MORE happy than the gods is he Quick through each vein the poison flows: 10 Ode II. This beautiful ode is preserved by Longinus, in his Treatise of the Sublime. 1. More happy than the gods, &c.] There is an epigram in the Anthologia, which seems to be an imitation of this stanza. Ευδαίμων ὁ βλέπων σε, τρισοβειος όςις ακουει, * Ημίθεος δ' όφιλων, αθάνατος δ' ὁ σύνων. Longinus bas observed, that "this description of love in Sappho is an exact copy of nature; and that all the circumstances, which follow one another in such a hurry of sentiments, notwithstanding they appear repugnant to each other, are really such as happen in the frenzies of love." He farther says: "Sappho, having observed the anxieties and tortures inseparable to jealons love, has collected and displayed them all with the most lively exactness." And Dr. Pearce judiciously observes, that "ia this ode she endeavours to express that wrath, jealousy, and anguish, which distracted her with such a variety of torture. And therefore, in the following verses of Boileau's translation the true sense is mistaken : «And, dans les doux transports, où s'egare mon ame. je tombe en des douces langueurs. As the word doux will by no means express the rage and distraction of Sappho's mind: it being always used in a contrary sense." There are two lines in Phillips's translation of this ode which are liable to the same objection: For while 1 gaz'd, in transport tost. And, Fragment I.-6. And yet, alas! I lie alone] A shepherd in she Idyllium entitled OAPIETYE (which is generally ascribed to Theocritus, but by Daniel Heinsius, is attributed to Moschus) wishes a citygirl, who had slighted him, the punishment of living and dying an old maid. may you ne'er find one Frag. II.-Sappho is not the only good writer, who, from a due sense of the excellence of their works, have promised themselves immortality.Virgil has expressed himself in the same manner at the beginning of the third Georgic:-Horace in several places, particularly in the ode, Exegi monumentum:-but Ovid, in the strongest terms: Jamque opus exegi, &c. My blood with gentle horrours thrill'd. Mr. Addison, in his Spectator on this ode, relates the following remarkable circumstance from Plutarch: "That author, in the famous story of Antiochus, who fell in love with Stratonice, his mother-in-law, and (not daring to discover his passion) pretended to be confined to his bed by sickness, tells us, that Erasistratus, the physician, found out the nature of his distemper by those I've now compil'd a work, which nor the rage symptoms of love which he had learned from Sap-Of Jove, nor fire, nor sword, nor eating age, pho's writings. Stratonice was in the room of the Is able to destroy love-sick prince, when these symptoms discovered themselves to his physician; and it is probable, that they were not very different from those which Sappho here describes in a lover sitting by his mistress." Madame Dacier says, that this ode of Sappho is preserved entire in Longinus, whereas, whoever looks into that author's quotation of it will find, that there must at least have been another stanza, which is not transmitted to us. 5. For thy rude hand ne'er pluck'd the lovely rose, Pieria was a mountain in Macedonia, dedicated to TWO EPIGRAMS. I. MENISCUS, mourning for his hapless son, Epigram I.-Longepierre observes, that it was Σημα σε μοι χευαι, &c. A tomb along the watery margin raise, There high in air, memorial of my name, In the beginning of the twelfth book we find the A rising tomb, the silent dead to grace, Pope suaque arma viro, remumque, tubamque. The following is part of an Ode which Sappho is This done; to solemnize the warrior's doom, supposed to have written to Anacreon. the notes on the 64th Ode of Anacreon. -See Frag. III. This fragment should be joined with In decent robe, behind him bound, Tibi qualum Cythereæ puer ales The winged boy, in wanton play, Thy work and basket steals away: Duncombe. Frag. V-We are indebted to Achilles Tatius The pious hero rais'd a lofty tomb; The towering top his well-known ensigns bore, Pitt. These sort of epitaphs were more general, con- Madame Dacier also observes, that emblems of Μη λαμβει, μαςιγα Μυρές επι σηματι λεύσσων, The whip denoted, that she used to chastise her At the Earl of Holderness's, at Aske in York- Has plac'd upon his tomb a net and oar, The badges of a painful life and poor. EPIGRAM II. THE much-lov'd Timas lodges in this tomb, Uxor amet, sileat, servet, nec ubique vagetur : Be frugal, ye wives, live in silence and love, This learn from the keys, the lips, and the dove, Epig. II. From their fair heads the graceful curls, &c.] The ceremony of cutting off the hair, among the ancients, in honour of the dead, was a token of a violent affection. Thus Achilles, in the twen ty-third book of the Iliad, offers his to Patroclus. And the little Cupids tear their hair for grief at the death of Adonis : (See Bion.) Herodotus tells us that Mardonius cut off his, after his defeat. Many more instances of this extraordinary custom might be produced; but these will, probably, be thought sufficient. I shall finish my observations on this excellent poetess with an ingenious surmise in regard to the above-mentioned cere mony: It was practised, perhaps, not only in token of sorrow, but might also have a concealed meaning, that as the hair was cut from the head, and was never more to be joined to it, so was the dead for ever cut off from the living, never more to return. |