Sappho
We know little of her but she's one of the most famous and accomplished poets of antiquity. Only three complete poems survive. The rest fragments.
This is a complete poem of Sappho. Dionysius of Halicarnassus quotes the poem. We also have bits of it on a worn, worm-eaten papyrus from the 100s CE. Line 19 in the Greek has crosses (cruces) because scholars think Dionysius's text there is wrong. My rendering of the Greek at 19 is my own.
Sappho Poem 1
Flower-crowned immortal Aphrodite,
Zeus's child, weaver of deceits, I pray:
don't crush my heart with pain, my queen.
Just come here now like you've done before
when you heard me and left your father's
house of gold and came,
riding in your sparrow-drawn chariot,
their wings thick over the dark earth
from heaven down to me
in an instant they came and you,
happy, smiled your god smile and asked
why I was suffering again and why was I
calling you again
and what was it my wild heart wanted:
"Who do I convince again to come back to your arms? Who's done you wrong,
Sappho?
If she's avoiding you, soon she won't.
If she's not taking your gifts, she'll be giving them.
If she doesn't love you, soon she will,
even if she doesn't want it."
Just come here now. Get rid of this pain.
Everything my heart wants, give me.
Be my ally in love.
ποικιλόθρον’ ἀθανάτ’ Ἀφρόδιτα,
παῖ Δίος δολόπλοκε, λίσσομαί σε,
μή μ’ ἄσαισι μηδ’ ὀνίαισι δάμνα,
πότνια, θῦμον·
ἀλλὰ τυίδ’ ἔλθ’, αἴ ποτα κἀτέρωτα
τὰς ἔμας αὔδας ἀίοισα πήλοι
ἔκλυες, πάτρος δὲ δόμον λίποισα
χρύσιον ἦλθες
ἄρμ’ ὐπασδεύξαισα· κάλοι δέ σ’ ἆγον
ὤκεες στροῦθοι περὶ γᾶς μελαίνας
πύκνα δίννεντες πτέρ’ ἀπ’ ὠράνωἴθε-
ρος διὰ μέσσω·
αἶψα δ’ ἐξίκοντο· σὺ δ’, ὦ μάκαιρα,
μειδιαίσαισ’ ἀθανάτῳ προσώπῳ
ἤρε’ ὄττι δηὖτε πέπονθα κὤττι
δηὖτε κάλημμι
κὤττι μοι μάλιστα θέλω γένεσθαι
μαινόλᾳ θύμῳ· τίνα δηὖτε πείθω
†ἄψ ἄγην ἐς σὰν† φιλότατα; τίς σ’, ὦ
Ψάπφ’, ἀδικήει;
καὶ γὰρ αἰ φεύγει, ταχέως διώξει,
αἰ δὲ δῶρα μὴ δέκετ’, ἀλλὰ δώσει,
αἰ δὲ μὴ φίλει, ταχέως φιλήσει
κωὐκ ἐθέλοισα."
ἔλθε μοι καὶ νῦν, χαλέπαν δὲ λῦσον
ἐκ μερίμναν, ὄσσα δέ μοι τέλεσσαι
θῦμος ἰμέρρει, τέλεσον, σὺ δ’ αὔτα
σύμμαχος ἔσσο.
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