'Yet that gold does not contract rust the Lesbian poetess is a witness, and gold itself shows it.'

And the Scholiast on Pindar, Pyth., iv. 407:—

'But gold is indestructible; and so says Sappho,

Διὸς παῖς ὁ χρυσός, κείνον οὐ σης οὐδε κὶς δάπτει,

Gold is son of Zeus, no moth nor worm devours it.'

Sappho's own phrase is lost.

143

Aulus Gellius, about 160 A.D., writes:—

'Homer says Niobe had six sons and six daughters, Euripides seven of each, Sappho nine, Bacchylides and Pindar ten.'

Cf. fr. [31], the only line extant from the ode here referred to.