Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/198

176 176 HISTORY OF THE only recalls to her mind, that the goddess had in former and similar situations vouchsafed her support and consolation. In other fragments Sappho's passionate excitable temper is expressed with frankness quite foreign to our manners, but which possesses a simple grace. Thus she says, " I request that the charming Menon be invited, if the feast is to bring enjoyment to me*;" and she addresses a dis- tinguished youth in these words: " Come opposite to me, oh friend, and let the sweetness which dwells in thine eyes beam upon me f." Yet we can no where find grounds for reproaching her with havino- tried to please men or met their advances when past the season of youth. On the contrary, she says, " Thou art my friend, I therefore advise thee to seek a younger wife, I cannot bring myself to share thy house as an elder J." § 8. It is far more difficult to discover and to judge the nature of Sappho's intimacies with women. It is, however, certain that the life and education of the female sex in Lesbos was not, as in Athens, confined within the house ; and that girls were not entrusted ex- clusively to the care of mothers and nurses. There were women distinguished by their attainments, who assisted in instructing a circle of young girls, in the same manner as Socrates afterwards did at Athens young men of promising talents. There were also among the Dorians of Sparta noble and cultivated women, who assembled young girls about them, to whom they devoted themselves with great zeal and affection; and these girls formed associations which, in all probability, were under the direction of the elder women §. Such associations as these existed in Lesbos in the time of Sappho; but they were completely voluntary, and were formed by girls who were studying to attain that proficiency in music or other elegant arts, that refinement and grace of manners, which distinguished the women around whom they congregated. Music and poetry no doubt formed the basis of these societies, and instruction and exercise in these arts were their immediate object. Though poetry was a part of Sappho's inmost nature, a genuine ex- pression of the feelings by which she was really agitated, it is probable that with her, as with the ancient poet3, it was the business and study of life ; and as technical perfection in it could be taught, it might, by persevering instructions, be imparted to the young ||. Not only Sappho, but many other women in Lesbos, devoted themselves to this mode of life. In the songs of this poetess, frequent mention was made the verses belong to Sappho. Compare fragm. 10. Blomf. 5. Neue (Ixfi, Kua-gi). f Fragm. 13. Blomf. 62. Neue. Compare fragment 24. Blomf. 32. Neue. (yXuxua pang, ou-oi — ), and 28. Blomf. 55. Neue, (S«Su*s ph a trtXuva — ). I Fragm. 12. Blomf. 20. Neue (according to the reading of the latter). § Muller's Dorians, B. iv. chap. 4. § 8. ch. 5. § 2. uovtroToXv eiKiav, from which mourning must be excluded : Fragm. 71. Bloinf. 2P. Neue.
 * Fragm. 33. Neue, from Hepheest. p. 41 ; it is not, however, quite certain, that
 * ) Hence Sappho calls her house, "the house of the servant of the Muses,"