus of Tyre |
Fragment 189 | Phrynichus |
Fragment 190 | Scholiast on the Iliad |
Fragment 191 | Julius Pollux |
Fragment 192 | Julius Pollux |
The testimonia are ancient accounts of Sappho, her life, and her poetry, which are conventionally included in critical editions of her work. [58] The selection included in these editions varies considerably. [59] Along with the seventy included in Voigt's edition, those given in Campbell's Loeb edition are listed here.
Voigt Number | Campbell Number | Sources |
---|---|---|
Fragment 194 | Himerius | |
Fragment 194A [ag] | Michael Italikos | |
Fragment 195 | Demetrius, On Style [t] | |
Fragment 196 | Aelius Aristides | |
Fragment 197 | Libanius | |
Fragment 198a | Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius | |
Fragment 198b | Scholiast on Theocritus | |
Fragment 198c | Pausanias | |
Fragment 199 | Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius | |
Fragment 200 | Scholiast on Hesiod | |
Fragment 201 | Aristotle | |
Fragment 203a | Athenaeus | |
Fragment 203b | Eustathius of Thessalonica | |
Fragment 203c | Scholiast on Iliad | |
Fragment 204a | Scholiast on Pindar | |
Fragment 204b | Pausanias | |
Fragment 205 | Aulus Gellius | |
Fragment 206 | Servius on Virgil | |
Fragment 207 | Servius on Virgil | |
Fragment 208 | Himerius | |
Fragment 209 | Eustathius of Thessalonica | |
Fragment 210 | Scholiast on Theocritus | |
Fragment 211a | T. 3, 23 [ah] | Pseudo-Palaephatus; Strabo; Alciphron; Plutarch; Scholiast on Libanius; Suda; Servius; Lucian; Scholiast on Lucian; Hesychius |
Fragment 211b | Pliny the Elder | |
Fragment 211c [ai] | Aelian; Athenaeus; Comes Natalis | |
Fragment 212 | Comes Natalis | |
Fragment 213 | P. Oxy. 2292 | |
Fragment 213Aa | P. Oxy. 2506 | |
Fragment 213Ab | P. Oxy. 2506 | |
Fragment 213Ac | P. Oxy. 2506 | |
Fragment 213Ad | P. Oxy. 2506 | |
Fragment 213Ae | P. Oxy. 2506 | |
Fragment 213Af | P. Oxy. 2506 | |
Fragment 213Ag | P. Oxy. 2506 | |
Fragment 213Ah | T. 14 | P. Oxy. 2506 |
Fragment 213Ai | P. Oxy. 2506 | |
Fragment 213Ak | P. Oxy. 2506 | |
Fragment 213B | PSI (Ommaggio all' XI congresso internationale di papirologia, Florence 1965, 16s.) | |
Fragment 213C [aj] | P. Mich. inv. 3498 | |
Fragment 214 [ab] | Pausanias | |
Fragment 214A [ak] | P. Oxy. 2637 | |
Fragment 214B [al] | P. Colon. 5860 | |
Fragment 214C [am] | P. Colon. inv. 8 | |
Fragment 215 | T. 45 | Demetrius, On Style [t] |
Fragment 216 | Philostratus | |
Fragment 217 | Philostratus | |
Fragment 218 [x] | Himerius | |
Fragment 219 | T. 20 | Maximus of Tyre |
Fragment 220 | Himerius | |
Fragment 221 | T. 50 | Himerius |
Fragment 222 | T. 47 | Menander |
Fragment 223 | T. 21 | Philostratus |
Fragment 224 | T. 18 | Horace |
Fragment 225 | T. 51 | Horace |
Fragment 226 | T. 29 | Scholiast on metre of Pindar |
Fragment 227 | Hephaestion | |
Fragment 228 | T. 30 | Hephaestion |
Fragment 229 | Hephaestion | |
Fragment 230 | T. 31 | Caesius Bassus |
Fragment 231 | Atilius Fortunatianus | |
Fragment 232 | Hephaestion | |
Fragment 233 | T. 32 | Photius |
Fragment 234 | Servius on Virgil | |
Fragment 235 | Suda | |
Fragment 236 | Hephaestion | |
Fragment 237 | T. 36 | Dionysius of Halicarnassus |
Fragment 238 | Atilius Fortunatianus | |
Fragment 239 | Marius Victorinus | |
Fragment 240 | Scholiast on Hephaestion | |
Fragment 242 | Marius Victorinus | |
Fragment 243 | Servius | |
Fragment 244 | T. 22 | Seneca the Younger |
Fragment 245 | T. 41 | Strabo |
Fragment 246 | T. 37 | Aristoxenus [an] |
Fragment 247 | T. 38 | Menaechmus [ao] |
Fragment 248 | T. 40 | Suda |
Fragment 249 | T. 6 | Eusebius |
Fragment 250 | T. 8 | Athenaeus |
Fragment 251 | T. 5 | Parian Chronicle |
Fragment 252 | T. 1 | P. Oxy. 1800 |
Fragment 253 | T. 2 | Suda |
Fragment 254a [ap] | Herodotus | |
Fragment 254b [ap] | Strabo | |
Fragment 254c [ap] | Athenaeus | |
Fragment 254d [ap] | Photius | |
Fragment 254e [ap] | Suda | |
Fragment 254f [ap] | Appendix Proverbiorum | |
Fragment 254g [ap] | John Tzetzes | |
Fragment 255 | Scholiast on Plato | |
Fragment 256 | T. 4 | Aelian |
Fragment 257 | Suda | |
Fragment 258 | Maximus of Tyre | |
Fragment 259 | Scholiast on Lucian | |
Fragment 260a | T. 34 | Horace |
Fragment 260b | T. 17 | Porphyrio |
Fragment 260c | T. 17 | Dionysius Latinus [aq] |
Fragment 261 | Ovid | |
Fragment 262 | Tatian | |
Fragment 263 | T. 13, 16, 19, 44 [ar] | Heroides 15 |
Fragment 264 | T. 7 | Strabo |
Fragments where the authorship is uncertain. In most cases, this is because the dialect is identifiable as Aeolic, but the poem may be by either Sappho or Alcaeus of Mytilene. [61]
Fragment Number | Sources | Meter [f] | Lines |
---|---|---|---|
Fragment 1 | Scholiast to Odyssey | glxc | 1 |
Fragment 2 | Etymologicum Genuinum | 1 | |
Fragment 3 | Apollonius Dyscolus | 1 | |
Fragment 4 | Homeric Parsings [y] | aeolxc | 1 |
Fragment 5a | Herodian | gl2d? | 1 |
Fragment 5b | Herodian | 1 | |
Fragment 5c | Herodian | 1 | |
Fragment 6 | Anonymous grammarian | uncertain | 1 |
Fragment 10 | Herodian | Alcaic stanza | 2 |
Fragment 11 | Herodian | uncertain | 1 |
Fragment 12 | Homeric Parsings [y] | uncertain (u--uuu) [62] | 1 |
Fragment 14 | Homeric Parsings [y] | uncertain ((-)u---uu-) [62] | 1 |
Fragment 15a | Zenobius | 1 | |
Fragment 15b | Scholiast on Aelius Aristides | 1 | |
Fragment 16 | Hephaestion | ^hippc | 3 |
Fragment 18 | Anonymous | ]uu-u-u--, ^gl ba? | 2 |
Fragment 19 | Apollonius Dyscolus | 1 | |
Fragment 20 | Joannes Zonaras | 1 | |
Fragment 21 | Hephaestion | ia ^gl ia | 2 |
Fragment 22 | Hephaestion | uncertain | 1 |
Fragment 23 | Philodemus | cho 2io anacl or hemiepes u-u-- | 1 |
Fragment 25 | Scholiast on Theocritus | uncertain (5da^) [63] | 1 |
Fragment 25A | Etymologicum Genuinum | 1 | |
Fragment 25B | Etymologicum Magnum | 1 | |
Fragment 25C [as] | Eustathius of Thessalonica | 2 | |
Fragment 27 | P. Vind. 29777 | Sapphic stanza? | 3 |
Fragment 28 [at] | P. Oxy. 2299 | uncertain [65] | 8 |
Fragment 29 | P. Oxy. 2299 | 2 | |
Fragment 30 | P. Oxy. 2299 | uncertain | 8 |
Fragment 31a | P. Oxy. 2299 | ]u-u--uu-[ | 15 |
Fragment 31b | P. Oxy. 2299 | ]u-u--uu-[ | 4 |
Fragment 32 | P. Oxy. 2299 | uncertain | 11 |
Fragment 33 | P. Oxy. 2299 | 3 | |
Fragment 34a | P. Oxy. 2299 | xx-uu[ | 17 |
Fragment 34b | P. Oxy. 2299 | xx-uu[ | 5 |
Fragment 35 | P. Oxy. 2299 | ]u---uu-u--, ^hippxc or 3cho ba | 8 |
Fragment 36a | P. Oxy. 2299 | uncertain (-u-[) [66] | 6 |
Fragment 36b | P. Oxy. 2299 | uncertain (-u-[) [66] | 4 |
Fragment 37 | P. Oxy. 2299 | uncertain | 13 |
Fragment 38 | P. Oxy. 2299 | uncertain (]u--[) [67] | 3 |
Fragment 39 | P. Oxy. 2299 | uncertain (]uu-[) [67] | 3 |
Fragment 40 | P. Oxy. 2299 | uncertain (]u--[) [68] | 4 |
Fragment 41 | P. Oxy. 2299 | 7 | |
Fragment 42 [au] | P. Oxy. 2378 | uncertain | 16 |
Alcaeus 303Aa [av] | P. Oxy. 2291 | ^gl ||^gl ia | 9 |
Alcaeus 303Ab [av] | P. Oxy. 2291 | 2 ia || ? || 2 ia ||| | 15 |
Alcaeus 303Ac [av] | P. Oxy. 2291 | uncertain (ia? gl?) [69] | 25 |
According to the Suda, Sappho wrote epigrams and elegies. Three epigrams in the Greek Anthology are attributed to Sappho, though none of them are authentic. [70] These are nonetheless included in Campbell's and Neri's editions.
Poem number (Neri) | Poem number (Campbell) | Source | Meter | Lines |
---|---|---|---|---|
307 | 157D | Greek Anthology 6.269 | elegiacs | 6 |
308 | 158D | Greek Anthology 7.489 | elegiacs | 4 |
309 | 159D | Greek Anthology 7.505 | elegiacs | 2 |
Alcaeus of Mytilene was a lyric poet from the Greek island of Lesbos who is credited with inventing the Alcaic stanza. He was included in the canonical list of nine lyric poets by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria. He was a contemporary of Sappho, with whom he may have exchanged poems. He was born into the aristocratic governing class of Mytilene, the main city of Lesbos, where he was involved in political disputes and feuds.
Sappho was an Archaic Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by music. In ancient times, Sappho was widely regarded as one of the greatest lyric poets and was given names such as the "Tenth Muse" and "The Poetess". Most of Sappho's poetry is now lost, and what is extant has mostly survived in fragmentary form; only the Ode to Aphrodite is certainly complete. As well as lyric poetry, ancient commentators claimed that Sappho wrote elegiac and iambic poetry. Three epigrams formerly attributed to Sappho are extant, but these are actually Hellenistic imitations of Sappho's style.
Anactoria is a woman mentioned in the work of the ancient Greek poet Sappho. Sappho, who wrote in the late seventh and early sixth centuries BCE, names Anactoria as the object of her desire in a poem numbered as fragment 16. Another of her poems, fragment 31, is traditionally called the "Ode to Anactoria", though no name appears in it. As portrayed by Sappho, Anactoria is likely to have been an aristocratic follower of hers, of marriageable age. It is possible that fragment 16 was written in connection with her wedding to an unknown man. The name "Anactoria" has also been argued to have been a pseudonym, perhaps of a woman named Anagora from Miletus, or an archetypal creation of Sappho's imagination.
Sir Denys Lionel Page was a British classicist and textual critic who served as the 34th Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge and the 35th Master of Jesus College, Cambridge. He is best known for his critical editions of the Ancient Greek lyric poets and tragedians.
Aeolic verse is a classification of Ancient Greek lyric poetry referring to the distinct verse forms characteristic of the two great poets of Archaic Lesbos, Sappho and Alcaeus, who composed in their native Aeolic dialect. These verse forms were taken up and developed by later Greek and Roman poets and some modern European poets.
Sappho 31 is a lyric poem by the Archaic Greek poet Sappho of the island of Lesbos. The poem is also known as phainetai moi after the opening words of its first line. It is one of Sappho's most famous poems, describing her love for a young woman.
Sappho 16 is a fragment of a poem by the archaic Greek lyric poet Sappho. It is from Book I of the Alexandrian edition of Sappho's poetry, and is known from a second-century papyrus discovered at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt at the beginning of the twentieth century. Sappho 16 is a love poem – the genre for which Sappho was best known – which praises the beauty of the narrator's beloved, Anactoria, and expresses the speaker's desire for her now that she is absent. It makes the case that the most beautiful thing in the world is whatever one desires, using Helen of Troy's elopement with Paris as a mythological exemplum to support this argument. The poem is at least 20 lines long, though it is uncertain whether the poem ends at line 20 or continues for another stanza.
Sappho 44 is a fragment of a poem by the archaic Greek poet Sappho, which describes the wedding of Hector and Andromache. Preserved on a piece of papyrus found in Egypt, it is the longest of Sappho's surviving fragments, and is written in epic style suiting its subject. The metre is glyconic with double dactylic expansion.
Greek lyric is the body of lyric poetry written in dialects of Ancient Greek. It is primarily associated with the early 7th to the early 5th centuries BC, sometimes called the "Lyric Age of Greece", but continued to be written into the Hellenistic and Imperial periods.
Edgar Lobel was a Romanian-British classicist and papyrologist who is best known for his four decades overseeing the publication of the literary texts among the Oxyrhynchus Papyri and for his edition of Sappho and Alcaeus in collaboration with Denys Page. His contributions to the fields of papyrology and Greek studies were many and substantial, and Eric Gardner Turner believed that Lobel should "be acknowledged as a scholar to be mentioned in the same breath as Porson and Bentley, a towering genius of English scholarship."
The Ode to Aphrodite is a lyric poem by the archaic Greek poet Sappho, who wrote in the late seventh and early sixth centuries BCE, in which the speaker calls on the help of Aphrodite in the pursuit of a beloved. The poem survives in almost complete form, with only two places of uncertainty in the text, preserved through a quotation from Dionysius of Halicarnassus' treatise On Composition and in fragmentary form in a scrap of papyrus discovered at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt.
The Brothers Poem or Brothers Song is a series of lines of verse attributed to the archaic Greek poet Sappho, which had been lost since antiquity until being rediscovered in 2014. Most of its text, apart from its opening lines, survives. It is known only from a papyrus fragment, comprising one of a series of poems attributed to Sappho. It mentions two of her brothers, Charaxos and Larichos; the only known mention of their names in Sappho's writings, though they are known from other sources. These references, and aspects of the language and style, have been used to establish her authorship.
The Midnight poem is a fragment of Greek lyric poetry preserved by the Alexandrian grammarian Hephaestion. It is possibly by the archaic Greek poet Sappho, and is fragment 168 B in Eva-Maria Voigt's edition of her works. It is also sometimes known as PMG fr. adesp. 976 – that is, fragment 976 from Denys Page's Poetae Melici Graeci, not attributed to any author. The poem, four lines describing a woman alone at night, is one of the best-known surviving pieces of Greek lyric poetry. Long thought to have been composed by Sappho, it is one of the most frequently translated and adapted of the works ascribed to her.
The Tithonus poem, also known as the Old age poem or the New Sappho, is a poem by the archaic Greek poet Sappho. It is part of fragment 58 in Eva-Maria Voigt's edition of Sappho. The poem is from Book IV of the Alexandrian edition of Sappho's poetry. It was first published in 1922, after a fragment of papyrus on which it was partially preserved was discovered at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt; further papyrus fragments published in 2004 almost completed the poem, drawing international media attention. One of very few substantially complete works by Sappho, it deals with the effects of ageing. There is scholarly debate about where the poem ends, as four lines previously thought to have been part of the poem are not found on the 2004 papyrus.
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 1231 is a papyrus discovered at Oxyrhynchus in Egypt, first published in 1914 by Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt. The papyrus preserves fragments of the second half of Book I of a Hellenistic edition of the poetry of the archaic poet Sappho.
Sappho 94, sometimes known as Sappho's Confession, is a fragment of a poem by the archaic Greek poet Sappho. The poem is written as a conversation between Sappho and a woman who is leaving her, perhaps in order to marry, and describes a series of memories of their time together. It survives on a sixth-century AD scrap of parchment. Scholarship on the poem has focused on whether the initial surviving lines of the poem are spoken by Sappho or the departing woman, and on the interpretation of the eighth stanza, possibly the only mention of homosexual activities in the surviving Sapphic corpus.
Sappho 2 is a fragment of a poem by the archaic Greek lyric poet Sappho. In antiquity it was part of Book I of the Alexandrian edition of Sappho's poetry. Sixteen lines of the poem survive, preserved on a potsherd discovered in Egypt and first published in 1937 by Medea Norsa. It is in the form of a hymn to the goddess Aphrodite, summoning her to appear in a temple in an apple grove. The majority of the poem is made up of an extended description of the sacred grove to which Aphrodite is being summoned.
Eva-Maria Voigt was a German classical philologist, known for her work on the archaic Greek poets Sappho and Alcaeus.
Sappho 96 is a poem by the archaic Greek lyric poet Sappho. 37 lines of the fragment are preserved on a 6th-century parchment. The first twenty lines describe an imaginary scene in which an unnamed woman is struck by grief remembering an absent companion, Atthis; the remaining 17 lines, possibly originally a separate poem, reflects more generally on the foolishness of trying to compare human and divine beauty. As with other poems by Sappho such as poem 16 and 94, memory is a major theme.
If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho is a book by the Canadian classicist and poet Anne Carson, first published in 2002. It contains a translation of the surviving works of the archaic Greek poet Sappho, with the Greek text on facing pages, based on Eva-Maria Voigt's 1971 critical edition. Carson's translation closely follows the word-order of Sappho's Greek, and marks lacunae in the manuscripts with square brackets. If Not, Winter was widely praised and is considered a significant modern translation of Sappho's work.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)