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?
Is the newly found poem online anywhere??
I hear it's called "Ode to Hillary"
Thanks for all you do! I love your posts. Your effort is appreciated.
Didn't Sappho created lesbianism?
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."
P-ing
If she was so damn great, somebody should have taken the time to write all of her crap down someplace other than a mummy.
This is really interesting -- thanks, great post.
And finally, to address this nonsense about Sappho creating "lesbianism" and whatnot, it's based on the fact that she was the teacher or mistress of a group of young women, in much the same way as Socrates was the teacher and master of a group of young men. This does not necessarily mean she engaged in sexual relationships with women (and in fact she was married). Nonetheless, this idea has been propigated for several centuries now-hence the origin of the word "lesbian".
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs"I will ping the GGG list until July 2, 2005, during SunkenCiv's temporary absence from the board.
If you see articles appropriate for the GGG ping list, please ping me.
[CHORUS:]
My loneliness is killing me
I must confess, I still believe
When I'm not with you I lose my mind
Give me a sign
Hit me baby one more time
Oh baby, baby
The reason I breathe is you
Boy you got me blinded
Oh baby, baby
There's nothing that I wouldn't do
That's not the way I planned it
Show me, how you want it to be
Tell me baby
'Cause I need to know now what we've got
[Repeat CHORUS]
Oh baby, baby
Oh baby, baby
Ah, yeah, yeah
Oh baby, baby
How was I supposed to know
Oh pretty baby
I shouldn't have let you go
I must confess, that my loneliness
Is killing me now
Don't you know I still believe
That you will be here
And give me a sign
Hit me baby one more time
[Repeat CHORUS]
I must confess that my loneliness
Is killing me now
Don't you know I still believe
That you will be here
And give me a sign
Hit me baby one more time
This is, after all, a big deal. Like finding a new sonnet of Shakespeare's.
All this and no poem.
What a gyp.
The last bit of it reads as follows:
Here is the poem in my own restoration and translation. The words in square brackets are supplied by conjecture.
"[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."
We know of several poems in which Sappho spoke of herself as getting on in years. Here she addresses a group of younger women or girls, whom she calls (to translate literally) “children”, contrasting their blithe singing and dancing with her own heaviness of heart and limb. It is clear from other evidence that she composed her poetry, or most of it, within an intimate circle of women whom she calls her “companions”. Her house is a house of moisopoloi, “servants of the Muses”. Later writers saw her as a chorus-leader or teacher, to whom people of class in several cities sent their daughters for a musical education. We cannot tell how accurate a construction this is, but it must have been based on the impression given by the poems, and it is consistent with what we know.
In the new poem, however, the focus is on Sappho herself. She recites the symptoms of her ageing, as in another famous poem she recites the physical symptoms of jealous love. Then comes philosophical reflection. In the love poem she tells herself that everything is endurable, because fortunes can be transformed at God’s pleasure. In the new poem she tells herself that growing old is part of the human condition and there is nothing to be done about it. This truth is illustrated, as typically in Greek lyric, by a mythical example. It is a tale that was popular at the time, the story of Tithonus, whom the Dawn-goddess took as her husband. At her request, Zeus granted him immortality, but she neglected to ask that he should also have eternal youth, so he just grew ever older and feebler. Finally she shut him up in his room, where he chatters away endlessly but barely has the strength to move.
Sappho is very economical with the myth, giving it just four lines and ending the poem with it. At first sight it might seem a lame ending. But the final phrase gives a poignant edge to the whole. Tithonus lived on, growing ever more grey and frail, while his consort remained young and beautiful – just as Sappho grows old before a cohort of protégées who, like undergraduates, are always young. The poem is a small masterpiece: simple, concise, perfectly formed, an honest, unpretentious expression of human feeling, dignified in its restraint. It moves both by what it says and by what it leaves unspoken. It gives us no ground for thinking that Sappho’s poetic reputation was undeserved.
oh fans of sappho....
Sappho at 80:
