Our Debt to Greece and Rome

EDITORS

George Depue Hadzsits, Ph.D.
University of Pennsylvania

David Moore Robinson, Ph.D., LL.D.
The Johns Hopkins University


CONTRIBUTORS TO THE “OUR DEBT TO GREECE AND ROME FUND,” WHOSE GENEROSITY HAS MADE POSSIBLE THE LIBRARY

Our Debt to Greece and Rome

Philadelphia

Boston

Chicago

Cincinnati

Cleveland

Detroit

Doylestown, Pennsylvania

New York

Maecenas atavis edite regibus,

O et praesidium et dulce decus meum.

Washington

The following lovers of Greek literature, and of Sappho in particular, have kindly consented to act as patrons and have made possible, by generous contributions, the larger size of this volume in the Series “Our Debt to Greece and Rome”:


Plate 1. ALMA TADEMA’S SAPPHO

In the Walters’ Art Gallery, Baltimore


SAPPHO
AND HER INFLUENCE

BY
DAVID M. ROBINSON, Ph.D., LL.D.

W. H. Collins Vickers Professor of Archaeology and
Epigraphy and Lecturer on Greek Literature
The Johns Hopkins University

MARSHALL JONES COMPANY
BOSTON · MASSACHUSETTS

COPYRIGHT · 1924 · BY MARSHALL JONES COMPANY

All rights reserved

Printed December, 1924

THE PLIMPTON PRESS · NORWOOD · MASSACHUSETTS
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA


To
THE MEMORY OF
BASIL LANNEAU GILDERSLEEVE
MASTER, COLLEAGUE, AND FRIEND
AND TO MY FORMER TEACHERS
EDWARD CAPPS
PAUL SHOREY
ULRICH von WILAMOWITZ-MOELLENDORFF

δῶρον ’αντὶ μαγάλου σμικρόν

A trifling gift in return for much.

Ἑτερος ἐξ ἑτέρου σοφὸς τό τε πάλαι τό τε νῦν. οὐδὲ γὰρ ῥᾶστον ἀρρήτων ἐπέων πύλας ἐξευρεῖν.

Poet is heir to poet, now as of yore; for in sooth ’tis no light task to find the gates of virgin song.

Jebb, Bacchylides, p. 413, frag. 4


Immortal Sappho, maid divine,

Thou sharest with the heavenly nine

All honor. Shout through all the town

That on her head we place a crown.

Hasten with the chaplet green,

Greet her one and all as queen;

The Lesbian, a tenth muse we name,

And prophesy that her bright fame

Shall spread o’er all the world.

This title till the stars do fall,

Nations yet unborn shall call

And glorify her name.

(LUCY MILBURN)


CONTENTS

CHAPTERPAGE
Contributors to the Fund[ii]
I.Some Appreciations, Ancient and Modern[3]
II.Sappho’s Life, Lesbus, Her Love-Affairs, Her Personality and Pupils[14]
III.The Legendary Fringe[34]
Sappho’s Physical Appearance, The Phaon Story, The Vice Idea
IV.The Writings of Sappho[46]
V.Sappho in Art[101]
VI.Sappho’s Influence on Greek and Roman Literature[119]
VII.Sappho in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance[134]
VIII.Sappho in Italy in the 18th and 19th Centuries[139]
IX.Sappho in Latin Translations, in Spanish, and in German[148]
X.Sappho in French Literature[160]
XI.Sappho in English and American Literature[188]
An Addendum on Sappho in Russian[233]
XII.Sappho’s Influence on Music[234]
XIII.Epilogue and Conclusion[237]
Notes[251]
Bibliography[268]

ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATE
1.Alma Tadema’s Sappho[Frontispiece]
([At end of Volume])
2.Bust of Pittacus
3.Mytilene
4.The Story of Phaon on a Vase in Florence
5.Phaon on a Greek Vase in Palermo
6.The Leucadian Promontory
7.Roman Fresco in an Underground Building
8.A Papyrus of the Third Century A.D.
9.A Cylix by Sotades
10.Greek Coin from Mytilene
11.Imperial Coins
12.A Greek Vase in Munich
13.Sappho on a Vase in Cracow
14.Sappho Seated before a Winged Eros
15.Greek Aryballus at Ruvo
16.A Greek Hydria in Athens
17.Phaon in His Boat
18.A Pompeian Fresco
19.A Bust of Sappho in the Villa Albani
20.The Oxford Bust
21.A Bust in the Borghese Palace
22.Statue of Sappho by Magni
23.Statue of Sappho by Pradier
24.Raphael’s Parnassus