Note 79 — Women in Greek Poetry

The words of l. 144 seqq. at once suggest Catullus lxii. esp. 39 seqq. But this poem of Catullus is generally admitted to be, if not an actual translation, at least a paraphrase of Sappho; hence it is far more probable that Sophocles copied Sappho here, than that Catullus copied Sophocles there.

Another instance in which a tragedian copied an Epithalamium of Sappho is furnished by Aesch. Suppl. 998. Cp. Sappho Fr. 91, Longus Past. 3, 33, and my Apospasmata Critica (Oxford, Blackwell, 1892), p. 5.