Sappho’s Hymn to Aphrodite and Fragment 31

Sappho’s Hymn to Aphrodite and Fragment 31

Sappho (c. 630-570 BCE) was a Greek poet from the island of Lesbos. She is known for her lyric

poetry—though not much of her work survives in the modern era. She was influential throughout the

Greek world centuries after her death. Most modern interpretations of her work link to discussions of

her sexuality. In fact, the English word lesbian is associated with Sappho’s home island of Lesbos.

This assumption is largely due to her Hymn to Aphrodite and Fragment 31. In both of these pieces

Sappho describes passion for female characters. While homosexual relationships among men were

common, indeed expected, in Ancient Athens and Sparta, high born women were held to different

standards of sexual purity. Additionally, women were not supposed to take place in public debate or

considered citizens. Aristotle reported that she (Sappho) “was honored although she was a

woman.”

 

Hymn to Aphrodite:

Iridescent-throned Aphrodite, deathless

Child of Zeus, wile-weaver, I now implore you,

Don’t–I beg you, Lady–with pains and torments

Crush down my spirit,

 

But before if ever you’ve heard my pleadings

Then return, as once when you left your father’s

Golden house; you yoked to your shining car your

Wing-whirring sparrows;

 

Skimming down the paths of the sky’s bright ether

On they brought you over the earth’s black bosom,

Swiftly–then you stood with a sudden brilliance,

Goddess, before me;

 

Deathless face alight with your smile, you asked me

What I suffered, who was my cause of anguish,

What would ease the pain of my frantic mind, and

Why had I called you

 

To my side: “And whom should Persuasion summon

Here, to soothe the sting of your passion this time?

Who is now abusing you, Sappho? Who is

Treating you cruelly?

 

Now she runs away, but she’ll soon pursue you;

Gifts she now rejects–soon enough she’ll give them;

Now she doesn’t love you, but soon her heart will

Burn, though unwilling.”

 

Come to me once more, and abate my torment;

Take the bitter care from my mind, and give me

All I long for; Lady, in all my battles

Fight as my comrade.

Additional information: https://diotima-doctafemina.org/translations/greek/sapphos-hymn-to-

aphrodite/

 

 

 

 

Fragment 31

He seems to me an equal of the gods—

whoever gets to sit across from you

and listen to the sound of your sweet speech

so close to him,

to your beguiling laughter: O it makes my

panicked heart go fluttering in my chest,

for the moment I catch sight of you there’s no

speech left in me,

but tongue gags—: all at once a faint

fever courses down beneath the skin,

eyes no longer capable of sight, a thrum-

ming in the ears,

and sweat drips down my body, and the shakes

lay siege to me all over, and I’m greener

than grass, I’m just a little short of dying,

I seem to me;

but all must be endured, since even a pauper . . .