Page:The Poems of Sappho (1924).djvu/127

Rh of women; whom mayest thou bless and deign to glorify our house.

From the Greek Anthology. It is a difficult and obscure piece. Bergk has not attempted to restore the Aeolic form.

This is the dust of Timas whom the dark chamber of Persephone received, dead before her wedding; when she died all her companions clipped with sharpened metal all their lovely tresses.

Here rests the dust of Timas who, unwed,

Passed the dark portals of Persephone.

With sharpened metal, when her spirit fled,

Her mourning friends each shore her fair-tressed head.

The version of J. A. Symonds is as follows:

This is the dust of Timas, whom, unwed,

Persephone locked in her darksome bed:

For her, the maids who were her fellows, shore

Their curls and to her tomb this tribute bore.

The verse is from the Greek Anthology.