IN MIXED GLYCONIC AND ALCAIC METRE
29
Στᾶθι κἄντα φίλος ...
καὶ τὰν ἐπ' ὄσσοις ἀμπέτασον χάριν.
Stand face to face, friend ... and unveil the grace in thine eyes.
Athenaeus, speaking of the charm of lovers' eyes, says Sappho addressed this to a man who was admired above all others for his beauty. Bergk thinks it may have formed part of an ode to Phaon (cf. fr. [140]), or of a bridal song; and A. Schoene suspects that it was possibly addressed to Sappho's brother. The metre is quite uncertain.
V
IN CHORIAMBIC METRE
[This is a very unsatisfactory category. Some of the fragments, e.g. 30-43, are in Aeolian dactyls, wherein the second foot is always a dactyl; 44-49 are Glyconics; 50-54 are in the Ionic a majore metre; some others are Asclepiads, etc. But where so much is uncertain, it seems to be the simplest way to group them thus.]
30