Ode to Aphrodite

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The Ode to Aphrodite (also Song on the Shard ) is a lyric poem by the ancient Greek poet Sappho . It is listed as number 1 in all major collections of surviving fragments of Sappho's poems. In the text, the lyrical self , revealing itself as Sappho, asks the goddess of love Aphrodite for help and implores the deity to see to it that a girl loved by the speaker reciprocates her feelings.

The work is one of the few poems by Sappho that has survived in its entirety; there are only two places where there are uncertainties regarding the text. How seriously the work is meant is debatable, as at least some parts appear to have intentional humor. The poem is written in the archaic language of Homer and alludes to episodes from the Iliad .

Lore

Routes of transmission

The Ode to Aphrodite was for a long time the only known, largely completely preserved work of the Sappho, until the publication of new papyrus finds in 2004 also made her poem about Tithonos almost completely known. It owes its tradition to modern times to the fact that the later ancient historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus used the entire text in his treatise Περὶ Συνθέσεως Ὀνομάτων ( On the arrangement of words ) as an example of the "smooth, fine" (γλαφυρά) style of the Greek Cited literature. This work in turn has come down to us in several manuscripts. Parts of the first 21 lines of Sappho's poem were also found in a copy from the second half of the 1st century AD on a papyrus from Oxyrhynchos , the " Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 2288".

In Hellenistic collections of Sappho's works, the “Ode to Aphrodite” was probably the text at the beginning of the first book. Since it begins with the word "Ποικιλόθρον", it must have stood outside the rest of the order in Book 1, in which the other poems were sorted alphabetically by their first letter. With seven stanzas, the ode is the longest surviving fragment of the first book of Sappho's works.

Uncertainties in reading

Although the poem is generally believed to be complete, there are two places where reading is uncertain. The first is the first word of the poem, an attribute with which the goddess Aphrodite is more closely characterized: Some manuscripts of Dionysius' work write it “Ποικιλόφρον” (“with a multicolored sense / understanding”, probably in the sense of “with many Thoughts "or" cunning "), other manuscripts as well as the Oxyrhynchus-Papryus pass it on as" Ποικιλόθρον "(" colorful throne "in the sense of" sitting on a multicolored throne "). This second variant could allude to the statues of gods, which were common during Sappho's lifetime, in the Archaic era . The gods were represented seated on them; in addition, the works of art were brightly painted. This reading is the more common and is used in the standard editions (Lobel / Page and Voigt). Hutchinson and Renehan argue that in retrospect it is more likely that “–θρον” was corrupted to “–φρον” than the other way around. Renehan also emphasizes that the meaning of "enthroned (colorful)" fits better at the beginning of the poem, since Aphrodite is depicted as resting and currently inactive as a contrast to her prompt, rapid appearance. Anne Carson nevertheless considers the reading “Ποικιλόφρον” to be more likely. In their edition published in 2014, Rayor and Lardinois follow the reading “Ποικιλόθρον”, but point out that it is difficult to make a decision on this issue. Michael CJ Putnam , in an essay published in 1960, decided on the reading "Ποικιλόθρον", but put an alternative explanation of this word up for discussion: According to him, it is not derived from "θρόνος" ("throne"), but from "θρόνα" , a rarely used word for "flowers" or for textiles decorated with flowers and blossoms. “Ποικιλόθρον” should therefore not be translated as “colorful throne”, but rather as “decorated with colorful flowers”. This interpretation was also contradicted, for example by Robert Renehan: One must assume that the Greeks of Sappho's time when referring to the term “Ποικιλόθρον” directly refer to the much more common and widespread word “θρόνος” for “throne” and not to the Unusual term “θρόνα”, probably only used in the early Greek language, for flowers or floral designs.

The second transmission problem can be found in line 19, where the manuscripts with the text of the poem are distorted and the papyrus at the beginning of the line is also damaged. Aphrodite's request there, whose love the lyric self desires, has therefore been emended slightly differently by the various editors .

Roman copy of Aphrodite of Knidos by the Greek sculptor Praxiteles

Content and background

The ode is written as a prayer to the Greek goddess of love Aphrodite, who asks the lyrical self for the attention of an unnamed woman. Sappho herself appears as the speaking person - it is one of four surviving passages in which the poet calls herself by name. The fact that the loved one is female can only be derived from a single word, the female "εθελοισα" ("wanting", "if she wants") in line 24. This reading, which was first proposed by Theodor Bergk in 1835 , was continued until in Not fully recognized in the 1960s, but is now widely accepted in research.

Sappho asks Aphrodite to ease the pain of her unrequited love for this girl. In order to convince her, the poet calls to mind a similar situation from the past, in which the goddess of love appeared after an invocation and told Sappho that the beloved would later “persecute” her, that is, desire. After this interposed look back at the earlier appearance of the deity, the poem closes with another pleading with the goddess to help Sappho with her love problems.

With its reference to a female lover, the Ode to Aphrodite (along with Sappho 31 ) is one of the few works by Sappho that contains indications that she loved other women. In this specific case, however, the poet seems less concerned with homoerotic aspects than with the effect of feelings of love in general. The poem contains little indication of its target audience or purpose; Stefano Caciagli suspects, however, that it was written for the circle of Sappho's friends and students. Since the name of the person he adored is not mentioned, it is possible that this is not an occasional poem, but a work that could be recited several times on different occasions.

Language and interpretation

The poem is written in Aeolian Greek as it was spoken in Sappho's homeland of Lesbos . The poem form is the Sapphic stanza named after the author , in which three lines of equal length are followed by a fourth, shorter stanza .

The ode to Aphrodite is heavily influenced by the epic works of Homer . This is particularly evident in the third stanza, in which Aphrodite's descent into the mortal world is marked by a massive concentration of typical Homeric expressions and phrases. In an essay published in 2010, Ruby Blondell argues that the whole poem is a parodying reworking of the scene between Aphrodite, Athena and Diomedes in the fifth book of the Iliad .

Research has disputed whether the poem was really intended as a serious piece. CM Bowra accepts this and points out that the text reflects a genuine religious experience. On the other hand, AP Burnett sees the piece “not as a prayer at all”, but as a light-hearted text that is supposed to be amusing. Indeed, some elements that are otherwise difficult to interpret can be explained as humorous. For example, at the beginning of the third stanza, Sappho describes how Aphrodite descends from heaven in a chariot, in front of which beautiful sparrows are harnessed. According to Harold Zellner, this description is most easily understood as a form of humorous play on words. Aphrodite's answer, which Sappho quotes in the fourth and fifth stanzas of the poem, has also been interpreted as light-hearted. Keith Stanley believes that in these lines the goddess "humorously censures" Sappho. As evidence, he lists on the one hand the threefold repetition of the word δηυτε (“again”): “and you [Aphrodite] [...] asked what I had suffered again and why I call you again [...]: Who should convince me again to lead back to your love? ”On the other hand, the following request from Aphrodite should also be understood ironically:“ τις ς ', ω Ψαπφ', αδικηει ”(“ Who, oh Sappho, are you wrong? ”).

Web links

literature

Editions and translations

  • Sappho and Alcaeus. Edited by Eva-Maria Voigt . Athenaeum - Polak & Van Gennep, Amsterdam 1971, pp. 29–33 (critical edition of the Greek text with extensive text-critical apparatus ).
  • Greek Lyric. Volume 1: Sappho and Alcaeus ( Loeb Classical Library . Volume 142). Harvard University Press, Cambridge / London 1982 (corrected reprint 1990), ISBN 0-674-99157-5 , pp. 52-55 (critical edition of the Greek text with English translation).
  • Sappho's Lyre. Archaic Lyric and Women Poets of Ancient Greece. Translated by Diane J. Rayor. University of California Press, Berkeley / Los Angeles 1991, ISBN 978-0-520-07336-4 , p. 51 f. (English translation) and p. 160 f. (Comment).
  • If not, winter. Fragments of Sappho. Edited and translated by Anne Carson . Vintage Books, New York 2002, ISBN 0-375-72451-6 , pp. 2–5 (Greek text and English translation) and pp. 357 f. (Comment).
  • The Poetry of Sappho. Translated by Jim Powell. Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2007, ISBN 978-0-19-532671-0 , p. 3 f. (English translation) and p. 51 (short note on the vocabulary Ποικιλόθρον).
  • Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works. Translated by Diane Rayor and André Lardinois. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2014, ISBN 978-1-107-02359-8 , p. 25 (English translation) and p. 97 f. (Comment).

Research contributions

  • A. Cameron: Sappho's Prayer to Aphrodite. In: Harvard Theological Review. Volume 32, Number 1, 1939, pp. 1-17.
  • Warren Castle: Observations on Sappho's To Aphrodite . In: Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. Volume 89, 1958, pp. 66-76.
  • Tilman Krischer : Sapphos ode to Aphrodite (typological remarks). In: Hermes . Volume 96, 1968, pp. 1-14.
  • Keith Stanley: The Role of Aphrodite in Sappho Fr. 1. In: Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies. Volume 17, Number 4, 1976, pp. 305-321.
  • Anne Giacomelli: The Justice of Aphrodite in Sappho Fr. 1. In: Transactions of the American Philological Association. Volume 110, 1980, pp. 135-142.
  • Robert Renehan: Ποικιλόθρονος in Sappho: The First Word of Poem 1. In: Alan L. Boegehold et al. (Ed.): Studies presented to Sterling Dow on his Eightieth Birthday (= Greek, Roman and Byzantine Monographs. Volume 10). Duke University, Durham (North Carolina) 1984, pp. 255-258.

Remarks

  1. ↑ In this article the numbering of the Sappho and Alkaios edition by Voigt 1971 is used.
  2. ↑ The ancient Greek grammarian Hephaistion uses the ode to Aphrodite to demonstrate the poem form of the Sapphic stanza in his manual of verse theory. This is generally attributed to the fact that she was the first poem in the first book of the Alexandrian collection of her poetic works (which only included poems in Sapphic stanzas).
  3. ↑ The only fragment from Sappho's work that explicitly alludes to female homosexual acts is Sappho 94 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ William Harris: Sappho: The World of Lesbian Poetry (copy of the page on wayback.archive-it.org, accessed April 21, 2018) .
  2. ^ Warren Castle: Observations on Sappho's To Aphrodite . In: Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association. Volume 89, 1958, pp. 66–76, here p. 67. For the German translation of γλαφυρά cf. Gregor Staab: Sentence theory in the context of classical rhetoric. In: Ulla Fix, Andreas Gardt, Joachim Knape (Ed.): Rhetoric and Stylistics. An international handbook of historical and systematic research (= handbooks for linguistics and communication studies. Volume 31,2). Part 2, Mouton De Gruyter, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-11-017857-9 , pp. 1498–1514, here p. 1505.
  3. ^ Renate Schlesier: Loving, but not Loved: The New Kypris Song in the Context of Sappho's Poetry. In Anton Bierl, André Lardinois: The Newest Sappho: P. Sapph. Obbink and P. GC inv. 105, frs.1–4. Brill, Leiden 2016, ISBN 978-90-04-31483-2 , p. 376.
  4. ↑ a b Diane Rayor, André Lardinois: Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2014, ISBN 978-1-107-02359-8 , p. 97.
  5. ^ John J. Winkler: The Constraints of Desire. Routledge, New York 1990, ISBN 0-415-90122-7 , p. 166.
  6. ↑ Dirk Obbink: Ten Poems of Sappho: Provenance, Authority, and Text of the New Sappho Papyri. In: Anton Bierl, André Lardinois: The Newest Sappho: P. Sapph. Obbink and P. GC inv. 105, frs.1–4. Brill, Leiden 2016, ISBN 978-90-04-31483-2 , p. 42.
  7. ↑ Dirk Obbink: Ten Poems of Sappho: Provenance, Authority, and Text of the New Sappho Papyri. In: Anton Bierl, André Lardinois: The Newest Sappho: P. Sapph. Obbink and P. GC inv. 105, frs.1–4. Brill, Leiden 2016, ISBN 978-90-04-31483-2 , p. 34.
  8. ↑ a b c Robert Renehan: Ποικιλόθρονος in Sappho: The First Word of Poem 1. In: Alan L. Boegehold et al. (Ed.): Studies presented to Sterling Dow on his Eightieth Birthday. Duke University, Durham (North Carolina) 1984, pp. 255-258, here p. 256.
  9. ^ William Harris: Sappho Poem 1: Translation and Transliteration (copy of the page on wayback.archive-it.org, accessed May 13, 2018) .
  10. ↑ Dimitrios Yatromanolakis: Review: Fragments, Brackets, Poetics: On Anne Carson's "If Not, Winter". In: International Journal of the Classical Tradition. Volume 11, number 1, 2004, p. 271.
  11. ^ GO Hutchinson: Greek Lyric Poetry: A Commentary on Selected Larger Pieces. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2001, ISBN 0-19-924017-5 , p. 151.
  12. ↑ Robert Renehan: Ποικιλόθρονος in Sappho: The First Word of Poem 1. In Alan L. Boegehold and others (eds.): Studies presented to Sterling Dow on his Eightieth Birthday. Duke University, Durham (North Carolina) 1984, pp. 255-258, here pp. 257 f.
  13. ^ Anne Carson: If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho. Vintage Books, New York 2003, ISBN 0-375-72451-6 , p. 357.
  14. ↑ Michael Putnam : Throna and Sappho 1.1. In: The Classical Journal. Volume 56, Number 2, 1960, pp. 79-83. See the translation by Jim Powell: The Poetry of Sappho. Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2007, ISBN 978-0-19-532671-0 , translation on p. 3 (“artfully adorned”) and commentary on p. 51. For the exact translation of -θρόνα, see the remarks on Artemis - Nickname Protothronia in: Helmut Engelmann : Artemis Protothronia. In: Journal of Papyrology and Epigraphy . Volume 117, 1997, p. 18 ( PDF ).
  15. ^ John J. Winkler: The Constraints of Desire: The Anthropology of Sex and Gender in Ancient Greece. Routledge, New York 1990, ISBN 0-415-90123-5 , p. 168.
  16. ^ Keith Stanley: The Role of Aphrodite in Sappho Fr. 1. In: Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies. Volume 17, number 4, 1976, pp. 305-321, here p. 313.
  17. ^ A. Cameron: Sappho's Prayer to Aphrodite. In: Harvard Theological Review. Volume 32, number 1, 1939, pp. 1–17, here p. 1.
  18. ↑ Margaret Williamson: Sappho's Immortal Daughters. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA) 1995, p. 56.
  19. ↑ Joan DeJean: Fictions of Sappho. 1989, p. 319 f.
  20. ↑ Margaret Williamson: Sappho's Immortal Daughters. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA) 1995, p. 51.
  21. ↑ MC Howatson, Ian Chilverrs (Ed.): Oxford Concise Companion to Classical Literature. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1993, ISBN 978-0-19-282708-1 , p. 479.
  22. ^ Anne Giacomelli: The Justice of Aphrodite in Sappho Fr. 1. In: Transactions of the American Philological Association. Volume 110, 1980, pp. 135-142. Compare the German translation: Sappho: Gedichte. Greek-German ed. and translated by Andreas Bagordo ( Tusculum Collection ). Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf 2009, ISBN 978-3-538-03507-2 , p. 50.
  23. ^ Robert J. Ball: Erica Jong's Sappho and the Classical Tradition. In: International Journal of the Classical Tradition. Volume 11, number 4, 2005, p. 594.
  24. ↑ Diane Rayor, André Lardinois: Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2014, ISBN 978-1-107-02359-8 , p. 11.
  25. ↑ Stefano Caciagli: Sappho Fragment 17: Wishing Charaxos a Safe Trip? In: Anton Bierl, André Lardinois: The Newest Sappho: P. Sapph. Obbink and P. GC inv. 105, frs.1–4. Brill, Leiden 2016, ISBN 978-90-04-31483-2 , p. 34.
  26. ↑ Diane Rayor, André Lardinois: Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2014, ISBN 978-1-107-02359-8 , pp. 10 f.
  27. ↑ Sappho's Hymn to Aphrodite. stoa.org, accessed April 21, 2018.
  28. ^ Keith Stanley: The Role of Aphrodite in Sappho Fr. 1. In: Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies. Volume 17, number 4, 1976, pp. 305-321, here p. 308 and p. 317.
  29. ^ Ruby Blondell: Refractions of Homer's Helen in Archaic Lyric. In: American Journal of Philology. Volume 131, Number 3, 2010, p. 375.
  30. ^ Keith Stanley: The Role of Aphrodite in Sappho Fr. 1. In: Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies. Volume 17, number 4, 1976, pp. 305-321, here p. 305.
  31. ^ "... not a prayer at all": AP Burnett: Three Archaic Poets: Archilochus, Alcaeus, Sappho. Bloomsbury, London 1983, ISBN 978-1-4725-4044-7 , p. 246.
  32. ↑ See the English translation "yoked with lovely sparrows": Diane Rayor, André Lardinois: Sappho: A New Translation of the Complete Works. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2014, ISBN 978-1-107-02359-8 , p. 25.
  33. ↑ Harold Zellner: Sappho's Sparrows. In: The Classical World. Volume 101, Number 4, 2008, pp. 435-442.
  34. ↑ "humorous chiding" Keith Stanley: The Role of Aphrodite in Sappho Fri 1. In: Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies. Volume 17, number 4, 1976, pp. 305-321, here p. 315.
  35. ↑ a b Translation from: Sappho: Gedichte. Greek-German ed. and translated by Andreas Bagordo ( Tusculum Collection ). Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf 2009, ISBN 978-3-538-03507-2 , p. 50.
  36. ^ Keith Stanley: The Role of Aphrodite in Sappho Fr. 1. In: Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies. Volume 17, number 4, 1976, pp. 305-321, here p. 315.