Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/199

177 LITEIUTUUE OF ANCIENT GREECE. 177 of Gorgo and Andromeda as her rivals *. A great number of her young friends were from distant countries t, as Anactoria of Miletus, Gongyla of Colophon, Eunica of Salamis, Gyrinna, Atthis, Mnasidica. A great number of the poems of Sappho related to these female friendships, and reveal the familiar intercourse of the woman's chamber, the Gynseconitis ; where the tender refined sensibility of the female mind was cultivated and impressed with every attractive form. Among these accomplishments, music and a graceful demeanor were the most valued. The poetess says to a rich but uncultivated woman, " Where thou diest, there wilt thou lie, and no one will remember thy name in times to come, because thou hast no share in the roses of Pieria. In- glorious wilt thou wander about in the abode of Hades, and flit among its dark shades J." She derides one of her rivals, Andromeda, for her manner of dressing, from which it is well known the Greeks were wont to infer much more of the native disposition and character than we do. " What woman," says she to a young female friend, " ever charmed thy mind who wore a vulgar and graceless dress, or did not know how to draw her garments close around her ankles § ?" She reproaches one of her friends, Mnasidica, because, though her form was beautiful as that of the young Gyrinna, yet her temper was gloomy ||. To another, Atthis, to whom she had shown particular marks of affection, and who had grieved her by preferring her rival Andromeda, she says, " Again does the strength-dissolving Eros, that bitter-sweet, resistless monster agitate me ; but to thee, O Atthis, the thought of me is importunate ; thou fliest to Andromeda ^f." It is obvious that this attachment bears less the character of maternal interest than of passionate love ; as among the Dorians in Sparta and Crete, analogous connexions between men and youths, in which the latter were trained to noble and manly deeds, were carried on in a language of high wrought and pas- sionate feeling which had all the character of an attachment between persons of different sexes. This mixture of feelings, which among nations of a calmer temperament have always been perfectly distinct, is an essential feature of the Greek character. f In Suiilas in 2«Tf7irgiai, is the same person, and that tbe name ought to be written 'Avaxm/ia MiXntrla. This emendation is confirmed by the fact, that the ancient name of Miletus was Anactoria; Stephen. Byzant. in voc. Mit.nros, Eustath. ad II. II. 8, p. 21, ed. Rom. ; Schol. Apull. Rhod. I. 187. X Fragm. 11. Blomf. 19. Neue. § Fragm. 35. Blomf. 23. Neue. This passage is illustrated>by ancient works of sculpture, on which women are represented as walking with the upper garment drawn close to the leg above the ankle. See, for example, the relief in Mus, Capitol. T. IV. tab. 43. ^| Fragm. 31. Blomf. 37. Neue. cf. 32. Blomf. 14. Neue. *Hg, 'Arfi, vruXxt <x'otu., N
 * From the passage on the relations of Sappho in Maxim. Tyrius, Dissert, xxiv.
 * Fragm. 2G, 27. Blomf. 42. Neue. The reading, however, is not quite certain.