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Sappho's Prayer to Aphrodite

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2011

A. Cameron
A. Cameron
Affiliation:
Aberdeen
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Extract

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. The difficulty lies in the interpretation of the language of the poem; not of its literal meaning, which is clear, but of its tone and color. Is the poem, as Bowra puts it, “a prayer intimate and serious”? Is it “after all a religious poem, concerned with an experience which can only be called mystical”? Or is it an exercise in a literary genre, charming indeed in the simple directness of its expression, but still conventional and not to be taken seriously as a religious utterance. Or, finally, does the truth lie somewhere between these two extremes?

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , January 1939 , pp. 1 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1939

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References

1 I have not thought it necessary to trace the source of all current opinions, but I am generally indebted to the following books and articles, which are quoted, when necessary, by the author's name: Wilamowitz, Sappho und Simonides; Wünsch, Hymnos, R.-E. IX, 1, cols. 140 ff.; Pfister, Epiphanie, R.-E., Suppl. IV, cols. 277 ff.; H. Fraenkel, G. G. N. 1924, p. 74; Schwenn, Gebet und Opfer; Pfeiffer, Philologus 84, 1929, p. 137; Keyssner, Gottesvorstellung und Lebensauffassung im griechischen Hymnus; H. Meyer, Hymnische Stilelemente in der frühgriechischen Poesie; Perrotta, Saffo e Pindaro; Bowra, Greek Lyric Poetry.

2 Cf. Wilamowitz, p. 42.

3 Cf. Keyssner, p. 2.

4 On another view, in my opinion less probable, the epithet is to be interpreted in the light of the θρόνα ποικίλα of Iliad XXII, 441; so Aly takes it (R.-E. 2, 1, col. 2375) as “die mit den bunte n Blumen,” with reference to flowers at her festivals; others have thought of embroidered robes. Aphrodite is εὔθρονος in Pindar, Isth. II, 5.

5 The goddess here, rather unusually, is the source of the sorrow which she is asked to dispel; cf. Keyssner, p. 97.

6 Schwenn, p. 52; Keyssner, p. 134.

7 Iliad I, 37 (Lang, Leaf and Myers).

8 O. T. 162 (Jebb); cf. the parody of this type in Aristophanes, Th. 1155. For εἴ ποτε καὶ ἄλλοτε in prayer at a later date, cf. LXX Macc. II, 13, 10.

9 Dornseiff, F., Literarische Verwendungen des Beispiels, Vorträge der Bibl. Warburg 1924–1925, pp. 206Google Scholar ff. But note that in the prayers of Sappho and Diomede the narrative has a personal relevance; it is not a mere exaltation of the δυνάμεις and πράξεις of the god; cf. Schwenn, p. 61.

10 Odyss. XIV, 53; cf. Odyss. XVII, 354. The formula persists, cf. Pap. Gr. Mag. I, 313, 320; IV, 451.

11 ᾱ 3 (Lobel).

12 Aesch. Ag. 973; Keyssner, pp. 117 ff.; cf. Pfister, Epode, R.-E., Suppl. IV, col. 337.

13 Keyssner, pp. 110 ff.

14 Cf. Arist., Nub. 435, for ἱμείρειν in pseudo-sacral style.

15 Herodotus VIII, 64; Aesch., Ch. 2, 19; Sept. 266; Eur., Suppl. 630; Archil. 75 (Diehl). Schwenn uses this formula as the basis for some curious conclusions on racial psychology.

16 Pfeiffer, p. 144; Wilamowitz, Glaube II, p. 111, note 1, retracts his former view, Sappho und Sim. p. 42; cf. Keyssner, p. 110.

17 Odyss. V, 282; cf. Odyss. III, 231; Aesch., Eum. 297.

18 Inc. Lib. 12 (Lobel).

19 Cf. ᾱ 6 App. (Lobel).

20 Iliad VI, 514.

21 Eur., Bacch. 1021; cf. Keyssner, p. 127. The smile greets the worshipper who is θεοϕιλής; for the θεομάχος the gods have a different countenance (Pfister, col. 319, §§ 49–50).

22 Pindar, Pyth. IV, 25.

23 Pyth. VIII, 59.

24 L. 69.

25 Pfister, col. 280; the familiarity of the type is shown by the simple allusive use of άπαντᾶν in Arist., Nub. 425.

26 Pfister, col. 317, §§ 42–44.

27 Pindar, Ol. I, 73.

28 Iliad I, 43.

29 Iliad V, 767.

30 Georg. 84.

31 Vesp. 995.

32 Prot. 310 d.

33 Equ. 730.

34 Iliad I, 299.

35 Iliad III, 399.

36 Odyss. XIII, 293.

37 Marinos, Vita Procli 32. Cf. Schwenn, p. 46.

38 Good examples of the use of direct speech in popular religious documents will be found in the dream-reports in Wilcken, Urkunden der Ptolemäerzeit, nos. 77–81; it is not, however, confined to these (cf. ibid., nos. 52 and 57) and no doubt characterized popular narrative in general, as it still does in colloquial English. The use of this device is in keeping with the character of monodic lyric; Sappho employs it again in 3 and Aphrodite was probably quoted also in 7 and Inc. Lib. 44 (Wilamowitz, Glaube II, p. 111, note 1).

39 L. 72.

40 ὁπόταν τε θέλῃς [τὰ θερ] μὰ ψυχρἁ ποιῆσαι καὶ τὰ ψνχρὰ θερμά, λύχνους ἀνά[ψει κ]αὶ κατασβέσει πάλιν.

41 Steinleitner, Die Beicht, p. 59, no. 31. Cf. Pap. Gr. Mag. XXIX: δὸς τὰ [ἄβ]ατα εὔβατα.

42 Pap. Gr. Mag. IV, 2934.

43 Abt, Die Apologie des Apuleius, p. 169.

44 Ol. I and VI.

45 Pyth. IV, 220. There is another trace of magical formula in the phrase ὄϕρα Mηδείας τοκέων ἀϕέλοιτ᾽ αἰδῶ which is paralleled, for example, in Pap. Gr. Mag. IV, 2758, ληθομένη τέκνων συνηθείης τε τοκήων.

46 The verb πείθειν also, in this context, has associations with the spell; cf. Pfister, Epode, R.-E., Suppl. IV, col. 329.

47 For epiphany in response to prayer and spell, cf. Pfister, cols. 304 ff., §§ 27–28.

48 Cf. W. Schulze, BSB. 1918, pp. 481–511 (Kleine Schriften, pp. 160–189).

49 Cf. Schulze, Kl. Schr., p. 171 f.

50 Op. cit.

51 ξ 266 = ρ 435; cf. ι 401, κ 118, χ 77 and 133.

52 Hecuba 1109.

53 Helena 550; Hecuba 1091.

54 Aesch. Agam. 1349.

55 For others see ibid., nos. 7, 16, 18, 19.

56 Ibid., 1.

57 Steinleitner, Die Beicht p. 34, no. 10 (for πιττάκιον see, e.g., Pap. Gr. Mag. I, 12, 238; II, 12, 56; III, 165; IV, 1895, 2074, 2393, etc.); cf. also Pfister, col. 297, for the intervention of deities as guardians of justice.

58 Abt, op. cit., pp. 284 f. This custom has to be reckoned with against Kern's emphatic statement (Die Religion der Gr. I, p. 151), “die innigsten Gebete sind niemals aufgeschrieben worden.”

59 Cf. Ehnmark, The Idea of God in Homer, pp. 64 ff.

60 L. 1323.

61 L. 1385.

62 Archil. 79 (Diehl); Epicharmus, 286; Theognis, 1. 1283; Plato, Phaedr. 252c.

63 Cf. Theognis, 11. 352; 1094.

64 Cf. Theognis, 11. 1287; 1299; 1355.

65 Gr. Literaturgesch. I, Anmerk. p. 95, note 191.

66 P. 145.

67 Pp. 193 f. Bowra's view is the extreme form of that held by Geffcken (op. cit., I, p. 90) and Wilamowitz (Glaube II, p. 111) who think of the poem as the record of a vision seen ὄναρ rather than ὔπαρ. The same question arises in connection with Hesiod and the distinction was not always clear or indeed of much importance; cf. Pfister, col. 281.

68 Pfister, col. 316, § 41.

69 Meyer, p. 52; this view does not conflict with Kern's (op. cit., p. 151) that “das Gebet ist eigentlich gar keine Literatur.” No one is likely to suppose that actual prayers were couched in a literary form quite like that of Sappho's poem, though as we have seen they were sometimes written and no doubt regularly followed a standard pattern.

70 Cf. E. Reitzenstein in Festschr. R. Reitzenstein, p. 54; Wilamowitz takes Hesiod's description also as the record of a real experience (Glaube II, p. 110; cf. Pfister, col. 317).

71 Pfister, col. 299, § 23.

72 For opinions on ‘mysticism’ at this period, see Perrotta, p. 23; Kern, op. cit., I, p. 246.

73 To take χρύσιον with δόμον is grotesque from every point of view but that of mere concord; cf. Wilamowitz, p. 45, note 1.

74 Curiously unfitted for their task, as Wilamowitz notes, p. 45.

75 Professor Nock points out that certain literary forms which are apt to be regarded as Hellenistic can be traced in non-Attic writers at a much earlier date.