In 1766 appeared Blin de Sainmore’s Lettres de Sapho a Phaon with an account of Sappho’s life and verse translations of her poems. In 1773 appeared a new version of Sappho in prose by Moutonnet de Clairfons which proved so popular that it went through at least seven editions. In 1798 Mérard de Saint-Just published his verse translations of Sappho and Anacreon. Toward the end of the eighteenth century,[172] an imaginary Greek manuscript, said to have been found at Herculaneum, translated by de Lantier, was published under the title Voyages d’Antenor en Grèce et en Asie, a most interesting and learned story of an imaginary trip to Grecian lands. Antenor and Phanor in the first chapter of the second volume meet Sappho and two unfortunate Greeks. An account is given in chapter three of the love of Sappho and Phaon, and the hymn to Aphrodite, quoted in the notes in Boileau’s translation, is addressed to Phaon: “C’est pour cet ingrat qu’un jour dans l’enthousiasme de la poésie et de l’amour, je composai cette ode qui a circulé dans toute la Grèce, et que sans doute la postérité répétera encore.” In the fourth chapter Antenor and his friend attend the funeral of Sappho and see the ashes deposited in an urn. On the cippus is carved a lyre with this epitaph:
Ci-gît Sapho, la gloire de nos jours;
Muses, pleurez, pleurez, Amours.
In the seventh chapter an account is given of Sappho’s last days, and Theagenes is revealed as her rival, to whom Phaon has united himself by a solemn bond. To Sappho is attributed a long ode in which she invokes Venus and all the infernal deities against her lover. She ends, however, by returning to the sweetness and generosity which had originally characterized her. I quote only the last two stanzas:
Et toi, mes amours, ô ma lyre,
Douce compagne de mes jeux,
Repose toi, ma muse expire;
Reçois ici mes longs adieux.
Mourons; allons au noir rivage: