After 2,600 Years, The World Gains Fourth Poem By Sappho

The Guardian (UK) ^ | 6-24-2005 | John Ezard

[blam]

After 2,600 years, the world gains a fourth poem by Sappho

John Ezard
Friday June 24, 2005
The Guardian (UK)

Plato believed Sappho should be honoured not merely as a poet but as a Muse. Photo: Getty

A newly found poem by Sappho, acknowledged as one of the greatest poets of Greek classical antiquity and seen by some as the finest of any era, is published for the first time today. Written more than 2,600 years ago, the 101 words of verse deal with a theme timeless in both art and soap operas; the stirrings of an ageing body towards the nimbleness, youth and love it once knew.

The poem is the rarest of discoveries. Sappho's pre-eminent reputation as an artist of lyricism and love is based on only three complete poems, 63 complete single lines and up to 264 fragments.

These are all that have survived of the writings of a woman who the Greek philosopher Plato said should be honoured not merely as a great lyric poet but as one of the Muses, the goddesses who inspire all art. On hearing one of Sappho's poems sung, the sixth century BC Greek ruler Solon, a contemporary of hers, asked for someone to teach him the song "because I want to learn it and die".

The poem which is now her fourth to survive had a tortuous and not unromantic discovery. It was found in the cartonnage of an Egyptian mummy, the flexible layer of fibre or papyrus which was moulded while wet into a plaster-like surface around the irregular parts of a mummified wrapped body, so that motifs could be painted on.

Last year two scholars, Michael Gronewald and Robert Daniel, announced that a recovered papyrus in the archives of Cologne University had been identified as part of a roll containing poems by Sappho.

Researchers realised that parts of one poem corresponded with fragments found in 1922 in one of the great treasure troves of modern classical scholarship - the ancient rubbish tips of the Egyptian town of Oxyrhynchus.

The completed jigsaw is today published in an 1,500- word article with commentary and translation in the Times Literary Supplement by Martin West, emeritus fellow of All Souls, Oxford, a renowned translator of Greek lyric poetry, described by the British Academy as "on any reckoning the most brilliant and productive Greek scholar of his generation".

Sappho - writing on the isle of Lesbos, apparently for a court of younger women - is treated as the patron saint of love between women. She has become "a litterateurs' Lorelei, a feminist icon, a scholars' maypole", writes Dr West.

Ostensibly at least, the craving in the final image of the new poem is for love from young men - with a cautionary note. Tithonus was a youth so beautiful that the dawn-goddess took him as husband. At her request Zeus granted him immortality. But she forgot to ask for eternal youth.

So Tithonus grew old and feeble, having eventually to be shut in his room "where he chatters away endlessly but barely has the strength to move", Dr West says.

[Noachian]

It was found in the cartonnage of an Egyptian mummy, the flexible layer of fibre or papyrus which was moulded while wet into a plaster-like surface around the irregular parts of a mummified wrapped body, so that motifs could be painted on.

Am I missing something? It was found in a mummy wrapping?

If it was such a great poem why was it found there, and why was another piece found in a garbage dump?

[need_a_screen_name]

Is the newly found poem online anywhere??

[Dr.Hilarious]

I hear it's called "Ode to Hillary"

[kozachka]

There have been cases, in literature, of more than one copy of a poem existing.....

Seriously, how many poems or books exist in their original form from antiquity? Many copies were made, but they got lost, thrown out, the paper used for something else. Most have been lost, often due to the actions of Philistines, like those that burned the great library of Alexandria.

We're luck that much of anything has survived.

[Nateman]

So where is it? At 101 words we can read it for ourselves without someone else telling me how beautiful it is

[wildwood]

Am I missing something? It was found in a mummy wrapping?

sure, they wrapped their peeps up with old newspaper, just like dead fish. dint choo know that?

it was a great honor.

[lizma]

Was the poem about a major bad hair day and dressing in bizarre clothing? Never thought Greeks ran around in ragged bras but I maybe wrong.

Thanks for all you do! I love your posts. Your effort is appreciated.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Didn't Sappho created lesbianism?

[Cicero]

The article in TLS is here:

http://www.the-tls.co.uk/this_week/story.aspx?story_id=2111206

Here's West's translation of the poem:

"[You for] the fragrant-blossomed Muses’ lovely gifts
[be zealous,] girls, [and the] clear melodious lyre:

[but my once tender] body old age now
[has seized;] my hair’s turned [white] instead of dark;

my heart’s grown heavy, my knees will not support me,
that once on a time were fleet for the dance as fawns.

This state I oft bemoan; but what’s to do?
Not to grow old, being human, there’s no way.

Tithonus once, the tale was, rose-armed Dawn,
love-smitten, carried off to the world’s end,

handsome and young then, yet in time grey age
o’ertook him, husband of immortal wife."

[martin_fierro]

Hmmm, lesbians. Yummy.

[Feiny]

P-ing

[Hank Rearden]

Sappho's pre-eminent reputation as an artist of lyricism and love is based on only three complete poems, 63 complete single lines and up to 264 fragments.

If she was so damn great, somebody should have taken the time to write all of her crap down someplace other than a mummy.

[Hank Rearden]

This is much better, nay timeless:

Deteriorata

Go placidly amid the noise & waste, & remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.

Avoid quiet & passive persons unless you are in need of sleep.

Rotate your tires.

Speak glowingly of those greater than yourself and heed well their advice even though they be turkeys; know what to kiss and when.

Consider that two wrongs never make a right but that three do.

Wherever possible, put people on hold.

Be comforted that in the face of all aridity & disillusionment and despite the changing fortunes of time, there will always be a big future in computer maintenance.

Remember the Pueblo.

Strive at all times to bend, fold, spindle, & mutilate.

Know yourself; if you need help, call the FBI.

Exercise caution in your daily affairs, especially with those persons closest to you. That lemon on your left, for instance.

Be assured that a walk through the ocean of most souls would scarcely get your feet wet. Fall not in love therefore; it will stick to your face.

Gracefully surrender the things of youth, birds, clean air, tuna, Taiwan; and let not the sands of time get in your lunch.

Hire people with hooks.

For a good time, call 606-4311; ask for Ken.

Take heart amid the deepening gloom that your dog is finally getting enough cheese; and reflect that whatever misfortune may be your lot, it could only be worse in Milwaukee.

You are a fluke of the universe; you have no right to be here, and whether you can hear it or not, the universe is laughing behind your back.

Therefore make peace with your God whatever you conceive Him to be: Hairy Thunderer or Cosmic Muffin.

With all its hopes, dreams, promises & urban renewal, the world continues to deteriorate. Give up.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

From the oeuvre of Sappho's poetry that have been passed down to us, no one in their right mind would call her a great poet. We have only one complete poem and fragments. This latest find makes two poems. And those after classical antiquity that did praise her as a muse, based their judgment on how others praised her poetry.

Her fame as a poet is largely based on hearsay. Some critics and others among the literati are perfectly happy placing her among the best poets of all times with little to no evidence. When it comes to critiquing a poet, I have to rank myself among the evidentialists.

[FreeAtlanta]

I was reading this to my wife and got to "Sappho - writing on the isle of Lesbos" and I joked to my wife, is that where the term Lesbian came from? Then I continued, "apparently for a court of younger women - is treated as the patron saint of love between women". I said, oh. We just looked at each other with that silly embarassed look.

[Nateman]

Sounds like the ultimate shaggy dog story.

[Reactionary]

"These are all that have survived of the writings of a woman who the Greek philosopher Plato said should be honoured not merely as a great lyric poet but as one of the Muses, the goddesses who inspire all art."

I know of no Platonic dialogue in which she's mentioned. I know, however, that the attribution Plato was supposed to have made was part of the Anthologia Palatina.

[68skylark]

This is really interesting -- thanks, great post.

[68skylark]

Didn't Sappho created lesbianism?

I'm not sure she created it. But yeah, I think she's associated with it. She wrote on the island of Lesbos, where the term comes from.