Prayer to Aphrodite Sappho, translated by Alfred Corn Issue 88, Summer 1983 Eternal Aphrodite, Zeus's daughter, throne Of inlay, deviser of nets, I entreat you: Do not let a yoke of grief and anguish weigh Down my soul, Lady, But come to me now, as you did before When, hearing my cries even at that distance Aphrodite, glory of Olympos, golden one, incomparable goddess, born of seafoam, borne on the ocean's waves. Rather comeif ever some moment, years past, hearing from afar my despairing voice, you listened, left your father's great golden halls, and came to my succor, These things I think Zeus 7 knows, and so also do all the gods. While most of Sapphos poems only survive in small fragments, the Hymn to Aphrodite is the only complete poem we have left of Sapphos work. But come to me once again in kindness, heeding my prayers as you did before; O, come Divine One, descend once again from heaven's golden dominions! 9 Instead, send [pempein] me off and instruct [kelesthai] me [10] to implore [lissesthai] Queen Hera over and over again [polla] 11 that he should come back here [tuide] bringing back [agein] safely 12 his ship, I mean Kharaxos, 13 and that he should find us unharmed. But in pity hasten, come now if ever From afar of old when my voice implored thee, One more time taking off in the air, down from the White Rock into the dark waves do I dive, intoxicated with lust. And there was no dance, Describing the goddesss last visit, Sappho uses especially lush imagery. Aphrodite asks the poet who has hurt her. Come now, luxuriant Graces, and beautiful-haired Muses. bittersweet, However, Sappho only needs Aphrodites help because she is heartbroken and often experiences, unrequited love. Although Sapphos bitterness against love is apparent, she still positively addresses Aphrodite, remembering that she is praying to a powerful goddess. Sappho 0: Ode to Aphrodite Transcript - Sweetbitter Podcast March 9, 2015. The Ode to Aphrodite survived from antiquity. and throwing myself from the white rock into the brine, Smiling, with face immortal in its beauty, Asking why I grieved, and why in utter longing. The moral of the hymn to Aphrodite is that love is ever-changing, fickle, and chaotic. Sappho's writing is also the first time, in occidental culture, that . This translates to something like poor Sappho, or dear little Sappho.. Sappho 31 (via Longinus, On sublimity): Sappho 44 (The Wedding of Hector and Andromache). Sappho's Prayer to Aphrodite A. Cameron Published 1 January 1939 Art, Education Harvard Theological Review The importance of Sappho's first poem as a religious document has long been recognized, but there is still room for disagreement as to the position that should be assigned to it in a history of Greek religious experience. Daughter of Zeus, beguiler, I implore thee, Weigh me not down with weariness and anguish, Hearkenedst my words and often hast thou, Heeding, and coming from the mansions golden, Yoking thy chariot, borne by the most lovely. Its not that they havent noticed it. #Introduction: A Simple Prayer - The Center for Hellenic Studies "Hymn to Aphrodite" begins with the unidentified speaker calling on the immortal goddess Aphrodite, daughter of the mighty Zeus, the use her unique skills to ensnare a reluctant lover. Forgotten by pickers. of our wonderful times. Some sources claim that Aphrodite was born of the sea foam from Kronos' dismembered penis, whereas others say that Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus and Dione. 21 "Hymn to Aphrodite by Sappho". On the other hand, A. P. Burnett sees the piece as "not a prayer at all", but a lighthearted one aiming to amuse. Introduction: A Simple Prayer The Complexity of Sappho 1 , ' Pindar, Olympian I Sappho's Prayer to Aphrodite (Fragment 1 V. [1] ) holds a special place in Greek Literature. from which we were absent.. Charms like this one were popular in Sapphos time, and the passage wouldnt be read as disturbing or coercive in the way we might now. Hymn to Aphrodite Summary - eNotes.com This repetitive structure carries through all three lines of Sapphos verse, creating a numbing, ritualistic sound. for my companions. Aphrodite has power, while Sappho comes across as powerless. Dont you have the resources for me to be able, Mother, to celebrate [telen] at the right season [r] the festival [eort], which is a delight [kharma] for [us] mortals, creatures of the day that we are? Other translations render this line completely differently; for example, Josephine Balmers translation of the poem begins Immortal, Aphrodite, on your patterned throne. This difference is due to contradictions in the source material itself. Seizure Sappho wrote poems about lust, longing, suffering, and their connections to love. the meadow1 that is made all ready. He specifically disclaims Menanders version about Sapphos being the first to take the plunge at Leukas. The actual text of the poem was quoted by Dionysus, an orator who lived in Rome about 30 B.C. In stanza five of Hymn to Aphrodite,, it seems that Aphrodite cares about Sappho and is concerned that the poet is wildered in brain. However, in Greek, this phrase has a lot more meaning than just a worried mind. Specifically, the repetition of the same verb twice in a line echoes the incantation-structure used in the sixth stanza, giving a charm-like quality to this final plea. Sappho (630 BC-570 BC) - Poems and Fragments - Poetry In Translation Hymn to Aphrodite Plot Summary | Course Hero Like wings that flutter back and forth, love is fickle and changes quickly. Apparently her birthplace was. Swiftly they vanished, leaving thee, O goddess. [32], Classicists disagree about whether the poem was intended as a serious piece. [4][5], Though the poem is conventionally considered to be completely preserved, there are two places where the reading is uncertain. Her name inspired the terms 'sapphic' and 'lesbian', both referencing female same-sex relationships. Blessed bridegroom, 5 But come here [tuide], if ever at any [] Blessed Hera, when I pray for your Charming form to appear. Sappho's world - BESTqUEST Several others are mentioned who died from the leap, including a certain iambographer Charinos who expired only after being fished out of the water with a broken leg, but not before blurting out his four last iambic trimeters, painfully preserved for us with the compliments of Ptolemaios (and Photius as well). This is a prayer to the goddess Aphrodite, and speaks of times of trouble in Sappho's life. New papyrus finds are refining our idea of Sappho. Enable JavaScript and refresh the page to view the Center for Hellenic Studies website. The Sapphic stanza consists of 3 identical lines and a fourth, shorter line, in the . With the love of the stars, Kristin. Wile-weaving daughter of Zeus, enchantress, and beguiler! So picture that call-and-response where Sappho cries out for help to Aphrodite, like a prayer or an entreaty or like an outcry. Aphrodite has the power to help her, and Sappho's supplication is motivated by the stark difference between their positions. [18], The ode is written in the form of a prayer to Aphrodite, goddess of love, from a speaker who longs for the attentions of an unnamed woman. By shifting to the past tense and describing a previous time when Aphrodite rescued "Sappho" from heartbreak, the next stanza makes explicit this personal connection between the goddess and the poet. Superior as the singer of Lesbos Ode To Aphrodite Lyrics Aphrodite, subtle of soul and deathless, Daughter of God, weaver of wiles, I pray thee Neither with care, dread Mistress, nor with anguish, Slay thou my spirit! Greek and Roman prayer began with an invocation, moved on to the argument, then arrived at the petition. the clear-sounding song-loving lyre. 'aphrodite' poems - Hello Poetry The contrast between the white and dark feathers mimics the poets black-and-white perception of love. 29 Sappho realizes that her appeal to her beloved can be sustained only by the persuasiveness of Aphro-ditean cosmetic mystery. Sappho - Ode To Aphrodite | Genius 11 And Iaware of my own self 12 I know this. By calling Aphrodite these things, it is clear that Sappho sees love as a trick or a ruse. The poem explores relevant themes, which makes it appealing to readers on the themes of love, war, and the supernatural power. Portraying a god or goddess as flawed wasnt unusual for the ancient Greeks, who viewed their deities as fallible and dangerous beings, so it makes sense that Sappho might have doubled down on her investigation of Aphrodites mind, especially because the goddesss personality proves more important to the rest of the poem than her lineage or power. Sappho | Poetry Foundation January 1, 2021 Priestess of Aphrodite. Aphrodite | Underflow - Prayers to the Gods of Olympus 7 That name of yours has been declared most fortunate, and Naucratis will guard it safely, just as it is, 8 so long as there are ships sailing the waters of the Nile, heading out toward the open sea. 58 from the Kln papyrus", Transactions of the American Philological Association, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ode_to_Aphrodite&oldid=1132725766, Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 10 January 2023, at 07:08. On the one hand, the history the poem recounts seems to prove that the goddess has already been the poets ally for a long time, and the last line serves to reiterate the irony of its premise. Honestly, I wish I were dead. Up with them! One day not long after . assaults an oak, in the future. of the topmost branch. While the wings of Aphrodites doves beat back and forth, ever-changing, the birds find a way to hover mid-air. luxuriant Adonis is dying. Sappho prays to Aphrodite as a mere mortal, but Sappho seems to pray to Aphrodite frequently. . The conspicuous lack of differentiation between the two of them speaks to the deep intimacy they share, and suggests that the emotional center of the poem is not "Sappho"s immediate desire for love and Aphrodites ability to grant it, but rather the lasting affection, on surprisingly equal footing, that the two of them share. She is known for her lyric poetry, much of which alludes to her sexuality. Sappho's A Prayer To Aphrodite and Seizure - 586 Words | 123 Help Me Hymenaon, Sing the wedding song! to make any sound at all wont work any more. Still, it seems that, even after help from the gods, Sappho always ends up heartbroken in the end. Rather than shying away from her debt, "Sappho" leans into her shared history with the goddess and uses it to leverage her request, come here if ever before/you caught my voice far off. Aphrodite has an obligation to help her because she has done so in the past. As for everything else, 14 let us leave it to the superhuman powers [daimones], [15] since bright skies after great storms 16 can happen quickly. " release me from my agony, fulfill all that my heart desires " Sappho here is begging Aphrodite to come to her aid, and not for the first time. When you lie dead, no one will remember you 14 [] In the poem we find grounds for our views about her worship of Aphrodite, [] her involvement in the thasos, [] and her poetic . Yours is the form to which The sons of Atreus, kings both, . Sappho (630 BC-570 BC) - Poems: Translated by George Theodoridis . A bridegroom taller than Ars! Anne Carson's Translations of Sappho: A Dialogue with the Past? The last stanza begins by reiterating two of the pleas from the rest of the poem: come to me now and all my heart longs for, accomplish. In the present again, the stanza emphasizes the irony of the rest of the poem by embodying Aphrodites exasperated now again. Lines 26 and 27, all my heart longs to accomplish, accomplish also continue the pattern of repetition that carries through the last four stanzas. 23 and said thou, Who has harmed thee?O my poor Sappho! no holy place She causes desire to make herself known in dreams by night or visions during the day. How Gay Was Sappho? | The New Yorker I say concept because the ritual practice of casting victims from a white rock may be an inheritance parallel to the epic tradition about a mythical White Rock on the shores of the Okeanos (as in Odyssey 24.11) and the related literary theme of diving from an imaginary White Rock (as in the poetry of Anacreon and Euripides). Time [hr] passes. Sweet mother, I cant do my weaving . Sappho 115 (via Hephaestion, Handbook on Meters): To what shall I liken you, dear bridegroom, to make the likeness beautiful? Finally, in stanza seven of Hymn to Aphrodite, Sappho stops reflecting on her past meetings with Aphrodite and implores the Goddess to come to her, just as she did before. 3 Someone called Maks was more fortunate: having succeeded in escaping from four love affairs after four corresponding leaps from the white rock, he earned the epithet Leukopetras the one of the white rock. Even with the help of the Goddess in the past, Sappho could not keep the affection of her lover, and she is left constantly having to fight for love with everything she has. Swiftly they vanished, leaving thee, O goddess,Smiling, with face immortal in its beauty,Asking why I grieved, and why in utter longingI had dared call thee; In stanza four, Aphrodite comes down to earth to meet and talk with Sappho privately. Come, as in that island dawn thou camest, Billowing in thy yoked car to Sappho. Forth from thy father 's. 17 Those mortals, whoever they are, 18 whom the king of Olympus wishes 18 to rescue from their pains [ponoi] by sending as a long-awaited helper a superhuman force [daimn] 19 to steer them away from such painsthose mortals are blessed [makares] [20] and have great bliss [olbos]. Ode To Aphrodite Poem by Sappho - InternetPoem.com