Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/200

178 178 HISTORY OF THE The most remarkable exemple of this impassioned strain of Sappho in relation to a female friend is that considerable fragment preserved by Longinus, which has often been incorrectly interpreted, because the beginning of it led to the erroneous idea that the object of the passion expressed in it was a man. But the poem says, " That man seems to me equal to the gods v/ho sits opposite to thee, and watches thy sweet speech and charming smile. My heart loses its force : for when I look at thee, my tongue ceases to utter ; my voice is broken, a subtle fire glides through my veins, my eyes grow dim, and a rushing sound fills my ears." In these, and even stronger terms, the poetess expresses nothing more than a friendly attachment to a young girl, but which, from the extreme excitability of feeling, assumes all the tone of the most ardent passion *. § 9. From the class of Sapphic odes which we have just described, we- must distinguish the Epithalamia or Hymeneals, which were pecu- liarly adapted to the genius of the poetess from the exquisite perception she seems to have had of whatever was attractive in either sex. These poems appear, from the numerous fragments which remain, to have had great beauty, and much of that mode of expression which the simple, natural manners of those times allowed, and the warm and sensitive heart of the poetess suggested. The Epithalamium of Catullus, not that playful one on the marriage of Manlius Torquatus, but the charm- ing, tender poem, " Vesper adest, juvenes, consurgite," is an evident imitation of a Sapphic Epithalamium, which was composed in the same hexameter verse. It appears that in this, as in Catullus, the trains of youths and of maidens advanced to meet; these reproached, those praised the evening star, because he led the bride to the youth. Then comes the verse of Sappho which has been preserved, " Hesperus, who bringest together all that the rosy morning's light has scattered abroad f." The beautiful images of the gathered flowers and of the vine twining about the elm, by which Catullus altei-nately dissuades and recommends the marriage of the maiden, have quite the character of Sapphic similes. These mostly turn upon flowers and plants, which the poetess seem to have regarded with fond delight and sympathy J. In a fragment lately discovered, which bears a strong impression of the simple language of Sappho, she compares the freshness of youth and the unsullied beauty of a maiden's face to an apple of some peculiar kind, which, when all the rest of the fruit is gathered from the tree, remains alone at an unattainable height, and drinks in the whole vigour of vegetation ; or rather (to give the simple words of the poetess in (Otium, Catulle, tibi molestum est, &c.,) which is certainly not borrowed from Sappho. t Fragm. 45. Blomf. 68. Neue. Neue fragm. 132.
 * Catullus, who imitates this poem in Carm. 51, gives it an ironical termination,
 * Concerning the love of Sappho for the rose, see Philostrat. Epist, 73, comp.