SAPPHICA

ALEXANDER DALE
I. IAMBICS BY SAPPHO?

HE

SUDA (4.322 Adler = fr. 235 V) lists iambics among the works of

Sappho:
(Sappho
wrote nine books of lyric poetry she also wrote epigrams,
elegies, iambics, and monodies). Corroboration for this statement is
sometimes sought1 in two other attestations, Philodemus De poem.
1.117.1011 Janko: (and even Sappho
composed something iambic) and Julian Ep. 10, pp. 1213 Bidez
Cumont:
(the iambics which fair Sappho accommodated to her
hymns). Add to this the anonymous and corrupt line fr. 117, which is
tantalizingly close to a syncopated iambic trimeter ,
2 (farewell, bride, and farewell to the groom),
and we have the notion of iambics by, or attributed to, Sappho solidly
embedded in the scholarly tradition.
If the statement of the Suda is accepted, it would mean that Sappho
wrote iambic poetryspecifically stichic iambic trimetersand
not simply that iambics occurred as isolated cola in her poetry.3 It is
Sappho is cited from Voigts edition, and equivalence with the numeration of Lobel
Page should be assumed unless otherwise stated. I am grateful to the anonymous referee
for many insightful comments and suggestions, and to Ivy Livingston at HSCP for invaluable help in preparing the manuscript.
1 See Yatromanolakis 1999:179195.
2 Lobel; , Yatromanolakis, alii alia.
3 Ancient metricians, when discussing a meter, will often observe that it is to be
found as an isolated colon in a certain poet, but when we encounter a metrical term in a
non-metrical source, it always implies compositions in that metrically determined .

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Alexander Dale

highly improbable that Sappho (or Alcaeus, for that matter) composed
iambic poetry4 such as that associated with the great iambographers
Archilochus, Semonides, and Hipponax. Dactylic hexameters do occur
in Sappho, but otherwise the Aeolic tradition remains metrically and
generically distinct from its Ionian neighbours in Asia Minor and
the Aegean islands. We would no more expect Sappho or Alcaeus to
compose iambus than we would expect Archilochus to write sapphic
stanzas. One explanation for the ascription of iambics to Sappho might
be postulated, only to be rejected.5 Three epigrams are ascribed to
her in the Palatine Anthology (AP 6.269, 7.489, 7.505, Sappho 13 FGE),
and doubtless more were circulated under her name in antiquity,6
which might well account for the Sudas statement that Sappho wrote
epigrams. Furthermore, in the Hellenistic and Imperial periods iambic
trimeters were not an overly rare meter for epigram.7 One might
wonder whether there was a body of iambic epigrams ascribed to
Sappho which, transmitted along with elegiac epigrams, lasted long
enough to get recorded as iambics in a source used by the Suda. This
hypothesis is unlikely; there is much to suggest that in the Imperial and
Byzantine periods poems that were not epigrams came to be classified
as such,8 and nothing to suggest that something which could have been
classified as an epigram was classified differently. If the Sudas source
knew of iambic epigrams ascribed to Sappho, we would expect them to
have been subsumed under the in the Suda entry.9 Thus, if
we are to explain the attestations for iambics by Sappho, we will need
to look further than the explanations outlined above.

And here we mean not only trimeters, but tetrameters and the epodic forms found
in Ionian iambus; cf. West 1974:22.
5 Cf. Yatromanolakis 1999:185187, who does not however make the exact argument
suggested here.
6 We have no fewer than twenty-two ascribed to Alcaeus.
7 See Dale 2010.
8 For example, various items in the polymetric AP 13 probably do not come from
epigrams; cf. GowPage (HE 2.218) on AP 13.10 = Call. fr. 400 Pfeiffer.
9 A Byzantine lexicographer is more likely to have used , and not ,
to refer to epigrams in iambics.

Sapphica

49

As noted already, there are two further attestations for iambic

poetry associated with Sappho. The first, from Philodemus, should be
quoted in full (De poem. 1.117.713 Janko):
[ ] ,
, ,
.
For the iambic poets compose tragic [serious or elevated]
poetry, and the tragic poets compose iambic [scurrilous
or invective] poetry, and even Sappho composed something iambic, and Archilochus something un-iambic.
The important point here is that means not iambic poetry
as a strict eidographic description, but poetry in an iambic manner.10
Likewise, when he says that iambic poets wrote , he means
not that they wrote tragedies, but that they wrote serious or elevated
poetry, not scurrilous iambic poetry.11 However, before we can draw any
conclusions from this, we need to look at the passage from Julian cited
above.
Julian is writing to Alypius of Antioch:
,

, ,

10

only here before Eustathius, but cf. the uses of the verb , which
often means simply to lampoon, and not to lampoon in iambic verse, e.g. Phot. Lex. 4
Theodoridis: ( to jest); Arist. Quint. De musica 1.16.25:
, ( was so named from
the verb , which means to rebuke). According to George Choeroboscus, one
can in the galliambic meter, Hephaestion p. 246.1 Consbruch. Catullus uses the
term iambic in non-iambic poetry in the sense of invective, e.g. 36.5, 40.2, 54.6.
11 For in the sense elevated, serious, cf. Hermogenes
33.12, p. 450 Rabe: ,
(in tragic speaking Homer was the teacher, and Demosthenes the disciple).
One might think that Semonides fr. 1 IEG2 12, , |
(My son, the outcome does Zeus the far-thunderer hold of all that is, and makes distribution according to his will ), would be a good
example of an iambic poet writing something .

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Alexander Dale
,
.
I was already recovering from my illness when you sent
the geographical treatise the diagrams are better than
the previous ones, and you further embellished it by
adding the iambics, not singing the fight with Boupalus,
as the Cyrenaean poet [Callimachus] would put it, but such
as those the fair Sappho accommodated to her hymns.

Alypius had sent Julian a geographical treatise, which he seems to have

prefaced with some iambic verses. This makes it sound like a dedication,
possibly to Julian himself. Iambic prefaces were not at all uncommon at
this period, either to prose works or to other forms of poetry, such as
hexameters.12 Two further points emerge. First, that the iambic lines
were obviously simply iambic trimeters,13 without any connotations
of the subject-matter common to Ionian iambus in the archaic period,
or its Hellenistic imitators; we would not expect Alypius to preface a
geographical treatise, possibly dedicated to Julian, with scurrilous
verse. Secondly, Julian is not saying that Sappho wrote , rather
that she accommodated them () to her poetry. What this
suggests is that Julian knew poems where iambic trimeters, or perhaps
a colon that appeared almost identical to trimeters, occurred as isolated
cola in her poetry. Books 13 of Sappho were metrically homogeneous,
but all the evidence we have for the remaining books suggests that a
great variety of meters were to be found. We have a line from Sappho
that is nearly a trimeter (fr. 117, quoted above), which obviously came
from an epithalamium, and the Epithalamia seem to have been very
varied in meter, including some polymetric poems. Furthermore, Julian
and his circle were very familiar with Sapphos Epithalamia (see further
discussion below). It was probably in just such an epithalamium that
Julian found iambic lines, and it is these that he praises Alypius for
imitating.14 Thus neither Philodemus nor Julian attest iambic poetry
12

See in particular Cameron 1970.

For = in late Greek, see West 1974:22n2.
14 Whether Alypius iambics did recall Sappho in any way is another matter. Julian
is being kind (and demonstrating his learning); rhetors often recommended Sappho as
13

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51

as we understand it for Sappho; furthermore, each refers to a separate and distinct phenomenon, as they observed it, in Sapphos poetry.
However, we still have to account for exactly what Philodemus meant
by .

II. SAPPHO
The vast majority of Sapphos surviving poetry can hardly be described
as scurrilous, let alone iambic.15 However a few of the Epithalamia reveal
traces of the bawdy and scurrilous content often associated with the
genre.16 Most famous is Sappho fr. 111:
,
,

.
() ,
 ,
.
 .
5 LobelPage

High the raftersHymenaeus!raise, ye carpenters;

Hymenaeus!here comes the bridegroom equal to Ares
<Hymenaeus!>far bigger than a big man<Hymenaeus!>

a model for sublimity of expression (pseudo-Longinus De sublimitate 10.13; Menander

Rhetor 402.17). Thus what Julian is really doing is paying Alypius a great compliment
(after all, he had charged him, or was about to, with the thankless task of rebuilding the
great temple in Jerusalem).
15 I find nothing persuasive in the attempt of Aloni 2001 to find an iambic nature in
fr. 31; exploring the boundaries of genre is one matter, stretching them beyond all recognition is quite different. Cf. Morrisons review (2003).
16 Contra Page 1955:120, who categorically states that There is no trace in Sappho
of that ribaldry which was characteristic of the songs recited at this and other stages of
Greek wedding-ceremonies. For epithalamia generally, see Contiades-Tsitsoni 1990.

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Alexander Dale

This is hardly a formal and heavy-handed compliment to the bridegroom on account of his stature.17 Rather, as Geoffrey Kirk first saw,18
the reference is to the bridegrooms fantastically erect penis, too
large to be accommodated by the confines of the house.19 As Kirk says
(1963:52), Sappho is conscientiously improper. This sort of scurrilous
content is not alien to iambic poetry.
Fr. 110 V (= 110a LP) was probably in the same vein:
,
,

Seven cubits long are the door-keepers feet, five ox-hides
thick his sandals, ten cobblers worked hard to make them.
The fragment is addressed by a chorus to the door-keeper of the bridal
chamber, whose duty was to prevent friends from coming to the brides
rescue at the last moment.20 The lines emphasize the immovability of
the door-keeper and, though not malicious, are light-heartedly abusive
in the manner that we often find in epithalamia. Furthermore, there is
most likely innuendo of the kind found in fr. 111. The foot as metaphor
for genitals is found in various places,21 most notably Eubulus fr. 107
PCG: |
|
(lying softly in a bed-chamber [they] will
rub my foot with marjoram-oils). Equally revealing for this fragment
of Sappho is Ar. Lys. 414419:

17

Thus Page 1955:120.

Kirk 1963. See further the endorsement and enhancement of Lloyd-Jones 1967.
19 For meaning erect, see Henderson 1991:115116.
20 Pollux 3.42, ,
(One of the bridegrooms
friends was also called , who stood before the doors [of the bridal chamber] and
prevented the women from coming to the brides aid). Hesychius 957 Latte,
, (: the best-man who kept shut
the door of the bedroom). On the epic quality of the language, which would add to the
humor of the lines, see Murgatroyd 1987:224.
21 See Henderson 1991:129130.
18

Sapphica

53

,
,

, .
Someone else says to a leatherworkera young man, but
with no boys penis, Hey cobbler, my wifes sandal-strap is
pinching her little toeits sensitive, you see. Go around at
noon and stretch it out, so that its a bit more wide.
In fr. 111 it was the bridegroom who was the focus; here it is the best
man. Though perhaps not as obvious a target for this kind of sexual
humor, the general context of scurrilous abuse that we find in the
Epithalamia makes the address to the door-keeper perfectly understandable.
Fr. 115 might also provide a clue:
, , ;
.
To what, dear bridegroom, shall I best compare thee? I
liken you most of all to a slender shoot.
No one seems to have taken exception to the bridegroom being
compared to a slender shoot or sapling.22 However, it is hardly an
innocent compliment. First of all, in antiquity men were often thirty
or more at the time of marriagehardly saplings.23 Furthermore, the
22

Slender shoot, branch seems to be the primary meaning, cf. LSJ s.v.; at Pind.
Parth. 2.78 (fr. 94b Maehler) a female chorus carries a | (a
splendid shoot of laurel). Campbell (1967 ad loc.) compares Il. 18.56, where Thetis says
of Achilles (he sprang up like a shoot). But the point is that he
grew up like a sapling, i.e. quickly. She is hardly comparing the best of the Achaeans to a
twig. The speed with which a hero grows up is a common topos in Greek and other IndoEuropean traditions; cf. West 2007:149150 and 427429.
23 Though we do not have direct evidence for Lesbos at the turn of the sixth century,
thirty is specified as the appropriate age from Hesiod on, Op. 695697,
, | |
(lead a wife to your house in due season, being neither short of thirty by

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Alexander Dale

adjective occurs in only one other place in Sappho (fr. 102.2)

of Aphrodite, .24 Soft or slender is perfectly
suitable for Aphrodite, hardly for the praise of a grown man and bridegroom; elsewhere in the Epithalamia Sappho compared a bridegroom
to Achilles, which of course would have been a compliment.25 The lines
are surely pointed, and various possibilities might suggest themselves.
I think the most likely is that a comparison which would be perfectly
suitable for a bride is instead used of the groom. At Od. 6.163 Nausicaa,
in a passage imbued with erotic and nuptial imagery, is likened to a
(a young shoot of palm), while in Theocritus
epithalamium for Helen and Menelaus (18.2930) Helen is compared
to a tall cypress, |
(as a tall cypress adorns the fertile field or garden where
it springs up). Thus in fr. 115 we would once again have playful abuse
directed at the bridegroom.26
In conclusion we can add fr. 103.8 V (= 103.11 LP):
], [
br]idegroom, for chiding are ?your frien[ds
The line is one among a list of incipits preserved in P. Oxy. 2294.27
] suggests it is from an epithalamium, while suggests
mockery of the bridegroom. Presumably Lobel is right in reading
[, where the taunting might be similar to that
directed towards the bridegroom at Theoc. 18.915. The masculine

many years, nor having added many). See further West 1978 ad loc., who cites e.g. Sol. fr.
27.9 IEG2, Pl. R. 460e.
24 Once in Alcaeus, fr. 304 col. ii. 9 LP, unless the fragment is to be ascribed to
Sappho; cf. Treu 1968:161164. The text is too fragmentary for us to be sure of the context
or reference; the Muses and perhaps Graces seem to be mentioned in the previous lines.
25 Fr. 218 V = 105(b) LP = Himerius Or. 9.16. Himerius had read the poem in question;
see further below.
26 The comparison here is of a kind with the games of wit played at symposia and
elsewhere, where participants are subjected to ridicule through absurd comparisons, as at Ar. Birds 804805 ; |
(Do you know what you look like fitted out with feathers? Like a cheaply
painted goose) with Dunbar 1995 ad loc., Dover 1980 on Pl. Symp. 215a4.
27 On this papyrus, the so-called new bibliographical fragment, see further below.

Sapphica

55

form (no doubt indicating performance by a male chorus) is not problematic; Greek wedding songs usually involved mixed choruses, cf.
[Hes.] Sc. 276280.28
From Sapphos Epithalamia we have roughly fifteen verbatim fragments, totalling some thirty-five lines.29 That four of these fragments,
totalling fourteen lines, show the same scurrilous and jocular abuse
that we find in other examples of the genre should suggest that this was
in fact a fairly prominent feature of the Epithalamia. For all the differences between Sapphos address to the best man in fr. 110, or teasing of
the bridegroom in fr. 111, and Hipponax invective against Bupalus, it is
not difficult to see how Philodemus considered Sappho to have written
. It is no great step from this to a grammarian in a less
enlightened age listing iambics among her works.

III. LIBER EPITHALAMIORUM?

What place the Epithalamia occupied in the collected works of Sappho
has long been a matter of debate.30 It will not do to rehearse the argument here, but a few points are worth making. It is often stated that
a separate book entitled Epithalamia stood at the end of the Alexandrian edition of Sappho, bringing the total number of books to nine.31
For a nine-book edition of Sappho there are two pieces of evidence:
the first is an epigram by Tullius Laurea (AP 7.17 = Laurea 1 GP), which
says that Sappho wrote nine books of poetry. I am, however, inclined
to agree with Yatromanolakis, who suggests32 that Laureas motive is
essentially poeticnine books of poetry corresponding to nine Muses.33
The second is the Suda entry on Sappho (quoted above), which tells us
28

See further the evidence for mixed choruses in wedding songs assembled by Swift
2006:125140.
29 A conservative estimate. I discount frr. 27, 30, 44 (on which see below) and 141, on
which see Page 1955:123125.
30 In particular Page 1955:112126, Yatromanolakis 1999.
31 Page 1955:123125.
32 Yatromanolakis 1999:181184.
33 AP 7.17.57, , |
, | (But if you judge me by the
Muses, from each of whom I have taken a flower to set beside my nine, you will know that
I escaped the darkness of Hades).

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Alexander Dale

that Sappho wrote , nine, books. Lobel observed that elsewhere the
Suda makes use of Laureas epigram, and thus that the Sudas statement might well be derived from Laurea.34 In addition to these two
testimonia, we have a passage in Servius where he refers to a book of
Sappho entitled Epithalamia.35 This, however, would be the only testimony for a book with a title Epithalamia, as all other sources that
quote fragments which are assigned to the Epithalamia do so without
either a book title or number. In addition to this we have P. Oxy. 2294,
the new bibliographical fragment (= fr. 103 V), which Page argued
indicated that Book Eight consisted of 130 lines, and was followed by
a book entitled Epithalamia. Pages reconstruction has understandably
attracted criticism,36 and has been dealt with in detail by Yatromanolakis (1999:187192), who suggests that the papyrus is a list of incipits,
130 lines of which were taken from Sapphos eighth book, and all of
which are epithalamia. Though uncertainty regarding the interpretation of the papyrus remains,37 Yatromanolakis reconstruction is the
most plausible so far proposed, and furthermore receives independent
support from the arguments advanced below. Thus before positing, on
slender evidence, a ninth book of Sappho with a separate title, perhaps
we should ask whether any other solutions present themselves.
It is generally assumed that Sapphos Epithalamia were distributed
among the various books of the Alexandrian edition where meter
allowed their placement in one of the earlier books. This assumption,
however, rests solely on three fragments, 27, 30, and 44. In fr. 27 the
only thing to suggest an epithalamium is line 8 ] ,
which is inconclusive. Page (1955:125) says there is no doubt whatever
34

Lobel 1925:xiv; see also Yatromanolakis 1999:181184. Lobel also observes that
Laurea might have been misled by , which can stand for either eight or nine in a series
of books.
35 On Georg. 1.31 (= fr. 234 V) generum vero pro marito positum multi accipiunt iuxta
Sappho, quae in libro qui inscribitur ait.
36 Cf. Lasserre 1955; Treu 1968:167168.
37 For example, we cannot be certain about the number of missing letters, and thus it
is impossible to determine what relation [ in line 15 has to ] in 16 (from the
beginning of which at least ten to twelve letters are missing). Likewise the traces in 14
could be , i.e. book 8, or could be , picking up the number in line 3 and referring to the
number of incipits in the papyrus.

Sapphica

57

that fr. 30 is from an epithalamium. Here is the text with only minor
supplements:
[ ] [
[
[][
[] [
5
[
[
[
[]
4 [ - Wilamowitz

night maidens revelling through the night in song

violet-robed come, wake up go to your peers that
we may see less sleep ?than the clear-voiced ?
The language and imagery here are not incompatible with weddingsongs,38 but it does not follow that the fragment must then be from an
epithalamium. Pannychis celebrations, which could accompany both
religious and secular observances, often included female choruses,
and we do not need to assume a wedding context for their occurrence
here.39 Furthermore, symposia and drinking through the night were
generally associated with the pannychis, which could equally account
for [ and [ in the text, however they might be supplemented.
Yet, even if the poem does suggest an epithalamiac context, other
scenarios could be envisaged. We might have a mythological narrative
with direct speech, or the lines we have could be a future projection,
such as we find in fr. 1. This is not to say that fr. 30 cannot have been
from an epithalamium, only that we might wish to be on firmer ground
38

Accepting Wilamowitz appealing supplement would certainly strengthen the

case for an epithalamium, though other supplements are possible, such as e.g. ]
.
39 On pannychides generally, see Bravo 1997.

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Alexander Dale

before stating categorically that it was and thus that Sapphos epithalamia were distributed amongst her various books.
Lastly there is fr. 44, the Wedding of Hector and Andromache.
It has long been suggested that the poem was performed as part of a
wedding ceremony, and thus is an epithalamium.40 There are many
reasons to doubt this ascription.41 To begin with, the poem as we have
it is an extended narrative, without any indication of performance at
an actual wedding. None of the fragments that can safely be ascribed to
the Epithalamia show any indication of the sort of narrative we see here.
Furthermore, while the wedding of Hector and Andromache is unquestionably suitable material for poetry, it is hardly appropriate for a
mythological exemplum in a wedding songHector is later to be slain,
Andromache enslaved, and their infant son Astyanax thrown from the
walls of Troy, his head shattering on the rocks below. In light of this,
the foreshadowing of Hectors death throughout the poem strongly
argues against an epithalamic function.42 In the Iliad, at the moment
when Andromache learns of Hectors death, the poet says (22.468472):
,

,

, .
From her head she threw the glittering head-dress far
away, the band and net and woven wreath, and the veil
which golden Aphrodite gave her on the day when Hector
of the flashing helmet brought her from the house of
Etion, after he had given countless wedding-gifts.
40

See Wilamowitz 1914:228229, Page 1955:7172.

Wilamowitz classification of the poem as an epithalamium was first seriously
questioned by Lesky 1966:142.
42 Parallels and correspondences between fr. 44 and the Iliadparticularly with
regard to Hectors death and the ransoming of his bodyare discussed by Kakridis 1966
and Schrenk 1994. We should further note that the dactylic meter and features of epic
dialect and prosody in this poem (features admitted in only a small number of Sapphos
poems; see Lobel 1925:xxvxxvii) would automatically invite comparison with the
Homeric portrayal of Hector.
41

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59

As Griffin (1980:2) notes, Homers description of Andromaches

casting off of her head-dress here is not mentioned as a mere fact. The
recollection of the wedding of Hector and Andromache at this point,
as symbolized by her head-dress, serves to heighten the pathos of
the scene.43 This Homeric association of the death of Hector with his
wedding to Andromache clearly informs Sapphos narrative. In fr. 44 we
also find a description of Hector conveying Andromache to Troy from
Etions household in Thebe, followed by mention of the wedding gifts
(510):
[]
[]

[]
[] [], ,
.
Hector and his companions are bringing from holy Thebe
and ever-flowing Plakia the bright-eyed and graceful
Andromache in their ships over the salt-sea; and there
is an abundance of gold bracelets and purple perfumed
robes, and wondrous adornments and countless silver
drinking-cups and ivory.
This juxtaposition of voyage and wedding gifts can only point to the
Iliadic passage quoted above. Schrenk (1994:147) observes that Andromaches dowry in Sappho also seems to refer to the treasures that
Priam used to ransom Hectors body at Il. 24.229234: Sappho seems to
be suggesting (through guilt by association) that Andromaches dowry
becomes part of Hectors ransom.44

43

Thus T on Il. 22.468.

Schrenk 1994:145146 also observes that, prior to Andromaches discovery of
Hectors death, she is seen weaving a purple robe (22.441, ) which
foreshadows Hectors funereal shroud (24.796, ), both of which
might be picked up by [] [].
44

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Alexander Dale

There is a further striking example of interaction between fr. 44 and

the Iliad. In the last two lines of the poem the narrator represents the
men of Troy invoking Apollo and praising the happy couple (3334):

[.
Calling upon Paian the far shooter, god of the fair lyre,
they sang Hector and Andromache like unto the gods.
Some time ago Gregory Nagy observed two points.45 Firstly, there
is bitter irony in the invocation of Apollo here. In the Iliad Apollo is,
along with Ares and Aphrodite, the patron of Troy and of Hector. When
Hector finally meets his fate at the hands of Achilles, Homer says (Il.
22.212213) | ,
(and so fell Hectors fated day, and he went off to
Hades, and Phoebus Apollo left him). The man whose marriage Apollo
is called upon to celebrate in Sappho is the same man whose death is
heralded by Apollo deserting him in the Iliad. The most telling feature
of these lines, however, is the epithet , used of Hector and
Andromache. This epithet occurs twice in the Iliad (1.131 and 19.155), in
both instances in the same position after the hephthemimeral caesura,
in both instances used of Achilles: . Thus in the
Iliad the slayer of Hector is described as at line-end, while
in Sappho Hector and Andromache are so described. Furthermore,
the position of the epithet in Sappho (whose meter here is dactylic
pentameter) is equivalent to its position in Homer before ;
someone hearing the line being delivered would almost certainly recall
the epic (), only to hear it truncated and
left hanging as (). It is hard to believe that Sappho
or her audience could have thought the song as it stands appropriate
for a wedding.
Schrenk (1994:149150n16) neatly sums up the situation, as applicable to its original audience as it is to modern readers: [t]his is
an ironic poem which gathers its force from the juxtaposition of the
45

Nagy 1974:135139. I am indebted to Annette Teffeteller for bringing this to my

attention.

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61

increasing naive joy of the participants with the building horror of

the enlightened reader. The influence of the Iliad on later portrayals
of Hector is all-pervasive, more so than in the case of many figures
in the epic cycle.46 It is difficult to reconcile this influence of the epic
tradition, as well as Sapphos subtlety and skill as a poet, with the
notion that a poem which so deftly and directly invokes the Iliad and
foreshadows Hectors deathand by implication the enslavement of
Andromachecould have been intended to celebrate a wedding on
archaic Lesbos.47
It has long been recognized that the organization of, and distribution of poems among, the Alexandrian books of Sappho was broadly
along metrical lines; Book One consisted of poems in the Sapphic
stanza, Book Two in Aeolic dactylic pentameters, and so forth. By Book
Four or Five, however, the uniformity of meter begins to break down,
and we have various metrical forms ascribed to, e.g., Book Five.48 From
here on, from the evidence that we have, there is nothing to suggest
46

See Wathelet 1988:466506. The anonymous reviewer observes that a number of

characters in Greek myth had checkered careers, and that a poet can focus on one aspect
from that career without having extraneous considerations affect the audiences appreciation of the portrayal. This might be the case with Heracles, Odysseus, Agamemnon, and
many others (even Paris career was multi-faceted, involving not only the Judgement,
but the story of his exposure at birth and return to Troy as recounted in e.g. Euripides
Alexander, frr. 4264 TrGF). Hector, however, was inextricably tied to the fate of Troy
through his deathas Griffin 1980:1 notes, the death of Hector stands for the fall of Troy
itself. This influence of the epic tradition can be seen in later accounts; the only tragedy
in which we know Hector to have figured in any way is Aeschylus Phrygians, frr. 263272
TrGF, which deals with the ransoming of the corpse (see West 2000:340343). Thus in
Hectors case we would expect that any treatment by a later poet would of necessity be
colored by awareness of his ultimate fate, let alone fr. 44 with such overt reference to the
Iliadic treatment of his death.
47 Pallantza 2005:7988, in an analysis that draws heavily upon Rissman 1983:119
141, argues that the Iliadic allusions of fr. 44, as well as the application of the epithet
to Andromache, serve to elevate the female sphere to equal that of the male,
and place Andromache on a par with Achilles, providing ein siegreiches Gegenbild zu
Krieg und Tod. It seems incredible to imagine that Sappho could have written what she
has for a joyous celebration, let alone expected the intended audience (on Pallantzas
interpretation) to have interpreted it as appropriate. Pallantzas interpretation is
furthermore predicated upon the assumption of a monolithic function for all of Sapphos
poetry, based on extrapolating notions about Sappho and her circle from a select
number of poems.
48 Hendecasyllables, asclepiads, glyconics, etc. See Page 1955:114116.

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Alexander Dale

that the remaining books were metrically uniform, and furthermore it

would make prima facie sense that if meter was an organizing principle
in Sapphos collected works, and that if by Book Four or Five we get
various meters attested for the same book, this is because there were
not enough representative examples of the meter to comprise a book.
Thus we would not expect Book Six or Seven to be metrically homogeneous, if Book Five was not.
As noted earlier, the Epithalamia exhibit a great deal of metrical
variety. No fewer than ten different metrical forms are found in the
fifteen verbatim quotations.49 For Book Six we have no evidence whatsoeverno quotation from or reference to it; the only clues as to its
existence are references to a seventh and eighth book, which necessarily presuppose a sixth. As for Book Seven, we only have one attestation, Hephaestion p. 34.9 Consbruch, who quotes two lines from it.50
Book Eight is attested in only one place, Photius Bib. cod. 161, p. 103a40
Bekker (= fr. 233 V). We have no quotations ascribed to it, but Photius
tells us that it was excerpted by one Sopater the Sophist.
There are several people with this name attested for the fourth to
fifth centuries AD, and Page, in dismissing Wilamowitz suggestion51
that the book that Sopater excerpted was the Epithalamia, says it is
uncertain which Sopater is meant. We can, however, be more confident than Page allows. It seems fairly certain that a Sopater the Sophist
was active in Athens in the mid-fourth century AD, 52 in Himerius
circle, and perhaps even his pupil.53 Furthermore it is this Sopater to
whom Photius devotes considerable attention,54 the author of the
and excerptor of various works, Sapphos eighth
book among them. Now Himerius, a bulwark against the encroaching
49

See above, with n29.

Fr. 102. The text of Hephaestion is, as so often, corrupt at this point. See Page
1955:115.
51 Wilamowitz 1900:73.
52 To be distinguished from the Apamean Neoplatonist disciple of Iamblichus, who
might, however, be our Sopaters grandfather; cf. Russell 1983:7.
53 At issue is whether to read or
at 8.318.29 Waltz; see Innes and Winterbottom 1988:1 and 246; Weienberger in
Der neue Pauly, s.v. Sopatros.
54 Cf. Cribiore 2007:50.
50

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63

tide of Christianity, was a great admirer of archaic lyric, and particularly Sappho. However, the only Sappho he ever quotes from are the
Epithalamia,55 various allusions are also obviously to the Epithalamia,56
and nowhere does he quote from or allude to a poem that is obviously
not from the Epithalamia.57 Incidentally, Himerius is one of only two
authors from later antiquity to have written a prose epithalamium
(we shall encounter the other below).58 Furthermore, that other great
fourth-century pagan and disciple of Himerius, Julian the Apostate, had
a great fondness for Sappho, and quotes from and alludes to her several
times, including the enigmatic reference to her iambics that stands at
the beginning of this article. Julian was well read in Greek literature,
but we might wonder whether his regard for Sappho was inherited
from his old teacher and later companion Himerius. Julian certainly
knew the Epithalamiaas Yatromanolakis points out (1999:187), he
paraphrases fr. 34 in the manner of an epithalamium (Or. 3.109c), while
ps.-Julian uses the phrase found in fr. 116 (Ep.183, p. 242.20
BidezCumont).
We might then envisage the following scenario. Sappho was a
highly regarded poet in Himerius circle. One of these figures, Sopater,
makes an excerpt of Sapphos eighth book. What were the contents of
this book? Himerius shows a great fondness for Sapphos Epithalamia,
perhaps to the exclusion of all her other poetry. The rhetoricians dug
freely and deeply in earlier poetry, not primarily out of fondness for
it as literature, but to adorn their writings with learned allusions and
elegant turns of phrase. If Sopater were acquainted with, and perhaps
even a student of, Himerius, we might expect him to make an excerpt
from the masters favorite book, the Epithalamia. And the reason for
this excerpt, like so many collections of Eclogae in late antiquity, would
have been to serve a practical purpose. It would have been intended

55

104(b), 108.
105a TEST, 194 V, and 218 V = 105(b) LP.
57 208 V, 221 V.
58 Surprising perhaps, given the popularity from the Antonine period on of reworking
archaic and classical lyric genres in prose forms; the prescriptions in Menander Rhetor
come to mind here, as do the prose hymns of Aelius Aristides.
56

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Alexander Dale

as a handbook for the use of rhetors, a collection of the most beautiful

language and best turns of phrase to be found in Sapphos eighth book.
The question now becomes, can we find any evidence that the
book which Sopater excerpted for a rhetorical handbook, Sapphos
eighth book, was in fact the Epithalamia? Yes, we can. Syrianus, the
fifth-century Neoplatonist commentator on Hermogenes, gives us two
verbatim quotations from Sappho. The first is fr. 2.56, which, however,
is quoted by Hermogenes, and it is obvious that Syrianus found the
lines that he quotes in Hermogenes and nowhere else. Immediately
afterwards, he quotes three lines for which he is our only source, fr.
105a:
,
,
, .
Like the sweet-apple which reddens on the high bough,
high upon the highest branch, which the apple-pickers
have missedyet they did not miss it, but rather were
unable to reach it.
Incidentally, these are three of the most beautiful lines in Greek poetry.
Perhaps Himerius, the teacher of the excerptor in whose work Syrianus
must have found these lines, thought so too, for he alludes to them and
more besides from undoubtedly the same poem, and gives us the clue
that they are from an epithalamium.59
After the fourth century, quotations of, and allusions to, Sappho
begin to dry up.60 While we do have a small number scattered among
authors of the following centuries, in many instances these are quotations of or allusions to fragments preserved in texts that were widely
copied and read in the Byzantine period, and thus are not evidence
for the independent transmission of Sapphos text. I give a few exam59

Himerius Or. 9.16 (p. 82 Colonna) = fr. 218 V (= 105(b) LP)

(It was Sappho who compared the bride to an apple
and likened the bridegroom to Achilles and put him on a par with the hero in his achievements).
60 For familiarity with Sapphos poetry in the later Byzantine period, see Garzya 1971.

Sapphica

65

ples. Stobaeus preserves four lines of fr. 55, but the first three lines
are quoted at Plutarch Quaest. Conviv. 646ef, and it is most likely that
Stobaeus found the last line in a text of Plutarch that contained it.61
Anna Comnena (Alex.15.9, 3.223.12 Leib) alludes to fr. 137, but is more
likely to have found the fragment in Aristotle (our source for the text)
than anywhere else. Even Eustathius only preserves one unique fragment of Sappho (fr. 34), and this is alluded to twice by Julian,62 and thus
Eustathius (and perhaps Julian as well) might have found the passage
somewhere other than in a text of Sappho.63 We do have the occasional
pleasant surprise, however; fr. 96.69 seems to be echoed at Nicetas
Eugenianus 3.336 (twelfth century).64
Given the paucity of unique quotations from and allusions to
Sappho in writers after the fourth century, the awareness we find of the
epithalamia is that much more telling. We noted above the fragment
from Syrianus (fr. 105a). We can add more. Choricius (19, p. 86 FrsterRichtst) quotes fr. 112.35. Lines 12 are preserved in Hephaestion
(55.245 Consbruch), and thus it is possible that Choricius found the
remaining lines there. However, it is not normally Hephaestions practice to quote five lines when one or two will do.65 The poem is again
an epithalamium, and Choricius might instead have found them in
Sopaters handbook. Choricius was a rhetor (from the Gaza school), and
thus might have been more interested in rhetorical handbooks than
metrical handbooks. Furthermore, Choricius is, apart from Himerius,
the author of the only other prose epithalamia from later antiquity
to have come down to us.66 Fr. 117 is quoted by Hephaestion (p. 13.7
Consbruch), but without an attribution. Nicetas Choniates, however,

61

For all his anthologizing, Stobaeus only preserves one unique fragment of Sappho
(fr. 121).
62 Or. 3.109c (1.140 Hertlein), Ep. 194, p. 264 BidezCumont.
63 Most of Eustathius references to Sappho come from Athenaeus.
64 Perhaps it is no coincidence that the papyrus that preserves fr. 96, P. Berol. 9722,
from the seventh century AD, is the latest Sappho papyrus that we have.
65 Cf. Cameron 1993:138. The meter is stichic (although the text was probably written
in two-line stanzas separated by paragraphoi in the Alexandrian edition, cf. Lobel
1925:xvi), and lines 12 are a complete sentence.
66 On Choricius epithalamia, see Penella 2005.

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Alexander Dale

tells us that it is by Sappho;67 once again, he might have found the

attribution in a better text of Hephaestion, or he could have found it in
Sopater.
We have one last clue. In 1960 Robert Browning68 published a notice
of an unpublished, anonymous panegyric (subsequently attributed to
Michael of Italy69) on the consecration of Michael II Oxites, patriarch
of Constantinople, and the emperor Manuel I Comnenus, thus dating
the work to July 1143 or shortly after. The panegyrist refers to Sapphos
songs ( = fr. 194A V):

,
,
,
.
Such as the poetess Sappho sings, weaving her songs with
soft rhythms and licentious melodies, likening the bridegrooms to prize-winning horses and the brides to the
softness of roses, making her voice more tuneful than the
lyre.70
The allusion is obviously to an epithalamium. And, as Browning says
(1960:192), Our panegyrist will have got his citation not from an
anthology, still less from a text of Sappho, but from a rhetorical handbook. Knowledge of Sappho, like knowledge of most Greek lyric poetry,
would have been quickly vanishing in the early Byzantine period. We
would expect that such a work could only have been compiled long
before the iconoclastic controversy put a stop to any serious scholar-

67

Or.5.43.258. Nicetas brother Michael Choniates was also a student of classical

poetry, and might have owned the last copy of Callimachus Hecale; cf. Hollis 2009:3840.
68 Browning 1960. See further Wirth 1963.
69 Wirth 1962; cf. Browning 1960:192n2.
70 Cf. fr. 156 (more sweet-sounding than a lyre).
Michael might have been familiar with the phrase from [Demetrius] Eloc. 162 (our source
for the fragment) or his commentators. Equally possible, however, is that he chanced
upon it in Sopater.

Sapphica

67

ship.71 It is surprising that Sapphos eighth book lasted long enough to

be read by Himerius and excerpted by Sopater. Syrianus, Choricius, and
Michael of Italy all seem to have used a handbook drawing on Sapphos
Epithalamia; this can only be what Photius tells us Sopater excerpted
from Sapphos eighth book, the last book in the Alexandrian edition,
the Epithalamia.72

IV. SAPPHO AND HER BROTHERS

One piece of information about Sappho handed down to us in the
biographical tradition is that she had less than harmonious relations
with her brother Charaxus. We are told that while in Naucratis as a wine
merchant he took up with a prostitute, identified as either Doricha or
Rhodopis. On account of this Sappho railed against him in verse. The
main testimonia for Charaxus, and Sapphos invective against him,
are Herodotus 2.135, Strabo 17.1.33, and Athenaeus 13.596bc (= fr. 254
V, 202 LP), as well as P. Oxy. 1800 (= fr. 252 V), and Ovid Her. 15.6370,
117120. In addition to this we have three fragments of Sappho which
might have dealt with her errant brother and his insalubrious consort,
frr. 5, 7, and 15.73

71

For scholarship and education during the iconoclastic period, see Lemerle 1971:97
104; Wilson 1983:6378.
72
The existence of such a work so late is astonishing indeed, and one can only
wonder whether it lasted as long as this in a Constantinopolitan library just to be lost in
the conflagration wrought by the Franks and Venetians sixty years later.
73 Lidov 2002:203237 has mounted a sustained argument against the veracity of
all accounts concerning Sappho, Charaxus, and Doricha/Rhodopis, tracing all later
versions of the story back to Herodotus, and positing as Herodotus source not Sappho
but a fifth-century comedy (possibly Cratinus). I applaud his scepticism concerning the
biographical tradition in antiquity as well as the acceptance of this tradition and the
proclivity for biographical readings in modern scholarship. However, I find his methods
and conclusions unconvincing. It can in no way be proved, and is not nearly as plausible
as he implies, that later sources are reliant on HerodotusAthenaeus in fact corrects
the account in Herodotus. Lidov furthermore places too much emphasis on Posidippus
epigram on Doricha (122 AB), which is open to various readings. Lidovs ultimate suggestion, that Sappho wrote an epithalamium for Charaxus and Doricha, carries little conviction. It is, however, not my intention to refute his argument here, and thus I will only
engage with his approach where it seems particularly important for the present purpose.

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Alexander Dale

Fr. 5 begins with a prayer to Aphrodite and the Nereids for her
brothers safe return, presumably from Egypt, before going on to hope
that he will atone for past mistakes, 5.5 ]
[ (to atone for all past sins ) and bring honor to her (Sappho),
5.910 ] | ] (may he wish
to do honor to his sister).74 Line endings go on to suggest hardship and
suffering, as well as the possibility of public reproach, 5.14 []
. Doricha is mentioned by name in the scrappy fr. 7, and again
in a hostile context at fr. 15.912.75
From the various references we can build up a more complete
picture. Charaxus became involved with a prostitute, which resulted
in financial hardship for him.76 According to Ovid, he was reduced to a
shameful existence on the seas.77 Public shame seems to have been an
important factor, cf. fr. 5.14 [] and Ovid Her. 15.64 turpi
pudore. Sappho seems to have offered advice, which was not warmly
received, Ovid Her. 15.67 me quoque, quod monui bene multa fideliter, odit.
As a result of everything, Sappho resorted to upbraiding her brother
in verse, Herodtous 2.135.6
(Sappho greatly reviled him in song); cf. Athenaeus 13.596c.

74

Lidov 2002 casts doubt on the supplements ] at line 2 and ]

at line 9, and thus questions whether the poem was even about Sappho or her brother.
True, we should always guard against being too quick to accept supplements, and it is not
impossible that other words stood in the gaps. However, sense and meter, along with the
coordinated masculine and feminine ] and ], make the supplements almost
certain.
75 Note also the close resemblance of 15.5 ] [] [ to
5.5 quoted above.
76 Herodotus says that Charaxus paid a great sum of money to the Samian Xanthes to
obtain Rhodopis. Ovid and Athenaeus make no mention of a ransom, but agree that the
end result of the association was penury for Charaxus.
77 Perhaps as a pirate? Her. 15.6566 factus inops agili peragit freta caerula remo, | quasque
male amisit, nunc male quaerit opes. In the archaic period, however, being reduced to a
life on the sea was often simply emblematic of abject poverty, as in the case of Hesiods
father at Op. 633638, who
(used to sail in ships in want of a decent life fleeing harsh poverty)
or one of the wretched enumerated in Sem. fr. 1 IEG2 at 1517, who take to sea
(when they are unable to make a living [on land]); cf. also Op.
236237.

Sapphica

69

These accounts are often taken at face value as evidence of, and
a glimpse into, domestic life on Lesbos around the turn of the sixth
century BC.78 Sapphos concern for public opinion has even been seen
as evidence for her own impeccable morals.79 Rather than seeing this as
simply an incident of domestic disharmony elevated to high poetry, we
would do better to locate these songs and references in the context of
wisdom poetry, familiar above all else in Greek from Hesiods instruction of and admonition to his brother Perses.
The parallels with Hesiod are striking indeed. A wayward brother
is exhorted, often with mockery and abuse, to make right his wrongs;80
a dispute over finances is involved, in the case of Hesiod and Perses
over the division of an estate.81 Later, Perses has fallen on hardship,
and must eke out a living.82 He is advised to avoid an evil reputation.83
Likewise, Sapphos greatest concern seems to have been the financial
ruin occasioned by Doricha/Rhodopis.84 Sappho advises Charaxus,85 and
presumably the advice concerned how he should conduct himself and
tend to his estate (an estate that Sappho would presumably have had an
interest in). In this context we should perhaps recall fr. 203 V, quoted by
Athenaeus (10.425a),
(The fair
Sappho often praised her brother Larichus for being a wine-pourer in
the prytaneion at Mytilene). I suspect that what we have here is not a
reference to a poem that extolled the virtues of her brother Larichus,
but rather that Sappho held Larichus up to Charaxus as an example

78

Page 1955:4551 offers a fairly straightforward biographical reading.

As perhaps most extremely stated by Smyth 1900:252: Sapphos sensitiveness to
the voice of public reproach occasioned by her brothers ill-fame is morally inconceivable
had she herself not been innocent of the turpitude with which she was charged by the
Athenian writers of comedy.
80 Op. 397 , (work, foolish Perses!).
81 Op. 3541.
82 Op. 396.
83 Op. 760 (avoid the wretched talk of men).
84 In the Akkadian Counsels of Wisdom (ca. 15001200 BC) a man, possibly the vizier to
a king, advises his son against, among other things, marrying slaves and prostitutes; see
Lambert 1960:96106.
85 Cf. the passage from Ovid cited above.
79

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Alexander Dale

of how a virtuous man should conduct himself.86 An honorific position such as this would be the last thing to attract public reproach.
Charaxus, like Perses, is forced to make a living by any means possible,
and is perhaps warned against invoking public censure. But what about
Sapphos abuse of her brother? Ideally, wisdom poetry should not end
by giving up hope and resorting to invective. We are not, however, told
anywhere that Sappho resorted to attack when all else failed, simply
that she reproached him. The reproach was most likely, just as in
Hesiod, interspersed amidst admonition.
If we accept the Charaxus motif in Sappho as an example of
wisdom poetry, we are then presented with a further question: is
there any truth behind the poems, or are they simply generic types?
Did Sappho even have a brother named Charaxus, or any brothers at
all? All the evidence we have, from Herodotus, Ovid, Athenaeus, and
the Oxyrhynchus Life, was obviously gleaned solely from Sapphos
text. Charaxus name might present a clue. It is exceptionally rare,
attested elsewhere only once, from Roman Italy (IGUR II 694). The noun
, however, is used of a vine-prop, while in the passive the cognate
verb can mean to be angry or exasperated. As a speakingname for a wine merchant who is the object of censure it is perhaps
not overly inappropriate. Perhaps Sappho did have three brothers,
and perhaps Doricha87 too was real. The only thing we can be reasonably certain of is that they all featured in Sapphos poetry. If Charaxus
86

Mutatis mutandis, that is; a wine-pourer was the job of a boy, whereas Charaxus was
a grown man in trade (the Oxyrhynchus Life tells us that Charaxus was the eldest). The
point would have been to shame Charaxus, who was unable to match the standard set by
his younger brother.
87 At the margin of P. Oxy. 1231 col. i. 11 (= fr. 15 V) there is a spot of ink on a line
with the bottom of the bowl of which does not appear to be incompatible with , pace
Lidov 2002:203 and 224 (I have not been able to examine the papyrus; the plate in Turner
1987:4647, no. 17, is better than that in P. Oxy. XII). The scribe is inconsistent in the
formation of ; sometimes the upper right side of the bowl curves to the left, e.g. later
in line 11, again in line 13, but sometimes is almost vertical, as at e.g. line 30 in .
Thus the spot of ink could be the upper part of the second bowl of , with the lower part
lost through abrasion, which is not uncommon at the margin where text has been lost.
Add to this the need for a long single syllable at the beginning of the line which ends
in -, and the supplement ] is inescapable (a difficulty acknowledged by Lidov
2002:224n48).

Sapphica

71

and Doricha (and possibly Larichus) did figure in a complex of songs

in the paraenetic tradition, then we are at least justified in suspicion
regarding their historical veracity. In the case of Hesiod and Perses, one
of the arguments in favor of some truth behind the dispute, and at the
very least the actual existence of Perses, is the latters name. As West
says (1978:34), Hesiod would not have called an invented poltroon by
the name of a minor deity distinguished for knowingness , whereas
Hesiods father might have had a religious reason for so naming a son.
This particular argument is not available to us.88
The preceding argument should not be seen to suggest the direct
influence of Hesiod on Sappho. In the archaic period wisdom or
paraenetic poetry is found not only in Hesiod but also in Theognis,
Semonides, Mimnermus, and Archilochus. 89 All (and this includes
Sappho) are presumably drawing on a common literary tradition that
has antecedents in the wisdom poetry of the Ancient Near East. It
furthermore seems likely that Sapphos invectives against her brother
would have contributed to Philodemus impression, discussed at the
beginning of this article, that Sappho composed songs in an iambic
manner.

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY,

INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF THE ANCIENT WORLD
ABBREVIATIONS
AB
FGE
GP

88

Posidippi Pellaei quae supersunt omnia, ed. C. Austin and G.

Bastianini. Milan 2004.
Further Greek Epigrams, ed. D. L. Page. Cambridge 1981.
The Greek Anthology: The Garland of Philip, ed. A. S. F. Gow and D. L.
Page. 2 vols. Cambridge 1968.

Though there are other arguments in favor of some truth behind the figure and
dispute in the Works and Days; see West 1978:3340.
89 Perhaps we should speak more specifically about an East Aegean/West Anatolian
koine? Though Hesiod tells us that he has the Muses alone to thank for his poetic
training, perhaps it is not insignificant that his father was from Aeolian Cyme.

72

Alexander Dale

The Greek Anthology: Hellenistic Epigrams, ed. A. S. F. Gow and D. L.

Page. 2 vols. Cambridge 1965.
IEG2 Iambi et elegi Graeci, ed. M. L. West. 2nd ed. 2 vols. Oxford 1990.
LP Poetarum Lesbiorum fragmenta, ed. E. Lobel and D. L. Page. Oxford
1955.
PCG Poetae comici Graeci, ed. R. Kassel and C. Austin. Berlin and New
York 1983.
Pf.
Callimachus, ed. R. Pfeiffer, 2 vols. Oxford 19491953.
TrGF Tragicorum Graecorum fragmenta, ed. B. Snell et al. 5 vols.
Gttingen 19772005.
V
Sappho et Alcaeus, ed. A.-M. Voigt. Amsterdam 1971.
HE

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