LIFE OF BILITIS

“Psappha.”

No authority is evident for the statement that Sappho was known at Lesbos under the name of “Psappha.”

It seems likely, from Pierre Louÿs’ general attitude toward the “Poetess” and his description of her in XLVI, that at the time he wrote the Songs of Bilitis he was either indifferently acquainted with the known facts of Sappho’s life or deliberately chose, with some other modern writers, to disregard or misunderstand them. Dr. Horace Manchester Brown, in the Preface to his translation of the present work (Aldus Society. 1904) remarks that “the translator has felt that such a protest (in defense of Sappho by a professor of Göttingen) and such a defense were unnecessary and has believed that the beauty of the pictures presented by many of the songs is sufficient excuse for their existence....” A few words on the subject of Sappho seem desirable, however, since it cannot be assumed that all the readers of this volume are familiar with the facts of Sappho’s life.

On the testimony of many writers of antiquity—who, at least, had more on which to base an opinion than we have—the description in XLVI of “ ... her hair cut like that of an athlete ... virile breast ... narrow hips,” and, as assumed, ready to prey lasciviously upon any passer-by, becomes ridiculous and defamatory. Sappho’s brother, Larichus, was public cup-bearer at Mytilene, an office held only by young men of noble birth. She herself, “violet-weaving, pure, soft-smiling” as Alcæus says, although “small and dark” according to Maximus Tyrius, was, according to her own words, “of a quiet temper” and in all probability was married and mother of a daughter named Cleis whom she mentions in an extant fragment (72), which, considering the personal tone of so many of her poems, may be taken as something more than a poetic fancy; “I have a fair daughter with a form like a golden flower, Cleis the beloved, above whom I prize nor all Lydia nor lovely Lesbos.” (Wharton.) Philoxemus describes her as “sweet-voiced.” Damocharis, in the Anthology (Plan. App. XVI-310) describes her picture in glowing terms: “Her eyes overflow with brilliance, showing a fancy rich in happy images. Her skin, smooth and not too reddened, shows simplicity; and the blended gaiety and gravity of her features proclaims the union, in her, of the Muse and Cypris.”

That she gathered about her a society of maidens to whom she taught the art of poetry, is well known; the names of many of her pupils and friends have been preserved in fragments of her verse. How much farther her friendships were carried, as indicated in the poems, will always be a matter for speculation; but that she was a charming, lovely woman, sufficiently reserved, of perfect maturity and free from petty or promiscuous vice seems undeniable. Otherwise, we may be sure the writers of antiquity would have treated her with far less veneration and respect.

“A verse of Sappho.”

This is the verse placed by Pierre Louÿs at the beginning of “Elegiacs in Mytilene.”

“Phryne.”

The crime of which Phryne was accused, and for which she was tried before the Areopagos at Athens, was of profaning the Eleusinian Mysteries—a crime even more serious than Pierre Louÿs’ “murder.”

“Apelles revealed his Anadyomene.”

Pierre Louÿs writes “entrevit la forme.” Apelles was a painter.

XIV “Melissa.”

That is: “bee.” Marcus Argentarius has an epigram in the Anthology using the word (Anth. Pal. V-32): “Melissa is thy name and truly so, as my heart bears witness. Thy soft lips sweeten thy kisses with honey, but thou also piercest with a cruel sting.”

BUCOLICS IN PAMPHYLIA

XVI “Like a cup with two handles.”

The “amphora kiss,” as though one drank the kiss from a beaker.

XXXVI “My father.”

An oversight, as Pierre Louÿs says in the “Life of Bilitis,” she seems never to have known her father for he is not mentioned ...” See also the First and Second Epitaphs.

XLII “First dawn.”

Execrations of the morning light were popular among the Greek amatory poets. See Meleager (Anth. Pal. V-172): “Star of Morning, enemy of lovers, why shinest thou so quickly upon the couch where, a moment since, I lay warm with Demo?...”

XLIII “The trunks of the pines.”

The same thought in the “Song of Songs” (Song of Solomon) I-17: “The beams of our house are of cedar and our rafters of fir.”