Homeric Hymn to Demeter
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- POEMS OF SAPPHO
ALCMAN'S PARTHENEION TRANSLATED BY GREGORY NAGY The Partheneion 'Maidens' Song' of Alcman (PMG 1), performed at a grand public festival in Sparta, on a seasonally-recurring basis, by a khoros 'chorus, song-and-dance ensemble' of local maidens specially selected for the occasion, who take on the roles of the names featured in the song. The two premier roles are Hagesikhora and Agido, who are to be two competing choral leaders. Note the use of the word khorêgos 'chorus-leader' in the song, as it applies to Hagesikhora. The name Hagesikhora means the same thing as khorêgos.52
35 Having devised evil deeds, they54 suffered [paskhô] in a way that cannot be forgotten. There is such a thing as retribution from the gods. Blessed [olbios] is he who, with a kind disposition, weaves through the time of day without punishment that makes him weep. And I sing 40 the radiance of Agido, as I look upon her like the sun, which Agido summons to shine as witness. But for me to praise her or blame her is not possible, as the illustrious khorêgos55 45 does not allow me. For that one56 appears radiantly outstanding, as when someone sets among grazing beasts a horse, well-built, a prize-winner, with thundering hooves, from out of those dreams underneath the rock. 50 Don't you see? One is a racehorse from Paphlagonia. But the mane of the other one, my kinswoman Hagesikhora, blossoms on her head like imperishable gold. 55 And the silver look of her face— what can I tell you openly? She is Hagesikhora. But whoever is second to Agido in beauty, let her be a Scythian horse running against a Lydian one.57 60 I say this because the Pleiades, as we bring the sacred veil for the Dawn Goddess, are passing through the ambrosial night, rising up over the horizon like Sirius the star, to do battle with us. It is true: all the royal purple 65 in the world cannot resist. No fancy snake-bracelet, made of pure gold, no headdress from Lydia, the kind that girls with tinted eyelids wear to make themselves fetching. 70 No, even the hair of Nanno is not enough. Nor goddess-like Areta, nor Thylakis and Kleesithera; you wouldn't say so even if you went to the house of Ainesimbrota. Even if Astaphis were mine, 75 or Philylla gazed at me, Damareta too, and lovely Ianthemis, still, it is Hagesikhora who wears me down. For she, with her beautiful ankles, Hagesikhora, is not there. 80 She stays at the side of Agido.58 And she gives authority to our festive actions. So, from them...59 ...receive! It is through the gods that there is fulfillment and reaching the telos. As the one who sets up the khoros,60 85 I should speak. I am the one, the virgin who has sounded forth to no avail, an owl. But it is also I who, most of all, to the Dawn Goddess lust to give pleasure. Of our ordeals [ponoi] she has become the healer. 90 But it is thanks to Hagesikhora61 that young girls have found their way to a peacefulness that is lovely. For the tracehorse...62 In this way...63 Just as the helmsman must be 95 heeded on board a ship. But she is, more than the Sirens, capable of song...64 For they are goddesses. Instead of...65 young ones, this group of ten...66 100 It makes a sound,...67...on the banks of the river Xanthos ['blond'], the swan does. And she, with her lovely blond hair...68 POEMS OF SAPPHO TRANSLATED BY JULIA DUBNOFF 1 Immortal Aphrodite, on your intricately brocaded throne,69 child of Zeus, weaver of wiles, this I pray: Dear Lady, don’t crush my heart with pains and sorrows.
when you heard my far-off cry, you listened. And you came, leaving your father’s house, yoking your chariot of gold. 10 Then beautiful swift sparrows led you over the black earth from the sky through the middle air, whirling their wings into a blur. Rapidly they came. And you, O Blessed Goddess, a smile on your immortal face, 15 asked what had happened this time, why did I call again, and what did I especially desire for myself in my frenzied heart: "Who this time am I to persuade 20 to your love? Sappho, who is doing you wrong? For even if she flees, soon she shall pursue. And if she refuses gifts, soon she shall give them. If she doesn’t love you, soon she shall love even if she’s unwilling." 25 Come to me now once again and release me from grueling anxiety. All that my heart longs for, fulfill. And be yourself my ally in love’s battle. 16 Some say an army of horsemen, some of footsoldiers, some of ships, is the fairest thing on the black earth, but I say it is what one loves.
to everyone, for Helen, by far surpassing mortals in beauty, left the best of all husbands and sailed to Troy, 10 mindful of neither her child nor her dear parents, but with one glimpse she was seduced by Aphrodite. For easily bent... and nimbly...[missing text]... 15 has reminded me now of Anactoria who is not here; I would much prefer to see the lovely way she walks and the radiant glance of her face than the war-chariots of the Lydians or 20 their footsoldiers in arms. 31 That man to me seems equal to the gods, the man who sits opposite you and close by listens to your sweet voice
that indeed has stirred up the heart in my breast. For whenever I look at you even briefly I can no longer say a single thing, but my tongue is frozen in silence; 10 instantly a delicate flame runs beneath my skin; with my eyes I see nothing; my ears make a whirring noise. A cold sweat covers me, trembling seizes my body, 15 and I am greener than grass. Lacking but little of death do I seem. sapphic fragments 1 Come now, luxuriant Graces, and beautiful-haired Muses. 2 I tell you someone will remember us in the future. 3 Now, I shall sing these songs Beautifully for my companions. 4 The moon shone full And when the maidens stood around the altar...
“He is dying, Aphrodite; luxuriant Adonis is dying. What should we do?” “Beat your breasts, young maidens. And tear your garments in grief.”
O, weep for Adonis! 7 But come, dear companions, For day is near.
The moon is set. And the Pleiades. It’s the middle of the night. Time [hôrâ] passes. But I sleep alone.
I love the sensual. For me this and love for the sun has a share in brilliance and beauty
I desire
And I crave. 11 You set me on fire. 12 A servant of wile-weaving Aphrodite... 13 Eros
Giver of pain... 14 Eros
Coming from heaven throwing off his purple cloak.
Again love, the limb-loosener, rattles me bittersweet, irresistible, a crawling beast.
As a wind in the mountains assaults an oak, Love shook my breast. 17 I loved you, Atthis, long ago even when you seemed to me a small graceless child. 18 But you hate the very thought of me, Atthis, And you flutter after Andromeda.
Honestly, I wish I were dead. Weeping many tears, she left me and said, “Alas, how terribly we suffer, Sappho. I really leave you against my will.”
You know how we cared for you. If not, I would remind you ...of our wonderful times. For by my side you put on many wreaths of roses and garlands of flowers around your soft neck. And with precious and royal perfume you anointed yourself. On soft beds you satisfied your passion. And there was no dance, no holy place from which we were absent.”
They say that Leda once found an egg— like a hyacinth. 21 “Virginity, virginity Where will you go when you’ve left me?”
I’ll never come back to you.” 22 Sweet mother, I can’t do my weaving— Aphrodite has crushed me with desire for a tender youth. 23 Like a sweet-apple turning red high
on the tip of the topmost branch. Forgotten by pickers.
they couldn’t reach it. 24 Like a hyacinth in the mountains that shepherds crush underfoot. Even on the ground a purple flower. 25 To what shall I compare you, dear bridegroom? To a slender shoot, I most liken you.
[Sappho compared the girl to an apple....she compared the bridegroom to Achilles, and likened the young man’s deeds to the hero’s.] Himerius (4th cent. A.D.), Or. 1.16 27 Raise high the roofbeams, carpenters! Hymenaon, Sing the wedding song! Up with them! Hymenaon, Sing the wedding song! A bridegroom taller than Ares! Hymenaon, Sing the wedding song! Taller than a tall man! Hymenaon, Sing the wedding song! Superior as the singer of Lesbos— Hymenaon, Sing the wedding song! —to poets of other lands. Hymenaon! 28 The Marriage of Hektor and Andromakhe ...Cyprus... ...The herald Idaios came...a swift messenger ...and the rest of Asia...unwilting glory (kleos aphthiton). Hektor and his companions led the dark-eyed luxuriant Andromakhe from holy Thebes and...Plakia in ships upon the salty sea. Many golden bracelets and purple robes..., intricately-worked ornaments, countless silver cups and ivory. Thus he spoke. And his dear father quickly leapt up. And the story went to his friends through the broad city. And the Trojans joined mules to smooth-running carriages. And the whole band of women and...maidens got on. Separately, the daughters of Priam... And the unmarried men led horses beneath the chariots and greatly...charioteers...
...holy
set forth into Troy... And the sweet song of the flute mixed... And the sound of the cymbals, and then the maidens sang in clear tones a sacred song and a divinely-sweet echo reached the sky... And everywhere through the streets... Mixing bowls and cups... And myrrh and cassia and frankincense were mingled. And the older women wailed aloud. And all the men gave forth a high-pitched song, calling on Apollo, the far-shooter, skilled in the lyre. And they sang of Hektor and Andromakhe like to the gods. 29 Blessed bridegroom, The marriage is accomplished as you prayed. You have the maiden you prayed for. 30 I don’t know what to do: I am of two minds. 31 For gold is Zeus’ child. 32 I have a beautiful daughter Like a golden flower My beloved Kleis. I would not trade her for all Lydia nor lovely...
When you lie dead, no one will remember you For you have no share in the Muses’ roses. No, flitting aimlessly about, You will wildly roam, a shade amidst the shadowy dead. 34 Death is an evil. That’s what the gods think. Or they would die. 35 Because you are dear to me Marry a younger woman. I don’t dare live with a young man— I’m older.
TRANSLATED BY GREGORY NAGY 1. And they passed by the streams of Okeanos and the White Rock and past the Gates of the Sun and the District of Dreams. Odyssey 24.11-12 2. ...they say that Sappho was the first, hunting down the proud Phaon, to throw herself, in her goading desire, from the rock that shines from afar. But now, in accordance with your sacred utterance, lord king, let there be silence throughout the sacred precinct of the headland of the White Rock. Menander F 258K 3. One more time taking off in the air, down from the White Rock into the dark waves do I dive, intoxicated with lust. Anacreon PMG 376 4. I would be crazy not to give all the herds of the Cyclopes in return for drinking one cup [of that wine] and throwing myself from the white rock into the brine, once I am intoxicated, with eyebrows relaxed. Whoever is not happy when he drinks is crazy. Where it is allowed to make this thing stand up erect, to grab the breast and touch with both hands
and forgetting [root lêth-] of bad things. Euripides Cyclops 163-172 5. Related sources (summaries and commentary by G.N.): According to the account in Book VII of the mythographer Ptolemaios Chennos (ca. A.D. 100; by way of Photius Bibliotheca 152-153 Bekker), the first to dive off the heights of Cape Leukas, the most famous localization of the White Rock, was none other than Aphrodite herself, out of love for a dead Adonis. After Adonis died (how it happened is not said), the mourning Aphrodite went off searching for him and finally found him at ‘Cypriote Argos’, in a shrine of Apollo. She consults Apollo, who instructs her to seek relief from her love by jumping off the white rock of Leukas, where Zeus sits whenever he wants relief from his passion for Hera. Then Ptolemaios launches into a veritable catalogue of other figures who followed Aphrodite’s precedent and took a ritual plunge as a cure for love. For example, Queen Artemisia I is reputed to have leapt off the white rock out of love for one Dardanos, succeeding only in getting herself killed. Several others are mentioned who died from the leap, including a certain iambographer Charinos who expired only after being fished out of the water with a broken leg, but not before blurting out his four last iambic trimeters, painfully preserved for us with the compliments of Ptolemaios (and Photius as well). Someone called Makês was more fortunate: having succeeded in escaping from four love affairs after four corresponding leaps from the white rock, he earned the epithet Leukopetrâs ‘the one of the white rock’. We may question the degree of historicity in such accounts. There is, however, a more important concern. In the lengthy and detailed account of Ptolemaios, Sappho is not mentioned at all, let alone Phaon. From this silence we may infer that the source of this myth about Aphrodite and Adonis is independent of Sappho’s own poetry or of later distortions based on it. Accordingly, the ancient cult practice at Cape Leukas, as described by Strabo (10.2.9 C452), may well contain some intrinsic element that inspired lovers’ leaps, a practice also noted by Strabo (ibid.). The second practice seems to be derived from the first, as we might expect from a priestly institution that becomes independent of the social context that had engendered it. Abstracted from their inherited tribal functions, religious institutions have a way of becoming mystical organizations. Another reason for doubting that Sappho’s poetry had been the inspiration for the lovers’ leaps at Cape Leukas is the attitude of Strabo himself. He specifically disclaims Menander’s version about Sappho’s being the first to take the plunge at Leukas. Instead, he offers a version of "those more versed in the ancient lore," according to which Kephalos son of Deioneus was the very first to have leapt, impelled by love for Pterelas (Strabo 10.2.9 C452). The myth of Kephalos and his dive may be as old as the concept of the White Rock. I say "concept" because the ritual practice of casting victims from a white rock may be an inheritance parallel to the epic tradition about a mythical White Rock on the shores of the Okeanos (as in Odyssey 24.11) and the related literary theme of diving from an imaginary White Rock (as in the poetry of Anacreon and Euripides). In other words, it is needless to assume that the ritual preceded the myth or the other way around. 6. Others say that, in the vicinity of the rocks at Athenian Kolonos, he [Poseidon], falling asleep, had an emission of semen, and a horse Skuphios came out, who is also called Skîrônîtês [‘the one of the White Rock’]. Scholia to Lycophron 766 7. Poseidon Petraios [‘of the rocks’] has a cult among the Thessalians...because he, having fallen asleep at some rock, had an emission of semen; and the earth, receiving the semen, produced the first horse, whom they called Skuphios....And they say that there was a festival established in worship of Poseidon Petraios at the spot where the first horse leapt forth. Scholia to Pindar Pythian 4.246 8. But I love luxuriance [(h)abrosunê]...this, and lust for the sun has won me brightness and beauty. Sappho F 58.25-26 V PINDAR'S PYTHIAN 8 TRANSLATION AND NOTES BY GREGORY NAGY This song, composed by Pindar to be sung and danced by an ad hoc local khoros in the island-state of Aigina,was commissioned by the family of an aristocrat named Aristomenes, as a celebration of his victory in the wrestling event at the Pythian Games of 446 B.C. Strophe 1 Hêsukhiâ!71 You whose disposition is kindly to philoi, you Daughter of Dikê, you ultimate greatness of every polis, you who possess the supreme keys to councils of state and to wars! Receive on behalf of Aristomenes [5] the tîmê of the victory at the Pythian Games. For you are the one who understands both how to give pleasure and how to make someone feel that pleasure—with an unerring sense of timing. Antistrophe 1 But whenever anyone drives harsh anger into the heart, [10] you fiercely confront such men of ill will, and with your power you drown hubris. Little did Porphyrion72 know that it was you he was provoking. But kerdos 73 is most philon when one takes it as a prize from the house of one who willingly gives it. Epode 1 [15] He who boasts gets tripped, in the fullness of time, by his own biâ. The hundred-headed Typhon did not get away. Nor did the king of the Giants. They were subdued by the thunderbolt and by the arrows of Apollo, who welcomed from Kirrha,74 with kindly noos, [20] the son of Xenarkes,75 crowned with the green of Parnassus,76 and with a band of revelers.77 Strophe 2 This island, this polis of dikê,78 did not fall away from the Graces [Kharites], connected as it is to the kleos-making achievements [aretê pl.] of the Aiakidai.79 It has achieved a perfect fame, [25] going back to the very beginnings. It is a subject of song for many, as its nurturing earth sprouts the greatest heroes [hêrôes] in victory-bringing contests and in violent battles. Antistrophe 2 And these things stand out, radiant, for men as well.80 But I have no time to linger in putting up to view [30] the whole story in its full length, with lyre and pleasurable song, for fear that overindulgence [koros] may come and cause displeasure. No, let my sacred obligation to you get under way right now, my boy, which is speeding straight ahead in front of my feet, and which is the nearest, of all beautiful things, to the here and now, taking flight by way of my craft. Epode 2 [35] For you follow, at wrestling matches, in the footsteps of your mother's brothers. You did Theognetos proud, the one in the Olympics. Also Kleitomakhos, whose victory at the Isthmians gave proof to the boldness of his limbs. Making great the house81 of the Meidulidai,82 you win as a prize the words that once the son of Oikles83 said [ainissomai],84 when he saw [40] the Sons85 holding their ground at Thebes, by the power of the spear, Strophe 3 at the time when they, the Epigonoi,86 had come from Argos, on the second expedition. Thus he87 spoke about those who fought: [45] “The will of the fathers [pateres]88 shines through from them, in the very thing that is inborn in the nature of their sons. I can see clearly Alkmaion,89 wielding the patterned snake on his blazing shield,90 in the forefront of the gates of Kadmos.91 Antistrophe 3 But the one who had lost his strength in the earlier happenings92 is now on solid footing, [50] with the announcement of a better bird-omen than before. He is the hero [hêrôs] Adrastos. But at home his fortune will be the opposite. For he alone of the host of Danaoi93 will have to gather the bones of a son who died,94 while the rest of the warriors come home unharmed, with their good fortune granted from the gods, Epode 3 [55] home to the public places of Abas,95 with their wide spaces for song and dance.” Thus spoke Amphiaraos. And I also take joy in casting a garland at Alkmaion. And I shower him96 with song because he was a neighbor to me,97 a guardian of my possessions,98 and he came to meet me99 as I was heading towards the Navel of the Earth,100 that lasting subject for song, [60] putting me in touch with his inbred crafts of a seer. Strophe 4 But you, who shoots from afar,101 who rules the sacred precinct that receives all, that has good kleos, in the valley of the Pytho,102 [65] you granted in that place the greatest of all joys.103 And in his own homeland, earlier, you had brought about the coveted gift of a pentathlon victory at your festival.104 O lord, I pray to you with a noos that is ready and willing: Antistrophe 4 Look upon me as I fit my voice with whatever tuning you desire, as I travel down each path of song and back up again. [70] The band of revelers,105 with their sweet song, has Dikê to preside over them. I ask for the unstinting regard of the gods, Xenarkes, on the occasion of your good fortune. For if one possesses good things without having had a lengthy ordeal [ponos], many think that he is sophos, that he is not one of the ignorant, Epode 4 [75] the way he arranges his life, they think, with straight-planned stratagems. But that is not ordained to be, in this world of men. It is the daimôn who provides, exalting different men at different times, at other times bringing them down in due proportion. You have your prize that you won at Megara, and the one you got in the sacred recesses of Marathon, and you mastered, in manly feats, the local106 contest [agôn] of Hera [80] in three separate victories, Aristomenes! Strophe 5 Four times did you come slamming down from above, with no kind thoughts, on top of bodies below. For all of them the outcome at the Pythian Games was no pleasurable nostos. [85] No sweet laughter was there to make an aura of kharis as they came back home to stay at their mothers' side. They lurk in byways, trying to avoid their personal enemies, stung as they are by their bad fortune. Antistrophe 5 But whoever has as his lot something beautiful in the here and now, in a time of great luxuriance [habrotês], [90] such a man starts soaring, driven by his aspirations, lifted high in the air by his feats of manliness, with his ambition going beyond material wealth. The pleasure that mortals get waxes in a short space of time. And, just as quickly, it falls to the ground, shaken by adverse opinion. Epode 5 [95] Creatures of a day. What is a someone, what is a no one? Man is the dream of a shade. But when the brightness given by Zeus comes, there is at hand the shining light of men, and the life-force [aiôn] gives pleasure. Aigina! Philê Mother! Make an armada107 of freedom for this polis as you bring it back to light and life,108 back to Zeus! May Aiakos the Ruler be there. So also Peleus. And noble Telamon. And especially Achilles.109 |