The letters on each side of the parchment are clearly written, punctuated, and accented. They appear to belong to the eighth century A.D., so that the writing is at least a thousand years old. The actual letters are these, those which are not decipherable with certainty being marked off by brackets:—
| (A.) | δωσην | (B.) | θεθυμομ |
| ύτωνμέντ' επ | μιπάμπαν | ||
| άλων κἄσλων· (σ | δύναμαι | ||
| · λοις. λυτης τε μ | |||
| 5 | μ' ονειδος | 5 | ασκενῆμοι |
| οιδήσαις. επι τ (α | ς) αντιλάμπην | ||
| ἰα(νἄσαιο. το γαρ | λονπροσωπον | ||
| μ) ονουκ' ούτω (μ | |||
| διάκηται· | γχροΐσθεις | ||
| 10 | μ (ηδ | 10 | ... (ρος |
The two fragments, distinguished by Blass as A. and B., occur, the one on the front, the other on the back of the scrap of parchment. They were edited by Bergk, in the fourth (posthumous) edition of his Poetae Lyrici Graeci, 1882, vol. iii. pp. 704, 705. Blass ascribed the verses to Sappho, and he is still of opinion that they are hers, from the metre, the dialect, and 'the colour of the diction,' to use his own expression in a letter to me.
Indeed, every word of them makes one feel that no poet or poetess save Sappho could have so exquisitely combined simplicity and beauty. Bergk, however, prints them as of uncertain origin, fragmenta adespota (56 A., 56 B). He agrees with Blass that they are in the Lesbian dialect and the Sapphic metre, but he thinks that they may have been written by Alcaeus. Bergk's decision partly rests upon the statement of Suidas, that Horapollo, the Greek grammarian, who first taught at Alexandria and afterwards at Constantinople, in the reign of Theodosius, about 400 A.D., wrote a commentary on Alcaeus; but he gives no reason for believing that these Fayum manuscripts necessarily come from Alexandria: their history is very uncertain. Blass thinks that the greater fame, especially in later times, of Sappho, strongly favours his own view. To my mind there is little doubt that we have herein none but her very words.
A restoration of such imperfect fragments must needs be guess-work. Bergk has, however, attempted it in part, and he has accepted the emendations of Blass in lines 3-5 of fragment A. Bücheler, one of the editors of the Rheinisches Museum, has also expressed his views with regard to some of the lines; but they are not endorsed by the authority of Bergk. According to the latter distinguished scholar, fragment A may have run thus:—
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